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Hey all, welcome back to Exil Wargaming, where today we're going to be taking an 11th edition 40K deep dive into our favorite faction. We'll talk terrain layouts, dispositions, and some list ideas, as well as a few things I've
Deep dive into Warhammer 40K 11th Edition Harlequins, covering detachments, stratagems, and list ideas for optimal gameplay.
Key Takeaways
- Multiple detachments increase Harlequin army versatility and utility in 11th edition.
- Faithful Performance detachment is ideal for utility and survivability, while Twilight Flickers suits damage-focused builds.
- Stratagems like Hero's Fall and Exit the Stage enhance combat resilience and tactical repositioning.
- Combining Harlequins with other Eldari detachments like Corsair Coterie can create powerful synergies.
- Effective terrain use and unit deployment remain critical to leveraging Harlequin strengths.
Summary
- Overview of new 11th edition rules allowing multiple detachments based on detachment points (DP).
- Detailed analysis of Eldari detachments relevant to Harlequins, including Faithful Performance and Twilight Flickers.
- Faithful Performance focuses on utility and resource management, enhancing movement and survivability.
- Twilight Flickers detachment emphasizes damage output with benefits like army-wide stealth.
- Discussion of key stratagems such as Hero's Fall, Exit the Stage, and Deceptive Faint for tactical flexibility.
- Examination of synergy between detachments and units like Shadowseer bricks, Starweavers, and Corsair Coterie.
- Vehicle enhancements like Fantasmal Mirage provide repositioning options for Void Weavers and Starweavers.
- List building ideas combining Armored War Host and Serpent's Brood for reconnaissance and purge the foe strategies.
- Strategic advice on terrain use, unit positioning, and midboard control to maximize Harlequin effectiveness.
- Acknowledgment of challenges and potential negatives in the new edition, with suggestions for adapting playstyle.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Overview of 11th Edition Harlequins
- 03:56Utility Stratagems and Faithful Performance Detachment
- 07:35Twilight Flickers Detachment and Vehicle Enhancements
- 11:08Synergies with Other Eldari Detachments
- 14:34List Building Ideas and Strategic Advice
- 18:02Challenges and Adaptations in 11th Edition
- 21:48Closing Thoughts and Future Exploration
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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found that have just fundamentally changed throughout the game. Now, to start things off, I think it's important to review some of the new detachments and abilities afforded to us. Uh, in 11th edition, you no longer just pick one detachment, but you have
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the option to pick multiples depending on the cost of those detachments. So, you have three points to use. Almost all of our Eldari detachments, outside of Aspect and War Host, are two DP, and then these will be one. So, we can
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combine something like Ghosts of the Webway with a one DP detachment, or we can add Harlequins to an already existing detachment. Whether it's Seer Council, or Wind Rider Host, or the Spirit Host, you name it.
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The first two are essentially to help Harlequins find their roles inside of other detachments. I don't think these are necessarily for Harlequins to be the full-on mainstay force, as much as I would like it, but it does allow them a
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lot more utility because they didn't get a bunch of support in the original Codex, outside of Ghosts of the Webway and Serpent's Brood. So, the first one DP detachment would be Faithful Performance, and this is basically Ghosts of the Webway
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wrapped up in a nice little package. The only thing I wish this had was Cegorach's Coil instead of A Foot in the Future. I would be adding this to almost everything if it had Coil. But, the detachment rules basically allow
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Harlequins to ignore the typical move blocks. So, they can move through enemy models when making a charge. Now, some of the enhancements are pretty solid. A Foot in the Future is okay, but with a lot of the points increases in the new MFM, I
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don't see this being super beneficial for our troop master as I believe it's around 15 points or so to reroll charges. But, the Mistweave is pretty incredible. It gives a Shadowseer model and his unit the infiltrate ability. Early on in the codex, a lot of
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us were utilizing the Shadowseer brick to infiltrate the midboard and just threaten our opponent throughout the course of the game. This is still a really viable option, but there are a few changes. Uh, I think this definitely fits it, uh, fits in better now than it
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did before, even though having good units with fights first doesn't necessarily protect them as much. One of the stratagems I like to use, uh, or I will like to use in combination with a big, uh, Shadowseer Mistweave brick would
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be Hero's Fall. And that basically gives one of our units a 4+ fight on death.
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You combine this with the Shadowseer's hazardous that now puts out hazardous tests on, uh, rolls of one and two, as well as potentially a heroic intervention threat, and you make sure that if your opponent decides to attack you across
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the midboard or your natural expansion, they're not going to be able to steal your unit for free. This is pretty solid. We want to make sure that we're gaining as much value from all of our combats as possible, so we don't get
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steamrolled slowly over the course of the game. Exit the stage is another one CP strat that just allows us to reposition one of our units at the end of our opponent's fight phase and put him in the strategic reserve. Now, this
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is just a friendly unengaged Harlequin unit. There's nothing stopping you from pulling off a Starweaver filled with troop and, uh, a solitaire off the board or a death jester if you really want it.
