Man oh man, with the new Aeldari Codex out in the wild the Harlequins got an update and we’ll be looking over what the army does now, how they play and what the new books means for everyone’s favorite jank jesters.
First and foremost, the Aeldari codex is pretty massive and is the second largest codex right next to Space Marines and inside of the Aeldari codex is a couple of pages worth of rules for the Harlequins. In 8th Edition, Harlequins had their own codex but in 9th edition GW decided to put them back into the Eldar codex instead. Initially I was pretty upset about it, Harlequins were such a fun faction and having them be relegated back into another Codex really rubbed me the wrong way.
Especially when there’s only a grand spanking total of about 18 pages of rules including datasheets. 18 and 1/4 if you include the warlord traits page. But in those small amount of pages is probably some of the best rules writing GW has done for an army out of all 9th edition. So let’s break these things down as an overview and see what jank the army can do nowadays.
With the new rules of Travelling Players you can even soup Harlequins without losing out on rules like Strands of Fate for the Eldar or Power from Pain for the Drukhari. However we’re looking at pure Harlequins today and seeing what they have to offer.
THE CHANGES
First let’s go over what has changed coming from 8th edition Harlequins to 9th.
- Masque Forms are gone and instead there’s 3 Sub Factions to choose from called Saedeth’s
- Only 2 Fusion Pistols can be brought in a troupe squad of 10 or less players, 4 for 11 and more.
- Kisses, Caresses and Embraces have all been squished down to the same profile (+1S, 2AP 2D)
- Pivotal Roles no longer cost Command Points
- Shield From Harm only affects Core
- Luck of the Laughing God rolls for pure Harlequin armies
So there’s some changes here that people might not like. Troupes can only have up to 2 Fusion Pistols so it’s a slight nerf to the beloved Harlequin Fusion Boats where you used to have 5, but the damage of the Pistols have gotten better. Instead of getting 2d6 picking the highest when within 3″ of the enemy unit you’re shooting at, it’s been changed to d6+2 at all ranges. You can also bring 2 Neuro Disruptors as well for a 5man Troupe Squad that’s also been changed to a S6 3AP 1D weapon however if you shoot anything except for a Vehicle unit for every hit that you score you deal 1 mortal wound and the attack sequence ends.
Altogether, you don’t lose out on that much if you want to keep running Clown Pinata Fusion Boats. Taking down big enemy units like Vehicles and Monsters you deal slightly more if not the same amount of damage, but against MSU squads of 5 you’re only killing at max 4 Marines, but that’s fine because your melee output is still strong.
LUCK OF THE LAUGHING GOD
At the start of every battle round you gain a number of dice you’re allowed to have free re-rolls on and you can use it on basically anything that doesn’t require you to roll 2 dice. More specifically you can use them for your hit roll, wound roll, damage roll, saving throw or advance rolls.
The biggest one here are your saving throws. We’ll get into that a little bit later and why it matters so much but just imagine that you can re-roll your own saving throws which is absolutely insane. Depending on what battle size you’re playing (you get 3 automatically in a Strike Force game), you can gain additional re-rolls by rolling **up to** 6 more dice. If every roll is unique i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 you gain up to 6 more free re-rolls. However if you roll doubles you get no additional re-rolls and only use the 3 you gain automatically for being a Strike Force army.
Since you can roll up to 6, rolling 1-3 (I prefer 2) your chances are extremely good to gain an additional 1-3 free re-rolls which is a total of 4-6.
Couple this with having a 4+ invulnerable save army wide along with your Starweavers, Skyweavers and Voidweavers where they’re naturally -1 to hit and on top of that you can’t re-roll any hit rolls against them you’ve suddenly got an extremely durable army that punches back harder than Rocky getting revenge. I’ve had games where I’ve lost only 8 models and this is an army where no model goes past T5. That’s incredibly impressive.
Even better a lot of your army kept access to a 3+ invulnerable saves. The Solitaire always has a 3++, Prismatic Blur can give you another 3++ on an infantry unit and you even have a relic where you can get a 3++ until your next command phase. Sounds a lot like 7th edition with 2+ re-rollable saves doesn’t it?
