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I'm looking for help polishing a few different lists for my Unbound Harlequin army. These are fluffy lists, but I want to try and refine their content to make them as competitive as possible while still keeping their theme. I'll start with the lists (updated 10/27/14), to keep them all in one place, then go more into thought process below.

1000 points:

1500 points:

1750 points:

1850 points:

2000 points:

Army-wide, I'm trying to build something fast, maneuverable, hard to pin down, and hopefully with a lot of tools at its disposal. I'd like something that rewards tactical play, especially in a rapid-response style, as we play a lot of Malestrom of War at my local store. As Unbound, I know that I need to compensate for a lack of Objective Secured by either using mobility and speed to get to the objective first, or being able to bring enough force to bear quickly to kill the opponent's Troops off the objective (I think Venoms will be great for this).

So why these units?

Army Core
I want to build the list around the Valedor formation The Great Troupe (formation bonuses still apply in Unbound). It's 3+ Harlequin squads and 3+ Venoms (or Vypers, but I think Venoms are better), and gives the Harlequins Crusader, Deep Strike, Fear, makes their shooting attacks Blinding and Concussive, and buffs the stat line of one Troupe Leader.

In my mind, the Harlequin squads in Venoms serve as wolfpack units. They should apply Splinter Cannon pressure across the board, multi-assault vulnerable targets, slice off units that are out of position, and clear the enemy's backline of things like artillery, psykers, and static gunline or support units. Because of this, I don't actually like putting the Troupe Leader in one of these squads - I'd rather keep them immune to challenges and put his statline to use somewhere it can have more impact - but I couldn't find/fit a better place to put him at 1000 points. Kisses let these squads threaten anybody (most of this army uses Rending), and I left out the normally-required Shadowseer simply because it can't use its power while embarked, and when not embarked the unit should really be in combat with something.

Units I Want
From a 10,000 ft view, I knew from the outset that there were several units that I just really wanted in my army:

1 unit of Harlequin Jetbikes - These are iconic and useful, but I didn't really want to build a 'jetbike army', so I started with limiting it to one. This means it should be more of a toolbox unit than a frontline force. I looked at Reavers, Shining Spears, and a Jetseer Council, but rejected the Jetseers due to the new restriction that each unit can only attempt to manifest each psychic power once per phase, which made the Council not really worth its points to me. Between the Reavers and the Shining Spears, I felt like the Spears threatened more things, allowing me to use them as a small-scale hammer against weakened squads, MCs, and light armor, while only being slightly more expensive (63 per 3 Reavers vs. 75 per 3 Spears +25 Exarch tax).

1+ unit of Mimes - Mostly a fluff option, I mainly want this unit to be an annoyance unit. I considered Mandrakes (which I think are superior to both Striking Scorpions and Rangers in roughly the same unit role) and Swooping Hawks. The Mandrakes were cheaper and more durable, with 2+ in cover, but they were also very static - they just sit in one place and are a pain to dislodge. The Hawks, on the other hand, are a mobile annoyance, and while they're on the board for fewer turns with Skyleap, I thought they would be more useful to the army as a whole (like dropping in on new objectives the turn they become active), and possibly just more fun to field.

1-2 Beastmaster squads - This is mainly because I have a really neat conversion for a Beastmaster with Razorwing Flocks that I really wanted to use, but I also think they have their uses. They're a fast tarpit unit with lots of wounds for relatively cheap that can still threaten almost any unit in assault with Rending, from TEQ up to AV12.

1 Monstrous Creature - I like the idea of converting a Necron Deceiver into an Avatar of the Laughing God, so I want to keep an eye out for opportunities to let a MC anchor my battle line, or provide a hammer/fire soak target. I was initially thinking either the Avatar of Khaine or a Wraithlord, since I just don't think the Deceiver model is big enough to properly proxy a Wraithknight in a friendly game. Both the Avatar and Lord are pretty slow, though (though the Avatar slightly less so).

