Tuesday Night Fight Pre-Game Analysis: Harlequins vs. Raven Guard

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It’s a samurai showdown! Raven Guard vs. Harlequins in a live 40k battle report! Be sure to join us on our Twitch channel at 7pm PST for the fun.

We’ve got some interesting lists for you tonight, ladies and gents. Ninja Space Clowns vs. Sneaky Space Marines! Who will prevail?

We’re practicing for Adepticon and will be playing scenario 2, Divide and Conquer.

Primary Detachment:

Harlequin Cegorach’s Revenge Formation

1 Solitaire

3 Death Jesters

3 Shadowseers lvl 2, one has the Mask of Secrets

2 Units of 2 Skyweavers with Haywire cannons

3 x 5 man troupes with 3 Caresses, 1 Kiss and Haywire grenades on the Master

1 Voidweaver

Corsair Detachment:

Hate Bringer Coterie

Prince with Shadowfield, jetbike, void blade, Armor of Misery

Voiddreamer with Shadowfield, lvl 3,

3 Corsair Bikes with Scatterlasers

Dark Eldar Formation:

Scalpel Squadron with 2 Venoms and 10 Wracks with Splinter cannons on the Venoms.

Deliverance-lost-2_-_Primarch_Corax

Raven Guard 1850pts

Talon Strike Force

Battle Demi-Company Raven Guard

Chaplain Auspex 1 95

Tactical Marines M.Gun, C.Melta 5 90

D.Pod – 1 35

Tactical Marines M.Gun, C.Melta 5 90

Rhino – 1 35

Tactical Marines M.Gun, C.Melta 5 90

Rhino – 1 35

Attack Bike M.Melta 1 50

Devstator Squad L.Cannon x 4, 5 150

Shadowstrike Kill Team Raven Guard

Scouts – 5 55

Scouts – 5 55

Vanguard J.Packs, Fist x 2, L.Claws x 4, S.Shield, x 2, 10 290

Inquisition Detachment

Coteaz – 1 100

Skyhammer Annihilation Force Ultramarines

Assault Squad Vet Sarge, P.Axe 5 110

Assault Squad Vet Sarge, P.Axe 5 110

Devastator Squad H.Bolter x 4, 10 180

Drop Pod – 1 35

Devastator Squad Grav Cannon x 4, 5 210

Drop Pod – 1 35

Totals 73 1850

What do you all think? Who will come out on top?

author avatar
Reece Robbins President
Co-founder of Frontline Gaming, and creator of the ITC, Reece Robbins has been a pillar of the tabletop community for over two decades. From developing Blood Throne to launching industry-leading hobby products and major events like the LVO, his career is defined by innovation and a lifelong passion for gaming since the 80s. Today, he remains a very active community organizer and business leader dedicated to the growth of the hobby.

30 thoughts on “Tuesday Night Fight Pre-Game Analysis: Harlequins vs. Raven Guard”

      1. I think it would be better it he went with the Masque detachment. Cegorach’s Revenge is too restricting, forcing you to take so many elites. Not worth it just to re-roll 1s on saves in my opinion, better to have the flexibility. Harlequins can wreck some face but it’s going to be extremely hard against an army that can deep strike and charge (or just shoot them to death).

  1. With the Scalpel Squadron he can null deploy actually. That formation will deep strike two Venoms turn one and then there are FnP wracks probably in cover that will be somewhat sturdy. If Josh gets first turn though and has to put them out there, he can’t null deploy without risking a turn one tabling. Null deploying would be rough though, setting assault back to turn 3.

    He can probably put the Cloud Dancer Prince with his 2++ shadowfield save out there though… in a unit of Skyweavers. And the Solitaire. I’d probably just deploy it all and hope for the best.

    Cegorach’s Revenge is IMO a mediocre formation. The main bonus is getting a re-roll on 1s to save, however mathematically it’s not much help on 5++ Harlies. The Solitaire gets buffed nicely though from it. The drawback is too many flimsy expensive elites and only three transports trying to cross the map.

    The Corsair Prince with Void Sabre with a couple Harlequin bikes will slaughter anything that gets near it. And that’s far from the end of the tricks.

