Harlequins !!

Ok Two Firsts Today , First proper Post on my WordPress trial run , Tasty truly is the most stubborn/patient Sob I have come across in recent years. Many  problems were had, wringing of hands,wailing and gnashing of teeth, but after beating heads against the techno barrier for a few days it seems to be  mostly obeying, ignorance and brute force ftw !  mostly the former on my part.

So now I find myself In a position with the new look Rant to post something. Oddly enough my reviews have crossed paths in the Elites sectiosn so I thought I would do both in one review also as its been a bit delayed it allows me to catch up on the schedule with the unit reviews.

So as with the usual format we’ll start with a stats analysis and go from there.

They come with the ‘golden’ WS of 5 , which of course means a large majority of stuff gets hit on 3’s and the clowns almost only ever get hit on 4’s by other units, bonus, just what we like in an elite CC unit.

They have the usual eldar stats all the way down to I where it gets good again, I6 is fantastic as it allows them to strike before most things even some characters, this helps em to stay alive in cc and of course means those who are in a position to charge will have to do some thinking at least.

2 Attacks is nice , they are the only Eldar CC specialists that get 2 attacks in the CWE book, arguably making them the only true CC specialists in the book, they have a bit more competition in The DE book.

The base ld of nine is always nice, The troupe leader for an additional 20 poins gets another attack a power wep and a bump to LD 10, He is well  worth the taking and the power wep helps get round the vagaries of rending somewhat.

Basic kit- pistol and ccwep , giving the basic guy 4 attacks on the charge, spicy !

Flip belts – Ignoring terrain is huge , they can just run full pelt through cover with no issue and collect that all important 4+ cover, I’m starting to loose count of the amount of time a flubbed terrain check has screwed me royally , seems like almost every game, they also don’t need grenades subsequently . win+win = ?

Holo suits = Dunno how to feel about these , on the one hand an invuln is nice, having to suck it up with T3 and a 5++ with the apparently most advanced field tech going just seems ‘out’ to me when saves better than 5++ are given out like candy to other armies. In a CWE army it does combine very well with Fortune and makes them surprisingly hard to deal with, though often ill be rocking a re-roll 4+ cover instead.

Lastly the basic special rule they come with is the Dance of death, this is really just a bogoff USR bundle deal, they get both furious charge (str 4 and I7 ) and hit and run , For me hit and run is one of the best if not THE best USR’s in the game , combined with FC its epic as you can break off at the end of their cc phase and charge back in for the FC bonus in your following turn, the options for mobility it opens up are brilliant too and you can get units all over the board where you need them. This USR really rewards some thought and there are many imaginative uses for it.

Equipment and options:

Harlequins kisses, which gives them rending for a fairly steep 4 points, but worth it , they can tango with most any assault troops in the game and come out on top, they will also now threaten armour (not av14 all round ), I can think of no reason not to take these. Doom from a supporting CWE Farseer can turn these into a thing of pure filth, remember doom not only allows you to re-roll failed to wound rolls, but all to-wound rolls , so you can pick up all the ‘successful ,non rending hits and roll them again to really max your rends, strewth 😛

Fusion pistols are….difficult , str 8 ap 1 pistol , lovely but 10 points is a bit steep for a gun that wont get shot much , the 3″ melta range also puts you comfortably in range to more often than not get caught in any explosion. Coupled with the fact you will almost always want to run with the unit unless you get really lucky these are far from a no brainer choice , I have had use out of them , but I don’t think Quins need them to be great. Tip: hit and run can be very useful for setting up fusion shots, you can even use it to get behind stuff in opponents turn and hit rear armour from a safer distance. my quins have killed their share of land raiders etc over time , hit and run also helps you not get chewed by dreadnoughts , If your kisses fail hop out of the combat and shoot him in the arse with that lovely AP1 , then if that does not work you have the choice of charging him again.

Character Upgrades:

We have covered the troupe master and I honestly think he is a no brainer ,5 ws 5 str4 I7 power wep attacks with re-rolls from doom ? AND LD 10 on a sgt ? yes please !!

Death jester : ok so the unit has been pretty good so far , there is some fail though and its all here (I think they tried to make up for it with that model)this is the crack, you PAY 10 points to loose 4 rending attacks and gain a pinning shuriken cannon which you won’t likely be able to shoot much as you will be running if not for the loss of the kiss it would be ok , but its a dealbreaker for me , no good.

Finally and possibly most importantly comes the Shadowseer, he costs a truly epic amount of points but usually manages to justify it. He does bring pointless plasma grenades but the main event is the Veil of Tears, it forces enemies wishing to shoot at them to roll 2d6x2 to see if they can see them like with nightfight, if they fail they loose their shot , whats not to like ? if you appear to be much over 14″ away many opponents wont bother to shoot at them and occasionally it has saved me from some almost point blank fire , its a powerful effect and can make quins with their potential 18″ assault range very difficult to deal with , your opponent should only ever be given one opportunity to have any chance to shoot them  or face getting mashed up in assault.

Harlequins in CWE armies: They really get to shine here , mainly because the other CC specialist units are meh , and they gain such outrageous benefits to their survivability and damage output with Seer support, these are my go to unit in CWE if wanting cc ability in a given list , they hit like a brick in a sock. You still really need to be on the ball with positioning and distances remember to abuse hit and run to death. Sadly they don’t feature in my current lists as they do not work with 5th mechdar, they are an expensive unit as I feel they need max numbers to really have the punch you need and do not bring a transport to the party , which is the real fatal flaw for inclusion in mech spam, the high cost also cuts into your armour budget, Im also not a fan of having one squishy target and a bucket of armour ,lastly they take a dragon Elite slot, less of a problem in hybrid or footdar. I have had masses of fun with them in a Hybrid list and recommend them highly for that.

Harlequins with Darkdar: I have little to say here, not ideal without the psy support from a Farseer they are alot less attractive , would have expected a boost to their stats or power from pain or something …..maybe a Solitaire ? access to their old venom transport , yeah , where the flock is the damn Solitaire anyway ? (Though a suitably tooled archon makes a nice counts-as or yriel in CWE) any number of small tweaks might have made them a more attractive choice that competes with the other Elites , Frankly the Incubi are a much better choice in a darkdar army  and wyches etc do some things better than they do for much less points. I might try them in a WWP army at some point as I have a unit or two lying about . The only thing of potential interest is they have access to some melta , tbh there are cheaper ways of getting better melta in the list , Reavers have been working the  AP1 magic thus far.

Well thats it , hyper elite , tricky ,fragile, fun , rewarding when played intelligently unit for CWE especially with psy support and a bit of a gooseberry in the DE book.

In other news I re-discovered this gem on youtube today and felt I would share it as it tickles me, it even has relevance to Eldar players , yeah I’m that good 😉

Next up is the Banshees for CWE and Kabalite Warriors.

See you then.