Viable, certainly. She is pricy, only able to fight, and hard to use, meaning you may find her not worth. She can do very well providing you use her well though. Basically, try to use her to kill specialists and cheerleaders. Don't be fooled by her monosword, she can one shot TAGs, but she is better at killing low grade troops with her combi rifle. Don't be afraid not to use her, like keeping her in your backline as a bait, a threat, or just waiting for an opportunity while you clear mines and pesty MSV-2, those are her worst enemies. Remember that she is impetuous, she can't take cover, so don't be afraid of sending her in open space to catch her enemies out of cover - if you can't have them, don't let the enemy have them either. She can do well in melee thanks to ODD+IKhol against anything that would rather shoot at her: suppressive fire troops, TR remotes ... She is good in suppressive fire too. Remember that she can dismount if you need her to climb or go through narrow passages. She only loses mobility, and even then she's still 10/10.
Penny loves, when she encounters HI within her charge range. Get out the sword and charge the target to make the most of I-Khol and monosword.
Another good tactic with Penny is to push her up one flank, kill any cheerleaders in her way, and leave her in Suppressive Fire in a good spot (one that's not easily reached by enemy with a template). Opponent now has to divide his attention between your main army, objectives, and a serious threat in his DZ. And even when she's gone she only costs you a single order, while opponent had to spend a few of his to get rid of her.
In short, while Penny has the weapon to go BIG GAME HUNTING!!!! She lacks the skills to apply it to any troop with STRucture (inmunne to I-Khol), so use her for killing softies (cheerleaders) and armored squishies (HI with Wounds to exploit). Her best targets are, indeed, HI... specially the Asura (Achilles is a little risky).
Note: i-khol and odd stack when you engage an enemy in cc and he declares bs attack. Getting into cc with tags and hi often means they just cant use their good guns, an your ccw threatens a kill with every swing. Personally, I use her to scoot behind enemy lines then shoot and stab li and hi respectively.
Just remember to never engage a CC specialist with Penny, she is not fit to fight them, she is too expensive and is just average among CC specialists, many are far better than her.
Disagree in most cases. unless the opponent has natural born warrior, her ikhol gives them a -6 compared to max -3 to herself. Enemies need to be more expensive then her to best her in CC
MA3 gives +3/-3, which essentially balances her -6. However, most CC troops are cheaper and have a better CC attribute and either MA or berserk. Even is you do win the fight, the risk is high given the cost of Penthesilea. Plus many CC troops have either a DA or a shock CC weapon, meaning her NWI is useless. Contrary to what you say, there are many troops that are both better at CC and cheaper than Penthesilea. Her CC attribute is really average for a CC specialist. She is 41 pts for CC22 + iKhol2: _ Shaolins: CC22 + MA3, 6 pts - it's equaly matched, but you cost 7x more _ Highlanders: CC21 + berserk, 6 pts _ Myrmidon: CC21 + MA3, 16 pts. The matchup is so close that it it's instead the 25 pts DA myrmidon, he has less chance to win than you but overall more chances of wounding you than you wounding him _ Ninjas: CC23 + MA3, 26 pts (and that's in the reactive turn, in active they can surprise attack for an extra -6). For that one you have about 28% chances of killing him at each order, meaning you may have to use 3-5 orders if things go wrong, it's really a gamble. Use your template weapon instead ... As a rule of thumb, you only melee if: 1. you are so better than the opponent that he basically got no chances of winning (ex: CC specialist vs cheerleader) 2. your troop is really cheap and you have a chance to lock your opponent in melee (ex: shaolin reaching a TAG and locking it in CC - seriously how your opponent let you did this ?) 3. you have berserk and you don't care about your troop dying, it is worth the risk (ex: caledonian vs about everything) Since Penthesilea is a pretty good shooter (BS13 + ODD) and has a template weapon, you have no need to take those risks.