    I actually think this is an interesting list.

  2. Ill that guy and pick against Reece. I am on a Harlequin high right now and think the Jesters can make it difficult by sniping important characters out. Plus the Harlequins have a lot of units to counter all of the units of the RG.

    I think it can be interesting, and first turn plays a big role in that. If the Harlies null deploy than Reece can get up on Maelstrom quick, so it should be interesting, Ill be watching this one!

  3. This is a really close match up. I am going Harlequins, but they really need to go second. The counter assault, coupled with the -5 LD reductions Psychic Shrieks (or -7 Death Jesters Fall Back any direction), is crushing to the RG strategy.

    Sure, the Harlies will have to sacrifice some for the show to go on, but the crescendo that follows will be deafening.

    1. He has an ability called “Warlord” in his text, but there is no explanation of what that is or means. I think it’s reasonably safe to assume that you can choose your warlord as normal, especially since Allied detachments aren’t legal to pick a warlord from anyways.

      1. “An Eldar Corsair Detachment must include a Corsair Prince and may not include more than one Corsair Prince. A Corsair Prince must always be the army’s Warlord”. From the Corsair Prince entry. So I would say that there is in fact an explanation of what the Special Rule entry of “Warlord” means. The detachment listed here is a Corsair Fleet Raiding Company with only one Coterie though, not an Allied detachment, so I’m not questioning the list’s legality, only calling the Harlequin detachment the Primary Detachment.

        The weird thing is that on page 152 it says “The Eldar Corsair army list may only use Combined Arms, Allied Detachments or Corsair Ffleet (…).”, which contradicts the Prince entry as per RAW you can’t ever take Corsairs in an Allied Detachment (Prince having to be the WL + not allowing Allied detach of the same faction as the Primary detach)

  4. If the prince was from an Allied detachment he cannot be warlord, and he would probably get to ignore that rule, however he is NOT an allied detachment he is a Cordsir detachment so the prince must be the warlord.

    He has the ability as Warlord because he in fact MUST be the Warlord, as indicated under his text, I don’t see why that is ambiguous.

    1. Actually it says that “A Corsair Prince must always be the warlord in an army containing multiple Corsair detachments,” which this one doesn’t.

      1. You missed a punctuation mark there. The sentence stating that it must be the Army’s Warlord is another one than the one explaining how to include several Princes/Corsair detachments.

  5. Harlequins have to be in Starweavers to mitigate going second or getting seized on. A Masque detachment would be a better fit as it would allow a Harlequin list to squeeze everything into transports. Taking two scalpel squadrons may be better as the leadership penalties stack when the units are from different detachments, and you get nore board coverage.

    1. Brodrick Gaines

      You can get away going second by deployment which would mean you have to deploy very conservatively and look to impact the game later than turn 2. But getting seized is something that depending on the ranged firepower would make it very dicey indeed.

  6. Brodrick Gaines

    I am not really for sure why you would null deploy this list. You deploy the Harlies on the board. The reroll one’s is actually pretty good but not for sure worth the extras you have to purchase vs Masque detachment.

    But having played them for a bit is why would you deep strike right next to them without flamers abound. Anything you drop close to them will be dead turn 1 if they are going second. If they go first they have full protection 9 warp charge to get Veil up on the harlies and any IC’s tied to it.

    All the heavy weapons are useless against Harlies really. I like the Wrack formation though interesting way to guarantee stuff turn 1 but avoid shooting if going 2nd.

  7. It would depend on what you deep strike. The Vanguard Vets in a Shadowstrike Kill Team and the Assault Marines in a Skyhammer can both assault the turn they arrve by deep strike. the high intiative of Harlies is negated by I 10 HoW. Pretty rough day at the office for Harlies.

  8. Interesting how the harlequin player who won tournaments using ultramarines skyhammer was unaware of grav-amps on devastators and didn’t know how the quasi-pinning rule worked…

    1. He always took his skyhammer with multimeltas for dropping knights and VSGs, so the pinning really didn’t come up that much.

      Also after playing skyhammer probably hundreds of times, I never realized it was any different than a pinning check on 3D6 with some extra juice thrown in…

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