Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Eldar Harlequins (section)

==Unit Analysis==

===HQs===
*'''Troupe Master:''' No longer a squad sergeant as he was prior to 8th, but a full-fledged HQ, allowing you to fill out Detachments. Is reasonably cheap at just 75 Points barebones, and comes packing 6 attacks hitting on a 2+ with a basic blade and shuriken pistol at stock. Though you don't want to leave him like this. Upgrading him with relics and other wargear and buffs will turn this guy into an absolute monster in melee. He also has a buff aura, granting friendly {{W40Kkeyword|Harlequins Core}} units within 6" re-roll 1s to wound. This is an extremely powerful buff to your Harlequins and should be leveraged as much as possible by keeping multiple units within the aura (remember that only one model needs to be within 6" for the whole unit to benefit). Ideally, a Troupe Master should be nearby whenever you get your clowns into a charge. He can spar with enemy HQs using a harlequin weapon (as the Kiss, Caress and Embrace are all effectively the same bar stratagems), or help a Troupe hack through enemy squads just as well. 
**'''Pivotal Roles:''' As of 9th edition, you now have to spend points for one of these boosts, but you're not sacrificing your buff aura, making for a better trade.
**:<tabs><tab name="Prince of Light"> +1 to charges for {{W40Kkeyword|<Saedath> Core}} units within 6”. Probably not a good idea to take this with Player of the Light, even with the free extra inch. Harlequins are already fast as fuck and can basically guarantee charges in the move phase as is. Alternatively: If you really want to charge out of deep strike, this would definitely help. You're only going to have a 27.8% chance normally, increasing to a 47.9% chance if you re-roll the charge. If you slap a +1 on top, your chance to make the charge jumps up to 66%. Now, it's probably wise NOT to do this since you've got a 1/3 chance to waste 3CP; however, blitzing into the material plane just to beat the crap out of something is sooooo much cooler than beating stuff up normally.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Queen of Shards">The troupe master's melee attacks ignore invulnerable saves on a 5+ to wound. While terminators won't give too much of a damn by having a 2+ save to fall back on, this can be more damaging against units like daemons or Wyches, where they need that Invuln to survive.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Veiled King">For every melee attack against a unit that is not a {{W40Kkeyword|MONSTER}} or {{W40Kkeyword|VEHICLE}}, an unmodified wound roll of 2+ is always successful. With this no longer replacing anything, the value of this has gone up a good degree - after all, you're not getting that re-roll anyway because of the re-writes to auras. If you're not expecting to find many invulnerable saves, you can slap this on to ignore any issues with high-Toughness enemies.</tab><!--
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*'''Shadowseer:''' The Shadowseer clocks in at 100 points. Possessing the ability to cast two spells in the Psychic phase, a decent melee presence with 4 S6 AP-1 D1d3 attacks, and especially the Shield from Harm ability. The defensive counterpart to the Troupe Master's Choreographer of War, it means your opponent must subtract 1 to wound rolls against friendly {{W40Kkeyword|Harlequins Core}} or {{W40Kkeyword|Harlequins Character}} units within 6" of the Shadowseer. This is a potent defensive bonus and one of the few defenses you have available, and much like the Troupe Master's bonus should also be extended to as many units as possible at once. The sheer joy of seeing weapons have to wound your squishy, squishy clowns on a 5+ cannot be overstated. Shadowseers are too expensive to spam, but at least one is practically mandatory for any list, and two can be somewhat affordable.
**Neuro Disruptors can be taken for 5 points, and may be worth consideration against higher leadership units, where the nearly guaranteed mortal wound will at least hurt. Against guardsmen, though, you're better off firing grenades into 'em.
**'''Pivotal Roles:''' As of 9th edition, you now have to spend points for one of these boosts, but you're not sacrificing your buff aura, making for a better trade.
**:<tabs><tab name="Agent of Pandemonium"> -1A to every model in every enemy unit within 6” of this model. Far improved from the version that came out in Psychic Awakening, as it'll now affect the whole unit, rather than just individual models. Though this is per model, so against larger groups it can shave off a pretty big chunk of their threat alongside the basic defense aura. Works best on stuff that has an attack characteristic of 2, effectively halving their output.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Gloom Spider"> Mark one enemy unit within 12" of the Shadowseer - its buff auras are shut down. Stacking buff auras are a big part of the game this edition, so being able to shut one down can prove disastrous to the enemy, especially if it's something big like re-rolling to hit or the unit in question puts out multiple auras.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Mirror Architect">Friendly {{W40Kkeyword|<Saedath> Core}} units within 6” of this model counts as being an additional 6” away when shot at. Foils Rapid-Fire cheesing, prevents flamers from doing anything during overwatch. <s>While the Q2 2022 Dataslate nerfed this to only work on one unit each turn, it's still a pretty decent buff.</s> It's back again! However it's also 60 fucking points rather than 25.</tab><!--
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===Troops===

