Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Eldar Harlequins

Eldar Harlequins are coming back as an army in their own right with their own Codex, preview rules for many of their units can be found in white dwarf issues.

Why Play a Harlequin Army

If you're an Eldar player for any stretch of time, you'll probably have the models. The previous Craftworld & Dark Eldar codex forced you to choose between Harlequins in Elites, of other units such as Incubi, Banshees, Trueborn, or Fire Dragons, so it became a difficult choice to take the jack-of-all-trades clowns over another unit with a more specialist role.

Now you can take an entire army of the psychedelic laughing trolls as its own force, or as an allied force to one of your own detachments.

Special Rules

Warlord Traits

Like the Inquisition codex, the Harlequins have their warlord traits broken up into several sub sections, the first three traits are generic while the remaining three depend upon your Troupe Leader's choice of Light/Dark/Twilight. Note that if you want a Death Jester or Shadowseer as your warlord, you may only roll a D3 (therefore excluding you from the three tables, but also drastically increasing the reliability with which you can predict what your warlord trait will be), but you can always roll on the BRB warlord traits if you want something else.

1. - Re-roll 1s to-hit and saving throws of 1

2. - Warlord receives a 4+ invulnerable

3. - Warlord and his/her unit may add 1" to any form of movement (move, run, charge, consolidate, fall back, etc)

Light

4. - Add FOUR to seize the initiative attempts

5. - Before deployment, D3 units can Deep Strike, Scout or Infiltrate (your choice, in any combination)

6. - After deployment and after scout moves, you may remove the Warlord and D3 units of your choice and put them into reserves.

Twilight

4. - You may add or subtract 2 from game end rolls if you want the game to go on a little longer or end sooner.

5. – Any to-wound roll in close combat of a six has instant death (Kisses on 5+ )

6. – Once per game instead of moving, the warlord and his unit may “leap” 24” in any direction, ignoring any intervening models or terrain, but cannot charge that turn

Darkness

4. - enemy units in base contact with the warlord's unit roll an additional D6 when taking Fear or Morale checks, and take the worst.

5. - At the end of the game, but before the winner is declared, the Warlord and his unit get one EXTRA turn exclusively to them, so they can move, shoot and assault as normal, or fight on if already engaged.

6. - If your warlord ever gets killed in a challenge, roll off with your opponent, if you win or tie, the enemy warlord (weather he killed your warlord or not) gets removed as a casualty as well (ie: no saves or comebacks)

New Psychic Discipline: Phantasmancy

Primaris. Veil of Tears - Warp Charge 1. You know it. You love it. You swear by it. Anyone who tries shooting at your psyker's squad has to roll 2d6x2. If they're not within a distance equal to the result, you won't get hit. Would be great if shadowseers could take jetbikes, but it's better than Night Fighting twice over (better range reduction and ignores Night Vision).

