A new Gifted appears!
Fadhila, the Untouchable Daughter has arrived onto the streets of Venice, and on Friday will be available to buy for your games of Carnevale.
This Gifted for hire arrived into Venice after escaping her previous life and mistreatment. She’s very close-lipped about her past, only opening up to those she gets closest to. In fact, she’s very closed as a person, showing her Gifts only to those she trusts, or those that have paid enough to earn that trust.
But how does she play in the game? That’s what we’re here to find out!
The Stats
On the surface, Fadhila is a pretty decent Hero choice. She has low Attack and Protection, but an okay move, good Dexterity, and excellent Mind value. The main draw here though is that she has 3 Action Points, which means 3 actions a turn! That’s a lot every turn, and means she doesn’t have to rely on other characters gifting her Command Points.
Speaking of Command Points, she comes with 4, which can be used in the usual ways, but also for her Command Ability: Protective Bubble. This gives Universal Shielding (4) and Expert Protection (4) to anyone within 1-6 inches. That’s higher than you’re usually allowed on Expert Protection! You get to choose the distance here, so a larger bubble at the start of the game will help all of your gang, while a smaller bubble later means your opponents aren’t getting protection bonuses!
Magic
Even before the game starts though, we have to look at her magic spells. With Mage (2) and Expert Sorcerer (1), Fadhila knows three spells, plus a Cantrip. She can take spells from Divinity or Runes of Sovereignty.
These two Disciplines are extremely different, and will really change how you use her in your gang.
Divinity
Divinity is full of healing and protection magic, which is a perfect complement to her Protective Bubble. Both Universal Shielding and Expert Protection make characters’ Protection rolls more reliable, but only if they have decent Protection to start with. Eldritch Armour counters this drawback nicely, adding 2 Protection to a friendly character so they can make the most of the bubble. Defender of Destiny and Protection of the Eye are a bit of a waste here though, since Expert Protection and Universal Shielding can’t stack much higher than her Protective Bubble already gives. Other than that though, the other three spells are all good choices.
Runes of Sovereignty
Runes of Sovereignty is a bit weirder to use, and will turn her from a healer into a bit of a jack of all trades. Waves of Force is the clear winner here for Fadhila, since it allows you to push enemies away from her Protective Bubble. Grapple them straight into water and follow up with an Ice Lock for extra Stunned goodness. With 3 AP it won’t be hard to pull off that combo! Otherwise all the spells in this Discipline are good in their own ways, but will force Fadhila to be a bit more aggressive.
Tactics
As far as tactics on the board go, she’s a pretty easy one to use!
As I mentioned earlier, keeping that bubble wide to start with will really help against fast opponents or ranged weapons, and shrinking it later will provide less protection but also more direct help to her gang-mates.
Otherwise, keep her safe! She’s not a fighter, and can be taken down quite easily without any help. Luckily her Protection of 4 will always be 4 with her Universal Shielding bonus, but that won’t help much against direct attacks.
She’s a support character through and through, so should have a bodyguard detail or at least keep her out of harm’s way! Walk Between Worlds in Runes of Sovereignty helps with this, giving her Ethereal, Flight, and Slippery (2), so she can easily escape combat.
Gangs
Fadhila can be used in any gang, and is pretty useful when you need some extra protecting. I’ve put together two today for her, feel free to steal these lists or let us know your own!
The Guild
This Guild gang is led by a Capodecina, has a Fisherman, a Baroni, and three Citizens.
Fadhila can be useful in a few ways here, but mostly to keep the Baroni and Fisherman alive for ages, and to provide the Capodecina with a bit more safety (he only has Protection 3).
In this list I’d likely take Runes as her magic Discipline, since it ups the Protection of the Citizens and Capo, as well as allowing a bit more movement through Cantrip of the Chariot. That helps her keep up and to get a bit more use out of the Citizens, since ganging up is their thing, getting them all in base contact as back up is really useful.
The Baroni makes for a great bodyguard for her, picking off enemies at range before they get into the Protective Bubble, and using his high Attack and Protection to get in the way of incoming attackers.
Patricians
My second gang is a bunch of guard!
The Venetian Noble has obviously paid off not just Fadhila, but a bunch of guardsmen too. With a Captain of the Guard, two Soldiers, and a Marksman, this is a heavily armoured list that becomes increasingly difficult to deal with when Fadhila starts helping! They take to the canals in a gondola too, for a bit of much needed water mobility.
Fadhila should definitely stick with the Captain and the guardsmen, letting the Venetian Noble go off and do his own thing. This gives her a lot of help, and also means you really get the most of the Protective Bubble. With no character below Protection 5, her skills really come into their own, making this a gang that’s hard to shift!
Add to their natural hardiness some well-timed Divinity spells and your opponent will be pulling out their hair as the Life Points keep replenishing! While this turtle of a gang might be slow, they’re so well armoured that they’ll be almost impossible to remove from the game.
So there we have it – a little Fadhila tactical action for you! How do you see Fadhila fitting into your lists? Can you think of a weird way to use her in your games, or are you pretending that you don’t see a combo for your opponents to make the most of? Let us know, and don’t forget that Fadhila is available to pre-order now!