Hello Fritz !
I am a french reader
of you blog (and I like it !) and, to say all, you inspired me to make an Eldar
Harlequins army. Indeed, I thought my Eldar could be only be played in a
Biel-Tan way, or with Wave Serpents spam. You changed my mind. But end of
praises :).
I am a sort of noob
with our Space Elves and I would like to talk a little with you about this
themed army : in France, we do not have the same approach of 40k than you can
have in United States. For example, you pretend that Guardians can make most
things, but in my player circle and on the french community, we reject them. I
think we can confront, like gentlement, our opinions.
For example, in
1500pts games, I run this list :
Eldrad
10 Harlequins, Death
Jester, Shadowseer, 8 Kisses, Troupe Master
10 Harlequins, Death
Jester, Shadowseer, 7 Kisses, Troupe Master
10 Dire Avengers,
Exarch, Defense, Avenger Shuriken Catapult
10 Dire Avengers,
Exarch, Defense, Avenger Shuriken Catapult
3 Jetbikes, Shuriken
Cannon
3 Jetbikes, Shuriken
Cannon
6 Swooping Eagles,
Exarch, Interception
Wraithlord, Eldar
Missiles Launcher, Bright Lance
For 1500pts.
I deploy Eldrad in one
Harlequins unit, cast Fortune on both (or Dire Avenger) and Doom on an opponent
unit : the one i will shoot with my DA. The Jetbikes stay in reserves and claim
an objective as late as possible.
The Eagles are put on
a flank, near of the big tank of my opponent to haywire it to death. Hoping on
the fact he will ignore this small unit. My Wraithlord is behind Arlies to
shoot with his two S8 shoots.
However, i feel my
list is not very efficient : the only strenght I have are my two Harlequins
units, and they are often not enought powerful to gain the mission.
Oh, i do not only want
to speak about my list. But of strategy and tactics in general.
For example : what do
think about Avengers wall to protect my Harlequins and give them the very
important 2+ cover save ?
How do you do to deal
with those ugly colossus which instant kill most of our clowns ?
Do you think it is
only a themed army which will win sometimes ? Er, I know there is not an invicible
army, but is it a little competitive ?
What are your favorite
unit to hold objectives ? Do you try to play objectives or simply to have more
Victory points than your opponent (it is a good strategy too !)
What do you think
finally about Wraithlords ? You said in a recent article Wraithlords were too
quickly killed ? Do you think they have their place in such army ?
Thank in advance for
you answers. I hope will can discuss a little about this interest we have in
common. And excuse-me for my mistakes in english :S.
Thank you !
Khazral
Khazral, I’m glad to
have played a small part in inspiring another harlequin army on the table.
Seeing an Eldar army on the table these days is rare, and harlequins are even
rarer, so kudos to you in playing such a themed army.
First- can a themed
army be competitive? Yes, I believe it can, but it is going to be much harder
to play then say a new codex army, or one that doesn’t follow a theme. Non
themed armies can make a mistake or two along the way and still be ok, while
with a themed army if you make a mistake you might not have enough models to
continue on and win the game. That said, the advantage you gain with a themed
army is that for many player the understanding on how it works can be lost and
you want to use that against them.
One of the challenges of
playing harlequins is first of course the points spent on the clown units
themselves, and THEN the points spent on other units needed to allow the
harlequins to work- this then leaves you with the remainder of your points to
buy other units to handle the missions, etc.
In looking at your
list at 1500 points the only change I’d look to make is to drop the wraithlord
and free up those points. I’ve found in my own harlequin list which often take
three, they just can’ stand up to the all the plasma being taken in the USA
gaming community which plays at 2000-2500 points. At 1500 points it might be a
bit different, but what can one WL really do?
Tactically I’d like to
see you get a full unit of fire dragons
on the table for two reasons- one they will vape anything they shoot at –
infantry, power armor, vehicles monsterous creatures, etc. but more importantly
your opponent will shoot at them because they need to kill them- which we are
going to use to take pressure off the rest of your army.
Right now, it is about
keeping the dire avengers alive so they can shoot, but also support the
harlequins in terms of getting into position etc. If you run those four units
forward I naturally will start targeting them- the DA’s first and then the
harlequins. BUT if there is a big fire dragon squad also running up with them,
then I have to shoot the dragons.
Of course the key, and
the finesse of the army is going to be keeping those dragons alive as long as
possible- don’t get upset when they start getting killed, each turn they are
alive that buys your other units more time, its just a shame that we have to
spend the points on such an expensive unit to make it a threat to force you
opponent to reach against.
Eldrad will help with
fortune on them, and then you can fortune another DA squad, and of course guide
on the fire dragons doesn’t need to be explained.
If you need to tweak
the points a bit more I’ve found that if you take a full 10 harlequin squad you
can get away with not having a troupe master to save to points- you don’t lose
much hitting power, but you do take a LD hit.
I think you could also
drop a swooping hawk to free up some points- a unit of 5 + exarch will still
allow you to drop the grenade pack each turn- which is awesome, and still allow
you to pop in on turn five for the linebreaker point.
If you didn’t object
to guardians then consider swapping the jetbikes to get a unit or two with
scatter lasers to sit on objective on your deployment zone and score, I’m
skeptical about the two groups of three jetbikes being able to claim much end
of game- they can be taken out in a round of shooting from almost any unit.
Let’s finish by
talking about the flow of a harlequin army…
Imagine the gaming
table divided up into three sections- you opponent’s deployment zone, your
deployment zone, and the mid field of the table.
Objectives get placed in
all three areas- and you would like as many mid field as you can place.
Objective on your opponent’s side we are not going to try and take- let them
have it. If you try and advance your harlequin army forward to do this then you
are going to crash up against all of their army and you don’t have enough
models to do this. Let them advance some units mid field to take objectives,
and this is what your harlequins are going to try and kill- go for the troops-
let your opponent come to you mid field so not all of his army can be used
against your harlequins. The plan is to strip his scoring units with the clowns
so what is left of the dire avengers can take mid field objectives, and the
jetbikes or guardians can hold the objectives on your side.
Finally the swooping
hawks can try and leap down on the last turn and land/run to maybe contest as
long as the game then ends.
Hope that helps!
-Fritz
Great to have a Harlie post :D. I think Fritz is spot on, drop one Hawke, the Troupe masters at this point level will free up some points and won't really be missed. I would try and get Blade storm on the Avengers, very useful for when you need those extra shots and you can use it in Overwatch if you didn't use it the turn before ;)
ReplyDeleteI would also drop the Wraithlord and maybe one unit of bikes. I think it's worth havng a single unit of bikes just to give you a bit of speed at the end and they can hide easily, but a unit of Guardians with Laser/EML and maybe an Embolden Warlock would go a long way for your back field objective
I like this list! I am going to go against the grain and make a different recommendation for tweaking the list. Keep the bikes. They provide something vital: reach. They can fire two feet & they can access any position on the map. Nothing else in the original list can do that. I would also recommend dropping the hawks for a second BL & EML Wraithlord. The Wraithlord does three things that are missing in the list: it provides reach (3ft & 4ft firepower), it acts as an incredible fire magnet, and it can tie enemy forces up in combat for nearly an entire game. Further, it is a challenge winning machine & it synergizes beautifully with the psycher that is the shadowseer. You'll need extra points, so consider dropping those troop masters. They really don't provide much for the extra cost. Re-invest the saved points back into the harli squads to get everyone harlequin kisses. Finally, since you are screening the harlies with the DAs they probably wont be getting much use out of the death jesters shooting capabilities. Feel free to drop them and re-invest those points into the units that will actually be shooting: the Dire Avengers.
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