Send In The Clowns: Experiences with the new Harlequins Codex

 So far I've had a chance to use the new Harlequins in 4 practice games, against 4 of the top meta armies: Outer Enclaves T'au, Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff, Crusher Stampede and updated Thicc City. All lists were taken straight from recent tournament winning lists, and every single one was tabled by turn 4. Being a bit shocked by this, I thought I'd write up my thoughts on the faction for those of you who haven't had a chance to play against or with them yet.

The boats are back!

First things first: believe the hype. All of the lists I played against were proven tournament-winning lists, lifted straight from Competitive Innovations articles and piloted solidly. None got more than 50 points, including paint scores. I'm sure the Quins aren't invincible, but there's a lot of raw power in this Codex.

 

The main place I’ve noticed this has been the boats. In each game I ran a variation on 9 Voidweavers, 3-4 of the obvious character options and as many Troupes in boats as would fit, and those 14-15 boats were incredibly strong. To start with, they surprised all of my opponents with how devastating their firepower was. In the game against Custodes, I managed to pick up Trajan first turn because neither of us thought my firepower would kill the three Achillus Dreads in front of him. Against Crusher Stampede I was nuking 2-3 big bugs every turn, and even Thicc City lost both Courts of the Archon turn 1! If you put models in front of these guys (or just fail to hide them from 22” move boats), expect to pick them up next turn.

 

Custodes casualties after one turn of firepower. Those Dreads died fast!

What really stood out to me, however, was their durability. Going first against T’au, I tossed a couple of Starweavers forward to tick off Stranglehold and force my opponent to come out of cover. They counterattacked with two Commanders and two squads of CIB/CIB/Plasma Crisis, one of which had Drop Zone Clear for full rerolls. When the dust settled, the Starweavers were both still there, and the crack back promptly wiped out both squads and zeroed my opponent on primary. All four games were filled with moments in which my opponent committed a full unit to killing a Starweaver only to leave it intact and ready to unleash its contents on them. The combination of -1 to hit, no rerolls and a 4++ (with Luck Dice for those tasty rerolls) makes it incredibly easy to spike downwards on offence and fail to take out your target.

Pictured: A T'au player realising they can't just shoot me off the board anymore

The Troupes were also highlights, once I figured out how to use them. I almost exclusively fielded 5-clown squads with dual fusion guns and a kiss, and they did excellently as cheap ObSec assault troops, chaff killers and a source of occasional spike damage. They tended to be pretty unimpressive in close combat against anything tougher that Kroot, but they did frequently shock my opponent with their resilience. Like with the boats, -1 to hit and a 4++ is actually shockingly hard to put down for lots of close combat units, with my opponent’s Grotesques in the last game being particularly irritated by that profile.

Naturally, I saved the only two Wounds that made it through. Clowns are fun

The characters were more of a mixed bag. My Troupe Master (Player of the Light, Foot in the Future and Cegorach’s Rose) seemed to alternate between flying across the board to kill whatever he touched and bouncing off something and dying immediately. I think I was a bit too bold with him in my first two games, and once I started playing more carefully he seemed to do well. Interestingly, while the Solitaire didn’t hit quite as hard, he was much more consistently useful. I found his ability to zoom across the field and kill a random chaff unit off an objective extremely nasty, and his 3++ (coupled with Luck Dice!) made him borderline indestructible. Against Thicc City he really shone: he flew across the map and killed a Wrack squad to take down a banner, then survived a double-fighting Djin Blade Archon, another squad of Wracks and a murder Succubus. After killing the Succubus, he then ran to another objective and slaughtered the Wracks guarding it, before taking Drazhar’s counter on the chin and killing him too! His damage output against big stuff is strictly 'okay', and none of the Pivotal Roles really seem worthwhile for what’s essentially a trade piece, but that combination of mobility and durability is a standout.

Local clown too obsessed with playing Slaanesh to die 

The Death Jester was similarly awesome. I don’t think I’d field more than one, as they’re almost the price of a Troupe and much less versatile, but a single Harvester of Torment/Favour of Cegorach Jester seems like an auto-include. Turns out an average of ~7.5 D2 hits that can target characters or tank a squad’s morale is pretty useful, huh.

 

I’m still not sure where I stand on the Shadowseer, however. Unless you’ve brought along some bikes, his psychic powers really don’t seem that strong, and I found myself Smiting as often as I did anything else. The 6+++ power is decent, and Veil of Tears could be strong in combination with the Light relic, but otherwise there wasn’t much to write home about. On the other hand, Mirror Architect is one of the most impactful auras in the game: forcing Crisis Suits to come within 12” of you in order to fire their CIB’s is pure gold, and no-selling Custodes Bikes turn one is pretty awesome as well. The Shadowseer is probably worth including for that alone, and having the option for Warpcraft secondaries was also pretty useful in several games.

