Harlequins Detachment – Guardians of the Black Library

Text in italics is Designer’s Commentary

Army and Detachment Rules

• Changed Rising Crescendo to allow all Harlequins units to Advance/Fall Back and Shoot/Charge
  • Whilst this is a buff in power to the FLY units, the army is still extremely limited in Datasheet choice and offensive output. The changes to Pariah Nexus Missions also ensures there is no ability to do Actions with Advancing or Falling Back, making this useful for offence and to avoid being tied up only, without improving mission play. In addition, the increases to points on Skyweavers as a result of MSU style Tournament lists in normal Aeldari armies makes them less appealing in a pure Harlequins force, so letting them have access to charging as well as shooting helps encourage them in a harassment role. 
• Changed Luck of the Laughing God to be less punishing for the opponent, now requiring you to choose whether your Luck Dice will apply to either you or your opponent when generated, and requiring the lowest dice to be discarded in order to effect your opponent
  • The Luck Mechanic is loved by the Studio, and whilst we don’t feel it is too overpowered, it can still create “feels bad” moments where an opponent can do nothing about it. The changes should ensure the intent of the mechanic is there, without being overbearing to the opponent nor being able to “double dip” on forcing failed saves or hits on their units.

Enhancements

• Reduced points cost of Player of the Light, and changed effect to flat +1 to both Advance and Charge rolls
  • This now affords more (minor) reliability, and interacts more favourably with Shadowseers. The points drop to try and help it fit the niche of the “nice to have” Enhancement for armies that find themselves with a spare 10-15pts.
• Changed Player of the Dark to now grant Lethal Hits to the bearer’s unit, rather than Critical Hits and Wounds on 5+
  • This was definitely a contentious Enhancement, and as shown in the test game very powerful with the Death Jester. Lethal Hits is a much more ‘general’ power boost, and whilst still powerful (being able to be applied in both melee and ranged), should be a lot more tempered. It also offers an interesting decision on whether to use on a Troupe Master, as it doesn’t always interact favourably with their Devastating Wounds ability, and so offers them alternatives they might want to pick from. The points could feasibly go up, but more testing is needed.
• Reduced point cost of the The Storied Sword
  • Troupe Masters aren’t setting the world on fire in terms of their melee, so this will let them punch a bit harder for a bit cheaper, whilst being a viable alternative to Player of the Dark

Stratagems

• Changed Prismatic Blur completely to allow units to move through other units and terrain features, as well as ignore movement modifiers
  • This change is to make the Stratagem fit the theme of the Detachment more, which is manoeuvrability and flexibility, rather than granting a (admittedly too long lasting) defensive boost that had some loopholes in an attempt to mitigate it, which in reality didn’t do much. This leaves the Detachment with no outright defensive boosts, but instead reflects editions past with the ability to move through screens and terrain with more freedom, though on a much more limited basis, as well as allowing the selected unit to offset negative modifiers that revolve around their movement, rather than being arbitrarily tougher.
• Reduced Normal Move of Capricious Reflections from 8” to 6”
  • Changed to bring in line with similar Stratagems from other armies.
• Changed The Silken Knife to be Infantry only
  • Preventing Overwatch is a powerful ability, however this change now lets the Stratagem act as more of a “side grade” to Infantry who might be caught out in the open, rather than to allow the much faster Skyweavers to move up close with no opponent interaction.

Datasheet Updates

• Changed Cegorach’s Favour on Troupe Master to now grant a Luck Dice in your Command Phase, that only their unit can use in that turn.
  • Changed to interact with the Luck mechanic, without letting you build up a pool that can be used on other units, or on your opponent’s units. With a limited time to use it (your turn only), it also limits it as a “get out of jail free card” for a save in the opponent’s turn, incentivising more offensive uses over defensive.
• Changed Twilight Pathways on the Shadowseer to now grant reroll Charge rolls, instead of Advance and Charge, and for multiple models to use it.
  • With a limited pool of Datasheets, restricting models players can bring given some will be limited in the rules they can use, allows the Shadowseer to have a bit more of a place with the Detachment rule existing, as well as letting them act as viable alternative to the more outright offence a Troupe Master gives. This could potentially be changed to something like move again (and not charge), but the Detachment has enough movement shenanigans for now.
• Changed Cruel Amusement on the Death Jester to allow multiple models to use it, but restricting duplicate abilities
  • As with the Shadowseer, the limited Datasheets (and high cost) of the Death Jester, coupled with now no ways to boost their output other than a 6 in the Luck Dice, means multiple Jesters should be able to use this ability. However, in an effort to prevent [SUSTAINED HITS 3] being the defacto choice every time, a limit has been placed on selecting the same ability twice, so if there are multiple Jesters they do need to select a different ability from each other.
• Changed Blur of Movement on the Solitaire to grant a flat -1 to be Hit
  • With the Detachment rule granting Advance and Charge, the rule was superfluous in a Harlequin detachment, so this has now been changed to grant them a defensive boost. Pile In and Consolidation improvements were toyed with, however with the ability to already Fall Back and Charge, granting more manoeuvrability that would be tricky to use felt unnecessary. This isn’t the most “exciting” of changes, but will help this costly and otherwise flimsy model stick around a bit longer.

• Can only take units with the HARLEQUIN Keyword
• TROUPES gain the BATTLELINE Keyword

Luck of the Laughing God

This detachment does not use the Fate Dice Army Rule, instead it uses Luck of the Laughing God – replace the Faction Ability “Strands of Fate” on all Datasheets with “Luck of the Laughing God”.

