I really don't see why Harlequins need to be their own super special Mary Sue snowflake list. They're allies to Eldar and DE in 40K - why reinvent the wheel other than to make things more complicated than they need to be?

Just give reasonable rules, bump up the points cost to where no win-at-all-cost min/max'ing player will bother with them, and then nostalgia and "cool"-driven players like myself will be happy with our super cool but not terribly winnable armies.

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I'm sorry, but how is having Harlequins being separate from Eldar and Dark Eldar giving them "the proper treatment"? The rest of the 40K fandom, lore, canon and history has always always and always had them operating with and around Eldar and Dark Eldar forces.

I see no reason why NetEA needs to be needlessly complicated in this respect. This special snowflake Mary Sue list - see below, while certainly interesting, is not an excuse to not include Harlequins (at a high enough points cost to make them irrelevant in most hyper-super-competitive play) in Eldar and DE lists as allies, with all the same restrictions as all other allies.

Should they be hard to hit? Absolutely. Flipping, tumbling, cartwheeling, and holo-fielding around all over the place.

Should they be hard to beat in Close Combat? Sure.

Should they get their butts handed to them by overwhelming firepower and area of effect blast weapons? Yep.

Should the Death Jesters be included? A-men they should.

Should they have a high points cost to discourage every Tom, Dick and Harry to use them in their cookie list? Bells to the yes.

Let's not have our beloved Crack Clowns devolve into this (sorry, not sure how to hide an image so you have to click on it to open it inside the post):

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This is an incomplete picture. In the past, Harlequins have often operated as a separate army. They had their own army list in Rogue Trader (they were not part of the Eldar army list at all), and they had their own army list for third edition 40K as well. GW has been inconsistent in its approach to Harlequins. Having them as allies in some editions, and separate armies in others. Also, Harlequins did not feature in the Dark Eldar codex until sixth edition.



To have all of these characteristics, they need to be handled as a separate army list, not allies. You'd have to make an extremely complex unit in terms of all the special rules to have everything that you list here just for an allied formation.

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Spot on Irisado. There are so many special facets to the Harlequins that a separate list is the way to go. Added to which, the approach of developing a separate Harlequin list means the main lists get approved as they are, while we look to balancing the Harlequins either as an entirely separate force, or as allies.

Elsmore and I have got some way down that path but it really needs to be tested, and this process is likely to be harder than for most lists because of the divergent aims of the list, and the deliberately crazy nature of the Harlequin units and formations. Please try it out in several ways;

• As a stand-alone list of Harlequins.
  Is it over-powered, or can the many weaknesses be exploited to advantage? Here, the Harlies need to be able to hide in cover, assault out of the Webway and use all their wiles to engineer the assaults that they excel at.
  
  
• As a Harlequin list with allies.
  Adding more standard Eldar formations will fill the various Harlequin weaknesses, but does this allow the Harlies to work at 3K where the allied choices are limited; and are they OTT at 5K where the allied choices are extensive to the point where they are a viable army in their own right?
  
  
• As an Eldar list with Harlequin allies.
  Here the Harlies evolve into super-hard Aspects. Are they OTT at this point (they will still thrash most opponents in assaults) or are their more limited numbers and relatively limited mobility sufficient weaknesses to offset this?

One other thought, should this list be allowed to work with all Eldar craft worlds, or if not, which craft worlds should be excluded and why?

I'll work on that last part. Once I get some games, that is. Might be moving across the planet ...again.

Also thanks for schooling me on Harlequin list history. I still think they just need:

High cost.
Low numbers.
Hard-hitting in melee.
Death Jesters - just low number heavy hitting high-cost ranged infantry.

No reason to work harder than we need to in order to include most if not all iconic Games Workshop units. And let's not slow down games with special rules.

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Be nice to see what happens in this book.

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Sounds like the old plastic Epic Vypers will be a good fit for those new 28mm models.

Seems like Elsemore and his posts got lost in the problems early this year. Here is the latest list that we were working on.



Note, this list is intended to be used in several ways;
- As a totally stand-alone Harlequin list
- As a Harlequin led force of Eldar formations
- As an Eldar led force with some Harlequin allies.

Do let us know how you get on and please let us have any suggestions.
And Greg, it might be worth putting this latest list in the 1st post if you are able, or alternatively to start a new thread.