Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Eldar Harlequins (section)

===Melee Weapons===

*'''Harlequin's Blade''' It's a free CC weapon with no bonuses. Still does work against T3 if you're in a Troupe master's Aura. That said only take it if you don't have the points for any of the below:
*'''Harlequin's Embrace''' The cheapest non-basic melee option, costing 6 points. No longer causes Hammer of Wrath hits, instead, it's a +1S AP-3 close combat weapon. A weapon which is strong in the right circumstances but not always useful, this should be your backup choice for Troupes.
*'''Harlequin's Caress''' The middle child of the three primary Harlequin weapons, which costs 7 points and grants +2S and AP-2. While there are certain unit types against which it is the better choice (this is explored more below), it's true usefulness is the ability to be good to decent against almost everything while being equal to or better than the Embrace in almost all situations (t6/7 and t3 being the main times when it's not, but both weapons kill GEQ equally well and even with extra 'naked' bodies a squad with 8 of these can take out a leman russ in one turn about half of the time). This should be your default choice. 
*'''Harlequin's Kiss''' Only gives +1S and AP-1 but also packs d3 damage. As the codex equalized the price of Caress and Kiss, now you've got much more incentive to use the Kiss. Unfortunately d3 is generally worse than flat 2 damage and s4 can't damage a lot of vehicles so you're basically buying a shittier version of a Wych's shardnet.
*'''Miststave''' The special melee weapon for the Shadowseer, it hits hard with +2S, -1 AP and D1d3. While -1AP is poor, the Shadowseer's 3 attacks let it do a surprising amount of damage up close for a Psyker, and D3 damage gives it a chance to splat other HQs.
*'''Power Sword''' Only available to Troupe Masters and exactly like the regular Power Sword. Completely useless to Harlequins, who have the flat-out superior Embrace for two points more. Skip unless you're planning on taking the Power Sword relic.
*'''Zephyrglaive''' The melee option for Skyweavers, a +1S AP-2 weapon with 2 Damage. Combined with the extremely high speed of Skyweavers, it's a useful weapon for backfield assaults against 2W models, letting them quickly wipe out skulking units of Hellblasters and the like.

====Caress, Embrace or Kiss====

The Embrace works best against T3, T6, T7, and T10, while being somewhat equal to the Caress against T4. The high AP makes it better against high armour saves, but not invulnerable saves. Due to the Embrace working well against the most common infantry toughness (T3, and T4/2+, plus T4/3+ most of the time after taking cost into account), it is the default choice against most armies.

The Caress works better against T5, T8, and T9. It is better than the Embrace against T4 units with high invulnerable saves and/or only 4+ armour; it's also better against T4/3+, but does cost a point more, which has to be taken into account. It, therefore, tends to occupy a dual roll, being very good against elite armies such as Custodes, and spam armies such as Orks and Guard; however, the high AP of the Embrace might be preferable against some armies with a higher armour save.

The Kiss hits at the same strength as the Embrace, but at 2 ''worse'' AP and more damage (double against anything with 3 or more wounds), all for a point more, meaning it works well against multi-wound models with invulnerable saves, which pretty much relegates it to fighting characters. However, a below-average damage roll makes it worse than the Caress or the Embrace, against anything. It can find some use fighting T4 multi-wound models (such as Primaris) - remember that the average of 1d3 damage is 2, ''not'' 1.67; however, the lack of significant AP might hurt you in the long run. Put Kisses on models who will be character killing and leave it at that, though it now is actually a situational alternative to the Embrace and Caress.  If you can get yourself into range, Fusion Pistols are usually better damage dealers for the price, even given that they get 1/4 or worse the rate of fire as your close combat weapons, but that's a big if. 

Know what you're likely to be facing and build your Harlequins accordingly. Of course, this advice is worth sod all in a blind match-up, so take whichever weapon counters what you are most afraid of, and if you fight an army who the weapon is not designed for it is not a huge loss, as both weapons perform very closely to each other.  You can freely mix and match within a single unit - no target exists for which this is better than a loadout designed for that target, so this is inferior to specializing your units and sending them against the targets they're good against, but on the other hand, a mixed unit of Embraces and Caresses will do reasonably well against whatever your opponent throws at you.

