These benefits are offset by a few things to make the army hit incredibly hard, but not necessarily stand around in a prolonged fight. A low toughness and higher point cost across the board make Harlequins a glass cannon – their units want to engage your opponent on your terms and not be caught in the open or counter charged. Using your speed and creating favorable trades or disruptions to your opponent’s plans are the groundwork in which a Harlequin army excels.

As such, Harlequins have a few traits which exemplify this play style. In 8th edition, armies are defined by their traits – what kind of advantage your army’s trait gets you is just as important as what army or faction you’re playing! Luckily, Harlequins have a few standout traits that shape and refine how the army plays. We have six different Masque Forms to choose from, of which four are seen competitively:

Frozen Stars - +1 attack when charging.

This is the most straightforward of the traits. Each basic troop has four attacks and a variety of good close combat weapons to choose. Five Harlequins with Kisses charging a character will put out 25 weapon skill 3+, strength 4 ap -1 dmg D3 attacks, which is no joke. Their Masque stratagem for 2 cp gives a unit +1 to wound against an enemy Infantry, Biker, or Beast.

Dreaming Shadow – Max 1 model fleeing from morale. When a model dies, they can shoot or make a single attack on a 4+.

This form was popular early on and might see some more play as vehicles come back into the fold. Harlequins are known for their Skyweaver Jetbikes – these each shoot D6 Haywire shots. Add this trait to them to shoot on death, and it’s no wonder why Knights were terrified of 6D6 shots doing mortal wounds.

Silent Shroud – 6” aura of -1 leadership to enemy units. Enemies must roll 2d6 and pick the highest when taking morale.

While leadership shenanigans aren’t the most reliable, I personally like this form for a few reasons. Any of your units suddenly have a higher chance of killing a non-fearless unit, usually picking on scouts, rangers, or similar troops on objectives. It also combos nicely with the Hallucinogen Grenades a Shadowseer launches that do mortal wounds based on leadership. Notably, this Masque’s Stratagem will let an entire unit ignore overwatch for 2 cp. Great on a large unit of Skyweavers that want to tie up multiple units in a gunline or get your troupes in safely into a shooting heavy target.

Soaring Spite – Units with Fly or embarked on a transport with Fly can advance and shoot normally. Pistols become Assault 1 when advancing.

One of the more common playstyles really leverages this trait. Skyweavers being able to move 22” (16” + automatically advancing 6”) and shoot 24” for their Haywire shots with no penalties is great. However, when you have 3+ Starweavers carrying 5 troupe members and a Troupe Master with fusion pistols, you can threaten units from 28” away with 5-6 melta shots reliably. Notably, since your Starweavers Fly and your troupe shoots from the model and not the base of the Starweaver, these fusion boats can punish opponents for being slightly out of position with their characters.

With the Masque traits covered, I find that Harlequin armies will favor either heavy Skyweavers with haywire cannons as harassment units or a mass of troupes, usually with fusion or kisses ideal for characters or hordes if Frozen Stars. I would be remiss not to point out that a lot of players have found success with a mixed detachment due to specific stratagems and relics that are Masque restricted. We’ll review some of those combos later in this article, but suffice to say, Harlequins are surprisingly varied in their competitive options, despite only having eight units.