Warhammer 40K: Harlequin Serpent’s Brood Detachment – Bring on the Dancers!
The Aeldari get a brand new detachment this Grotmas for the Harlequins called the Serpent’s Brood. Let’s hit the dance floor and take a closer look!
The Aeldari get a brand new detachment this Grotmas for the Harlequins called the Serpent’s Brood. This is an option to really help those Aeldari players that wanted to get something different for the Harlies. It tries to push them a lot by giving them some powerful rules to allow them to do more damage to whoever they are targeting with their taunts, dance moves, and attitude.
Detachment Basics – Serpent’s Brood
The detachment has two stacked rules for those with the Harlequin keyword. The first one is giving all mounted Harlequin models the Sustained Hits 1 for their weapons. The next part of that sustained hit rules goes to any unit that disembarks from a transport gets Sustained Hits 1 until the end of the turn. This lets your Harlies either fly around on their bikes or jump out of their Transports to cause a pile of damage into the enemy. The next rule they get is that Troupe units gain the Battleline keyword and the following 3 characters can be taken in groups of 3 – Death Jester, Shadowseer, and Troupe Master. Overall this is a pretty simple set of rules that lets you take a lot of Harlequins and lament having to paint a ton of checkered nonsense on your models.
Enhancements & Strats – Serpent’s Brood
The enhancements are obviously all for Harlequin character models and represent how this army is set up to work. The first one gives the bearer and their unit attached a 6″ scout move. There is a weapon for a Troupe Master that gives them an extra 3 Strength and 1 Attack. The Death Jester option lets him pick two abilities from his weapon instead of one. The last gives the Shadowseer the ability to redeploy three Harlequin units in their army. All of the seem good with the Scout move and Death Jester option probably the best. The redeploy can be ok but with most events locking in terrain you are setting up your army pretty much same most of the time.
The stratagems are where this army is going to cook. We have a 1CP give your Troupe unit all three Dance of Death Abilities – aka reroll hit rolls of 1, add 1 to the wound roll, and have -1 to hit for the strikes back. That is a lot of damage coming at the enemy. You have a 6″ move for vehicles if they are not within engagement range after shooting. You have the great advance/charge stratagem. You got a mounted auto fallback or auto full move at the end of the fight phase. You have a 6″ reactive move if an enemy ends up within 9″ of your unit during your opponents movement phase. Finally you get a chance to go back into Reserves if there are no enemy units within engagement at the end of your opponents fight phase. All of these let your army move fast and hit hard as needed.
The Verdict
This Serpent’s Brood detachment feels like it is designed for those Harlequin players that miss being able to move all over the table and respond quickly to your opponent’s nonsense. I don’t know how powerful it will be but giving the army a lot of Sustained Hits seems like a recipe to get more damage out. I just like the fact you get Battleline Troupe units again which can help get this army moving and grooving to the dance of death on the tabletop.
“Harden your soul against decadence. But do not despise it, for the soft appearance of the decadent may be deceptive. One need only consider the Harlequin dancers of the Eldar to see the truth of this proposition.” ~Leman Russ