1. Dance of Shadows - Warp Charge 1. Grants Stealth & Shrouded to a unit within 18". It is better than Conceal because it can affect a target other than the Psyker; this becomes very impressive on allied Dark Eldar units (like Wyches) who are generally quite fragile anyway and need some protection against shooting. Cast this on a Venom for 2+ cover jink save, that lets you charge.
2. Peal of Discord - Warp Charge 1. A 9" nova that brings 2d6 S4 AP- Concussive hits. It seems to be good for keeping mobs at bay as prep for a charge.
   • Alternate Opinion: This one is pure, undiluted shit, since Concussive only takes effect on models that took damage from it. Most models have only one Wound to start with and most that have more won't give a shit about a couple S4 hits with no AP. And even if you use it simply for hurting hordes, just about every other Nova in the game does the job better.
     • Opinion the Third: While the attack seems small, it does auto hit all models within 9", and drops 2-12 hits on Each. while you won't wound with all those hits, think of all those saves you force on an enemy, and most enemies only need to roll a single 1 to be taken out. could technically kill air units as well, assuming s4 can glance / wound them.
3. Shards of Light - Warp Charge 1. 3d6 S3 AP- witchfire shots at 24" with Blind. Not fantastic since many armies have high enough stats to both tank the shots and pass the blind test, but very good for distracting Tau, Orks, or Necrons with low Initiative scores and foiling their plans to shoot or assault. Necrons in particular will hate you for this power, particularly everything with a Tesla weapon.
4. Fog of Dreams - Warp Charge 2. Forces a unit within 24" to only fire snap-shots and only hit in combat on a 6. Not quite as awesome as the Veil, but this one's useful for combat too, and unlike Shards of Light, it's a Malediction so you don't need to roll for it to hit them or worry about them passing the blind test. Causes a rules paradox when cast on Kharn.
5. Laugh of Sorrows - Warp Charge 2. A witchfire (range 24) with two ways to screw the enemy over - after hitting the target as normal, they must roll two separate Leadership tests. If the first one fails, they take a wound for every point they fail it by; if they pass the second one, they take a wound for every point they pass it on; in both cases, no armor or cover saves allowed. Quite frankly, this is very capable of being the most trolltastic power ever because it'll have a way to wound literally any enemy who can't deny it or get lucky with leadership tests, since high or low, your opponent's leadership values will catch him out. Remember, invulnerable saves and feel no pain both work against it.
6. Mirror of Minds - Warp Charge 2. Another violently trolltastic power; this one is a focused witchfire (range 24), but remember, 3 dice to cast means double sixes 8.33% of the time. After hitting, you and the enemy model (not unit) each roll a d6 and add your Leadership to the result; if you win or draw, they take a wound with no armor or cover saves allowed; they win and it's over. Sounds like Purge Soul from Sanctic, right? Well, it isn't; you get to do it again and again for each win you take until your enemy either wins or dies.

• Combo this with the Mask of Secrets and go hunting Monstrous Creatures.

Harlequin Masque Detachment

The Harlequins, of course, have their own detachment, which is probably for the best since they don't have any HQ choices to fill minimum slots for any other Battle-Forged FOCs.

The Masque requires 3 Troops, 2 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support as Compulsory choices (and no more of these types) and up to seven optional Elite slots for characters. You can now stock up on all your Phantasmancy powers.

For this, you get the mandatory WT re-roll and all Fleet units can run and assault within the same turn at turn 2. You are effectively the best assault army out there now.

Wargear

• Harlequin's Kiss - Done a little differently now, you roll one attack separately which is resolved at S6 AP2, and any 6s to-wound on this attack have Instant Death.
• Harlequin's Caress - A power glove that does the old job of the Kiss, grants auto-wounding/glancing AP2 melee attacks on 6s to-hit. This synergizes well with your Troupe Master who has an extra attack and thus more chances to benefit.
• Harlequin's Embrace - D3 Hammer of Wrath attacks at S6. This combined with Hit and Run makes for some devastating charges.
  • Analysis - Going against hordes? Take Embraces for around 6 hits per model on the charge - just remember that it's the worst of the three when NOT charging. Going against MEQ, TEQ, Armor? Take Caresses for that sweet sweet AP2 better-than-rending. Going against lots of Monstrous Creatures? Kisses are your best friend. In all reality a good mix is a good way to go (not to mention the box only comes with 2 Caresses and 2 Embraces). Kisses are probably the most situational and arguably worst of the three, although an S6 AP2 attack isn't anything to sniff at; the Caress is the most versatile.
  • Modeling Note - Need more Caresses? Yank the needle off of a Harlequin's Kiss and add a bit of green stuff. Boom. Done.

• Neuro Disruptor - AP2 Fleshbane pistol means people are going to die, especially when each player in a troupe can carry one; it costs a fair bit, but is still cheaper (and safer) than a plasma pistol in most other armies, although the plastic kit apparently only comes with the option for two.
• Fusion Pistol - More expensive and shorter ranged, but good against vehicles. This has always been around Harlequins, and not much has changed with this weapon. Only take if you have no other means of tank-hunting. One thing to note - the melta range is 3" which is TERRIBLE if you cause a vehicle to explode in your T3 face. Great. You killed a vehicle. It exploded and killed three of your guys. The inhabitants of that vehicle shoot the rest of your guys to death. Get your anti tank from allies, skyweavers, or voidweaver, and give this a pass.

