Let’s start this post about the Solitaire with something positive – I just finished painting my first one!
I know it’s not quite as dynamic as it could be for the harlequins but it fits in with my existing masque colour scheme enough to make it look right while also being quite muted and dark. I have a second Solitaire sat here for painting in a different colour scheme but that’s a post for another day. You can find my thoughts on the current solitaire HERE as well as some post event thoughts HERE.
What I am going to talk about today stems from nostalgia…
Ah, the cloudy and dark days of Rogue Trader. My first real army for 40k was the Harlequins and it’s this fond memory of 18 model armies at 4000 points that saw me collect rules and models again and again for these enigmatic killers.
As you can see, from the first time this killer saw the table – his super combat role has always been there. Particular attention needs to be paid to the Dance of death rule – but that’s not apparent why its so horrible until everything is revealed…
That’s a big list right! He can get real armour and an invulnerable save, multiple options for weapons (though these are random rolls on another chart) alongside a power fist (glove), harlequins kiss, a shuriken cannon and more. The D6 rolls on digital weapons is of particular note as each one of these back in the day added +1 to your attacks… which when combined with dance of death and 2 combat weapons meant getting 20 attacks was completely possible!
The grenade list is huge with every possible option under the sun and the equipment and armour rolls he had available to him made accessing a jump – or better yet flight – pack was entirely possible.
Lastly – and most importantly – was the fact you could make him a psyker. This is huge! While the powers he had access to were a little limited, there were several who made him even more of a killer than he already was. Under the effects of dance of death and a couple of psychic powers, killing 10+ mega nobs was not an unreasonable expectation when combined with a harlequins kiss!
Looking back at old army lists – my solitaire once hit close on 900 points with all the gear (and the innocence of youth!)
2nd edition saw the Solitaire toned down considerably with far less access to wargear and essentially no special rules to speak of. My 2nd edition book eludes me as of posting this so you are going to have to trust me on this!
3rd edition saw harlequins removed from the game officially – at least at first. We did get a an experimental rule set in Citadel Journal though…
Here the solitaire is starting to take shape to what he is today with some throwback to the original. His stats are roughly the same as they have always been and we get the first mention of the blitz attack which the current model has. He also gained (very briefly) immunity to leadership powers and effects which was kind of cool. His wargear list is ok with a few options added and lost just as quickly (looking at you Riveblades!) Like today’s version, he died to a stiff breeze but hit hard. He also occupied an elite slot like today which is kinda interesting.
4th, 5th and 6th editions saw harlequins cut down to just a troupe with a couple of the once proud super characters of Rogue Trader turned into nothing but upgrade characters. Worse still, the solitaire became a relic of a bygone era… a memory… until that all changed with 7th edition and Codex Harlequins.
I hope this little trip down memory lane was interesting for you – it’s a period in my gaming history I look on with much fondness – I might even do this sort of post again for other old units – who knows!
