Educate me on Molly

[mo11usq]

Just started getting in to Molly, and really enjoying her despite the first few outings being more error than trial.

I see a lot of information out there on Horror Molly, and believe I get the concept even if application is currently in development.

Nuance aside, I understand the general Horror game plan to be:

Taxi Molly and some big horrors up field turn 1 (with any combination of sybelle/kentoroi/doxy/mortimer/necrotic). Summon punk zombies/killjoy to soften enemy and pin them in their backfield as best possible, before archie/rogue necros arrive to remove key models and cripple the crew. Hopefully that scored you some VP. Finish up strat and schemes.

Spirit Molly I am less clear on. My instinct is for a more defensive game plan (hard to be more aggressive than horror I guess). Use belles/jaakuna buffed by sybelle/emissary to lure models out of position to be summon caddies, then finish with izamu + datsue ba/emissary. Toolbox summon - hanged for big pressure, goryo/shikome as 'cheaper' shock troops, onryo/gaki as speed bumps or scheme runners. Less elite starting crew and fewer summons directly into enemy crew should make normal scheme running easier.

Am I far off the mark? In what situations do you take Spirit Molly, and what do you tend to find the crew doing?

Also, I'm really liking gg18 prototype, big fan of the always schemes being strat suit dependent. However, is it me or does Molly's desire to summon low health models into the enemy's face seem to struggle in 3 out 4 of the strats? Making use of her core mechanic in Ply and Public seems like actively feeding your opponent points, whilst in Ours it doesn't easily contribute to scoring (totally fine with this change) in a scenario where the enemy is usually incentivized to spread out. The fact the associated always schemes seem okay for her doesn't feel like it really balances.

[McSkip]

Not that experienced with Molly (only 8 games so far) but I think you got it right. For the gg18 strats I thought the same. I take McM with belles for "ply" and "public exe" - for obvious reasons. Now for "ours" Molly might be good actually. Imagine standard deployment and you play fast forward with Molly, Kentauroi and lets say 2 Rogues. Most models don`t want to get into the middle. The enemy has to defend its quarter. The room where the fight happens is now smaller than in turf war, good for Molly. Best strategy for "ours" and the like is to bring the fight to the enemy, Molly can do that!

edit: love your batreps! plz some mor Molly!

[10th Level Toaster]

I haven't had any experience with Spirit Molly yet due to lack of models but don't understimate her Revelations/ Whispered Secrets actions. I've had games where I've barely summoned anything due to bad control hands but thanks to the high Ca on Revelations you can still pull off a moderate damage and the slow pretty regularly.

My point being that she may not be the optimal pick on some of the strategies but doesn't just have to play the summon game.

[ttsgosadow]

I only played Horror Molly a few times, and that's been a while back. Recently read this blog about someone playing Spirit Molly; might give you some insight!

https://thebovineoverlord.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/malifaux-tournament-report-masters-of-the-path-50ss-25nov2017/

Btw, I love your youtube channel!

[PirateCaptain]

I think you're pretty dang close.  I really have begun a huge fan of Crooligans with her for GG18.  I really like just moving her up, jamming with punk zombies, and then having crooligans running around doing schemes and such, it's worked really well for me so far in scheme heavy pools.  I really think she can play into so many different scheme pools.  My crews typically start:

Molly (forgotten life, take back the night, back on the job)
Phillip (haunting cries)
Kentauroi
Dead Doxy

and then based on schemes any combination of: necropunks, crooligans, archie, killjoy, Sybelle

As for Spirit Molly I really don't know, haven't played it that way yet

[McSkip]

@PirateCaptainInteresting. So if I understand it correctly you jam the enemy crew with lets say 2 punk zombies and your 3rd summon would be a crooligan thats 3" from one or two enemy models. Now the crooligan can interact and teleport away to do schemes next round?

Also how do you use philip? I cant semm to make him work for me. Yes he draws 4 cards turn one but after that he`s way behind and draws the next cards end of turn 2 when all important modells activated already.

And how are you playing archie?

[PirateCaptain]

Archie comes in if I expect an enemy elite crew and need to murder stuff, or for like, show of force, and things like that.

You can also start with 3 crooligans hired and just summon 3 punk zombies, with philip it's a real possibility to dump three on them turn 1

I also take Back on the Job a lot, (which I know has it's own debate about the "ethics" vs value of, but I love having it).

 

Philip draws cards and chatty is soooo good for denying enemy schemes, and it's just that much stronger when you know what their schemes are.  If you know for sure they'll be coming for your back field he hangs back, if not he comes up for chatty aura and other support abilities.  He can hang out and really shut down some scheming, getting to him will be difficult for the opponent while trying to chew through punk zombies.

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

1 hour ago, McSkip said:

Also how do you use philip? I cant semm to make him work for me. Yes he draws 4 cards turn one but after that he`s way behind and draws the next cards end of turn 2 when all important modells activated already.