• Hallucinogen Grenade Launcher - Is this...some apology for how crap the Dark Eldar grenades were? Well, here's the lowdown: If a unit's hit by it, they have to test for pinning. If they fail pining, they not only get pinned, but they also take a randomly assigned unsavable wound. Works amazingly with Mask of Secrets and the CW Eldar Hemlock for canceling out overwatch.

• Holofields - Now they do give a basic 5+ Invul. What this means for the Craftworlders, only GW knows...
• Mirage Launcher - For one turn, you get to up a vehicle's Invul to a 4+. Considering that they're all about as strong as paper-mache, it's a good thing they're here.

Enigmas of the Black Library

• Crescendo - Troupe Master and Shadowseer only. A Shuriken Pistol that can fire as many times as a model has attacks. Cheap, and baller ability thanks to how many chances you get to use Bladestorm.
• Cegorach's Rose - A master-crafted Harlequin's Kiss with Shred for a Solitaire or Troupe Master. Pretty useful.
  • While it may seem that this weapon is great for your Solitaire, never give it to him. Sure, that one S6 attack is hell on wheels thanks to it, but the Shred does not confer to the Rending attacks the Harlequin's Caress gives you.
• Mask of Secrets - Grants a Shadowseer Fearless and enemies within 12" take -2 Leadership, which melds well with their innate Fear. Good with Mirror of Minds, but be careful with Laugh of Sorrows - for example, against an LD 10 unit, this will reduce their average number of wounds.
  • Since you can roll your Powers off of Telepathy, you can combo this one wonderfully with Psychic Scream. Ld test on 3D6 with a -2 penalty, taking Wounds that allow no Armour or Cover for the difference? Yes please.
• Laughing God's Eye - Friendlies within 12" have Adamantium Will. It's handy to throw on a Shadowseer for bonus denying power.
• Starmist Raiment - Expensive, but it grants the user 3+ cover Invulnerable when you run until its next shooting phase. That's a good distraction if you know how to kite. There's also a Formation that, starting from Turn 2, lets you run and then assault, which makes you extremely hard to hurt on the turn you charge.
• Storied Sword - Master-crafted frost sword apparently stolen from the Space Wolves (S+1, AP 3). Quite sadly, it's wayyyyy too expensive to justify. Also, only Troupe Masters can take it. Better off with a Caress or a Kiss or even Cegorach's Rose.

Army List

The army list is -expectedly- not very large, and mostly contains a single unit per slot.

Troops

Harlequin Troupe - A change up from what it used to be in the Craftworld codex, they now come in squads of 5-12 and the Troupe Master got a welcome boost of +1 WS, W & I turning him into a viable army warlord in his own right who can take from the relics list, he can also take a power sword, but you're probably better served giving him a kiss or caress to help him chew up 2+ save characters in challenges. The rest of the unit is customisable as you would like, with any model being able to take any harlequin item combination.

Dedicated Transport

Starweaver - Essentially a redone Venom, it has two Shuriken Cannons and can carry up to 6 clowns in here (sadly, no clown car physics are in effect). Being Open-Topped with AV 10 and 2 Hull Points, it's going to crumble at so much as a glance and flamers will incinerate its passengers, but it does have that 4++ for a turn and their basic Holofields. It also has Fear, which is kinda funny considering its frailty. If you're familiar with Venoms, the same rules apply - Alpha strike with the forces inside, if you have a Shadowseer here, use a good defensive power to make sure they live You can only cast Witchfires from inside a Transport, so you can't cast defensive powers from inside a Starweaver. Wah-wah.

