Its raining rules as actual leaks of the new Eldar codex book entries for Harlequins and Eldar army-wide abilities are here!
We’ve seen rumors for a long time now about what the Harlequins will be able to do, but now we have pics of the actual codex! In the leaks, there are also a bunch of Eldar army-wide rules, which means we get some confirmations about things we’ve been guessing at.
Let’s start with all the rumors we’ve seen, then jump into all the new stuff!
Previous rumors have spoken of a new Harlequins unit that possibly would come in a Kill Team box. These rumors if true may give the Harlequins a bit more on the survivability side, that they have previously been lacking.
Harlequins Troupe & Master
- Troupe Master eldar datasheets revealed showing huge amounts of weapon info (see above)
- Choreographer of war gives reroll 1 on wound aura
- Different harlequin weapons now give special keywords to the model/unit
- Three abilities with info on another page (core abilities?) Harlequins Panoply, Luck of the Laughing God, Rising
- Crescendo
- Luck gives free rerolls
Troupes:
- Still 4++
- Fusion pistol new D6+2, no limit on taking them
- All melee +1S AP2 D2
- Each of their weapons have a related stratagem
- One will give mortal wounds on 6s (likely kiss)
- One of the other two will ignore invulns
- New Masque system complete with WL trait, relic and Strat
- Can give advance and shoot, as well as attack before removing model in melee
- Shuriken Cannon shown on starweaver datasheet (only shown weapon profile)
GW Previews New Mixed Eldar & Harlequin Faction Rules
Neatly sidestepping the constraints of mission packs, this rule allows you to add a Detachment of Harlequins to any Aeldari army, as if a poised Patrol of perilous pierrots had put in an unexpected appearance on the battlefield.
Importantly, including a band of Harlequins in a Travelling Players Detachment will not prevent you from using Battle-forged rules, such as Power From Pain for Drukhari, special secondary objectives, or the new army-wide Asuryani special rules.
GW may have put the squash on mixed-faction lists, however, Eldar is a clear example of a faction where the lore really does support mixed lists. This new rule helps to make the faction a ridiculously diverse and fine-tuned roster that anyone can play with a huge variety in play style. It will be interesting if there’s still an incentive for running old-fashioned “mono-faction” lists or if Eldar soup is the future, picking and choosing the best parts of each sub-faction to make one Voltron super-list.
New Harlequin Weapons Rules
Now, let’s check out the new Eldar Harlequins weapon rules and Stratagems.
Each variant gives the model that carries it a different keyword, which can be triggered with Stratagems to really unlock the devastating impact of these unconventional weapons.
If you ask us, this actually makes things more complicated than just keeping three profiles as now you’ll have to remember to use the Stratagems instead of them just being built-in effects.
Speaking of which, let’s look at the stratagems you can use now for these:
The Harlequin’s kiss contains a monofilament wire that unravels inside its victim, turning their insides into soup (not that the Aeldari would know anything about something as prosaic as soup). This horrific outcome is represented by the Kiss of Death Stratagem.
This gives you chances for Mortal Wounds and with how many attacks you are bound to have, you should be getting a decent number of MWs for sure.
No less terrifying is the Harlequin’s caress – a wrist-mounted phase-field generator that allows its bearer to reach inside an enemy’s armour. With the Oblivion’s Caress Stratagem, it even allows you to bypass invulnerable saves.
This is pretty strong against certain armies as you will be punching through all Invulnerable saves. That probably makes sense why this is 2 CP instead of 1.
Finally, there’s the Harlequin’s embrace, which surrounds an enemy with a monofilament wire that contracts, slicing them into pieces – perfect for feeding to Yvraine’s Gyrinx. Send your whole Troupe in for a group hug with A Deadly Embrace.
This isn’t anything too crazy, but you should be able to get off a few extra mortals with it. Just to note, you can use this and either of the other two in a turn if you wanted.
Haywire Cannon
It’s not just the Harlequins’ close-combat weapons that have been refreshed in the Aeldari codex. We’ve already seen what the shuriken cannon can do, but the haywire cannon on the Voidweaver is now so devastating that these fast-moving skimmers will tear through enemy tank squadrons.
This is pretty similar to before and is just great at destroying tanks with the possibility for tons of mortals.
New Eldar 40k Battle Focus Rules
This rule, which you’ll also find liberally sprinkled throughout the codex, is a bit of a game-changer. Aeldari are awash with Assault weapons, from shuriken catapults to fusion guns, and Battle Focus not only allows you to fire these light and deadly guns without penalty after dashing into range, it also adds Pistols to the mix – like the vicious shuriken pistols wielded by Storm Guardians.
