Every now and then an event comes along that lets me break the mould a little. The Western Australian Team Challenge is one such event – because I can run Harlequins!
What’s interesting first off is that on paper – I am running it. To be clear, Objective Secured is running it. My wife has been wonderful and said she will run the days fun so I can play. So I get to write the players pack (found HERE) and then play as well! Outstanding!
The WATC (as it will be known hence forth) is a 4 player team event based on the hugely successful ETC (European Team Challenge) and the more local ATC (Australasian Team Challenge). It pits the teams against each other in a variety of scenarios (all of which can be found in the players pack) with a match up process (found HERE) very similar to those larger events.
The second thing that’s interesting is that I am not the captain of my team. My team (along with 1 other of the 16 attending) is formed solely from this year’s team representing Western Australian in the ATC, and it presented a great opportunity to allow other players to be more involved in the match up process. It means come time in September for the ATC when I am the captain, 2 other people will have hands on experience to assist in us doing the best we can.
The last thing on the interesting things list is that the ATC state team is just not taking this seriously. I genuinely mean that. You will see what I mean when I get to my list in a sec but basically, it’s a great excuse to run some silly and fun lists and see how we go. It’s an opportunity to learn from the processes of the other teams, to grow ideas and expand options for the state team. Sure – we could take our hard core lists and beat face but for me – that’s a silly notion. We just become ‘those F’ing guys’ at that point. I would rather go along with a cool and fun force (with a few tricks of course) rather than gain a reputation for being a jerk.
With that in mind, the team of 4 I am a part of is doing very little in the way of prep – we have each narrowed down the relevant codex(es) we are using but other than that – we are playing what we want to. For me – I nabbed the 3 pointy ear codexes which should be no surprise. But what to use? And in what combination?
Enter the Ninja Death Space Clowns!
I did ok with a hybrid list of the Harlequins in 2015 (with the reports found starting here) and had plenty of thoughts about running them solo in the aftermath. The fact is that in this case – a pure list is just not going to fly. I have about 6 weeks to paint the forces and with my ATC secret project going on in the background (more in a future post) I can’t really afford to drop any more cash on the force for this event. A model or box maybe but that’s about it. Alongside this is the fact these Harlequins will be painted to match my existing dark eldar unit whereas I want to do my full Harlequins force in a completely different colour scheme using my new airbrush as a way of learning how to use the darn thing!
So this is where the force of Harlequins sits right now…
Solitaire, Shadow Seer, Death Jester
2 Troupes of 6 and 1 Troupe of 8
1 Star Weaver, 4 Sky Weavers, 1 Void Weaver, 1 Star/Void Weaver on sprue
This naturally fits nicely into a Harlequins Masque detachment right now. It can also be used to build a couple of the other formations and is only a couple of models shy for the full ‘Revenge’ formation.
The key to this force is what I am going to ally alongside it – at a points value of just 1500…
Eldar and Dark Eldar both bring different things to the force. Both are mobile enough to keep up, both have options to add fire power or assault and both have unique options that synergise well. I did consider just running 3 detachments on the Harlequins (from my weaver spam idea) but I would need to spend too much cash on these ideas right now.
Who knows which way it will go – right now I write a new list every other hour! Maybe tomorrows post will be more conclusive.