Reaper's Wager: The 11th-Edition Drukhari and Harlequins Saedath Detachment

A running score with an inverted payout.

At the start of the battle, Drukhari units from your army are winning the wager. Each time a Drukhari unit destroys an enemy unit, Drukhari units are winning. Each time a Harlequins unit destroys an enemy unit, Harlequin units are winning. While one side is winning, the other is losing.

Then the payout. Each time a Drukhari or Harlequins model makes an attack:

• if its unit is winning the wager, re-roll a Hit roll of 1;
• if its unit is losing the wager, re-roll a Hit roll of 1 and re-roll a Wound roll of 1 instead.

Read that twice, because it inverts the usual instinct. Losing is the better buff. The half of your army that is behind gets both re-rolls, and the half that is ahead gets only one. The wager is not a race you want to win outright, it is a pendulum you want to keep swinging so that whichever half is about to do the important work is the half that is behind.

The detachment also carries its own Harlequins allowance, far larger than the standard army rule: up to 500 points at Incursion, 1,000 at Strike Force and 1,500 at Onslaught. No Harlequins model from your army can be your Warlord, and if you select this detachment you cannot use the Corsairs and Travelling Players army rule at all.

Six, and unusually for Drukhari most of them fire on your opponent's terms.

• Malicious Frenzy (1CP, your Shooting or the Fight). One Drukhari or Harlequins unit that has not yet been selected this phase gains Lethal Hits or Sustained Hits 1, your choice.
• Fateful Role (1CP, Fight). After an enemy selects targets, each destroyed model in your unit that has not fought rolls a D6, +1 if that unit is losing the wager: on a 4+ it is not removed and fights afterwards. Another clause that pays you for being behind.
• Murderer's Circus (1CP, Fight). After an enemy selects targets, attacks against your unit take -1 to Hit for the phase.
• Shorten the Odds (1CP, your Movement). After a unit Advances, it is eligible to shoot and declare a charge in a turn in which it Advanced.
• Scintillating Tempo (1CP, your Movement or Charge). After a unit moves, is set up or declares a charge, enemy units cannot use the Fire Overwatch stratagem against it for the turn.
• Dance Macabre (2CP, opponent's Movement). After an enemy unit ends a move, one Drukhari or Harlequins Infantry unit within 8 inches makes a D6 inch Normal move, or a flat 6 inches if it is losing the wager. The only 2CP stratagem in the detachment.

The pattern is a reactive toolkit rather than a damage engine. Three of the six explicitly care which side of the wager the unit is on.

Four, and unusually most of them can go on either half of the army.

• Conductor of Torment (20 pts). Drukhari model only. In your Command phase, if your Drukhari are losing you can gain 1 Pain token and flip them to winning; if they are winning you can discard 1 Pain token and flip the Harlequins to winning. This is the enhancement that turns the wager from a coin toss into a decision, and it is the reason to take the detachment at all.
• Reaper's Cowl (25 pts). Harlequins model only. Models in the bearer's unit have Stealth and Infiltrators. The one enhancement a Drukhari character cannot carry.
• Webway Walker (15 pts). Harlequins or Drukhari model. Models in the bearer's unit have Deep Strike, and while the unit arrives losing the wager you can re-roll its Charge rolls that turn.
• Archraider (15 pts). Harlequins or Drukhari model. If the bearer starts embarked within a Dedicated Transport, that Transport gains Scouts 9 inches, which is a Raider or Venom starting a long way up the board.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Kabalite Warriors and Wyches are your cheap Drukhari Battleline. Their kills are the lever that flips the wager back to the Drukhari side whenever you need it flipped.
• Raider and Venom are Dedicated Transports, which is the exact condition Archraider checks before handing out Scouts 9 inches.
• Harlequin Solitaire is the piece most likely to destroy a unit single-handed and hand the wager to the Harlequin half of your army.
• Harlequin Death Jester is a Harlequins character, and this detachment lets you field Harlequins in far greater volume than the standard Corsairs and Travelling Players allowance.
• Harlequin Troupes, taken from Codex: Aeldari, are the Battleline body the Harlequin half is built on.

Because the rule is written on the Drukhari and Harlequins keywords rather than on Kabal, Wych Cult or Coven, you are free to mix pillars however your collection likes.

Take it when you already own Harlequins and want to field a real allied force rather than a 500-point cameo. The standard Corsairs and Travelling Players allowance caps you at 500 points at Strike Force; this detachment doubles that to 1,000, and the whole rules package is written to make both halves matter.

Be clear-eyed about the price. At 3 DP it fills your entire 2,000-point budget, so you give up every 1-DP splash in the faction. It also forbids the Corsairs and Travelling Players army rule, so you cannot bring Anhrathe alongside. And your Warlord must be a Drukhari model.

The deeper cost is that the payout is small and symmetrical. A re-roll of Hit rolls of 1, upgraded to Hit and Wound rolls of 1 when behind, is a modest effect for a whole budget, and it does not scale with anything. Compare that against a 2-DP core plus a 1-DP support, which gives you two real rules and nine stratagems.

Sample gameplan: take Conductor of Torment on a Drukhari character and treat the wager as a resource you manage every Command phase, flipping so the half about to do the heavy lifting is the half that is losing. Put Archraider on a character starting inside a Raider to push it up the board turn one. Hold Dance Macabre and Murderer's Circus for your opponent's turn, and use Scintillating Tempo on the charge that would otherwise eat an Overwatch volley.