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If you don't know what a Freakshow is, here's a convenient link to the first article in this series.
Sample Freakshows
Introduction Several people have requested sample army lists, so I thought I would provide a couple. The following lists are presented along with a few 'helpful' tips on how to use the tools provided.
Although super spammy lists are often very effective, I've tried to avoid making those kinds of lists, because they can be very bank-breaking. To that end, I'm not going to provide any lists in this thread that I can't make with my own models. Due to the unbelievably high cost for those of us this side of the pond, I've also excluded Forgeworld models.
Lament Configuration - 1000 pts We have such sights to show you... -Pinhead (Hellraiser)
Tips With very little anti-armor capacity, you'll have to make it stretch. The Windriders and Raider are your primary anti-vehicle, with the Grotesques pinch-hitting if need be. Like most of the lists in this installment, this one is capable of a null deployment. At this low of a points level, you have very little redundancy, so be careful with your Farseer!
Opening Act - 1500 pts Ladies and gentleman, please. Would you bring your attention to me?
For a feast for your eyes to see?
An explosion of catastrophe. -Saliva (Ladies and Gentlemen)
Tips This list has quite a bit going for it, even running it 'off the rack,' as it were. Although it depends on the psykers to do a great deal of heavy lifting against infantry, the list has more than enough juice to handle the vehicles you're likely to run into, and unless you see an unbound tank-exclusive army, I don't think you'll have much of a problem. While you can go with any of the Harlequin characters or the Archon as your warlord, I recommend the Troupe Master. The expanded Harlequin table is mighty nice, although the Warlord is a tad more survivable.
The two Raiders are for the Harlequins and the Fire Dragons. Whichever one you want to arrive with no scatter can take the Archon along with them. (I recommend the Fire Dragons.)
Old Friends - 2000 pts Right before your eyes we pull laughter from the skies
and he laughs until he cries then he dies, then he dies. -Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (Karn Evil no. 9)
Tips The Realspace Raider detachment with its promise of a chicken in every pot and a Venom for every Harlequin is a favorite combo of mine. Clearly, the three Venoms are intended for the Harlies. Note that the one with no Chain Snares is for the Death Jester--there's literally no reason for him to get out of it, and it will always be more effective for him to shoot. There is next to no chance that the Death Jester dies and leaves the Venom empty, so I used those 5 pts elsewhere. Also note that even though all the Venom-riders have Infiltrate, these Venoms are not Dedicated Transports, and thus may not Outflank. (S'okay, you can always Deep Strike them, although I'd be tempted especially in the case of the Solitaire to just drive on from your board edge.)
Again, the Archon comes down with the Fire Dragons.
The Main Event - 2500 pts I don't believe it, need it, see it, be it, breed it, time to make my final stand.
Welcome to the Freakshow. This is where the freaks go. -Skillet (Welcome to the Freakshow)
Tips In the big-boy-brackets above 2k, my fondness for Covens really starts to show. I love huge point games for all the crap they let me cram into my lists, and fielding four of the six Covens formations just tickles me. The Farseers and Hemlock bring enough Freakshow punch to capitalize on the Leadership negatives you're throwing out there, too.
Your Warlord here can be anybody. I would probably prefer the Dark Artisan Haemonculus in competitive play, but if you're in friendly play, or are like me and willing to gamble, the Grotesquerie Haemonculus can benefit enormously if he gets the Master Regenesist trait.
Here, you do have a few units that should be used in certain ways. The CTC is best used as a vehicle hunter, keeping their Let the Harvest Begin ability on the back burner until all the vehicles have been cleaned up. You should prioritize transports, however, in the hopes that you might be able to pop the crunchy outside with the lances and then charge the chewy center for an extra VP or two.
The Farseers should definitely make use of their Psychic Shriek and/or Dominate and Terrify, but you've got a good chance to score Invisibility with one or more of your psykers, and both the Monstrous Creature formations become godly with that kind of a buff on them.
The Guest List - 1850 I can't take credit for this one. All thanks goes to Sigmaril, of The Dark City website.
