Can I use the Avatar with Harlequins? What do I lose pls?

[N1SB]

This is a stupid question because I honestly lost track of how things work anymore, and even after I look them up, I need to confirmation to see if I'm understanding it right anyway, so I'm skipping a few steps and going straight to the zeta point:

 

Can I do a Patrol list (designed for Crusade) with the Avatar as HQ and Harlequins as Troops please with it still being a legal army (I know Crusade is Narrative Play, but it's not Open Play, so there's still some rules that govern it)?

 

Then assuming that's legit, the follow-up question:

 

If that is possible, what special rules/options/thingies do I lose please?  Just checking the trade-offs, like I know I'll lose the Harlequins' "Chapter Tactics".  I think there's that ridiculously awesome Battle Focus rule, too, like the Craftworld "Miracle Dice" I lose, I think.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Halandaar]

There is an extra wrinkle in Crusade which is that you can only take an Avatar of Khaine if you buy the Court of the Young King requisition, which in turn requires you to have an Aspect Warrior unit with an Exarch model in it already on your roster. So you can't just run Avatar + Harlequins, you need at least one Aspect Warrior unit too - you don't need to field it in a game alongside the Avatar, but it does need to be on your roster which potentially causes issues right at the beginning of a Crusade when you've only got limited resources.

 

Assuming you're okay with that, you can run them all in the same detachment (because they share the Aeldari keyword), but you would lose access to:

• Saedeth Characterisations ("chapter tactics") and Luck of the Laughing God (re-rolls every turn) on your Harlequins
• Craftworld Attributes ("chapter tactics") on your Aspect Warriors
• Strands of Fate ("miracle dice") on your Aspect Warriors and Avatar
• Objective secured on your Troops units

Edit: There is a way around most of these losses, which is that you can take a Harlequin Patrol alongside an Asuryani detachment and nobody loses anything thanks to the Travelling Players rule, so you could field the Avatar in an Auxiliary Support Detachment and then a Patrol of Harlequins, but obviously that requires an extra Harlequin HQ choice which might be a cost too far if you're already paying for an Aspect Warrior unit just to unlock the Avatar.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Halandaar

[Trokair]

Once the Avatar is unlocked via the Court of the Young King requisition can’t you just drop the aspect warriors from the roster to free up their power level from the supply used?

 

The aspect warriors do still need to be in one or two games at some point, as they need to earn 5 experience before Court of the Young King can be used to awaken the Avatar. 

[Halandaar]

The aspect warriors do still need to be in one or two games at some point, as they need to earn 5 experience before Court of the Young King can be used to awaken the Avatar. 

 

Absolutely right, totally missed that one. So although the detachment rules make it feasible (if not ideal) to run an Avatar and some Harlequins, Crusade prevents you from doing it right away.

[Trokair]

Having thought about this some more I think the best way forward is something like this:

 

Start your crusade force, add a Harlequin HQ and Troop unit, an Aspect warrior unit of your choice (with at least 5 members) and fill out your roster up to 25 power with other Harlequin units.

 

Play one 25 power level combat patrol game, with one patrol detachment (as you can only have one). For this game you don’t get any of the chapter tactics as mentioned in Halamdaar’s post above.

 

Chose Survive for your Agenda, and pick the Aspect warrior unit. Stick them in cover in the corner and make sure at least 3 of the 5 models survive the game. It does not matter if you win or lose.

 

If the Aspect warrior unit survives with at least three members they will get 4 EXP from Survive Agenda, and 1 for taking part in the game. Now you can use Court of the Young King requisition to add a Avetar to your roster. Remove the aspect warriors from your list and fill out the rest of the roster up to 50 power with Harlequin units.

 

Now you can run 50 power incursion games with a Harlequin combat patrol detachment and the Avatar in an Auxiliary Support Detachment. You will still want the Harlequin HQ to be your warlord to refund the Command point cost of the Combat patrol detachment, and will have to pay the command point cost for the Auxiliary Support Detachment but all your Harlequin will have all their chapter tactics rules.

[N1SB]

1st, thanks for your great help.  2nd, I liked your responses so much because not only did you answer my question, but solutions, even a roadmap.  Really appreciated.