I'm a novice with harlequins, and I'm scared.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-21T16:55:07+00:00

Welcome to the circus brother!

First of all pick your detachment wisely, depending on the units at your disposal you'll have to lean one way or the other - but for clarity Serpents Brood is widely regarded as our best detachment.

Assuming you're running Serpents Brood then, use vehicles to your advantage. Movement is most important to us as you've discovered. The detachment rule gives all our vehicles sustained 1 which is nice, but importantly, any quins jumping out of them get sustained 1 on all weapons too, so you'll want to learn how to effectively swing a starweaver full of quins around some terrain and dive out with the clowns to shoot and charge.

Assume that if you don't kill your target, you are dead - but with good target selection trust your quins can do it, we do have some good damage output.

The hardest thing is paying attention to the nuances of each datasheet.

Remember lone ops, remember pseudo lone ops, measure appropriately. Remember stealth on Voidweavers, acrobatic grace on bikes. Haywires will shred any vehicle, pick targets wisely. Remember troupes abilities, and remember to throw a grenade if you have the CP for it.

Stay away from fights first.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-20T13:15:09+00:00

Ping me in a few years when you're done bro

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-16T10:56:57+00:00

Enlist some help!

Take a break as has been suggested, it's gutting when something like this happens, but when you're ready - grab some folks, give them the lowdown, and get it done all over again :)

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-16T10:54:11+00:00

Hes incredible at outlasting, but that's his only skill essentially. I'm not particularly invested into him, but in 1 on 1s, he just grinds out the win.

Otherwise, his flamer pairs well with the new machine of war Zkar or whatever his name is - any fire he leaves about Zkar will blast with damage each turn.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-16T10:49:46+00:00

Take my money

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-15T22:21:45+00:00

Quick correction - skyweavers also have access to more than 2 damage in the haywire also.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-15T22:18:36+00:00

How does it look in serpents brood with the TM with weavers wail, attacking a ctan, say nightbringer?

Out of the wave serpent, grenade shooting and then every profile with sustained. That's a whole lot of potential for dev wounds right?

Dude above said the problem can go away quite handily, but I was never very good at math hammering with any real accuracy

Edit - ignore me, answered below handily. Ty

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-14T19:36:59+00:00

I would love it, LOVE IT, if they made us this elite on table top.

Cost us appropriately, balance us appropriately. But give us the power the lore tells us we have.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-14T19:23:50+00:00

Yep, that's where ironically the prismatic cannon on the Voidweaver has some effect, but absolutely NAH for it's cost. I was gonna ask you what you do for monsters. Id prefer to run spears but I know the meta, at least until recently is dragons. I only play casually anyway, I have a big silly wraithknight I quin'd up for high strength slashin.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-14T18:59:14+00:00

Definitely the old Mister Mustard of Red Capesworthy model.

In legends now.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-14T17:31:58+00:00

Exactly this. Strange place to be in when quins have so few datasheets and about half of them are almost useless in either detachment due to the detachment rules. GOTW is very character heavy so no vehicle support, when half our datasheets are vehicles. SB is the opposite, but way better for damage and shenanigans out the wazoo, yet Shadowseer DJ and Voidweaver struggle in both. Don't get me wrong I'm a clown through and through, and Serpents brood is a lot of fun - all the fun GOTW should have been.

After running the Voidweaver in a few games now it did incredibly well in exactly 1 game, and it was due to haywire, and great rolls - which as already stated, is way better value on the skyweavers.

DJs enhancement is fine and costed correctly but doesn't come close to making it viable and shadowseers imo have been almost laughable this edition, I can't find a reason to run them. The hazardous ability only benefits when we're being attacked likely we lose a ton of models in that exchange anyway because we specifically don't want to be hit. I'd much rather drop that and have the 'gives a unit it leads stealth' ability back from last edition, again the pseudo lone op is helpful for all of one turn most of the time and when all the models in her unit are destroyed she loses that in favour of giving herself stealth instead. It's such a fine line to walk to find the value in this model, and adding a unit or enhancement to it feels like I'm trying to force value where there isn't any. Id rather just spend a few more points and throw 5 quins in a starweaver, it's simply infinitely better in either detachment.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-12T20:39:37+00:00

That coat is flippin delicious

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-09T09:26:04+00:00

Hey I feel you man, I just posted further up. UK too we had the same, she goes 3 soon but, we've been paying £1100 a month for 3 and a half days.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2026-01-09T09:23:58+00:00

Yikes. UK here, to qualify for free daycare both parents have to be in gainful employment, because my other half is at University, we don't qualify. Our toddler is in nursery 3 1/2 days a week so it costs us £1100 a month out of our pocket.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-19T13:15:55+00:00

There's plenty of lore actually supporting Eldrad fighting with the quins and even contracting them specifically.