I cannot even begin to describe the joy of seeing my opponent look at me slow roll my saves, fail one, pick up the dice and say luck of the laughing god for it to pass. This works extremely well if you get turn 2 which is still fine because you have Phantasm (stratagem) to re-deploy 2 units from your army. Going second you can use your dice for your saves and for anything that you didn’t lose, instead of having them go away at the end of the battle round you can use the rest for whatever else you want to do.
PIVOTAL ROLES
Before we move on any further, it’s important to start talking about these Pivotal Roles because SPOILER ALERT your characters are all incredibly powerful now. Even the Solitaire has play and performs exceptionally well. Remember that we don’t have any named characters and with the Solitaire being the only exception you can run a bunch of characters if you really wanted to do some Hero Hammer.
Troupe Masters
Prince of Light (Aura) [20pts.]: +1 to charge rolls for <Saedeth> Core units.
This one’s a stinker. +1 to charge rolls for an army that already moves extremely fast with access to advance and charge doesn’t need the extra +1 to their charge rolls. Leave this at home.
Queen of Shards [25pts.]: Wound rolls of 5+ ignore invulnerable saves
This is really good. In a Dark detachment running this with Cegoroach’s Kiss to re-roll your wound roll and the Player of the Dark WLT, you can fish for some nasty combo’s with a Troupe Master. Spend 1CP for Kiss of Death to make your wounds of 6’s deal an additional mortal wound on top. Now you’re looking at 5’s dealing 1 mortal wound and 6’s dealing 2 mortal wounds. Wound Rolls of 5+ ignore your invulnerable saves as well with 6 attacks re-rolling the wound roll? Sheeesh. All of that at S5 3AP 3D by the way.
Slap the Foot in the Future Warlord Trait on him and pop 1cp for Heroes’ Path to get +2″ to your move characteristic and +1 to your charge, now this guy moves across the board in the blink of an eye with a huge threat in combat. For 1CP you’re giving your Troupe Master a 27″ threat range with Foot in the Future and making a 12″ charge on a 5+.
Veiled King [20pts.]: Always wound on 2+ except when fighting against a Vehicle or Monster.
I really like this one in a Light Detachment with Cegoroach’s Kiss. You can alternatively pop a Storied Sword on the Troupe Master instead to get auto hits that you don’t have to roll and auto wounds on 2+.
Death Jesters
Harvester of Torment [15pts.]: Unmodified 6’s to hit score 3 additional hits.
This is a showstopper. Every game that I’ve played of the new Harlequins the Death Jester is always fighting for MVP. Having a 75pt. model flying around in a Starweaver hunting down characters with a S6 AP2 D2 shuriken weapon (6’s to wound become AP4) if your enemy doesn’t have a bodyguard rule you can make quick use of them. Additionally you can put the warlord trait Favoured by Cegoroach to force a dice roll to a 6. That means you’re probably getting at the very least 5-6 shots on average when you’re hitting on 2’s and if you get any additional 6’s you can go up to 12hits!
You don’t even have to shoot at characters to get value out of this unit. Shooting into chaff is completely fine with their new ability where every time they kill a model it counts as 2 slain for morale purposes. Take this every single time, don’t @ me.
Lord of Crystal Bones [20pts.]: Unless the target is a Monster or Vehicle, when a hit is scored subtract 2″ from their movement characteristic and they cannot fire Overwatch or Set to Defend.
A hold over from their last book, you can still deny Overwatch with the Death Jester just by hitting a unit and when you hit on 2’s you’re going to hit the unit. This comes in handy when you’re charging your fragile Troupes into a unit with flamers, looking at you T’au. Decreasing movement by 2″ is also money. Again, you always take this, even if you don’t have any worrying targets to take Overwatch from, you can always just use him as a way to snipe characters more.
The only time I can see not taking him is when you’re running a Dark detachment since they have a 1CP stratagem to deny Overwatch already.
