Embrace Your Inner Geek here with the Third installment of my Harlequins Review. This time the generic Stratagems and Enigmas. Check he Tactics Corner for more great articles!
Read part 1 of the review, here.
Read part 2 of the review, here.
Stratagems
The Great Harlequin. For 2CPs a Troupe Master becomes the Great Harlequin and allows units within 6 to re-roll 1s to hit in the fight phase. I want to be excited about this, because I want to convert and paint a Great Harlequin ….. but, for 2 CP’s? If it was 1 CP, it would be great, or if it applied in the shooting phase as well, but for 2 CP’s, and just in the fight phase, in an army that probably wants to spend CP’s on extra Enigmas and has a bunch of other great Stratagems. Hmmmm!
Enigmas of the Black Library. The usual one, 1CP for an extra Enigma, and 3 for 2 extra Enigmas. This is good if the Enigmas are good ….. and the Enigmas are really good!!
Webway Assault. Again, the “usual” one we’ve seen in other books. One CP to put one unit in the webway, 3 to put 2 there. It’s only good if you have units that benefit from it, and I’m not sure Harlequins do. Maybe a big unit of Skyweavers? Also, with the “new” restrictions on deep striking on turn one, I don’t think it’s a great option. However, where I can see it being useful is to “insert” Shadowseers and Troupe Masters exactly where they need to be to “buff” other units.
Prismatic Blur. One CP to get a 3++ on a unit that has advanced. This has very obvious utility and might become the most used stratagem. I expect to use it on a unit I really need to survive, combining with Lightening Fast Reflexes for -1 to hit, making the unit even more resilient. For example, if you’re using Twilight Pathways to boost a Starweaver filled with Fusion Pistols on a long range Fusion Drive By, you could give the ‘weaver a 3++, and make it -2 to hit, and it might just make it home alive (maybe!)
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Hero’s Path. An interesting one. For 2CP’s, if a Death Jester, a Shadowseer and a Solitaire are within 6” of each other at the start of a movement phase (sounds like the start of a bad joke “A Death Jester, a Shadowseer and a Solitaire walk into a bar…”) you can remove them from the table, and then place them back at the end of the movement phase anywhere more than 9” away from enemy models. The obvious use is in your turn 1. Deploy the 3 somewhere out of LOS, and then use the Strat to place each of them wherever you want – the Shadowseer to cast Twilight Pathways, the Solitaire to blitz into a tasty target and the Death Jester ……. well, I’m sure he will find something to do. Interestingly it’s not “your” movement phase, but “a” movement phase, so you can use it in your opponent’s movement phase. So you could set them up as “bait” inviting you opponent to counter deploy, and then use the Strat in their movement phase, leaving them out of position. But, I can’t help feeling I’m missing something here….!
Cegorach’s Jest. For 1CP, you can shoot a unit that falls back from one of your units immediately it finishes falling back. So, run up to a vehicle, shoot it with your Fusions Pistols, charge it, the vehicle falls back, and, as long as it’s still in range, you can shoot it again in your opponents turn. It also works on Skyweavers ….. with Haywire Cannons!!
The Hundred Sword of Vaul. For 1 CP, you can redeploy a unit before the battle begins. You can only redeploy one unit (although Players in a Weaver count as 1 unit) and you can only redeploy into your own deployment zone. This is the Strat to use to line up the perfect Blitz, or the perfect long range Fusion Drive By. I find opponents typically deploy to avoid a charge from the Solitaire, or a Starweaver full of Fusion Pistols. With this Strat, you can hide your Solitaire or ‘weaver anywhere you like, preferably out of los, and then move it the perfect launch spot.
Torments of the Fiery Pit. For 1 CP, in the fight phase, a Character that’s lost a wound earlier that battle round, gets +2 strength and +2 attacks. Makes you want to lose a wound on your Solitaire in overwatch!
Vessel of Fate. For 1 CP a Shadowseer can cast an extra power. Need Smite and Shards of Light for 2d3 mortal wounds, and still boost a Starweaver across the board for a long range Fusion Drive By, well now you can
War Dancers. The Standard “fights again for 3CPs” stratagem, but given how powerful Harlies are in assault, it might even be worth it! Imagine a blitzing Solitaire, attacking 20 times…..! .
Fire and Fade. The same as in the Drukhari and Craftworlds book. This is another way to increase the range of your Fusion Drive By. Move the Starweaver 22”, fire the Shuriken Cannons at a target, Fire and Fade the ‘weaver 7”, and then shoot the Fusion pistols inside, for a 35” effective range.
