40K Deep Thought: Fixing the Harlequins with NO New Models
Codex Harlequins is just around the corner, but GW can make the army stand on its own two feet without adding a single model.
The Harlequins are one of the oldest armies in 40K. The oldest amongst us remember their original appearance in the game in White Dwarf #105 from September 1988.
It has been exactly 30 years and here in 2018, they have an all new codex just around the corner. But the old 7th Edition codex was never a stand alone force and had to rely on Eldar allies to function. The list has evolved over the years, adding cool new units like the Skyweavers and Voidweavers. It lost some oddities from the days of antiquity such as the Harlequin “dreadnought” – (aka Wraithlord), and things like looted Land Raiders.
Still some key units never made it into the current range from as far back as 1988 and the vast majority of them could be added to the codex using existing models. Take a look at these three:
High Avatar (#4 in the pic above)
This is the big boss. The Troupe’s fighting leader who emphasizes combat. Basically an Autarch-like counterpart to the psychic Shadowseer. A High Avatar model can be made from existing bits from the Harlequin Troupe kit. Just make him a pumped up Troupe Master with more some command auras and better stats. Done!
Mimes (From the Harlequin’s Citadel Journal army list)
This is an alternative to the standard Troupe unit. Utterly silent, the Mimes stalk ahead of the main Troupe to surprise the unwary and cut them down while the main Harlequin force approaches. This would be a fast stealthy unit built from the Troupe box, with perhaps a subset of the many facemasks available on the sprues, and differing special rules (like Deep Strike). It would give the army a desperately needed 2nd TROOPS choice to mix things up.
Warlock (#6, #14 in the pic above)
These are the lesser psykers in the army. Assistants to the Shadowseer, they could either be fielded singly, or in a unit similar to a Warlock Conclave. As with the Shadowseer, they specialize in psychic powers of illusion and misdirection. Model-wise, warlocks are identical to Troupers aside from their back mounted grenade harness to match the Shadowseer’s. Easily done with creative uses of bits 75 and 78 from the Troupe sprues:
~Come on GW, I have high hopping, prancing hopes. What do you think the Harlequins need to be viable on their own?
