Playing Navy Field 2

Blowing things up in me ship.

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of minis posts, but I've been playing a lot of Navy Field 2 lately.  It's a MOBA-like micro-intensive naval warfare game on the PC.  Check it out for yourself, but ignore the Steam reviews with low playstyle as they're often quite biased and trash.

As a dedicated DD player (Lv.88, IJN Shimakaze DD), I have some tips to offer newer and experienced players alike.

• For Officers, I'm currently going full Reload on Torps for Weapons, 3/2 Defense/Engine for Support, Full Sonar and Full Evasion.  My justification for the Defense/Engine is for the Shimakaze specifically, because it has Defense and Engine upgrades innately.  Otherwise, I would probably go full Engine.
• Use the map (M) when determining where an enemy is.  As a DD player, I don't know what "here" means when locating a sub without VOIP.  "D-3" means all the world to me and will get me excited to help you.
• It's important to familiarize yourself with different ship classes and what they mean to your role on the battlefield:
• Against enemy BBs - Look for torp run opportunities and torp wall assist your bigger ships in stand-off duels.  Launching torps in their direction will force them to turn or take damage since they're typically angled for broadside engagements.  If you can force them to turn to minimalize their damage, that means your BBs will be able to deliver greater damage through attrition.
• Against enemy CVs - You can typically hunt these after the bigger ships are destroyed because good CV players know how to utilize space.  By this, I mean they will be behind the rest of their fleet, typically as a support vessel that is still connected to the battlefield.  They will have eyes everywhere and to chase these guys first means losing out on more important engagements that will swing the battle more (killing enemy BBs for example).  Very easy target for DDs otherwise.
• Against enemy SSs - Spam the crap out of Sonar in areas where subs are sighted.  1-5 means you should set charges to either 1-5 depending on the status of the enemy sub.  For example, if the sub just went below and I can no longer see its silhouette, I will set the charge to 3 and see where that gets me.  If I don't hit, I'm going to go for 5 and go from there while hitting Sonar everytime the cooldown is up to reconfirm the depth.  If you can still see the silhouette, then guns and prox torps will get you pretty good results, and DCs at level 1 will be very deadly.  A good prox torp spread will drop most subs in one volley.
• Against enemy CAs - Apply the same philosophy of BBs but know that you are hitting a much smaller target that have better speed, turning, turret speed and reload.  This means that they're just as dangerous if not more dangerous than BBs because you will need to put damage on a more maneuverable ship.  This will make your torp runs more difficult.
• Against enemy CLs - You should play a pure support role in this case and let your BBs do the heavy lifting.  Most CLs bar the torpboats are almost a direct counter to DDs because of their speed and much more powerful guns.  They are able to put a lot of fire down range quickly and effectively, and have the speed and maneuverability to chase and apply damage while dodging torpedoes.  Approach with care.

• Torps can practically travel across the map if you set them to Slow instead of Fast.  The only time you want to use Proximity is if you're fighting against really fast and agile ships with low HP.  Otherwise, stick to Contact because you need the greater damage potential.
• DDs take a lot of micromanagement, way more than other ships from my experience playing so far.  I will stress 5 key points in this next section:
• Speed - You will need speed in order to reach targets of opportunity, to close gaps and to escape.  Save your engine burn for making a torpedo run or for making a dash to escape.  I tend to spam the burn key if I need to reach a target, but I save it if I know the firefight is going to get bloody and I'll need to make a quick exit.
• Maneuverability - In order for you to stay in the game, you need to be able to move.  You have virtually no HP and you have to be unpredictable with your movement and be in constant flux.  Simply waving back and forward will not do it.  Mix-up zig-zags, engine burn straights, tight turns, wide turns, and basically anything you can think of to shake of pursuit.  This includes sending proximity-armed torpedoes in the direction of enemy ships.
• Fast Turrets - I meant for this to be in a section of its own because it's a difficult subject for fast-moving DDs.  Most of the time, I'm either running for my life or going for a torpedo run.  During this time, I'm also finding targets to shoot at constantly so you're always clicking around and doing something.  When I say fast turrets, I mean that as the DD player, you should always be training your turrets in the direction that you're firing from, regardless of your ships orientation.  If my target is facing west, I'm going to click in that direction with BOTH guns and torpedoes as I move.  I'm constantly toggling guns and torpedoes, aiming them directly at the target every 2-3 seconds, or the exact space of my reload times.   This way, you're always on target, regardless of your ship's crazy orientation.  If you ever find yourself not having to adjust, you're probably moving in a straight line, in which case you're probably going to die in the next few seconds from a manual-aiming BB.
• Fast Reload - You should always be dealing damage in the game.  Your faster reload means you'll have the ability to consistently put out damage while being a difficult target to return fire at.  If someone is chasing you, you should be firing off anti-pursuit Torps while constantly shooting at the targets behind.  IJN Destroyers are typically geared for this purpose as they have 2 aft double-turrets.  This means they can put out greater damage if they're being chased from the rear.  Regardless, you should note your gun's orientations and make constant adjustments to target priority and range so you can constantly put out shells down range.  Often times, I see DD players going for several seconds without doing a single point of damage.  This is because of poor micromanagement and the inability to adjust speeds, dodge, while simultaneously train their guns AND torpedo launchers, while making quick and accurate shots.  Yes, that's a lot to do in a span of a few seconds, but you're playing DD and that's expected in high levels of gameplay.
• Torpedoes - And here we have it, the crux of playing a good destroyer.  You NEED to be able to utilize the true potential of your DD in order to take down major targets; otherwise you have no use in higher-tier games.  Sure, sub hunting is one thing, but being able frighten larger ships is arguably much more important than dropping a few Depth Charges.  If you have no weapons to be feared, you're pretty much dead weight in any given fleet.  Continue reading below.

