Harlequins and maybe more. H+E+DE?

[Warhead01]

I've just started painting some Harlequins that I bought a little over a year ago. 

This was brought on by a friend asking me if I would trade for his Harlequin army, he is still looking for his 8th edition army nothing he has or had seems to fit his play style this edition. 
I have 20 or more models so far. 

My friend and I were talking about this and it occurs to me that I might like to add Eldar and dark Eldar to my collection. each filling only a single themed detachment. 
Are any of you doing something like that? 

[Calyptra]

I don't play my Craftworlders with my True Kin. It's true that the two groups of Eldar occasionally work together, but most of the time they just try to kill each other on sight.

 

Harlequins on the other hand get to hang out with whomever they please.

 

My adherence to the lore shouldn't stop you from playing whatever you like though.

[CrystalSeer]

I use craftworld and harlequins. The limiting factor is really that with each faction, you need certain things to be effective.

 

Trying to add too much diminishes the effectiveness of the force, so I would focus on only what you really need.

[Calyptra]

Or play Ynnari. Or collect separate armies that can be occasionally combined as Ynnari. Or just allied. You have options.

[Warhead01]

Thanks for the replies. 

 

I started thinking about mixing them before 8th edition thinking that any of the three could be armies or allies in a few combinations. 

I'm massively invested into Orks and have only ever played Dark Eldar once way back in 3rd edition. This let to trading and selling them away after tabling my friends a few few times. 
(They were a fantastic investment which launched the funding for several other armies I would play then sell or trade away for new ones. A nice way to finance the hobby over the years.) 
 

I was thinking about picking a detachment for each of the tree and only collecting what would fit into that detachment 6 elites and a HQ, for example and one troop choice. I like troop units and it opens the door to expanding each toward a more stand alone force. 

I imagine this collection to build armies list that resemble, and you'll have to forgive me here as I can't remember the name, the craft world famed for using all the aspects warriors. so lots of unique units little redundancy. The rule of cool.  

 

 

From the looks of things this would be the long term goal. Short term, this Sunday, I should have what sounds like 100 harlequins, some vehicles and jet bikes.(18 of them.) 
In my excitement I've started painting what I have already. I'm thinking about rebasing them to 25MM hex bases for that "old hammer" look. Which should look nice. 
I kinda expect I'll sell a fair bit of what I can't use to buy what ever grows this collection. I don't really know how many Harlequins should be in a list realistically.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the replies. 

[CrystalSeer]

100 harlequins troupes will play havoc with rising crescendo and shadowseer support.

[Warhead01]

Lol. I'm not sure it exactly 100 troupe so much as 100 harlequins, not counting jetbikes and vehicles. 
Turns out my friend will be over this afternoon for our trade. 

I'm wondering if small squads would be better than large squads. I've kinda planned for one full troupe and one full Skyweavers unit. for two unit with mass for getting stuck in. supporting this with similar units of small size. A sort of Min/Max.  I'm not planning for optimized equipment units yet. I wont even play this army until it's painted. Unless my friend wants a game this afternoon... Knowing him it's a higher than 50% chance. 

 

At this point I have painted 6 mini's and have a good start on the 7th. I'm painting roughly 1 and a half a day. Not counting the bases, I'm still waiting for feed back about using Hex bases from my group.  (Although the more I think about it the more I want to do it and I'm thinking about using them for my next AoS army. )

[CrystalSeer]

In 7th I ran min squads to maximize soulburst and my black guardians, but in 8th I think you really need the larger squads. Critical mass seems to be hit at around 12+ troupes. I say this because you will have a much easier time spreading around buffs from the shadowseers and troupe masters, which are the money makers. It also takes away the enemies ability to spend 2 CP and interuupt your charge phase, likely laying some hurt on a squad.

 

Also, in 7th, you needed transports to get into assault. In 8th, the new deployment zones combined with higher speeds, movement powers, and rising crescendo on t1 make it far more likely that you will be able to pull off t1 charges. You will likely be going first most of the time with fewer units, making for a very fast and decisive force.

[Warhead01]

We did your trade yesterday. I'm officially Space wolves free. 
I have just no idea how many models are in this case. Loads and loads of them. There's also another new in box unit still in the post that I'll get after it arrives.  

