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Prelude

Hi there,

I've just started to throw myself back into the (UK) competitive scene. Following some success with an IG army in January 2019, I'm turning my attention to a very different army: Harlequins.

The list is below, followed by my tactical thoughts for the army.

I would appreciate any and all feedback

Army List

Battalion Detachment: Soaring Spite

Shadowseer: shuriken pistol, hallucinogen grenade launcher and miststave. Fog of dreams, veil of tears. [Warlord - Skystrider] *1
Shadowseer: shuriken pistol, hallucinogen grenade launcher and miststave. Twilight pathways, shards of light *2

Troupe (5): 3 fusion pistols, 5 caresses
Troupe (5): 3 fusion pistols, 5 caresses
Troupe (5): 3 fusion pistols, 5 caresses

Starweaver: 2 shuriken cannon
Starweaver: 2 shuriken cannon
Starweaver: 2 shuriken cannon

Solitaire *2

Skyweavers (6): haywire cannons, zephyrglaives *3
Skyweavers (6): haywire cannons, zephyrglaives *3

Auxiliary Support Detachment: Dreaming Shadow

Death Jester *2

Battalion Detachment: Alaitoc

Farseer: Doom and executioner *4
Warlock: Jinx/protect

Rangers (5) *5
Rangers (5) *5
Storm Guardians (8) *6

Total points = 1998
Total CP = 12


Tactics

Generally, the tactics for the army is to be hyper-mobile and play to the missions at all times. A handful of characters and Skyweavers, combined with the Starweaver-Troupes will give the illusion that I am attempting to fight my opponent, while the Rangers and Guardians quietly capture the objectives.

*1 This shadowseer will take The Suit of Hidden Knives when playing against armies with a serious close combat element. This relic, combined with the Shadowseer's psychic powers and a stratagem means that the unit fighting him will find themselves on a -3 to hit, with most of their failed attacks causing mortal wounds to themselves. The Shadowseer also has a Warlord Trait meaning that he can disembark after his transport has moved.

*2 These units are able to teleport anywhere on the board (further than 9" away from the enemy) using a stratagem as long as they are within 6" of one another. In games with Tactical Objectives it would
be my intention to keep these units reasonably close to one another so that they can move to wherever they are able to score the largest amount of points.

In games against Primaris opponents, I will likely take Cegorach's Rose on the Solitaire to increase his damage to 3.

In games against multiple light vehicles, I will likely take Curtainfall on the Death Jester which increases his weapon strength to 7. As he is part of Dreaming Shadow he has access to stratagems to further increase the strength and damage output of his gun.

*3 In some games, I will hold one unit in reserve with a stratagem in order to ensure that they are able to get at least one turn of shooting (for example, when going second against a gunline, with little LOS blocking terrain available). Otherwise these units will be instrumental in tying up high priority units (Knights, etc) in combat. Although the haywire cannons are able to destroy a Knight with some luck and Doom, I won't rely on this to happen immediately.

These units are also particularly effective against 2 wound models, such as Primaris or Shining Spears, as Zephyrglaives do 2 damage per swing.

*4 The Farseer is largely here to provide Doom, which boosts the Haywire Cannons from being 'a bit of fun' to a genuine threat to opposing vehicles. The Farseer also increases the mortal wound output of the army further, regardless of opponent.

*5 Rangers will mainly be held in reserve until I need them to hold an objective. In some cases I'm not intending to bring these onto the field until around Turn 4.

*6 This unit will be needed for holding my home objective. If this is particularly vital I can use the Guardian Shield stratagem to give them a 4++ (3++ if boosted with the Warlock).

Its a lot of spells. I see most elf lists taking all psychicer HQs and I wonder what you have against re-rolls of 1 to hit.

I don't like to rely on spells so heavily myself, when they fail you will be in rough shape, and when they all fail at once (which they will) you will be left hanging with your ass in the breeze.

(Besides she who thirsts waits for us in the warp.)

If 2x shadowsears means 2 shadowsears, i think you miscalculated your points.

I`m not tournament player, but your list have one big issue and its how you will handle the assassins, super aggressive armies and armies with a lot of shooting.