From my experience, here's how I deliver Torpedoes:

• Slow when I need the Torps to travel and Fast when I need better time on target.
• Proximity when fighting fast, agile ships with low HP.  That means I will also use Prox to finish off severely damaged ships.  Otherwise, I use straight Contact for CA+ class ships because Proximity will just tickle them.
• Always Gradual, because you will need to read target orientation.  More on this below.
• Wide when I need a larger spread because it's the safer move.  By this, I mean that the target is lower in health and you just need a few torps to finish him off, or when you have the broadside of a BB and its hull will eat all of your torps anyway.  Thus, it will be safer to make the shot using Wide.  I will only use Narrow when I need precision in a shot to deliver maximum damage.  For example, a BB at full health moving abeam and not turning, or a stationary target.  Narrow is a ton of damage, but very risky because you can miss with all of them.

To sum up the Torp run vs. CA+ class ships:

• Make sure the target is distracted and that its turrets are trained at another target.  Their turret speed COMBINED with your speed is what's giving you this opportunity, nothing else.  All the good players driving these ships will be able to manual aim your ship into the ground if you mess up on the run.  It's literally do or die and you have no second chance unless your target is dead.
• Figure out the best way to approach the ship, and from which direction you're approaching from.  There are several different vectors, but the main ones I'm going to be describing will be when the target is..
• Abeam - When moving in opposite directions, side by side.
• Abreast - when moving in the same direction, side by side.
• Closing - When the enemy ship is coming directly at you.
• Away - When the enemy ship is moving directly away from you.

The best scenario for the Torp run will be either from Abeam and Abreast.  Abeam is ideal because you're going to be closing and when combined with his speed and your overdrive, you will give the enemy ship the shortest time to react.  Against an enemy BB, depending on the size of the enemy hull, you will want as many Torpedoes as possible to Contact his hull.  Often times, a Wide/Fast/Contact will be enough to fully cover a high-tier BB, but Narrow can be used if you're confident in the shot.

Abreast can be trickier because the target ship will turn either into you or away.  This will force them into approaching Closing and Away vectors which will generally decrease their footprint and thus make your shots more difficult.  If they turn away, Narrow will miss if you lead them too far, and if they turn into you, Narrow will miss if you lead them short.  This shot requires you to be more precise with the torpedoes timed on target directly in the middle of the enemy ship, so you will need to account for your lead and the speed of the enemy ship's turn before your release.  If they turn into you and you're too close, they can also get within "arming range" of your torps and they will fail to fire.  This is even worse than not doing enough damage because now, you just did zero damage for a long cooldown.

Closing/Away are most difficult of shots because the footprint is extremely small and damage is minimalized to the greatest when using Wide, and can miss completely when using Narrow.  You are literally threading the needle here, so the best course of action will be to generally use Wide and deliver Torpedoes in Gradual bursts so you can determine how the target turns.  Once the turn is determined, you can follow up with more precise shots.  This in turn will also mean that you will spend more time than you want when making a torp run, and exposing yourself to greater harm.  The hardest types of shots are when you're crossing their T and they're Closing or Away.  You typically just want to find another attack vector, but there will be situations where you're forced into this.  Luckily for you, the DD can move really quick to adjust and you should move either abeam or abreast on the opposite side of the direction he fired in last.

Remember, regardless of target orientation, the one thing you really want to keep in the back of your mind when making a torp run is this:  How to inflict as much damage as possible and get out alive.  If any of the scenarios does not justify the cost of your ship, then simply do not make a torp run.  A simple flowchart will do in most cases:

Is the enemy ship distracted with another ship?
Yes: This might be your chance.  See next.
No: You're probably dead.

What direction are his turrets?
Away from you: This is your chance.
Towards you: Risky, but do-able.

Should you fail in the Torp run, you're probably going to die vs. higher-level players.  The best chance you have here is to cross to the opposite side of his ship to the other side of his turrets and get outta there ASAP.  Your guns are ineffective and you just blew your cooldown so you're doing do damage.  Bob and weave and use short/long turns while running your engine to max burn to hopefully live and fight another day.  Remember to leave behind torp walls if you're being chased by faster ships.

That's all I got for now, and thanks for reading.

DE: Army lists and playstyles

I'd shit myself too if I was that Guardsman on the left.

The Dark Eldar book has been out for a good long time now and I think we can examine what kind playstyles DE players have been adhering to.  While there's going go be a certain degree of overlap and a lot of unit mixing, for the most part we're looking at 3 distinct modes of play.

What are those modes?

Overwhelming Force

Most commonly found in the Realspace Raiders detachment (RSR) with tons of little units running around.  Unmanned Raiders/Venoms, 3x Heatlance Reavers with Caltrops, scattered elements of Warriors in Venoms/Raiders for core choices, and either Ravagers or Scourges for anti-tank support.  This type of play is hyper-aggressive since you'll see tons of jetbikes on the table, and with Skilled Rider, Jinks and assaults, the S6 Rending HoW hits can cause serious issues for enemy armor on the other side of the table.  With so many units to shoot at, which ones do you prioritize?  Surely the fast moving assault units right?  But what about the other units sporting lances and poison that are blasting away at my army?  The real strength of these type of lists come from overwhelming the opponent in every way, shape and form.  You overwhelm them with target priority, perceived threat, and the fact that each unit killed is not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things.