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This could be very powerful, um, if your opponent doesn't screen properly or in the late game when they're starting to run out of units. Being able to come on the board and steal your opponent's home field objective on turn
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four or five could be really, really nice. Uh, deceptive faint is another solid, uh, stratagem. It's a reactive move for Harlequin's infantry. It's always great, especially when we're looking towards keeping our Harlequin troops alive. This is still really good on our
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lone ops. Uh, something like the solitaire or just getting units back into, uh, the range to re-embark into a Starweaver or a lot of the times what I think like we're going to want to do is throw them back into a falcon if
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necessary. So, faithful performance is really, really nice. Brings a lot of utility if not a ton of damage. Then we have our other detachment, which would be twilight flickers. And this is definitely the one I'm looking towards when I'm combining, uh, Harlequins in
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another detachment, but I want to be more Harlequin focused. Um, you can play Harlequins for utility or you can play them for damage. I think faithful performance is more for utility and, and kind of resource management, maybe stealing a few free kills. And
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twilight flickers is going to be something you can more base your entire game plan around. Now, the whole army gives it gets stealth. Uh, so, all of our Harlequin units and this stacks really nice with something like our Skyweavers
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who will essentially be minus two to hit in shooting. Uh, allows their durability to climb that much further. So, I really, really like that detachment rule. Um, as far as the enhancements, fights first is okay, I guess. Uh, it
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basically saves you the points necessary, uh, or CP from having to use like counter-offensive. Um, but, I don't necessarily see this as a must take right now. But, prelude performer giving a unit scout six could be pretty nice.
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The stratagems themselves are solid. Um, one of our units gets lance for one CP, which means one of our troop units can select something like reroll ones to hit as well. This is kind of a mini fangs of
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brood. You're not getting the minus one to hit. Uh, but, you still get to confer an extra little bonus. We don't have many access to rerolls in Harlequins at all. So, this is definitely something potentially worth it. Oftentimes, just
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throwing a grenade may be the better option. But, if you could throw a grenade and use this stratagem, you're in pretty good shape. I do have to recheck the rules. I'm not entirely sure if you can only use a stratagem on a
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unit once per turn. Um, or if it's once per phase. So, if it's once per phase, grenades and lance does tend to add up as long as you have the CP. Now, captive performance is also pretty solid. It gives one of our units
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sticky. Uh, while this does, uh, put you in the taken hold disposition, if you wanted, sticky is really, really nice.
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Especially maybe if you want to combine this with something like the Corsair Coterie, where you're getting sticky from your Corsairs, and then you're also, uh, being able to apply that and all the benefits to having an objective held in
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that detachment as well. I think this is a really good pairing with the Corsair Coterie. And then, we have Fantasmal Mirage, which basically, uh, allows one of our vehicle units to move and scoot. So, Void Weavers just towing into terrain is
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pretty nice. Maybe you put them in, you know, an inch or under an inch to see through and then move it off. Sometimes you may use this for a Starweaver. It is open-top, so you can shoot out your
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fusion pistols and everything else and then move this Starweaver off or you may end up using this, um, to just position your Starweaver in a better spot for your troop to re-embark afterwards. I don't see it being super, super useful.
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We don't have a ton of great vehicles, but it's definitely something that you can do in a pinch to make a solid play.
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I think both of these detachments are pretty solid and a great way to include Harlequins in almost any other detachment across the Codex. I lean towards Flickers for damage, but Faolchu's Performance, I think, provides just a little bit more utility.
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Now, these next two detachments are both one DP as well, and the selections we get if we're trying to play Ghosts of the Webway or Serpent's Brood. Armored War Host allows us to take the Reconnaissance disposition, which is, I
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think, what we want to be in a
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play in this edition. I not entirely sold on them. Still, their points went down a little bit, but I don't know if it's really going to make a huge difference.
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The enhancements are not, in my opinion, worth taking at this point. We can give a Shadowseer model, potentially, the ability to heal some wounds on one of our Eldar vehicles with a 3-in loan app when he's close to one of them or at
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the start of the shooting phase you select one visible Eldar unit within six and you could give them plus one to hit.
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The only issue with both of these is maybe if if you're if you're just running Harlequins, this seems like too many points to be pumping into something like a Void Weaver. If you were going to be increasing something on like a Fire
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Prism or a Falcon, this may be useful but taking a Shadowseer right now just doesn't seem like a really great fit or or good use of points. Now, the command points here are pretty solid and we can get
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five plus feel no pain against moral wounds in the layered wards strat which is okay, especially if we're trying to keep you know, one of our our Starweavers or Falcons alive from something like grenades which is definitely a big deal in one of my first
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games. I think between grenades and a haywire mine on my Falcon, I took like eight mortal wounds and I lost it almost for free. So, this should have been used. I didn't and got greedy but definitely something that you can use in
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a pinch if you really need something to survive. I think Soul Sight is one of the main reasons to use Armored War Host outside of giving everything assault and that it allows our Falcons or our Void Weavers to get one reroll of a hit, a
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wound and damage if we need. So, that lone bright lance that always misses or always hits and fails to wound may actually come through for us but it's also pretty solid with the pulse lasers on the Falcon. I think this is
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definitely pretty dang useful and then vectored engines allow us to fall back and still shoot with one of our vehicles. So, Armored War Host just a little bit of utility. You're not going to feel it too much, but Soulscythe
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definitely is worth it. Path of the Outcast, if you're running a bunch of Rangers and Shroud Runners, which I do feel like Shroud Runners may be somewhat of a must-take, uh just for their ability to strip cover. This is
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still something worth looking into. Uh when a friendly Ranger or Shroud Runners unit is selected to shoot, enemy units have plus six detection range um until that unit has shots. So, all of our Shroud Runners, all of our Rangers get
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plus six detection. So, pretty good. Uh the enhancements are okay. A Ranger unit, um it's its range attacks don't prevent it from being hidden. While these don't normally do a ton, if you combine this with something like the
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Corsair Coterie where you have, you know, other detachments or other uh stratagems that can really buff this up, they may be pretty useful. Um but, Assassin's Eye is really the one that I'm looking towards, which is Rangers and Shroud Runners uh get the ability
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their ranged attacks when they target a character unit have plus one AP. That is a lot of scatter laser shots at plus one AP. Uh could be pretty decent in the Corsair Coterie. Again, you can also use the stratagem to ignore cover and uh
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increase the AP again. So, all those scatter lasers go to uh AP two. Allows that unit to to punch up pretty well. Um Eldritch Suppression, the one CP stratagem, makes your opponent take battle shock tests um at minus one if a
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model was destroyed from those attacks. Battle shock is definitely relevant again. Um so, this could be something relatively useful, especially in the early turns of the game when your opponent only has maybe a unit towing onto an objective. If they didn't have a
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bunch of uh movement or they didn't want to stage too aggressively for uh us to attack them, this can be good at potentially stealing, you know, maybe three to five points in primary from our opponent the following turn.
