Hello all!

As we likely know by now, we received a plethora of previews today for our Harlequin codex including Stratagems, Warlord Traits, Relics, and Psychic Powers. Wow that’s a lot to break down. I’ll begin this post with my usual caveat that these are purely my opinions and perspectives, and this is meant to encourage discussion. These are my first impressions, and will likely change as playtesting and evolves. There’s a lot for us to go over in this preview, so let’s jump in with the Stratagems first.

Stratagems

Cegorach’s Jest -1CP Use this stratagem when an enemy unit Falls Back from a Harlequin unit from your army, after the enemy unit has finished moving. Provided no other enemy units are within 1″ of your unit, it can shoot the enemy unit that Fell Back as if it were the shooting phase.

At first glance, this Stratagem looks to be EXTREMELY powerful when considered that one of the major players (heh) in the Harlequin playbook is charging a larger-than-life baddie like a Land Raider and locking it down in combat, preventing it from unloading on our other units. This stratagem allows us to unload a gambit of fusion fire into a retreating vehicle to give it that coup de gras that would either entirely disincentivize retreating from combat, or further salt the wound of bogging down a large baddy. A word of caution when employing this stratagem- be careful of the moment characteristic of the assaulted vehicle/unit. Our fusions are still only 6″ range, and when allowed to fall back at full movement range, you can get caught off guard with the unit suddenly being out of range. Remember this strat specifies after the retreating unit has finished moving. Tread lightly.

Isha’s Weeping 1CP Use this Stratagem at the end of any phase. Select a Harlequin unit from your army that suffered casualties during that phase. Improve that unit’s invulnerable save by 1 (to a maximum of 3+) until the end of the turn.

This strat tugs at my heartstrings a little bit. I has a reasonable effect, is costed well at 1CP, and requiring a casualty as a prerequisite is fair. The issues comes about in the fact that it can only be used at the end of the phase, and only lasts until end of turn. Typically speaking, if a unit with multiple models (realistically only Players or Skyweavers) is going to suffer a casualty, it’s not likely to survive the rest of that phase and give you a chance to use the strat. If it does, your opponent likely isn’t planning on assaulting it later in the turn. Where i do see this strat being effective, is if your unit is targeted by an offensive psychic power that can only deal a finite amount of damage such as Smite. Using this on a big blob of players or bikes after being hit with Smite would create a nice buffer to hinder any action in the shooting and combat phase. All this being said, it’s not Masque specific and only cost 1CP, so having it in our back pocket is certainly never a bad thing. I can’t imagine you ever being able to plan around using this strat, but if your opponent gives you an opportunity it’s certainly worth the investment.

Shrieking Doom 1CP Use this Stratagem before a Death Jester from your army shoots a shrieker cannon or Curtainfall (pg 77) using the weapon’s shrieker profile. Increase the weapon’s Strength characteristic by 1 and it Damage characteristic to D3 until the end of the phase.

Okay. I like this, and hear me out. I’ve voiced my grievances with the Death Jester in previous writings and after this codex has given the Jester some love. First, adding 1 strength makes it wound MEQ’s and GEQ’s on 3+, and even wounding the tougher Death Guard on 4+. D3 makes this attack capable of tackling TEQ’s and Primaris with less resistance, and most importantly, put a hurting on characters. The Death Jester’s saving grace has been that his “sniper” is only an Assault weapon, therefore he can move his full 8 inches, and still hit on 2+, or advance 8+D6 and hit on 3+. Not a tragedy.

The part of this stratagem that intrigues me is the mention of “Curtainfall”. Now given the referenced page number, as well as the implication of what the item does- it’s pretty safe to say that this is a Relic Shrieker Cannon for a Death Jester. If i were to take a wild guess, i would assume this weapon is following the influence of the Maugatar. I speculate this relic will receive an addition hit roll on the shuriken variant (making it Assault4), and giving it an intrinsic AP of -1 or -2. more importantly, this will give the melee variant of the weapon a relevant profile. Overall, I’m pretty excited to see how this plays out, and this is a decent incentive to put Jesters back in my lists.