The downside to this kind of play is that you have limited durability and no centralized firepower.  You need every bit that you can squeeze out of your list to maximize its damage potential and if you lose too many pieces (because your stuff is fragile) too quickly, then things start to come apart quickly.  It can quickly snowball out of control.  One of the main limitations are also in the form of Reaver Jetbikes.  S6 Rending HoW is great, a Heat Lance can be great, but what if you're fighting large objects with good armor saves and simply don't care because they have the wounds to shrug it off?  What about FMCs that have been plaguing the meta and other units of extreme durability?  This forces the whole unstoppable force vs. immovable object scenario but in this particular case, the unstoppable force is also quite fragile.

Extreme Durability

The Haemonculus boys know what I'm talking about here.  You will see a lot of meat on the table with high toughness, multiple wounds, FNP and other ridiculous shenanigans that screams: Are you really playing Dark Eldar?  I've always viewed the Haemonculi style of play to be completely opposite to what Dark Eldar is typically aiming to achieve and that's exactly what happens here.  You run the Coven formations here with Grostesqurie, Dark Artisan and other Grot-based deathstars and you play mainly for mission objectives.  While most Dark Eldar armies lose effectiveness over time, meat mountains excel at attrition and playing mission objectives because most armies these days are not prepared for it.  You will not break, you are not easily assaulted, and it's extremely difficult to remove you from a point you're determined to stay on.  When you factor in the fact that you still have powerful shooting solutions in the form of lances and poison, you have a very solid army that can dish out damage and hold objectives at the same time.  This is a rarity in the Dark Eldar army.

So what is the downside really?  It really does seem like the best of both worlds right?  The problem with really meaty units that run Grots/Talos/Chronos is that they're slow.  They can take a lot of damage before they go down, but they take forever to transverse the battlefield and most of the time, cannot bring their full damage potential to bear.  You need maneuverability in order to deliver side shots or take advantage of opportune targets, and most of the Coven's expensive units simply don't have that.  They have to rely on other DE components to fill that void and once those options are expended, they have to play the objective game close to home or they lose.  They do not have the options to get across the battlefield and secure multiple points in the later parts of the game.

Supreme Firepower

Most of the lists that I build fit in this category.  The goal of this style of army is to just put an enormous amount of firepower down range in the form of poison and lances.  When your enemies close in, that's when your firepower increases dramatically because you're able to fully utilize your gunboats, blasters and splinter racks to skyrocket your damage output.  The design of the list is really quite simple:  Take a lot of poison and lance shooting and put everyone in vehicles to keep everything mechanized.  This allows you to move around the battlefield and pour out damage from all directions.  One of the greatest boons of this army is that everything is open-top.  This means that all your shooting platforms can Jink while the units inside can fire to full effect.  You will also be able to greatly conserve the amount of firepower you put out since the damage will be done in surgical doses.  An example of this would be popping a transport with a Raider while the warriors inside unload on the passengers.  Likewise, a blaster from a leftover warrior squad will still be able to pop a Land Raider so you can dedicate your Ravagers elsewhere.  Since the damage throughout the army is distributed quite evenly, the cheapest unit you field still has the potential to destroy the mightiest vehicle.  That's what makes this army truly terrifying:  It's fully mechanized, moves around the battlefield with ease, and puts out a ridiculous amount of firepower at all range bands.

Despite the huge amount of firepower this army puts out, it's still susceptible to a number of weaknesses.  There are absolutely no melee components in this army so its very vulnerable to being assaulted from sources that can't be easily killed via shooting.  If someone gets close to the boats, it's almost a sure thing it's going to get punched out of the air.  Outside of the transports that keep the warriors afloat, the entire army is wearing T3 5+ and highly vulnerable to vehicles exploding.  There is absolutely no durability to this army outside the transports.  For this reason, this list design epitomizes the meaning of glass cannon because while it hits really hard, it has no staying power.  It either wins really big, or slowly gets destroyed.  If you can't kill something by shooting it, you most likely won't have any other answers.

DE: Maximizing that firepower

When life throws you lemons.. wait for it..

As most of you know, I run a very shooty version of Kabal-only Dark Eldar and have been playing roughly the same for years.  Just recently, I made some revisions to my pure Dark Eldar army and I'm pretty satisfied with the results.  I cut down the total number of Venoms to 2 since I only really need them to drop an Quad-gun in one round of shooting, or to put pressure on minor units hanging out in cover.  I never really liked taking too many Venoms because I'm a lance-heavy player at heart.  They're just such a better weapon in most cases despite what other people think of them.

The key changes to the list comes mainly in the form of re-distributing points.  I dropped my WWP Archon for more firepower on the table and greater perceived threat overall.  This allowed me to fit in another Trueborn unit with some minor points adjustments while greatly increasing my overall number of Dark Lances.  The extra unit also gives me two pseudo Ravagers and often times people get confused which one to concentrate on.  Hint: You're probably closer to the Trueborn Raiders and they don't care if I Jink.

