# Versus Eldar Harlequins



## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

*Versus: Week Ten​*
They're flamboyant and deadly...capering about the battlefield in brightly colored outfits...yet almost impossible to freaking see, Eldar Harlequins can be a deatly and frustrating unit to have to face.

Especially in a "Flying circus" list with 3 troupes of 6, each loaded into a fully loaded falcon grav tank.

Their veil of tear smakes them almost impossible to shoot at from a range, but their monstrous assault capabilities make them very deadly up close.

So how do you nail the space clowns?


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

I don't, I lose every time. the best I can do is a flamer and full shooting from a crusader squad followed by assault, but it usually results in suicide. and they always hit and run after I assault so they may charge me the next turn.


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## solitaire (Mar 24, 2008)

While I hate to betray my beloved Jesters, I have found they die really quickly against Landspeeders with ass cans and heavy bolters, as they can get close real quick to cancel out Veil of Tears.
....Go Harlequins


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## julio d (Apr 20, 2008)

What do they have to fight off Dreadnoughts? Haywire Grenades?


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

They can be equipped with fusion pistols (pistol meltagun) but usually a boatload of rending attacks, even at S3 or 4 is enough to scrap a dreadnought. A successful rend at S3 is like getting hit with a lascannon.


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## Lemartes (Dec 16, 2007)

Drop Pods work really well versus Space Clowns, apparently they work good vs. Eldar in general as they counter the mobility of the Eldar.


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## Steel Nathan (Apr 26, 2008)

Well I guess one way to kill them is to NOT get charged by them. If your unit has a good number of attacks then you should be able to kill them, they have a crappy armour save! I'll go through the armies and pick out units that can kill them. 

Space Marines: Well generally alot of things can kill them. Far range weapons are probobly the worst. Stuff like flamers, series of boltguns. Somebody said Landspeeders, Assaults charging in can kill most. Furious charge would be good to charge in, seeing that your guys would attack first.

IG: heh, all you need a a crapload of lasguns and your good to go. Again, flamers and other assault/ rapid fire should do the job. 

Nids: guants can do decent damage with their cheap guns, and huge numbers. Again long range ( carnies, Hive Tryants) won't do the job, especially with Viel of tears. Charge in with genestealers( and possibly with a broodlord) adn wipe them out. 

Tau: again, rapid fire range from fire warriors should do the trick. Not sure what else for Tau. 

Dark Eldar: Again I'm not too familiar with these guys. Pssibly just close-mass firing from whatever can kill them. 

Eldar: Dire Avengers, Banshee's on the charge( your own Harlies on the charge ) should do the trick. 

Necrons: Pretty much just warriors mass firing. Maybe Pariahs can charge and make them hit on 6's if the rolling is bad for Harlies? 

Pretty much anything else falls into those catagorys. In sumary there are 3 rules you can follow to avoid getting killed by these space clown 

1. Close range/ mass firing is a good idea. You don't want to fire too far, especially if your opponent has Veil of tears with them. 

2. NEVER NEVER NEVER let them charge on you. With that many attacks on the poor suckers, good luck surviving. 

3. If all else fails, CHARGE! Better you then them .


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## Insanity101 (Jan 13, 2008)

Best way for me has been using Daemon and WitchHunter gear that ignores invulnerable saves (read as psycannons, psycannon bolts, incinerators, etc)
I don't think anyone can emphasize enough to not get charged by them.


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## SyNide (Nov 24, 2007)

First, Tactics spoken and tactics applied are 2 different things, perhaps my tactics won't work for you, perhaps they will, but they work for me. The following tactics are for space marines/necrons or any army that can carry out the basic principle.

Ok, so he has 2-3 falcons filled with space clowns, that means that he by necessity will have fewer units of other things. What i'd do? I'd get my men closer together, have larger squads in positions to receive the charge, and have assault marines ready to counter charge. Shoot at the falcons, not to take them down, but just to shake them, once shaken, i'd shoot at something else, my primary goal would be to punish his choice of expensive units by taking everything else e.g. See a vyper? you blast it, see a pathfinder? get it below half, do whatever you can to get as many points as possible. This serves the dual purpose of scoring points and making sure that he doesn't have enough scoring units to contest objectives.

