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Cegorach's Jest
-Troupe with all Caresses in Starweaver, Troupe Master with the Starmist Raiment (3++ save relic)
-Skyweaver Jetbikes x3 with Zephyrglaives
-Voidweaver with Prismatic Cannon

Cast of Players
-Troupe with 6 clowns, 2x Embraces, Embrace on the Master, with a dedicated Starweaver
-Death Jester stock
-Shadowseer stock

Heroes Path
-Solitaire Stock
-Death Jester Stock
-Shadowseer ML2 with Mask of Secrets

Dark Eldar CAD Detachment
-Archon with Armor of Misery, Haywire Grenades, Webway Portal
-5x Kabalites with Blaster in Venom
-5x Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Swapping transports with CoP formation)
-5x Scourges with 4x Haywire Blasters
-3x Reaver Jetbikes with Cluster Caltrops

Eldar Allied Detachment
-Autarch with Banshee Mask, Bike, and Shard of Anaris (Joining Skyweavers)
-6x Storm Guardians with 2x Fusion guns (Joined by Archon)

Opponent's list (Space Wolf Great...Company? Detachment)

Ironwolves Core
-Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Wolf Claws, Armor of Russ, Helm of Durfast
-Wolf Guard with 5x Combi-flamers and 1x Frost Axe in Rhino with free doodads
-Grey Hunters 10x with 2x Meltas in rhino with free doodads
-5x Blood Claws with Flamer with assault cannon razorback
-5x Blood Claws with Flamer with assault cannon razorback
-2x Long Fangs (1x Plasma Cannon)
-2 separate Land Speeders with MM/Heavy Flamer

Murderfang
-Murderfang

Dreadnought Ultrapals
-2x Wolf Claw/Plasma Cannon Dreads
-1x Shieldaxe McShieldaxe Vendread
-1x Iron Priest with Hammer and Freeze Ray (in transport with Wolf Guard)

Wulfen Murderclub
-2x Squads of Wulfen with 2x Axes 2x Hammer/Shields and Pack Leader with Claws, 1x Grenade Launcher in each group

Overall Strategy: My opponent's army detachment granted him one rule I was really worried about. He had the ability to immediately charge ME after I made an assault move into one of his units, with anyone else in range. That means if I sent my squishy space marine murdering clowns into some space marines, they may get a dreadnought doing a kool-aid man through the wall at them. If I charged my dreadnought killing clowns into the dreadnoughts, they might get a visit from some werewolves of fenris (heh, I'd like to meet their tailor).

My opponent got first turn, deploying pretty evenly, with most of his ranged stuff on the middle of the board or to my right flank, and his grey hunters with meltas and wolf guard scarygroup on my left with some wulfen.

I deployed all I could out of sight (knowing I was fast enough to hop in and do some shooting should he pick me having the first turn) and deployed my biggest melee threats against the right flank of blood claws supported by murderfang, and most of my shooting against the left flank where I hoped to take out some wulfen by weight of fire.

Space Wolf Turn 1: My opponent got 3 objectives he couldn't get (2 assault objectives and 1 Domination) so he focused on moving up and doing damage wherever he could. A razorback claimed first blood by popping my Heroes Path shadowseer, right through the 2+ cover save, but other than that, not a lot of damage went down, thanks to my opponent's relatively low ranged power and my fancy clown jinks.

Harlequin Turn 1: I got one achievable objective, along with Domination and an objective right next to the wolves I couldn't discard due to the mission (Spoils of War). The objective I could achieve, though, required me to take out a landspeeder currently sitting on it, and put myself dangerously close to the pack of wulfen on my left flank. Luckily the Death Jester got a lucky shot on the Wulfen, and they fled directly away from the fighting, letting my Reavers roll in with their cluster caltrops and knock the speeder out. On the other half of the board, the wulfen tank every wound from my troops, and my bikers wuss out on the turn 1 charge they could have taken against a unit of disembarked blood claws, which would have allowed Murderfang and the Wulfen to charge in after them. Finally, my anti-tank shooting went towards the Grey Hunters' Rhino, which had rushed forward, and I was able to knock that out and pin the passengers.

Score: SW 1 - HA 1

Space Wolf turn 2: My opponent had the objective card in front of me on lock, and he drew a second objective near me that was previously occupied by my shadowseer, but which was now vacant. In order to prevent me scoring it, a razorback turbo boosted for it (knowing I'd have bigger things to care about than a razorback this turn). the other razorback blew up the starweaver transporting my troupe master, slaying two troupers, but luckily the remaining three were out of harms' way from his ranged weaponry. The dreadnoughts' plasma cannons took 2 HP off the Raider, shaking and stunning it. Thanks to the Death Jester, everything was still out of assault range, but the wall of dreads and wulfen were now at the point where I couldn't not deal with them on my turn.