So what do we have now?  We have this masterpiece of deathly delight:

1850
DE CAD*

HQ:
Llama = 10

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance = 115
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170
10x Warriors, Blaster, Raider Lance/SR = 170

ELITE:
5x Trueborn, 3x Blaster, Venom SC = 165
5x Trueborn, 3x Blaster, Venom SC = 165

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances = 140
Razorwing, Lances = 140

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125

Firepower Analysis:

• Opening salvo sees 24 Poison shots and 15 Dark Lances from 36-48".
• Secondary salvo within 18" Blaster range brings my total number of lances to a ridiculous 31 if both Razorwings decide to come on.  The Razorwings also gives me 8 S6 AP5 large blasts to take care of enemy infantry, or some airborne lances to force some FMC jinks/grounding tests.  At this range, the Warriors inside the vehicles can also add their firepower, for 27 twin-linked Poison shots with the help of Splinter Racks.  Otherwise, we add a few more Poison shots from the Trueborn and smaller unit of Warriors.
• Tertiary salvo within Rapid Fire gets pretty ridiculous because 3 full gunboats with Splinter Racks puts out 54 twin-linked shots by themselves.  By this point in the game, if 31 lances and all that Poison can't kill the opposing army, then we have bigger problems to worry about.

The fact that this list can bring 31 lances makes my Archon heart smile like you wouldn't believe.  Another option was to drop one of the Trueborn units for another Razorwing, but I don't like the idea of keeping too much firepower off the table and relying on lucky rolls to bring them in.  This is why almost all my lists tend to look really similar.

..shoot more Dark Lances!

40K: Designing a rules package

Let's do this thing.

Updated: 3/12/15
Now looking for ways to break Imperial Guard! (or AM)

Can everyone access this?
https://drive.google.com/drive/#folders/0B7_TofINQVJafmRjQTI2SkFTaTRZREo2eHVHRjFBUXUwMFV1R3VYWkVoeUh2TUhiQzNfbkE

Hey guys,

I want to reach out to you on a community project.  Are you familiar with how ETC is done for Warhammer Fantasy? It's a very intuitive rules packet that aims to promote game balance while still allowing players to take powerful options in their book.

I've been developing something similar for 40K (geared for 1v1, championship format), in the attempt to get better quality games in instead of playing the rock-paper-scissors style of play in tournaments. I am already in touch with several community leaders with large connections to the competitive blogosphere and I would like to turn this rules package into something that's designed for the competitive gamer. I have already reached out to Reece from Frontline Gaming, Kirby from 3++, Larry on BoLS, and several contacts managing Adepticon and east coast majors that I have been involved in in the past.

You might not know my gaming history, but I've been playing GW games for 14 years. I have a ton of competitive tourney experience, including competing in majors on the east coast, and now work in the computer game industry. I'm a competitive RTS player, ex-pro CS player, former balance designer (for said RTS games), and enjoy doing multiplayer balance-related projects on the side.

Just some food for thought before you begin on this journey with me. The design goals for this document is as follows:

• You can still take the good stuff, but in moderation.
• We're out to limit powerful armies and combos, but not outright ban them.
• The idea here is to promote equality among all armies in the game.

You might think this is impossible to do because 40K has a billion supplements, data sheets, formations and whatnot, but this is a fallacy.  Warhammer 40K might be more expansive than WHFB, but it is not more complex.  Its rules are much simpler, the units are more streamlined, the combos are more defined, and most importantly, is less random.  I think we should give it a shot, I know I need all the help I can get because there's just so much out there!

Anyways, this project is supposed to be something fun, as well as challenging and I would like to get your input. Let me know what you think, and please, break it as much as you can. This is just a preliminary draft to showcase what the rules package is designed to do.  Maybe at the end of this all, this won't be a competitive rules package and will be instead, a fairplay one.

DE: Trying out the Solatire

I'm just too cool for school.

Even though the Solitare is not the most cost-effective unit in the codex, he's by far the coolest.  Let's take a look at his stats really quick and see what he has to offer to the battle.

First thing's first, the guy is 145 points so he's not really cheap nor expendable.  For the same amount of points, you can buy yourself 2x Starweavers which is 4 HP worth of AV10 that comes with 12 S6 Shuriken Cannon shots.  That's probably the best direct comparison because you'll see in the list below, that's exactly where I'm cutting points from.

The second thing to note is his beastly ass combat stats, minus the fact he's still a T3 3W model with only a 3++ save.  He's WS9 S3/4 on the charge due to Furious Charge, I10 and 6 attacks base.  Since he's packing both Caress and Kiss, he technically has 8 attacks on the charge.  Once a game, he can Blitz for 12 attacks on the charge and move D6xTurn Number worth of movement.  This might not seem like much, but he can potentially move up to 24" on Turn 4 to punch someone off an objective, or he can move 4" because you rolled like ass.  Personally, I'm not banking on the movement too much since his 12" natural move is enough to get the job done in most cases.  Most of the time, you really want to Blitz for the extra attacks since Harlequin's Caress can do some serious work if you roll enough 6s.

For those folks that don't know what caress and kiss does, it's really quite simple.  Caress is basically old school Rending where if you roll a 6 to Hit, you automatically wound at AP2 and against vehicles, causes a Glancing Hit.  Kiss is a separate attack made by the Harlequin in which it's automatically resolved at S6 AP2 with a chance for Instant Death on a 6 to Wound, but first you gotta hit.  Overall not all that bad, but the crux of the problem here is that he's going to be very dice dependent if he really wants to take down 2+ armor save targets.  That's why you probably shouldn't throw him into anything too tough, especially since if the opponent rolls hot and forces enough wounds onto you, you're going to die.  I would stick to killing Lictors or making Devastator teams cry.

