Leader Spotlight - Dr. Maria Kharcheva
The second leader spotlight is on Dr. Maria Kharcheva, the daughter of Soviet Union secret police that managed to stop a reality-changing frequency from being broadcast across the entire world. She has followed in their footsteps, and is now the Hellfire group's foremost archivist and curator of treasures, both magical and mundane.
The Present
Dr. Kharcheva is a support leader with a bit of ranged firepower, but it would be a mistake to consider her a ranged attacker. Her Sidearm has the Invest (Take Aim) that all other Sidearms do, without any additional rules to augment her attack.
She shines brightly, though, with her support abilities. Bottled Sylph is a full-blown emanation that lasts until she takes another non-movement action, and buffs the movement of any friendly unit starting its move within range. This can give you a very quick start, which will help with objective-capturing scenarios. More than that, Kharcheva needs to focus to use the ability, but can continue to move around and provide a little bubble of movement-speed burst as she goes.
Her other support ability is Reassignment. Superficially, this is a limited support ability, allowing you to move one model's Cache finding to another and giving them a bit of a chance to shift position. Circumstantially useful, at best. When you start to think of ways to take advantage of the "illegal selection" clause, though, you might be able to come up with creative kit swaps across models that really benefit from certain kit (including Supplies!).
Last but not least, Dr. Kharcheva always adds +1 to her Initiative, giving her an effective starting Initiative of +8. It's not a major bonus, but certainly one you should not be forgetting.
In terms of reactions, she has very few - and both of them help her survive if your opponent decides to focus their attentions on her. Evade is a strong defence move, and Etched Wards makes it even stronger. You can use that first Invest without much real cost to your initiative, because of Mission Brief (yes, you'll be going down a bit, but you're already likely starting higher than your opponent). Disengage helps Dr. Kharcheva move around as a reaction, which can allow her to move her Bottled Sylph bubble for future activations.
Kit
Dr. Kharcheva is a kit-heavy leader. She comes with several Supplies, one specific to hellfire units, and four other handy pieces of equipment.
Arms of Mithras Medallion - This piece of gear outright raises a model's Defence rolls by 1. It's a fantastic increase to a model's durability, but be careful - it is limited to hellfire or practitioner units only. You may want to focus on melee models like Hellfire Wetworks or the Devotee of Mokosh, unless you plan on getting into extended firefights with enemy models.
Orichalcum Knife - This is a melee weapon with decent pluses, and comes with a Bane invest cost. You're unlikely to want to give it to a model that's already got a great melee weapon (unless you know you're facing models that Bane works on), but it's a good way to shore up the weakness of ranged models like the Hellfire Scholar, the Devotee of Ra, or the Vigilante Officer.
Jar of Clay, Vessel of Flesh - This is as close as you can get to a resurrection ability. The model with this kit can come back from the dead, but be warned - it returns immediately, so your opponent can take it out a second time if they have enough Charge and / or their Overcharge is low enough. It's important to note that this kit reduces the model to 0 Flesh and Spirit, and then applies Heal 4 - if you are just interested in using the model as a roadblock, it might not be a bad idea to apply all of the healing to Flesh, leaving the model Exhausted but better able to resist a physical beating.
Jade Magatama - This kit is limited by being for practitioners only, but that's alright - practitioners are very likely to want to use their Spirit for invest costs on a regular basis. The Magatama lets a model reduce the amount of Spirit or Flow they spend on an invest cost by 1 (albeit once per turn), which means the Devotee of Mokosh can Lop Off, the Devotee of Ra can In Its Way, and the Priest of Varuna can Like Water, all without relying as much on Flow generation.
The Past
As with most profiles in Pendant World, Dr. Kharcheva has an earlier incarnation. Unlike a number of other leaders, though, she has remained quite close to her initial design.
Once upon a time, she was simply the "Hellfire Club" leader, a manager in the organization that attempts to keep the world intact and the status quo unchanged. You may notice that she had a sidearm in this incarnation as well, but had far fewer inherent support abilities Her "Custom" - the items you could buy for a profile, way back when, could increase her defence, provide her with powerful outside attacks, or give her defence the ability to move around (which remains, sort of, in Disengage).
She also handed out a bunch of equipment to her troops, including a rule that made them more effective against outside models (now rolled into the Orichalcum Knife), a stronger defence against outside attacks (improved by the Arms of Mithras Medallion), and the ability to add Bleed to an attack (not really the Beleaguered Man flavour). Despite the minor changes, though, she remains largely the "support" leader for the faction - at least for now.
Conclusions
Dr. Kharcheva is the leader you want to take if you're looking to buff other models. She is not as tough and defensive as Laura Cochrane, or as fast and damage-oriented as Ioannis Colonomos, but her ability to rally the troops and support their advance - not to mention toughen them up - is incredibly useful. If you're looking for a leader that makes your favourite units both faster and more durable, Dr. Maria Kharcheva is for you.