1 Solitaire - An Autarch with a Mantle seems like a really obvious choice here, kitted out with a Laser Lance and Fusion Gun to let him seek & destroy priority targets. I'm slightly worried that this role overlaps too much with the Shining Spears, however...

Building the Lists
I started with my core of 3x Harlequins in Venoms, then decided my first priority was to add some anti-tank power, since the Venoms are really good at killing massed infantry. I thought about Blasterborne and Dark Reapers, but eventually decided on Fire Dragons in a Venom (as Death Jesters) as the most threatening unit against AV14, which this army otherwise really struggles to deal with. This made 4 Venoms with embarked squads for 720.

To build it up to 1000, I wanted more ability to wreck light armor like Rhinos, as well as some hammer units to allow me to focus my attack a little better. The Shining Spears seemed really good for this, but only brought the list to 870, leaving an odd gap. In the list above I filled it with a Beastmaster squad, but I'm not sure this is the best choice, as he lacks infantry support on the ground right now. What do you guys think about replacing both the Shining Spears and the Beastmaster in the 1000 point list for a big squad of 10 Harlequins w/Troupe Leader, Shadowseer, & Kisses that deep strikes in wherever they can do the most hurt?

When I moved it up to 1500, I felt like the list really needed some punch. Honestly, I've always been a personal fan of Deathstar units, as they allow me to focus a lot of killing power in one place, disrupt the enemy's plans, and then outmaneuver him on the rest of the field. And while 6th had the Dark Harliestar, the best I've been able to find in 7th with Harlequins is taking multiple Farseers with them. The Farseers then look to get Invisibility, Fortune, Sanctuary and Hammerhand to kit them into S6 on-the-charge Rending monsters who are only hit on 6's and have re-rollable 4++ saves. Unfortunately, the Farseers get expensive really quickly, and I'd probably need at least 3 to get all those powers. As a result, I feel like my 1500 list is okay, but I'm not sure the units have enough synergy yet to get the job done.

Going above this is where I really started to flounder. My first step to get to 1750 was to add the Mimes, and then I felt like the Deathstar really needed a second Farseer just to get anything done. I started to feel like the list was getting away from me, and the Deathstar may just be too expensive for what I want. I'm still missing the MC and the Solitaire, and could only realistically fit in one of the two at 2000, and I know I'm also missing a lot of anti-tank power. A Razorwing Jetfighter or Crimson Hunter Exarch would be nice, but I don't know how to fit them.

Can you guys give me some advice and help me feel my way through this? I'd like to eventually have workable lists at 1000, 1500, 1750, 1850, and 2000, so that I can scale to whatever my opponent has.

I want to build the list around the Valedor formation The Great Troupe (formation bonuses still apply in Unbound). It's 3+ Harlequin squads and 3+ Venoms (or Vypers, but I think Venoms are better), and gives the Harlequins Crusader, Deep Strike, Fear, makes their shooting attacks Blinding and Concussive, and buffs the stat line of one Troupe Leader.

As far as I'm aware the Great Troupe is an apocalypse-only formation, so unlike a Spirit Warriors formation detachment, it's not available in non-apocalypse games.


I would support Mandrakes as mimes, unless you wanted to take Illic Nightspear as a Master Mime, which would open up the option of Pathfinders, who are much scarier.

Webway Portal archons are a good call.

Probably should have mentioned, I already have the go-ahead from the other guys at my FLGS to use that formation in friendly games; since the army is Unbound, it's not like they're going to be entering any tournaments. :p

I actually originally started with Pathfinders as Mimes, but got frustrated with them because they were a) WAY too expensive, and b) just not killy enough. Between Sniper losing Pinning, only wounding on 4+, and 2+ Look Out Sir!s on ICs, they just weren't effective at anything except sniping special weapons - and since most of the really scary ones, like templates, are either near the front or taken by the entire squad, I found Venoms to be more effective at clearing out the normal troopers than the 3 Pathfinders I could get for the same points cost.