Beside what PirateCaptain said, Philip and his Chatty are going to be much more usefull in GG18, where three of five strategies are interact-oriented (Ply, Symbols, Wagons).

2 hours ago, McSkip said:

Now the crooligan can interact and teleport away to do schemes next round?

Models cannot Interact on turn they were summoned.

1 hour ago, PirateCaptain said:

Archie comes in if I expect an enemy elite crew and need to murder stuff, or for like, show of force, and things like that.

I have no success with Archie in Molly. As a beater he offers only raw damage, not accompanied with any usefull triggers you would expect beater to have (ignore something, positive to damage, additional attack etc.). His role as a tank is limited by his disability to heal over 4 damage per activation. His AP-effectivness is kinda balance: he has Attack Expert, but has no constantly usefull (0) action. That Archie came in the same wave as Yasunori is simply an insult for Resser players (sorry, just couldn't resisit to express my frustration). I suppose you have played Rogue Necro with Molly. May I ask what are your arguments in favour of Archie?

[Skylifter-1000]

I'd also like to find out how people use Archie. He is a stunning sculpt, loved painting him, but he doesn't do diddly on the table really, especially compared to his massive cost. 

Is there some synergy with another model that makes him so good they had to make him cost that much?

[mo11usq]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

@McSkip good advice, I have often found the old 'take the center in the 1st turn' to be a solid play in recon/interfer. As you say, Molly's aggressive style would likely make this viable in a broad range of situations. As for Philip, as you might have seen, I find dropping 3/4 markers turn 1 and maybe another turn 2 allows him to munch away happily during turns 2 and 3, then move up to hold ground/mess with enemy schemes in turns 4 and 5. The ability to burn big cards to establish momentum early in turns 2 and 3, and then draw them back with Philip mid-turn is very strong.

@10th Level Toaster I debated whether or not to mention Molly's debuff game, but in retrospect I think it is a point well made. Reflecting on the matches I've had, some of her most valuable AP has been using the humble revelations attack (whispered secret has never landed yet, so much condition immune and + flips around recently, but I guess it tends to pull out a high card). 

@ttsgosadow that was an excellent link, thanks

@PirateCaptain back on the job is interesting. For me, the ability to remove one scheme marker at range is the big deal, potentially really strong. I have wondered if the ability to know enemy schemes was designed to compensate for her less than optimal fit with many of the new strats. In friendly games I'm not a fan, as training to guess the schemes is such a big (and fun) part of the game, and often I find I know my opponent well enough to have a good idea what they are doing anyway. Tournaments is probably a different story. Ultimately the stones have been hard to spare so far for a field test. 

I'll try to take Spirit Molly out sometime soon, not having onryo, hanged etc. has been putting me off, but now curious enough to forgive myself some proxies. Still interested to hear from any veteran spiriters, there has to be more of you out there somewhere.

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

9 hours ago, Skylifter-1000 said:

Is there some synergy with another model that makes him so good they had to make him cost that much?

Nicodem.

[Skylifter-1000]

On 2.12.2017 at 7:25 PM, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

Nicodem.

Hm. Interesting. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the idea.

[PirateCaptain]

Archie is really personal preference, hugely based off how much terrain we normally use.  I like that he can jump past terrain and then go hard into something. 

[hydranixx]

In this player's opinion, the biggest difference between Spirit Molly and Horror Molly is quite simply that only one has access to Punk Zombies.

They have Hard to Kill, and an inbuilt  to their attacks, which are very, VERY good for a simple 'point-and-click' summoned model that come with Black Blood and that you don't really want to think too much about. The game is already complex enough so most people prefer to opt for the easier, simpler option that Horror Molly presents, myself included: horde 11+ cards to summon Punk Zombies and use a mix of her other abilities to play aggressively.

They only show up when you're Horror Molly, which is an enormous plus to taking her. It doesn't help that our newly released Kentauroi are Horrors and that our new Lampads aren't Minions.

 

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Nonetheless, if you're keen to have a crack with Spirits, you do have 'decent' summon options that become 'good' if you take the time to provide them with some set up. Spirit Molly has a much higher learning curve so don't be offput if you are not as successful with them as you are with Horror.

The first thing you must manage is Adversary. This will make your summons' attacks more accurate and less card intensive, and in the case of Shikome or Goryo, translates to more raw damage as well. Without effective Adversary application you're categorically weaker than Horror Molly.

Usually this pseudo reliance on Adversary makes Datsue Ba a good option and Onryo close to a must. They're cheap with a 9cost, and very flexible as they can ignore armour, occasionally heal Molly, and apply Adversary or Poison. Don't forget the (0) cost upgrade for them - that thing transform 2 or 3 of them into big hitters for a turn. If you manage to bring them in on 3+ Wounds, their Incorporeal should make them tough enough to survive 1 non-Ca hit. They're almost as painful to remove as Punk Zombies. Automatic Black Blood and Adversary when hurt, and possibly Slow when they die... Ouch.

