Hi guys, A bit of a clickbait title but hear me out. I don’t normally play haqqislam but have played a fair bit against them and generally speaking I enjoy playing against haqislam its normally interesting dynamic games. I have come up against Zuleyka Nazarova a few times now and think her to be a cool profile and thought she was on of the unique expensive characters. Just realized she is 11p and cannot get my head around her cost. The CC Killiness She has a base +1b in CC something that in itself is rare. She has a +2B breaker pistol that she can use in CC getting to burst 3 against half BTS. She has an explosive CC weapon that gets to B2 thanks to her bonuses (is there any other profile that have a B2 explosive CC?) She is dogged and shock immune so even if you have a bad roll you get a second try to kill the target and keep wrecking the enemy lines that turn. The ability to get into CC She has impetus so that she gets the "free" order to move up the bord. She has movement 6-8 so have the potential to be in CC in one or two orders. She has smokes to cover her advance and get into CC with low to no risk. There is so much potential for alpha strike, or use her as a second turn killer with her movement and smoke she can get to where the enemy midfields are geting in to CC use her good CC weapons and overwhelm the enemy with dice. Don’t get me wrong, as I said I think she is a really cool profile with an interesting and well synergized combination of abilities, but I can’t understand how she comes in at only 11p. What am I missing here?
You're missing what Zuleyka is missing: Martial Arts or Natural Born Warrior. Like any cc expert, she'll murder a non-cc expert no problem. But against another expert, she's rolling 3 dice on 19s against 1 on 26s, which is not actually great odds for her. Plus she has to use a breaker pistol to get 3 dice, and Dam 12 breaker is not great compared to the Dam 15 DA or better weapons that most cc experts get.
She's an absolute glass cannon and totally reliant on the Active Turn. No cover, no vis mods, ARM 0, smoke can be seen through by MSV1 now, tag her with a single hit and she'll die at the end of the turn. +1/+2B doesn't help her in ARO so any half decent CC trooper with MA is bringing her down to a single CC19 attack on the Reactive turn. She's damn good, but close range offense is all she has, being outranged by a linked MSV is practically a death sentence.
She is great. But if you look at bikers as a whole, she fits a pattern: CB wants bikers used and have made them aggressively priced. They even posted an article about it: https://www.infinitythegame.com/blog/item/850-futy-on-wheels-motorcycles-and-their-changes-in-n4 Bikes definately have their limitations, especially if they only have a single wound. But they are great for exploiting if the opponent does not have an ARO presence.
Also to answer the "Any other B2 EXP CCW" question: Musashi has B2 AP+EXP Kitsune has B2 Monofilament Nourkias has B2 Monofilament OR B2 E/M Musashi and Kitsune also work in ARO, and all of them have the bonuses from Martial Arts L4. Zuleyka can fly in and obliterate normal dudes, but she'll struggle mightily against the true CC masters.
She's very good, but as noted she's moooostly balanced by her fragility and weakness in the reactive turn. She only tends to outperform when she gets a chance for melee pickoffs, or when people don't just shoot her and facetank the light flamer hits.