Added bonus: Dr. Kharcheva is also the flagship model for Pendant World!
And just as a reminder, I'm leaving the link to the Pendant World playtest documents here. All feedback is welcome!
The Present
Dr. Kharcheva is a support leader with a bit of ranged firepower, but it would be a mistake to consider her a ranged attacker. Her Sidearm has the Invest (Take Aim) that all other Sidearms do, without any additional rules to augment her attack.She shines brightly, though, with her support abilities. Bottled Sylph is a full-blown emanation that lasts until she takes another non-movement action, and buffs the movement of any friendly unit starting its move within range. This can give you a very quick start, which will help with objective-capturing scenarios. More than that, Kharcheva needs to focus to use the ability, but can continue to move around and provide a little bubble of movement-speed burst as she goes.
Her other support ability is Reassignment. Superficially, this is a limited support ability, allowing you to move one model's Cache finding to another and giving them a bit of a chance to shift position. Circumstantially useful, at best. When you start to think of ways to take advantage of the "illegal selection" clause, though, you might be able to come up with creative kit swaps across models that really benefit from certain kit (including Supplies!).
Last but not least, Dr. Kharcheva always adds +1 to her Initiative, giving her an effective starting Initiative of +8. It's not a major bonus, but certainly one you should not be forgetting.
In terms of reactions, she has very few - and both of them help her survive if your opponent decides to focus their attentions on her. Evade is a strong defence move, and Etched Wards makes it even stronger. You can use that first Invest without much real cost to your initiative, because of Mission Brief (yes, you'll be going down a bit, but you're already likely starting higher than your opponent). Disengage helps Dr. Kharcheva move around as a reaction, which can allow her to move her Bottled Sylph bubble for future activations.
Kit
Dr. Kharcheva is a kit-heavy leader. She comes with several Supplies, one specific to hellfire units, and four other handy pieces of equipment.
Arms of Mithras Medallion - This piece of gear outright raises a model's Defence rolls by 1. It's a fantastic increase to a model's durability, but be careful - it is limited to hellfire or practitioner units only. You may want to focus on melee models like Hellfire Wetworks or the Devotee of Mokosh, unless you plan on getting into extended firefights with enemy models.
Orichalcum Knife - This is a melee weapon with decent pluses, and comes with a Bane invest cost. You're unlikely to want to give it to a model that's already got a great melee weapon (unless you know you're facing models that Bane works on), but it's a good way to shore up the weakness of ranged models like the Hellfire Scholar, the Devotee of Ra, or the Vigilante Officer.
Jar of Clay, Vessel of Flesh - This is as close as you can get to a resurrection ability. The model with this kit can come back from the dead, but be warned - it returns immediately, so your opponent can take it out a second time if they have enough Charge and / or their Overcharge is low enough. It's important to note that this kit reduces the model to 0 Flesh and Spirit, and then applies Heal 4 - if you are just interested in using the model as a roadblock, it might not be a bad idea to apply all of the healing to Flesh, leaving the model Exhausted but better able to resist a physical beating.
Jade Magatama - This kit is limited by being for practitioners only, but that's alright - practitioners are very likely to want to use their Spirit for invest costs on a regular basis. The Magatama lets a model reduce the amount of Spirit or Flow they spend on an invest cost by 1 (albeit once per turn), which means the Devotee of Mokosh can Lop Off, the Devotee of Ra can In Its Way, and the Priest of Varuna can Like Water, all without relying as much on Flow generation.
The Past
As with most profiles in Pendant World, Dr. Kharcheva has an earlier incarnation. Unlike a number of other leaders, though, she has remained quite close to her initial design.
Once upon a time, she was simply the "Hellfire Club" leader, a manager in the organization that attempts to keep the world intact and the status quo unchanged. You may notice that she had a sidearm in this incarnation as well, but had far fewer inherent support abilities Her "Custom" - the items you could buy for a profile, way back when, could increase her defence, provide her with powerful outside attacks, or give her defence the ability to move around (which remains, sort of, in Disengage).
She also handed out a bunch of equipment to her troops, including a rule that made them more effective against outside models (now rolled into the Orichalcum Knife), a stronger defence against outside attacks (improved by the Arms of Mithras Medallion), and the ability to add Bleed to an attack (not really the Beleaguered Man flavour). Despite the minor changes, though, she remains largely the "support" leader for the faction - at least for now.
Conclusions
Dr. Kharcheva is the leader you want to take if you're looking to buff other models. She is not as tough and defensive as Laura Cochrane, or as fast and damage-oriented as Ioannis Colonomos, but her ability to rally the troops and support their advance - not to mention toughen them up - is incredibly useful. If you're looking for a leader that makes your favourite units both faster and more durable, Dr. Maria Kharcheva is for you.
Added bonus: Dr. Kharcheva is also the flagship model for Pendant World!
And just as a reminder, I'm leaving the link to the Pendant World playtest documents here. All feedback is welcome!
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