Rift Ghoul [20pts.]: Opponent doesn’t receive benefits of cover for this attacks and wound rolls of 4+ deal a mortal wound in addition to any normal damage.
Another great upgrade but if you’re only taking 2 Death Jesters I would leave this at home unless you’re in a Dark detachment and then you can just use pivotal role instead of Lord of Crystal Bones. Remember that you only get 3 shots with this guy so he can still swing in a very poor direction.
Solitaire
Prince of Sins [20pts.]: -1 to hit and you cannot re-roll the hit roll
I LOVE THIS. Solitaires are already naturally -1 to hit in melee combat because they have the Harlequins Panoply ability, so this brings the Solitaire up to -2 to hit. That means if your opponent has any way to get +1 to their hit roll it’ll just become nullified and still give you an additional -1 to hit to push them 1 past their Weapon Skill. For even more icing on the cake you can’t re-roll the hit roll at all. With a 3++ and a Blitz move to get across the board quickly and with a Troupe Master with Foot in the Future on the board these guys are going to be in places they really shouldn’t be in.
If you’re taking a Solitaire you take this hands down no questions asked.
Spectre of Despair [15pts.]: Can be placed into Deepstrike roll an additional dice for making a charge discarding 1.
A Solitaire going into deepstrike can make for some really sneaky movement. Remember, these models are on extremely small bases (25mm) and so it’s going to be super difficult screening out the Solitaire. With access to ignore invulnerable saves and dealing 2-3 damage flat at S6 AP3 and hitting on 2’s you can sneak your way into some crazy areas. You’re still relying on a 9″ charge (8″ if you bring a Troupe Master with +1 to charge rolls but that’s a lot of investment) and even with 3d6 dropping 1 it’s not a guarantee. You also can’t make a Blitz move either to give you +2 extra attacks. This is one of the weaker upgrades.
Thirsting Darkness [20pts.]: 6″ auto advance and 3″ extra pile-in and consolidation.
Eh. Again, you’re missing out on your Blitz move to use half of this ability and with only 8 attacks hitting on 2’s at S6 with no access to re-rolls of any kind outside of Luck of the Laughing God there’s really no real value in this ability. You get a 5″ pile-in and consolidation making a total of 10″ of free extra movement but with units being so MSU heavy there will more than likely be nothing you can tag to put you into safety.
Shadowseer
Agent of Pandemonium (Aura) [30pts.]: Subtract 1 from the attack characteristic of enemy units within 6″ of this model.
This is an interesting one but not something I would immediately tech into unless you’re really going for a specific game plan with the Shadowseer. -1 Attack can be an annoyance when you’re already -1 to hit in melee combat and reducing an attack by 1 can just add more insult to injury.
It’s still a solid upgrade and if you’re not interested in the others listed below because it doesn’t fit your playstyle this is completely fine to take.
Gloom Spider [20pts.]: Select one enemy unit within 12″ of this model, until the start of your command phase enemy units cannot benefit from that enemy unit’s aura abilities.
This is interesting, you’re able to turn off a units aura from 12″ away. Unfortunately you wouldn’t be able to stack this with Shadowstone because it’s to a max of 9″ but 12″ turn off an aura is still peaking my interest. Specifically for turning off bodyguard rules. Unfortunately this only activates during your command phase and so you have to somehow bring up the Solitaire within 12″ of your enemy and then wait a turn to use this. It’s interesting, but you’re going to leave this one at home.
Mirror Architect (Aura) [25pts.]: While a friendly <Saedeth> unit is within 6″ of this model each time an enemy unit is selected to shoot when measuring the range to any model in that <Saedeth> unit, the enemy model is considered to be an additional 6″ away.
Veil of Illusion is back and just as good as it was before. This is going to stop flamers from hitting your units and pairs incredibly well with a Light wine. Forcing people to be within 6″ of your army to even hit past a 4+ is brutal. This especially screws with T’au just because Mont’ka becomes harder for them to get into range of on Turn 1 and then harder as the game goes on. They would have to be within 12″ to get their Mont’ka benefits and then if they’re Farsight Enclaves markerlights are applied within 6″ instead.