Spoiler:
Sigmaril wrote:Cast of Players - Harlequin Formation [300] Troupe w. 5 Harlequin's Caress (Warlord)
Death Jester w. haywire Grenades
Shadowseer w. ML 2, The Mask of Secrets
Dark Eldar - Combined Arms Detachment [550] Archon w. Webway Portal, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, The Armour of Misery
Archon w. Phantasm Grenade Launcher, The Archangel of Pain
5 Kabalite Warriors w. Blaster, in Venom w. Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalite Warriors w. Blaster, in Venom w. Splinter Cannon
Raider w. Torment Grenade Launcher, Night Shields
Eldar - Combined Arms Detachment [767] Farseer w. Eldar Jetbike
Warlock Council w. 5 Warlocks w. Eldar Jetbikes
Windrider Jetbike Squadron w. 3 Scatter Lasers
Windrider Jetbike Squadron w. 3 Scatter Lasers
3 Shadow Spectres w. Exarch upgrade, Shadow of Death
3 Shadow Spectres w. Exarch upgrade, Shadow of Death
Scalpel Squadron - Dark Eldar Formation [230] 5 Wracks, in Venom w. Splinter Cannon
5 Wracks, in Venom w. Splinter Cannon
Tips Now, I can't speak to tactics here, but I can sure guess. With two fear-mongering psykers and two Shadow Spectre units, it makes the most sense to me to have one of each Spectre unit out ahead of the psykers in question. Since their fear ability is an aura, they are free to go tank hunting, something their weapons make them quite a bit better at than other units. Windriders can probably pick up some slack there as well. With a five-man council, you've probably got enough psychic juice to drop some serious hammers in the psychic phase. Against infantry heavy armies with no protection against Leadership shenanigans (such as some Eldar, some Daemons, many Necrons, and most Tau armies) a null deployment with a psychic bomb could do some real damage. Between Terrify, Horrify, and the three negative bubbles represented here, by the time the Archangel drops, you could potentially wipe out a significant chunk of an opponent's army before facing a single retaliatory shot.
Conclusion These are just some of the ways you can mix-and-match your army to its greatest benefit. The possibilities are by no means covered here exhaustively, there are many more combinations waiting to be found, especially if you branch out into non-Battle Brother armies. Next time we get together, I'll try to talk about some of the allies you might use that would traditionally be the foes of our army. Until then, thanks for all the support, and stay freaky!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/05/02 04:54:38
I'll toss a suggestion onto the pile. This list is similar to the ones above, in that I've restricted myself to models that I actually own. I'd just need to buy a hemlock wraithfighter, and the reavers, but I was planning on picking up some reavers anyway.
3 Source Fear Synergy - 1850 I'm actually about 30 points shy of the 1850, although I guess I could just put an agonizer on the archon in case the guardian blob gets charged.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Originally I had two Farseers, but I dropped one for the Autarch since this list is so reserve dependent.
Spoiler:
Harlequin Cast of Players Detachment - 280 ML2 Sadowseer w/ Mask x5 Troupe w/ x5 embrace Death Jester
Archon w/ Armor and WWP Raider w/dark lance and Chain-snares Raider w/dark lance and Chain-snares x5 Wyche w/ haywire and Phantasm Grenade Launcher +Venom w/ Dual Cannons and Chain-snares x5 Wyche w/ haywire and Phantasm Grenade Launcher +Venom w/ Dual Cannons and Chain-snares x6 Reavers w/ x2 caltrops
Tips:Harlequins and the Wraithguard each go in raiders and deepstrike. The Farseer and the Archon deepstrike along with the 20 man guardian blob. The Autarch goes with the Reavers, and they start the game on the field along with the Wyches and the Rangers. They are there mostly just to run interference, and the wyches especially are just there to tackle nastier squads until the psychic shrieker squads can mosey on over to do the real work.
Turn two ideally looks like this: the autarch makes sure that the hemlock, wraithguards, guardian blob and harlequins all come in. Overlap the leadership penalties so that your scream targets are sitting at -4 ld. You get screams from the Shadowseer, farseer and wraithfighter. You get 5 D shots from the wraithguard and the D blasts from the Hemlock to take care of the very heavy armor, and you get 38 Shurikan shots, two str 9 singing spears, and 2 str 8 lances from the guardian blob to eliminate something else. The Death jester also might get lucky and make someone run away. The guardian blob would prefer to hose down a nice expensive infantry squad, but can go for armor in a pinch.
If any of your venoms survived turn one, they then come in and try and tank shock the units that you weren't able to blow up with mind bullets. That's right - tank shock. When was the last time you saw one of those? And here they'll be testing at -2 or -4 and potentially rolling 3d6 for the LD test - care of the mindshock pods on the hemlock. Failing that, the wyches just try and score points or tie something up in combat.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/05/16 20:10:14
Pod marines are actually kind of a problem. You just have to pray that you get to go second I guess. Sure, you might come in with the freaks and waste the first wave of pods, but heaven help you if the second wave has any flamers in it.