As for harlies, let them charge. Try and position your men in such a way that the whole squad will be able to participate in the attack. If they kill the squad, good, move forward, rapid fire with one squad and have another ready to charge. If you have survivors take your LD. If you pass, pile in, if not, up to you whether or not to let him chase you. If he does, he'll probably catch you, then you can counter charge with at least 2 units. If not, good, you can shoot him up next turn. He can only have 6 harlies in that falcon. Take one squad at a time if you can. It gets complicated when there are multiple harlie squads, but the principle remains the same: Overwhelm, take advantage of the fact that they can't wound you effectively after their charge.

Hard to pull off, but it's doable.


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## Culler (Dec 27, 2007)

Really, I got nothing. There is no highly effective tactic to counter falcon riding harlies. There are some things that kinda work, but no silver bullet because you can't kill the transports reliably which means that they almost always get their charge. So how do you stop the harlies from charging? You pretty much can't unless you get lucky on some rolls to take down the falcon in 1 round.

So given that the charge really can't be stopped reliably, how do you deal with them afterwards? There are more options here. Having large squads like ork mobs means that after pile in you can make the harlies cry on your turn if you started spaced out so that their charge only killed a hanful. Alternatively, having really small squads that are spaced out from one another means that the squad that gets charged will be wiped out, leaving the harlies free for shooting at on your turn and well within veil range. highly mobile counterassault units are another good way to jump them after they disembark, but the harlies are still deadly and will take a high toll. My favorite anti-harlie tactic is hitting them with highly mobile units that have really good short ranged firepower. Once again though, getting them out of the transport is the hardest part, and that's only an 8.3% chance per glancing hit (unless you rack up 3 weapon destroyed results).

The fact that it's so hard to stop the flying circus from doing what it's meant to do and is so easy to use makes it one of the current eldar staples of tournament play. Fromage I say.


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## azalin_r3x (Feb 25, 2008)

well, i play harlequins a lot, mostly on foot and larger units than 6

what kills them:
-fast units closing them (jump packs, fast vehicles etc) and ofc shooting at them
-deep strikes
-spaces between your units, even if they charge you, they wont have anywhere to go next (after they kill your unit) and you just annihilate them
-if you charge them, they get lower initiative, fewer attacks and lower str which means they wound too few attacks
-also (their) rolls of 1 on fleet of foot kills them hehehe


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## Desolatemm (Feb 2, 2008)

Lemartes said:


> Drop Pods work really well versus Space Clowns, apparently they work good vs. Eldar in general as they counter the mobility of the Eldar.


Ay, drop pods w/ flammers kill halies very easily

The best thing ive seen take them out is witch hunters because VoT is a minor psychic power and they can ignore it. sorry harlies, your not foolin' me!!!


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## Brockie (Apr 27, 2008)

I must admit that I have never used harlequins on a regular basis for the following reasons, in and of itself these describe ways to kill them:

Obvious targets: Eldar are all about timing (in my book) rather than invulnerable units. Harles suck up attention as soon as they're within VoT range. This will make the falcons come close to you (as you can't assault out of it unless it's stationary) which means you could even block the escape hatch. Do either of these things and the timing goes

Cost: even taking a few kisses off so that shooting casualties are cheaper they're still more points than any other aspect warrior.

No armour: Yes that save is invulnerable, but 5+ will not stop everything.


Using knowledge mainly derived from the Eldar list I can think of a couple of ways to beat them:

Barrage weapons: Not effected by the veil of tears IIRC as they don't need LOS (might havd read this wrong)

Howling Banshees: Or anything that will beat or equal their I6. As their toughness and save is so wet the Harles will almost certainly be badly hurt, position yourself correctly and they won't even get to counter until T2, by which point the S4 has worn off.

Invun saves: Rending ain't as much cop against things with hefty invuns. Seer council with fortune or Dark eldar Shadow Field will not make them happy.

Personally I have always favoured Howling Banshees in a transport over Harles as they seem more reliable in more situations. To me it always seemed like too big a points sink for what they were.

J~


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Brockie said:


> I
> Barrage weapons: Not effected by the veil of tears IIRC as they don't need LOS (might havd read this wrong)
> 
> J~


Unfortunately Barrage weapons don't get past the Veil of Tears either.  This is because when using a Barrage weapon you're required to target a model in the unit, and the Veil prevents enemy units from targeting the Harlies. Lame!


