I partaked in a couple games of garden hammer and 2 game nights at the local gaming club. With an RTT tournament signed up for, its been full practice mode for me leading upto my first tournament since late summer last year.
So let's chat about the list im taking and a few tweaks ive made during playtesting.
During the many lockdown days spent building lists i drew up what felt like 100s of lists, when all was said and done i basically fell back to what I was running at the end of summer 2020, with a few tweaks, dropping 2x Skyweavers, picked up a Death Jester and more combat weapons, so I've not dropped the unit count and has more of a combat threat with plenty of Harlequin's Caresses and a bit of match up trickery with the -2" movement and no overwatch Death Jester which can come in clutch vs some opponents.
Playtest games have gone well, 4 wins and a defeat, its well know you learn more from a defeat than a victory and its safe to say this is when I made the decision to go with combat weapons over a 2nd Death Jester and 2nd Troupe Master over 2 Skyweavers. My list up until practice game 5 was essentially all fusions and no combat weapon upgrades.
Practice Game1 vs World Eaters, knocked the rust off a long lockdown and won a game with Dark Reapers and Fusion boats, didn't add much to my knowledge pool due to the army being SUPER one dimensional, Dark Reapers shoot well and Fusions kill Rhinos... I also want to compete with pure Harlequins, was great to get back to the gaming table and it was nice to see a friend in the flesh again over a beer and rolling dice, but the list will change back to pure Harlequins.
Practice Game2 vs Tyranids, Harridan, 6 Hive Guard, flying Hive Tyrant, Neurothrope, 80 Gaunts, 9 Warriors and 2x Ripper Swarms. Much more of a test and back to pure Harlequins, solid win, played the mission and secondaries while i had to let the Harridan do its thing. Was able to get the bikes working into a non vehicle army while the Twilight Fang Troupe Master caused all kinds of havoc in my opponents lines. Tried the regrn CP warlord trait.. it so swingy.. im not sure about it.
Practice Game3 vs Tau, big Bodyguard unit with 18 Missile Pods, 2 Coldstar Commanders with fusion blasters, Riptide with the relic Ion Cannon, 2 Ghostkeels, some Fire Warriors and a smattering of drones and markerlights, Similar game to the Harridan, had to let the Bodyguards do their thing while taking out the rest of the army to win primary and compete as many secondaries before running out of models to dominate the score board. For those counting at home.. thats 1 extra CP regenerated lol.
Practice Game4 vs Custodes, Shield Captain on Bike with all the bells and whistles, Shield Captain on foot, 3x3 Shield Guard, 2x3 Spear Guard, 1x6 Aquilon Terminators, Telemon w/ storm cannon and fist and rounding out the list 1x5 Venatari. BIG learning game for me, I played with the double Death Jester and basically no combat weapons on the Troupe which had been the case for the previous 3 games essentially using the Bikes with Zephyrglaives and Twilight Fang Troupe Master as the only combat threats. This game reminded me how swingy Fusion Pistols and opponents invuls can be. Ive played this style of Custodes before with the unkillable 3++ 9 wound 5+++ save Shield Captain, I ignore/distract this Captain away from objectives, it may or may not wipe out a unit or Transport, either way, I then take out the opponents ability to score by going after the Custode Guard but not this game.. I took out the Shield Captain but it took the whole army and that put me in a really really poor position and was horrifically counter charged while this freed up the Venatari on the other flank to clear that by themselves and meant I had lost the primary game massively. Combat weapons are back in so I can at least counter charge now. 2x Skyweavers out, 2nd Death Jester out. Back in 2nd Troupe Master and combat weapons on the Troupe. Didnt regenerate 1cp this game, warlord trait dropped for Skystrider.
Final RTT list:
++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Aeldari - Harlequins) [101 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++
+ Configuration +
Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)
Detachment Command Cost
Masque Form: The Soaring Spite: Serpent's Blood
+ Stratagems +
Enigmas of the Black Library (1 Relic) [-1CP]
+ HQ +
Shadowseer [6 PL, -1CP, 115pts]: Shield From Harm, Shuriken Pistol, Stratagem: Pivotal Role, The Shadowstone, Twilight Pathways, Veil of Illusion, Webway Dance
Troupe Master [4 PL, -1CP, 70pts]: Choreographer of War, Darkness' Bite, Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade, Soaring Spite: Skystrider, Stratagem: Pivotal Role, The Twilight Fang, Warlord
Troupe Master [4 PL, 75pts]: Choreographer of War, Fusion Pistol, Power sword
+ Troops +
Troupe [5 PL, 95pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
Troupe [5 PL, 101pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
Troupe [5 PL, 101pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
Troupe [5 PL, 119pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
Troupe [5 PL, 119pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Blade
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
Troupe [5 PL, 125pts]
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
. Player: Fusion Pistol, Harlequin's Caress
+ Elites +
Death Jester [3 PL, 50pts]: Humbling Cruelty
+ Fast Attack +
Skyweavers [15 PL, 275pts]
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
Skyweavers [15 PL, 275pts]
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
. Skyweaver: Haywire Cannon, Zephyrglaive
+ Dedicated Transport +
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
Starweaver [4 PL, 80pts]
++ Total: [101 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++
With final tweaks made to the list we jump into Practice Game 5 vs Adeptus Sororitas, using the army list above. Adeptus Sororitas are an army ive not played against in a very long time. Similar army to Harlequins in many ways with lots of units that hit or shoot very hard, but fairly squishy if you can catch them unprepared.
My opponent was rocking 2x Canoness, Judith, 5x5 Sisters, 3x9 Repentia, 1x10 Zepherym, Priest, 2x5 Seraphim, 1x3 Mortifiers, 2x6 Retributors (3x Mutlimelta, 2x Cherubs), 2x Rhinos
I learnt the power of trading units in this game, by going second I was able to shoot and charge the units pushing the midfield turn1 looking to score primary turn2, I could do this while only exposing the Skyweavers, which had to be countered by the Repentia, which in turn where taken out by the Troupes and thus I won the trade battle, but only just as there was still enough chip damage left in the Sisters army to deal with a few of the Troupe units that had charged, but, i had an ace up the sleeve with the Twilight Fang Troupe Master which i kept back to be a late game bully taking out battle Sisters and Retributors by itself and win that late game battle between the remnants of both our armies it was the MVP for me or the Death Jester that sat on my home objective doing the Data Intercept action all game before getting swamped by Zepherym.
So there we have it! 5 quick practice game battle reports and the list im taking to the Glasshammer RTT. I will certainly have a tournament report up for that and I have a few other articles in the works running through my favourite Relics, Warlord traits and Stratagems. Let me know if you want me to write about anything else or want anything explained further.
Thanks for reading!
/Rob