*'''Troupe:''' '''CORE''' Oh BOY shit has been shaken up for these guys. GW in all their retarded wisdom has decided to make it so you can only have each squad take what's actually in the box. No more fusion pistol spam, you're forced into using kisses or blades for most of the troupe, and they have a squad leader now with one extra wound, inexplicably. Kitted out by default with shuriken pistols and harlequin blades, each upgrade'll cost you 5 points, on already 13 point models, which you definitely should do for the most part. Cheaper than they were last edition, at the least. The old flip belt rules and such have been condensed down into Harlequin's Panoply, granting that <s>same 4++</s> now 5++ and the ability to jump over models and terrain in the move phase as if your clowns could fly. Rising Crescendo still lets them advance and charge freely. Already your clowns move 8" so this'll all but guarantee you to be within range to succeed a charge. Right now your best bet's to equip them with at least one of each melee option, excluding the blades so they have access to all the stratagems in each unit, making them relatively versatile in that regard at least. Overall you get a basic infantry that's incredibly fast, can shrug off melta shots on occasion and are very much deadly with 4 base attacks in melee. All at only 13 points per model!
**Their invuln is equivalent to an armour save against AP0 weapons (slightly worse, in fact, since Harlequins generally get no benefit at all from cover), massed <s>anti-infantry firepower</s> gunfire of any sort will absolutely shred them, with melee doing a slightly worse job. You very much don't want these guys to be caught out in the open against even a squad of guardsmen, doubly so if within rapid fire range. Strike with them first and keep them out of line of sight.
**Alternatively, if you're up against something with either low toughness and/or poor saves that rely on numbers, such as GEQs in the former case and Orks in the latter, the default Harlequin's Blade is a decent weapon to pick up, having gained a point of AP and also granting a bonus attack. Orks are T5 meaning the blades will wound them just as reliably as the other melee weapons, that being on a 5+. Given a standard mob of boyz have a 6+, these swords will punch through their armour just as well as the other weapons too.
**Made CORE in the Aeldari FAQ