Hi Headlss and Marin,

Thank you for taking the time to post a reply to my army list, my answers to your queries are as follows:

Headlss

Honestly, I do kind of agree with you regarding the auras... sadly reroll hits auras aren't really a thing for Harlequins (save for a 2CP stratagem that you can apply to a Troupe Master who is otherwise not quite as nifty as a Shadowseer in my opinion). That said, in my Saim-Hann Eldar army I always run an Autarch for that tasty aura effect.

I've kind of learned to accept the risk of psychic powers; I have found that psykers appear to be out of fashion at the moment. As Eldar get a number of rerolls and bonuses available for their casting (Craftworlds detachment at least) I at least don't have to worry too much about failing all of them.

That said, I will definitely be careful not to over-rely on a single psychic power that "must go off or I lose the game".


Marin

Firstly, don't worry - the *2 is simply pointing you to the footnote in the tactics section relevant to the unit. All points are accurate at time of writing (beware Chapter Approved).

I am a little worried about Alpha Strike units, however I am relying on my opponent's lack of familiarity with Harlequins to play a part in me surviving deep strikers. That said, I have considered trying to find points for a Dark Reaper squad so that I can perform a "Forewarned Stratagem" interrupt against such units.

I'm not too worried about super-aggressive units in terms of close combat, I kind of want to be there so I feel that they're doing me a favour.

Shooting on the other hand is an unknown quantity. Harlequin models (particularly non-infantry) are oddly resilient due to their natural invulnerable saves and negatives to hit... but they are only six wounds apeice.



Once again, thank you for your comments. I look forward to any suggestions you have for remedying your areas of concern!

Well, assault is not really working in this edition.

Even if you get the charge, the opponent could change the order of the cc-hitting units by 2 CPs.
So if you charge with more than one unit in a turn, the enemy could hit the secondly hitting Harlies first.

The enemy could also withdraw from cc leaving your Harlies blank in the open.

Mr_Congeniality wrote:
Hi Headlss and Marin,

Thank you for taking the time to post a reply to my army list, my answers to your queries are as follows:

Headlss

Honestly, I do kind of agree with you regarding the auras... sadly reroll hits auras aren't really a thing for Harlequins (save for a 2CP stratagem that you can apply to a Troupe Master who is otherwise not quite as nifty as a Shadowseer in my opinion). That said, in my Saim-Hann Eldar army I always run an Autarch for that tasty aura effect.

I've kind of learned to accept the risk of psychic powers; I have found that psykers appear to be out of fashion at the moment. As Eldar get a number of rerolls and bonuses available for their casting (Craftworlds detachment at least) I at least don't have to worry too much about failing all of them.

That said, I will definitely be careful not to over-rely on a single psychic power that "must go off or I lose the game".


Marin

Firstly, don't worry - the *2 is simply pointing you to the footnote in the tactics section relevant to the unit. All points are accurate at time of writing (beware Chapter Approved).

I am a little worried about Alpha Strike units, however I am relying on my opponent's lack of familiarity with Harlequins to play a part in me surviving deep strikers. That said, I have considered trying to find points for a Dark Reaper squad so that I can perform a "Forewarned Stratagem" interrupt against such units.

I'm not too worried about super-aggressive units in terms of close combat, I kind of want to be there so I feel that they're doing me a favour.

Shooting on the other hand is an unknown quantity. Harlequin models (particularly non-infantry) are oddly resilient due to their natural invulnerable saves and negatives to hit... but they are only six wounds apeice.



Once again, thank you for your comments. I look forward to any suggestions you have for remedying your areas of concern!

I don`t think your list do anything really good and harlies have limited options, so you should not expect to do super good.
Assassins are real problem for your list, since you have like 6 characters and most of them are pretty easy targets.

If you are planning to be ITC player, maybe go pure Harlequins to try to get yourself on the board.
Than drop the CWE detachment and get pure harlies, troupe masters should be really good for the extra rerolls and that will probably help you more in most matches than the doom/jinx.
Especially since assassin can one shoot your 2 wound warlock and 7+d6 + 18 range is not really enough to get close enough.
Players forget that trouple without the weapoins is only 65 pts, even with aeldar blades that is still 20 attacks, with great harlequin you get rerolls on 1 to hit and that can really help you smash some horde armies and troupe is more mobile than rangers and storm guardians.