At the start of each Battle Round, roll 2D6 – the results are your Luck dice. Then choose Comedy or Tragedy.

<strike>A Luck dice can be used to replace any of the following dice rolled (Same as Fate Dice), for either player, during this Battle Round (before rolling).</strike>

If you choose Comedy –

Once per phase, before making a dice roll for a model or unit from your army with the Luck of the Laughing God ability, if you have one or more dice in your Luck dice, you can use one of those Luck dice. To do so, select one of those Luck dice to substitute that dice roll. The dice that is being substituted is not rolled; instead, the value of the selected Luck dice is used as if it had been rolled (this counts as an unmodified dice roll of that value for all rules purposes). Each Luck dice can only be used in this way once. After using a Luck dice, remove it from your Luck dice pool and roll all remaining dice that are part of that dice roll (if any). You can use Luck dice for any of the following types of dice roll:

• • Advance roll
  • Battle-shock test
  • Charge roll
  • Damage roll
  • Hit roll
  • Saving throw
  • Wound roll

If you choose Tragedy –

Discard the lowest value Luck dice. Before your opponent makes a dice roll for a model or unit from their army, if you have a model with the Luck of the Laughing God ability on the battlefield you can use this ability. To do so, select one of those Luck dice to substitute that dice roll. The dice that is being substituted is not rolled; instead, the value of the selected Luck dice is used as if it had been rolled (this counts as an unmodified dice roll of that value for all rules purposes). After using a Luck dice, remove it from your Luck dice pool and roll all remaining dice that are part of that dice roll (if any). You can use Luck dice for any of the following types of dice roll:

• Advance roll
• Battle-shock test
• Charge roll
• Damage roll
• Hit roll
• Saving throw
• Wound roll

In the instance of conflicting “set dice” abilities like Acts of Faith or Fate Dice, follow the normal sequence rules (ie the player who’s turn it is chooses the order)

At the end of each Battle Round, any remaining Luck dice are discarded.

25pts

Weapons in the bearer’s unit trigger Critical Hits and Wounds on unmodified 5+. gain [LETHAL HITS]

30pts

After both players have deployed their armies, you can select up to three HARLEQUINS units from your army and redeploy all of those units. When doing so, any of those units can be placed into Strategic Reserves, regardless of how many units are already in Strategic Reserves.

25pts 20pts

TROUPE MASTER only. The bearer gains +1 Strength, AP and Damage to their Melee Weapons. 

Battle Tactic – 1 CP

When: Your opponent’s Movement phase, when an enemy unit (excluding MONSTER and VEHICLE units) is selected to make a Fall Back move.

Target: One HARLEQUINS unit from your army that is within Engagement Range of that enemy unit.

Effect: Models in that enemy unit must take Desperate Escape tests as if their unit was Battle-shocked. When doing so, if that enemy unit is also Battle-shocked, subtract 1 from each of those Desperate Escape tests.

Wargear – 1CP

When: Your Movement Phase

Target: A HARLEQUINS INFANTRY unit from your army that makes an Advance move

Effect: Attacks that target your unit subtract 1 from the Hit roll and subtract 1 from the Wound roll, until the start of your next Command Phase. In the Movement Phase, your unit can ignore all modifiers to their Movement, Advance rolls and Charge rolls, and can move horizontally through all enemy models and terrain as if they were not there, without needing to take Desperate Escape tests.

Battle Tactic – 1CP

When: Your Opponent’s Movement phase, when an enemy unit ends a Normal Move, Fall Back or Advance move.

Target: One HARLEQUINS unit from your army within 9” of that enemy unit.

Effect: Your unit can make a Normal Move up to 8”  6”.

Epic Deed – 1CP

When: Start of your Movement Phase.

Target: One HARLEQUINS INFANTRY unit from your army.

Effect: Your unit cannot be selected as the target of the Overwatch Stratagem until the end of the turn. In addition, after completing a Charge move this turn, one enemy unit within Engagement Range of this unit must take a Battle-shock test. 

Epic Deed – 1CP

When: The Fight Phase

Target: One HARLEQUINS unit from your army

Effect: Melee weapons equipped by models in this unit gain [SUSTAINED HITS 1] until the end of the turn. 

Troupe Master – Cegorach’s Favour

If this model is in your army, you can roll a D6 In your Command Phase. This counts as a Luck Dice and follows all the normal rules for them, however only this model’s unit can use that Luck Dice, and it is lost at the end of your turn, rather than at the end of the Battle Round.

Shadowseer – Twilight Pathways

At the start of your Movement Phase, one model from your army with this ability can use it. This model’s unit can re-roll Advance and Charge rolls made for that model’s unit and that model’s unit is eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced.

• Note – I feel like the Shadowseer could do with a ranged Psychic Attack (like basically every other Psyker in the game), but this is the only change for now, lest they become a bit too good.

Death Jester – Cruel Amusement

In your Shooting Phase, one model from your army with this ability can use it. If they do, until the end of the phase,  when you declare this model to Shoot, select one of the following abilities to apply to that model’s Shrieker Cannon until the end of the phase:

[IGNORES COVER]
[PRECISION]
[SUSTAINED HITS 3]

You cannot pick the same ability as another model with this rule in the same turn ie If you have 2 Death Jesters, one could pick [SUSTAINED HITS 3], the other could only pick [IGNORES COVER] or [PRECISION]. In the next Shooting Phase, they could pick a different ability, but again it cannot be the same as the other model.

Solitaire – Blur of Movement

This model is eligible to declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced. Each time an attack targets this unit, subtract 1 from the Hit roll.