===Elites===

*'''[[Death Jester]]:''' The Jester retains its role as a sniper, but has some nasty tricks which make it better as a support unit. The first thing to note is that while in this edition it does actually get a melee weapon, it doesn't have a whole lot really going for it (S+1 AP-1 D1). So unlike most of your army, it will want to hang back, made a bit easier by its {{W40Kkeyword|character}} status. The next thing to note is that the gun ignores Look Out, Sir and is thus capable of sniping {{W40Kkeyword|characters}} regardless of whether they are the closest. However, there are still bodyguard units that'll interfere with this on occasion. Said gun is 30" Assault 3 S6 AP-2 D2, Shuriken. Probably a buff, given its previous incarnation, as this'll reliably threaten MEQ (average of 2.5 wounds dealt, which is 1.25 dead MEQ) and can scare your standard footslogging character. Death is Not Enough means any models this kills count as double for morale, meaning that you can pretty easily break units with a good round of shooting, especially if you throw more than just the Jester's shooting at it. Oh yeah, it also got bumped up to 5 attacks rather than 4, so there's that, I guess.
**'''Pivotal Roles:''' Unlike last edition, you can take any of these while keeping your attrition booster.
**:<tabs><tab name="Harvester of Torment"> Each time the jester shoots, a natural 6 to hit scores scores 3 hits instead of 1 (the equivalent of +2 to hit, mathematically - you now land, on average, 7 hits for every 6 attacks you make). While not as powerful as last edition, this is still a massive bonus to their firepower, especially against beefy characters. 
*The net benefit across the 3 attacks you make is that you should land, on average, 7/5 (1.4) times as many hits, or additively speaking, 1 additional hit (3.5, rather than the 2.5 a normal DJ lands).  Against almost all possible targets, Rift Ghoul is better for the same purpose, so don't take this on your first Death Jester.
**You can however, buff the hell outta this with Favour of Cegorach as it will let you reroll a failed hit, wound or save once per turn. Meaning you can guarantee at least one of these shots will work. Combine that with the Bladestorm stratagem can be used on this, getting you diminishing returns, as it will simply add another functional +1 to hit, taking you to a new accuracy of landing 4 hits every time you shoot your 3-shot gun.
***Note that this is exactly why it costs 40 points, almost a 50% price hike on your Death Jester if you take it though.
</tab><!--
--><tab name="Lord of the Crystal Bones"> Any time the jester hits a non-{{W40Kkeyword|Monster}} non-{{W40Kkeyword|Vehicle}} unit, the target will suffer -2 to movement and can't overwatch or set to defend. This can be very handy as it can both shut down potential aggression before your clowns can make their jumps but it also makes sure that they can't defend themselves once your clowns charge.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Rift Ghoul"> Any attacks the jester makes ignore cover and deal a mortal wound on a natural 4+ to wound, useful if you're dealing with armies that have plenty of cover boosts (like Genestealers) or just like to pretend they're in cover (Alaitoc, Raven Guard). This is also important for a dedicated character sniper, where dealing a mortal wound might be enough to take them down before needing to waste a second turn.  The net benefit is, in general, 1.25 mortal wounds. This doesn't specify shooting or melee attacks, which means that it'll work in both. That'll certainly catch at least one or two opponents by surprise should they try and charge him.</tab><!--
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*'''[[Solitaire]]:''' You know it, you love it - but for now at least, a pretty poorly performing unit, because literally all it can do is murder things in melee, and it's pretty costly at 110 points for how hard it can hit compared to, say a troupe master with the twilight fang. All the same, it's still an incredibly powerful single model, with melee potential that will threaten any other infantry or character in the game. Functionally, he hasn't changed much between editions, though he has gotten a couple of buffs. Tougher than your standard clown, at S4 and T4, with his weapons hitting even harder than the normal clowns with a bonus point of strength and AP, working out in total to 8 S6 AP-3 D2 attacks every fight phase. Ouch. Combine that with a 12" move, putting him among the fastest infantry in the game, and he's a very, very scary target to any of your opponents. His trademark Blitz is still here, letting him add 2D6" to his move and adding 2 to the number of attacks he makes to 10. Between these traits and his <s>3++</s>4++, you are looking at a highly mobile assassin more than equipped to take out characters. Oh yeah, he can use both the Harlequin's Kiss and Caress stratagems, the latter of which is almost certainly more useful for a character hunting Solitare. Sure, you might not be able to kill greater daemons and primarchs but you'll be able to tear through just about any footslogging character without a worry.  Be careful, though, as he suffers from the same squishiness as the rest of your army with volume of fire being able to easily wipe him out. The psychological power of this model is not to be taken lightly. This is a model you want your opponent to make mistakes over and alleviate pressure on the rest of your army. Very fitting method of fucking with their mind.
**A severe issue with this new codex version is its loss of the {{W40kKeyword|<Saedath>}} keyword. This not only forbids the solitaire from benefitting from the Shadowseer's powers, but it also means [[FAIL|it cannot use starweavers for transports]]. Sure, it's fast enough to not worry about movement with how much it will advance anyways, but it is now very exposed to snipers and walls of overwatching infantry.
**Solitaires can't take warlord traits, or relics this edition. There are only a couple relics that'd be worth considering taking on him but it's still a bummer.
**'''Pivotal Roles:''' Unlike last edition, you can take any of these while keeping your Blitz.
**:<tabs><tab name="Prince of Sins"> All enemies take a -1 to hit the solitaire and can't re-roll to hit. Considering how naked and exposed the solitaire has become, this has become a pretty easy auto-take to ensure they can actually survive until they can fight.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Spectre of Despair"> You may set this model up in deep strike during deployment. After being brought in from deep strike, following the standard 9" rule and declaring a charge, roll 3d6 and discard one of the results. Very nice, though arguably the weakest of all three, which is saying something. On one hand, it's a way to safely get your Solitare into position, though there are also normal strategic reserves, heroes' path, and webway gates to achieve similar results without spending points.</tab><!--
--><tab name="Thirsting Darkness"> The solitaire always advances 6" and can move an additional 3" when consolidating. If you're in a small enough field where you can expect to get into battle immediately and to always find in a nearby battle, this is a great tool for covering ground. That said, big fields remain a massive issue for the solitaire.</tab><!--
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===Fast Attack===

