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Okay, I really hate to make a thread about this topic, especially because it feels like I've been throwing Harlequin threads willy nilly all around this forum, but hopefully its forgivable

I am really stuck on the loadout of the Harlequin Troupe. Originally I was thinking 3x caress and 2x embrace, this was confirmed by a friend who liked to run his harlies this way, but I've heard that embraces are terrible and more caresss are better, but then I heard that you want some warm bodies to eat bullets, and this idea seems to go against the design philosophy of harlequins as a fast, elite glass hammer army.

How do you run your troupes. I am thinking 5 in a starweaver just so I can run a cegorach's revenge and throw a shadowseer in it. Is that completely incorrect? What upgrades do you go for? (just a note, I plan on building this army as a standalone army.)

I really feel in the dark about this army.

Thanks all!

I don't rate starweavers as anything other than cheap gun boats. When they die (and they will) with harlies inside, most of the squad is dead with it. Not to mention, 5-6 harlies turn into 3-4 after overwatch and you get one charge before they are either combat ineffective or dead.

I run mine on foot - with the shadow seer - in squads of 8. Throwing a DJ in most of the time as well.

My usual squad is Master with caress & hwg, 1 more caress, 5 kiss, 1 bare.

I find this means I have at least 1 warm body to soak overwatch (though I enjoy using the DJ to do that more often than not - split him in the move phase and charge separately).

The squad mulches most units on the charge and threatens pretty much every thing in the game.

I don't rate mass caress - 1 per 2 kiss is my preferred ratio. The kiss deals reliable AP2 wounds every turn. The caress is a hit and miss weapon.

Skip the embrace in my mind. HoW only works with base to base contact and that can be tough on them with a bad roll

I use one with all caresses and a shadowseer with them, plus two with a mix of kisses and embraces

Caress is best option, it can hurt everything in game.

Embraces have 0 AP just S6 and its random amounts not worth it

A Kiss is... ok to have a couple here and there, maybe 1 in each unit at the most, but it lacks numbers, 1 attack per model to get the benefits isnt much at all compare to a Caress do the same thing but with higher potential.

Thoughts on 3x embrace, 2x kiss with a shadowseer in a weaver? Would that work? considering there was such a variety in responses

As a rule, run either a Weaver or a Shadowseer, not both. The best part of the shadowseer is Veil and Veil can't be cast inside a transport.

If you run a footsquad with a Shadowseer ensure to have some naked mooks to stand in front to absorb the one volly you'll take during charges. If running a Weaver squad take 4 special weapons (caresses are best, kisses are budget but good) and 2 mooks to take explosion wounds.

The Storied Sword gets a bad rep, as it's overpriced. But it's one of the best reliable AP3 in the book, and a Str 5 Troupe Master can murder 3 MEQ on the charge with it. Don't discount it.

To be perfectly honest, you could ask 100 harlequin players and get 100 different answers.

I find there is no perfect or best way to run them.
Most of it is situational and highly dependant on your own preference.

I've even run a unit with upgraded pistols as an experiment.
I play a lot against marines and terminator heavy armies.
The pistols earned their money back before my 1st assault of the game, 6 of them killing off 3 terminators straight away.

Against an ork army, you will rarely earn points back from such upgrades.

The only way you will ever find a layout you like is purely to experiment with different layouts.
I'd suggest magnets or proxying weapons to save time and money though.




On a funny or common sense note, fusion pistols are double edged swords.
I've blown up countless vehicles with them but in doing so, lost a lot of clowns in the blast lol.

 Jackal wrote:
To be perfectly honest, you could ask 100 harlequin players and get 100 different answers.

Can we take a moment to just appreciate how great the Harlequin book is when a single troop unit can be successfully varied like that?

I've tried running troupes of mixed weapons (3 troupes of 2 embrace, 2 kiss, 2 caress) and troupes of dedicated weapons.
The mixed weapons was sorta meh: against non-dedicated CC units they do quite fine, but harlequins don't need any help there anyways. Against tougher opponents (Tyrants or Papa Genestealers) they just don't bring enough pain.
The dedicated weapons (3 troupes with 5 caress, 6 kiss, 6 embrace) do a much better job of killing, but are completely reliant on deployment and movement (a kiss squad being forced to engage a horde of GS acolytes, for example, is a massive waste of that specialized AP2 attack).

I've even run a unit with upgraded pistols as an experiment.

Care to elaborate? I've been thinking about adding a few neuropistols to regular CCW clowns. 3 of them should come out to 2 wounds on anything with a toughness value outside cover, and could really help the unit hunt MC's, but I cry a single man tear every time they die to lasgun fire...

Oh don't get me wrong, the options make it great.
But at the same time, a pain in the arse as there's too many good options lol.



Generally I'll run the fusion pistols.
If I'm paying out, the option to pop armour is a huge benefit.

Your missing the biggest boon of that over the neuro though.
Being S8 your going to be wounding most things on a 2, and a lot of multi wound things have T4, so get doubled out.


That alone is enough for me to Atleast consider it.
For the same price as a plasma pistol you get better AP, higher S and some decent rules, minus the gets hot roll.




I did only start using them however after knights becoming a common thing in my area.
And I found them to be great fun due to the harlequins speed.






As I said though, it's situational and depends on your local players as orks etc make pointless targets for an expensive weapon.

I love caresses. I think they're a must on the troupe master (+1A makes it a better choice comparatively).
The tougher the enemy, the stronger a caress becomes, as it wounds regardless of toughness and armor save.
Against TEQ/MEQ a kiss is better, but against vehicles and MC a caress is usually the better weapon. So I tend to favor it for its versatility.

I never use embraces, and uses some kisses just because I have models with them.

I like Kisses on the masters, both it & the caress needs a dr of six to be best and the kiss with insta death is better in a challenge. Otherwise caresses being able hurt vehicles as well are nice in volume on troupes. Not so fond of embraces.

Edit: fixed wrong auto-correct

For a five man troupe I do not suggest mixing weapons. Your small kill team is not meant to take on everything. Furthermore, if you use caresses to take down armor you need as many as possible because not killing a vehicle in one round almost always means death.

When you start taking larger troupes on foot, then you can mix it up. I like two embraces for the charge and a few naked guys to increase the body count and absorb wounds.

As you can see, there are a multitude of different opinions, so basically choose whatever loadout you want and use it. If it doesn't work, tweak it a bit, or try different tactics