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So I recently discovered Harlequins and I absolutely love their aesthetic. I found out that they had their own codex, and was wondering if they worked as their own army or not? I haven't played any Eldar, and don't really want to, but Harlequins seemed really cool. I've looked up a little bit about them, like how they don't have hq units but they have their own detachment they're supposed to use, but I don't know how well they'd work without the help of other Eldar or whoever else, and like I said, I don't really wanna play other Eldar.

They work, but barely.

They want allies, they don't use them, and I am building up to 1850 points of pure harlies, but allies make them 'competitive' however.

They don't use them as in the detachments? I don't understand, how do you play them then? I thought you couldn't use them in a CAD cause they don't have any HQ units?

They can be taken as part of a masque detachment.

The masque detachment is 3 troops, 2 fast attack, and a single heavy support, and 0-7 elites. ShadowSeers, Death Jesters, and the solitaire are all elites.

There are also a few formations that you can take

So the masque detachment and formations, are there any other ways?

 Kizuke21 wrote:
So the masque detachment and formations, are there any other ways?

They sadly lack an HQ, so no CAD/AD. They are incredibly restrictive in what you can take, and more formations other than Hero's Path have a bunch of tax.
That said, with good tactics they can be successful, but are incredibly unforgiving.

So not a lot of variation in the lists?

Also, how do they play? Like are they melee focused, shooty, or somewhere in between?
I don't really need something competitive, just something fun I can put into on the side of my main army if I ever have time is what I'm lookin for.

 Kizuke21 wrote:
So not a lot of variation in the lists?

Also, how do they play? Like are they melee focused, shooty, or somewhere in between?
I don't really need something competitive, just something fun I can put into on the side of my main army if I ever have time is what I'm lookin for.

Mobile melee units, with access to some ranged stuff from the jetbikes, skimmers, and death jesters.
They are incredibly squishy, mobile, and hit hard.

Alright, that sounds pretty fun
About what would you say is their safest point value to play at? I assume trying to hit 2000 is trying for too much

1000-1500 is good. You can go higher if you introduce allies.

They're a decent army to play and have a lot of tools and somehow still manage to have variety. The deceptively low amount of unit entries is offset by them all being viable.

Sounds good, thanks guys! I was debating on whether or not to get them as a 2nd army, but now I'm pretty set on them lol. One last question: Is there anyone who could ally well with them besides other eldar?

I have an 1850 pure harlequins list. It has a heroes path formation and a masque detachment. The list totals 16 troupers', three transports, one gun tank, three shadowseers, 6 death jesters, 2 jetbikes units with glaive and haywire blasters, and the solitaire. Also, every character takes a haywire grenade. Otherwise pepper to taste.

The death jesters run around as individual units for MSU purposes and their ability to cause leadership tests is more potent the more you cause. (Even with ld10, at a -2 you are going to fail at least one if you cause 4-5 tests a turn.) Forcing people to a side table edge to lose the unit is going to force them towards the table center. Then you kill them in melee.

This list has a lot of tricks, but is countered hard by flyer spam and fearless hordes.

I love my Harlequins.
I think it's a well designed army, that actually works the way it's intended to (fast and deadly, but very frail). On top of that, most people like to play against my Harlies. I think it's because they don't get frustrated by them. Since they're mostly T3 with a 5++, or AV10 HP2 open topped, they'll die very quickly to any type of firepower. So when playing against them, you never feel like you're powerless and can't do a damn thing: most rants about 40K are about unkillable units, which are very frustrating to play against. Harlequins are definitely nowhere near that category.
So expect to kill stuff, and also die en masse, which in my book makes for a fun 40K game.

They do have a very limited unit selection. So I find them a bit repetitive, especially at higher points game.
The new Gathering Storm book will probably bring new ways to field them (although it's possible that all the new ways will require other flavors of Eldar to be used alongside Harlequins), and if we're lucky one of the new characters will be a HQ choice for Harlies.
I recently started DE to ally with my Harlequins, just to have a bit more variety.

They have won tournaments if that matters to you.

Ive been playing them and I can say they are a solid mid tier army. They take a little more long term thinking than many armies so it takes a bit to get used to. But i'm loving them.

You can add Troupes to Cosair lists...

Cosairs can fill in the deficiencies of a mono-Harlie list.

Its good to hear that harlies alone are a mid tier army. I have no interest of bringing allies (despite my already large Dark Eldar collection)

Yea, Im fine with having them at around 1500 if that's what they're good at alone, cause I don't want to buy into eldar or dark eldar.

What would be the best way to start collecting them? Death Masque?

There are ways of bringing in allies whilst maintaining the harlie aesthetic, for example, I kitbashed wyches and an Archon with troupes, they play the part of the enemies that the Eldar have fought. I can use the harlequin troupe rules for them, or I can use the DE rules, and fill in a few gaps (and bring along some raiders). Either way, as far as it looks on the table, they are all harlequins, and they are led by a harlequin king.

 Kizuke21 wrote:
What would be the best way to start collecting them? Death Masque?

I bought "others" harlequins from these boxes then just bought a couple extra starweavers for my troupes.

I made my own Shadowseers from the few extra Troupes out of the Death Masque box, the Zhephglavie (spelling?) make a good staff, I used DE Reaver heads and DE PGL (Phantom Grenade Launcher).

 Amishprn86 wrote:

 Kizuke21 wrote:
What would be the best way to start collecting them? Death Masque?

I bought "others" harlequins from these boxes then just bought a couple extra starweavers for my troupes.

I made my own Shadowseers from the few extra Troupes out of the Death Masque box, the Zhephglavie (spelling?) make a good staff, I used DE Reaver heads and DE PGL (Phantom Grenade Launcher).

What if I didn't have anything Eldar or Dark Eldar previously?

 whembly wrote:
You can add Troupes to Cosair lists...

Cosairs can fill in the deficiencies of a mono-Harlie list.

Nope - not in the current corsair list you can't. You can run them as a seperate detachment in the same army but not as a single detachment

I run Corsairs with Harlequins, I just take the Basic so I can have a couple of Hornets and a Warp Hunter.

Just food for thought.

 Massaen wrote:

 whembly wrote:
You can add Troupes to Cosair lists...

Cosairs can fill in the deficiencies of a mono-Harlie list.

Nope - not in the current corsair list you can't. You can run them as a seperate detachment in the same army but not as a single detachment

Oops, meant the Pale Courts formation with the "Crossroads of Eternity" trait.