Elite

Solitaire - A guy who's been out of the game since the second edition (except for that house-rule codex GW released), and he's making up for lost time. A WS9, I10, A6, 3++, eternal warrior melee beast that is going to lay the pain on his opponents with his Kiss & Caress. Once per game he can "Blitz" which is rolling a number of dice equal to the turn number and moving that distance instead of the 12" he normally gets and does it over other models and terrain. The boost for doing this is bumping his attacks value to 10 in the following assault phase (basically 12 attacks once you count the charge and the 2CCW bonus). He's very fragile though despite being Eternal Warrior, since he has only T3 and is forced to go solo; he'll end up getting brought down by a turn of lasgun fire if you keep him within range of the enemy guns, so use that 12" of movement to keep him away from rapid fire ranges and out of sight until you need him to tear up a unit in melee.

• The Solitaire has both the Kiss & Caress in melee (on top of whichever Enigmas he takes) meaning that one of his attacks will always be S6 AP2, while the rest of his considerable number of attacks have that chance of rending as normal.

Shadowseer - Returning with a power boost, they have tried to turn the Shadowseer into a close combat machine; they now have WS6, I7, A3, 2 Wounds, and an S+2 Fleshbane/Concussive Miststave which cannot be changed out for another weapon. Unfortunately their BS is still four so they're not as accurate as they could be with those witchfires. Can now be upgraded to ML2 and take powers from Telepathy, Sanctic, and the new Phantasmancy discipline. Since you can have up to seven Seers in a single Masque, you can afford to mix it up a bit.

• While at first it may sound counter-intuitive to generate his powers from Sanctic Daemonology, what with the Perils on any doubles and all, consider the following: What's the biggest problem Harlequins face? They're squishy. But if you manage to get Sanctuary, you have a 4++ with rerolls on 1 in a certain formation, which is certainly better than Veil of Tears will be under normal circumstances. If you get Purging Flames, they have a surprisingly strong Witchfire that, if necessary, can also be used to hurt Fliers that aren't AV12.

Death Jester - Also received a promotion, but unlike the Shadowseer gets WS/BS5. His Shrieker cannon still does its thing of exploding the dude who gets killed by it and showering his mates in deadly gore. But he has an awesome new rule called "Death is not Enough" which forces enemies who suffer at least one wound from his shooting to take a morale check, exactly as if they had suffered 25% losses, AND they take it at -2 Ld. If they fail, the player who owns the Death Jester may choose the direction they fall back to (at least for the first fall back move, they continue to fall back as normal in following turns). He also got precision shots for additional awesomeness! Keep in mind that his weapon is only AP5, and that his entire kit revolves around that one shot a turn. Don't waste it shooting at anything with an armor save.

• Do keep in mind that the Death Jester can, in fact, fire his weapon as a normal Shuriken Cannon, so if you're sure that one shot won't do the trick, you always have that same awesome 3-shot pseudo-rending cannon your Craftworld cousins enjoy so much.

Fast Attack

Skyweaver Squad - Two-person jetbikes but nothing like a Vyper, you get 2-6 in a unit with a Shuriken Cannon each. They are expensive, but you get two wounds a piece and the ability to make their 4+ save invulnerable for a single turn (but they have 5++ the rest of the time as well) They get an item called "Star-Bolas" which is a one use S6 AP2 grenade, but you can exchange this for a Zephyrglaive which is an objectively better close combat item, giving them S+1 (S+2 with furious charge) AP2 on the charge and then counts as a power sword after that, this unit gets Hit & Run so you want them bouncing in and out of combat like proper Harlequins and peppering them with rending ninja stars over and over.

Heavy Support

Voidweaver - the other option in the Starweaver dual kit, this vehicle fills several artillery based roles, since it can purchase a Prismatic Cannon, which is so versatile and can Lance apart enemy vehicles (but only at S7 though, meaning it can glance a Land Raider on 5, Pen on 6), knock chunks out of MEQ with an AP3 small blast, or blow hordes up with an AP4 large blast. It also has two Shuriken Cannons just like the Starweaver, but the second rear-facing gun may select a different target but only in the rear facing. The stock Haywire cannon is kinda forgettable, though. It's an S4 AP4 Blast with Haywire, and that's all it can be.