What of those fleet-footed fighters equipped with weightier weaponry? Even heavily armed Aeldari are known for being nimble, and prefer to pack a punch instead of taking one. With Battle Focus, your glass cannons* can now unload a salvo of death, then dart away from retaliation.
Counting as Remaining Stationary with assault and pistol weapons is pretty cool when you advance. It will let you run into position and still fire with precision. However, the bigger rule is probably the second one. Being able to do a free move with (we assume) a large part of the army after shooting is really sweet.
Even though you can fail and roll a 1 (well you don’t fail but moving one inch probably won’t get you much) but if you roll on average you’ll be able to get your units back into cover pretty easily.
The only issue with this is the fact this might really slow the game down if every turn you are doing this on 80% of your units. Also, just remember, you can’t use this to get closer to a charge.
Editor’s note: We’ve heard that this is -3″ through terrain. This is huge because the main use of it will be to get your units back into terrain and cover. Obviously, you can still move closer to objectives and such, but not much through terrain as your average move will be .5″ through terrain. So we’re not sure how impactful this will end up being.
New 40k Harlequins Rules & Eldar Army-Wide Rules Spotted!
The biggest thing for Harlequins is on the bottom right, you can include one Patrol Detachment of Harlequins in an army without getting rid of your single faction need.
Who is feeling lucky? These new overall rules for the Harlequins are looking pretty interesting indeed.
The Light characterization will never let your units be hit by anything better than 4+ when 12″ away which is really sweet! Then even when they advance they count as remaining stationary, so again, quite strong.
Next, the Warlord Trait will let you Heroically Intervene within 6″ can be huge and really take your opponent by surprise, then if you get the charge or intervention off, you’ll also be grabbing +1 Strength. Adding 3″ inches to both your auras and Psychic Powers is also really strong, as 9″ Arua buffs are just always going to be strong.
Lastly, the Stratagem will basically let most of your units get out of range of most charges, a 6″ move ain’t no joke!
You have to decide between light, twilight, and dark. Dark will let you make attacks with models that died if they haven’t attacked yet. Then they get another AP on all their melee attacks. The Ghoulmask is like the DE relic, but much better because it also removes ObSec from units within 3″. The Warlord trait for adding Mortals on a 5+ and not 6 is another pretty awesome trait.
Twilight rules start with adding attacks when any form of charges are done and then you get an additional 2″ on pile-ins and consolidations. Next, your warlord can really help you gain a lot of extra CP over the course of the game.
The Twilight Fang is interesting because it gets stronger as the game goes on, however, Harlequins have often been an Alpha Strike type list, so we’re not sure how much play it will see. The Stratagem though is really strong because Harlequins get so many attacks, meaning you should be rolling plenty of 6’s that will just wound automatically, which should help with their low strength.
Death Jester Rules
A very blurry image, but if you try you can definitely make out what you need to see. It also appears that you can upgrade your Death Jester and/or a Troupe Master to have a “pivotal role” as well via these rules:
Talk about exploding 6’s that Harvester of Sorrow role has the potential to literally make it rain death on some unfortunate target with a little luck. Plus wounding on 2’s is always nice when you are low strength as well for the Troupe Master.
Solitaire Rules
In a world with very few 3+ invulnerable saves this may be worth a note or three-see what we did there? Restricted to one, and banished from taking wargear or a trait, the Solitaire is going to have to rely on special rules, one of the pivotal roles below, and his blitz attack to get the job done in 9th edition from the looks of it.
Shadowseer Rules
If you want to take advantage of the psychic side of the Harlequins, the Shadowseer is the way to go! They also have some decent stats and weapons, so if you have to send them into combat they can hold their own. However, when you add in the debuff to all enemies, and all the special rules the Harlequins get, you have quite the character.
They might change the first one as it just says subtract one attack, not to a minimum of 1, so maybe this can make them immune to single attack units. Then the other two are pretty sweet debuffs against the enemy, we’ll have to see how many points you have to allocate to this model once it’s all said and done though.
Other than that though, we think Eldar players will be happy so far with this tidal wave of news and rumors for all things Aeldari. Use the links below to check out our other coverage:
- 2021 ‘Eldar & Chaos Advent Calendar’ Previews From GW
- RUMORS: Huge List of New ‘Christmas’ Eldar Models & Rules
- More Eldar Rules & Model Rumors for 2022
Do you like the rules we’ve seen so far for the new Eldar and Halequins?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
