Kill Team Tactica: Harlequins

[Orpheus108]

Greetings All,

So have many people come across fighting Harlequins in KT yet, I myself haven't yet but we have a player that loves them and after reading them they seem so what hard to take down with 4++ save, no falling damage and a charge on 3D6 with choosing 18" enemy model instead of 12", 8" move

Your looking at around 8-9 models per KT, they can get in your face pretty quick and make short work of your best models using the Harlequin's Embrace and Caress.

What have you guys and girls come across

Cheers

Edited September 17, 2019 by Chaplain Dosjetka
Edited title.

[Kierdale]

Damn they sound good!

 

 

 

 

Note to self: load up on flamers if facing murderclowns.

[Orpheus108]

That's what I'm thinking, plague spewer and plague belcher to take them down.

 

HATE those damn murder clowns

[Lucien Eilam]

Your looking at around 8-9 models per KT, they can get in your face pretty quick and make short work of your best models using the Harlequin's Embrace and Caress.

 

6 models is more likely. If you took 8, you couldn't afford 1 Embrace and 1 Caress to share between the whole team.

 

They're Harlequins – they can dish it out but can't take it and can only really cause damage at point blank range. An army-wide 4++ is great in 40k, in Kill Team a single shot getting through could cripple your entire plan. They really don't like mortal wounds, or xenophase blades, or even just sheer weight of fire. 

 

Ideally, they never want to be in anything's line of sight unless they're charging it with a fistful of monofilament. Potentially devastating, but not easy to use.

[Tonius]

 

Your looking at around 8-9 models per KT, they can get in your face pretty quick and make short work of your best models using the Harlequin's Embrace and Caress.

 

6 models is more likely. If you took 8, you couldn't afford 1 Embrace and 1 Caress to share between the whole team.

 

They're Harlequins – they can dish it out but can't take it and can only really cause damage at point blank range. An army-wide 4++ is great in 40k, in Kill Team a single shot getting through could cripple your entire plan. They really don't like mortal wounds, or xenophase blades, or even just sheer weight of fire. 

 

Ideally, they never want to be in anything's line of sight unless they're charging it with a fistful of monofilament. Potentially devastating, but not easy to use.

 

 

Totally agree with you !!

But they seem nice to play indeed :)

[Orpheus108]

They look like fun to play and I've got 2 boxes of them still on the sprue but I like my big guns too much and I'm way too scared to paint them to do them justice.

 

But I'm thinking of the best strategies to take them with DG, using poxwalkers as shields and every turn use cloud of flies tactic on a guy at the rear so to draw them in closer to charge them or hit with a spewer.

[Tonius]

Am I correct in my understanding :

The antigrav belt allows players to move through terrain as if it wasn’t there ?

So you’re able to go through a 5’ building ?

[Panzer]

Am I correct in my understanding :

The antigrav belt allows players to move through terrain as if it wasn’t there ?

So you’re able to go through a 5’ building ?

 

That's right. Better don't try to hug terrain since they can just jump over it and deny you Overwatch. Open terrain is your friend against Harlequins.

 

High rate of fire weapons and flamer weapons should do the trick. For flamer you want to get as close to them as possible before they charge so they have to charge from within your flamer range (keep in mind they can't just move back and charge the same turn in Kill Team!).

 

If they manage to charge one of your models just say goodbye to it tho. 4A S4 AP-3 or S5 AP-2 hitting on 3+ is no joke and they can even turn one of them into a Zealot specialist (+1S +1A the turn they charge) and another one into a Combat specialist (+1A).

The only saving grace here is that they do only 1 damage in melee so you have to roll only a single Injury Roll per player so without any Flesh Wounds it's a 50/50 chance to survive and strike back. Unless they take Harlequins Kiss which lets them have only 4A S4 AP-1 but gives them D1d3 so let you do 1d3 Injury Rolls taking the highest result.

[Tonius]

Thanks for the answer !