As for upgrades, I would keep this dude dirt cheap, either stock or running with a solo Haywire Grenade.  Ideally, he never wants to engage vehicles and would rather hunt smaller prey, but occasionally you might need to force that extra hull point damage through and the Solitare can do that if he has Haywires.  This brings him to an even 150, still a little expensive for what he can do on the table but I'll take it anyway.

So how do you run him exactly?  I would definitely consider the standard Masque detachment or The Heroes' Path formation.  Masque's Rising Crescendo makes it so you can Run and Charge in the same turn, which increases the overall threat range of your assault by a significant margin (especially when you have Fleet re-rolls).  The Heroes' Path formation gives your Solitare Infiltrate (important), Stealth and Shrouded, but the downside is that you have to take the Shadowseer and Deathjester as well, essentially paying 120 tax if you only want the Solitare.  You can view this as either an offensive buff for your solo assassin, or a defensive buff for more survivability.  Either way, if he gets caught in the open, he's going to die to any decent shooting so it doesn't really matter.

I would play him very, very carefully and use him primarily as a defensive striker.  Use every single line of sight blocker as you can and keep him out of sight until he's ready to strike.  Since he can ignore all forms of terrain, you really have to use that to your advantage since he's a man-sized model and incredibly easy to hide.  He also has Deep Strike so it might be worth keeping him in reserve and running out of line of sight the turn he comes down, but that's also really risky.  Play with his 22.5" threat range under Rising Crescendo and punish anything that gets too close as a melee threat.  Hopefully whatever you assault will be WS4 or under, thus needing 5s to hit your dude and drastically reduce the amount of wounds he'll be taking in return.  The less saves he has to roll the better the chances he's going to live and fight another day.

They see my rollin', they hatin'..

Alright, now here's the list I plan on messing around with:

1850
Darkquin Duck

DE CAD*
HQ:
Llama = 10

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider, Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider, Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider, Lance = 115
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider, Lance = 115

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances = 140
Razorwing, Lances = 140

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125

Masque Detachment*
TROOP:
5x Troupe, Starweaver = 165
5x Troupe = 95
5x Troupe = 95

FAST:
Starweaver = 70
Starweaver = 70

ELITE:
Solitare, Haywire = 150

HEAVY:
Voidreaver, Prismatic = 80

I start off the game by throwing lances, but now I understand that my overall firepower is less because I have the Solitare in the army.  No worries, I still win based on style points and I have great confidence that I'm going to caress and kiss my opponent's army to death.

DE: Solving the Harlequin problem

I bet that stings a little.

For the last couple of days, I've been thinking pretty hard on how to best capitalize the Harlequin book.  If you guys read my last review, you'll know that I don't think the Harlequin book is good enough to be super competitive.  Don't get me wrong when I say super competitive, I just don't think it can hang out on top with the rest of the crap we're seeing in the tournament scene right now.  What lists are those specifically?  Let's take a quick gander..

• Adamantium Lance - Trio Imperial Knights
• Tyranid FMC - 5x Dakka Flyrants
• Chaos Flying Circus - Flying Demon Princes with Biomancy
• Mechdar - Wave Serpent spam with or without Wraithknights
• IG Leafblowers - Standard IG carpark with or without allies
• Tau Leafblowers - Riptides, Broadsides behind ADL
• Deathstars - Draigo with Centurians, WWP Fortune Wraithguard
• Tyranid Assassins - Built to overwhelm Serpent spam
• Eldar Lynx - Designed to destroy Invisibility Deathstars with Pulsars (ITC ruling)
• Necron Decurion - They don't die, you die instead

That pretty much sums up the super competitive meta right now, and let's just say that poor Dark Eldar and Harlequins will not be joining those ranks any time soon.  Harlies might be able to add a few things to the Eldar Deathstar with their Shadowseer, but I don't think they have anything to make a big impact meta-wise in terms of raw combat effectiveness.  The big daddy of the codex is definitely the Solatire, and he's just a T3 3W model that's completely dependent on CC to make his points back.  While the Starweaver is a pretty solid buy at 70 points, the 24" Shuriken Cannon is just not reliable enough to keep a AV10 open-top vehicle safe throughout the course of a competitive game.  I mean, if the Venom can't survive on the table for more than a couple of turns dodging through buildings and shooting from cover thanks to its 36" cannons, what makes you think a shorter-range clown mobile is going to fare better?

The only thing we can do right now is maximize on what the Harlequin codex does well, and that's spamming a ton of S6 shooting.  When we look at the Starweaver, it's only 5 points more than the Venom but adds a ton more battlefield application despite its rather subpar range.  Keep in mind what I said before about the competitiveness that is Dark Eldar and Harlequins in general.  At best, I see these armies fighting in the competitive mid-tier because the army itself does not have the sustain needed to carry through a longer game.  So what does that mean exactly?  It means that if you're playing an optimized DE list and you're a seasoned general yourself, you will do well as long as you're not being matched up with top-tier tourney lists.  Everything else should be fair game as long as you're facing powerful elements, but in moderation.

Looking at the Dark Eldar/Harlequin mix, you can clearly see one major flaw here:  You're complementing your glass hammer tactics with even more glass hammer.  So I guess in that sense, you've upgraded yourself from wine glasses to stained glass.  The major shift in playstyle for the experienced Dark Eldar player will be this:  S6 over Poison, 24" and not 36".  You trade a much more powerful shooting solution for less range, which directly means that you're going to be more exposed when you shoot.  This also means that battlefield terrain needs to be favorable, or else its going to be a bigger turkey shoot than what you're normally used to.

