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Had my first game last week in my local GW. Enjoyed it, despite being stomped by some Imperial Guard...

Mission was 'Recover Intelligence' but we deployed on the short table edge for ease (which I now wonder if that contributed in part to my crushing defeat. The objectives were closer together in my game than they otherwise would have been, perhaps nullifying the speed of the Harlequins and allowing the Guard to stick together instead of spreading more thinly). Any thoughts on this?

My opponent used Guard (9 guys, mostly walking around in groups of 3, 3 guys stayed on a home objective issuing commands, 3 guys rushed the centre objective with flamers, 3 guys kept back in the early game and took one of my home objectives on the final turn.

2 of my players (including my leader) went out of action on turn 1 to some crazy rolls and long range lasgun fire (but I guess that's how it goes sometimes!) which didn't help, but I felt completely outmanoeuvred the whole game, which I'm sure is just down to my being a novice player. On one of my turns, all my players were in combat, but the next turn he just fell back which meant I couldn't charge in to combat again (seems an unreasonable rule) and they just got completely shot up again. Any advice would be appreciated!

My list:

Leader:

Player with Blade and Shuriken Pistol

Zealot:

Player with Kiss and Shuriken Pistol

Combat:

Player with Kiss and Shuriken Pistol

Veteran:

Player with Kiss and Shuriken Pistol

Squad:

Player with Blade and Fusion Pistol
Player with Caress and Shuriken Pistol

1. Start the game with 3 guys 1" away from the enemy (veteran + forward scouts). - though sometimes you may not need to bother with this.
2. Stay out of LoS if you can't make it to combat.
3. Don't put all of your guys in combat in the same turn.
4. Win.

Guard is one of the harder matchups for harlies, they outnumber us and can drown us in dice in the shooting phase. If we don’t kill them on the charge we are often sitting ducks, and they can blob their special weapons in nameless meat shields.

A few tips for clowns:
As darkness eternal said, stay in cover unless you can make the charge. Always charge from out of LoS and move that way. With flip belts, this is fairly easy.
Second using your vet to advance and get up for a turn 1 charge against a key threat.

Fusion pistols are almost never worth it. The few times you will be shooting you always want to use a plasma grenade, and if you need to shoot more than once in shooting phase, shrunken pistols are fine. Neural disrupters are fun but not really competitive as harlequins should be fighting in melee and charging, not shooting.You rarely want to shoot pistols in combat and risk killing a model, leaving you open to enemy shooting. Only shoot in subsequent combats if there are multiple enemies or no fire that can return to you should you get the kill.

If somebody falls back, you can fall back 8” as well to out of LoS. If that is not an option, most enemies only fallback 6, which is plasma grenade time. A plasma grenade can normally end a flesh wounded GEQ, and is great for clustered enemies. If you have the command points, you can fire and fade your stranded clown to safety should you need to take the grenade throw in danger.

If charged, over watch grenade in range if you have not used this already. Things brave or stupid enough to charge harlequins are more dangerous than you.

Harlequins need upgraded weapons, blades just don’t kill. IMO the caress is never worth it, the embrace is cheaper and the extra ap rounds out the weaker strength. Kisses are great on zealots and combat specialists, but three is probably overkill. Better to have embraces on everyone vs a few kisses and stock blades.

All great advice, thanks!

I was not told about the 8" move after an enemy falls back... That may have contributed to my loss somewhat!

Yeah, your model started the turn within 1” of an enemy unit, meaning their only movement options are to remain stationary or fall back. Since fall back is up to your movement, you can move up to 8 and effectively ignoring terrain you can find safety. Also keep in mind falling back can be any direction. You can also get out of los from getting on top of terrain as well.