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## Sons of Russ (Dec 29, 2007)

Grey Knight Brother Captain with a Psycannon...:taunt:

Give him a psychic hood for extra measure to show the Farseers some love as well.


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## Damned Fist (Nov 2, 2007)

Katie Drake said:


> Unfortunately Barrage weapons don't get past the Veil of Tears either.  This is because when using a Barrage weapon you're required to target a model in the unit, and the Veil prevents enemy units from targeting the Harlies. Lame!


Ahem..., Castellan missiles from a whirlwind can be used as you can target open spaces. Thus, if you place them where the harlies are when they move they trigger the mines on a 4+ and take strength 6 hits. This can be VERY effective against them.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Whirlwind mines will work. No other ordinance will though.

A 'metalstorm' DH inquisitor (Psycannon, 3x HB servators) with a Null Rod works wonders here. Null rod makes them immune to veil of tears, so they can rape them with fire, including the psycannon which ignrores invuls.

For Tau, maybe Battlesuits with missiles and burst cannons. The suits can hop back behind cover to prevent charges Stealths and/or gun drones work too. 

But generally that's all damage control after the fact. Chances are if they;re mounted you;re not going to knock those birds out before the harlies hit your lines and do as they please.

Perhaps a dispersed deployment to minimize the damage they can do on their initial hit?


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## MarzM (Jan 26, 2007)

Necrons - Let the Harlies charge you! (No, I’m not mad) A harlie unit will not be able to kill enough Crons to bounce through so, Hold them in combat, move the monolith up, pull the crons through the portal (re-rolling your WBB) and rapid fire them off the table.

Marines - use the “fury of the ancients” because it does not target the unit. 
Sub note: take Black templar’s and laugh as you ignore their power on a 5+

Tau – Feed them a unit of fire warrior, and then shoot them with the battle suits that are 7” away.

Guard – Take Daemon hunter allies as before.
Sub note: Take sanctioned psykers, and hope you get the 4+ thing against psychic powers. Target the harlies so that the power is now “affecting” the unit containing the psyker and hopefully roll a 4+ then shoot them with a hellhound because “the power stops working” very RAW but funny! P.S. you will probably lose friends for that one! lol

Chao’s – Feed and shoot policy. 1 Oblit works well because it should be easy for the harlies to kill and it’s not too many points.

Ork’s – Take combat and add more boyz! They are only 6pts!

Nids – See above but with Gaunts!

As for Falcons, well multiple shot weapons with high strength and good luck!


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## Xaereth (Dec 14, 2007)

Eh, I tend to be happy when someone takes Harlequins instead of Banshees. Against Harlies my Death Company actually stands a decent shot at winning combat. Vs. Banshees, they tend to get hit hard enough that they can't recover. 

That being said, Harlies are still hard to deal with, not a lot you can really do but try to destroy their indestructable transports. And shoot them to hell when they aren't in combat, it's not very hard. A rhino squad w/ flamer and bolters should do the trick pretty nicely. But I'm beating a dead horse with the flamer bit.

With Dark Eldar, wyches tend to do extremely well against harlies, and if it's only a group of 6 of them, 10 wyches will generally wipe the squad of harlies in a single round of combat, and roll their inv. saves against their rends as well as limiting their number of attacks with wych weapons. I'm not sure if a single unit in 40k is nearly as effective against harlequins as wyches are.

Alright, thats what I got. Hope it helps a bit!


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## LordWaffles (Jan 15, 2008)

The only thing I've found with chaos besides the feed-and-shoot policy is either a winged sorceror/lord with mark of slaanesh so you can equal their Initiative.
Or a terminator squad armed with the mark of tzeentch. 4+ invul will stop the rending as best our army can.

Honestly I've really begun disliking them, they're extremely strong, and many armies don't have a really reliable way to kill them, the nerf of rending will soon make us able to stop them more accurately, but until than we're kind of SoL


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## Steel Nathan (Apr 26, 2008)

Xaereth said:


> Eh, I tend to be happy when someone takes Harlequins instead of Banshees. Against Harlies my Death Company actually stands a decent shot at winning combat. Vs. Banshees, they tend to get hit hard enough that they can't recover.