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Casting back the veil increases detective or detection range by 6 in for any of our units.
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Hidden is definitely something and I think the shroud runners or the rangers having a bit of extra utility could be very very useful especially when we have to maximize every bit of damage that we can in a Harlequins army. Being able to just
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throw in a few extra, you know, shuriken cannon shots from our star weavers could be very very useful. And then you also get kind of a move and scoot with those shroud runners as well if you just want to tow them onto objective and
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nomads of the hidden way. So, I think both of these detachments are pretty solid. They both give us the recon disposition which is the most important aspect of this. But, I think path of the outcast makes you lean into the rangers
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and the shroud runners a little bit more where the armored war host kind of buffs everything that we want to be doing.
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It's more of a whole army buff if we're running star weavers and falcons than anything else. So, that's the way I'm going to be leaning when combining something with ghost of the webway or the serpent's brood.
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So, moving into 11th edition, I think there are a ton of positives. There aren't an overwhelming number of them. I feel like we're pretty close to where we were at the end of 10th. But, the two new detachments definitely add something
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that we didn't have before. So, armored war host pretty dang solid. I think the solitaire definitely gets a buff with the way precision is worked out now.
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Make sure that he's able to bring down the characters he wants to bring down.
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That is very very nice and useful. So, I think his value goes up a good bit more than where it was before.
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Solitaire, I think is a must take in any Harlequin army. The Skyweavers definitely got better, especially with the new uh fly rules. Now, we can move through terrain um or those walls at just minus two move, but we also still get our agile
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tokens, so we give them back that 14-in move if we really need it. Uh this is pretty good. Skyweavers are starting to look pretty excellent. And we have access to a game plan that plays into our strengths, finally, which would be
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the Recon disposition. Sometimes it means we're just pushing units forward in table quarters, sometimes it means we just have to hold one of our natural expansions and steal one uh from our opponent. There's some actions involved here or there, but it really rewards
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that MSU play style overall, which I think is something we want leaning into as a Harlequin player. So, a ton of positives that came from this. I really like the Solitaire, the Skyweavers, and the new disposition, and getting uh some
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access to the new detachments is pretty nice too. Now, we had a few more buffs, I guess we would say, uh in the MFM, but I'm not quite sure it really matters at this point. The Death Jester went down 10
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points. Um, 80 points still seems a lot for what he does, but the utility and lone up and the ability to battle shock may be a little bit more worthwhile. I definitely think there's some testing to be done here. The Voidweavers went from
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125 to 115. I'm not quite sure that's the spot they want to be in, but uh as I start getting Harlequins on the table, I am going to reinvest my time into the Voidweavers as well. I know that they're still not super optimal for
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their points, but I think they could have some value. Just not sure it's really worth it. And then the Shadowseer hazardous ability, I see this as somewhat of a buff. I'm not entirely sure it is with all the the three-wound
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bricks running around. I think I would have liked the old hazardous a little bit more, but into more MSU units, whether it's like Genestealers or Hormagaunts or something the Shadowseer hazardous seems like it's going to be able to take out
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just a little bit more of our opponent's forces if not whittle them away a good bit. Still not entirely sold on the Shadowseer though.
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And as normal with any balance or new addition, there are going to be some negatives to our favorite factions.
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Harlequins are no exception. Now, I don't think these negatives are hugely impactful by any means, but they're definitely there. The Skyweavers I feel like were perfectly priced for what they did. We had a unit that made sense at
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its point cost that we weren't overpaying for. And now it seems like they caught on and we're back up in the points again.
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were perfect at 95 points. Now we're up to 105. Rangers went from 55 points, which was still ridiculously cheap, up to 60. It's starting to skew the math a little bit on list building. That 55-point range was perfect for a good
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bit of the time. So, I'm not really enjoying that too much. And then the biggest negative I think here as far as units getting points increases would be the Shroudrunners.
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Shroudrunners went from 80 points a perfectly amazing utility unit up to 95. They offer so much in 11th edition. So, hoping that they stayed at 80 points was just a little bit of wishful thinking. I still think they're absolutely worth
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taking. And then the regular wind riders got to stay at 80 points, which just made a little bit more sense. I don't know if 95 points is the place we want to be. I think 85 or 90 is probably where the
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shroud runners shrine. But, we get what we get and we don't complain. Then we have that purge the foe disposition on serpent's brood.
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Purge the foe highly rewards our opponent's armies for having durable units. Something that we can't claim as a Harlequin player, let alone an Eldar player. So, I think it forces us to play a game that's counterintuitive to our detachment
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rules. While there's not a ton of rewards for our opponent killing a bunch of our units, there are a few dispositions that pair really poorly into us. Playing a purge the foe mirror as a Harlequin player with 16 or 17
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total units is brutal. But, also playing in purge the foe incentivizes us to play a different style of game that I think we're necessarily built for. It is nice though that we're able to switch out into reconnaissance with war host or
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path of the outcasts, which I I think is definitely what we want to be doing. So, this is the the detachments are both a positive and a negative here. I just don't see purge being super beneficial to us here.
