Now, anyone who’s been following my last few articles will know I’m a big fan of the Harlequin boats: they’re ridiculously resilient, move 22” a turn and put out blistering firepower. But some rereading of the Harlequin Codex set me wondering whether I could replicate that resilience with foot Troupes, trading out ranged firepower and a little speed for incredible numbers and combat ability. From those musings, this monstrosity was born:
Yes, that’s 96 models, all capable of moving at least 9-14”
every turn and murdering stuff in close combat. It’s made of glass, but
everything benefits from Light to be hard to hit at range, and all the Players have
-1 to Wound as well. Dark would obviously be a much better choice against close
combat armies, but my guess is that I’ll already have the edge against those
and am better off shoring up the T’au and Asuryani matchups with Light. Of note: we played as if Troupes had Core, because of course they will and we're future-proofing for that. If for some reason Core is meant to mean 'literally just Skyweavers', then this list basically ceases to exist as an option.
Edit: slightly illegal list, accidentally had one too many Troops choices in my Patrol. Just imagine those 2*5 were 1*10, outfitted the same as everyone else, I don't think it really came up at all this game
After playing the game we realised that Owen should have
gotten 18 points back from his Sagitarum’s misericordias due to the recent FAQ.
So glad the suffering Custodes are receiving the buffs they need and deserve. I’m
not totally sure what one does with 20 points extra in a Custodes list though,
so missing them was probably fine.
We rolled up Conversion, which is probably a good mission
for me. Fighting over the central objectives is kind of what my army does
anyway, so getting points for that is just money for jam, and I’m a lot more likely
to take Owen’s home objective than he is to take mine. A fairly close
deployment is also probably a good thing, letting me gun for Turn 1 charges if
I go first to try and pin him in his own quarter. On the other hand, needing my
glass cannon of a Troupe Master alive to get CP is a bit of a hassle, so I’ll
have to play him very carefully.
Webway Gate looming large over the left objective
For Secondaries, I decided to pick Stranglehold, because it’s
a 5 objective mission and my army is literally just 90 ObSec combat troops. If
I can’t get Stranglehold going then that says a lot about me as a player. I
also threw in the new faction specific Secondary- A Deadly Performance- to try
it out. Getting a model into Owen’s deployment zone turn 1 seems achievable,
and if I can do that then I can probably max this just through positional play.
Finally, RND was in because it’s pretty easy to accomplish with this list and
on this mission, and Owen had too many Denies to risk a Warpcraft Secondary.
Deployment went about as one would expect: I filled the
front of my deployment with 85 Players and seeded in my murder characters, with
the Death Jesters hidden at the back to claim my objective. I only put one
small squad into the Webway, because on this map and matchup I can probably get
into combat pretty easily without it anyway and I might as well save the CP. Owen
clustered up a large force against my right flank, ready to march onto it and
the centre and grind me off them in true Custodes style. The bikes were left as
a mobile reserve, ready to swing against either flank to disrupt my scoring.
Harlequins Turn 1, 19:10
Winning turn 1 was a mixed blessing, as I could potentially block Owen off but would need to commit hard to do so. This was made more painful by Owen starting in Dacatarai 1 to neuter my combat movement, as well as my own failure to avoid a doubles on my luck dice. Nonetheless, everyone except the Death Jesters surged forward, with Troupes making it onto all three neutral objectives and then launching several big charges against Owen’s deathblob on the right.
The horde sprints forward, ready to charge some Custodes and die brutally
Annoyingly, due to Dacatarai I wouldn’t be able to score A Deadly
Performance this turn unless I either committed my Solitaire or killed three
units in combat (for which I’d probably need to commit my Solitaire anyway…).
So in he went to the Sagitarum, unable to avoid the Bike Captain using Company
of Heroes to Heroically Intervene into him. Good thing I have all those Luck
dice to spare, right?