* ALTERNATIVELY: I performed some math hammer, pitting Troupes against space marines, terminators, death guard, dg termies, ork boyz, wyches, and kabalite warriors. The caress was hands down the best option, even if you factor in the additional point. Point for point, the blade was best against wyches, and the embrace was best against kabalites, but other than that the caress is most effective AND most cost effective. The kiss was never the best weapon in any scenario, even against multi-wound terminators. The embrace came second overall.

* ADDITIONAL ALTERNATIVELY: The long section written above is pretty much just incorrect. I have no idea where they got their information. For a start the average of 1d3 against two wound models '''is''' 1.67, because it's impossible to do three damage to a two wound model, unless damage carries over (which it doesn't in almost all cases). Therefore your damage possibilities are 1, 2, or 2, resulting in an average of 1.67. Secondly most of the information in the long section about which weapon is most potent against certain targets is also wrong. 
(Just wanted to add that while this 1.67 number is correct for a single wound, the value drops when considering multiple wounds, which are likely when attacking with 4 troupes with kisses. The second wound does an average of 1.44 damage. This is the one third chances that the first wound didn't kill plus the two-thirds that it did kill times 1.67.)

Here are the average values per individual player:

*'''Versus Guardsmen''': both caresses and embraces do 1.78 wounds. The kiss is third with 1.48 wounds.
*'''Versus Bloodletters''': caresses, embraces, and kisses all draw with 1.19 wounds. 
*'''Versus Marines''': caresses do the most with 1.19 wounds. Embraces are second with 1.11.
*'''Versus Plaguebearers''': caresses and kisses both do 0.79 wounds. Embraces are third with 0.59.
*'''Versus Terminators''': caresses and embraces both do 0.89 wounds. Kisses are third with 0.74.
*'''Versus Bikers''': caresses win out with 0.89 wounds whilst embraces and kisses draw with 0.74.
*'''Versus Shield Captains''': embraces and kisses draw with 0.59. Caresses trail with 0.44.
*'''Versus Rhinos''': the kiss leads with 0.89, whilst the embrace is second with 0.74.
*'''Versus Knights''': the caress leads with 0.59, whilst the kiss follows with 0.44.

Caresses seem the most consistent. It's not always the best, but it is in most situations. 

When you factor in Choreographer of War the table changes significantly because the caress benefits less from rerolling wounds due to its higher strength value. This pushes the embrace and kiss up a little bit in comparison. 

Here are the average values per individual player if they're rerolling failed wounds:

*'''Versus Guardsmen''': both caresses and embraces do 2.37 wounds. The kiss is third with 1.98 wounds.
*'''Versus Bloodletters''': caresses, embraces, and kisses all draw with 1.58 wounds. 
*'''Versus Marines''': embraces lead with 1.67 wounds, caresses follow with 1.58.
*'''Versus Plaguebearers''': kisses lead with 1.19 wounds, the caress follows with 1.05.
*'''Versus Terminators''': the embrace leads with 1.33. The caress is second with 1.19
*'''Versus Bikers''': caresses win out with 1.33 wounds whilst embraces and kisses draw with 1.23.
*'''Versus Shield Captains''': embraces and kisses draw with 0.99. Caresses trail with 0.74.
*'''Versus Rhinos''': the kiss leads with 1.48, whilst the embrace is second with 1.23.
*'''Versus Knights''': the caress leads with 0.99, whilst the kiss follows with 0.81.

As you can see in some cases the kisses and embraces overtake the caress here. However the caress remains the second best option in almost all cases. It's much harder to make a decision about 'best' here because all of the weapons are good against different things.

*ULTIMATE ALTERNATIVELY
Ignore these ''fucking nerds'', math is ''boring''. Take whatever you think is coolest and have faith that you'll be rolling enough dice that things will work out regardless. Cegorach is the laughing god, not patron saint of calculators.