Led`s hope they will give something to harlies since they really need it.

Agree with the above poster about low wound characters now. Vindicare says no too easily now. I’d play eldrad over the farseer. Your harlequins will usually be closer anyways. He can operate in the middle if needed and has 6 wounds to help mitigate the snipers. Hope that helps!

Well, I wouldn't care too much about assassins. Only a few armies field them.
But assault with Harlies is not really working properly.
If you want Harlies, field a Ynnari army including Skyweavers and nothing else from the Harlie codex.

And just a thing to consider, the Death Jester would not be able to use strategems since it is an auxiliary detachment so I wouldn't go that route. This is something that I discovered during LVO and is not obvious unless you read everything in the codex! It's at the top of the strategems page.

 bullyboy wrote:
And just a thing to consider, the Death Jester would not be able to use strategems since it is an auxiliary detachment so I wouldn't go that route. This is something that I discovered during LVO and is not obvious unless you read everything in the codex! It's at the top of the strategems page.

No he will be able to use strategems, since he have harlequin detachments.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, I wouldn't care too much about assassins. Only a few armies field them.
But assault with Harlies is not really working properly.
If you want Harlies, field a Ynnari army including Skyweavers and nothing else from the Harlie codex.

Hmmm, most players are already buying or having one, so its optimistic and he want to play Harlie army not go Ynnari. Ynnari could be nerfed to the ground soon anyway.

Hmmm, most players are already buying or having one, so its optimistic and he want to play Harlie army not go Ynnari. Ynnari could be nerfed to the ground soon anyway.

Could be nerfed, but I guess it will not.
Harlies are a highly non-competitive army if played as stand alone.

Hi Guys,

A big thank you to everyone that has added to this thread! Since I last pitched in I've noticed that a couple of themes are coming up... my 2c as follows:

Assassins
Now, honestly, I have not seen very many of these played in local ITC tournaments (we have full access to each other's rosters a week before) and I also have not seen them being particularly popular among lists added to this forum - this particularly applies to the Vindicare, which is the one that I assume is being referred to as one poster was discussing the distance that my units could travel in order to engage the assassin.

Assuming however that the Vindicare is becoming more popular, as long as my Harlequin characters are near a Shadowseer they cannot be removed in one hit due to the Shield From Harm rule (-1 to wound rolls), as this prevents the Vindicare from rolling a 6 to wound to gain access to that D6 damage roll.

I am, however, considering finding the 8pts necessary to upgrade the Warlock to a Spiritseer. This would mean that my Runes of Battle caster would have an additional two wounds. I am also considering Eldrad, as he is just a far better caster to a standard Farseer.


Unit upgrades
I am really considering saving nearly 200pts by limiting upgrades across the list... what do you all think would be a worth addition if I were to do this?

Harlequins aren't competitive
Possibly. However, I do think that as the meta starts to move away from Imperial Soup (Astra Militarum have fallen down the list of most successful factions in competitive play this quarter) it is very likely that more fringe armies are going to find themselves rising in use. They have the tools to deal the damage, they just have to be blended appropriately with other Eldar to make up for their narrow unit selection.

Since you have twilight pathways already and are thinking of rejiging to gain 200 points, could you jump one unit of 5 up to a full unit of 12? If you get the spell off you would be can move 18-28 inches. Before you charge. I don't know how you'll keep them alive but you can hit somthing really hard.

As for competitive. Who knows. They are really hurtin' for toughness and staying power. You play enough games with people who know their buisness eventually you are going to get a bad break and just fold up like one of those spring loaded lawn chairs.

But while things are going your way you can put the hurt on just about anyone.

Eidt Midnight sorrow with a 6 inch consolidate (twice with the fight twice strategem) might help keep them alive. If you kill 2 units and tie up a 3rdhe just might not have that much left to shoot with.

1. Think about going pure at least in your first tournament. ITC best faction is still a thing.
2. Instead of Eldrad think about farseer on bike, its much faster and and similar durability. Maybe warlock on bike also, your army is mobile and the range of the spells are not so big so you can use the mobility for that snipe.
3. Maybe think about DE, they have couple of very tough units and can add extra meat to your list.