Looks good. Minor typo; in the lists, the 'Leader' should be 'Troupe Leader'.
I will see if I can get some testing done over the next 6-8 weeks or so, though life is about to get hectic.

Been mulling through the obvious 'spam' list, and it still comes up at 10 formations, or potentially 9x formations all containing leaders, which leaves us where we were before. I think you are correct in your earlier post that this is still likely to be somewhat OTT (I have an idea that the sweetspot is around 9x formations and 6x leaders). So, I tried hashing around some figures and comparisons etc. and came up with the following suggestions:-

1) Eldar armies that include Harlequins may either have an Autarch or a Great Harlequin, not both. Where the majority of formations are Harlequins, the Great Harlequin must be included to lead them.

(Enforcing the use of the Great Harlequin is both characterfull and helps control 'Harlequin spam'.
Also this was an oversight - I don't think the army should have two SC saves, do you )

2) Increase cost of Great Harlequin to 125

(this compensates for the Laughing god concept).

3) Increase cost of all Harlequin leaders to 50 points, and add commander to all.

(This allows Harlequins to lead other Eldar into battle, which seems characterfull and compensates for 'Leader' etc.)

4) Increase cost of Harlequin formation to 325 points.

(This is justified by the individual cost of each Harlequin at 65 points given all the extras they have. It also allows us to tweak the overall cost of the army.)

So now the 'Spam' all Harlequin army is 3x Harlequin Troupes, 6x Harlequin Jet bike Promenades, the Great Harlequin and 5x Troupe leaders; 9 formations and 6x leaders for a total of 3000 points.

One last, left-field thought; Could we associate the Great Harlequin with a Wraithgate as well? If so, the Wraithgate wording would look like this:What do you think?

One last thought for tonight; tweaking up the cost of the 'spam' army is intended to make people think of taking 'allies' both to increase the activation count and include more usual formations and strategies.

However this should only be a 'Harlequin' army and Strategy 5+ if the Great Harlequin is present, otherwise it really ought to be the SR of the Eldar list in use.

The problem you highlight is that a player could decide to get all the other Harlequin freebies (especially the SR5+) simply by going to the other extreme of taking a single Harlequin formation with Great Harlequin (450 points), thereby unbalancing the existing lists. So actually, we have to ban taking the Great Harlequin for 'non' Harlequin armies.

What this all boils down to is another entry in the "Harlequin" rule, explaining the difference between taking a Harlequin army and taking Harlequin allies.

Personally I think it is probably OK to handle the other "ifs" in the notes to each element rather than as a single statement in the 'special rule', provided we make it very clear that they are associated with the Great Harlequin - but would like other opinions on this approach.

So the relevant parts would now look like this:-










Does that cover everything adequately?

As to 'popcorn' armies, they are armies that are built with the specific aim of out-activating the opponents, to use the spare activations for some tactical or strategic advantage. Typically they will be 14+ activations, though by their very nature, the formations chosen are likely to be weaker and less capable than others. For example consider the following possibility:-

4x groups of Guardian, Rangers, Falcons and Night Spinners for a total of 2700 and a formation of Aspects / Nightwings etc; 17 formations with some AA, Artillery, AP and assault capabilities. The intention being to stall initially and then use the 5-7 final activations to lay BMs and set up for the next turn.

The issue with the Harlequins is the number of 'uber' assault formations that could be manoeuvered in this fashion. Using the same list as above and taking 2x groups or 8 formations for 1350 points, you can also get 2x Harlequins and 3x Jetbikes for 1475 leaving 175 for upgrades. This is a total of only 13 formations which can perform in a similar way as a popcorn army, but is likely to prove too brittle in the end.

Just as aside, its worth mentioning that the Great Harlequin doesn't need to have leader as its built into the supreme commander special rule.

Thanks for this. The Harlies are brutal when they get into contact - it is up to you to ensure that happens. One possibility is to have a strategy that attempts to set up several alternative threats so that at least one will succeed, giving a platform for further attacks.

Rug evidently used the correct tactics to keep the major threats at arms length, where the Harlies can be picked off.

I suspect that it may be quite challenging to find the correct balance between 'normal' Eldar and Harlie formations, together with the appropriate strategies and tactics.

Forgive me if necroing is frowned upon here, I was directed to this thread as the latest update on working on Harlequins. Was wondering if the points cost couldn't just be bumped up in a regular Eldar list so that the unit would rarely be taken in serious, balanced play - yet still be available for those so inclined for personal or "coolness factor" reason.

Also - has anyone done any further testing on the proposed rules? I have yet to play a single Epic game (or regular 40K for that matter, though I've been in the hobby off and on since ...1987?).

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We have a new Eldar Army Champion, who is looking to get the main Craftworlds approved and then might look to bring the Harlequins back from the dead. They were always a very difficult unit & army to balance.

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if you've never played a game of epic it's probably a good idea to start playing some games wit IG, SM and orks before starting to look at the obscure lists....

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