Combat and shooting went tolerably well. The Solitaire only
killed one Sagitarum even after I buffed him to D3, and some poor rolling on
his 3++ saves saw him reduced to 2 wounds after I burned all my Luck
rerolls. Thankfully the rest of the combats went better, with my front squad
killing two Wardens and then surviving with enough models to tie up Trajan, the
Sagitarum and the Warden. I Retrieved Data on the left flank, so all my
secondaries were ticking along nicely, but next turn was going to hurt.
Key thing here is how many of Owen's units are tied up by that handful of Players in the front Troupe
I’ll also quickly mention my psychic phase here, to say it
did basically nothing all game. Every turn I attempted to cast some combination of Smite, my other
mortal wound powers, and Webway Dance, and over the whole game these
accomplished exactly one mortal wound on the Achillus. The Shadowseer auric
buffs are good, but Farseers they are not.
Custodes Turn 1, 19:16
Owen had a big problem this turn: my first wave had tied up
so much of his central push that he only really had his Dreadnought and Praetors
to try and force me off two objectives. In hindsight, the right call here was
probably to accept that he wasn’t going to get Stranglehold this turn and that
I’d start the game on 12 Primary, but that’s a pretty bleak outcome and Owen
wanted to avoid it if at all possible. So a squad of Praetors flew to each
flank, ready to try and sweep me off them, while the Callidus moved to support
the right squad in their attempt. The Inquisitor tried to Smite my Solitaire
but failed his roll, while the lone surviving Custodian Guard fell back to let
the Sagitarum blast my Troupe. In the shooting phase things started to go quite
wrong, with none of Owen’s firepower succeeding in putting down more than a
handful of Players. While this felt like bad luck at the time, even the
Callidus should only average 2-3 Players per volley if outside Light range, so
Owen may actually have spiked upwards a little here.
Bikes go on the counter attack
Either way, in the combat phase things went more his way. The
Solitaire was hacked apart by the Shield-Captain, while Trajan singlehandedly
wiped the Troupe that had tied up Owen’s battleline. R.I.P Troupe 1, you will
be missed. Elsewhere, both squads of Praetors did substantial damage to my
Troupe squads, wiping out most of each Troupe in an impressive outperformance
of the odds. Neither successfully cleared their objective however, and some
lucky morale checks from those Troupes left me in control of all three neutral
objectives! Owen was really feeling the lack of ObSec on those bikes now!
Battle at end of Custodes Turn 1Harlequins Turn 2, 47:16
As Owen switched into Dacatari B, I breathed a sigh of relief at my 5 fresh Luck dice. I started my turn by rushing fresh Troupes out to each flank to make sure I could continue holding each of them. The Troupe Master accompanied the leftmost Troupe out to wipe those bikes, while my reserve Troupe also ran in on that flank to bring their Fusion Pistols into play. In Owen’s deployment zone, the Troupe that had survived his Sagitarum’s firepower aimed to get their revenge by leaping over his army and charging onto the back objective.
Now you see the bikes...
My shooting managed to take out the Inquisitor in a hail of
Shrieker fire, as well as finishing off a couple of lone Custodes and downing
three Praetors. I also RND’ed in the right corner, keeping that score ticking
along.
Combat went largely as planned, with the leftmost bikes
being finished off by the Troupe Master while the rightmost were reduced to a
single model. Most critically, the Troupe in his backfield used both mortal
wound strats to clear out the Sagitarum, leaving me holding his backfield
objective for a massive 8-point swing on the Primary!
Custodes Turn 2, 47:16
This turn, Owen again launched a three-pronged attack to
secure his Stranglehold. Trajan charged to the neutral objective on my right,
hoping to kill enough Players with the support of the lone Vertus and the
Callidus to flip that objective, while in his backfield the Vexila and last two
Sagitarum moved to sweep his home objective clear. Finally, in the centre the
Warden manoeuvred to get within 3” of the central objective, while the
Shield-Captain and Achillus tried to clear enough Players to give the Custodes
the numbers edge.