This also works with your Psychic Power Fog of Dreams where you select a unit and they can’t be shot at unless it’s the closest unit or an enemy unit is within 12″. That means you would have to be within 6″ to even shoot at the unit you Fog of Dreamed making it incredibly hard to kill off a 10man squad of troupes moving up the board.
Final Thoughts: Your characters are all fire and each one provides so much utility for your army that is unmatched with any other army out there right now. With all the movement shenanigans and protection you can apply to these units running 5+ Characters really isn’t that big of a deal with Assassinate when they all just do SO DANG MUCH AND THEY’RE OBNOXIOUSLY HARD TO KILL.
SAEDETH
No longer do we have Masque Forms like Dreaming Shadow, or Veiled Path, now we have these subfactions called Saedeth’s. At first glance it might look a bit jarring that the army went from having 6 subfaction options all the way down to a whopping 3 but they’ve given us the best of the best here and the depth is still really high. So let’s break down each one and dive into what their strength’s and weaknesses are.
What’s great about these Saedeth’s are that each one is good. Unlike other armies where there are dud sub factions (what does the Tyranid Gorgon Hive Fleet even do?), these three have so much depth and different playstyles you’ll have fun making different lists to really bring out the power of the Harlequins no matter which one you choose.
You want to be hard to hit and deny people points? Go with Light. You want to be hyper aggressive? Go with Dark. You want more attacks and tie things up in combat? Go with Twilight. No matter how you want to play the army, each one feels viable to take you for at any event and your units can be customized in order to fit your needs which feels amazing.
Light Saedeth
If you enjoyed the Soaring Spite playstyle of the last edition, you’re going to love Light. You move fast, you’re extremely hard to hit and with all your movement shenanigans you can pull off some crazy combos and tricks.
Characterisation: Blaze of Light
-Unmodified hit rolls of 1-3 fails irrespective of any abilities fails when the attacking model is 12″ away.
-When you advance or make a normal move you count as having Remained Stationary during the shooting phase.
This is incredibly powerful. Not only can you advance and shoot without penalty which was already powerful and the sole purpose you would pick Soaring Spite in their last codex, but you’re also getting Transhuman to your hit rolls. That means you’re making Custodes hit on 4’s with their Salvo’s and T’au is hitting on 4’s as well. Couple this with your boats and bikes where you cannot re-roll your hit rolls against them what they roll is what they get. On top of that you still have Luck of the Laughing God re-rolls to re-roll your saves. Wow.
With Lightning Fast Reactions you can even make T’au hit on 5’s with no re-rolls. If you don’t think that’s powerful by itself, I don’t know what else to say to you except good luck trying to remove 2-3 3man units of Voidweavers at T5 and 6 wounds.
Warlord Trait: Player of the Light
-6″ heroic intervention
-+1S, +1A when you charge or perform a heroic intervention
A great Warlord Trait that gives your Troupe Master more bite. The best loadout for him in this detachment is Player of the Light, Cegoroach’s Kiss to re-roll your wound rolls and the Pivotal Role Veiled King to wound on 2+ against anything except Vehicles and Monsters. This gives you enough bite in melee combat while still being as durable from further away.
Relic: Shadow Stone
-Increase the range of your aura’s be 3″
-Increase the range of your psychic powers by 3″
Another hold over from last edition making your Shadowseer’s just as strong as they used to be with an insane 9″ aura to apply -1 to wound to core thanks to Shield from Harm and reduce the range of their weapons by 6″ thanks to Mirror Architect.
Stratagem: Capricious Reflections [1cp]
-When a Harlequin unit is selected as the target for a charge if it’s not within Engagement Range it can make a Normal Move of up to 6″ The same unit cannot Overwatch or Set to Defend and your opponent can select new targets.
