Learnings of the Shas

Saim Hann Eldar 1: Killing the Space Elves
I don't have much experience playing against Eldar, possibly my least played against army apart from Imperial Guard. And further narrowing that down is the fact that I only play against Saim Hann Eldar so I'm afraid the next two tactics posts are going to be fairly focused on one type of Eldar.

Things you shouldn't do
A typical Saim Hann Eldar army has tons of Jetbikes and most often a fair few tanks and Vyper Jetbikes as well. This makes it very, very fast. The entire army can and sometimes will relocate completely in a single turn, using their 24" boost move. Consequently under no circumstances should you chase the Eldar back and forth across the table randomly. They'll just outmanoeuvre you, isolate your units and systematically take your army apart. It really is painful to see.  Always be aware of where the Eldar can be next turn, not what they can kill. It's all very well bringing up support units to rescue afar flung out squad, but does this mean those same scary jetbikes are now on your unprotected objective and stealing the game from you on turn 5. I'm going to talk about objectives in part 2.

Things you should do
Take away their mobility. Force them out of position and pounce on them with a combat unit if you can. Saim Hann Eldar are terrible in combat. Ws 3, strength 3, 1 attack. Okay, they have a 3+ save and toughness 4 but they struggle to hurt you back. Even battlesuits will hold them up but this should only be used as a last resort.
Aside from combat their main weakness is morale. Most armies will not have very big squads to increase versatility, especially in armies of less than 2000 points. Units are most often four strong. Kill one and you cause a morale test on leadership eight. Kill three and they're not rallying. I've seen enough Eldar losses to know morale is a big problem for jetbikes.

Learnings of the Shas

Space Marines part 2: Tanks and Terminators
Following on from part 1, regarding de-meching and then killing MEQ infantry, part 2 is going to be about dealing with tanks and termies (pray you don't face them as one elites choice).
Tanks
Space Marine tanks and fairly good. They're not exceptional but they're certainly not bad. They boast reasonable armour, Bs 4 and a cheap points cost if the first option is lacking. Like a lot of the Space Marine codex, they have the potential to do some pretty horrible things, such as a friends Predator firing a single lascannon shot, killing an in-cover Wave Serpent and causing the Fire Dragons inside to flee the table. this is balanced with their lack of speed, if we ignore Blood Angels, and their rubbish side armour.
Tau fight at range. It may seem obvious but it's something to remember. You don't want to take centre table, you're going on the flank. Your Deathrain crisis suits are pumping out strength 7, re-roll to hit from up to 36" away. This means you can fully exploit the side armour weakness. Sit on a flank and lure your opponent into pivoting towards the other (Hammerheads and large units like kroot do this very well). Hey presto! Your missiles are penetrating on 5+ now not glancing on 6+. Don't be downhearted if you hit the tank glance and fail to hurt it badly. Providing it's not a transport, you're doing fine just suppressing it. Even the worst result prevents that demolisher cannon hitting you for another turn. If you really want to snare the opposing army, stick a suit team on each flank. Then watch you're opponent squirm as he struggles to find a way he can kill your army without exposing himself to ridiculous amounts of firepower.
Terminators

Learnings of the Shas

Space Marines part 1: Tactical Marine based infantry
Space Marines have some of the hardest infantry in the game at the moment. Toughness 4 and a 3+ save will protect them against most things the Tau army has available. Plasma Rifles on suits are an option but at a pretty expensive points cost and only Bs 3, you're not going to kill a lot if you base your army around this weapon, though it does have it's uses.
 De-meching and trapping
It is vital to use the vast amounts of high strength fire power in a Tau army when taking on the Emperor's Finest. The crucial point with Infantry is making sure they're on foot. Blast apart transports and force those

Learnings of the Shas

Fighting Tyranids part two: Target Priority and Firepower Application.
In part one, I looked at splitting your opponents force to weaken the army and synapse web. In this second part I'm going to look at how you should select targets and what sort of weapons you should be using.

Learnings of the Shas

Fighting Tyranids part 1: Synapse and Separation.
For the first article of this series, I'll start with what I consider to be the main weakness of a Tyranid force.
The Synapse requires you to keep all you're non-Synapse creatures within 12" of a Synapse creature or they will stop being fearless and revert to their not very high base leadership. This means if you're opponent is running gaunt swarms, hive guard, etc, they will need to be babysat by a Synapse creature. Killing off said synapse creature ruins the moral of the non-Synapse unit and makes them more susceptible to fleeing. Killing these big nasties is quite difficult but not impossible, something I'll be covering in part 2. The important thing is if you can split the swarm into little groups and limit the Synapse web, they become easier to fight off.