Heroes’ Path 2CP Use this Stratagem at the start of a Movement phase in which a Death Jester, a Solitaire, and a Shadowseer from your army are within 6″ of each other. Remove all 3 models from the battlefield. At the end of the Movement phase, you can set up each model anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9″ from any enemy unit.

Personally, I’m pretty lukewarm on this stratagem. The way i typically run my characters (and this is obviously pre-codex, so this is subject to change) is typically flanking with my Solitaire, or using him to soak fire, holding the backline or mid-field with the Shadowseer to provide psychic support, and either piloting a gunboat, or holding a crows nest with my Jester(s). I rarely ever have them with 6″ of each other, and i can’t think of many reasons why i’d like to sacrifice an entire movement phase out of my characters just to Da Jump them. There is an argument to jump all three within charge range, use the Jester to soak Overwatch, then blitz the Solitaire in for 10 attacks of nonsense (all of which being -1 to wound thanks to Seer aura), but i’m not convinced that’s enough to pull focus off of all 3 characters and spend 2CP to use. Not to mention, a smart player will notice your 3 characters holding hands, and react accordingly. I’m open to suggestions that I’m missing regarding this stratagem, and i will happily take any combos that come with it- but right now i don’t imagine this strat coming off the backburner very often.

Great Harlequin 2CP Use this Stratagem before the battle starts. Select a Troupe Master from your army. That unit gains the Great Harlequin keyword and the following ability: ‘Will of the Laughing God: in the Fight phase, re-roll hit rolls of 1 for friendly <Masque> units that are within 6″ of this model.’ You can use this Stratagem once per battle.

This strat is a slam dunk in all regards. There are a few subtleties to break down here.

First of which; This is a warlord trait without being a warlord. It straight up is. you could transplant 70% of this stratagem and paste it into the Warlord Trait section, and i’d believe you. So getting a free WL Trait is awesome.

Secondly, Your warlord doesn’t need to be a Harlequin. If you’re like myself and enjoy running a combined Aeldari army, I can now have my Archon or Farseer remain my Warlord, and still use this strat to buff my clowns as if he was a warlord.

Next, Rerolling 1 to hit is nice. This doesn’t need to be discussed much , as this will reroll a good portion of misses on your clowns in combat and don’t forget; this applies to Skyweavers too. keep that in your pocket.

Solitaire’s rerolling 1s AND failed wounds. Uh huh.

Also, since it’s used before the battle starts, it can’t be countered by Agents of Vect. I doubt most Drukhari players would attempt to- but even if they would, they can’t. So ha.

The last part of this strat that i wanna discuss is the “Great Harlequin” Keyword. Now I’m not super familiar with GW’s design philosophy, so this could very well be nothing. However, this raised a red flag in my mind because it felt strange that this strat required an added keyword to supplant the new ability. Could there be more in this dex that affects “The Great Harlequin”? My gut feels like that could be a possibility, but as i said, i don’t know GW well enough to call that shot now. Over all, this strat is amazing, and probably an Auto CP sink for any Harlequin detachment.

Webway Assault 1CP/3CP Use this Stratagem during deployment. If you spend 1CP, set up one Harlequin Infantry or Biker unit from your army in the webway instead of placing it on the battlefield. If you spend 3CP, set up two such units in the webway instead. Any number of units in the webway can emerge at the end of your Movement phases- set each unit up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9″ from any enemy models. You can only use this Stratagem once per battle.

We’ve seen this time and time again, it’s our version of the token deepstrike stratagem. I won’t go into too much detail about this since we’ve had this strat since Chapter Approved, but whether you wanna DS a blob of clowns, or bikes- there’s potential here. Before the big FAQ, it was a popular strategy to deepstrike a blob of clowns with a Shadowseer, have the ‘Seer Twilight Pathways the clowns, and get them in Fusion range, hopefully with D6<D6 damage. If you could drop them on top of a Land Raider, Rhino, etc, fusion the tank to death, then charge the mooks that came out- that could be game changing. Since that’s no longer a thing this strat has lost some of its teeth, but its still a great ability if that’s your field of play.