 

I got it right so :)

I'll paint an Harlequin Kill team of  players with  3 Harlequin kiss, 2 caress, so I'll be able to present KT with 4 styles (thought never more than 9 guys per team):

Tactical marines, DW, tyrannids and Harlequins

[Orpheus108]

Thanks for the info sfPanzer

[N1SB]

I was at my Warhammer Store today.  Someone tried a Harlequin Kill team of 1 Leader + 7 Harlequins, with upgrades just to reach 100 pts.

 

They really are that powerful in Kill Team, which I realised when I actually played this new ruleset.  It's very different than previous Kill Team rules.

 

It's because the Kill Team ruleset negates some of the traditional counters.  The 2' x 2' area makes their huge charge range or ability to ignore cover very advantageous, and they use both at the same time, so as soon as you try to kite them you're already on the edge or the map.  They're supposed to be glass cannons where if they don't kill you outright you'll kill them, but the new flesh wound system only gives you a 50/50 chance for a wound to actually kill (it's ANOTHER 4+ roll you gotta make after their 4++ save).

 

And I agree mass fire, like from Guardsmen, was usually a deterrent.  However, remember that there's plenty of cover, and when you charge it's against 1 or 2 Guardsmen at a time, you don't get an entire squad's overwatch.  Then, the new mechanics actually penalise horde armies with things like nerve tests.  Let's you take 20 Guardsmen, but after about 5 or 6 die, which is very possible when facing 8 Harlequins, the Guardsmen can start losing their nerve and freezing up, which only lets the Harlequins kill them easier, which leads to more deaths and others lose their never; it's a stun-locking vicious cycle.

 

For those that faced Harlequins in Shadow War: Armageddon, where they were seen as very, very powerful, they're even better in Kill Team.  We're at the point where many of us are making hard counter lists to this very basic 8 Harlequins list because it's a top tier team that we foresee many players putting together, and so far we were thinking of Astra Militarum with the max amount of models that can carry Flamers (as per above).

 

None of this is me raging, since I didn't play that guy.  It's just me acknowledging the meta is such a way because of some weird rules that we have to adapt.

Edited August 5, 2018 by N1SB

[Panzer]

Keep in mind that they have to roll more Injury dice if you reduce their wounds to 0 with a multi-damage weapon. Also each Flesh wound adds +1 to any Injury roll so focussing a model down is recommended.

 

Also while Hordes can easily get forced to fail Nerve tests, Elite teams have the problem that they can easily get forced to make Break tests which can be much more devastating. Both kind of teams have their up and downs. Harlequins are definitely strong but if you can lure them into some open space you should be able to focus them down quite nicely and force tests on them instead.

[Halfpint100]

Has anyone used quins yet in kill team? I was planning to build and run:

 

leader (embrace and pistol) red and bone paitn scheme, 14 points

medic (blade and pistol) troupe leader body on different legs with white/ grey cloak and a red cross, 12 points

vet (embrace and fusion) lots of equipment on him, unsure how to paint 17 points

combat (caress and pistol) red and orange scheme, 15 points

player (caress and pistol) range of greens, 15 points

player (caress and pistol) lots of blues, 15 points

player (blade and pistol) purples, all the purples, 12 points

 

comes to 100 points on the dot. Any tips from anyone before I commit and build this? 

[Fidras]

I'm curious to how you harlequin players have been dealing with Horde-style armies in Kill Team.

 

Against small, elite forces like Deathwatch, etc, it feels very much like a cat and mouse game, staying out of line of sight until you can get into charge range then start the close range killing.  But at my local store, we have lots of players that just field lists with something like 15-20 bodies in a 100 point kill team.  Those large lists are really good at any mission where weight of bodies is a factor (hold objectives, points for moving models off the board, etc.)

 

I'm not sure the best approach to tackle them with a small elite melee force.  Cultist/Orc shooting may be terrible, as is Poxwalker melee, but if they roll enough dice eventually something is going to get through.

 

I'm also not positive how to charge them without murdering whatever is charged, and then get shot up - or if I get to go first during a turn i'm locked in melee, and they just move away when the move second, leaving the clowns out in the open.

 

Any thoughts from more experienced players?

