1700 harlequins Eldar

[Noble_servaas]

I wanted to do something else than Mech Eldar and decided to go for a harlequin army. I love the models and they will be part of the new Dark Eldar army.

this is what my list looks like at the moment:
Eldrad Ulthran

Avatar

5 pathfinders

10 dire avengers
exarch powerweapon/shimmershield
bladestorm/defend

harlequins:
5 harley's
2 harley's with fusion pistols
1 troupe master with powerweapon
1 death jester
1 shadowseer

harlequins:
5 harley's
2 harley's with fusion pistols
1 troupe master with powerweapon
1 death jester
1 shadowseer

wraithlord
double flamer
bright lance
EML

wraithlord
double flamer
bright lance
EML

5 warp spiders
with exarch with powerblades and spinneret rifle, withdraw

this leaves me with 34 points spare.

suggestions, thoughts, ideas?

[Mr. anderson]

You will get complaints about fluff - Eldrad fights with Ulthwé, and that's that. Your army has nothing that looks remotely like Ulthwé.

Fluff comments aside - you are very light on troops. That was fine in 4th, but in 5th you need more than 2 footslogging troop choices - you'll get a maximum of one objective (the pathfinders cannot sit somewhere by themselves - they'll get eliminated in the blink of an eye), and the DA will likely face the same problem (they'll get attention because they are troops. You'll struggle to finish the game with a scoring unit, so most of the time you'll be able to only go for a draw.

I am playing a list that focuses on eliminating the enemy and then using fast moving units to sweep in and take objectives (guardian jetbikes and avengers in falcons), that way you can spend most points on things that actually kill stuff and still seize objectives, this might be a way for you to be able to keep most of your army intact, but as it is it won't work.

Death Jesters are the next best thing after useless for harlequin units - they should never, ever be standing still because if they do, they're history. They have to get into combat as quickly as possible, and stay there because it's nice and safe up close.

Fustion pistols go the same way as death jesters - you won't be shooting a lot. On the surface it might look like a good idea to pop a transport and then assault, but AP1 weapons against a transport are highly likely to make it explode, taking half your squad out in the process because they have no protection.

To fix the list I'd suggest some more beef - a fire prism, another 10 Dire avengers, something like that. Drop Eldrad as well - he's got nowhere to go (except the DA, and that way both units will get even more attention because of eldrad and because they are scoring). Some banshees in a wave serpent would also be helpful - with doom (and hopefully also fortune), 10 of them can cause about as much grief as harlequins can.

[Demetrius]

i agree with Anderson, drop Eldrad. Get another 10 dire avengers and a wave serpeant if you can fit it. That gives you another scoring unit and a bit of protection for one of your units. A Falcon would be good if you want to mount a Harlequin unit in it.

Your avatar and Wraithlords will have fun though, most lists wont be able to put out enough high strength shots to deal with them all. But they are slow, so be careful.

[Drizz't]

Dropping Eldrad is never the answer.

Dropping all those fail harlequins is.
Drop the double flamers on the Wraithlords, you don't need to spend the point on it, insead give them the sword for the inevitable combat you're going to be in, and the EML, just stick with the BL.
Drop the Warp Spiders and get Wave serpents for your DA's and add more DA's as well as Fire Dragons in WS to the list.

Footdar get raped in the current edition of 40k

[Drainial]

On the otherhand the whole point of the list is to use harlequins and not use mech.

[Drizz't]

Well you could then mount those harlequins in Falcons to get them to the fight faster.

Foot harlequins don't serve much of a threat, problem is everything is as fast as they are nowadays with "Run!"

Even Tactical squads mounted in Rhino's are faster, simply because they get to move 12" with the Rhino, deploy 2" and then can run D6".

Foot harleys should often find themselves on the recieving end of a charge, especially with DE coming out, all those open topped transports make them just as dangerous as orks.

It's just really the state of the game, mech is where it's at for competitive play.

[Anchanrogar]

Eldrads doesnt have fleet of foot either, meaning he'll slow down your non-mech assualt troops (aside from scorpions/wraithguard).
That said harlequin veil of tears power is helpful in early turns and the harlies can confer cover saves to support units behind. Id drop the avatar and the pathfinders and take 3 squads of foot avengers instead (no shimmershield and maybe no exarch) Eldrad then has a reliable place to hide while being within 24" of the harlies to doom any targets they enter combat with, fearless avatar business isnt needed, they should be winning combats... and eldrad can fortune his unit in the avenger second line... might work? no promises though

Personally I play with eldrad in a 10 man concealed wraithguard unit and pray to the god of rerollable cover saves to get across the table. This is the core of a fluffy but not especially potent guardian/warlock heavy list with some swooping hawks.... yes it has reached the point that most people have forgotten what the rules for these units are, and ask where on earth my avengers/dragons are hiding