As for Mandrakes, while I really like their stats on paper, I'm just not sure what I'd do with them once they were on the field. With Stealth and Shrouded being their only defense, they want to deploy in cover, but they're not fast, vulnerable in the open, and vulnerable in assault, so they don't really want to leave the cover they start in. It seems like they'd just be a roadblock to sit there and provide annoying shooting until they finally get flushed out - not bad at all for their points cost, but I'm not really sure it meshes with the rest of my list well. I don't think I really have the static boots-on-the-ground elements to either support them by keeping the enemy off them or benefit from having the covering fire. :/ Am I missing something?

Did some re-tooling on the lists tonight. After running some Mathhammer, I discovered that Reavers were just WAY more killy than Shining Spears. They deal more damage in assault by several orders of magnitude against everything except MEQ, where they still lead by a slim margin, then pull ahead again on TEQ - and that's not even accounting for Power From Pain or Combat Drugs! Basically, I realized that the only thing Shining Spears bring to the table is Outflank and a bit of durability in assault from their 3+ armor save.

Additionally, I decided I was pumping too many resources into the deathstar, and in trying to make it unkillable I had gone well into diminishing returns on point efficiency. By scaling back the multiple Farseers and replacing the Shining Spears with Reavers, I saved a good chunk of points that made the lists just fall much more neatly into the final point values I wanted. I got more Beastmasters at 1000, much more well-defined kits on my characters at 1500 (making their roles more defined), and fit in an Autarch/Solitaire at 1750 to improve my reserve rolls on the Mimes and walking clowns, while simultaneously making the option of Deep Striking the Fire Dragons more reliable.

These builds also gave me nice, clean-cut ways to increase the list to 1850 by upgrading the Farseer to Eldrad, and again to 2000 by demoting Eldrad and putting an Avatar in. This let me get all the toys I wanted from the start at 2k, which I'm really happy with, and let me keep clean and focused item builds on all my characters.

I'd still really love some additional feedback on these lists (pretty pretty please!). Are there any major shakeups that might increase my hitting power at certain point values by re-ordering when I get things? Is there any particular threat that will just steamroll me? Are there any particular upgrade shuffling options that would increase my versatility?

Well - stealth and shrouded isn't their only defence; by the time they come out of cover they should have feel no pain as well.

More importantly, they can infiltrate, meaning they can pretty much start in baleblast range - at which point you've got essentially a squad with a 2+ save and two S4 shots - or tactical terminators by another name - in enough numbers to provide meaningful crowd control.

Yes you have hit and run, but the biggest weakness of the list is massed - really massed - infantry blocks. Something like a guard infantry platoon or green tide. WS5 rending attacks are good, but you'll struggle to remove entire units of lower-quality goons, and baleblast really helps with that.

Suppose there's a unit of grots forming a skirmish screen in front of the regular boyz.

You can hit and run through them - but that takes an assault phase and you're left high and dry, and are blown away by a zillion shootas at point blank range.

Having some cheap antipersonnel fire allows you to surgically cut holes in bubblewrap units to get at the important things behind

locarno24 wrote:
I would support Mandrakes as mimes, unless you wanted to take Illic Nightspear as a Master Mime, which would open up the option of Pathfinders, who are much scarier.

Heh pathfinders scary. Good one

Well, I've looked at your 1750 pt list:

Harlequins x5 w/Kisses in Venom w/Splinter Cannon – 175
Harlequins x5 w/Kisses in Venom w/Splinter Cannon – 175
Harlequins x5 w/Kisses in Venom w/Splinter Cannon – 175
Fire Dragons x5 in Venom w/Splinter Cannon – 175
Reaver Jetbikes x6 w/Cluster caltrops x2 – 126
Swooping Hawks x6 w/Exarch, Hit & Run – 121
Beastmaster x1 w/Razorwing Flock x3 – 70
Beastmaster x1 w/Razorwing Flock x3 – 70
Harlequins x10 w/Kisses, Troupe Master, Shadowseer – 262
Archon w/Webway Portal, Agonizer, Shadow Field, Soul Trap – 150
Farseer w/Singing Spear – 105
Autarch w/Mantle of the Laughing God, Jetbike, Laser Lance, Fusion Gun – 145

This list has basically no anti-air and no anti-tank.