We have 3 Warlord Traits to discuss of the potential 12 (yes TWELVE) that we get to choose from. Firstly;

Player of the Light Re-roll failed charge rolls made for your Warlord and friendly <Masque> units whilst they are within 6″ of your Warlord.

This is a gold standard of Harlequin abilities. the heart of this army revolves around the Charge phase, and this ability puts more venom in our bite. This ability will give our clowns a much more reliable charge, and combined with Masques such as Frozen Stars, your Charge phase is going to get scary. This likely wouldn’t be my Trait of choice personally, however for a solo Harlequin list, this is an extremely potent option. I expect this trait getting a lot of table time. It’s important to note that this will apply to a Solitaire as well.

Players of the Twilight Once per battle you can re-roll a hit roll, wound roll, or save roll made for your Warlord. In Addition, if your army is battle-forged and your Warlord is on the battlefield, roll a D6 each time you or your opponent uses a Stratagem. If the result exactly matches the number of Command Points spent to use that Stratagem, then you gain that many Command Points.

This Trait disappoints me more than it probably should, and i’ll wholly admit i’m probably being too critical here. At first glance, getting a free re-roll on (almost) any dice is pretty cool. It’s proven in multiple ways across all armies that 8th is the edition of re-rolls, and we are still no exception. Then we break down the actual wording, and it starts to feel less enticing. Firstly, it doesn’t allow a re-roll on psychic test or deny. I rarely make my Warlord a Master, as they are very typically slain by the end of the battle, So i am disincentivized to take this Trait if i want a Seer as my WL. Secondly- It’s only once per battle. I know i know, you can re-roll several different dice with this ability, and it’ll be here when you need it most. Realistically speaking however, how often do you plan on re-rolling a hit or wound roll (both of which, Masters re-roll within the Fight phase anyway) when you know you can get a free re-roll on a potentially game saving throw for an invuln? It just doesn’t add up for me.

That being said, i love WL traits that buy back CPs. I’m currently cunning a Black Heart Archon as my Warlord for both that sweet sweet Agents of Vect strat, but also the potential free CPs. This strat feels a little less reliable than Labyrinthine Cunning from Black Heart, as this requires you to roll one dice for all of the CP spent. High risk, high reward. Personally, i prefer the LabCun route of rolling a die for each CP and getting one back for each 6. The way i see it, You’re still only getting a success on a 1/6 chance (since the above Trait requires your roll to exactly match the number of CP spent), and LabCun just simply gives you more chances at getting one back. Not to mention, the majority of times you’ll be triggering this ability is on a 1CP strat like re-rolling a dice. I like where this strat goes, and it takes an awesome spin on the whole “buy back CP” archetype that we see present across so many books, but i feel this just falls in the middle as being worse than Labyrinthine Cunning, but better than the Craftworld Eldar’s Path of Command.

Soaring Spite: Skystrider Your Warlord can disembark from a Transport even after it has moved.

This has potential. Soaring Spite immediately caught my eye, as shooting Fusions from transports after advancing at full ballistic is awesome- a serious boon to this army. Now knowing my Warlord can disembark AFTER a transport moves… well this would be a snap pick if i could disembark a Troupe of clowns along with my Warlord, but i’ll take this. Let’s Mathhammer for a second, and let’s say my Warlord is a Solitaire:

Starweaver moves 16″ +6 for advance. Solitaire disembarks and declares Blitz. He then moves 12″ +2D6″, and still has a D6 (re-rollable?) charge. taking average rolls, into account, that gives your Solitaire and AVERAGE full movement of 44″ in a single turn. That’s nuts. I don’t think this is the most potent strategy to build around as it’s certainly putting a lot of eggs in one basket… but man oh man does it sound fun.