Harlequin Turn 2: I grabbed Psychological Warfare, an objective far in the backfield behind the left flank wulfen, and an objective the Blood Claws were sitting on. Only my Scourges came in from reserves this turn, despite the Autarch giving me a 2+ roll, but they rolled incredibly well and took out one of the backline dreadnoughts in the squadron. The voidweaver (I'm now committed to not complaining about it for at least a full game) scored a perfect hit on the pinned grey hunters and insta-gibbed all of them with AP3 wounds. The wulfen ate basically all the rest of my army's shooting, with one group losing both shieldbearers, and the other losing both shields and an axe. Then the great counterstrategy against the great company special charge rule was launched: Charge everything with everything all at once, so nothing can counter charge. My solitaire charged one squad of wulfen on the left flank, my Reavers charged the long fang duo, my caress troupe charged murderfang, my bikes charged the center board squad of wulfen. Both the disembarked blood claws and the two remaining dreads in the squadron failed their charges to join combat.

the solitaire killed the wulfen pack leader, and took 2 wounds from their attacks in combat, hit and running out to secure the backfield objective. The reavers killed the long fangs with their super hammer of wrath attacks. Murderfang got sensually caressed to death. The other squad of Wulfen was killed except for the pack leader, and took two skyweaver bikes down with them. The skyweavers stayed in combat to force the dreads to charge in and deal with them (I figured they could take down the last wulfen in cc before they went). I did not get Psychological Warfare, but I hung on to it because my Death Jesters were both still alive and the night was young.

Score: SW 3 - HA 2

Space Wolf Turn 3: My opponent drew Linebreaker, and still had to kill a unit in melee and issue a challenge, both of which he could do this turn. My opponent's remaining left flank wulfen charged hard into my backfield, blowing up the voidweaver after it butchered his buddies. The two squadron dreads charged into the bikes, and with the remaining wulfen killed the autarch and his last buddy (though they took the wulfen down on their way out). The two razorbacks ran around wreaking havoc, tank shocking my troupe master and his crew while the other turbo boosted for linebreaker. The Scourges got heavy flamed and melta'd by the landspeeder running around scoring my opponent's backfield objectives, and the blood claws hopped out to try and flame and pistol my troupe master, causing one wound but not getting through the 3++ raiment save. They did, however, take out two harlequins from the Raider beind them thanks to No Escape.


Harlequin Turn 3: I drew Assassinate, secure an objective right in my backfield, and still had psychological warfare. My melta group webwayed in, cracked the remaining plasma dread and knocked the axe dread down to one hull point, but the explosion killed 3 of them. Right off the bat, the Death Jesters proved worthy of my trust, as I knocked the flamer out of the blood claw unit that had been attacking my troupe master and sent them fleeing right onto the objective I had to secure. I figured my troupe who had been just chilling in the raider all game would have no trouble finishing off three guys, and that also made sense for the Death Jester's brand of humor to put them exactly where they needed to be, then get them killed. The troupe master and his two buddies lined up to charge and try to finish off the axe dread, and on my left flank everything converged on the Wolf Guard's rhino, knocking it out and letting me charge the occupants with the solitaire and Reavers. They died, but not before they burned all the combi-flamers, took out the wolf guard pack leader, 1 other wolf guard, and the Iron Priest. With the Venerable Dread, I got 2 points for Assassinate, 1 for Psychological warfare, and 1 for securing the objective near me.

Score: SW 6 - HA 6

Space Wolf Turn 4: My opponent draws a secure objective card of the objective right near me, and another next to my death jester in the building. Knowing we'd have to pack up soon, we decided to just try and secure as many points as possible and call the game at turn 4. my opponent's razorbacks converge to try and slay the warlord, but thanks to his 3++ save, going to ground in cover and look out sir, he survives with his one wound thanks to his two comrades' brave sacrifice. The land speeder heavy flames the remaining scourge and the melta drop group, killing the scourge and leaving the archon with 1 wound and a single fusion gunner, funnily enough the same pair who were left alive in one of my previous games to go on a rampage and kill many times their points worth of enemy models. The legend of Storm and Misery continues! My opponent grabs one objective point, and 1 point for the linebreaker card.

Harlequin turn 4: I draw Hold the Line and Big Game Hunter, so everything I have converges on Skippy the Unluckiest Razorback (the one scoring linebreaker) to get me 2 points. Skippy doesn't make it. Everything else tries and fails to kill my opponent's battle leader, but I was able to get the Linebreaker secondary objective by turbo boost, so I ended the game 1 point ahead.

Final Score: SW 8 - HA 9

Although I was 1 point ahead, anything could have happened in the following turn or turns, and my opponent pretty much had slay the warlord no problem along with one card I'd drawn that he could secure. I feel it's better to call this one a tie, since it had been pretty much deadlocked the whole game.

Postgame analysis:

The Great Company detachment is really quite good and, in my opinion, quite fluffy for the Space Wolves' "Counter-attack" theme. The counter assault rule was a major consideration, and forced my hand in several different assault situations. I'm trying to find some flexibility in my Harlequins, and I've long since stopped caring about detachment limits, particularly since most "single detachment" armies these days consist of at least 3-4 formations. My hope is that at some point tournaments will start to realize they're doing nothing but preventing people from bringing their "have-not" armies with poor codexes to the table. I think the combination of the combination of Heroes Path, Cast of Players and Cegorach's jest is a pretty solid core that let me cut one troupe and one bike squad from my masque so I could bring a few more toys with my Dark Eldar. I think working around this theme of a core of harlequins with supplemental Eldar and DE has almost infinite potential for variation, and I love how they stack up against high level lists from other races. I have almost nothing but great, close games and like this army gameplay wise like no other.

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