Hey, everyone! Just thought I’d share how my first game using the new harlequin codex went.
My list:
Masque Detachment
Dark Troupers X 5: 2 fusion pistols and 2 kisses; Troupe Master has haywires and a power sword
Light Troupers X 5: Equipped as per the dark squad, but with their own dedicated Starweaver.
Twilight Troupers X 10: 4 embraces, 1 kiss, 2 caresses, 1 fusion pistol, 1 neuro disruptor; TM with haywires and a kiss.
Skyweavers X 3: 3 glaives and 3 haywire cannons
A Fast Attack Star Weaver for the dark troupe to ride in and to satisfy the masque’s two FA requirement.
1 Void Weaver with haywire cannon
Solitaire with haywires and Cegorach’s Rose
Shadowseer: ML2, Haywires, Neurodisruptor
2 Shadowseers with ML1 and haywires
2 Death Jesters with haywires
I didn’t realize until after the game started that I should have split off some of those characters to be part of the Heroe’s Path. Ah well. Live and learn.
His list from memory:
Librarian
Centurians
Tons of iron priests plus a Master of the Forge
3 razorbacks filled with tacs
2 thunderfire cannons
1 rhino with 10 tacs
We played the scouring with hammer and anvil deployment. For my warlord trait, I rolled on the Twilight table (for the twilight squad leader of course) and ended up with the Laughing God’s Luck. Meh.
DEPLOYMENT
I deployed first and positioned my stuff aggressively with my vehicles slightly behind my skyweavers and infantry. A death jester hopped inside either transport, the lead shadowseer and one of his underlings joined the twilight squad while the other underling hugged the board edge of my left flank so that he could hide behind the building and grab one of my objectives late game. My opponent set his thunderfires up In cover, and lined up his transports to shoot or advance. Thinking that the Solitaire had infiltrate even when not in the Hero’s Path formation, I deployed him behind a gas tank near my opponent’s board edge. Oops. Double oops as he then proceeded to seize the initiative.
TURN 1
He unloads the ten man squad of marines from the rhino. With the aid of their rhino’s trusty storm bolter, they just manage to kill the Solitaire for first blood. Aww. His thunderfires kill one skyweaver and wound another, but I’m otherwise unscathed.
Everything pretty much just zips forward. Thanks to the deployment type, I’ve got a lot of ground to cover. My ML 1 shadowseer breaks off of Twilight squad to hold the 3 point objective on the right flank of my deployment zone. Between the void weaver and the skyweavers, I manage to wreck one of his razorbacks, but a skyweaver foolishly (badum tish!) manages to take off his last wing when I assault move him into some nearby ruins.
TURN 2
Having finished reducing my solitaire to Swiss cheese, the 10 man squad hops back in their rhino and advances. The rest of his stuff advances too save the thunderfires as he realizes that all the good objectives are in the middle of the table or on my side. At least he’ll be forced to come to me this game! He shoots down one of my clown cars, though it holds out for an admirable amount of time thanks to its mirage launchers.
My last sky weaver gets shot up, and I take minor casualties and hull point damage here and there. I’m still not feeling too beaten up at this point. Oh, and his librarian gets a migraine casting some powers.
Springing nimbly from the wreckage of their clown car, my light squad sprints towards the nearby centurions, hoping to silence their hurricane weapons. The death jester breaks off and chuckles as he begins lobbing haywires at the nearby razorback. With impressive accuracy, he manages to stun it! He then proceeds to take off a second hull point in assault. The lightsquad, meanwhile, fails to impress in melee, though they do manage to wound a centurion.
My right flank (the Twilight and Dark squads) keep moving forward. The dark star weaver fires a few shots at a razorback which easily shakes them off thanks to the Blessings of the Omnissiah boosting the cover it’s in.
TURN 3
This turn started to hurt. Thunderfires kill off my voidweaver and reduce the Twilight squad to three bodies with the help of a couple tac squads. Light squad’s death jester holds out against a salvo of tac marine shooting long enough to shove one last haywire into a razorback’s tailpipe.
He bludgeons light squad in the assault phase, just barely managing to kill them all thanks to prescience. Drat! At least they make up for the previous turn’s lackluster performance by killing the librarian and all but one centurion.
