I'm not prone to wish-listing dream profiles, but I do find our 'super' Fiday is not that super. Mostly due to the fact that when shopping for a Fiday, it usually comes down to; Do I want Mines or DA CC (for scenarios). Unfortunately our resident super Fiday is lacking both. The main reason I can see taking him over his cheaper counterparts is the fact he is a character and considered a veteran of some of the Classified Missions. Unfortunately since those are random, its not worth actively taking him except in Highly classified. If he got a second profile replacing this Viral CCW with a DA CCW, so he can do scenarios that need CC Anti-material he would become much better. I'd ballpark him at 37 - 38 points. The 2B from MA L4 would make quick work of the targets, but puts him on par with profiles like Saito Togan,
If you're taking a Fiday to go and cheese an objective piece with DA, then yeah Al-Djabel isn't your man. Same with the mine profile They are different roles, and he by no means needs to fulfill either of them if there are already cheaper ways to do so. Giving him a DA CCW would grant him a narrow application in destroying scenery, but removes his ability as a better straight up assassin. Viral allows Al-Djabel to engage a wider array of targets and realistically kill them. NWI/Dogged trooper? Viral means 1 failed save = a dead trooper. HI being a problem? Surprise Attack and MA4 B2 viral swords has a good shot at taking them out as opposed to a gambit on even DA at damage 12 (or 15 if you opt for bonus damage). All of Al's stat increases boost his capacity to kill. Better MA, better CC, better BS, and better PH. So yes, he isn't perhaps as generalist as his cheaper Fiday brothers and sisters but he's fine where he is as a surgical tool. Anecdotally I've also had a lot of success using Al to shank cheap 1W infantry with burst 2 knives provoking no Change Face allowed, but that isn't strictly reliable.
I'm not saying remove the viral ccw profile completely, but give him a second option. As a straight up cc fighter he is great. With a 35-36% (ma l3 vs l4) crit chance, the silent knife works. But often need to down grade him for the antimaterial. I almost never play time because the cheaper versions do more. Character models should be more useful than their regular counterparts.
but with something like a Fiday – where you're probably only going to take 1 what would the fundamental difference be? just a straight up better and cheaper option? you don't think that makes choices easier and in turn list building less interesting
I've had a couple situations in HB that I've used 2 to take a quadrant that scores at the end each turn. Works well when going second and you opponent needs to work to grab an EASY quadrant. It give you an early advantage in zones that are hard to remove. Here is the logic I use when trying to chose a Fiday. Lets assume I only want 1. Do I need Anti-material CCW for scenario if yes, take DA CCW profile (Choice Fixed) Do I want Mines If yes take mine profile (Choice mostly fixed) Do I expect to use Fiday VS HI ARM. Past experience sais this is not a wise choice, but fun to try sometimes. If yes, take boarding shot gun (14 dam AP vs 13 regular) Do I need to shave a point off my list to fit something else in Drop to basic, or boarding shotgun Do I have points to spare Upgrade to Al, or DA or Mines considering a Mutts costs the same as the upgrade to Al, it almost never comes into play Given that logic, I pretty much never take him. In theory a Limited insertion list would benefit with this, but HB/Haqq are not armies that work well in Limited Insertion. Its a personal pet peeve, and it effective means he doesn't exist.
Characters are rarely about multiple options, like a standard unit would be. Their thing is usually being either a toolbox, or a single, very specialized tool Al-Djabel falls into the latter category. The flipside is that if it doesn't fit your way to play you will indeed use him rarely, if at all. It's nothing unusual.
My experience is rather different. From Vanilla perspective: I don't use Fidays for scenarios, they aren't the best thing to destroy AC2 for example. Fidays are for killing units, and the best killer among them is Djabel - that's why I usually use only him with different guys for scenario goals. He still can help you much by taking out enemy specialists, and that's what is great about him. And even if you don't use a Fiday your enemy will b afraid of him lurking in a reserve ;) And Viral is the thing of Djabel. He wouldn't be the same with normal weapons. Sadly we don't have Fiday EXP CCW anymore, and that was my favourite in the past edition. PozdRawiam / Greetings
Ok I'm not crazy for remembering that Fidays used to have this! I remember starting in N2 and taking a break from Infinity til N3 and wondering why my Fidays all of the sudden only had DA.
Or we can get to the root of the problem and have ITS change and/or not implement scenario conditions that are too narrow.