Formations

• 3 Troupes, 3 Shadowseers, 3 Death Jesters, 1 Solitaire, 2 units of Skyweavers, 1 Unit of Voidweavers. Beginning on turn two your fleet units can run and assault in the same turn, you get to re-roll 1s on your invuls, and if your Warlord is a part of the detachment he gets to re-roll his WT. This is awesome and lets you go unbound. You get a warlord trait re-roll and the majority of your army has some amazing special rules. Just take some unbound allied tank hunting units and go to town (CWE - Dragons in Wave Serpents / DE - Scourges w/ Haywire Blasters).

• 3 Troupes ride in Starweavers and join a Voidweaver and two Skyweaver packs. For this, the Troupe Master gets a WT re-roll if he's Warlord and if you use Hit & Run or consolidate, you can use the move to embark on your Starweaver so long as you get within 2" of them. This gives you some great protection against shooting and counter charges.
  • Do not actually expect your Starweavers to survive long enough to be able to take advantage of this, but you look like a pro if you pull it off.
  • It does allow you to leave combat after your initial charge combat on your turn, as a jinking AV10 transport is infinitely better than being caught up by shooting with only a 5++ to save you.

• A Death Jester and Shadowseer permanently join a Troupe. For this, you get Crusader and you can share this with all allied Elder/Dark Eldar within 6".
  • A quick and dirty way to get a few clowns into your Eldar/Dark Eldar army. Unfortunately, Troupe + Seer + Jester means at least 7 models, so no Starweavers for them, and honestly - crusader isn't really that great in a unit that already has fleet and should be in transports anyways.
    • This formation was clearly designed for any Eldar/Dark Eldar players who have a Harlequins unit lying around.

• A Troupe takes a Skyweaver and Voidweaver for Craftworld Cheese. After turn 2, your fleet units can now run and assault in the same turn.

• One Death Jester, One Shadowseer and One Solitaire - Each become their own individual unit which can't be joined. For this, you get Infiltrate, Shrouded, and Stealth. You now have an easy way to deliver the Solitaire to anything he wants to murderize, an awesome save for a Deathjester in cover, and a bullet magnet of a Shadowseer.

• Two packs of Skyweavers and one Voidweaver. A cheap way for some mobile firepower, and they can re-roll Jinks.
  • Finds a great place in a jetbike-heavy Eldar list, since they can hide between all your other bikes while providing CC-threats and fire support, respectively.

The Great Troupe (Warzone: Valedor): get 3+ units of Harlequins together and 3+ Dark Eldar Venoms OR Eldar Vypers (You can also take Starweavers too, since they are dedicated transports) and you've got an apocalypse formation that grants all of the Harlequins Crusader (so you can run even further and chase them down), Deep Strike, Preferred Enemy (Chaos) and ALL of their ranged weapons gain the Blind & Concussive qualities and if a unit fails their blind check on a roll of a six, they become "confused" and treat all of their melee weapons as Unwieldy for the rest of the game. As an added bonus to this already impressive formation one of your Troupe Masters becomes a Troupe Leader and gets the profile of a Phoenix Lord -1 S/T, badass.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Dark Eldar: The Harlequins are a lot like the Dark Eldar, except with a little more staying power. The new Phantasmancy has some neat tricks to help the DE, such as Stealth and Shrouded giving some nice cover to some vulnerable units *cough*Wyches*cough*. Use the Harlequins the same way as your own units. Mask of Secrets and Armour of Misery will stack for a potential -4LD. If you manage to strangle some unit between the Armour and Mask, you can fuck them over even harder with a Death Jester and start drinking that jug of tears. Guess what Harlies lack? Anti-armor. Guess what Dark Eldar have? Boatloads of anti-armor. Scourges can glance vehicles to death in an instant, Ravagers can make short work of heavily armored vehicles, Razorwings can provide anti air and horde control. Reaver jetbikes with heat lances and cluster caltrops can peel open transports like oranges and are still useful when your units are engaged on combat as they can charge in like madmen.