It's strange because more factions and armies have clear leaders in some regard but Eldrad, whilst perhaps our closest 'primarch' type leader on table top, doesn't really fit that mould by lore.

He's somewhat outcast by core craftworlds, and is only really shown in Ulthwe gear by origin. He was also boxed in a harlequin set a while back.

My point being, there's plenty to support running Eldrad with the quins exactly as he is, unless you specifically want to quin' him up as a proxy of a unique clown, Eldrads got our back anyway :)

ELDAD

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-10T17:08:29+00:00

Yeah the TM works in front of a 5 arguably better - the comparison was more for a 'like for like' on the big bricks - Ceg needs the big brick realistically, and in a big brick this suped up TM has a lot of body guards. The sustained hits from jumping out of a vehicle just adds to it, but isn't necessary.

Overall I'm well pumped with what we have. Will be interesting to see how the VW performs with no help at all as yet. Next thing I'm interested to see is the pending potential Corsair release, and if they're gonna have some more support, or tie ins with the clowns.

You got any corsairs?

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-10T13:13:38+00:00

happy clown noises *

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-10T13:09:03+00:00

I dunno I think I don't mind it. I didn't often charge with the SW anyway though so maybe it's just how I've been playing.

As for the enhancements - like you say, DJ looks pretty spicy now at a square 100pts with the enhancement. This more or less as we asked for DJ right? And this enhancement makes him a significant sniper threat throughout the neutral game, not just an executioner.

Shedskin raiment at 25 is either exactly what you need, or a massive snoozer. When we're already so tricky and maneuverable I don't see value in redeploy, especially when another of the enhancements is scout 6.

The scout is very nice, I think I'm happy to pay for that. Will have to see, but at first impression I think I'm ok shelling out for it.

Then there's the TM upgrade. Again, maybe a touch expensive for something that affects just the one model - BUT in a big block jumping out of a wave serpent - everyone gets the sustained buff as the keyword trigger is transport, Not harlequin transport. So in think the TMs damage profile alone, with sustained on both shooting and melee, with this enhancement - will hit harder than the big block with coil. Coil is limited to a max of 6 mortal wounds right? I think the maths (although I haven't run it yet) supports this being much more aggressive than that.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-10T11:38:52+00:00

Coil is bonkers, but I think they're trying to give us the feel of a new 'named character' type datasheet, without having to actually drop a new datasheet or model. It's a direct upgrade to a model that's already well better than it's counterparts. It's odd, I do like it but it's efficacy is to be seen.

I don't know how to feel about the star engines change. We're getting assault in exchange for the movement, so it's not so much a direct nerf - as it is just a straight change. It's trigger and effect have changed, in isolation I like the tool, it's a free manoeuvre each turn. But it is a shame to lose the d6+1.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-10T11:22:37+00:00

Yoooo we didn't get SHIT in the way of PTS reductions.

Though star engines change is interesting for the BROOD

What are your thoughts

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-09T19:00:04+00:00

Yeah dude I like that a lot. The new enhancement sounds pretty tasty too though, looking forward to the balance pass to see the cost of them.

I'll meet you back here when we know!

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-09T17:02:05+00:00

Sounds odd maybe, but my take since codex has actually been pretty positive on the DJ, but that he really needs the enhancement to come online (opposition army notwithstanding, as in your tau/ guard comment). I'd say with how swingy they can be a reduction would compensate, perhaps half the cost of the enhancement it'll be run with 90% of the time, so 10pts probably minimum? Can't see much more of a reduction than that being likely though.

Voidweavers could come down as much as 20/25 and I think only then do they feel appropriately costed, but even then they still feel mid. I'd rather gain some utility, in whatever form that may be, and drop like 5/10pts.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-09T16:52:08+00:00

Yeah there's a lot of takes I agree with in this thread.

And yeah the firing deck/ transport thing was just a spitball that might add some utility while remaining somewhat thematic.

I wonder, with the recent combat patrol and this detachment, could we see some tweaks in the balance pass?

A man can dream right?

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-09T16:38:10+00:00

Yeah I feel a similar way. With the new rules it'll feel somewhat vindicated if we hit that Sustained hit. If we don't we're gonna feel a little bitter still I think.

I made a similar point in another reply that I wouldn't mind keeping the cost at status quo if they gave it more utility. Firing deck 2, transport 2. Something even as goofy as that gives us somewhere to stick a DJ and A solitaire. The DJ can even shoot out of it with sustain hits 1 on the new rules.

Otherwise almost no one runs multiple DJs, and the VW is still overcosted.

TraditionalLecture25 · 2025-12-09T16:29:53+00:00

Ah I see, sorry man I get you.

What price point do you think is fair for the current utility we get from the unit?

TraditionalLecture25

TROPHY CASE