+1 for the theme, could make an awesome army modelling wise!

-If you are looking for anti tank, Mimes could also be Scourges with Haywire.
-Reaver jetbikes look quite strong, I'd try to get a 2nd unit of them somehow.
-Another option is to take raiders as transports, with night shields and 3 hull points the are probably more aurvivable than venoms. Raiders could also give you some anti tank. The contents should be able to handle infantry. You can also make the squads a little bit bigger which would help to get them into combat.
-I understand you already have cool models for Razorwing flocks, but if they could pass for Clawed fiends instead I would take a look them.
-Wraithknights are pretty good, your list would benefit from one. Thes is if you can somehow fit them in your theme.
-The mantle on the Autarch is for the Solitaire theme, but him leading the Reavers to tank some wounds would arguable be more competetive?
-Personally I'm not a fan of having a low amount of warp dice in a list. Anytime you're up against other psykers you are likely to not get anything done in the psychic phase.

 wuestenfux wrote:
This list has basically no anti-air...

This is very true, and something I'd been somewhat worried about, but I've been having trouble finding the points for a Razorwing Jetfighter or a Crimson Hunter without gimping something else. :/ I previously hadn't been too concerned simply because I hadn't seen fliers do much more than snipe priority targets and give supporting fire... are they more of a threat than I'm giving them credit for? Do you have any particular recommendations on how best to fit some AA into the list? Or is there another good AA option besides the fliers that I haven't been considering?

 wuestenfux wrote:
...and no anti-tank.

Not sure I understand this point. Literally everything in the list except for the Archon can threaten tanks in assault with Rending, and the Swooping Hawks have Haywire Grenades on the entire squad which deploys via Deep Strike with no scatter, so they can always hit whatever they want. Plus the Fire Dragons get to Deep Strike in and wreck whatever they feel like. There's certainly a lack of long range anti-tank, but the army was fast and mobile enough (supplemented by Deep Strike) that I wasn't too concerned. I actually thought the list was pretty strong against mech.

locarno24 wrote:
Well - stealth and shrouded isn't their only defence; by the time they come out of cover they should have feel no pain as well.

More importantly, they can infiltrate, meaning they can pretty much start in baleblast range - at which point you've got essentially a squad with a 2+ save and two S4 shots - or tactical terminators by another name - in enough numbers to provide meaningful crowd control.

Yes you have hit and run, but the biggest weakness of the list is massed - really massed - infantry blocks. Something like a guard infantry platoon or green tide. WS5 rending attacks are good, but you'll struggle to remove entire units of lower-quality goons, and baleblast really helps with that.

You know, I really hadn't thought of Mandrakes in terms of "12-point Terminators in cover" before... man, they seem undercosted! :p I can always run them in a few games and see how they handle. S4 Assault 2 is roughly equivalent in killing power to S3 Assault 3 against most infantry, though the Mandrakes do get almost twice the bodies, but having Haywire Grenades on the entire squad is hard to pass up... still, this type of dilemma is what test games are for! Thanks for helping to point out how the Mandrakes might be more than I'd originally thought.

 Nivoglibina wrote:
+1 for the theme, could make an awesome army modelling wise!

Thank you! I really appreciate this, and it's heartening to get support for running a mostly fluff army.

 Nivoglibina wrote:
-Reaver jetbikes look quite strong, I'd try to get a 2nd unit of them somehow.
-Another option is to take raiders as transports, with night shields and 3 hull points the are probably more aurvivable than venoms. Raiders could also give you some anti tank. The contents should be able to handle infantry. You can also make the squads a little bit bigger which would help to get them into combat.
-The mantle on the Autarch is for the Solitaire theme, but him leading the Reavers to tank some wounds would arguable be more competetive?
-Personally I'm not a fan of having a low amount of warp dice in a list. Anytime you're up against other psykers you are likely to not get anything done in the psychic phase.

