2000pt Batrep: Harlequins vs Ravenguard

[Seahawk]

I played up my second game of 8th last night, taking a pure Harlequins list because their rules are sooooo much better than before and I was just so excited.

 

Here's what I took:

 

Battalion

Troupe Master - fusion pistol, H Kiss

Shadowseer 

Shadowseer

 

Death Jester

Death Jester

Solitaire

 

12 Players - 12 H embrace

12 Players - 5 H caress, 7 H kiss

5 Players - 5 neurodisruptors

> Starweaver

 

6 Skyweavers - 6 haywire cannons, 6 zephyr glaives

 

Voidweaver

Voidweaver

 

 

vs

 

Battalion

Shrike

Cataphractii Captain - lightning claws

 

10 Vanguard - pistol, claw

5 Assault Terminators - 3 claws, 2 thunder hammers

 

5 Scouts - bolters, combi-melta

5 Scouts - bolters, combi-melta

5 Scouts - bolters, combi-melta

5 Tacticals - combi-melta

5 Tacticals - combi-melta

 

Rhino

3 Inceptors

 

Land Raider

 

Storm Talon - assault cannons, skyhammer missiles

 

 

 

We played Tactical Escalation with Search and Destroy deployment. I deployed mostly offensively clustered around the middle, while he started further back, though he infiltrated two units of Scouts near a Voidweaver to try and get first blood. The Vanguard, Inceptors, and characters all started in reserves. Since he finished first he went first.

 

Turn 1 his card was Supremacy, requiring three objective markers. To that end he pushed his rhino up (that held both tactical squads) to hold one of the three, and it definitely got in threat range. The scouts moved up on the Voidweaver, and the other stuff shuffled. His shooting killed a Skyweaver and took 4 wounds off the Voidweaver; a combination of bad saves on bolters and good saves on meltas kept the darn thing alive, kinda. He then charged it and took another wound off. 1 point to him.

 

My turn 1 saw one Troupe hurtle across the table toward his rhino, a massive 23" (12" first advance, 11" second advance via Shadowseer), while I pulled back everything to basically attempt to mop up my table half. Egads I wish I could cast more than once per turn in Matched Play. Shooting knocked off a couple Scouts, but more importantly destroyed the Rhino for First Blood. I then charged the contents with the unit of 12 H embraces, half on each squad. Wiped them out quite handily. The scouts managed to hang on (my rolls were terrible throughout the game), which was a bother, but not really that bad. 1 point to me.

 

 

 

Turn 2 his reinforcements showed up, all on the right half of the table. His entire army fired at the other Troupe of 12 players (with the more expensive weapons, naturally), and wiped them out. I like that it took the better part of 1000 points to do so; in days past, a single unit could gun them down. It still sucked terribly that I just lost half my foot sloggers, but oh well...

 

On my turn, the Solitaire left the Scouts to start heading back into the thick of it. The H embrace troupe launched themselves another 22" toward the right. I misplaced my characters so the Troupe unfortunately wouldn't benefit; that's one of the perils of the psychic powers I'll talk about later. Still, while the scouts were wiped out on my left, the Troupe charged the terminator squad and wiped them out too. 

 

 

Turn 3 was kind of a rinse and repeat. His whole army attacked the Troupe and killed it, and also a Shadowseer that I poorly placed. 

 

To follow along on the rest of the game, the Solitaire Blitzed for 23" and wiped out a unit of 5 Vanguard, then died to bolters because eff my saves. There was some give and take, but by the end of the 5th turn (when the game thankfully ended) I was down to a Skyweaver, Death Jester, and Troupe Master, while he had an almost dead Storm Talon, Inceptors, characters, 4 Vanguard, 5 Scouts, and the Land Raider. Still, it was close, and only because of a wacky new TacO card (defend objective), he won by 2 points, 11-13.

 

My take-aways from this game:

 

- Bikes and speeders enjoy a native -1 to-Hit. This is awesome! Even better when you combine it with psychic silliness to make it even harder to hit them. 

 

- Shadowseers are key units, simply for the movement power if nothing else, but there is else indeed! Where before Heavy Bolters wounded most models on a 2+, now it's a 4+ with her around. Fewer hits and wounds means fewer saves, and there...

