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A related question may be what are those stratagems/relics/traits that an opponent (whose army you may not be familiar with) can pop and potentially just end your game.

For example - eldar forewarned - me deepstriking skarbrand - getting one shot by dark reaps -> =(

For example - Custodes bikes charging you on your turn and ripping into your units

For example - Homonculus with relic making sure you ALWAYS fight last - (let me charge you with shining spears - oh wait they are all dead as they got mulched since I can't even interrupt on my turn)

For example - devastation battery of chain cannon havocs shooting your boys to death at the end of your movement phase

etc. These aha moments can be very frustrating. A command reroll can change the course of the game (key psychic power, damage roll, charge roll, etc.) - but is also easily expected.

Harlequins:

They are a tough one, lots of good strats but none that really jump out as the 'best', it all depends on the situation.

Survivability boosts are obvious go to strats, Prismatic Blur (3++ when you advance), Lightning reflexes, fire and Fade, Isha's Weeping (3++ if you lost a model).

Others allow you to act out of sequence or ignore an enemy action are always good too, and can be game changing in the right circumstances. Cegorachs Jest (Shoot at enemy that falls back), Dramatic Entrance (6 inch heroic intervention), Silken Knife (ignore overwatch). Honestly this category swings games the most for me, Cegorachs Jest basically gives a unit of Skyweavers a free shooting phase and can take out an enemy tank pretty well. Silken Knife when used on a full Skyweavers or Troupe can tag most of a gunline, also very game changing especially against Tau or Guard. Dramatic Entrance especially good with a Solitaire, if your opponent ends a charge within 6 inches of him he's going to have a run in with the Murder Clown Extrordinare, which is a pretty big area especially when players are only used to the 3 inch heroic intervention bubble.

orkswubwub wrote:
A related question may be what are those stratagems/relics/traits that an opponent (whose army you may not be familiar with) can pop and potentially just end your game.

For example - eldar forewarned - me deepstriking skarbrand - getting one shot by dark reaps -> =(

For example - Custodes bikes charging you on your turn and ripping into your units

For example - Homonculus with relic making sure you ALWAYS fight last - (let me charge you with shining spears - oh wait they are all dead as they got mulched since I can't even interrupt on my turn)

For example - devastation battery of chain cannon havocs shooting your boys to death at the end of your movement phase

etc. These aha moments can be very frustrating. A command reroll can change the course of the game (key psychic power, damage roll, charge roll, etc.) - but is also easily expected.

For more of these you can look at Deathwatch, particularly the race specific strats against Orks, Aeldari, and Tau. They can be brutal if you catch someone not paying attention.

Targeting Scramblers- removes all marker lights from a unit

Stem the Green Tide- for overwatch -1 inch to charge range for each Ork killed in Overwatch. I've had the Ork players charge range be a negative number (not technically possible but you get it). Rolls an 8 for charge, losses 10 Boyz to overwatch = a negative 2 charge range (results to a 0), frag cannons and Storm bolters for the win.

Intercepting Volley- Shoot at an Aeldari unit that has Fly if it tries to move within 12 inches with -1 to hit. That means move toward, away, whatever. You basically get to pin a bike unit, or Talos, in place, or keep something from getting close... Unless they want to catch 40 SIA shots. Makes Shining Spears have a really hard time, or if you deep strike some Vets within 12 of a Farseer jetbike, he's basically stuck. And with the new FAQ you can combine it with Auspex Scan and fire twice if an Aeldari fly unit deepstrikes within 12.

I dunno if it's been brought up but Agents of Vect and a Plan Generations in the Making are stupid good at just disrupting your opponent's plans. Even if you never use them, your opponent still has to assume that you will. Incredibly effective at making your opponent move to your beat.

 Creeping Dementia wrote:
Harlequins:

They are a tough one, lots of good strats but none that really jump out as the 'best', it all depends on the situation.

Survivability boosts are obvious go to strats, Prismatic Blur (3++ when you advance), Lightning reflexes, fire and Fade, Isha's Weeping (3++ if you lost a model).

Others allow you to act out of sequence or ignore an enemy action are always good too, and can be game changing in the right circumstances. Cegorachs Jest (Shoot at enemy that falls back), Dramatic Entrance (6 inch heroic intervention), Silken Knife (ignore overwatch). Honestly this category swings games the most for me, Cegorachs Jest basically gives a unit of Skyweavers a free shooting phase and can take out an enemy tank pretty well. Silken Knife when used on a full Skyweavers or Troupe can tag most of a gunline, also very game changing especially against Tau or Guard. Dramatic Entrance especially good with a Solitaire, if your opponent ends a charge within 6 inches of him he's going to have a run in with the Murder Clown Extrordinare, which is a pretty big area especially when players are only used to the 3 inch heroic intervention bubble.

orkswubwub wrote:
A related question may be what are those stratagems/relics/traits that an opponent (whose army you may not be familiar with) can pop and potentially just end your game.