Th magic clown may not do much with it's spells, but it looks sick while casting Psychic Interrogation on repeat

Speaking of secondaries, I was slamming that To The Last button in every game bar one (Thicc City with 170 Wounds worth of models was just screaming for No Prisoners). Killing a squad of 3 Voidweavers is almost impossible if they aren’t massively overextended, and a sole survivor is easy to hide or just throw back into Strategic Reserves. Stranglehold and Engage are obviously as good as ever, and Psychic Interrogation is rarely a disappointment. All three faction-specific secondaries look strong, but I think the non-Warpcraft two seem to require a more aggressive list than mine, with big squads of Troupes that want to be fighting in the opponent’s deployment zone. That’s probably a strong list too, but I’m still high on the sheer damage output and durability of the boats list.

Stapling +1AP and Fight on Death to all these models sounds like a tasty time

I’ve experimented with two Saedaths, Light and Dark. The latter honestly felt really solid, and is my pick for a foot-Troupe list, but none of its tricks aligned with the way I wanted to run my force. Light on the other hand was awesome, but not for the reasons people think. The hit Transhuman thing? Honestly almost useless, it came up literally once in my three games with the Saedath. In almost every case, your opponent is going to be shooting at your boats, and they already have a -1 to hit, so it’s only going to make a difference against T’au Commanders and Custodes Bikes. Those are certainly relevant profiles, but two units does not a good trait make. On the other hand, free advance and shoot is awesome: in all three games with this trait I went first, and those extra 6” of movement on my boats was crucial to lining up angles on the stuff my opponent had tried to protect. The rest of the package is also extremely solid, with the Warlord Trait and Relic being two of the most useful, and the stratagem being a great way of messing with your opponent’s head. The internet was right about Light, they just had the wrong reasons. Stopped clock, twice a day, etc…

When people ask whether Light's Characterisation is overpowered

What’s the downside of all of this awesome murder-clown mayhem? Honestly, not much: Harlequins seem to have strong matchups into all of the game’s top lists, with tough boats, crazy shooting, mobility to die for and good backup melee options. Where things do seem a bit tougher is against some of the mid-tier: specifically, the heavy psyker lists that Emperor’s Chosen have been dunking on for the last couple months. Mortal Wounds really hurt this list, and are far and away the most efficient route past the crazy defences the boats and clowns can stack. It’s for this reason that I’ve been giving my Death Jester the Laughing God’s Eye relic. Sure, an aura of 5+++ versus mortals doesn’t sound like much, but when those mortals are each killing 1/6 of a squad or boat you’ll take all the saves you can get. If the Harlequins take over the meta (and if these games have been anything to go off, they really will), then expect to see Thousand Sons and Grey Knights come back as potential counter-meta picks.

Fittingly enough, this is a Harlequin's worst nightmare

To round things off, here’s the rough list I’ve been running over the last three games:

 

Light Saedath Battalion

Troupe Master (Foot in the Future/Player of the Light/Cegorach’s Rose, with fusion pistol)     85

Shadowseer  (Webway Dance/Veil of Tears, The Shadow Stone, Mirror Architect)                   100

Death Jester (Harvester of Torment/Favour of Cegoach/Laughing God’s Eye)                           70

Solitaire                                                                                                                                         110

 

5*5 Troupes, each squad with 2 Fusion Guns and a Kiss                                                             400

5 Starweavers                                                                                                                                400

3*3 Voidweavers                                                                                                                           810

 Total: 1975 points

 

I realised in typing up this list that it’s actually 25 points under, which is just enough for one more piece of gear per Troupe squad. I’ve yet to decide whether the chip damage of ~3 Mortal Wounds a turn from Neuro Disruptors is better than a bit of extra melee damage from giving every squad an Embrace, but I don’t think either is a bad option. (EDIT: turns out I forgot to pay for Mirror Architect, so I don't have any excess points anyway!) More broadly, you could definitely swap out a couple of these Starweaver/Troupe combos for larger squads, likely with a Webway Gate. At that point changing Saedath to Dark would probably be the best option, and you’d be trading out a bit of mobility and resilience for great melee trading squads. Time will tell which is the stronger option, but so far both look super powerful to me.

Maybe even some Asuryani allies? Probably just D-Cannons rather than an Avatar though (Tale of Painters)

Postscript: after writing up this article, I played another game against T'au, this time a Bork'an list with a Stormsurge, two big Crisis Teams and some Broadsides (again, stolen from this week's Competitive Innovations article). T'au went first and put four Wounds onto a Voidweaver, then the 'Quins hit back and killed well over half the T'au force. After their second turn all the T'au had left was a badly injured Commander who'd spiked his saves to survive single combat against the Solitaire. This list is real, guys.

T'au casualty pile after turn 1. That's 945 points and two TTL targets gone, and another 910 points followed next turn. Ouch

I hope you enjoyed reading this bit of analysis on the new ‘Quins. They’re real strong, you heard it here first (if you’ve lived under a rock for the last month). If you enjoyed this content, or hated it and want to make that known, feel free to leave a comment below or wherever you found this. And if you’re also a fan of MESBG content, make sure to check back in soon for an article on when to include a Drummer in your Evil lists!

 

Until next time, may your Luck Dice never roll doubles!