Dramatic Entrance. For 1 CP, a character can heroically intervene 6”.
Warrior Acrobats. For 1CP Infantry models get an automatic 6” advance. This Strat just might make a footslogging unit of Players viable. It makes their basic move 14”, after which they can still charge. Combine that with Twilight Pathways, and that’s a 35” charge on average dice.
Shrieking Doom. This is the Death Jester Strat mentioned above, for 1CP, the Shrieker Profile of the DJ’s weapon (including Curtainfall, the Enigma Weapons) gets +1 strength, and does d3D. Note, it only works on the Shrieker Profile, not the Shuriken one. Some folks are getting this wrong.
Isha’s Weeping. If a unit loses a wound in a phase, at the end of that phase 1 CP, increases their invulnerable save by one to a max of 3++. Use this when your Troupe loses a Player to Overwatch. Combined with Prismatic Blur, you can have 2 Troupes in combat with a 3++. Or combine it with Torments of the Fiery Pit for a S5 Troupe Master with 7 attacks and a 3++.
Mirthless Hatred. One CP. Reroll hits and wounds against Slaanesh units in the fight phase. Situational, and you’ll probably forget!.
Lightening Fast Reactions. Two CP’s for -1 to hit for any unit against both melee and shooting attacks. Along with Prismatic Blurr, I suspect this is likely to be the most used Stratagem. With these 2 Strats, plus Veil of Tears, any unit in a Harlequins army can be -2 to hit, and have a 3++. With Fog of Dreams, any infantry unit can be -3 to hit against attacks from one enemy unit.
Haywire Grendade. For 1 CP, throw a Plasma Grenade at a vehicle and, if you hit, do d3 mortal wounds.
Non Masque Specific Enigmas
The Mask of Secrets. Plus 1 to the bearers leadership, -1 to any enemy models within 6”. Yet another way to effect leadership if you’re going for a leadership bomb approach.
The Storied Sword. A power sword replacement for Troupe Masters, +1S -3AP and d3D, re-rolls misses to hit. OK, but there are better.
The Suit of Hidden Knives. For every roll of 1 to hit against you in the fight phase roll a dice. On a 2+, the unit attacking you suffers a mortal wound. Interesting, but gets more interesting if you cast Veil of Tears on the bearer, Fog of Dreams on the unit they’re about the charge, and use Lightening Fast Reflexes. So a cumulative -3 to hit, and your rolling a dice on 4’s to hit and below. I have this image of of a Shadowseer jumping out her Starweaver, popping Reflexes, casting Veil on herself, Fog on a unit she’s about to charge, and shouting “come at me bro..!”
Crescendo. A pistol. D6 shots S4 0AP and 2 damage. Yawn…!
The Starmist Raiment. You get a 3++ against shooting and can’t be overwatched if you advance. Great on a Troupe Master for the 3++, but you might be tempted to run this on a Solitaire (“I declare a charge against everything within 12”), if it wasn’t for …..
Cegorach’s Rose. To my mind if you run a Solitaire, this is the “must take” Enigma. It’s an upgraded Kiss that always re-rolls wounds, and does a straight 3 damage on infantry models. This, right here, makes the Solitaire the ultimate character assassin he always should have been. Now a blitzing Solitaire will kill a 5 wound Space Marine character with a 3+, 4++ without breaking sweat. In fact, if you can get in range of 2, he’s go reasonable odds of taking out both of them, splitting his attacks 5 and 5. And if he doesn’t do it first time round, pop War Dancers to give him a second go. Terrifying. My only regret is that it’s only 3 damage on infantry, so he still doesn’t make a Dawneagle Shield Captain sweat …. unless he fights twice!
The Laughing Gods Eye. Auto pass morale tests when within 6”, and have a 6++ against mortal wounds in the psychic phase. You will never see this.
OK, that’s the lot.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Great Harlequin actually allows you to reroll _all_ misses in the fight phase, but it means giving up your reroll wounds aura to get it. If you plan on having several Troupe Masters (and who doesn’t?) it’s a pretty reasonable option, but not a must-take by any means.
Webway Assault is still useful to bring in a large Troupe somewhere (ideally hidden behind a ruin or the like), or as you speculate to bring in a big unit of Skyweavers with Haywire Cannons to cause some havoc on a vehicle. Not as necessary as the Craftworlds/Drukhari versions, since Harlies have lots of other methods of transit, but still very useful to have around.
