Hello all!

So today GW gave us the breakdown on all the Forms we will be able to choose from when aligning our Harlequins to a particular Masque. Here, I’ll be giving my personal opinion on each one, and where their strengths and synergies lie, as well as where they might come up short, and potential pitfalls to avoid. As Always, discussion is heavily encouraged! Let’s get into it with the first;

Midnight Sorrow: Starting off strong, Midnight Sorrow’s Masque trait reads as follows:

Units with this form can move an additional D6 inches when falling back. Additionally, units with this form can consolidate up to 6″

So this has a lot of potential right out the gate. A big strength of Harlequins is their ability to bounce around to different combats rapidly. Giving them a pseudo-advance after falling back, as well as an elongated consolidate gives them a lot of free movement outside of their basic run and charges. This Masque is going to cover A LOT of ground. As the blurb in the article says, remember that we ignore terrain and intervening models when moving, so we can use these added inches to our advantage to charge a screen on turn one, then either fall back or consolidate and flip over their screen and get deeper into the enemy lines to harass characters and heavy armor.

Also important to note that this doesn’t specify Infantry units either. This Masque is going to be super potent for Skyweavers, and even allowing your clown cars the chance to consolidate 6″ is pretty nice.

The Veiled Path: So I actually LOVE this Masque trait and I think it’s going to be a blast to play with. It reads:

At the start of each Fight phase, roll 2 dice and discard the highest. Until the end of the phase, each time your opponent targets a unit with this form and makes a hit roll that, before modifiers, exactly matches your dice result, that attack fails.

So there’s a lot to digest here and GW clearly put some built-in counter measures to neuter the power of this Masque. Firstly, it’s only in the fight phase. If this applied to shooting, this would be a top contender for my auto-pick trait. Next, rolling 2 dice and discarding the highest is a double edge sword, in it gives us a small variable of control, while also teasing us a bit in saying “shoot their 6’s can still hit…” and he potential of nullifying 1’s, or even 2’s against a squad of infantry who’s only hitting on 3+ or 4+ anyway.

HOWEVER. That’s still a 50% chance of rolling a 3-5 and shutting down a good portion of the “relevant” attacks being made. While I don’t expect this to be a slam pick, this is a very potent strategy against assault blobs like Genestealers. Any variable that makes our Clowns harder to kill is something that (in my opinion) deserves consideration, and I believe this Form will hinge a lot on what sort of WL traits, Powers, and Stratagems we get.

Frozen Stars: My favorite Masque from a lore and painting perspective, their form did not disappoint either. It simply says:

If a unit with this form charges in the Charge phase, add 1 to their Attacks characteristic until the end of the ensuing Fight phase.

Simple, effective, potent. After charging, each model will get an additional attack in close combat, and we already know from experience how hard our Clowns can hit. Bumping a Player up to 5 attacks hitting on 3+, and Masters to 6 attacks hitting on 2+, assault troupes are going to be doing a lot of damage in combat. This is the potential to kill an extra model PER MODEL in our Troupes, and where this Masque will really shine; is again with Skyweavers. 4 attacks with S4 AP2 2D Zephyrglaives per bike is going to put some hurting on enemy TEQs and light armor in a hurry, and if there’s a lot of Primaris in your meta, you should already be running bikes out the wazoo. This just further extends how many Intercessors or Hellblasters you can chop down.

The last point of contention is that this is a potent Masque is you’re a fan of the Harlequins Kiss. An extra S4 AP1 D3d attacks will make Masters that much better at killing characters.

Oh- and the Solitaire. Post errata, it has a <Masque> Keyword now, and giving him 11 attacks on a Blitz is horrifying. Just sayin’.

Soaring Spite: Spoiler Alert: this is probably my top pick for Masque traits. I’ll explain why:

Models in this unit that can Fly or are embarked on a Transport that can Fly, treat all Pistol weapons they are equipped with as Assault 1 weapons during a turn in which they (or a Transport they are embarked on) advanced. In addition, these models do not suffer a penalty to hit for shooting Assault weapons during a turn in which they advance.

One of my biggest gripes with balancing in this game was that you couldn’t shoot a pistol after advancing. Why can someone shoot a large bolter after running, but not a pistol? Well now, it doesn’t matter! Now my Clowns can zip around in their clown cars, shooting fusions with a -1 to hit, and a 3++ thanks to Prismatic Blur, or whatever the Chapter Approved stratagem was. No longer do we need to hinder our transport movement ability for the sake of shooting our pistols from inside- and it’s all at full ballistic skill. Your pistols are now “assault” this not getting a penalty for advancing, your shuriken cannons are still hitting on 3’s… I love everything about this. It’s too early to say which is going to be the run-away best Masque Form, but this one was the one to make my heart flutter the most, for sure.

Dreaming Shadow: We got a snippet yesterday that showed this Form, and the reactions were pretty mixed. It reads:

When a unit with this Form fails a morale test, only one model from this unit must flee. In addition, each time a model from this unit is slain or flees, roll a D6 before removing that model: on a 4+ that model can either shoot with one of its ranged weapons as if it was the shooting phase or make a single attack as if it were the fight phase.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is not the most impressive Form of the bunch. However there is some important nuances to glean from it. First of all, this is great is you plan to take a blob of 10 players and deepstrike them. Letting each of those players fight or shoot before being removed is pretty valuable. Secondly, the 4+ additional attack triggers whenever a model is slain too. So feel free to move 3″ away from that land Raider, charge it, and lose 3 players in Overwatch. Those 3 players all have the chance to fire their fusions again before being removed, and cam inflicted heavy damage on that vehicle before leaving.

Finally, and once again; this doesn’t just apply to infantry. Bikes and Clown Cars can even still make an additional attack before being removed and can chop off a few infantry or take wounds off a vehicle before getting removed. Also, at a glance this benefits Voidweavers well. Being able to shoot a Prismatic Cannon in any of its variants and additional time is nice, and if we get any stratagems to augment this, it could be a reasonable model soon. However I do concede that if they turn the Cannon into an Assault, than Soaring Spite is the best trait for them as well.

Silent Shroud: While I’ve already made my case for Soaring Spite, and Frozen Stars, this Masque really got my brewing wheels turning. It reads:

Subtract 1 from the Leadership of enemy units while they are within 6″ of any unit in your army with this Form. In addition, whenever your opponent takes a Morale test for a unit that is within 6″ of any unit from your army with this Form, they must roll 2 dice and discard the highest.

One of the first list concept I really brewed around before we had any codexes at all, was a Fear Test that had a handful of players and a nest of Death Jesters to trigger Death is not Enough. Well now I have a Masque to put to that Troupe. Combined with the Relic, this Troupe can deal some serious damage to Leadership, and as the blurb in the article mentions, combining with Dark Creed Drukhari and and Hemlocks from Craftworld can get an enemy to an astonishing -9 leadership. That’s INSANE. Now I’ve voiced my concerned previously about Morale in 8th ed, and talked about how lack luster these abilities can be, but with a -9, a lot of those concerns go out the window. Even They Shall Know No Rules isn’t going to save a squad of Marines from a -9, and only abilities like Synapse that ignore Morale will really hinder this synergy. Is this the most powerful Masque? Probably not, but it is the Masque that made me say “I wanna build a list around this right now” and, I just might have to.

Anyway, there’s my initial thoughts on impressions on all the Masques we saw previewed today. Please leave comments and discuss what you think, and I look forward to hearing from you! I will be posting another write up with each preview that comes this week, so stay tuned for more!

As Always,

Batty