Learning from my Mistakes

I played a couple of games today with my friends (hopefully get a report up later) and feel that I have really turned a corner in using my Saim-Hann well. I drew one game and lost the other so am really learning from my mistakes but no matter, hopefully others can also learn from my mistakes. Here's my main points I found that worked badly.

1. Spreading out: In the first game I spread my forces a lot so hence weakened my army as a whole as they could not support each other well. It is a simple thing to get wrong but costly. It meant all of my opponents army had something to shoot at (Imperial Guard) but also meant my psychic powers weren't being used to their fullest potential. In the second game I grouped up so was much more successful. Result!
2. Being conservative: For Eldar it seems odd and backwards but for me when I was being conservative and hanging back (against Guard I should have seen it coming) I was just being out-gunned. Eldar don't have the firepower to match Guard or much else in a straight fight. But again in the second game when I turbo-boosted into the Tau lines I had much greater success! My short range firepower came into play and I could assault and ram better. It also forced my opponent on the defensive.
3. Leadership: Not really a mistake but when you have only three Ld 8 troops you need to protect them. It was very easy to fail those tests when I really needed not to. The small squad size of my two 4-man bike squads, low leadership and fast fall back move all meant they lost a game for me by having one killed then fleeing off of an objective. I am considering adding a Warlock to each squad with Embolden. That will help with combat and tanks too.
4. Ramming and Tank Shocking: Recently I have found myself relying too much on tank shocks to win me games or do damage. They can do amazing things like run a 30-man guard squad off the board and an objective but more often than not do nothing or put you right in threat range of everything melta. My Fire Prisms actually spent more turns ramming than shooting! Thats because they got shaken then thought, 'Oh I can still ram!' then do nothing then get assaulted or shot by melta weapons and die horribly. Not good. Don't do it.
5. Blind Ideas: In the first game it was Dawn of War and I turbo-boosted my Prisms up each flank to get side shots on any tank. Not a bad idea. It is when 3 lascannon Sentinels come on and shake one (see above why that was bad) and a melta gunner comes on also and blows up the other one. Bye-Bye 350 points, bye-bye...... 

Anyway, I hope this somehow helps somebody out there not repeat my silly mistakes. I certainly won't do them again. But to learn from your Failures, you first must have some.....