1800pts vs. Eldar - my first game with 7th edition

1800pts - Dark Eldar vs. Eldar
Deadlock (Maelstrom of War mission, starts at 6 Tactical Objectives each, decreasing by one each turn)
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I was fielding an interesting list, mainly in that it wa the first battle outing for my Bastion.
Alongside this were two Archons, one tooled for combat accompanied by four Incubi in a Venom, and another with two Blast Pistols, with four Blasterborn in a Venom.
With them was a Voidraven, 10 Warriors in a Raider, five in a Raider, two lots of five in Venoms and a Ravager.

My opponent had two Farseers, one with a Dire Avengers squad in a Wave Serpent and another with five Wraithguard in a Wave Serpent. A further Falcon contained more Dire Avengers with a Warlock, and with these were a Guardian squad with platform, a unit of Striking Scorpions a squad of Rangers nad of course a Wraithknight.
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So, of course I requested that we roll for Nighr Fight, and I got my wish.

I got the first turn, and immediately made a platy forward.
Two Venoms (Warriors and Combat Archon) moved forward to the far table edge to claima Tactical Objective for being within 12" of the opponent's edge.
Opening fire from those two Venoms tore in an infiltrating Striking Scorpion squad leaving only the Exarch. A couple of Guardians camped in a very strong building (mysterious obective boost) died, and thankfully so did their weapon platform.
By the end, the opening -play had scored d3 (only 1) point for the table edge, and a VP each for markers 1 and 3.

In my niavity and inexperience with these rules, I thought this was a damn good start. I would learn different very soon.

My opponent's first turn, and he also made a move forward. The Wave Serpent containing a Farseer and Dire Avengers sped forward flat out to claim an objective marker whilst the Wraithknight stomped forward out of cover to claim another. The Wraithknight also u nloaded fire omn the most forwarf Venom, killing all but one of the Warriors within (who was finished off by the camped out Guardian squad.
The Falcon shot down the Gunslinging Archon's Venom as the Scorpion Exarch dived into the cover of rocks.
Opponent claimed two objective markers (as per his TacObs) and also claimed First Blood.

Second turn, and my Combat Archon and Incubi dismounted to make a run for teh Scorpion Exarch.
One unit of Scourge mishap and are delayed for a turn, but my Voidraven came in with a decent round of shooting on the Wraithknight, which combined with fire from the full Raider and the Gunsligners squad of Blasterborn managed to take down the big beasty.
The Combat Archon and squad charge the Scorpion, but unfortunately don't manage to kill him (because he challenged the Archon, who made a total hash of his attacks).

The Eldar's Wave Serpents disgorged their cargo, one sending a Farseer and Dire Avengers into my lines, the other doing far worse.
Out came five Wraithguard and a Farseer, who then inexplicably turned invisible. This was the start of the painful bit. Their ridiculous template weapons didn;t touch the nearby Raider, but obliterated the full Warrior squad within (sigh). They then charged the Raider and finished it off.
Elsewhere the Rangers killed one of the Blasterborn, and the Falcon immobilized the other Raider.
With one Raider down in combat, his Farseer and Dire Avengers managed to immobilize the Ravager.
Thankfully I took this opportunity to royally finish off the Scorpion Exarch.

My third turn started, and immediately sent my Combat Archon and Incubi towards the Ravager to relieve it from its slight mess.
Heavy fire from a few Venoms managed to kill only a single invisible Wraithguard (I hate those things).
Both units of Scourge finally arrive, one taking down a load of Dire Avengers, and the others finishing off the Rangers.
The Voidraven had few options for movement, so dived in to attack the encamped Guardian sqaud, but was not able to kill many because of their impressive cover save.
Combat Archon charges the Farseer and Dire Avengers and kills most of them, but is not able to completely wipe out the squad.

His third turn, and the last Dire Avengers squad jump out of the Falcon and join their fire to the Wraithguard (invisible again) to kill the last of the Blasterborn. Thankfully the Gunslinger Archon survived thanks to Ghostplate.
One of his Wave Serpents knocks a Scourge unit down to two men, and the Falcon knocks the other down to only one.
His final Wave Serpent opens fire at the rear of my Voidraven, and annoyingly shoots it down. For a moment I have a moment of hope, but this is dashed as the Voidraven crashes only one inch away from the Wraithguard. If it had hit, it would have saved me a lot of bother.
The combat of Warlords goes on, coming down to the Archon, two Incubi and his Farseer.

The fourth turn starts.
A lot of Splinter fire does annoyingly little to what infantry he has on the board. A few Dire Avengers dids, as does a single Wraithguard (INVISIBLE!!! Grrrr!!!!), and a couple of hull points go here and there. Mostly annoying and unimpressive.
Combat goes on, and his Farseer does the cheeky thing and challenges my Archon. As a result, neither dies after both sides completelty screw up their attacks, and the Incubi are unable to do anything.

His turn, and everything moves in again. His three vehicles flat out across the board to hold the objective points. The Wraithguard and Farseer split to take two objective markers. having drawn the Domination objective, this gave him tidy five VPs, which more or less wrapped up the game.
On top of this, the Dire Avenger squad took down the Gunslinger Archon, and the combat between Archon and Farseer went on with no result.

My fifth turn and the last due to time constraints.
A final surge in an effort to score a few points.
The solo Scourge managed to score a wound on the solo Farseer, who was finished off by the Bastion.
A few hull points were taken from the Falcon, and further fire from Scourge and Venoms kills yet one more (INVISIBLE) Wraithguard.
The passengers of the immobilized Raider and one more Venom take dpwn gthe Warlock and Dire Avengers, and FINALLY my Archon kills his Farseer in combat.

With things winding down, it was already clear my opponent had won before his final turn started.
He doesn;t even bother with shlooting, and just mops up a last for objectives (his last TacOb and Linebreaker).

Final result, 17/12 to the Eldar.
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All in all, I quite liked my first game of 7th.
I must say that the No Escape thing with Template weapons really annoyed me, but that might be down to the fact that is was Wraithguard, and the unit was doing 5d6 hits on the squad. I just don;lt understand how a Flickerfield can protect a vehicle from harm, but not the guys inside it.....
Tactical Objectives I really like. They are definitely a more interesting was of playing, adding a fun new way of having to play the game, seeking out these constantly changing objectives.

Nice report, thanks for sharing!

While I think the psychic phase is generally a nerf, I make an exception for Invisibilty. That power is broken, and I'm sorry to see you on the wrong end of it. Hopefully it gets FAQ'd back under control somehow.

Looks like 'No Escape' did you no favours either... would it have been realistic to avoid the Wraithguard and their D-Scythes, or would it have dented your own plans too much?

They were fairly cventrsal in his lines. I had to move in to get that Raider's passengers to a place they could fire properly.
I've played the army before, and although the Wraithguard annoyed one unit I was able to take them down with sustained fire. THew BIG problem here was the combination of No Escape AND Invisiblity. THat is one damn broken psychic power (though to be honest, I thinka few of the powers are broken, mainly by the fact that our army can't even use them).