Some really good points here. Honestly, the only reason I hadn't taken a 2nd unit of Reavers was thematic (plus, I didn't want to have to make more of the Harlequin Jetbike cowls! ). The choice for Venoms over Raiders originally started as a fluff concession, since Venoms are the classic transport of the Harlequins, but now I'd honestly be worried that I wouldn't have enough anti-troop dakka if I made the switch (and I also need 3 Venoms for the Formation). Plus, while 10-man clown squads are strong as all get out, they also get expensive really fast. I'll definitely give it another look, though, and see how the point costs pan out.

Yes, the Solitaire is definitely thematic, but if I decided not to run him I think I'd try to free up another 20 points or so and add a Razorwing Jetfighter over sticking the Autarch with the Reavers - although, hmm, that would cost me the Reserve roll modifications... Let me try him in a few games and see how useful he is. If he ends up being too redundant (which I think might be a real possibility), I'll come back to this and look at other places for him. What would you equip him with if he was running with the Reavers?

The warp dice definitely concerns me, too. If I don't get Veil of Tears off reliably on that 10-man walking squad, they turn into pincushions really fast. I'd originally tried to add another Farseer in around the 1750 points range for 3 more dice, but couldn't make the points come out right to fit. A Jetseer Council instead of the Reavers would certainly bring more dice to the table, but I remain unconvinced that Jetseers are worth their extremely high cost anymore, since the unit can only use each power once a turn, so they can't buff multiple squads anymore - I feel like they're just way too expensive for what they bring to the table. Point-for-point, I think Farseers are the cheapest way to get more psychic dice, but I'm not positive on that... Spiritseers might be 2.5 points/dice cheaper, but lose access to some key defensive powers. Is there a better option to shore up my psychic phase than adding Farseers to the walking Harlequins that I've forgotten? If not, I'll take another pass at the list and see if I can find room to add at least one more.

Seriously, thank you guys so much for the feedback!

Getting more dice would only be feasable with multiple Spiritseers in a Iyanden HQ slot if you want to keep the autarch.
I don't think this would be a great idea over Eldrad because of the cost and relatively weak battle powers for Harlequins. Going full telepathy with them for invisiblity would work though.
If you go down this route I would drop the other expensive harlequin characters to get some points, this would hurt the theme.

I would prefer a Farseer on a jetbike over Eldrad. With a bike you can position the farseer to tank wounds from horrible stuff like Helldrakes and Hive Crones, or flamer overwatch.
A bikeseer also isn't slowed by terrain like Eldrad would be.

You can also consider dropping the psychic characters altogether. This would give you points for a flyer (would recommend a Nightwing over a Crimson Hunter because it is cheaper and good enough) and a raider for the large harlequin unit. The raider would protect them somewhat although you still get hits from those torrent flamers.
If you do this I would let the Archon with Shadowfield tank hits for the Harlequins.

Do the rules allow you to take 3x venom with 2x 5 harlequins and 1x 10 harlquins? This would gain you an empty venom for the Fire Dragons/Death Jesters and 5 less harlequins; quite some points.

Anyway, a themed list like this will never be ultra strong because of the costs of Harlequins. So don't compromise too much on the theme for competetiveness.
------

What is your plan with the WWP? You don't need that archon with the Fire Dragons as they already have a Venom to deep stike in? Disembark + battle focus will likely get them in melta range even with a small scatter.

Every unit of harlies should have the shadow seer - not so much for the psychic power but for assault grenades. Without them, when you charge anything in cover with them you will loose models quickly since T3, 5+ save makes them basically IG. Harlies need to kill the target BEFORE they have to deal with return strikes and the grenades ensure this.