Objective Secured

In my last post I hinted at an idea I had brewing and now want to share it here prior to playing it on the table… Weaver Spam!

The idea of Weaver Spam (or WS from this point onwards) is that in a pure harlequins list – maximise all the units in the codex with the term Weaver in them. This does a couple of things.

1. maximises the unit count of the army which has a flow on affect of maximising angles of attack and minimising the effects of losses
2. maximises the opportunity for haywire weapons to allow the harlequins to engage armour at range
3. gives you units that are likely to be able to absorb the casual overwatch of enemy units for the troupes

The main issue with this idea is the number of detachments you have available. In most events I would expect 2 or perhaps 3 to be the limit allowed when in reality I would want 5 to make this really work. For this post I am going to focus on the simple build for an event I would typically attend.

2 Detachments at 1850

This is an easy one to build – 2 Masques. When building it though you would go back to front. Start with the Void Weaver, then the star weavers and sky weavers then spend the remainder on the troupes themselves. Here is my example…

Harlequin Masque x2

Harlequin Troupe – 4 Players with 1 Caress, 2 Kiss & Troupe Master with Caress, Haywire Grenades with a Star Weaver – 196

Harlequin Troupe – 4 Players with 1 Caress, 2 Kiss & Troupe Master with Caress, Haywire Grenades with a Star Weaver – 196

Harlequin Troupe – 4 Players with 1 Caress, 2 Kiss & Troupe Master with Caress, Haywire Grenades with a Star Weaver – 196

2 Skyweaver Jetbikes, 2 Haywire cannons, 2 Glaives – 130

2 Skyweaver Jetbikes, 2 Haywire cannons, 2 Glaives – 130

Void Weaver with Haywire – 75

This gives us 6 Star Weavers, 2 Void Weavers, 4 units of 2 Sky Weavers and 6 units of 5 Harlequins. at 1850. There is a little juggling you could do to get another bike or void weaver in but it sacrifices the troupes to much in my opinion.

The basic idea is the same as the dark eldar venom spam – but it suffers few of the irritations that you have with that list. For starters, the vehicles can all engage light and even medium armour in a pinch. When the vehicle dies (and they will!) the unit inside is actually going to be half decent on the board rather than a token blaster and his ablative wounds. The shorter range of the shuriken weapons is offset by the fact you WANT to close with the enemy. The bikes provide much of the lists AT punch and it puts out 10 haywire blasts on nice mobile platforms. They also double as a unit that can actually take a flamer on overwatch without simply turning into ash on the breeze thanks to the higher toughness and multiple wounds combined with a genuine armour save and a 4++ jink if need be. In combat they are no slouch either and more than capable of taking a small unit with ease or a larger unit with the support of 1 of the troupes.

Combined with the 4++ that the army enjoys for a turn and it could be very solid.

Its an intriguing idea for the codex that most people wrote off as a novelty or allies only scenario. I like it better with more detachments… but that can wait until next post!