Astra Militarum/Imperial Knights vs Adeptus Mechanicus/Eldar

We played another version of the Relic - the one where an infantry model can carry it around. I played Guard with the scions, and the Knights only had one Valiant. We faced Mechanicus built to handle infantry, and Eldar built to kill vehicles.

Team Imperium deployed first, so I infiltrated Sly Marbo directly on the relic. Take that.

Unfortunately the other team went first, and Sly Marbo died in the first volley of plasma fire.

The Mechanicus traded long range shots with the Knight, and thus went our first, pretty uneventful, turn 1.

During round two, things happened. First, there was the assassination attempt by the Fire Dragons. They tried to avoid Overwatch, but Thronegeist Fury and a lucky roll with the conflagration cannon killed all of them.

Kind of daunted, the Shining Spears then stepped forth. They, combined with everything else (including, surprisingly, the lethal hitting Swooping Hawks), took the Valiant down to 3 wounds. 

A couple of shots pinged off the Immolator, and that was it.

It was our time to counter-ambush! Two squads of Skitarii, Dark Reapers and the Eldar warlord, and more Fire Dragons died on the right flank.

On the left, the Knights cleared the Eldar, with a little help from the Sisters of Battle.

In round 3, the opposing team was greatly decimated.  They tried to turn it around, but the Valiant was already healed up. The scions cleared the right flank.

And at the end of the round, only the stilts guy and the Skitarii Marshall were left alive. A final assassination attempt on Lord Inquisitor Darth Vader failed. Our opponents conceded.

Ok so what happened there?

We knew the mission and teams beforehand, and apparently list tailoring went on in both teams. I only did the cheeky Sly Marbo infiltrate, which could have come in handy if we went first. The Eldar gambit could well have succeeded with different dice, and loosing the Valiant in the second round would have tilted the game against us. But the Valiant lived, and the Eldar could not take the counterpunch. On the right flank there was some anti tank stuff, but with most heavy hitters focused on the Valiant, my Tauroxes and the Immolator really dominated the infantry.