 Well I read this and I half agree with you.It's true that Banshee's has a geater chance to kill our Death Company, but does it really? Think about this:

Banshee's have all attacks that are power weapons, true. BUT they would have a hell of a time to hurt them, seeing that the need 5's to hurt their armour. And they would lose some of them from hitting 4's( 3's with the Exarch, bu she's a whole different story). Harlies hower need a 6 and that would make one drop right there. Plus they would get more attacks which can lead to even more rending. 

So we can agree that harlies and Banshee's need to be shot then charged :grin:


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## DrakeBluedragon (Feb 14, 2008)

Just to say to a couple of your answers first...
Some of you said to hold them in combat, either with necrons or fire warriors or whatever. But fact of the matter is that the "flying clowns" have hit and run, so obviously that won't work.

Depending on deployment I use different strategies. the strategy that works the best is this. If they are close to a squad or tank (one of theirs), shoot it with an ordnance blast (like a railgun, basilisk or fire prism) and watch those harlequins fall. Otherwise I just shoot them with my stealth suits (sorry I'm a tau player) and get in a mobile combat until they fall.


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## Triple 888 (Mar 25, 2008)

railguns are ordnance?

But anyway i dont really have problems with them i just rapid fire with fire warriors and they drop vevy quickly


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Railguns aren't ordinance, they use the Large Blast template like ordinance though.

However, Railguns and ordinance are pretty ineffective against Harlies due to that damnable Veil of Tears


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

Massed guard charge?


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Possibly. The problem with charging them is their initiative is so high they;ll do a ton of damage before you can swing, and with hit and run you really have to either kill or cripple the unit witht he remainder of yoru forces or they;ll just hop out and charge you on their turn


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

can't hit and run if you are surrounded by 30 guardsmen.


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## stormshroud (Apr 27, 2007)

If they are on foot I have found that targetting mortars or other barrage fire at units close by can be effective, especially when you have as many mortars as I do :grin:. Need a bit of luck on the old scatter tho, but it get around that VoT issue.

If they get close then you are in pain, speed bumps and lots of guns are the best options I have found.


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

> Whirlwind mines will work. No other ordinance will though.


Ahem, indirect Basilisk fire.


Personally, being a Tau and Tson player I find that the most effective way to deal with them is to rapid fire them to death. I have never failed to kill a harlie squad in this manner, not once. If they are in tanks, you can target the tank. If they jump out, zip up your rhino/devilfish/transport, disembark with rapid firing models and hose them down. Yes it takes a bit of planning to get your vehicles in the proper range but as nasty as harlies are, they do not EVER live through a round of rapid fire from a full squad (two if you want to be sure). The hard part is making sure you get the models close enough.


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## Steel Nathan (Apr 26, 2008)

Heh I know, it sucks when your out of range by like 2" and then they charge you >.<. I agree, rapid fire is the real only way. Charging them with a kick ass squad-which-rips-things-open-in-combat is also another way. But in your case Wraithlord, I'd go with rapid fire :laugh:.


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

if veil of tears is a minor psychic power, take GK detachments if you play Imperium. Then you have the GKs wipe out the harlies. Also, the GKs will have the shrouding, so it'll be tough to target them too. A squad of normal grey knights should do the trick.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

The Wraithlord said:


> Ahem, indirect Basilisk fire.


The last time we had the harlies vs indirect fire debate the grudging answer was that because of the wording of veil of tears, by RAW it does not allow indirect fire to bypass it. It's retarded, but it;s how the rules read.

Whirlwind mines are different since you are allowed to target anything you want with them, even empty space, since you;re shooting at the ground and not units


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## Moschaboy (Jan 5, 2007)

never faced harlies before, especially with the new chaos dex, but i threw the numbers around and if 6 harlies charge your squad of 10 csm, they(the clowns) always die horribly in my estimations. lets see...

with 4 attacks on the charge per guy from a falcon squad(6 guys) that'll be 24 attacks for around 3 rendings and like 2 other dead csm from normal attacks. then you pass your leadership due to icon of chaos glory and pile in next turn (assuming everyone in the kill zone is dead). since they don't want to be shot, they'll stick to that combat until the end of your turn.then you charge in the neighboring squad. you eat 1 rend or some such and maybe half of another wound. then the csm strike back with 28 attacks, 14 hitting 9 wounding and 3 saved makes 6 dead harlies...

