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The formation includes 1 Death Jester, 1 Shadowseer and 1 Solitaire. This gives them all infiltrate, shrouded and stealth for 265 points (with no upgrades). I was thinking with my Tau Firebase army they might work out real nice but I haven't read about anyone using them yet, if they can get their points back or just die real fast...

I used this formation in a 1500 point list for a two-source tourney. They worked okay, but only made their points back in 1 of the 3 games. I also had the Solitaire upgraded with the Rose, and a level 2 Shadowseer with the Mask. They are better ways of having a solid close combat unit, if that's what you're looking for. These guys are more disruption than death.

That said, the Phantasmy psychic powers are really cool. Just hope you don't roll a 1 for the blessing, since it'll be useless to you (can't cast it on Tau, the Heroes Path dudes effectively have it all the time).

As a tau and a harlequin player I can honestly say you do not want the Herod path in your tau list. The solitaire is amazing but with no other cc in your army you are better off just focusing solely on shooting. At best the solitaire will act as a speed bump to stop potential attackers but other than that I don't think he will do much. As for the lone death jester. I feel he adds little to the tau army and costs more than a crisis suit who you would rather have. The shadow seer is also limited in use as his primary power, which is also the strongest harlequin power, does very little and he might not get any good powers. For the same cost as the detachment you could include more broadsides which is always nice.

I ran an Eldar CAD and Heroes' Path a tournament ago and went 3-0. I'm very pleased with it overall, opting to keep it cheap with either the mask or the rose (which works wonders on the solitaire). As mentioned, it's a close combat threat package while also providing disruption or objective camping.

As with all harlequins, it needs support units to fight alongside it in close combat. Throwing a solitaire into a small backfield unit solo is fine, but the things you want him to help out with you tend to just shoot off the table with your Tau. If you want trickery and added close combat punch, take the Heroes. But don't expect them to do anything without synergism in your list.

If you want to include a Heroes Path, you want mask of secrets on a ML2 Seer running telepathy powers (psychic shriek and makes Death Jester that much more reliable)

The Solitaire wants Haywire grenades and that's it probably. The Rose is only very slightly better than his stock Embrace.

Tbh I think it'd work just fine in a Tau list as long as you adapt your list around them. They are very good for destroying foot infantry, but so are your IAtides-but your tides can also bring HBCs to increase power against flyers and transport vehicles which those harlies don't deal with. Just keep the Heroes tight because they work best in concert-the SS casts buffs on the Solitaire, the DJ uses the Mask debuff to flee units towards the solitaire, the solitaire cleans up in melee.

man these guys just look so bad ass, maybe I should consider them as part of my SW army instead of my Tau army. I was just worried about them getting within 1" of each other but I guess I could infiltrate them on one side of the board and attack the other... My thinking with the Tau was for these guys to attack like a bike squad, or a flying monstrous creature, or something that would close on my Tau faster than what I could shoot them but it sounds like they can't hold their own out there by themselves and need to run with another CC based army

I was considering this as well. I don't think the rose is a good idea, when I was proposing mine I only used the mask, mostly for its synergy with the death jester and hallucinogen grenades (That psychic shriek tidbit is also quite nice....)

I am not quite sure how they fit into my armies though. Anyone have any ideas on how they can synergize with Eldar or Dark Eldar?

The Death Jester and solitaire do their things, but what is the best way to use the shadowseer?


Also, solitaire tips? I see him mostly as a mop up tool, I feel like he will get killed rather easily against a real squad.

 Lord Commissar wrote:
I was considering this as well. I don't think the rose is a good idea, when I was proposing mine I only used the mask, mostly for its synergy with the death jester and hallucinogen grenades (That psychic shriek tidbit is also quite nice....)

I am not quite sure how they fit into my armies though. Anyone have any ideas on how they can synergize with Eldar or Dark Eldar?

The Death Jester and solitaire do their things, but what is the best way to use the shadowseer?


Also, solitaire tips? I see him mostly as a mop up tool, I feel like he will get killed rather easily against a real squad.

Harlies in general are amazing with DE. The problem is, the Shadowseer is the best but he really wants to be IN the dark Eldar squads. Phantasmancy is great for keeping your models from dying to overwatch or getting shot from across the board.

I ran the path once and due to some bad rolls on my first turn I periled my SS off the table. The DJ was good for his points and broke 2 different squads forcing them out of cover. the solitaire could have preformed better but it was the third turn before I had an unit that I could charge. If you want additional DJ shenanigans I would opt for jet bikes (either strain of eldar) and units that can deep strike w/o error (swooping Hawks of WWP Archon) if you can set up areas that your target can not retreat through, a horseshoe of jet bikes or a bottleneck stoppered by deep strikers, you can remove entire squads from play with the DJ's special shooting attack.

I use them alongside a Realspace Raiders detachment, with the heroes each in their own Venom. It's worked pretty well so far.

Haywire grenades on the Solitaire is not the best buy. He does more damage with furious charge against AV10 and the caress deals with all armor values. It does get a little better in the Heroes' Path formation, since they don't get Rising Crescendo to run & charge.

As for the Rose, it's useful to get the mastercrafted and shred on the kiss attack. Most places are ruling you benefit from both the Kiss and the Caress (such as ETC), so the Rose is a decent buy. Even if you only can choose one or the other, having a master crafted kiss of death along with shred on all of your normal attacks helps pile on the damage, especially in the second round of combat when you drop back to Str 3.

That aside, the Solitaire works best being supported. Speaking from an Eldar perspective, having a wraithknight charge into a combat to not only soak overwatch but provide a massive threat allows the solitaire to jump in and either challenge out hidden fists/klaws or precision out annoying leaders or special weapons. Likewise, charging in the solitaire first from cover for a 2+ to soak overwatch for beast packs / grotesques is also quite nice. Any unit that can benefit from his 7-8 attacks and the added ap2 is a combat the solitaire wants to be in. Coupled with the fact he can typically pick where he wants to assault means enemies will have to swing at the larger tarpits instead of the solitaire. Hit & run out of combat as needed to engage other targets in your turn, leaving the tarpit or CC unit to finish off whatever you charged.

The death jester is quite self explanatory. He's a 60 point distraction that forces units to flee. Coupled with stealth & shrouded, he's more direct with his application than the others.

I personally like the shadowseer with at least one roll on phantasmancy. With only peal of discord and shards of light not being the ideal powers, she can easily camp objectives being untouchable thanks to veil. 5 fleshbane str6 attacks on the charge to support a unit isn't too shabby for late game as well. Try outflanking her if infiltrating isn't your cup of tea or if she has no good positions.

I run them in every game I have above 750 points, they are wicked! I also flood the board with more death jesters in single man units. With only needing to kill one guy to cause problems, they don't have to worry about not being able to eliminate whole units via wounds. When my shooting phase ends, and you need to take 5 leadership tests at a -2, you start losing units you didn't realize you could.

Problem with taking more than 1 death jester in a TAC list is simply that you cant dedicate too many points for something that is ignored by a significant amount of armies,