At least I swing back a bit. Dark squad starts messing up guys in close combat while their DJ starts bullying a rhino. I shoot the tac squad my twilight clowns were going to assault a little too well, and they fall back behind line of sight. :\
TURN 4
My light squad DJ gets gunned down, and thunderfires shake my dark squad’s (now empty) star weaver. Dark squad retaliates by *just* managing to finish off the marines they’re engaged with. He also tried to ram my starweaver with a razorback to no effect.
The survivors of Twilight squad leap nimbly into the ruins hiding his run away tac marines and one of his thunderfire cannons. However, the shadowseer’s Laugh of Sorrows trudges up some hard memories for the thunderfire operator thus removing him from the game. So Twilight reverses direction by running (or backflipping) down a level of ruins and proceeds to tagteam the razorback that rammed my starweaver. A pair of haywire grenades and some embraces just manage to finish the vehicle off.
The aforementioned starweaver flies up and backwards to take the 4 point objective in the middle of my right flank.
Dark squad avenges light squad’s death jester by chopping up the tac squad that shot them.
TURN 5
My left flank shadow seer finally comes into range of the 10 man tac squad. The tac squad’s rhino starts hoofing it towards my star weaver. As we could not find a rule preventing it from doing so, the rhino moved up a level to steal objective 4 from my (Fast Attack) star weaver with objective secured. Twilight squad finally bites the dust, having used their shadow seer’s psychic powers in the previous turn to kill the thunderfire rather than cast defensive spells. I think this is the point at which he guns down dark squad too.
With only a star weaver and a shadow seer left on the table, I throw veil of tears on the weaver which tries furiously to shoot up the rhino.
TURN 6
Not much happens. I fail to finish off his rhino, and he moves stuff around to claim all but the 3 point objective my surviving shadowseer is standing on. The game ends. He has 14 points including slay the warlord, first blood, and linebreaker to my 3 points.
“Perfect!” cried the Dusk Walker. “If you’re trying to perform the Waltz of the Greenskins. I remind you, however, that we are rehearsing the Eclipse of Eldaneesh. Dark squad, you’re supposed to engage with the heavily armored mon-keigh and their pretender to Vaul. Twilight! You’re supposed to vanish and reappear with me near the human’s cannon. Now let’s take it again from the top…”
THOUGHTS
It was a big loss but a fun game. The deployment made it really hard to bring my Twilight squad to bear, though my defensive powers helped keep them alive until turn 2 when my psychic phase just sort of fizzled. I was hoping to roll the warlord trait that would let them move 24”, but it just didn’t happen. I’m contemplating having one or both of the ML 1 shadowseers fish for Gate of Inifnity. Even if they don’t get it, some of the other Sanctic powers could still be really useful to the squad.
The skyweavers died fast, but they were great while they lasted. I think haywire cannons are really the way to go with them. Their zephyrglaives would have made a big difference had they survived an extra turn to use them.
The voidweaver was fine but a bit hard to keep alive. I think the way to use them is to engage with them turn 1 or 2, do what damage you can, use mirage launchers as soon as they got shot at (unless nightfighting is in effect maybe), and then keep pummeling the enemy until they get shot down. Maybe Faolochu’s Blade will change my opinion of them, but they just don’t seem survivable enough to pull off much real finesse. They’re not bad! It’s just that skyweavers put out more shots for the points and seem more flexible.
The shadowseer powers were pretty great when they worked, but two of the three times I tried to use a WC2 power failed. Mostly just bad luck there, but I think it might be helpful to emphasize the inclusion of more seers over more jesters at higher points.
The death jesters did fine. They made some marines run away, which was hilarious if not terribly helpful. They managed to beat up vehicles a bit. I think I like having them in the clown cars with my 5 man squads as they can break off when I disembark to add an extra haywire shot to a vehicle or soften up an enemy. Plus, they’re one more target my opponent has to think about. For their points though, I’m wondering if more shadowseers would be more useful as they can still sling haywires but can also probably do more to soften up enemy squads with debuff powers or Laugh of Sorrows.
I’m looking forward to running a similar list again but breaking off some of the characters to be part of the Hero’s Path.
All in all, fun game. I really look forward to using these tricky, hard-hitting glass cannons more in the future!