Warhammer: 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade Unit Profile - The Harlequin

Real-time strategy games don't get much more intense and gory than 2004's superb Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. By bringing the vibrant and imaginative Warhammer 40,000 universe to life, Dawn of War let you see what happens when you unleash the armies of orks, space marines, chaos space marines, and more into battle armed with giant guns, bigger blades, and even more cringe-inducing weaponry. With Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, developer Relic and publisher THQ look to up the ante with a new story, faction, and units. We wrap up our look at some of the interesting new units in the expansion by examining the new Eldar unit, the harlequin. Dark Crusade will ship in October.

The Harlequin

Harlequins are some of the most mysterious units in the Eldar arsenal, as these enigmatic warriors are dedicated to crushing the forces of chaos wherever they may be. Harlequins compile all their knowledge about chaos, including its source, in their shadowy Black Library. By accumulating everything that is known about chaos, they hope to figure out how to destroy it once and for all.

Graceful and athletic, harlequins are superb fighters capable of attacking their enemies on many different levels. Thanks to their mobility, harlequins are capable of quick strikes, as well as messing with their enemies' minds with psychological attacks. The good news for opponents of the Eldar is that harlequin units are extremely rare, so you'll never see more than three of them on a battlefield at a time.

Harlequins are some of the deadliest melee specialists on a battlefield, as they can attack their opponents with incredible acrobatic grace. To remain unencumbered, harlequins are lightly armored, though they do have personal holo-fields that make them hard to hit. In addition to melee attacks, harlequins have special abilities that they can employ against powerful opponents or groups of lesser opponents. These include the harlequin's kiss, in which a harlequin drives a tube into her opponent that liquefies innards instantly. (To make things worse, said unit then explodes, with the boiling blood splash damaging surrounding units.) Then the harlequin has a dance of death, which lets her jump around and knock down enemy after enemy.