*'''[[Skyweaver]]:''' Clowns on bikes. By default, they come with a shuriken cannon and star bolas at 45 points per model. Do yourself a favor and buy the zephyrglaive. The star bolas are perfectly serviceable, and even better than they were last edition, but as with other Harlequin units, you want them in close combat, especially with the extra attack they picked up. The scary part is how mobile they are. A 16" move, plus a 6" automatic advance, then the charge. They also fly, so can fly over their enemies and play amazing hit and run (and hit again) tactics. At A4 W3 with their <s>4++</s>5++ and -1 penalty to hit against anyone punching them while negating any re-rolls to hit them, they stick around longer than one would expect them to, knocking out models all along the way. A good default tactic is to advance, then charge with Zephyrglaives, and just keep repeating. Keep in mind that they are among the most mobile units and, if needed, can also effectively harass MEQs, bikes and even some lighter vehicles at range with shuriken cannons before they swoop in for the kill.
**Do yourself a favor and take these in 5-bike units to avoid blast, they're only really durable by elf standards.  If you really want to hedge your bets, drop to 3 bikes for Morale immunity, since they're Ld 8 and hence can't fail Morale checks until they lose at least 3 bikes in a turn.
**Note the Zephyrglaive occupies a much more vital role as a D2 weapon. Sure, you're not hurting for those but given the prevalence of 2 wound Space Marines and whatnot, they should be your default over Star Bolas
**Star Bolas aren't as useless as last edition, actually. Now being Assault d3 Blast with slightly better stats than their shuriken cannons have, they can pretty easily strike down MEQ. That said, it's still a shooting weapon when you want a melee weapon to make the most of Rising Crescendo.
***Alternative take, you are primarily a melee army. Having one unit armed with these and shuriken cannons can be a decent option to harass MEQs from a distance and soften them up before your other clowns come charging in to clean up. This also works nicely in a Light Saedeth as you can give these guys an effective threat range of 46" before any sorta buffs - double that if you've somehow got a Shadowseer in a perfect position with Twilight Pathways, especially since that power stops units from charging afterwards but says nothing about shooting. 
**You should definitely consider haywire cannons. They're worthless against monsters, but with fusion pistol boats being a thing of the past these are your best bet against vehicles. While the haywire cannon has Blast on it, S3 means that it will suffer to wound anything ''beyond'' S3, which most mobs won't be. Even then, you're not taking these to kill mobs, you have your other units to handle them. The haywire cannons auto-wound vehicles on a 4+ anyway,

===Dedicated Transport===

*'''[[Starweaver]]:''' Because you really, really want to get your troupes up close and personal and that is 100% of the time you field them, especially with their automatic 6 to advance rolls. For armament it has shuriken cannons, while not phenomenal, it is a long-range gun option by clown standards and has the welcome AP boost to threaten light vehicles. It isn't useless in melee either with that same 3+ that most of your army has, and with A4 S5 it can now possibly kill a few MEQ/GEQ on its own, and then have the clowns inside pepper them with their pistols. It's also regained its -1 to hit it in, as well as negating re-rolls, providing a massive perk to survivability.  All is good, but, honestly, the worst part is that it can only carry 6 {{W40kKeyword|<SAEDATH> INFANTRY}}. <s>Very much an easy pickup for 80 points</s> The WH40k Balance Dataslate Q2 2022 has increased their base points to 95, making it still very much useable, just no longer under-costed.
**Having a fast transport option to ship your clowns up the board is already good, though consider the sheer utility of these things and you'll come to love them.
**Disembark your clowns and then charge these in first to eat overwatch for the squishier guys. Not only will this thing stand up to massed bolter fire better, being wounded on 5s but it's also not too terrible in melee either as stated above and can flatten GEQs.
***Hell, if you've got a stretch of wide open space that your troupes might not make on foot, keep them aboard and charge this thing on into melee against something that is damn near guaranteed not to kill it, then hop them out next turn and put them to work.
**Once their cargo's delivered, send it off to the other side of the board to sit on an objective marker, or to score you Take All Corners. It's got guns so it can still contribute from a distance while your army blends stuff.
**You can use The Curtain Falls to hop back into one after you kill a unit in melee, and Fire and Fade to do the same after they've shot to avoid leaving a unit out in the open for retaliation. 
**Charge a shooting infantry unit, keep them tied up so they cannot fire on any of your main army

