This year, the Grotmas Calendar is dropping six new Detachments ahead of the quarterly balance update for Warhammer 40,000, and with the Astra Militarum, Chaos Space Marines, and Blood Angels out of the way, our fourth courts the enigmatic Aeldari. Specifically, the puzzling performers of the Harlequins, who have unleashed their motor pool to conduct mesmerising plays at top speed.
Luckily, while joyriding a Skyweaver jetbike through the Warhammer Studio, da Red Gobbo dropped a few pages of illuminating notes on the new Detachment.
The Serpent’s Brood
The Saedath of the Harlequins are both scripted performances and battle plans, interwoven on a level requiring the depthless Aeldari psyche to truly comprehend. Some Saedath are extremely specialised: The Serpent’s Brood is one such. Woven from tales of the Cosmic Serpent of Aeldari myth, it focuses on troupes of Harlequins mounted aboard Starweaver transports and supported by squadrons of Skyweaver Jetbikes and more heavily armed Voidweavers. As each of these units is named for one of the Cosmic Serpent’s children, so they play their roles on the battlefield: the Starweavers loyal and dutiful as they ferry their passengers into the fight, the Skyweavers hurtling back and forth spreading carnage, and the Voidweavers imperious and murderous in equal measure. Meanwhile, the disembarking Harlequins employ a strange ritual step known as the skystride to leap from their transports and bound across the heads and shoulders of the foe, rapidly striking flurries of blows and raining salvoes of fire upon enemies too bewildered to fight back. By the time the foe recovers their wits, the Harlequins have already sprung away or even boarded their Starweavers again to strike elsewhere.
This Detachment focuses on Harlequins specifically, ideal for anyone who wants to run either a pure Harlequin army or one that heavily focuses on these units. All of your Harlequin mounted and vehicle units gain Sustained Hits 1, your Harlequin infantry units gain Sustained Hits 1 in the turn they disembark. On top of this Harlequin Troupe go to OC 2 and become Battleline, and the restriction for most Aeldari armies that limit Harlequin characters to not be duplicated is removed.
The Enhancements are a good mix of utility, 1 is open to any of your characters (excluding the Solitaire), to let your unit scout 6”. The other 3 are each focused around a specific character (Death Jester, Shadowseer & Troupe Master). The Troupe Master gains strength and attack bonuses. The Death Jester can use two of it’s Cruel Amusement ability options rather than just one. The Shadowseer can let you redeploy 3 units.
The Stratagems highlight how hard it is to pin down Harlequins. You have a vehicle strat that lets you make a normal move after you have been shot, Infantry units can make a normal move when enemies move within 9”. Mounted units can move after they have fought. You can also place one of your mounted or vehicle units in reserve at the end of your opponent's fight phase. There is an Advance and Charge strat and finally your Troupe unit can select all three of its Dance of Death abilities.
The Serpent’s Brood
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We still have two more Detachments to get through, so make sure to come back here to Warhammer Community tomorrow and find out who’ll be the next lucky faction.
Catch up on the Grotmas Calendar
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