Jeeze. Tactical Obliqua was already such a good stratagem that costed 2CP, this only costs 1 for half the movement which is amazing. This has so much play, you can use it to get into a Transport since it’s a normal move. You can use it in combination with Dramatic Entrance to move 6″ and then heroically intervene 6″ for a 12″ threat range on your opponent’s turn. If your opponent can’t move through walls you can just pop the unit behind a wall because of Panoply and Fly. If you don’t want an opponent to get on an objective you move the unit closer and move block their charge. Deepstrike charges are literally impossible to make because you can use this on ANY unit. If you don’t want a unit to bad touch the rest of your army you can sling the target up to move block their charge and then Feigning Retreat next turn to fall back and shoot.
So much value out of just 1 Command Point I love it.
Thoughts: This Saedeth is going to give T’au and Custodes a run for their money. If you put everything in Boats or Strategic Reserves these armies are going to have a tough time cracking open your pinatas. Having Custodes hit on 4’s drops the efficiency of their Salvo Launchers and with no access to Re-Rolls plus needing line of sight and your Luck of the Laughing God re-rolls for your saves on a 4++ is disgusting and it’s even worse against T’au since you can push them to a 5+ for just 1CP.
Here’s a list I’ve been playing around with in this detachment with extremely flexible secondaries in Deadly Performance/TTL, Engage/Strangle, Warp Veil/Interrogation, Retrieve Nachmund Data/Banners.
Dark Saedeth
If you want to move fast and get up in your opponent’s face while ignoring invulnerable saves while catching people off guard with how mobile you can be this is your Saedeth. Skyweavers lose a bit of resilience here, but you still have a lot of threats on the board.
Characterisation: Dark Deeds
-Fight on death if you haven’t already fought this phase
-Increase AP by 1 for melee attacks
This is pretty gnarly and a whole lot of fun to play. Giving your troupes an additional AP when your lineup of weapons are AP2 to push it to AP3 you’re putting Custodes to a 5+ and a whole of other things to a 6+ at 2 or 3 flat damage if you spend the CP for it. It’s also where the Troupe Master shines the most where running a smashy variant can really put the hurt on something that the Troupe Master has no right in hurting at all.
Fight on death is also super powerful in this army. Purestrain Genestealers hate this especially when you can ignore their invulnerable saves to the point where even running a squad of Troupes with Blades could come in handy to get a large amount of attacks at AP2.
Warlord Trait: Play of the Dark
-Unmodified wound rolls of 5+ deal a mortal wound in addition to any other damage.
The Troupe Master loves this. Put the relic Cegoroach’s Kiss on him which still gives him the Kiss keyword so you can still use the Kiss of Death Stratagem, Queen of Shards Pivotal Role and Foot in the Future and you’ve got a beat stick character that you can always pop a 3++ on with Prismatic Blur. You can even game the system a bit when he’s in combat if you know you’re not going to die and just take damage by saying you’ll take your save on your regular armor of 6+. That way you can spend 1 CP for Torments of the Fiery Pit to constantly push him to S6 AP3 D3 with 7 attacks.
Relic: The Ghoulmask
-If this is a non-psyker you can make a deny the witch test. If this is a Psyker you can attempt to deny an additional power.
-Enemies within 3″ of this model lose the Objective Secured Ability.
Taking away objective secured can be rough, but at the same time it doesn’t make much sense to use this relic when this Saedeth wants to be aggressive. If you’re not removing the models you need to off of an objective this could come in clutch, but at the same time you should be doing that in the first place.
Stratagem: The Silken Knife [1cp]
-Select an enemy unit you wish to charge, it cannot fire Overwatch or Set to Defend against any Dark unit attempting to charge it.
This is a reason why you wouldn’t take a Death Jester with Lord of the Crystal skulls where you can just shut off someone that would want to Overwatch you. This is also better than the Lord of the Crystal Skulls since you can use this on Vehicles and Monster units so you can protect your army a little better. Scythed Hierodules hate this stratagem and the fact that you can apply this Stratagem on literally any unit in the game and it’s not tied down to a 30″ gun (granted it’s going to be hard to hide from it) you can get to more harder to reach areas.
