Eldar Harliquin Basic Tactica

[SteveBerenyi]

Harliquins

One of the Eldar’s single most versatile units, Harliquins allow you to throw something at your opponent that nobody else has, a nearly unlimited amount of awe and hatred. Their power lies not in their combat ability (which is very nice) or in their speed (also very nice), but in the fact that your enemy will fear their presence.

Harliquins in general
Furious Assualt:
The harlies already high I value means that when they assault, they will likely strike first regardless, but this always helps. The +1 S is of great benefit to any elder whose less than desirable S value will now equal a Space marine.
Hit and Run:
The temptation is to use this when you have charged, fought and then break off, however this allows your enemy to charge you. The beauty of it is to use it during their turn after the assault, with the harlie’s fleet, you will always be able to re-charge them and get the furious assault bonus’s again.
Holo-Suit:
Anything that negates an armor save will never affect a harlequin. Their holo-suits are Inv. Saves and as such are a wonder of Eldar technology.
Flip Belts:
Ignore difficult terrain allows them to move through cover effortlessly and as such all harlies should take full advantage of cover where available.
Harliquins Kiss:
CC weapon with rending, auto wounding and bypassing T value is great especially against MEQ armies.
Fusion Pistol:
A Melta Pistol! Oh yea, when used correctly, i.e. in combination with the Shrieker of the Death Jester, you may just take out a vehicle, or with the kisses, you can easily assault vehicles and destroy them!

Harliquin
The basic harlequin is very combat oriented, but their single best feature is the ability to upgrade to owning a Harliquins kiss. This is a rending CC weapon. At all times I recommend upgrading to the kiss. As it gives all your harlies a total of 3 rending attacks. (4 on a charge.) at a very nice WS and average STR.

Troupe Master
For 20 points the points cost of an extra attack rarely pans out into results, but if you have the points to spare, I’d highly recommend taking him. That extra attack could be the difference between a fall back and a continued fight.

Shadow Seer
This guy will always make his presence known and should always be taken as part of a harlequin troupe.
Hallucinogen Grenades: Minimal effect, except when charging, but the furious charge rule almost makes these useless.
Veil of Tears:
The single best part of any harlequin troupe, this makes it so your opponent looks for you to shoot or does not shoot. Unlike a target priority test, if they fail to see you, THEY CAN NOT SHOOT AT ALL. Max range anyone can shoot you at is 24” This includes Heavy weapons AND ORDINANCE BARRAGE WEAPONS! Yup according to GW even if they normally would not need to see you to shoot they still have to test against Veil of Tears!

Death Jester
Some would say he is a waste of points, but I have to disagree. As the Harlies are Fleet, they can move instead of shoot, but still the shrieker cannon is an Assualt weapon and only has a 24” range. So I say take 1 and when you know you are in range, fire away, then charge. That way you break up the squad a bit before you assault. And since he is still a harly, he can still attack in CC because it is an assault weapon, Oh and it pins. Bonus.

I’d recommend never putting these guys in a falcon, (the more you have of them the better) and they do not have a waveserpent available to them. Also the shadow seer's veil of tears will not affect the falcon as the falcon is a heavy support option and not a dedicated troop transport. My tactics would be to deploy them as far forward as possible in cover. Then move/fleet them towards the nearest (usable) enemy unit. And when you can open up with the Shrieker.

[FunkyFellow]

Awsome write up mate, lotsa my questions on harlies were answered, but I still got a few. Seeing as how every Eldar unit is specialized to attack a certain unit type whats there preferred opponent? Also how do they compliment other units in the grand scheme of things? Specificaly in my case banshees?

Thanks for the write up, cheers mate

[Wakim]

That clown seer sounds really sick if you bring veil of tears, gotta check the points on them Maybe they`re actually playable.

Thanks for the tactica man, but could you pretty please edit the text a little, maybe a BOLD here and there

Cheers!


PS I would have replied yesterday if it weren`t for the 503

[hairyyahoo]

harlies make an awesome support unit for tough assults. get a tough unit, like wraith guard or striking scorps, stuck in and have them hold the enemy, then send in the clowns hit the enemy hard then use the hit and run ability in the opponents turn, and furious charge back again in your next assult phase. the first unit needs to be tough/numerious enough to pin the enemy unit for a couple of turns to let the harlies do their work.

[SteveBerenyi]

Edited for wakim, but stay tuned. as soon as i finish the individual tacticas (Fast, Heavy, HQ) left, i'll be doing the advanced tacticas which will be how to use them together. after that, SUPER HEAVIES!!!!

[vinny]

I use harlies to attack large monsters as the rending realy pays off it works well against the wraith lord as said earlier rending ignores high toughness.

[Wakim]

Hey... what`s the limit on shadowseers per army?

[Mart007]

One per squad. So three on a normal FOC chart if you have three squads of Harlies.

[experiment 626]

a shadowseer is basically mandetory for your clowns... your opponent will always try and take at least 1 pot-shot at them. plus if they fail their spotting distance check, then they lose their shooting altogether! (same as if you were to target something and then find out it's out of range.)
a neat little ploy o use is to make your clowns the only visable unit; your opponent will be fustrated to no end trying in vain to roll that double 6 to get his/her basic guns in range! handy for protecting your more vulnerable banshees who need to jump out of their wave serpent the turn before they charge!

the kisses again are pretty much mandetory; expensive yes, but rending is such a lovely thing! throw the clowns into small expensive squads like command squads or else take on those 'uber death gribblies your banshees would otherwise need 6's to hurt!

i'm still not 100% on the death jester yet though... i'd honestly rather fleet than shoot. plus, pinning isn't typically helpfull unless you've got a couple units of rangers/pathfinders and/or eldritch storm to force plenty of tests.
most units will typically have a high Ld8 or better. you need to force lots of tests to get decent results, or else hope your opponent's dice don't like him/her much!
i'd rather use those pts and get 2 more harlie kisses myself, but that's just me! (and i pack silly amounts of shuriken cannons + scatter lasers anyways!)

cheers!

[Wakim]

Yeah... my problem was that i saw them listed under HQ... and it seemed wrong for someone to have 4 hq`s... (farseer+3Shadowseers)

But i guess that they only o**** as HQ in a Clown only army



...in case you`re wondering i was refering to this little gem

[farseer w/doom & fortune]
3x [shadowseer + 5 clowns w/harlie kiss]
2x [5 pathfinders]
3x [falcons w/star cannon & full upgrades]

It lookss so smexy

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by Wakim

...in case you`re wondering i was refering to this little gem

[farseer w/doom & fortune]
3x [shadowseer + 5 clowns w/harlie kiss]
2x [5 pathfinders]
3x [falcons w/star cannon & full upgrades]

It lookss so smexy

that list ranks just slightly below the chaos marine 'abomination' list in terms of dirtiness... it's not something i'd pull on someone unless you forwarn them first or are good chums. pulling that list out for a supposidly 'friendly' pick-up game more than once will likely result in very few people ever willing to play you again!
still, the second the 'escalation' rule comes into play, this army is royally screwed!

cheers!

[Wakim]

What`s the 'escalation' rule?!

What`s the Abomination amry?


I`m making a new thread for this

[Penn]

Great this pretty much answered my questions about how to effectively use my Harlequins.