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Hi Dakka,

I played Harlies in 7th and just love the range. So many options to customize so many ways to paint. I have been focused on my 1k sons the last year though am starting to feel a dance off coming on with the new dex announced.

I never picked up the index for Harlies and just read on another thread that they are one of the weakest armies so far. Naturally the strats, relics etc will help though aside from that what is currently hurting Harlies and what do folks think they need to be competitive?

Myself, I am hoping they get opened access to other Eldar vehicles (rather than taking a detachment) similar to the way 1k sons and Death Guard have access to other chaos units and vehicles. Rumor of webway portal fortification sounds interesting if can allow deep striking units until destroyed and rumor of a strat to bring it back is a good sign.

Guys in my group hate playing against Harlies though as they seem to remember how broken they were a long time ago (3 and 4th ed) and plus they were pretty OP in SWA which put my buds off of playing against clowns when they just mopped up everyone further in both SWA and 40k.

I have been delaying painting the army because years ago when they were one unit in the Eldar Dex I gave each harlie a unique color scheme and now that it is a range I have about 8-10 color schemes to replicate, lol. Once finished I am sure they will look either really cool or a hot mess on the battlefield, lol.

Harlies are currently not that weak and I feel the codex will help in fleshing them out. I don't expect any new vehicles for them unfortunately so you may still need to add other Aeldari units in a separate detachment. You could take a flyer detachment from either Craftworld or Drukhari and still paint the planes in Harlequin colours. Or even take a wraithknight and paint it harlequins. LOts of options really to keep with harlequin theme....a shadowseer (spiritseer) and 3 wraithlords in a spearhead. I have an Autarch on Jetbike that is basically a Great Harlequin on bike. Makes a decent HQ and can then bring in Eldar that I want to theme as Harlequin....when I get around to it, need to see codex first.

The codex is around the corner, and might even come out by the end of the month if we're lucky.
There are not many units/options in the army, so what Harlequins need the most is great internal balance, so that each option has its place.
At the moment neuro-disruptors are a joke, they need to get a profile and a point cost that gives them a role. The 8th ed. merging of vehicles and monster made it more difficult to have two good pistol options (you can't have one with low S fleshbane and the other with high S melta anymore), so it might need a complete rework.
Death Jester are still crappy, and will always be in a weird place as long as they don't get a proper special rule. At the moment they're just a walking shuricannon, which is the weapon Harlies and CWE can spam ad nauseam.
Since Harlies could use some anti-horde, I suppose DJ could fill that niche. Maybe they could get new explosive rounds, that only explode on units with a low T. Or any other mechanism by which they become the best Harlie unit against GEQ, yet aren't that good against tougher targets.

The new portal is nice, assuming units that come out of it can still move after exiting the portal. Otherwise it will be used to deep-strike units of 20 wyches, or banshees who lack good transports and can make long charges reliably.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 bullyboy wrote:
Harlies are currently not that weak and I feel the codex will help in fleshing them out. I don't expect any new vehicles for them unfortunately so you may still need to add other Aeldari units in a separate detachment. You could take a flyer detachment from either Craftworld or Drukhari and still paint the planes in Harlequin colours. Or even take a wraithknight and paint it harlequins. LOts of options really to keep with harlequin theme....a shadowseer (spiritseer) and 3 wraithlords in a spearhead. I have an Autarch on Jetbike that is basically a Great Harlequin on bike. Makes a decent HQ and can then bring in Eldar that I want to theme as Harlequin....when I get around to it, need to see codex first.

I also have Harlequin-themed CWE that I like to bring. Planes and sword-wielding wraith constructs look very Harlequin-like with just a matching paint scheme. I find other units need some type of conversion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and my big hope in regards to the codex is to get light/dark/twilight rules.
For instance, each troupe unit could have to choose one of the three paths (and you can't have duplicates unless you expended all the others, like combat drugs), and that path would trigger different Masque bonus.
Or something that relates to army composition: each detachment has to be from light, dark, or twilight, and if you have three detachments from different paths (but with the same Masque tactics), you get a bonus. This would help pure Harlequin armies.

I'm looking forward to the Codex. Harlequins can still pack a punch and cause a lot of carnage, but your choices are very limited.

Death Jesters still dont really have a useful role, and I personally dont find the Voidweaver to be up to much either. That's a quarter of your unit choices relegated to the "bobbins" pile.

The others all have their places but as alluded to above, it's a narrow range of units using a narrow range of weapons. Neuro disrupters arent great, and neither is the Harlequin's Kiss (a real shame as it's THE iconic Harlie weapon for me) so for the most part you'll see people rocking Fusions and Embraces or (if they're cheap like me) making do with Shuriken pistols. And Embraces.

So hoping for relics, more phantasmancy, some cool strategems, Masque-specific buffs and some tinkering to the points costs (again)

My main issue with my harlies is their weapons having the "heavy" keyword. My mobile army with melee capable vehicles has to stand still to fire any anti vehicle weaponry. Already bad enough it is low strength with a 24" range.

As for death jesters, a sweet special rule for the would be making the leadership test on 2d6. That or combine the two weapon profiles...

And PLEASE make my caress be strong user and hit rolls of 6+ cause a mortal wound. We lost a lot of cool stuff with the changeover, and it shows.

I do remember taking a look at the index and wondering about the effectiveness of a couple of the melee load outs.

I have always thought the void weaver was under powered for such a cool model and I would pay the points for better effectiveness. The fire prism JR is so cool in concept and agree it needs a boost to str dmg. I always hoped GW would allow Eldar upgrade options on the weaver.

I almost ran a non Battle Forged army (forgot the term) in 7th with a bunch of Harlies on a Raiders led by Asurmen for some fun at a buddies weekend event.

Does Anyone think we will see new Harley products along with the Codex? Starter set?

No models, just cards.

The only models will be a potential starter box.

Because the Harlies have so few units, they need every unit to be effective. That means they need to fix the Death Jester and the Voidweaver, and potentially improve the Skyweavers. The Haywire Cannon needs to be changed from a Heavy weapon - as is, it will never be taken in such a mobile army.

First, let me say that i have a bit over 25 games with them, they are my most played 8th army atm

To make them "competitive" honestly the right stratagems, traits, relics will do that for sure. Harlequins dont need much at all to be great, they dont really need point changes either, but i do have a very small list of things to change

Melee weapons 6pts; Kiss, Embrace, Caress, Zepher Glave, etc..
HWC made to assault
Death Jester shoots twice if didnt move

Thats it for changes, IMO like i said already, Traits is going to make or break them, i would LOVE to see none generic traits, but something more special

Well, as an old school player I'm already glad that Harlies got GW's attention. I remember times at 40kOnline where Rasmus generated a nice Harlie codex. Much better than anything GW could achieve.
I'm looking forward to strategems making Harlies better to play.
As said, some point adaptions and an improvement of the DJ would be welcome.

There's a new model coming, it's the webway portal. Although it's an Aeldari model, not a Harlequin one.

Personally I'd love them to make an actual leader model rather than using the sergeants. If I remember right they have a High Avatar or something.

pm713 wrote:
Personally I'd love them to make an actual leader model rather than using the sergeants. If I remember right they have a High Avatar or something.

I would like this as well. A Great Harlequin model - however, its very very unlikely they release new models for the Harlequins.

 rollawaythestone wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Personally I'd love them to make an actual leader model rather than using the sergeants. If I remember right they have a High Avatar or something.

I would like this as well. A Great Harlequin model - however, its very very unlikely they release new models for the Harlequins.

Since people with the codex only leaked the info about the Aeldari webway portal, it's even less likely we'll see any other model.
A start collecting is still possible though.