Thoughts: This is a Saedeth that you want to take if you’re facing off against a high invulnerable save meta. It’s also perfect fighting into the Mirror Matchup forcing enemy Harlequin Boats to not take a save. With only being Strength 4 at best in melee combat for your Troupes, you need this if you want to do anything in Melee Combat. This is can also become a super character heavy army with a possibility of running 2 Troupe Masters as well for more Melee prowess. Webway gates are also ideal here so you can protect your big squad of Troupes from those Pesky fish people.
Twilight Saedeth
If you liked the Frozen Stars build from last edition, this is your jam. You also get an additional benefit here for more movement and when you pile it all together you’ve got a mobile army that can become even more mobile.
Characterisation: Twilight Falls
-Add 1 to your attacks characteristic if you charged, were charged or performed a heroic intervention.
-Add 2″ to your Pile-in and Consolidation move.
Getting shock assault means you can run a very cheap squad of 10-12 Troupes with blades, a single Kiss and Embrace (58-68 attacks) to nuke a unit with 12 mortal wounds from Kiss of Death and A Deadly Embrace. That’s enough to make even Tyranids blush in Crusher Stampede with Breaking Through.
Additionally having a 5″ Pile-in and Consolidation you’re moving a whopping 10″ with a unit that can get a 3++ with Prismatic Blur and -1 to hit in combat making them very frustrating to remove from the board otherwise you’re going to be constantly tagging things and applying Embrace and Kiss of Death every single time.
Warlord Trait: Player of the Twilight
-If this Warlord is on the battlefield, roll a D6 for every command point you or your opponent use and on a 6 gain 1 command point.
-If this Warlord is on the battlefield, when you roll 4 or more dice for a Luck of the Laughing God roll gain 1 command point.
Behold, the only way to generate CP for the army. The second part of this warlord trait is very funny and makes for a great way to play with your opponent to make sure they’re having a good time. It’s thematic and at the same time a blast to play around with, but the first part is what you take this Warlord Trait for. Harlequins still eat up a lot of Command Points and this helps blunt that a little bit especially since it activates for every point spent and not for every stratagem used.
Relic: Twilight Fang
-S+2, AP3, D2
-Add the current battle round number to the bearer’s attack characteristic.
Another holdover from the last book that’s a decent relic. Beat stick Troupe Master and that’s pretty much it.
Stratagem: Malicious Frenzy [1cp]
-Autowound on unmodified hit rolls of 6.
Okay, this is pretty bonkers for Harlequins. Being Strength 4 on your troupes is rough, but being able to spend 1CP to basically bypass a bit of your wounds is huge when you’re AP2 D2 with your weapons and even better when you’re going against T8 units. For 1CP this makes your units just a tad bit more resilient but without any access to re-rolls for your hits what you see is what you get. This can either roll super hot or just be a complete dud, just what Cegoroach would want.
Thoughts: Being able to auto wound on 6’s for only 1CP makes this Saedeth exceptionally strong. Big blobs of troupes are your staples here and running small units can really punch above their weight class with only 1 command point. With Player of the Twilight you’re also getting some CP regen and with all the other tools in your army this Saedeth is a very fun and interesting choice to bring to the table. This can get really CP heavy, so having that regen is a must in this detachment if you’re looking to constantly mortal wound bomb and slap your opponent up and down the board.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Harlequin section of the codex is profoundly in-depth with combos and jankness that people who played Harlequins in 8th edition are going to fall in love with. Being able to shrug off damage from the big bad’s is nothing to scoff at and playing games with the Harlequins isn’t an easy feat either. There’s so many jank shenanigans you can pull that keeps the floor at a medium level but the ceiling as big as a 3 story mansion in California.
You have the Light Saedeth to be resilient and a nuisance to your enemy, Dark Saedeth to be aggressive and slap hard into high invulnerable saves, and the Twilight Saedeth to tie things up in combat while hitting hard and scoring points. If you haven’t read through the codex or felt like the Harlequins didn’t have enough to play with running as a pure detachment, I highly suggest you give the book another read over while you rip the arms off your past players and paint up some new ones.
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