Warhammer 40K: These Deadly Harlequin Combos Are Nothing to Laugh At
Let’s talk about getting the most out of the Harlequin update.
Harlequins have gotten a nice update in White Dwarf. While it’s nominally tied into Psychic Awakening, shoving it off to a WD does make it seem like a bit of an afterthought “we promised everyone would get rules, so here you go.” Afterthought or not, the Harlequin rules are actually good! Indeed they are much better than what Xenos have had so far in PA. GW has seemingly done right by the Clowns. Even better, the new Harlequin rules aren’t tied to a mono book army, so you can use then in Aeldari soup all you want. Today lets take a look at four powerful new combos we found.
4. Don’t Even Try to Run From These Clowns
Sometimes running away can be the worst option. To pull this combo off, you’ll need a couple of stratagems – Cegorach’s Jest and Twilit Encore:
Cegorach’s Jest is from the main Harlequin book and allows a Harlequin unit to fire at an enemy unit when that unit falls back from combat, granting you some free shooting. If you then follow that up with Twilit Encore, your unit can consolidate 6″- theoretically getting back into combat with the fleeing enemy unit- getting you free shooting and keeping the enemy tied up. Note: this combo may need an FAQ as its unclear if a consolidation in the enemy movement phase can bring you within an inch of their units.
3. Protect the Herd
Shadowseers get a really nice couple of boosts in this update and now can be used to increase the durability of your army. To get the most out of one you want to combo a few things up:
First use the Pivotal Role stratagem to give your Shadowseer the Veil of Illusion rule, while still keeping their Shield from Harm Rule
Next, they get the new Shadowstone relic giving them an extra 3 inches on their auras.
Lastly, we can use The Foes of the Mind stratagem that allows shield from harm to affect all units, not just infantry. Overall this means that friendly masque units within 9″ will be getting -1 to be wounded, and the enemy will count as being an additional 6″ away when they shoot. Your Sky/Star/Voidweavers will also benefit from these rules while getting their native -1 to be hit. This is a really nice bonus to help keep your stuff alive and can help shut down a decent amount of first turn shooting. Later as you close in, it will make it very hard for the enemy to get to overwatch with short-range weapons, such as flamers. Indeed it will make flamers almost useless against you and nullify most grenades.
2. Still a Better Love Story Than…
Not all combos need a lot of depth; sometimes, you just want to throw out some damage. For this one, we can make a Troupe Master truly deadly. First, off we are going to give them the Twilight’s Grasp pivotal role; if we’ve got another Troupe Master around, we are likely fine with losing Choreographer of War; if not we can spend a CP to keep it. Next, we are giving the Master the new Twilight Fang relic (don’t worry- no Vampires here, though there is plenty of glitter):
Lastly, we could take the Luck of the Laughing God warlord trait. All of this makes for a very potent Troupe Master. The Twilight Fang is the only way to reliably get the leader up to D2 every turn and has good AP and a nice bonus to S. It also just gives you a parcel of extra attacks making it an amazing relic. Combined with Twilight’s Grasp against non-monster of vehicle units, the Master will be hitting and wounding on 2s and re-rolling ones making their damage output incredibly reliable and allowing them to chew through heavy enemy infantry with relative ease. Without needing to spend CP, you are looking at a Troupe Master taking down 5+ Intercessors a round. If you went really hog wild on turn six, using the Murderous Entrance, Torments of the Fiery Pit and War Dancers stratagems on a Frozen Stars Troupe Master you’d be looking at 28 attacks hitting and wounding on 2s- rerolling 1s and doing 3d each.
1. The Deathiest of Jesters
Death Jesters get a major boost with the new rules due to this powerful combo. To make it work, you’ll want to first swap out their pivotal role with the Harvester of Torment ability:
Next, we give them the relic Cegorach’s Lament:
Combined, these two options let your Jester put out a lot of damage. Against a unit of 6+ models, if you are firing shuriken, you can get up to 9 hits. If you use the wail profile you still can get up to 3 really powerful hits, if each one kills a model you’ll get to add an extra 3D3 mortal wounds. AP -3 is also nothing to laugh at (though I suppose Harlequins laugh at everything). That makes this great for thinning out both large mobs of troops or smashing up units of heavy infantry. Note: Currently, the Shrieking Doom Stratagem doesn’t work on Cegorach’s Lament if it gets FAQ’d to this combo only gets better and gets you close to wiping out a ten-man Intercessor Squad at range!
Let us know what you think about these cool new combos- down in the comments!