I’m SUPER excited to check out the rest of our Warlord traits. I’m looking for a reason to make my Harlequins my primary detachment in my competitive games again, and if i’m given one, you can expect some changes in my lists for sure. That being said, we have been previewed to three Relics “Enigma’s of the Black Library” to take a look at.

The Mirrorstave Veiled Path Shadowseer only. The Mirrorstave replaces the bearer’s Miststave and has the following profile: Range Type Strength AP Damage The Mirrorstave (shooting) ~12″~ ~Assault6~ ~S*~ ~AP-1~ ~1D~ The Mirrorstave (melee) ~Melee~ ~Melee~ ~S*~ ~AP-1~ ~D3~ Abilities: The wound roll required for this weapon in the Shooting phase is equal to the target unit’s unmodified Ballistic Skill. For example, if the weapon targets a unit with Ballistic Skill 3+, the weapon will wound on a roll of 3+. The wound roll required for this weapon in the Fight phase is equal to the target unit’s unmodified Weapon Skill. If the unit contains models with different Ballistic Skill/Weapon Skill characteristics, use the best characteristic in the unit. If the target’s Ballistic Skill/Weapon Skill characteristic is ‘-‘, then the wound roll required is a 6+

Whoa man this thing is a doozy. It looks like loads of fun though, and this is just the kind of wonky spin on rules manipulation that us Harlequin players were looking forward to. As a reminder, the Veiled Path Masque Form lets us roll 2 dice in each fight phase and discard the highest. Any attacks made by any enemy unit that target a friendly Veiled Path model in the Fight phase that equal the remaining die roll are considered failed.

This weapon has a pretty nice shooting profile all things considered. Assault 6 is giving her 6 shots at BS2+ after moving 8 inches, with AP-1. This is a pretty formidable infantry clearer, and is a pretty good deterrent to chargers. The AP-1 D3 damage profile is typical across all “stave” weapons, and remains here with the exception of the wonky “strength” modifier. I don’t know how much i personally will be running Veiled Path as a Masque, but if/when i do, i plan to take this item consistently. This is even worth spending an extra CP on, assuming we’ll have a generic “Pay 1/3 CP for an extra 1/2 relics” that every dex gets. This in addition to the changes we’ll talk about briefly, are going to make the Shadowseer a formidable model.

Faolchu’s Talon Soaring Spite model only. While the wearer is embarked on a Soaring Spite Transport, that vehicle may move an additional 6″ in the movement phase. In addition, if Soaring Spite Transport is destroyer while the wearer is embarked upon it, you do not need to roll any dice to see if any disembarking models are slain or if the transport explodes – no disembarking models are slain and the transport does not explode.

This Enigma is bittersweet. Firstly, i was really hoping that Harlequins would get the “not dying to disembark” thing as a passive ability, even if added to Rising Crescendo. Sadly it doesn’t seem it is- but i’ll settle for getting it on an Enigma. Now let me address the elephant in the circus:

FIFTY. INCH. SOLITAIRES.

Remember what i said above, about the whole Soaring Spite Warlord Trait? yea, staple an extra 6″ onto that sucker.. because why SHOULDN’T our Solitaires be able to move 50″ on turn one? I can’t wait to BatRep this Masque.

EDIT: i just noticed something else. Blitz reads that it cannot be used if THAT MODEL (meaning the Solitaire itself) was the target of Twilight Pathways. Says nothing about a transport the model is embarked in. so Twilight the Clown car for an ADDITIONAL 28″ giving you an average movement ability of 78″ on a Solitaire. I think i found my Masque of choice ladies and gentlemen.

Crescendo Model with shuriken pistol only. Crescendo replaces the bearer’s shuriken pistol and has the following profile: Range Type Strength AP Damage Crescendo ~12″~ ~Pistol D6~ ~S4~ ~AP0~ ~2D~ Abilities: Each time you make a wound roll of 6+ for this weapon, that his resolves with an AP of -3.

