1k Eldar vs Guard

Got another 1k game in this week.  I used my Eldar list from last week.  This time I went up against Guard.  The Guard list (roughly) was as follows:

HQ:
Command Squad - melta guns, chimera
Lord Commissar - power sword

Troops:
Platoon - 2 squads blobbed together with two autocannons
             - Platoon Command squad in chimera with melta guns
Vet Squad - Melta guns (rode in vendetta)

Fast:
Vendetta
Devil Dog

Heavy:
Leman Rus Battle Tank

I likely missed some of the options he took but this was roughly the list I faced.  First things first this was a tough fight.  I eked out a win but I was lucky at the end and my opponent was new to the guard.  For future games against the guard I think its going to be a tough slog.

Anyway we rolled dawn of war and 3 objectives.  The guard had first turn and deployed his command squad and platoon.  He declared that his vendetta with vets would outflank.  I opted to come on the board bottom of turn one.

My first mistake was to place my fireprisms in my corners.  I was playing a refused flank and moved flat out first turn on my right flank (looking to take out his devil-dog second turn).  I led the charge with the wave serpents as I thought they stood the best chance of surviving a turn of shooting against his devil dog.  Hindsight is 20/20 and if I had kept my fire prism together on the right flank I could have protected them better from his outflanking vendetta.

Turn two, his vendetta came in on my left flank.  Vets pop out and take out my fireprism.  The 3 twinlinked lascannons don't do much (one wave serpent cannot fire next turn).  He was in position to unload his command squad and they immobilize my avenger wave serpent.  Now I think he made a mistake by taking them out of the tank.  I believe he could have taken his shots from within the tank.  Anyway, not too concerned about the immobilized tank as it went down close to an objective and was in cover providing a nice bunker for my Avengers until late game.  The fire prism hurt though.  If I was more savvy and placed all my tanks on the right flank two things would have happened to my benefit.

1. If the vendetta came in on the right flank it would only have been able to get off 1 twin-linked shot and the vet squad would have taking out a tank.  I could then be able to counter in turn two with all my fire power against this unit.  
2. If the vendetta came in on the left flank, the vets would not have been in range to deploy (though I would have faced 3 twin linked shots).

My second turn saw the dragons disembark behind cover from the bulk of his army and take out his devil-dog.  My Avengers disembark and wipe out his command squad.  My wave serpents shut down the command squad chimera from shooting.  The lone fire prism is now trying to take out the vendetta.  As an aside, that fireprism managed to hit the vendetta the entire game (luck was with me there) but only managed one pen that resulted in denying the vendetta a turn of shooting.

Turn three, saw his blob squad advance down the river to an objective and my fire prism immobilized by the vendetta.  I also lost 2 dragons to lasgun fire.  My response was to reembark my troops, and move my guardians and dragons to his board edge.  I shoot to minimal effect though I shut down shooting on his vendetta for turn four.

Turn four, his vendetta had swooped over to my Avengers and he disembarked his vets.  The vets fail to blow up the wave serpent and the vendetta does little to my fireprism.  I responded by taking out his vets with my Avengers I then moved my fire dragon wave serpent and guardian wave serpent into position to grab/contest objectives for turn five.

Turn Five he immobilized my guardian wave serpent with his leman russ and did little with his vendetta.  My guardians along with the farseer get lucky and roll high on their move through cover roll and run roll and get behind cover to claim an objective.  The immobilized wave serpent then takes out the back field chimera.  My Fire Dragon wave serpent goes all out and contested the midfield objective held by his blob squad and my Avengers are on an objective contested by his vendetta.  I have the game if it ends here.

Turn six, game on.  Well, I figure at best I can do now is tie the game.  The vendetta cannot do much to my Avengers and the guardians should last a turn of shooting in cover.  The guard though try and take out my fire dragon serpent with the platoon command squad.  Major mistake on his part.  He had the mobility to move them to the rear of my tank with his chimera.  Did not do so and tried to shoot it from the front with the protection of the Wave Serpent energy shield.  The Fire Dragon wave serpent survives intact.  My Guardians with farseer move up as close as they can behind cover and take a shot at his leman russ with 2 melta guns and a singing spear.  I get lucky.  Hit with one melta gun and one singing spear.  Rolled two sixes for pen.  The end result was that his leman russ would not be able to shoot should the game go to turn 7.

Turn 7, yup it was a long game.  The Guard was not able to move my guardians off the objective and my wave serpent with fire dragons survive to contest and we ended the game there.

Over all I was lucky at the end of the game and won largely because this was my opponents first game with guard at this level.  If he had of kept his blob squad on his home objective supported by the leman russ and focused the rest of his army to capture one objective I think he would have had the game.  Also, in hindsight he should have been able to take out my Fire Dragon wave serpent as well.

All in all a fun game, though I think the guard will prove to be troublesome once they gain some more experience.