The Great Harlequin

I was reading Valedor the other day, about the Iyanden and Biel-tan Craftworlds teaming up against two Tyranid Hive Fleets and having to rope in the Dark Eldar and Harlequins to help out. The book features a Great (or Grand possibly?) Harlequin so I thought I'd try to make rules for him, mainly for the purpose of giving Harlequins an HQ unit so we can use the bloody things without having to take an entire army of them or only using formations with units we don't want or need.

What I've done is looked at the difference between an Aspect Warrior and a Harlequin (+1WS, +1I, +1A) and then applied the same modifiers to the stats of an Autarch to get a statline for him. His wargear and options are essentially the same as a Troupe Master and he has the Danse Macabre rule (which gives Rising Crescendo to his unit if they're all Harlequins) and Lord of the Dance (to make him a decent Warlord). Points wise I figured somewhere between the other Harlequin characters and the Solitaire.

HQ - Great Harlequin - 100 points

WS 7 BS6 S3 T3 W3 I7 A5 LD10 Sv -

Wargear: Holo-suit, shuriken pistol, close combat weapon, plasma grenades, Flip Belt
Special Rules: Fear, Fleet, Furious Charge, Hit & Run, Independent Character, Precision Strikes
Lord of the Dance: If the Great Harlequin is included in your Primary Detachment he must be the Warlord and may roll a D6 on any of the Warlord Trait tables in Warhammer 40,000: The Rules or a D6 on either the Light, Twilight or Dark Warlord Traits tables in Codex: Harlequins.
Danse Macabre: A unit composed entirely of models with the Harlequin Faction benefits from the Rising Crescendo special rule whilst the Great Harlequin is part of the unit
Options: May replace Shuriken Pistol with Neuro Disruptor (+10) or Fusion Pistol (+15)
May replace close combat weapon with Harlequin's Embrace (+5), Kiss (+5), Caress (+8 ) or power sword (+15)
May take Haywire Grenades (+5)
May take one item from the Enigmas of the Black Library list (including items marked Troupe Leaders only)

What do you think?

Hmm, very interesting. I like it.

If I might comment though, I think maybe he needs a little more.
If a Harlequin Troupe (and the rest of them) are the players in a performance, I think a Great Harlequin needs to fill the role of a Director (or perhaps Producer) for the show.
As such I think he would need a little more. I like thw addition of Danse Macabre, but beyond that at the moment he comes across as a bit generic - a good Harlequin but not necessarily anything interesting and special.
My suggestion:
"Enter Stage Left: Allows any Harlequin unit to Deep Strike, but they must arrive within 12" of the great Harlequin. They do not scatter (or maybe they only scatter d6"? I'm basically saying allow the Great Harlequin as a Director of the performance to bring his units in via Deep Strike and act as a Teleport Homer."

I like that! Do you think it warrants a points increase?

He plays the role of the laughing God himself in the performances by the fluff - I would be looking to use a redeploy type thing as a gotcha! We are really over here! Something tricky

Another good suggestion. Something like Eldrad's old ability to redeploy D3+1 units after deployment (within your deployment zone) but only applying to Harlequin units?

Hmm, redeploy sounds good too.
I think both would warrant a slight points increase, yeah.

I think I'd probably go either one or the other rather than both.

Hearing it, I think I prefer the redeploy idea. If that helps.
Though I'd be tempted to call it Scout instead.

Okay, I think I'll have to go with the redeploy option and have added 10 points to the unit cost to account for it. Final version therefore is:

HQ - Great Harlequin - 110 points

WS 7 BS6 S3 T3 W3 I7 A5 LD10 Sv -

Wargear: Holo-suit, shuriken pistol, close combat weapon, plasma grenades, Flip Belt
Special Rules: Fear, Fleet, Furious Charge, Hit & Run, Independent Character, Precision Strikes
Lord of the Dance: If the Great Harlequin is included in your Primary Detachment he must be the Warlord and may roll a D6 on any of the Warlord Trait tables in Warhammer 40,000: The Rules or a D6 on either the Light, Twilight or Dark Warlord Traits tables in Codex: Harlequins.
Danse Macabre: A unit composed entirely of models with the Harlequin Faction benefits from the Rising Crescendo special rule whilst the Great Harlequin is part of the unit
Secrets of the Webway: After both sides have deployed, but before Scout redeployment has been performed, you can redeploy D3+1 of your units. Such units must be placed in your deployment zone, even if they have the Infiltrate special rule. This cannot be used to move units into or out of reserve.
Options: May replace Shuriken Pistol with Neuro Disruptor (+10) or Fusion Pistol (+15)
May replace close combat weapon with Harlequin's Embrace (+5), Kiss (+5), Caress (+8 ) or power sword (+15)
May take Haywire Grenades (+5)
May take one item from the Enigmas of the Black Library list (including items marked Troupe Leaders only)

Looks pretty neat. However, I feel like that this guy is potentially too squishy, even for a harlequin, and especially compared to the shadowseer or death jester since he is more points than them. Since he is a "Great Harlequin", could we warrant maybe one or two of the following two:

1. Eternal Warrior (maybe a fancy holo-suit to grant that)
2. Stealth or Shrouded (maybe some tricksy grenades to do this?)

One thing that 40k doesn't have enough of is grenades that are thrown in your own units. Maybe make one that you could that give a unit stealth? It would mean that he could either buff himself, or a friendly unit nearby. And if this is a thing that scatters, it could create some lolz by stealthing something you didn't mean to with a high enough roll.
If I was taking this guy, I wouldn't say no to a 4+ invul, either!

These could also, now that I think about it, be upgrades instead. I don't know how to determine a good number of points for them though.

I take your point about being squishy but Harlequins are squishy. They get blown over by a stiff breeze. I think if I start adding stuff that counteracts that then it moves them away from the design philosophy. Also, he will always have Rising Crescendo in a Harlequin unit so he's a prime candidate for the Starmist Raiment, giving him a 3++ most turns, plus he has a 2+ Lookout Sir and a Shadowseer can give Stealth, Shrouded, Veil or Invisibility if needed.

Count Adhemar wrote:

I take your point about being squishy but Harlequins are squishy. They get blown over by a stiff breeze. I think if I start adding stuff that counteracts that then it moves them away from the design philosophy. Also, he will always have Rising Crescendo in a Harlequin unit so he's a prime candidate for the Starmist Raiment, giving him a 3++ most turns, plus he has a 2+ Lookout Sir and a Shadowseer can give Stealth, Shrouded, Veil or Invisibility if needed.

Death Jesters and Shadowseers with the proper formation, as well as Solitaires in general are not that squishy (when looking at harlequins, that is. I don't mean space marines). I was just thinking on distinguishing the HQ's survivability more from the others with something instead of being like a trouper with more wounds. Starmist raiment would actually put him pretty close to a solitaire in points, and what I suggested wasn't even necessarily as good as a 3++.

Note he unlocks the ally and CAD detachments which is awesome