Leila Sharif, the dread Dire Foe Tool Box

If there is one thing that I love when it comes to the units I use, it is when they have multiple uses. It just makes list building easier and it also makes having redundancy in a list easier. This is exemplified in dual specialists that some factions have (I am quite envious of Doctor Worm, the Sophotect and Kumotail Bioengineers. Haqqislam needs access to a Spec Ops to get the same versatility) but can be found in other places especially in Haqqislam when you have non-specialist Muyibs bringing D-charges to complete Classified Objectives without being Specialists. Even rarer though is a Specialist that can complete multiple Classified Objectives and can also be a dangerous killing machine as well. Enter the newest Dire Foe given to Haqqislam: Leila Sharif. 

I can not express enough how much I love using Leila Sharif. She is a unit that can do so much for her 20 points and no SWC cost. I was actually quite surprised how much I liked her when I first used her. When she was first announced and we got a look at her stat line, I will admit it, I was hesitant about how much I would actually like her. This was before I have used the Shock Marksman Rifle (SMR) and before I got to really explore the uses of the Killer Hacking Device. I compared her to her Yu Jing counterpart and instantly thought that Yu Jing was the won who made it out with the better Dire Foe. After several games using her though, I actually think that Haqqislam made out like a bandit when it comes to the two Dire Foes. She is a diamond in the rough and she can do a lot if you know how to use her.

Leila's Stats

If you look at Leila's stats, at first she just seems like a standard Ghulam. She has one better BS skill than a Ghulam and actually has BTS 3 which is nice since she is a hacker and is under threat of hacking herself. Other than those to things though, she isn't much different than a standard Ghulam but that helps keep her cost at 20 points which puts her on par with the most expensive Ghulam. This makes it easy to fit her in a list whether in a vanilla or the Sectorials of Haqqislam. Since she is linkable in with both Ghulams and Muyibs, she helps to bring a lot to both links. For one thing, Hassassin Bahram players can rejoice because they can finally have a 5 man Core Link of Ghulams as well as cut costs in a Muyib link so it's a complete win for HB. Leila opens up a lot of possibilities within HB and might provide enough of a reason for HB players to maybe not always take Muyibs as their Core. Qapu Khalqi players still get an awesome unit to stick in their Ghulam links, something that will become clearer down below, but also, QK finally gets a named Haqqislam unit in their Sectorial (Scarface doesn't count! He's a merc and not a Haqqislam unit, despite QK being the original Sectorial that Scarface appeared in). One thing that I really love about Leila is that since she is a Ghulam, every army of Haqqislam benefited from her release. I like Yasbir, don't get me wrong but only vanilla Haqqislam and HB players get to use him. I am now really hoping that Ghulams show up in the Ramah Taskforce so I can continue to use her. The Halqa probably will prevent us from seeing Leila in the Khanate though since they are really the Ghulams of the Khanate. 

Leila's Weapons 

This is where Leila really distinguishes herself, her weapon selection. Her main weapon I have already sung praises for and it's part why she is so good. The Shock Marksman Rifle was a new weapon introduced in HSN3 and is a weapon only found in Haqqislam. It's actually such a unique weapon that only three units have one right now even in Haqqislam: Hassassin Ayyar, Djanbazan and Leila Sharif. It was a weapon I was skeptical of. You are basically trading in the 0 modifier from 0-8 inches for an extended +3 modifier allowing the rifle to have a +3 range band from 8 inches all the way out to 24 inches which is good but the damage is still 13 and even though it had shock ammo, I didn't think it would be that good. Yeah...I was proven wrong. First time I used it I was shocked, pun intended, about how good it was especially on the units that they gave it too. Each unit that has this weapon definitely can use it quite effectively and Leila is no exception to that. It gives her seriously killing power against other units especially when you consider the fact that a lot of other specialists are one wound models. She is able to assassinate other specialists while she is on her way to press buttons herself. I know a lot of Haqqislam players have a problem taking ALEPH, seriously, take Leila and a Djanbazan with SMR (for pesky ODD) to shut down ALEPH and their No Wound In-capitation. As much as I love the SMR, it isn't a universal solving problems weapon like a HMG is. It doesn't take on heavy armor that well and you lose the shock effect on multiple wound units, units with STR or stuff immune to shock so you don't want to be using Leila to just kill everything. Single out targets that it is useful against, and hunt them down. Smart use of the SMR will make your opponent hate the weapon. 