Prismatic Blur is quite good, although I’m a bit surprised you didn’t mention using it on the most obvious unit: Skyweavers. A large unit of them advancing with a 3++ will not only get to charge into the enemy deployment zone on turn 1, at that point they are plausibly tough enough to stay alive through the ensuing turn so that the rest of your army can do its work. It makes for a fantastic disruption element, all the more so because the Skyweavers can fall back and still shoot/charge normally.
Quote from abusepuppy “Great Harlequin actually allows you to reroll _all_ misses in the fight phase, but it means giving up your reroll wounds aura to get it. If you plan on having several Troupe Masters (and who doesn’t?) it’s a pretty reasonable option, but not a must-take by any means.”
What rules are you looking at? The Great Harlequin stratagem give an additional ability to reroll hits of 1 in the fight phase. you dont give up anything and you dont replace anything.
…Huh, I could’ve sworn that was how it works, but looking at it again you are correct. Now I’m wondering what it was I was thinking of there.
Interesting, I have heard many people saying that if you use Great Harlequin you must give up reroll wounds area, but in my codex, at least, the stratagem gives you will of the laughing god, but it doesn’t say anything about losing choreographer of war. Is there any errata that fix that?
Quote from abusepuppy “Great Harlequin actually allows you to reroll _all_ misses in the fight phase, but it means giving up your reroll wounds aura to get it. If you plan on having several Troupe Masters (and who doesn’t?) it’s a pretty reasonable option, but not a must-take by any means.”
What rules are you looking at? The Great Harlequin stratagem give an additional ability to reroll hits of 1 in the fight phase. you dont give up anything and you dont replace anything.
Has anyone had any joy running footslogging Harlequins? I don’t think it would be possible to do an entire army; however, with some Skyweavers and Troupes in Starweavers to tie up the opponent’s shooting,It could be very possible to run a couple of 12 man Troupes to run across the field or deepstrike in turn two using Webway assault.
Any thoughts?
Don tried it as the GT we were at this past weekend and went 2-3, so it seemed to be a lot more challenging to do. Harlies really want to be a mechanized army.
Funny you should say that…..it’s one of the armies I’m thinking about.
Double Harlies Battalion. One Soaring Spite Battalion, with 3 Troupes and lots of Fusion in Starweavers. One Frozen Stars Battalion with one 12 Player Troupe on foot and two 5 Player Troupes in Starweavers. All of them covered by 6 Skyweavers that you stuff down your opponents throat turn 1.
It will need Shadowseer support – Veil of Tears and Shield from Harm to protect the footsloggers, and Twilight Pathways to get them across the board. Prismatic Blurr and Lightening Fast Reactions will help. The 12 man Troupe and the Skyweavers would both have a 3++, and be -1 to hit, with the option to make one of them -2 to hit, The 12 Player Troupe could be -1 to wound as well from Shield. Both the Troupe and Skyweavers would threaten a 30″ potential charge.
Haven’t tried it yet though! Would be trickier if you’re going second, but you only have 7 drops, so chances are you get the +1 to go first.
The Suit of Hidden Knives always makes me think of a throwaway character Warren Ellis made up for Thunderbolts at one point: Stabbity Jones, and his Knife Suit.
Or Sting as Feyd Rautha in David Lynch’s version of Dune!
Yeah, lol, when you read the books Feyd is supposed to be like 17 or so. Sting was a bit older but oh well.
He was still one of the best parts of that movie. He meshed very well with Lynch’s vision and feel for the setting.
I actually really like David Lynch’s Dune. He hates the movie because he was forced to condense a trilogy (which he had planned) into a single film but it was very solid given the parameters. The casting was amazing too. Agent Cooper IS Paul.
I’m a huge Twin Peaks fan so I might be a bit biased. lol
I am a huge Dune fan too and while the movie certainly took a detour from the book, it was good for what it was. It was what introduced me to the universe as a kid and sense I saw the movie first I loved it. Of course, when I read the book I was laughing at some of the creative license taken, but it’s all good. Dune the book though, man, ScFi royalty. Still my all time favorite. Just incredible.
That shouldn’t be taken as a diss on the rest of the movie. But Sting’s performance has always been one of the standout elements of it to me.
Really great article, just went back and went through the previous bits and really enjoyed. I’m getting ready for my own chronicling of my Harlie army development, tactica etc so really getting my brain going. I hope you continue with more Harlie stuff. I really enjoy the breakdown!