For example - eldar forewarned - me deepstriking skarbrand - getting one shot by dark reaps -> =(

For example - Custodes bikes charging you on your turn and ripping into your units

For example - Homonculus with relic making sure you ALWAYS fight last - (let me charge you with shining spears - oh wait they are all dead as they got mulched since I can't even interrupt on my turn)

For example - devastation battery of chain cannon havocs shooting your boys to death at the end of your movement phase

etc. These aha moments can be very frustrating. A command reroll can change the course of the game (key psychic power, damage roll, charge roll, etc.) - but is also easily expected.

For more of these you can look at Deathwatch, particularly the race specific strats against Orks, Aeldari, and Tau. They can be brutal if you catch someone not paying attention.

Targeting Scramblers- removes all marker lights from a unit

Stem the Green Tide- for overwatch -1 inch to charge range for each Ork killed in Overwatch. I've had the Ork players charge range be a negative number (not technically possible but you get it). Rolls an 8 for charge, losses 10 Boyz to overwatch = a negative 2 charge range (results to a 0), frag cannons and Storm bolters for the win.

Intercepting Volley- Shoot at an Aeldari unit that has Fly if it tries to move within 12 inches with -1 to hit. That means move toward, away, whatever. You basically get to pin a bike unit, or Talos, in place, or keep something from getting close... Unless they want to catch 40 SIA shots. Makes Shining Spears have a really hard time, or if you deep strike some Vets within 12 of a Farseer jetbike, he's basically stuck. And with the new FAQ you can combine it with Auspex Scan and fire twice if an Aeldari fly unit deepstrikes within 12.

For the Deathwatch, I think the best stratagems are those give you +1 to wounds, these stratagem gives you better chances to wound the troublesome enemy units, such as IK, so long they are not having 3++, which they no longer have. Outside of that, the Teleport Stratagem is also good, like those in any other faction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also don't think the "screw you! Xenos" stratagem are that kind of wonderful.

Those mentioned above are actually not good, the anti eldar one is trash in reality, since the eldar good units usually have -1 to hit buffs from many sources, So when you pop that stratagem, be prepared to hit only on 6s or even not able to hit at all. GG.

The anti Tau one would be situational, it need to be chosen to activate after a unit fired ML. Tau could wait till you use this stratagem and fire another ML unit at you, then use their own stratagem to add D3 MLs on you, then sweep you off the broad.

The anti Orks one is not bad But very easy to counter, the Orks could choose to stay at 8.1" away from you before charge, totally waste your Frag Cannon, then rely on rolling 3D6 for charge and the "Ere we go" to make 13+ inches charges to crush into you. Or more simply, use a trukk to "Ere we go" make a 8.1 inches charge first, followed by 30 boyz charge in and sweep you.

The anti Nidz stratagem is quite good as it help your Stalker boltguns or Intercessor Bolt Rifle guys to snipe those pesky Neurothrope, Malanthropes, and Broodlords. Just a shame that the real threatening Nidz Character are now those in GSC that can dish out infinite mortal wounds, who just don't have synapse.

One of them is great, that is the anti Necron one, stop those Immortal or Destroyers from coming back to life would reduce your pain, and give you a chance to ultimately exterminate them in your next round.

I don't really think there are any must-use Stratagems except for Extermination Protocols, but Destroyers aren't mandatory any more. I list my Necron Stratagems in order of importance for my opponent to read if they want to avoid getting caught out by Necron Stratagems.

Tier 1

Resurrection Protocols: You can't reliably kill this character.
Extermination Protocols: Destroyers can hurt you real bad.
Methodical Destruction: I'll pop your Knight in a turn.

Spoilered the ones that technically are not relevant to the thread.

It's not really a matter of which are the most powerful, I just want to give my opponents a relatively easy opportunity to know what Stratagems I can pull out my ass. It also gives me a degree of security in knowing that my opponent can read my stratagems, so I don't have as much of a gentleman's duty to tell my opponent all of my battle plans. I'll explain that my Deceiver can re-deploy D3 units before the battle begins and I'll show you my Stratagems, I don't need to tell you that I'm going to replace my Tesseract Vault's long-ranged power for its AOE power and that I'll use another random power, those things you have to figure out yourself.

I don't participate in tournaments, so I can usually give my opponents time to read my Stratagems, at least the tier 1 and tier 2 ones that are available to the list I play. I usually curate my Stratagems before each battle so I only have the ones I can use available. So it's usually 1-3 tier 1 and 3-8 tier 2 stratagems that are important for my important to read.