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We are incentivized to bring MSU units in small cheap transports, right? We only get bonuses in something like serpent's brood from disembarking from a vehicle. And now the only vehicles that we can disembark from are Falcons that can only carry up to six models
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and Starweavers because it looks like they have taken the Eldar keyword out of the Wave Serpent and replaced it with Aseriyani, which means in Serpent's Brood, we no longer get access to big bricks of Harlequin troops jumping out
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with sustained hits, reroll ones to hit, and plus one to wound as well. This really lowers the lethality or single unit damage potential of the Serpent's Brood. I don't think a lot of people were playing the brick, but by the end
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of 10th, it was really starting to kind of catch on. And in this new edition where Counter-Offensive and Heroic Intervention are incredibly impactful, especially without having big fights first units to deter your opponent from slamming into you early on in the game,
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um these Wave Serpent bricks or these uh 11 or 12-man Harlequin units uh were really, really useful. They're just not gaining the benefits that we would like them to have. So, the Wave Serpent going away is probably my
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biggest disappointment in this entire edition so far. Um and it's kind of pushing me towards leaning to Ghosts of the Webway actually for access to a big infiltrate brick with the Mistweave and also Tzeentch's Coil brick with a Troupe
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Master. Just something that can do a ton of damage um or a good bit into your opponent's force without having to worry about Counter-Offensive or them interrupting and wiping out, you know, a a big chunk of your force. Uh in the couple games
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that I've played so far, uh interrupt has been an absolute nightmare against my typical game plan. I'm going to have to figure out a couple different ways around it moving forward.
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Now, something else to look towards in this new edition is the terrain layouts uh and maps more specifically. Uh what we're going to see across the board is there is a ton of parity, um but there are a
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lot of staging grounds in the distances between these staging grounds is a little bit different uh as far as, you know, deployment zones to objectives than our last edition. Uh what we're going to see here are some of our
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missions with reconnaissance across the board, whether it's priority assets or against purge the foe or reconnaissance.
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Um I'd like to take a deep dive into some of these, but you can see they're not all super different, but there are a ton of places that look like pretty incredible staging grounds that are more of a trap than anything else.
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So, something to note here on the new terrain is the distance between objectives and the way it's going to interact on the board. What you see down here is that we kind of mark this out.
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We have 13 in, which is the biggest movement that we can get disembarking from a Starweaver. So, that 3-in disembark plus a 2-in move token for one of our Harlequin units with their typical 8-in move. This puts us
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right here into this pocket, which could also mean that we're staged up in this room pretty nicely, but it's definitely not enough distance to engage our opponent objective from objective. We also don't want to stage our units um
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all the way up in this pocket as well because it really lends an easy charge for our opponent to wipe us off the board with almost anything that they have in the follow-up turn. So, on our opponent's natural expansion, right, our
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home across from their natural, this is kind of a trap scenario uh for me at least in the way I see the game. I feel like this section of the board will be stalemated a lot of the time. If your opponent though wants to
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move up and aggressively stage towards this rune right here, uh you know, protect themselves from some of your lines, maybe they're getting hidden, whatever it may be, you have a very easy charge into them afterwards. You get to
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re-embark into a Starweaver potentially behind cover. You'd most likely want this Starweaver to actually be back here though as the distance from back here in your opponent's deployment zone all the way up to this rune is only about 14 or
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15 in to engage you, which means they only need something like a 2 or a 3-in charge with a unit of, you know, jump pack Marines or whatever it may be, okay? So, what we want to do is make that charge a little bit more
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difficult if we have the option. So, staging over here is kind of dangerous. If you're the first to put something out here and you're not stealing a resource for it, you may be giving something away for free. In the early turns of the
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game, I can see our opponents, especially with their durable heavy units, putting something into this terrain piece right here. And this is where some really nice shooting angles are going to come into play down here, whether it's Voidweavers or Skyweavers
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or some middling Shuriken cannon fire, but you also want to make sure that this angle isn't, you know, being filled up by a bunch of your opponents, you know, long-range firepower. So, I feel like this section of the board, again, is
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going to be somewhat of a stalemate just based on how you and your opponent will be engaging each other. You do want to have have way to try to steal your opponent's natural expansion, but unlike in 10th edition, where you can kind of
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just run up a unit and stand on one of their objectives with some OC and steal early turn scoring, I don't think this is going to be a real easy proposition in 11th.
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Um I think the game plan is going to be pretty much to hold your natural expansion forever. Ours would be up here, and then try to contest the middle while our opponent scores their natural and try to contest the middle as well.
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It seems like this game plan is really focusing on getting the fight started towards the center of the board more than the outskirts uh regardless of disposition overall just based on how the trades are going to interact on
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these objectives in the distances between them. So, um this feels like kind of a trap for me. I think you can stay patient. You want to have enough units to deter your opponent from pushing a bunch out into this board.
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Steal as many opportunities as you can from the mid-board resources that you can take from them, and then force one of these units that would be holding their natural to move up into this later on in the game, potentially turns three
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or four. When that happens, I think it's then time to pounce on their natural expansion and try to steal whatever points you can then. But, don't overly commit towards this section of the board if your opponent is staging
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appropriately. If they have a bunch of units up here uh stealing the objective will almost never happen for free, especially with the new heroic intervention. If they make sure that they have uh uh the ability to charge you within 6 in on one of these,
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they're going to steal that objective back in the same phase anytime, especially if we're just putting a unit of, you know, uh five Harlequin troop or corsairs or rangers on this uh so definitely don't prioritize in my opinion taking your opponent's natural
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expansion too early in the game. Wait for the right moment and opportunity. On the flip side the middle the distance between these two points is very very easy for us to engage whatever our opponent wants to throw up here. So our
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opponent can tow onto their natural back here and it's a really difficult charge. It's almost impossible for us to interact with them. If they're hidden they're in really great shape or if they just kind of tuck behind this terrain
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piece here. They can still get about five OC on without a worry. If it's a battle line unit it's 10 and you have almost no hope of taking it from them.