This item is a relic of past editions, and known throughout the lore. All other factions have some sort of “master craft” or otherwise “legendary” pistol variant, and now ours is back. This will be a fairly commonplace relic amongst Harlequin rosters, though i doubt it’ll be worth spending a CP on to buy. Pistol D6 is cool, but too high variance, and while the 2D stat is nice, its not making me wet the bed. Even the basic shuriken rule of AP-3 feels sorta underwhelming. This will be your go-to filler relic, but will likely be overshadowed by most of the other options we have present.

OH BOY was this a hype show. We have one last subject to cover, and that is our Psychic Powers. We will be receiving 3 new powers (in addition to the three we already have in the Index), two of whom are previewed for us- but before i do, let’s talk about our Shadowseer:

This model can attempt to manifest two psychic powers in each friendly Psychic phase, and attempt to deny one psychic power in each enemy Psychic phase. It knows Smite and two psychic powers from the Phantasmancy discipline.

That’s right folks. Our psyker finally hit the tomes and remember a second power. My biggest gripe for the Shadowseer was that she was a strictly worse Farseer. 134 points for a model that only knows 1 non-smite power, and still only has a 4+ invuln save. Now with the Farseer points increase, and the addition of this power, the field is closer to being level. I still think a Farseer is better in a vacuum, but the Shadowseer is now bringing MUCH more to the table than she previously was. Not only will i be running one in my lists from now on, but i’ll be extensively testing additional Seer’s to see how i feel once we see the final added power.

Veil of Tears Veil of Tears has a warp charge value of 7. If manifested, select a friendly Harlequin Infantry unit within 18″ of the psyker. Until the start of your next Psychic phase, subtract 1 from hit rolls for attacks made against that unit.

I was hoping for this, and we have some nutty things we can do with this Power. As we know, “-1 to hit”s are extremely potent in this edition of 40k. Let’s take our much discussed Solitaire, but let’s tone him down a bit, and take it a bit slower.

We put have a Master (With Great Harlequin) in toe, and intend to put the Solitaire in Combat, with a Shadowseer close behind. Psychic comes up, and we throw Veil of Tears on the Solitaire, and then Fog of Dreams onto the unit we intend to charge. Our clowns get in, and all the sudden our Solitaire is -2 to hit, -1 to wound, rerolling all failed wounds and hit rolls of 1… See where i’m getting at?

This is obviously a top-case scenario, but even just throwing Veil on a Troupe who’s locked in combat with Assault Termies, or a group of Genestealers. I imagine Veil + Fog is going to be a popular combination for midrange Harlequin lists.

Webway Dance Webway Dance has a war charge value of 7. If manifested, then until the start of your next Psychic phase, roll a D6 whenever a friendly Harlequin unit within 6″ loses a wound; on a 6, that wound is not lost.

This power is REALLY close to being awesome. A 6+ Feel No Pain roll for Harlequins is awesome, and adds a dimension of survivability we didn’t previously have access to. The Achilles Heel of this power is the “within 6 inches” clause. Harlequins like to move, and unless you’re on foot, you likely won’t be within 6″ of your Shadowseer for when those save rolls matter. This power will warrant testing, as there has certainly been times where i’ve said to myself “Man if i just had a FNP right now…”, but i don’t suspect at a glance that i personally will be taking this power consistently.

Phew

That was A LOT to go over. I was cautiously optimistic after seeing our Masque Forms the other day, but after seeing all this information i’m overwhelmed with excitement. There’s so much brewing and list building i want to do, and there will absolutely be some adjustments to my competitive lists come Codex time.

If you’ve stuck with me this long, thanks so much for reading! If we see any more previews before release day, you can bet that i will be posting about those as well. Thanks so much again for reading, and i can’t wait to hear your thoughts on what has been present today!

As Always,

Batty