[Mordekiem]

I'm also not positive how to charge them without murdering whatever is charged, and then get shot up - or if I get to go first during a turn i'm locked in melee, and they just move away when the move second, leaving the clowns out in the open.

 

Any thoughts from more experienced players?

I'm not sure I'd say I'm experienced yet, but have been reading up on things a lot and have played a few games. I think you want to murder whatever you charge.  Getting locked in melee is generally bad for you. 

 

Ideally each turn you want to charge, wait out the shooting phase, then murder things in the fight phase.  Rinse and repeat each turn to maximize your offensive output and minimize the ability for the bad guy to shoot you.

 

If you get stuck in melee, then you can't repeat this each round. Regardless if you go first or second your options are limited and the enemy will probably fall back and shoot you.  Even if you go second you can't charge again.  You stand still or fall back.  A lot of people get this wrong.  pg 22 states "..if that model started the movement phase within 1" of an enemy model, it cannot make a normal move."  So depending on the flow of the battle, mission, etc even if you go first you might just want to fall back and prepare a charge for the next round.

 

I admit this is fairly limited experience and I am still learning all the intricacy's.  But from a theoryhammer viewpoint it should work.

[Axineton]

Been reading this thread with great interest and has me wanting to do a harlequins kill team now!

[Orpheus108]

It will interesting to a harlequins force with a commander and see how it changes, especially with a death jester, giving the harlequins a bit of range now which they needed. They may have a bit of staying power and make people think twice about trying to lure them into the open to take them out in HTH and leaving them open to a death jester to pick them off.

[theHiff]

At first I wasn't so sure about the Veteran specialist until I noticed the level 3 ability Survivor "You can add 1 to saving throws for this model."  A 3++ save that can be combined with Prismatic Blur which gives a 3++ when advancing with their wording becomes a 2++, I think I would advance with this guy up the middle armed with a Fusion Pistol. The opponent can then ignore him or not, both work here for us. If they ignore him he can be readied by his level 2 Tac and then fire with the fusion pistol, hopefully at a nice juicy target. If they don't ignore him his 2++ should make him eat quite a lot of shooting leaving the rest of you small team of murder clowns un-shot up. If he gets charged the 2++ lasts through the whole turn making him likely to survive whatever charges him to get his hits in. Going to see how this works tomorrow at league.

[Orpheus108]

Sounds good @theHiff, let's us know how it goes. I'm reading the Commanders book now and with the brief flick through first, the Death Jester is looking like alot of fun to field.

 

Any other Harlequins players thinking about using a Death Jester Commander or have used one, what speciality do you use for them?

Edited November 2, 2018 by Orpheus108

[theHiff]

So I tried the Vet at league the other day and it was a screaming success until it wasn't. I had scouted him up the board then used his first turn movement tac then made a 14 inch charge into a clump of guardsmen. Then he ate  a Tempus Scion power fist in the shooting phase because of the guard order Fix Bayonets(?) that lets one fight in the shooting phase. Did not see that coming, not at all. Anyways still managed to pull out a win in a close game. Hoards can be a struggle but are definitely doable.

[Orpheus108]

So I'll got my harlequins out of the box ready to cut and put together and I believe I have an old school metal death jester somewhere to use as a commander, just don't know which specialty to give him, want to make maximum use of his shieker cannon. I love the death jester, just a great character over all

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

I've only just skimmed Commanders but I'm tempted to use Stealth with my Death Jester. Makes him difficult to target while keeping him mobile enough to threaten a lot of the board.

[Axineton]

Anyone tried them out in Elites yet?

[Claws and Effect]

Anyone tried them out in Elites yet?

They didn't actually get anything new in Elites.

[brimmstorm]

 

Anyone tried them out in Elites yet?

They didn't actually get anything new in Elites.

 

You get the new Masque bonuses though. 

 

Does anyone take Fusion Pistols on their Harlequins? I was thinking of taking a couple with the Masque form that lets you shoot them as assault. Or am I better off just taking special CC weapons? I still have my Harlequins on sprue and not sure how I want to build them.