So what does an optimized list look like?  Well, I'm hoping it looks something like this:

1850
Dark Harlequins

DE CAD*

HQ:
Llama = 10

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS, Lance = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS, Lance = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster, Raider/AS, Lance = 120
5x Warriors, Blaster (in Starweaver) = 55
5x Warriors, Blaster (in Starweaver) = 55

FAST:
Razorwing, Lances = 140
Razorwing, Lances = 140

HEAVY:
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125
Ravager, Lances = 125

Masque Detachment*

TROOP:
5x Troupe, Starweaver = 165
5x Troupe, Starweaver = 165
5x Troupe, Starweaver = 165

FAST:
Starweaver = 70
Starweaver = 70

HEAVY:
Voidreaver, Prismatic = 80

The idea behind this list is to shoot a lot of S6 while keeping as many lances in the army as possible.  Just like the rest of my DE lists, I focus on shooting and rely heavily on range band and firepower analysis.  Study the range of your weapons, look at the power that each of those weapons put out, and they lay it all on paper so you can see just how much firepower you truly have.

A typical analysis looks like this:
At full strength, the opening volley looks like 12 Dark Lances from 36" and 33 S6 Shuriken Cannon shots from 24".  If you extend (move forward), the maximum threat range is 48" and 36" respectfully. Should the enemy not close, and you don't want to expose your Starweavers, you're basically playing with 12 lances.  If you close with the enemy, you will add +5 Blasters at 18" from the Starweavers and Raiders, and if both of your Razorwings fly in, you will potentially have +4 more lances.  Throughout all of this, the Voidreaver will be putting out 3 S6 shots and more likely a S7 AP2 lance as well, but once again, the range will be limited to 24".  As your units die, so does the maximum firepower that your army can produce, so you'll see your max lance count drop from 21 to god knows how many depending on what is killed.  It's important you make a mental note of exactly how many lances you lose and from what range so you can better prepare battlefield tactics and make changes on the fly.  Each Starweaver killed for example, will cost you 6 S6 shots, so this is super important you know what kind of condition your army will be in as you move past the turns.

When you compare this to a similar DE list running Venoms, the biggest difference is obviously the the range and the Poison.  Vs. T4 and greater, you're going to be forcing a consistent ~4 wounds from much greater range.  This is one of the strongest attributes that Venoms have, especially when you consider the fact that they're dirt cheap, even with 5 guys inside totting a Blaster.  Unfortunately, the Venom is also a very polarizing unit:  It does absolutely nothing vs. vehicles so they're completely dead points if things are armored.  This is where the Starweaver comes in, especially against the AV11 range.  AV12 is still very much a stretch and AV13 is out of the question of course.  When you look at the matchups from the top-tier competitive lists, you'll see that Starweavers over Venoms will do better vs. all mech-related matchups minus 3x Imperial Knights, but will be slightly weaker vs. FMC spam.  The math here points in favor of the Venom for the raw amount of wounds it can inflict, but lucky 6s for AP2 can seriously hamper a Flyrant's plans in a hurry.  After you study the matchups a little more closely, you'll see that you'll do better vs. some armies, but a lot worse vs. others (such as range problems vs. Tau, and T8 Wraithknights).

While I don't think the power will change too drastically for DE/Harlies, I know that it will change the playstyle and dynamic of the army.  You will suddenly be able to threaten vehicles you normally wouldn't be able to hurt, and inflict AP2 wounds out of the blue, the latter being rare and thus, unpredictable.  At least you can sleep at night knowing that the Solatire finally has a use, and that's to punch Deathleaper and his Lictors in the face.

Codex Review: Harlequins

Beauty and death.

Alright guys, it's finally here.  Sorry it took so long for me to get my hands on the codex and by now, most of you have read your reviews from somewhere else.  No worries, hopefully this post will give you guys another perspective from a more competitive point of view.

Before I start, I just wanted to say that this is my favorite codex to date in terms of art.  It's absolutely beautiful, and most of the art in here I have never seen before.  If you're a fan of Eldar or Harlequins or maybe even art in general, I would pick this up just to keep it on the shelf.  While the fluff is pretty cool as well, there's nothing to date that matches the level of art presented in this book.  It's really just that cool.

OK, now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the book and what it offers.  First and foremost, I will say immediately that the book is not really competitive.  It has some strong, competitive options, but the formations and detachments presented limits the book's capability by a lot.  Let's explore this further.

Units

Troupe - These guys are expensive no matter how you slice it.  They're close combat experts and sport a healthy number of attacks on the charge with Furious Charge, but they're still T3 5++.  By now, we've accepted the fact that stats like those get you nowhere in a competitive environment.  This is further compounded by the fact that if you want to take some of the fancier toys like Neuro Disruptors or Fusion Pistols, you're going to adding a ton of points to an already expensive unit.  Math puts these guys at roughly 19ppm for the 4 players and the Troupe Master, while every additional CC option makes them even more expensive.  Unfortunately, this is the crux of the problem with the codex; you're spending 95 points for a min squad of these guys and they're pretty much mandatory all around.  When you consider that they're 95 points for 6 wounds, it almost makes me want to take a full unit of Wyches.  At least then I'll know that not all of them will die to a blown-up transport.  The only plus side is that they can take Starweavers are dedicated transports, but more on that later.