If you already have Poison on a critical target, Shikome become decent missiles. Not only can Molly give them a (1) Charge in her own activation with her (0), but she can also Accomplice to let one Charge after she's finished if you have other needs for her (0). Their triggers keeps them a constant threat to almost anything in the game. Of course, if the target has both Poison AND Adversary, as everyone knows, they become extremely dangerous. If you can live the dream and set up both Conditions on something you want dead, they will get the job done. A word of caution - be careful if there are models nearby with large engagement ranges. A 3" reach disables your ability to make a (1) Charge since you have to summon within at least 3" of an enemy.

Goryo are a little easier to work with as they can (1) Charge vs anything that has Adversary without needing to bother with Poison like Shikome do. If something has Adversary, you need to consider which one would be better suited to attacking it - Goryo automatically ignore Armour but they can't get ++ to damage like a Shikome can.

They can sometimes be fantastic tarpits since they have huge bases to catch lots of models when they show up. Remember their ranges - 1" Black Blood, 2" Melee reach and the 3" TN-15 duel pulse that Molly forces. With that big base these all cover enormous amounts of the board. They can also hurt themselves with a (1) to summon a Seishin, which instantly applies Black Blood to nearby models, again, in either their own or Molly's activation.

One game I remember late into turn 1 summoning 1 into a Shenlong, Yin, Yu and Peasant blob. Thanks to that stupidly big 50mm base it had done 12 damage by the time the turn ended.

Hope this helps.

 

PS You might ask yourself when you would take Spirits instead of Horrors, other than setting yourself a challenge, of course.

I usually turn to Spirits if I suspect terrain will bog down my big Horrors too much and/or if I suspect lots of Armour showing up. Almost every Spirit has a way to swiftly get through or around terrain and also a way to ignore Armour, something which is very absent in the Horror line up. 

[Argentbadger]

I am the author of the report that ttsgosadow linked (thank you!) so I have some relevant experience here.  My journey with Resurrectionists is just starting though, so I may miss some context or 'better' options that can be achieved with parts of the factions that I haven't dabbled in.

Hydranixx writes very well here about the options open to Spirit Molly.  I would add that, despite the huge boon that putting Adversary on something gives, I find it quite hard to reliably apply.  Goryo need crows to do so and therefore I almost only get this when top-decking the needed card as I would generally prefer to save high crows for future summoning.  Once I explain about the 1AP charges etc, it can be quite useful for drawing cards out of the other player's hand as no-one wants to let you get this running for a really low crow.  Originally I included Onryo for the express purpose of applying Poison or Adversary at range but in practice it I have found that either the Onryo are off doing something else (scheme running or whatever) or it is simply not worth investing a decent card to make it stick.  Similarly, Datsue Ba can put Adversary on her victims but I prefer to use her to pick off the weak and turn them into Gaki / more Onryo. 

Having written all that, I can say that the crew is perfectly viable without Adversary.  As per the original post, Molly is a very aggressive master and the sheer threat overload gives a lot of survivability to your crew even when they are low on wounds simply because opponents will struggle to correctly prioritise threats.  Incorporeal can be quite a convenient defense unless you get a really unlucky match-up, and good positioning can allow you to splash Black Blood over anything that does take a poke at your crew.  Indeed, in an ideal world something with weak damage of 2 will hit your Spirit and you can then bleed over 2 or more victims and do more damage than was taken in the first place.  Obviously this is not something to be relied upon.

One point on which I will disagree with Hydranixx is that Spirit Molly could be taken primarily in order to challenge yourself, and by extension that Horror Molly is strictly stronger.  My experience has been that most crews do not load up on Ca attacks unless you give a strong reason to expect a lot of Incorporeal.  If you have both Horrors and Spirits available then the other player counter-picking one incorrectly would be a disadvantage against the other.  Other things that are particularly great about Forgotten Path Molly:

• Incorporeal gives a colossal advantage in positioning.  Even on terrain-sparse tournament boards, being able to ignore it with a chunk of your crew is massive.  Positioning will win your games of Malifaux for you, far more than any advantage in crew selection.  You can make much better use of cover, you can use terrain block to line-of-sight to some pieces while still leaving open charges to your intended victim because you no longer need to completely clear the edge of a house (or whatever) when charging.  And this is on top of the occasional defensive aspect if your Spirits are attacked by non-Ca actions.
• You can summon Hanged.  The main problem with Hanged is that they are significantly easier to handle at range compared to up close.  Summoning them into the right position can make them horrendous to deal with, probably requiring a significant investment of cards / AP to put down.  And since no-one in their right mind will leave a Hanged floating about in the middle of their crew, this can be a functional Paralyse / card drain on a few models, leaving aside that you can actually do some work with them (and Black Blood may also make this even more punishing).
• Black Blood Izamu is simply hilarious.  You're going to throw the big chap into the biggest clump of the other crew that you can find anyway, and Molly wants to be there too for summoning purposes.  Obviously you need to avoid stuff than can drop him at range (I'm doing a pretty poor job of this lately) and you then make the other player choose to try to escape Izamu's engagement or take the risk on their Rg1 attacks that they'll take as much damage hitting him as they do due to Armour.

