Twilight's Still Better Than the Movie: Analysing the Harlequin Saedaths

He may not get Saedaths, but he is absolutely the coolest model in the faction and I will hear no arguments (James Ryman)

With the release of the new Aeldari book, lots of attention has been paid to the three new Harlequin Saedaths (pronounced ‘say it however you want, this isn’t a real word it’s an attempt to bolster copyright claims’). All three have extremely powerful sub-faction traits, and normally have better relics and warlord traits than the base book as well. In general though, the competitive crowd has largely gravitated towards Light, with just a few holdouts like Nick Nanavati advocating for Dark or perhaps Twilight. With this article, I will dive into this question by looking first at what each of the Saedaths does on the table, and then at what kind of builds they help support.

Spoiler alert: this army would want Dark (Craftworld Eldar for Beginners)

What do they all do?

Starting with that first question, each of the three Saedaths has a pair of sub-faction abilities that the rest of the sub-faction largely builds on. In short, Light provides you with extra mobility/shooting, and increased durability (sometimes). Dark bolsters your melee capabilities and gives you double price on close combat trades, while Twilight mixes melee boosts with extra combat movement. Already we’re seeing a clear divide, between the two close combat Saedaths on the one hand and Light on the other.

This divide continues amongst the stratagems, where Dark gets to switch off Overwatch and Twilight gets a straightforward auto-wounding strat, while Light receives a much tricksier ‘move after being declared as a charge target’ that can combo with either Heroic Intervention shenanigans or, more simply, can keep your Voidweavers alive and firing. The Relics of Dark and Twilight again help them fight over the midboard, with denying ObSec keeping that plan alive against Knights and Twilight just having a really good sword. Light, on the other hand, basically just gets more durability boosts through expanded Shadowseer auras. Finally, the Warlord traits buck the trend a little by giving Light the best melee tool, Dark a chance for some bonus mortal wounds and Twilight a funky source of extra CP.

Putting this all together, Light has a trait that keeps your models alive and mobile, a strat and relic that do the same, and a good warlord trait for a melee Troupe Master. Dark and Twilight each have a full suite of melee tools, with just a couple of extra utility pieces (denying ObSec or Overwatch for Dark, more combat movement and CP for Twilight). What this means is that our decision-tree actually has two prongs: do we want extra durability/mobility more than close combat tricks, and if not, which set of close combat tricks fits our list better?

Sadly, what you're bringing is probably not these guys (Knitfink)

What are you actually bringing?

That first question is ultimately going to come down to what archetype your Harlequin list fits into. To my mind, there are four main options, plus a sneaky fifth:

-        ‘Whoops All Boats’ (6-9 Voidweavers and as many Fusion Boats as possible)

-        ‘Boats and Bikes’ (the old classic of Fusion Boats and Skyweavers, maybe with some Voidweavers to support)

-        ‘Whoops all Troupes’ (it rhymes! Basically just 90 Players and some support characters)

-        Hybrid (some Voidweavers, Fusion Boats and foot Troupes, potentially with a squad of Bikes)

-        Travelling Players (some combination of foot Troupes, Fusion Boats and Voidweavers in an Asuryani or Drukhari list)

At this point, the second of those is the only one that doesn’t seem competitively viable to me, but I’ve included it in the analysis for completeness sake. What we’re going to look at now is what each of these archetypes actually wants from a sub-faction, and thus how well each of them is supported by each Saedath.

Imagine this, but double it. Don't bother imaging your army, it won't be present for long (Neon Forge Studios)

Whoops All Boats

On the one hand, this archetype actually doesn’t care much about the Light Saedath, because the defensive aspect of the Saedath is largely wasted on boats. On the other hand, it absolutely adores it in every way. An extra 6” of mobility army wide is crazily good and the strat is a godsend for keeping those expensive Voidweaver squads out of combat. Moreover, the other Saedaths simply don’t do much for it. Extra melee capacity always helps, but the smaller Troupes will probably be kitted out for shooting not close combat, so they’ll probably still struggle against tougher enemies. Better to just lean into their roles as gunboats that can also clear chaff and flip objectives in combat, rather than trying to make them something they’re not.

Conclusion: Slam that Light button every time

 

It might not be optimal anymore, but this army still looks awesome on the field

Boats and Bikes

The starting position here is pretty similar to the last archetype, with the extra movement being critical to how the army plays. In fact, things look even more straightforward because Skyweavers synergise incredibly well with Light’s durability buff, and are also super keen on the larger Shadowseer aura it can run. Complicating this a little is the fact that Skyweavers often want to be in combat, and thus enjoy the benefits of Dark and Twilight more than Voidweaver lists. However, I think that the benefit Light brings to Skyweavers is too essential for this to be a real question.

Conclusion: Go into the Light

 

What about if I took the efficiently costed Troops unit and made it my whole army. Does that work?