• Eldar: Freeing yourself from the Craftworlders gives them a whole new dimension of maneuverability. Your general role should be running distraction with your Hit & Run while the Eldar get to be the gunline. Notable tricks involve grouping a Death Jester with some Dark Reapers or Guardians in Rapid-Fire range for Bladestorming cheese or putting a Shadowseer with Banshees so they can finally get something to protect them for delivery. The Hemlock synergizes well with Shadowseers with their pinning weapons and Mask of Secrets.

Tactics

Troupe Unit Composition - Troupes are great hard hitting infantry units that can be kitted to be excellent at killing anything they specialize against. The problem you are faced with is what you add to the unit. Shadowseers are a safe bet as they give you psyker access (though honestly CWE psykers are far better) and hit like bricks in CC. However, while Phantasmancy looks promising on paper remember - you will not be footslogging a unit of incredibly expensive Troupes across the map which means that that Shadowseer will be in a transport, which in turn means that it can only cast Witchfire attacks while embarked. This means that Telepathy is the way to go as by the time you disembark the Phantasmancy primaris power will be useless. Deathjesters have potential against hordes and anything with 5+ armor, but really suffer from one weapon syndrome. If you take them put them in units of scouts or as snipers and take potshots at hordes. Allies offer some interesting synergy. A DE Succubus w/ Armor of Misery to lower enemy leadership by an additional -2, stacking with the Harlequin Mask (-2), and a Deathjester make for some utterly hilarious horde killing.

Troupe Size - A Troupe of 5 with a Shadowseer and a mix of caresses and embraces will kill most of a 10 man unit of Tactical Marines. This is good. You do not want to kill the entire group because then you are open to shooting, the largest weakness of the Harlies - bullets. You want to stay in combat until the end of their combat, so you can hit and run your way out of them and charge again on your turn, proccing furious charge and your extra attack on the charge. A unit of ten has potential in a Raider, but only if thrown at something that has a lot of staying power. You do not want to let a lot of attacks come back at you, which makes the number of troupes you bring to a fight an interesting mathematical dilemma.

FOC Shenanigans and Army Balance - If you want to take a Bound army you are sadly, incredibly limited in what you have to take due to the lack of an HQ choice. Luckily there are a few good formations to choose from, and the Masque itself isn't half bad. The problem you are faced with is Anti-Armor/Air. Voidweavers and Skyweavers have potential, but if your Harlequins are going to get anything done by charging into that unit of Space Marines, the transport they are in had better be dead before they get there. This means you need a way to consistently murder the hell out of a choice few vehicles on turns one and two. Harlies don't have a way to do this. Your best bet is to take an allied detachment to cover their weaknesses. Dark Eldar offers Realspace Raiders for Scourge and Ravager spam, as well as Raiders for those big meaty units of Players. Eldar offers shenanigans for days, strong Psykers, and Wraithknights.

Mono Harlequin Army Tactics - Really? You sure you want to do this? Alright, fine. Do stupid things you stupid person. Ok so - Basic concept goes like this - throw units of 5/6 Harlies in Starweavers with the occasional Shadowseer. Bring a Mask of Secrets on a Seer and take potshots with Death Jesters. Caresses are great because they are versatile and can glance vehicles to death, something you lack in spades. Voidweavers have meh but versatile damage, but you need them to take on armor, as the only other options are bikes with haywire cannons, and because their primary defense is jinking, well, at least you have pretty models and a free turn of 4++. The formation that gives you a reroll on your invulnerable saves is gold, as every unit in your army has one. Your next choice is taking formations and wargear to full the remainder of your points. Good night and good luck you magnificent psychotic clown faced bastard.