I'm worried about the wyches too. I could go for warriors, but are five splinter rifles really that different than the wyches? Plus, the wyches can have the phantasm grenade launcher - which is situational, but could be pretty useful as long as you're not fighting space marines.
our group typically plays 1500pts so I figured I'd have a crack at this..
masque detachment
5 Harlies, neuro/caress, 2 kiss, 2 embrace, shadow weaver (Succubus joins this troupe) 208
9 Harlies, pw+hw gren, 5 kiss, 3 embrace (will ride in FA Raider from DE) 215
9 Harlies , pw+hw gren, 5 kiss, 3 embrace (will ride in FA Raider from DE) 215
Shadow Weaver (DE warriors and jester ride in this) 75
Shadow Weaver (DE warriors and jester ride in this) 75
Void weaver, haywire cannon 75
Deathjester (ride in shadow weaver) 60
Deathjester (ride in shadow weaver) 60
Shadowseer, lvl 2, mask of secrets (rides in raider) 100
Shadowseer, lvl 2 (rides in raider) 85
DE realspace detachment
Must have 1 HQ, 2 troops, 1 FA
Succubus, archite glaive, hw gren 100
5 warriors (ride in shadow weaver) 40
5 warriors (ride in shadow weaver) 40
Raider, lance, night shields 75
Raider, lance, night shields 75
a lot of transport swapping and lacking a lot of AT. Need to drop a few points to get armor of misery on succubus. I could also drop a few harlies to get a 2nd Void Weaver in there.
That many Harlies would be so fun to field! Tell me how it works out!
Belac Ynnead wrote: Pod marines are actually kind of a problem. You just have to pray that you get to go second I guess. Sure, you might come in with the freaks and waste the first wave of pods, but heaven help you if the second wave has any flamers in it.
I'm worried about the wyches too. I could go for warriors, but are five splinter rifles really that different than the wyches? Plus, the wyches can have the phantasm grenade launcher - which is situational, but could be pretty useful as long as you're not fighting space marines.
But expensive. Warriors dish out twice as much damage, and can also take a blaster. I prefer them to Wyches in every regard.
had a test game of a Harlequin/Iyanden mix vs Dark Angels.
Spiritseer had terrify as one of his players. Deep striking terminator sqd targeted with Horrify, then Psychic shriek as they were within 12" of the mask of Secrets......7 wounds. If not for the TH/SS at the front, would have wiped out the sqd.
Also, the Solitaire.....oh my. Basically ran rampant along the entire back edge of the table...killed 2 tactical sqds, 1 devastator sqd and 1 scout sqd. He's a beast.
2015/05/17 17:15:11
Subject: Re:Freakshow Tactica part 4 (Sample Lists)
Jimsolo wrote: They're just SO expensive. I've had to magnetize my Void/Starweavers for greater utility.
that's GW all over. I don't complain too much about the vehicles, but it's hard to swallow the $26 for each of the character models. I have one of each but no idea how I am am going to add more. I'll probably only grab 1 more starweaver (I have one on the way) for 2 + 1 voidweaver. I have been able to use some of the extra crew to flesh out the regular harlies. that saves buying a 4th box.
I figure I can get some dark eldar fairly cheap (just need 10 with splinter rifles) and then add a raider or 2. Hopefully our local stores will have another gamer garage pretty soon as i picked up 6 reavers and 5 hellions for pretty cheap last time. This was before I realized how horrible the hellions are, yikes, great models too. Plus I have 10 wyches but I can make them work.
2015/05/18 11:15:46
Subject: Re:Freakshow Tactica part 4 (Sample Lists)
might be worth just getting Venoms instead....almost the same vehicle. I have enough shuriken cannons lying around.
I'm just really liking the harlequin models. I have a wraith host formation and didn't wan to add aspect warriors (had that before many years ago) so the harlies give me the speed and close combat I lack with the wraith units. The formations are very limiting but I figure I'll just do a masque. I'll end up with 3 skyweaver jetbikes and convert the 4th to be an autarch with banshee mask. That will be a decent fast assault unit with glaives.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/05/19 03:53:47
Love it! If I were going to do anything, I'd try to free up enough points to get the Shadowseer a venom, too. Several of his powers are shorter range than the Jester, so if I couldn't, I'd be real tempted to put the Shadowseer in the Venom and have the Jester hoof it. That's just personal preference, though.
Sable Brotherhood - 2000pts
Wraithsight Corsairs - 2000pts
Void Angels - 500pts 