This is what Harlequins do
I also managed to drag down his Warden thanks to
the Kiss of Death strat, so my ObSec would have held the point anyway.
At the end of the turn, Owen missed out on both Grind and Stranglehold, as well as the alternate Primary scoring. Things looked bleak.
Harlequins Turn 3, 71:16
As Owen shifted into Kaptaris A, I managed to roll another
doubles for my Luck rolls. Apparently Cegorach was enjoying the war of
attrition.
My psychic phase this turn was notable for achieving worse
than nothing: a Perils wounded my Mirror of Minds Shadowseer, ensuring that my
two psykers had between them dealt more damage to me than to the Custodes. I’ve
said it before, but you take Shadowseers because you have to, not because they’re
good.
Callidus ready to retaliate by killing 2-3 Players really dead
With that we came to a final scoreline of 91:16 and a
decisive Harlequins victory!
Post-Game Analysis
In hindsight, my prediction that this list would do well
against melee factions turned out to be correct. Owen was right up against it
from the start, losing units to my close-ranged shooting and melee and
struggling to put down enough Players to make a difference. It also made it incredibly
difficult for him to compete on Primary, with my clowns easily pinning him into
his corner before backflipping over his head to flip any objective he came
close to. It was a touch matchup on a mission which probably favoured me, and I
guess the outcome was always going to come down to whether he could kill enough models early to claw back the early lead I'd have on Primary.
As far as mistakes go, Owen and I agreed that he should probably have stuck to the plan and let me have the left objective. The bikes that flew over there ended up unsupported and died fairly readily, while they could have potentially done much more on my right or in the centre. On the other hand, if he hadn’t committed to that flank then the two Troupes and Troupe Master that were sent to my left flank would have gone right or into his backfield instead, which could have been a big issue.
Lots of dead Harlequins, but not quite enough
Otherwise, I think I overcommitted to the left flank. Three
Vertus didn’t realistically need 25 Players and a Troupe Master to kill, and I’d
have been better off sending at least one of those squads to the right flank
instead. Even if the Troupe in Strategic Reserve had just come out on the right
board edge to Retrieve Nachmund, that would have freed up the damaged squad
over there to kill the last Vertus instead of doing an action. I also probably
should have just accepted the loss of three Secondary points on turn 1 and held
the Solitaire back, as he could have been devastating in the midgame.
As far as lists go, Owen’s is obviously a fairly refined one
already, although he’s contemplating dropping the Dread for a squad of
Venatari. This game would certainly have felt very different if he had access
to some fast ObSec. We were both shocked by my list: it was
obnoxiously durable and played the Primary incredibly well, while still killing
still units at a respectable pace. Even without Dark or Twilight, the melee
output of 10 Players is pretty brutal, and the murder characters and massed
Fusion are constantly threatening to kill something important. T’au would
probably kill 30-50 Players turn 1, but they largely need to get within 12-18”
to do so, and all it takes is a few big charges to totally turn that game
around. Even 3 Shadowsun-buffed Broadsides should only kill ~4-6 Players a turn,
and they’ll probably only get a turn or two to do so. If/when (please let it be
when) the Voidweavers get nerfed, I think this list could become a genuine alternative to them.
I hope you enjoyed seeing a very different and potentially
less-optimised Harlequin list in action. Let me know what you thought of the
report/list below or wherever you’ve found this, and be sure to check back in
next week for (probably) more Harlequins content!
Until next time, may your ones always come for morale checks!
If you are solidly holding all the objectives, couldn’t you just alternate holding the last two say, rounds four and five? Would allow for the “hold an objective you didn’t” part of the deadly performance secondary.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I probably could have for turn 5 (although I was holding all five objectives at the start of Turn 4, so would have definitely missed that one). So you're probably right and I should have gotten 3 more points on that secondary, we just didn't really think it through too carefully. Didn't seem to matter too much with a 75-point differential, but probably a good thing to bear in mind for tournaments
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