Hey everyone and welcome to Roll That Six, I’m Rob and today I’m here to talk through the January 2021 FAQ updates and how they affect Harlequins going forwards into 2021 when, if we wish upon a star 40k events can safely return… Its been a long time hasn’t it!!??
Nothing much has changed since the last update, Player of
the Twilight previously one of the most popular Warlord Traits has been FAQ’d
so it now makes sense and you play as read, you gain the number of command
points back as per the cost, no longer limited to one additional per turn. Which
is a big boost for command points hungry Harlequins! I’ve had mixed success
with this trait, but if you gain a juicy 3cp back then it can be game winning and a warlord trait that's back on my radar going forwards.
Voidweaver Points Drop!!??
Down to 90pts from 100pts, doesn’t really make it much more viable.
The much maligned unit choice doesn’t compete with the Starweaver at 80 points,
I’d rather have the spare transport capacity to swoop over and pick up a unit
of Troupe that may have moved away or had its Starweaver wrecked earlier in the
battle. Sure it’s a solid backfield objective holder, but it won’t contribute much
due to its relatively short ranged weapons. I tried and it didn’t work, for me at
least. 10pts drop doesn’t make it any more viable in my eyes.
GT Rulespack Update
Now we move into the meat of the FAQ that really effect how
Harlequins play 9th Edition. The first turn problem has had the goal
posts moved a little, no longer a choice, now it’s the “winner” of the dice
roll has to go first. No longer a choice, this is both good and bad for Harlequin's most top
players are and should be building lists that can go compete at the top going
first or second, so this doesn’t really change much. Harlequins are so fast, I
found best results when deploying defensively and reacting to the opponent,
equally when going first using a few command points to shift up to 4 units as
far up the table as possible, we’re really flexible in this regard.
The biggest change is how turn5 now works, no longer does the
player going second have little say in how the game ends. With primary points
now scored at the end of the game turn rather than the start, the player going
second has a lot of ways to get the max 15 points, this also forces the player
going first to really consider which objectives they commit too. I’m a big fan
of this. Sure, most games usually have a clear winner by this point or primary
may have been maxed ot close to maxed already, but in a tight battle this change has the
potential to bring some really tense and exciting moments in games, which I’m
all for!!
Twilight Pathways Changed
Indirectly, accidentally, purposefully? Who knows at this point, no longer can two Harlequin units benefit from Prismatic Blur per turn as Twilight Pathways psychic power (move a unit as if it was the movement phase) has now had this move clarified as a “normal move” and Prismatic Blur requires a unit to make an “advance” move to trigger its effect. Previously we would do this once in the movement phase and again in the psychic phase, assuming Twilight Pathways was successfully cast on another unit. This really affects that second Skyweavers and /or second block of Troupe giving two units 3+ invulnerable saves was a great way to increase the durability of Harlequin armies. But alas this is no more.. or... is it?
There is a slight caveat in the Harlequin FAQ units with
Rising Cresendo (fall back, move, shoot and charge) falling back from combat,
can that unit still advance if it has Twilight Pathways cast on it, the answer
is still yes. I believe that has been oversight by GW as it’s really obscure rules
interaction, rules (FAQ) as written, this is a way to get a second Harlequin
unit to that blessed 3++, I don’t expect this to remain the case for long.
Embarking out of phase!?
Twilight Pathways now allows units to embark into transports in the psychic phase, im not really sure how useful this will be, but, its a thing non the less. However Fire and Fade will be super useful for keeping Troupe units alive of they're around a Transport or want to get into a nice position to snipe out a character and fire and fade back into a transport. I see lots of potential for this!
Secondary Objective Changes
While We Stand We Fight – No longer individual models, now
its determined by a units overall cost. A big change that really affects some armies like Marines that had
durable but largely support characters behind walls of Bladeguard and other nasty units scoring 15 secondary points without much inconvenience, this is no
longer possible. But it really helps armies with durable units that can split unit, Allarus
Terminators which can split into upto 10 individual durable Terminators or Dark
Angel Terminators which are again super durable and can combat squad if taken
in big enough numbers or even Horrors with some reinforcement points this could
be an absolute nightmare. Sure Harlequins can chase down these units, but at
what cost? As for us, Shadowseers were our best choice, but now its likely to
be the large squad or two of Troupe or Skyweavers, which are also the main damage dealers in
the army. So this becomes a much riskier secondary choice. I expect this
secondary to plummet in popularity, which isn’t the best news for us Harlequin
players, I enjoyed sniping out expensive characters with the Fang Troupe Master
or a Fusion Troupe squad to take away a While We Stand.
Bring It Down – GW take with one hand and gives with the
other, dropping vastly in points scored, the last list I took to a tournament gave up 12 Bring It Down points, that same list will only give up 6 at most!
Which is ace! Not only this, I believe we’ll see more vehicles in the game now,
unit squadrons are likely to be more popular and for our anti-tank weapons this
is going to be a dream! I believe this FAQ change will have a big impact on the
game and Harlequins are in prime position to benefit.
/Rob