The SMR isn't the only thing available to Leila either. She doesn't have the standard shotgun like a lot of units in Haqqislam but what she does have instead is a Breaker Pistol which helps her deal with multiple problems. I love Breaker ammo because it can be used to kill something without BTS and if they have BTS, it's halved so Breaker ammo is a problem solver so you can use it to take care of things that the SMR can't or if they get into 0-8 inch range, it gives you a nice solution to deal with close threats. Now it is just a pistol so it has a short range but Leila has tricks that can put you into this range if you want to use it. I wouldn't go hunting with the Breaker Pistol like I do with the SMR but it is nice to have in case Leila finds herself in a close quarters fire fight or even has the threat of CC. 

The final weapon she has is D-charges. One complaint about the Killer Hacking Device, which Leila has as her hacking device, is that it takes away being able to do Telemetry and HVT: Designation and this takes away from the versatility that Hackers have. Besides being a specialist to press buttons their one purpose is to kill other hackers. Leila solves this by having D-charges and that may only replace one classified but let's be real, HVT: Designation is hard to complete with Spotlight. It's also useful to have on that off chance that you might get into close combat with someone, and even if the chance is low, it's fun to stick a D-charge on someone and blow it up in their face. When you finally get to do that and if it's on a close combat monster, like an Oniwaban, you will understand the satisfaction of it.

Leila's Killer Hacking Device (KHD) 

I wanted this to have it's own section because it's an important aspect that helps to make Leila as an attractive unit that she is because it's the final piece of her profile that when put together with everything else she has makes her the dreaded tool box. It does more than make her a specialist because killer hacker's have an important program that can put Leila's weapons and specialist nature to good use. Now, she is a fine hacker to be used to go and kill all of your opponent's hackers but what if you are facing an army like Ariadna who doesn't have hackers or your opponent just didn't bring hackers? Well, that's when you take advantage of Cybermask. I wasn't a big fan of the KHD in Haqqislam. The other KHD in Haqqislam don't bring much to the table besides the device so they suffer from the one trick pony that is the KHD...except for the Barid who gets the Lightening Upgrade which just wrecks enemy hackers. Leila, on the other hand, stands out among the rest because she has something the others don't: The Shock Marksman Rifle which makes all the difference. She can still go around and use all the advantages of the KHD and with BTS 3, she's on par with all the defensive capabilities of the other KHD but she can make the best use of the Cybermask program. You can use that program to move up the field with anyone but since Leila is packing a SMR, she can make long range Surprise Shots up to 24 inches. Cybermask does take a roll to get off but it is worth if there is a unit that Leila can take off the board with her set of skills and weapons. It was the combo of Cybermask and SMR that cemented her in my lists and why she is the one KHD unit I make sure to take.

Leila Sharif, Husam Spec Ops badass, is what I want in an ideal unit. She is a specialist that can complete multiple classifieds and can also hunt and kill things. It makes her useful in most if not all missions for this reason. Direct Action, Joint Ops or Spec Ops, Leila Sharif is built to take it all on and I am quite glad we got her. Doesn't matter what army you play within Haqqislam, she is worth taking in a list and for me has become an auto-include. If you play Haqqislam and you haven't got her yet, it's the one unit that I would implore you to pick up. Find a Yu Jing player to split the box if you must because you don't want to miss out on her. She won't make or break games and she is still just a light infantry so she isn't invincible but you get her to do her job, she will do it well. Until next time, my friend, continue to seek knowledge.