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But up here in the mid board if they want to just kind of hide behind this objective early on in the game our threat range is perfect to engage them.
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And if they don't have anything supporting that unit you can essentially get a free kill and steal unit for absolutely nothing with a unit of Harlequin troops or Skyweavers using Weaver's coil because we have access to that 6-in pile and consolidate if we are
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going to engage something up here. If we can move back towards the mid board this terrain piece is about 12-in long. We can definitely re-embark into a Starweaver afterwards as long as we pre-measured everything ahead of time.
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And we use the appropriate kind of pile ins necessary to make these moves happen. Now if your opponent is supporting their unit with something that has heroic intervention and can tie you up then of course that is a very
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tricky trade that you're going to have to weigh the outcomes. Would I send a 75-point Troupe Master and an 85-point Harlequin Troupe all the way up here to deal with something like a unit of Incursors or Scouts? Absolutely not. I
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would rather just contest the objective and see what they want to do with that unit afterwards.
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If they have really great over watch threats, this is also something to consider over here. But if they misplay, you can definitely steal a couple activations from your opponent and that is really really nice.
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Now it's just another quick example on a different style of deployment. This one has always been a little bit hairy, but because we don't have access to something like fights first anymore or something that could intervene with fights first like a solitaire,
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staging in these ruins right here is really really kind of risky. There's only 18 inches across. We're 9 inches off the center of the board. If your opponent has something like jump pack intercessors for example, even without advance and charge, which feels like
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every space marine army has. Now, they're still getting into us with something like three to a six inch charge if we're behind this ruin. We're losing these units for free.
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What I highly highly recommend is having something to over watch whatever may be trying to jump into this ruin and target this or really good heroic intervention threat, something like maybe a brick of Harlequin troops with checker x coil.
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One of the reasons I really kind of like ghost of the webway right now is you can stage your shadow seer brick all the way up here. If they want to come in, they're going to take their hazardous
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tests. You're also going to get fight on death. And while you may still run away with a few of your units as long as your fusion pistols were doing pretty good.
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You're not going to give that unit away for free. In ghosts, you also have access to fall back shoot and charge. So if your opponent maybe you don't completely wipe them out, you have access. You are still further up the
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board to engage them here and then our other forces can clean up this unit giving you a good even trade on units in a worst-case scenario. But, you definitely want to be wary of your opponent's um pushing forward too aggressively. Um
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now, especially with something like Purge the Foe, which this map is a part of, I believe, um it seems like big bricks of durable infantry are kind of the mainstay. If it's something like Chosen, they get Advance and Charge. If
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it's World Eaters, their movement is already pretty impeccable, um whether it's Berserkers or um the Eightbound in any combination.
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So, this is still a little bit of a dicey proposition to hold. Now, on our natural expansion, any of our Harlequin troops, whatever it may be, our Starweavers, Skyweavers, whatever we want to go hold up here, we definitely
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have enough movement to get out of our deployment zone and hold this early. If we're using something like Corsairs um or Rangers of course, this is going to be pretty easy as well, but the distance to the back of this terrain from our
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opponent's deployment zone is also pretty tricky. You can see we're 25 in across the board from this ruin here, uh which means this isn't a really, really great staging zone for our opponent, even if they have jump packs to try to
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steal this objective from us over here. So, our naturals is pretty decent to hold, um but just be wary of threat overload in a section of the board. Uh in a map like this, I think being able to shift your force
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to one specific section of the board, wipe it out entirely, and then reshift another turn is going to be a a solid game plan. Um on this section of the board from our deployment zone, if we want to engage our opponents, we can get
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our 13 in up here if maybe we use something like an Advance and Charge, we can definitely charge whatever they want to stage in this room if they also get a little too aggressive right behind this terrain, but if they're behind the
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objective or they're holding back here, just the same as ours, this is really tough. So, movement is excellent, but it doesn't matter at all how far we move if we still can't get a reliable charge.
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So, just keep that all in mind when you're pre-measuring and you're trying to stage appropriately. I think what's most important is staging where we can reliably charge them, but they cannot reliably charge us. Pre-measure, pre-measure pre-measure.
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But, overall, my initial thoughts after playing a few games and kind of looking at the terrain and everything, I'm sure it's going to change over time, but initially, I feel like the game is just fundamentally different. It is much less
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about avoiding the middle and denying your opponent's expansion like in 10th edition, and much more about holding your natural and denying the center objective. It doesn't have to be a blitz to the finish line, but it easily can be
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if someone stages too aggressively. There's no more fights first to protect, you know, tough durable units or cheap chaff holding objectives. So, the game plan has to adapt. Rapid Ingress will be a really great tool to break open the
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game. If your opponent isn't pushing units forward to screen off certain sections of the board, something like a Harlequin Troupe and Troupe Master coming out of a Falcon could really blow up like a natural expansion or reinforce your own early on
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in the game without having any worry of being fired into as long as we deploy appropriately.
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Quinns still have the edge when it comes to stealing free kills, uh whether it's um weaver's coil or our troop getting back into star weavers, just don't force it.
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If you're trying to steal cheeky activations over and over and over again and you walk into some of your opponent's traps, um it can spell doom for the remainder of the game. We score secondaries with the best of them, so
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don't get too caught up on on falling behind in primary early on in the game.
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I promise once you math it out the turns and the amount of scoring uh that you can have, absolutely come close to maxing your primary even if your first and second turns weren't super great.