so i guess it's all about softening the targets up before the charge or charging 2 or more squads at once for the circus manager (eldar player) and not leaving your units unsupported for the opponent


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## Steel Rain (Jan 14, 2008)

Galahad said:


> The last time we had the harlies vs indirect fire debate the grudging answer was that because of the wording of veil of tears, by RAW it does not allow indirect fire to bypass it. It's retarded, but it;s how the rules read.
> 
> Whirlwind mines are different since you are allowed to target anything you want with them, even empty space, since you;re shooting at the ground and not units


harlies can't be targetted by indirect fire, so the bassie is out.
Edit: the spotting distance for harlies is too short. That's why bassies can't fire, since minimum distance is 36"


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

shoot them with vindicators.


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## Beriothien (Apr 24, 2008)

I take a single squad of harlies on foot....half they time they are there to distract my opponent from the rest of my army 

If they are ever out in the open within 8-15 inches of units that can shoot they are TOAST. You have to roll REALLY BAD to see them for this not to be the case.

If your oppenent has 3 units in Falcons that is 1100+ points - or else the Falcons have no upgrades and are therefore killable. You sure the guy isn't cheating you somehow? Or do you play really big lists (like 2000 points)?


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## Siege (Jan 18, 2008)

The Wraithlord said:


> Ahem, indirect Basilisk fire.
> If they are in tanks, you can target the tank. If they jump out, zip up your rhino/devilfish/transport, disembark with rapid firing models and hose them down. Yes it takes a bit of planning to get your vehicles in the proper range but as nasty as harlies are, they do not EVER live through a round of rapid fire from a full squad (two if you want to be sure). The hard part is making sure you get the models close enough.


This is what I try to do but 8 times out of 10 I will somehow screw it up.


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## Estragon (Feb 25, 2008)

Setting up bait with obliterators works a treat-they get out, you stomp forward and hose them with twin-linked flamers. Re-roll to wound on 3+ and suddenly the 5+ isn't looking so beefy anymore. Coming fresh off another post, has any chaos player tried turning them into spawn? I'd love that. No more Shadowseer? No more veil. And down they go......


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## Desolatemm (Feb 2, 2008)

Flamers are the doom of the Harlies...


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## Beriothien (Apr 24, 2008)

Lots of things are the doom of harlies. However, this little 168 point unit can wipe out nearly anything else if it gets to assault. Which is why the harlies draw so much attention.

Truthfully, for me anymore they are mostly a baiting unit - my opponents who have played against eldar with harlies before will try and target them, try to avoid them, etc. ignoring some other things that I have going on.


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## coldstuff64 (Feb 11, 2008)

The best thing to do (in a daemonhunters army) is to use a vindicare assassin to take on the seer (this could be difficult). Then nail the clowns with all your available firepower, and finish up with a terminator assault. You win.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Grey Knight Assault/Terminator Squad with Incinerators.


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## LordWaffles (Jan 15, 2008)

This one is really easy now. Just ignore the ever-living clown-god out of them. What are they going to do? Rend 50% less than they used to, and get all those rends put on the same guy via wound allocation?

I'd like to see them try!


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## Morgal (Sep 26, 2007)

As IG use a sacrafice squad on them the squad will die but thats okay. eather strand em out of charge range or assault into them.
Again try not to be charged, don't be afraid to move forward so you can later move back.

las guns seem to work...unsure why but the one time I faced em my las guns ate em up after they got stranded by winning combat.

Mind you it's not like rending hurts my troops.


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## weasly (Jun 18, 2008)

My friend fields a big unit of conscripts with a commissar in them. The unit wont flee until the commissar is on its own or dead so they could hold up harlequin squad of 6-7 strong for 2 turns I think. Any flamer weapons, especially hellhounds, could leave these guys as red smears on the floor. These guys arent as hard now, they rend worse and cant consolidate into combat, leaving them in front of the rest of your army.


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## Shadowfire (Mar 20, 2010)

This is one unit that massed troop fire works really well against, whether they come jumping and spinning across the battlefield, know your ranges, and step forward to rapid fire for decimation.
Or if they come flying across in a transport, spread out, sacrifice a token unit (preferably in the open) and once they've wiped them, unleash hell.

5+ save = cannon fodder


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