Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Coming Up - Codex: Harlequins


See here for my previous post on how I approach fan codices.

I've been sitting on the draft of my Harlequin fan codex for a while. There were a few unique challenges building a 'dex for this army, and I've spent the time I needed to think these things through. This is going to be a draft codex - it has not been playtested and is definitely not intended for competitive gaming at this point. Harlequins are a unique elite army and only experience will tell how balanced it is against the huge variety of forces out there.

The old Harlequins were among the first models I bought when I started playing 40k back in '92. I loved the rich fluff but the paint jobs were too much for my inexperienced fingers :) The fluff of this army is first class and it's a pity that Games Workshop have not continued to support the army since the release of the experimental codex in 3rd edition.

There options available to the Harlequin general are not numerous, and all the FOC slots have only one or maybe two options.  I did not want to create new units to flesh out the options available - the purpose of this 'dex is to allow the creation of an army that matches the current fluff. However it is still possible to create a number of differently themed armies, including all jetbike, MSU mech, foot "horde" and an all-mime scout force. Of course you could also create a balanced list combining the units from several of these themes.

My troupe Harlequins are very similar to those in the Eldar codex. I have added options for grenades, including EMP to provide additional anti-tank capabilities. With the characters I have expanded the energy fields available. Some of the units have a different dance to the Dance of Death. There is scope to add additional options to some of the units, but I am keeping it simple forthe time being.

The following units are included in my Codex: Harlequins:
  • Great Harlequin
  • Shadowseer
  • Master Mime
  • Solitaire
  • Harlequin Troupe
  • Mime Troop
  • Harlequin Jetbikes
  • Harlequin Vyper Squadron
  • Harlequin Venom
  • Death Jester

Yes there is no Wraithlord in the list. I know that some Harlequin players out there will have their own conversions, but these are possibly the least fluffy unit ever created in 40k. I couldn't bring myself to support such a monstrosity. Perhaps I'll release rules for it if there is a demand.

Hopefully this sounds interesting or even exciting! I should have the codex finished within the next week. I'll add a link to it on The Codex Project too.

1 comment:

  1. I would be interested in seeing this done. I have recently gotten back to my love of the clowns, and have built out a new harlequin army. I have been considering writing my own fan codex but I am not a rules writer at heart.

    Right now I am using a counts as army using the DE codex. I built up a fully converted harlequin army using a mix of DE, CE and old school harlequin bits. I took the army to adepticon a few months ago, and they performed fairly well.

    As much as I love the DE codex for my harlequins, fan codexes are awesome for fun games and add a ton of richness to the game. If you don't actually post it, I would love to see a copy via email etc.

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