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Some things to watch out for as Harlequin players, especially playing that MSU style in recon, would have to start off with heroic intervention. It can be an absolute nightmare. We gain the advantage by stealing free activations here or there, um but
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because our opponent has the ability to both tie us up, we never want to be tied up. Most of the time we won't make it out of one of those combats, or have the ability to charge us in our own turn, um
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it can really spell doom if we throw away too many units too early on. We really have to start dogpiling our units into certain sections of the board or into certain durable units our opponent is bringing. If we don't have enough of
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them by the late game, our opponent's just going to to run right over us. So, try to stay out of 6 in when denying any objective uh whenever possible. This is with your corsairs or your troops or your rangers or shroud runners, whatever
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it may be. Counteroffensive on the other hand can lose you the game on the spot. If you were trying to charge too many of your units, you're looking to collapse everywhere all at once. We're charging five units of troops, a couple units
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coming out of Falcons, we're dogpiling um some of our opponent's more durable units. Maybe it's, you know, possessed or units of Terminators or Vitrix Honor Guard, whatever it is where we know we need a couple of our units to get in. If
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you are not planning for counteroffensive, and you don't get to completely wipe one of those units with one of yours, the game could be over. You could be trading two or three units for one of theirs at that point. So, watch out for
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counteroffensive. Anything that you can use to increase your opponent's CP or anything that you can use to bait out your opponent's CP before the charge phase is absolutely invaluable.
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Overwatch is always a threat for Eldari. We do have access to a token to ignore Overwatch on one of our units, but because Overwatch happens at the end of the movement phase now, it means we can cross distance
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across the board. So, if you do need to run something out in the open for a second, maybe it was in the open in your opponent's turn, now as long as you're ending where that unit can't shoot them, get them out of
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line of sight, you can safely get around it. Use that token on the unit you can't. But definitely, be wary if your opponent is bringing something like Calgar or Azrael or Eldrad, whatever it is to give them extra CP, they do have
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this ability to use counteroffensive and Overwatch in the same turn, and they can blow you out pretty fast.
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Starweavers are phenomenal, but they are definitely a double-edged sword in this edition. Their lethality isn't super great considering most of what they're going into is going to be in cover, so they're hitting on fours now even though they get that sustained and lethal.
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But, the the way the new vehicles work with this embark, the hazardous checks, you can fall out and be in combat. This is really tough. I would not play nearly as aggressively with my Starweavers at least starting off in 11th edition until
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I get the hang of it as I did in 10th. No longer are they just um an activation lock for your opponent where they can't engage them or tie them up or whatever it is afterwards. They can very easily be brought down and you
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can still lose uh a bunch of your troops. So, be wary on the Starweavers.
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Just it's going to take practice in figuring out where they fit um or how you want to use them. Um move blocks in general are a lot less impactful. Um basically you have to stay within 9 in and your opponents can move between your
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models. So, we can't span them out as long as we could before. The move blocks will definitely still work on vehicles or units that may want to disembark from vehicles. Absolutely, that's pretty solid. But, we're no longer going to be
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able to just jail our opponent for a couple turns on their section of the board. And to be honest, um that jail style, denying your opponent's primary on turns, you know, one or two isn't going to be nearly as impactful as it
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was in 10th. So, be wary on the move blocks. Use them sparingly to make sure that your opponent can't engage some of your more important units, but don't base your entire game plan around it.
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Now, beyond this, MSU is great. We are incentivized to play that way by both our detachment rules and also our disposition, but a couple heavy-hitting units may go a very, very long way. Um having access to something like a
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checker X coil brick or a just a big brick of Harlequin troops rerolling ones with fangs of brood um could be the answer to some of our problems, um, especially when we're trying to get around something like counteroffensive
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in a single turn. Having something that can deal a substantial amount of damage with one activation could be a game-changer and it shores up some of our weaknesses.
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Now, with all of this kind of being said, I want to get into some lists that I want to try. I don't think this is the end-all, be-all for any of these, more of a starting point to see if it works.
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The list, um, that I first ran when I saw all of this would be, uh, an armored war host and serpent's brood reconnaissance build. Um, it has a good number of units. I think we're coming in at 17 or 18 here. We're bringing the
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solitaire. I think he's a must in any of our Harlequin units, a troop master with weaver's well, and two other troop masters beyond this. We're going full MSU with six units of five troop, three Falcons. Uh, one of these will run rapid
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ingress. It'll most likely be a troop master with weaver's well. Some games it may be two Falcons with rapid ingress, but really I want one to threaten our opponent's natural or be kind of a deterrent and be able to shift towards
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the midboard. I want another to back up our natural expansion, and then I want one to break open the game with a good rapid ingress. Uh, we have two star weavers for other troops and then we're going to have one unit of troops just
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floating around. Uh, I may use the old like James Fisher launch a bare-bones troop out of a Falcon and reload it with a troop master early on in the game to potentially steal, uh, an activation or, you know, a free kill
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somewhere. Uh, in recon, having units in different table quarters is sometimes something we need to do. If we can kill a one of our opponent's units while we're doing it, we're that much better off for it. We have one unit of four sky
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weavers to take advantage of weaver's coil. Um, sky weavers are are pretty good right now, even though they're a little bit more costed. I think having something that can chip damage vehicles, or if you're really lucky, just bring
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one down entirely, steal an opponent's trash piece, and then move off to safety is absolutely incredible. I am going to use the Sky Weavers more often to most likely hunt trash than be a heavy hitter, um, just to remove resources
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from our opponent's board. Um, two units of five Rangers, I think it's important to have infiltrate against opponent's infiltrate and staging, but really one of these is most likely just going to screen, uh, the backfield from our opponent being able to deep strike
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behind us. And then we have two units of three shroud runners to round it off. I think shroud runners are just highly valuable, especially in recon, uh, being able to remove cover from something allows the Falcons to shoot up, um, as
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well as, you know, being able to give them, uh, you know, a reroll of a hit, a wound, and a damage with our armored war host strategem is pretty good. Um, and they're also solid pieces to either steal an objective, remove some of our
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opponent's trash. They're really good at removing light infantry, um, as well. And then we have about 60 points to flex in that last spot. Um, I see a lot of Warlock Sky Runners. I really like this.