Death Jester - For 60 points, you get an IC that acts as another Shuriken Cannon at BS5.  On top of that, they have Precision Shots and a special rule that allows them to kill a model, force a Morale check at -2, and have the poor guys run towards anywhere you like.  While this is really cool, you're still banking on a leadership test for the cool results.  The main reason I would take this guy is for the BS5 Shuriken Cannon, that is really important because you can buy multiples of these guys, attach them to the 5-man units of Troupes, and have them ride in a Starweaver because their capacity is 6.  This makes the unit really shooty, but also really expensive.  Just know that this guy dies to a swift breeze and even in cover, he's still going to die to Ignore Cover.  For perspective sakes, the Starweaver is an AV10 vehicle that shoots double the amount of S6 and costs 10 points more.

Shadowseer - Next on the list is the Shadowseer.  You're pretty much only taking these guys for two reasons:  If you're comfortable being out of a transport (WWP Wraithguard deathstar anyone?) to cast most of his spells, or if you're looking to do some leadership shenanigans with Dark Eldar/Eldar.  I won't get into it too much here, but by now you guys have probably seen all kinds of posts on the interwebs about their perceived power.  Let me tell you one thing:  This is a trap.  You first need the Shadowseer, and then buy an extra level to bring him up to Mastery Level 2, and then need to roll the right powers, and then bring him close enough to the enemy, and then pass the psychic test..etc, you get the point.   This is what I like to call the "stars align"  scenario and that's just way too many variables to plan a strategy around.  There is a lot of points being invested here and I think that's a huge trap for a lot of players.  If you want to maximize on the codex, you will do better ignoring these guys entirely and just go for more shooting.  After all, Eldar should be shooting from their vehicles because that's what they're good at.

Solitare - The big daddy of the codex and you can only take one in the army because he's unique.  What you truly need to understand here is that he's 145 points for a T3 model with 3 wounds.  Sure, he has Eternal Warrior and a 3++ save, but I really want the 145 points, T3, 3 wounds thing to sink in real deep.  He has some pretty cool rules such as his 12" move without giving a shit, 8 attacks on the charge and Blitz, but he's really just a dedicated CC unit that cannot join units and can be lit up by shooting.  This is a really shooty-heavy edition and everything on the battlefield poses a threat for a Solitare.  My best advice to you is that if you want a cool unit to play with, take this guy and use every line of sight blocker you can to navigate the battlefield until you have a good target to charge.  While the caress and kiss might sound cool, just know that you're still looking for hot dice to get any real damage out of him because he's still S3 base/4 on the charge.  That's just not impressive at all.

Skyweaver - At 50ppm and comes standard in a unit of 2, these guys are not bad.  They still have Eldar Jetbike movement and have a natural armor of 4+ and 2W a piece, but the fact that they come with Shuriken Cannons is what you take them for.  You threaten 36" a turn and a unit of 3 (which is the number I recommend) puts out 9 S6 shots a turn with a possibility of AP2.  Ideally, you can pop out of cover, deliver a hail of fire and then get back into cover.  Hopefully with Mirage Launchers, you can keep some of these guys alive long enough to do some damage on the battlefield.  With regular Harlequin stats, you can also give them Zephyrglaives for close combat, but I would keep them with Star Bolas because 12" S6 AP2 Blast is a very scary tool against some armies.  Sure, you can only use them once, but you'll see a lot of dead MEQ if you use these properly.

Starweaver - My favorite thing in the entire book.  They're basically the same thing as a Venom except they come with 2 Shuriken Cannons and Mirage Launchers.  The Open-topped and 6-model capacity is huge because this allows Death Jesters to join them for another BS5 Shuriken Cannon, potentially putting out 9 S6 shots a turn from a single firing platform.  Keep in mind that you can take these guys by themselves, and for 70 points, they're simply great to have in your list because multiple S6 shots gives you a lot of battlefield application.  Best of all, both of its guns are forward-facing.

Voidweaver - Not my cup of tea mainly because it looks utterly stupid.  I would immediately drop the Haywire and look at the Prismatic Cannon because I think it has greater battlefield application.  S7 AP2 Lance is not all that bad, but the S5 AP3 Blast a very attractive option at punishing clumped MEQ.  Even the S3 AP4 Large Blast can be pretty good too against GEQ mainly because of the AP4, and at 80 points with the suggested loadout, I can't say it's a bad unit.  The aft Shuriken Cannon can shoot at another target, but I really feel like it's wasted because of the positioning.  To make matters even more complex, you can take these guys in squadrons of 3, but I wouldn't buy more than 1 because of the negatives I pointed out above.  It has no transport capacity either.

Alright, so I said the units overall weren't so bad, so what am I complaining about exactly?  Well, for one, I see the mandatory Troupes as a tax for the rest of the good stuff.  At 95 per unit, they're not exactly cheap, especially when you consider Dire Avengers are only 65.  Skyweavers jetbikes are Fast Attack and so are the Starweavers which poses a big problem for me because I needed them to be troops.  The typical detachment wants 3 Troops, 2 Fast and 1 Heavy which means you have to spend at least 285 points on Troupes which I would rather not.  However, you can buy Starweavers as dedicated transports for the chaff Troupes so you have 165 points for 5 T3 5++ dudes inside a S6 shooting solution with 2 HP.  For perspective sakes, a unit of 5 Warriors with a Blaster inside a dual Splinter Cannon Venom is 120 points.  Different strokes for different folks, but I want you guys to realize what you're paying for here.

