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I had a lot of store credit from events and needed a new mini rulebook because I somehow lost my other one, plus deathwatch and harlies are pretty cool, so figured I'd pick up the set before it goes out of print. To my surprise, while the box contains all the parts to customize your models it only tells you the stats for the very specifically equipped formations, not how much each individual weapon costs. Do most people build for the formation, or are they not that great? The weapon options just don't really appeal to me.

Is it worth it to pick up the codices and customize the armies (I can mostly borrow them from other people), or are they best run as the formations? If I do customize them, what are some good weapon setups, especially for harlequins? Kisses or caresses, any specialty pistols, haywire grenades? Do I build the skimmer as a transport or the support one?

The weapon set-up for the troupes in the Harlie formation is absolutely horrendous, so I'd advise against actually playing the Coherian Host. Better to run other formations instead - get a Shadowseer and Solitaire and you can run Cegorach's Jest, a solid formation, and the Heroes' Path, which is awesome fun to run and effective too. Throw Eldrad in with an allied detachment of Craftworlders to shore up your weaknesses and you'll have a decent list. Build the skimmer as a Voidweaver (the gunboat), because it's mandatory tax for a lot of different formations.

With Harlies, as a rule, pistol upgrades are not worth it. For one Neuro Disruptor you get two Kisses, for one Fusion Pistol you get three, they're far more effective for your points.

The actual best weapons to take differs depending on who you ask - I like to run Caresses on my Troupe Masters and Kisses on my players, some will tell you to run all Caresses, some will say to run Embraces, some will even tell you to mix and match.

Much better to grab the Codexes. The Deathwatch are easier/more viable, the Harlequins are weird and difficult; I'd recommend not using the formations since they don't really offer much over the content in the Codexes (the only exception is the Death Jester, who exists to hand Shrouded out to other units for free).

Avoid going overboard with upgrade weapons on the Harlequins; the pistols are overpriced and of dubious utility (your best anti-armour in that book is the prism blaster on the Voidweaver and the Haywire blasters on the Skyweavers, making half a Troupe commit suicide by setting off an explosion in their faces isn't much of an upgrade), the melee weapons are useful but aren't worth losing bodies to get a lot of them. The usual rule of thumb I'm quoted is to try and aim for one un-upgraded Trouper per upgrade-weapon Trouper.

The transport skimmer is more useful but one support skimmer is mandatory for almost all Harlequin detachments, you'll probably want at least two more of them if you're playing Harlequins anyway. Pick either one, it'll be useful.

Harlequins have weird and heavily-restrictive detachments, and Eldrad is going to need more Craftworlders if you want to use him with them not in that formation; the quickest and easiest way to get that into a functional army would probably be going to a Masque detachment with an Eldar Allied detachment. You'd need a Starweaver/Voidweaver (whichever one you didn't build the skimmer in the box as), another Troupe, and a Craftworld Troops choice (this is one of a very few situations in which I recommend scatterbikes, since the fact that you're using Harlequins is enough of a handicap to justify them). You may want to play a few Unbound games with the box and see how they feel, they play like nothing else.

As for the Deathwatch avoid melee weapons on the infantry Veterans since they're paying 10pts more for each power sword than the Vanguard Veterans are, I'd suggest making sure to build the frag cannon and the Infernus HB and trying to keep the rest of the squad to their basic armament. The Dreadnaught can easily have arms swapped without magnets so don't glue his gun in, and Vanguard Veterans do very well with just the power sword. Expanding them to a full army is pretty straightforward, with another infantry Veteran squad you'd just have a fully legal CAD right there. Artemis isn't allowed in the Black Spear Strike Force (their meta-detachment) and you'll need more infantry/pods to do that one, but you've got a good start to a CAD.

Pop the Harlequin sprues in the post and send them to me

In seriousness, Harlies can be deadly but the formations you get in the Death Masque are pretty restrictive. Individual units like Inriam's Spectre are very useful, but mainly when put into units from the Harlequins codex. They play a little differently to other armies though. One of the main tactics is to hang your Troupes just at the range that your Veil of Tears works, and then dash in with a lengthy charge to chop things up with your Caresses

As a little proof that Harlies can be very nasty when used right, we've just had a chap on The Dark City win a 16-man ITC event with them http://www.thedarkcity.net/t14674-won-16-man-itc-event-with-full-harlequin-list

Harlequins have a great set of models with some fairly 'meh' rules. From Death Masque, Inraim's Spectre is gold. The Blades of Fate are good. Eldrad can be himself, or a Shadowseer proxy.

The main issue for me is the "prismatic blur" and "lightning fast movement" making them "nigh on impossible to target" accredited to the combination of the flip belt and holo suit equates to a mighty .... 5+ invulnerable save and 6" (granted unimpeded) movement.

Harlequins hate being shot at. Inriam's Spectre will makes his unit shrouded and Shadowseers are OK for protective psychic buffs. But the second a torrent flamer covers your clowns, Cegorach has his jest! If there is significant psychic presence on the other side of the board shutting down your phase, Cegaroch has another chortle!

Would I ever consider selling my Harlequins? NO!

Winning with them, with all these design flaws, is their appeal. I think you need to give each Harlequin player either a Kiss or a Caress, defintely a Caress for the Troupe Master. They like the affectionate model owner...

I am constantly re-jigging and manipulating the amount of Harlequins I use. I love The Heroes Path and Cast of Players formations. I am trying hard to make The Masque detachment and Cegorach's Revenge work.

Were I a designer: Harlequins targetted by ranged/melee weapons also benefit from causing "Blind" checks and have "stealth" inherently. A movement bonus would be great- +D6 inches to movement, rolled at the start of the turn "Winds of Cegorach," if you will. The bikes could do with skilled rider.

I'm probably just going to run them as allies of convenience for now with my guard until I figure them out, plus to give me a decent melee unit my guard is lacking. Maybe run them as a cast of players with inriam's spectre and eldrad as a shadowseer. Should I run a full squad of 12?

 kingbobbito wrote:
I'm probably just going to run them as allies of convenience for now with my guard until I figure them out, plus to give me a decent melee unit my guard is lacking. Maybe run them as a cast of players with inriam's spectre and eldrad as a shadowseer. Should I run a full squad of 12?

Generally either try to run max squads or squads that fit exactly into the Starweaver. Harlequins need bodies to avoid dying miserably before getting to do things.

 kingbobbito wrote:
I'm probably just going to run them as allies of convenience for now with my guard until I figure them out, plus to give me a decent melee unit my guard is lacking. Maybe run them as a cast of players with inriam's spectre and eldrad as a shadowseer. Should I run a full squad of 12?

The chappy who won the tournament runs Troupes in 5 or 6-man squads in transports, with all squad members with Caresses apart from 1 (in a 5-man sqaud) or 2 (in a 6-man) which is a sacrificial model to bite the dust on overwatch (no point giving them a Caress if they're unlikely to get into combat). I think HWG on the Troupe Master as well to help with A/T.

The other option is to run them as larger blobs (to get better mileage out of each Shadowseer) footslogging and using Veil of Tears to protect them from fire, loitering just out of effective range until the enemy makes a mistake and exposes a unit. Then, mob that unit until it's destroyed and move onto the next one.

Also, Solitaires are a Knight's worst nightmare