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Maybe you want to take an enhancement somewhere else for something else. Maybe you just want to put in another unit of Rangers to screen, or potentially um, be something our opponent has to interact with or just do actions. Um, this spot
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is pretty free. I don't think you can go wrong anywhere there. But I think this is a really well-rounded armored brood list. Um, my first attempt, I only ran two Falcons, um, and swapped out, I think I had three Star Weavers and a
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couple extra trash pieces. I think I had two units of Corsair Void Weavers, as well. And I I a solid, uh, base point to begin with.
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The next list would be attempting armored war host and serpent's brood in a purge the foe style build. Um I'm not really sold on this working. I haven't got this on the table yet, but it's definitely something I want to try. Um I
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think when playing purge the foe, we want to make sure that we're getting um either good big activations, things that can wipe our opponent's units off the board, um or clear big sections of the board at a time to protect them
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afterwards. Um but I think having like a couple heavy hitters is an absolute must. If we're leaving a bunch of trash pieces around the board, or we're going up against something like recon or disruption, where they get uh bonuses
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for killing our units, we're just setting ourselves back um turns. We're giving them free points over the course of the game. So, we have a solitaire, he's in every list, three troop masters, one with weaver's well, and then the
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avatar of Cegorach. Um [laughter] we are bringing an 11-man unit of troops. Um now no troop master attached to these guys. This is just kind of another hammer unit, a bunch of attacks, potentially devastating wounds. We can reroll ones to hit and get plus one to
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wound with um fang uh of brood. Um then we have three units of five troops. Notably, we're not bringing any star weavers. All of these guys will be getting out of Falcons.
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Um the Falcons have to be a heavy hitter here. They're going to have to put in a bunch of work. Probably going to start two on the table, one in reserves, and then we're going heavy into sky weavers.
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Uh a unit of four, and then two units of two, and then two units of rangers to either hold our home objective and screen the back field. Um if we need, this is only coming in at about 14 total
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units, but it is 2,000 points on the nose. Um it is really I think the game plan is to just try to clear either section of the board one at a time or just all in our opponent, overwhelm them everywhere, tie up some
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units with our our brick of Harlequin troops that can also get advance and charge, and the Avatar, and then hope that they don't have enough resources to clap back into everything afterwards. We can use our reactive moves to re-embark
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a troop unit into a Falcon, perhaps, uh and then Weaver's coil to keep some of our Skyweavers safe for a follow-up turn afterwards. Um, I think this will be a little bit tricky just based on um our uh opponent's knowledge. Um, if
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they're real savvy with their distances, heroic intervention, and counter-offensive, and all of those things, um this might be an uphill climb in Purge the Foe, but um if you're running this in just some friendly games and RTT, it's not super super
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competitive. I think you can definitely have some fun with it. Now, this next list is still Armored Warhost, but we're also bringing it in Ghosts of the Webway. I think Ghosts has some legs. It's going to require a
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little bit of trial and error, but I really really want to get this on the board. This may be my next game. It can claim either the recon or disruption uh disposition, and I don't think it makes a really big difference. I think I lean
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towards recon for this um for now. We have a Solitaire, our three troop masters, but one is coming with Cegorach's Coil and will be attached to an 11-man unit of troops. We're also bringing a Shadowseer with the Miststave
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to infiltrate another big brick of Harlequin troops. So, we're bringing two bricks here, Cegorach's Coil to protect the other um if we need. We really want to have some form of deterrent uh for our opponent, but also a couple big
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activations, and there's nothing that helps a big activation better than throwing grenades for three mortal wounds, then charging for another six mortal wounds, and shooting your opponent with five fusion pistols, uh, and four neuros before you get there. I
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think that troop master coil brick is really, really nice. Um, it'll definitely have some play here. Uh, we also have access to heroic intervention in this, so we can charge our opponent in that fight phase and bloody dance.
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So, uh, we can double interact with our opponent on their turn if we really wanted it. We're bringing four units of five troops. Two of them will be attached to troop masters and two Falcons, and then the bare bones will be
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inside of two star weavers. Now, you can definitely play games and put the bare bones units in Falcons and launch them out forward first, load them with troop masters, uh, kind of stage other units if you really needed to, maybe put a solitaire
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in a star weaver. Just depends how you want to kind of play it, um, but you can absolutely do any of this early on. We're not bringing as many sky weavers here. Uh, they all would be zephyr glaves and haywire, um,
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because they just don't get that many bonuses without sustained. They're really, really swingy, but sometimes those devastating wounds just add up and hopefully our Falcons and fusion pistols and grenades can deal with whatever targets they were going into before they
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hit there as well. We're bringing two units of five rangers as utility and screening, and then two single units of warlock sky runners. Um, they are not 120 points, it's 90 points for the two of them. Uh, this used to be taken up by
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corsair void weavers or rangers as well, but I think just having a single cheap piece to throw across the board, um, put a little bit of firepower in or do an action or score primary, especially in like recon or disruption, um, could be
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invaluable. I think the warlock sky runners are really nice here. Uh, really awesome suggestion, just throwing uh, a skyrunner conversion, uh, maybe a shadowseer riding a bike wouldn't be a bad option at all to make it a little
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bit more Harlequin friendly. I think this list is one of my favorites so far, but I got it get it on the table before I know for sure.
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And for all of you Harlequin purists right now, which I wish I was, I'm going to get this on the board.
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It is basically mono Quins. We're going to be bringing serpent's brood again probably in the armored war host.
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We have a solitaire or three troop masters, the death jester this time with Fang Delier. All that 10 points is really coming in handy. We have a single unit of 11 troop again just to take advantage of fangs of brood and then
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five units of five troop. The troop master with weaver's well will most likely be in a five man unit and then the other two troop masters as well.