What I do know is that there are 5Voidweavers and 1starweaver and 12 skyweavers with another 4 on sprues. There's a ridicules amount of shadow seers and death Jesters in the case as well.  

I hadn't noticed the buffs you mentioned until now (The Index came with the army! and it's basically brand new.)
But it's a good point about the bubbles. 
I guess I should get at least one more transport, I don't yet know how many I'll be able to fit into a 1500 point list yet, I haven't set down to make a list. I know my orks use as many as 3 in my more standard lists. This army is still alien to me as I usually push as many models in my lists as I can fit, quantity over quality. 

 

 

My friend was telling me that I needed to give a troupe a few Kisses and a few caresses...  sounds dirty. 

My wife and I had a good laugh while my friend turned red. Brilliant. This trade is already providing entertainment. 
Good deal. 
 

[CrystalSeer]

There are two schools of thought on how to run troupes: 5-6 in transport or large squads on foot. Starweavers only hold six, so they're better in drive-bys with fusion pistols. If you can get within three inches they're amazing, basically throwing out 5-6 melta shots, but this squad dies pretty quick when out in the open.

 

Large squads on foot have some of their own issues (namely not fitting in transports), but they overcome the Harlequins biggest weaknesses right now, which is dealing with hordes. One of the saddest moments I've come across is when you do your intricate dance of abilities, buffs, and movement to get your unit to exactly the right place, only to have the unit soak the casualties and immediately destroy the squad on their activation. Harlequins are the definition of glass cannon, so if you don't make them hit hard, they will shatter...hard.

 

It took me a while to come to terms with the idea that they don't necessarily need transports to be effective. I come from a mostly space marine background, where if it wasn't in a transport it died fast, and last edition their 5++ didn't do much to assuage me of that position. However, Harlequins have an option marines don't; they can truly base strategies on speed. With proper placement of shadowseers, your 10+ infantry units can assault 16+4d6 inches. On average dice, that is more than 40 attacks capable of charging 30" away; easily a first turn charge. Your skyweavers can go 22+2d6 without veiled pathways, or a rediculous 44+2d6 if you get veiled pathways off. Add that to zephyrglaives and back field fire support units are toast (Remember, flip belts allow you to ignore screening units while moving).

 

With what you describe in your collection, I'd recommend running a mix. Run a few fusion pistol squads to target big nasties from starweavers, have a few large troupes to do your primary assaults, with buff characters as required. Death Jesters won't kill much, but they look really cool and are great for sitting on objectives so your bigger more expensive squads can focus on killing the enemy. Also, since they're characters they can't be targeted normally.

 

A lot of people seem to hate on the voidweaver, but I've had some good times with mine. The big thing to remember if you wan't to run them, is that harlequins don't normally kill through fire alone. They are a close combat army. This means your fire support should not be trying to kill stuff on its own, as much as softening up targets so that your close combat units can finish it off in one round of combat. Give it a prismatic cannon, and use its maneuverability to control space, grab objectives, block assaults etc. Think of it like marines use a rhino, then the 7-12 shots are just a bonus.

 

As far as weapons, I tend to like the S5 -2 weapon. Kiss is really expensive, and S4 means you're taking your amazing attack profile and only wounding half the time. Yes, you will likely have a troupe master that can give you re-rolls, but I like to not rely on that. Keeping units able to move independently increases tactical flexibility.

[Warhead01]

This has been extremely helpful! 
There's quite a bit I hadn't noticed on my first read through. 
A lot of what your saying is how I already play with my Orks.  

 

I've just painted my 10 Harlequin last night. I've ordered the MDF hex bases from Ebay, says they've shipped.  

I've been following the Craft World information being dropped.  I have to say that so far Alatitoc seems like a good choice. This may sound odd but it seems to me be everything frustrating about fighting Eldar. So I like it. I doubt it will be unbeatable , just a bit frustrating to fight against. But I expect that it will have a low model count as a balance. 

 

One of my other reasons for starting Harlequins is that I paint a lot and my friends will tell people , "he's a painter" but most of the time I'm playing my main army which is an eternal work in progress. It's not a very good business card. I'm surprised at how excited I am about this army, I didn't see that happening. 

[CrystalSeer]

It happens. My harlequins happened when I got 2 death masque boxes for $100 US.

 

It's also the only army I've completely painted. Low model count helps alot.

Edited October 21, 2017 by CrystalSeer