===Heavy Support===

'''[[Voidweaver]]:''' Mini Fire Prism. Same hull as the Starweaver but with more gun instead of transport capacity. The real question is are they worth taking? In 8th the answer was not really, though in 9th now? Probably. With the Haywire and Prismatic Cannons both being heavy weapons, you can't really advance with it if you still wanna shoot, though Light Saedeth lets you go full speed with no penalty. At a flat <s>90 points</s> 130 points since the WH40k Balance Dataslate Q2 2022, it is now fairly costly for the firepower it offers. What you should really take it for though is that it's a t5 unit that can bodyguard for your Death Jesters, assuming you're running multiple, while putting out shots at the same range.
*Since Prismatic Cannons are just as free as Haywires, you'll almost always take the Prismatic Cannon since bikes are a much more spammable method of getting Haywire onto the field. Never mind this is the best way for you to deal with monsters, battlesuits and anything else that isn't a vehicle but is still tough. It can put out two S12 shots with its focused mode at 36" that'll cut through just about any vehicle save. And with 2D3 damage (Averaging out to about 4 per shot), it'll certainly fucking hurt whatever you fire it at, assuming no invulns are involved. The other profile will throw out more shots that'll fry any GEQs and put some hurt on MEQs too. Blast means it'll hurt big blobs too. 
**The haywire is far from a bad option too though, capable of throwing more shots out than the bike one, along with doing a flat 3 damage, auto-wounding on 4s versus vehicles compared to the D3 the bike ones deal. Still probably not the best option.

===Fortifications===

*'''Webway Gate''':  For 95 points you can finally pick this giant arc. Fluffwise, it is the very reason of Eldar trollability to suddenly appear somewhere, where they completely shouldn't be. Crunchwise, it is still a pair of giant arcs with T8, 14 wounds, 3+ and 5++ which helps you to deep strike your units, including halving the cost to throw units into combat reserves. Each arc counts as light cover, heavy cover, unstable position (though who the fuck was gonna climb it anyways) and Inspiring to all Eldar. It can be set up anywhere on the battlefield more than 12" from enemy deployment zone and their units during your deployment and, of course, is immobile after that. What it allows you to do, is to let your units emerge from combat reserves by placing them within 6" of the gate, allowing them to emerge within 9" of an enemy - even straight into combat where they'll count as having charged the [[Meme|BAHLD AND FEWLISH]] enemies. Of course, if the gate is destroyed, all units that were in the gate's Webway (the Webway form '''Webway Assault''' stratagem is not the same one) are slain. On the one part, it does let you save some CP from throwing some units into Strategic Reserves and furthermore allows you to deep strike your Vehicles. Still, the restriction for its placement and its relative size poses a large threat that your opponent will decide to just blast it to hell with artillery first, thus making actually using the gate a bit of "Risk-Reward" tactics, if not even a bit of a doubtful one. You can take two (or more) and store all your reserves without deciding beforehand where they're coming out of and making it harder for the opponent to block you out. The model is very nice though, so don't restrain yourself from using it as a piece of terrain.

*'''Universal Fortifications''':  Harlequins benefit more than most from taking Bunkers and Bastions.  Assuming a 6" diameter building, they have an effective threat range of a 42" circle (this is often squished into an oval due to deployment zones), or roughly a quarter of the board.  While your faction transports are certainly faster, the building are far more durable.
**Note that these will require a fortification detachment, which may be an issue if you plan on spamming for CP.