In terms of raw competitiveness, I see the Starweaver, Skyweaver and Deathjester as the winners of this book.  Everything else falls behind sadly with the Shadowseer and Troupe tax in dead last.

Style and grace.

Formations

The biggest limitation in this book is its creative freedom when it comes to list building.  Since you're forced to either take the fixed Masque detachment or some of the multiple formations in this book, you're basically shit out of luck when it comes to building a competitive list.  While you can do something like Unbound, I think most competitive lists want the flexibility of having Objsec for more tactical use.  The lack of an HQ also means that you cannot take these guys as allies since they don't follow the regular allies chart, and you're looking at a hefty points investment if you follow even the most simplistic of formations.  In fact, I wouldn't even look at bulking up the detachment and immediately focus on the formations because they provide some decent options out there.

Out of all the formations here, a few of them caught my eye.  The default Masque detachment is not bad, but the mandatory troop choices are what really kills it for me.  Ideally, I would want 3x Troupes inside Starweavers, 2 additional Starweavers, and a mandatory stupid Voidweaver.  That brings me up to 715 points for the lot, and I have 7 additional Elite slots to buy Deathjesters for all of them if I want.  Let's pretend I'm insane and buy Deathjesters for every Starweaver, and all of a sudden I have 1015 points of Harlequins on the field.  What does this do?  Well, it puts out 48 S6 shots a turn, 15 of which are BS5 and can shoot at separate targets that can potentially force an exposed army to run out of cover and into the Voidweaver's S5 AP3 blast.  Pretty exciting right?  Yes and no.  Yes in the fact that the firepower is respectable, but for the same amount of points spent at 715, you can take the same amount of points in Wave Serpents with an Autarch.  Are the two really comparable? Absolutely, because this is a game about points and that's the one variable you can truly control (list design).

The next ones that stick out to me is The Serpent's Brood and The Heroes' Path.  When I look at Serpent's Brood, I see everything that I think is competitive lumped up onto one formation.  You have the mandatory Troupe tax, but you have 3 Starweavers, a Voidweaver and 2 units of Skyweavers.  If you take 3x Jetbikes, you're looking at 875 with the suggested config and a Prismatic Cannon.  Not the cheapest of the lot, but you get the Skyweavers for additional shots and Eldar Jetbike movement.  Frankly, I would still go with the Starweaver spam in the Masque detachment as long as you keep things cheap.

Lastly, we have the Heroes' Path.  So you have the Death Jester, Shadowseer and Solitaire, but they can't join units, cannot join other characters, but gain Infiltrate, Shrouded and Stealth.  This is what you take on top of the Masque detachment, giving you a Solitare with Infiltrate, Shrouded and Stealth to increase his survivability while he makes his way to exposed enemy units.  The Deathjester needs to go into one of the empty Starweavers before he dies from Ignore Cover, and the poor Shadowseer needs to be kept back, kept cheap, and hopefully you can roll something good on Telepathy.  Why Telepathy?  You will at least be able to Witchfire from a Starweaver instead of having a useless Primaris because he can't join units.  Plus, Telepathy just has better support spells since the ones you really want (Shrouding, Invis) are both Blessings.  Remember, stay away from the leadership bombing bullshit.  It's a points trap, especially when you consider that the formation itself is already 265 points at its base.

Just for perspective, you know what I think 265 points for 3 guys can buy you instead?  Maybe +4 Venoms/Raiders in a RSR detachment, 2 Ravagers, 2 Razorwings, another full stock gunboat + more with blasters, 2 half-stock gunboats with blasters, a gunboat plus a WWP Archon, a Wraithknight, a unit of Fire Dragons in a WS, an almost full squad of Dire Avengers in WS, the list goes on and on.  While some of you might be getting irritated by my constant comparisons, I think it's much needed when it comes to competitive choices.

Poise and precision.

Conclusion

When it comes to synergy, you have to consider the points investment that you're going to commit to the army.  If you take the suggested Masque detachment, you're paying 715 points (3 Troupes in Starweavers, 2 empty Starweavers, 1 Voidweaver) for 33 S6 Shrukien Cannon shots from 6 AV10 Open-top vehicles with 2 HP a piece.  The Harlequins themselves are not really going to do anything except for hiding in cover, out of line of sight and play the scoring game.  Not being a normal force org means you can't load up on Starweavers and you're limited with how many you can take for Troop and Fast choices.

Like I said previously, the lack of list flexiblity is what's limiting this codex, not the actual units themselves.  Well, the Troupe tax is frustrating, but 165 points for 6 S6 shots is not bad.  It's just not as good as a unit of Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with Scatter Laser for 185.  If both units inside are considered tax, you're still spending money on a more accurate shooting platform, with greater damage, much more durability, and tactical flexibility due to Ignore Cover.  Before you commit to this codex, and especially if you're looking to pair either Harlequins or Eldar to your Dark Eldar, I think the choice for better allies is painfully obvious.

So that's what I mean when I say the book is not really competitive.  There are just better options out there with all things considered, especially if you're looking to ally Harlequins with Eldar or Dark Eldar.  Dark Eldar would rather have Eldar allies because of reliable psychic and shooting, and Eldar would rather have more of its own units because it has the capacity to do so.  That makes the Harlequin codex the red-headed stepchild of the 3 Eldar choices sadly.

Play for the fluff, stay for the art, but keep these guys away from the tournament scene because there's better options out there.