 

- 4+ is exactly what they needed to be "dodgy but squishy". I love the new invulnerable save! Interestingly, cover is entirely pointless for every unit but Skyweavers and Starweavers. I didn't realize at first that these units enjoy a 4+ save too, meaning they could get a 3+ while in cover. 

 

- Skyweavers are very durable. 4 wounds each, -1 to hit, 4+ inv save. Plus, they have an assured 22" move and can then assault and cause a lot of damage. I think the haywire cannons are especially a must-take now, as they'll nail the vehicles hard, and infantry still suffer a little more than when using shuriken cannons.

 

- Troupes with large numbers of models are aces. This maximizes any benefits, especially from psychic powers. First turn charges should be expected, and you'll crush what you fight.

 

- While I didn't get to try the other weapons, I was very impressed with the humble embrace. It's basically 4 attacks with a MEq power sword, per model. That's nuts! The Kiss is very expensive at 14 points, and I don't think the D3 damage makes up for the weak S and AP. Despite it being the iconic weapon of the Harlequins, I don't think I'll take it on much anymore, which is quite depressing. Maybe at like 9-10 points I'd consider it. I'm more interested in the Caress and Embrace right now. 

 

- The Neurodisruptor is pretty nifty, though the huge hit on the to-wound roll really bites. Going from 2+ to 5+ on most targets is really quite sad...might upgrade to fusion pistols for added anti-tank, and vastly better effectiveness in killing infantry, and it's a point cheaper what the deuce! Having a range of 6" isn't an issue when you can move 16" in a turn.

[Xenith]

Egads I wish I could cast more than once per turn in Matched Play. 

 

You can. You can only cast each power once per turn, apart from Smite, and the harlie move power has it's own restrictions.

 

In matched play, if you have 2 seers, one can cast pathways + smite, and the other fog of dreams + smite with no problems.

 

How did the jesters perform? I think death is not enough is a very powerful rule, but you need to set it up to work. Having a unit of 6 harlies do some damage to an ork mob, then having the nob die to death is not enough is great.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Xenith

[Prot]

From what I've seen these guys are good... very good, but tactically difficult. I think given time you'll be doing very well with them. I've not played against them in 8th but in 7th I really couldn't believe the amount of special rules they had. It felt like I was playing a different game system entirely.

 

I personally want to try Ynarri without Harlies, even though I understand they're powerful. I just really like the eldar Triumvirate models. lol

[Seahawk]

 

Egads I wish I could cast more than once per turn in Matched Play. 

 

You can. You can only cast each power once per turn, apart from Smite, and the harlie move power has it's own restrictions.

 

In matched play, if you have 2 seers, one can cast pathways + smite, and the other fog of dreams + smite with no problems.

 

How did the jesters perform? I think death is not enough is a very powerful rule, but you need to set it up to work. Having a unit of 6 harlies do some damage to an ork mob, then having the nob die to death is not enough is great.

 

 

I meant I wish I could cast the same power more than once per turn in Matched Play, in which case I'd put Twilight Pathways on every Shadowseer, the power is that good/essential to Harlequins. One drawback though is that since characters are no longer attached, if you cast on a unit, the characters get left far behind, and the unit often outstrips the aura of your characters. Remembering placement will be key to getting them to work right.

 

The Death Jesters were a disappointment, mainly because their only target was the 10 scouts and the Storm Talon, neither of which they really hurt. He never came close with anything I could really put the hurt on meaningfully (from what I see it was a MSU tournament-style build). I feel like more star/voidweavers would be better in their place.

 

However, as noted my dice were atrocious. My saves were terrible, I rarely rolled any rends on the shuriken, I barely rolled even average on my attack dice...and yet I still had him on the ropes until the last turn when he got a huge point swing. It really goes to show how far the army has come in terms of power and awesomeness. 

 

I feel like the Harlequins are now the Space Marines of 8th, where they pretty much ignore many core rules of the edition. Stats? Modify them. Leadership? Mess with it. Combat lock? Ignore it. Run limits? Laughable. Naturally, this feeds into playing exactly how they should. I'll need to get more games in to get a better handle on them.

[Xenith]

Checking up on this, had any more experience playing Harlies, Seahawk?

[Seahawk]

Unfortunately no, but then I haven't gotten much experience playing anything. Nearest game store is a GW with not-good people, and next worthwhile place to go is an hour away, so I haven't gotten nearly as many games in as I used to.