Whoops All Troupes

Finally we come to an interesting choice. On the one hand, this list is literally all melee (aside from some Death Jesters and maybe a couple of Voidweavers). It’s game plan for killing stuff is largely going to be ‘charge forward and punch it in the face’, so logically one of the two melee Saedaths would be optimal. However, things are actually a bit murkier than that. There’s an argument to be made that with 90 Players and lots of murder characters, you actually don’t need any melee boosts. After all, who’s going to win a brawling trade game against a list like that? Moreover, the list seems most vulnerable to being shot off the table, so Light’s boost seems super applicable. It also cares a lot about its Shadowseer auras (assuming Troupes are meant to have Core…), so that’s another big win. Finally, it makes stacking those Troupes full of melta pistols into a legitimate option, which is probably great to give you a non-combat way of killing stuff. Phoenix Lords in particular are much easier to down when you can shoot them first.

However, I do think that Dark in particular still has a lot of play for this list in the right meta. If you think that you’re likely to play mostly melee trading games with very few shooting lists, then Dark becomes a great choice to absolutely dunk on everything with your ‘fight on death’ trait. I think that until Asuryani and T’au go away this isn’t likely to be the case, but it would have been awesome even two months ago, so keep your eyes peeled. Twilight also seems like an option as a halfway home between the two, being better at consolidating in to tag lots of shooting units while also hitting about as hard as Dark. I’m not sure that’s ever going to be better than bringing either Light or Dark, but I could maybe see it in some metas.

Conclusion: Currently Light, but if the meta shifts back to melee then Dark looks tasty

Boats and bikes AND bois

Hybrid

Here at last we have a list that definitely doesn’t want Light. With just one squad of Skyweavers you can use psychic to keep them safe rather than Light, and you likely only have a few units you want to keep in range of the Shadowseer, so the Shadow Stone is unnecessary. Moreover, with a mix of melee and shooting elements you’re more interested in boosting your big combat squads, and being able to ‘double trade’ with them via fight on death is also really useful. You wouldn’t feel bad about Light if you took it here, but Dark seems like where the money actually is.

Conclusion: Come to the Dark side

 

Say what you want about the new book, but it makes being an Aeldari look awesome

Travelling Players

I think this answer heavily depends on what you’re allying in, and what the core army is missing. Asuryani forces will probably want either efficient trading units (foot Troupes), or cheap and tough models they can fling out onto objectives (Fusion Boats). If you’re leaning into the former, then Dark is an obvious answer, while the latter naturally encourages Light (although Light is definitely worse without Mirror Architect along, so it’s less slam dunk than it normally is). For Drukhari, they might go for either of the above, but are probably most interested in efficient long range shooting options. 6 Voidweavers supporting a sticky Drukhari core sounds like a nightmare (and a list of this style went 4-1 at a big tournament last weekend!), and is clearly going to benefit most from Light to ratchet that mobility even higher.

Conclusion: It depends

Bella is Light Saedath because she's bland, Edward is Dark because he fights while dead, and Jacob is Twilight because he's the third one and no one ever picks him. Yes, I'm running with this metaphor. N, I do not take constructive criticism

A note on Twilight

I really like Twilight, honestly, and every single one of its abilities is legitimately strong. Extra Attacks are great, extra movement is solid, the stratagem is excellent, the warlord trait gives you the CP you desperately want and the relic sword is one of the best relic weapons in the book. Everything here is good, and fits in with the fairly melee-focussed playstyle of the ‘Quins. So why did it never make the cut?

I think the problem is that most metas are either melee-heavy or shooting-heavy. When the preferred way of killing things is hitting them with a chainsword, Dark’s fight on death becomes incredibly strong, way better than anything Twilight can muster. A squad of Repentia or Grey Knight Interceptors or even Vertus Praetors that charges and wipes out a Troupe is liable to take massive damage in return and perhaps even be wiped out itself. This gives you a nigh-unbeatable advantage in a melee-trading meta, and will almost always outshine Twilight letting you move a bit more in combat. On the other hand, if most lists rely on using Crisis Suits and Warp Spiders to gun down their opponents at range, then neither Twilight nor Dark are going to even come close to Light’s durability and mobility buffs.

The problem here is that there doesn’t seem to be a third niche for Twilight; they just seem to be ‘the other melee Saedath’. I’m honestly not sure what the solution is, as they probably don’t need more raw power, but it’s a bit of a disappointment. The other two Saedaths are really well balanced, I believe (one just happens to align better with the meta and supports the criminally under-costed Voidweavers), so it’s pretty sad that Twilight doesn’t live up to them.

Me starting at Twilight Saedath trying to work out what list/meta this was designed for

What do you think? Am I missing the game-changing benefits of those giant consolidation/pile-in moves, or is Twilight never going to make the cut in your lists? Which of the list archetypes I identified above is going to rise to the top, in your view? I’d love to hear your comments, below or wherever you found this.

Until then, may you always have the right Saedath for the meta!