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We're only bringing three starweavers though. We're going to use our starweavers as launching points early on in the game more than protection points. If that makes sense.
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So we're going to launch a unit out of the starweaver, going to reload it with another troop and we're going to try to trade on some objectives or to get some points early on in the game. We're loading up on skyweavers. We have a unit
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of four and then two units of two. We're bringing two voidweavers as well who may honestly be somewhat of a backbone in this list being able to reposition it being able to kind of fire and fade these can really help support certain
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flanks of the board especially in combination with our two man units of skyweavers. So these are just kind of be packages moving across the board here and there and just kind of repositioning wherever we need them. Now unfortunately
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the way the new troops or the points are laying out is we're in this really awkward spot for points and as much as I would have loved to have this be only Harlequins, um there was no other unit that we could
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fit here unless we wanted to remove the Warlock Skyrunner and increase a couple of our units of troops to six mans and maybe the 11 man to a 12 man. But, I think just having the extra resource to
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screen or do an action or whatever it is is just a little bit more valuable. So, we're going to do that Shadowseer version, put him on a Skyrunner and hope that no one notices. I really do like this list. I think it's a very
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streamlined approach. I think it has all of the tools. They may not be the most optimal in comparison to what the rest of the 40K universe gets to bring to the table, but I think with a good action
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plan and enough reps, this will be a really, really solid approach. And then our final list that I want to show today is going to be the Corsair Coterie and Twilight Flickers Detachment. Now, I do not believe that
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this is great at this point. This is a starting off point on how much or how well I can integrate Harlequins with the Coterie.
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Um I'm sure there's a lot of things that are going to change here. This is kind of a trial and error list itself and I'm trying to lean as heavily as I can into Harlequins. So, yes, I know it's not
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optimal, but I want to see if this is a viable way to play Harlequins themselves. Uh we could play either priority assets or taken hold. Uh both of those are perfectly fine for Corsair Coterie. We like playing around
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objectives. We have the ability to sticky everything. So, in this list for the Corsair part of things and Eldari, we have Yriel attached to 10 Void Reavers, a bunch of OC. He can reroll wounds. Uh he's kind of a monster by
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himself. Uh we have Eldrad attached to a Warlock Conclave. Um having access to the extra CP, throw grenades, we can throw grenades when we fall back with their strategem. We can also confer, you know, reroll wounds with our void
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reavers or reroll ones to wound on our Harlequin troops. Um, if we wanted, there's a lots of um, strategems that we're going to want to be using uh, in something like this. So, I think Eldrad is a must here, but I
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really like the conclave as well as something to back up our natural expansion as an overwatch threat.
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Um, if our opponent wants to move in and try to steal something early on. We don't have a bunch of like heavy hitters here.
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We don't have something really durable to stand on one of our objectives. So, it's really easy for our opponent to engage us if we don't have something to dissuade them. Uh, a big unit of warlocks um getting overwatch, hitting on
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everything, ignores cover, is incredible and then the following turn we get plus one to wound uh, against the target if we needed to with that unit. I know it's expensive, but I think it can do a lot of work. Um, we're bringing three units
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of five void reavers cuz we really just need corsairs to help sticky objectives and steal uh, some points. We have two units of five rangers. We need infiltrate and some screening, uh, something to force our opponent potentially out early on in
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the game. Uh, and then two units of three shroud runners. Shroud runners are incredible here.
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Um, if if man, you can run the corsair coterie and outcast, I think shroud runners can be out of this world, but I think they're just a really good piece here. We have a falcon as well. Um, now,
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something really neat to note is we get to bring a bunch of Harlequins, um, but not so neat to note is we can only bring one troop master, one shadowseer, one death jester, uh, and always one solitaire. I opted
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away from the solitaire here. He was in the original list, but I found I didn't have enough units to play the game if I was going to bring Eldrad and the Warlock conclave with the solitaire as well. So,
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solitaire unfortunately had to get cut. The troop master with a unit will be inside of a falcon still a really solid heavy hitter. We have two more troop units inside of two star weavers. They can get sticky objectives. They can also
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get Lance. They can still throw grenades and their fusion pistols are pretty solid as long as we're combining our strategy gems with these units. They should be pretty useful and then two units of four sky weavers. In Twilight
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the sky weavers get stealth wherever they are on the board, but they're also natively minus one to hit. So, you give your opponent minus one ballistic skill for being stealth and their data sheet ability is minus one to hit. Most armies
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will be hitting these guys on fives or sixes letting them be a little bit more lethal. They can play outside of the ranges and they can use those shroud runners to ignore cover throughout the the course of the game.
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Pretty nice almost uninteractable unit early on in the game if we set ourselves up appropriately. We're coming in at 2,000 points on the nose. I feel like this list is a little bit all over the place. I feel like we're trying to force
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Harlequins here a little bit more and there are more viable options in just the coterie, but I'm not looking to play coterie at this point. I'm looking to play Harlequins and this being just another way to get them on the table.
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But I hope you enjoyed. These are just some of my initial thoughts and impressions. I think some things will absolutely change as we explore and grow throughout this edition. It is a fundamentally different game. So, trying to fit in what worked in 10th and 11th
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right off the bat maybe kind of a losing proposition, but I think the exploration is the funnest part of this entire game.
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So, I can't wait to get some of these lists on the table, figure out what works, what doesn't, and what's working and isn't working for you all. But, please like, share, subscribe, join the Discord, let me know what you're seeing
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in the comments, and I'll see you all in the next video.
Topics:Warhammer 40k11th EditionHarlequinsEldarFaithful PerformanceTwilight FlickersStratagemsList BuildingTacticsExile Wargaming