I can certainly understand the concern about some strategies / schemes punishing Molly for summoning wounded pieces.  In such a case you can either overwhelm them by sheer number of summons so that they can score these points a couple of times before they are eventually swamped by your attrition advantage (this is my preferred option as it is most entertaining) or you can be a bit more circumspect about summoning and leverage Molly's excellent other actions to hamper the other crew.  Obviously this isn't specific to either of Molly's Limited upgrades.

[Stewbert]

Worth putting Spirit Beacon on izamu for some seishin summoning and extra situational blackblood splashing?

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

15 minutes ago, Stewbert said:

and extra situational blackblood splashing

Won't work, Seishin are immune to auras.

[Stewbert]

7 minutes ago, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

Won't work, Seishin are immune to auras.

I meant from Izamu taking 1 damage to prevent seishin dying

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

2 minutes ago, Stewbert said:

I meant from Izamu taking 1 damage to prevent seishin dying

Oh, that makes sense. Opponents will most likely ignore them, but you can always kill them with your own models to deal that small but unavoidable damage. Sometimes it's everything you need to get rid of something.

[hydranixx]

On 11/12/2017 at 11:36 PM, Argentbadger said:

......Obviously this isn't specific to either of Molly's Limited upgrades.

It's very interesting to read about the very different experience you've had with Spirit Molly.

I've almost always found my summoned Spirits folding like wet paper to attacks (unless they catch 3+ models in the 3" pulse) and hitting like pool noodles without Adversary - I permanently lack good cards to support their attacks (Molly is greedy asf) so the  from Adversary is invaluable for me.

My observations/opinions on the three main points you mentioned for Forgotten Path's strengths:

Incorporeal - I absolutely agree with you here. I've always seen Incorporeal as primarily a movement buff with minor defensive bonuses. This for me is the best advantage hands down, especially since my meta is teeming with boards featuring multi roomed enormous buildings, swamps and narrow alley ways.

Hanged - I partially agree with you here. Molly doesn't have options to boost her casting like Kirai or Nico so you require strict 13s to have access to them (which isn't impossible to do but relying on only 13s isn't great either). If you have a great hand, they can be nice. In my experiences I haven't found them tough or card intensive for opponents to remove at all. They have enormous targets on their heads, Molly has no way to heal them and they rarely come in on more than a couple wounds unless your opponent enjoys bunching together against Molly.

Izamu - I absolutely agree with you here. He's decent as far as a large Black Blood courier goes. I especially liked backing him up with Graveyard Spirit when anti armour was missing in the opponent's crew. He can be a little slow, so I often had Datsue Ba using her (0) to give him extra Walks. He's a great take but that's because he's kind of our only take lol. Spirits just don't have any other good choices for beaters, and Molly will always need one to take the heat off her.

I'm not sure if our difference in what works and what doesn't is to do with playstyle or meta. Could you post a few sample lists? 

[mo11usq]

Quote

Positioning will win your games of Malifaux for you, far more than any advantage in crew selection

This.

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Always find @hydranixx posts valuable and thoughtful, and gosh I love punk zombies, but my gut tells me Forgotten Path is more than just a deliberate handicap.

The Molly Horror assault is clearly a strong play in the right circumstances. Playing Horror this way pretty much demands extreme commitment of resources into the assault, with minimal to no hired scheme runners. Powerful, but inflexible. It has got to work in concert with the scoring of points, and if the enemy knows how to handle an alpha strike you risk getting really boned.

The right circumstances seem to me to be when Molly can score points for kills (e.g. quick murder, eliminate the leadership, take one for the team), deep marker drop (e.g. leave your mark, covert breakthrough, power ritual/surround them), and where preventing the enemy crew from moving up the table will deny them points (centreline and deep marker drop objectives). The wrong circumstances seem to be when the enemy can easily score points by waiting for you to come to them (e.g. ply for info, public executions, headhunter, set up, recover evidence, vendetta, dig their graves, punish the weak, eliminate the leadership, take one for the team, quick murder), and also when the terrain will hinder getting the right match ups or leave Molly and her crew too vulnerable to counters. Example objectives are off the top of my head, some probably aren't in the gg18 set.

I could be wrong, but in gg18 it seems like the right circumstances will be less plentiful.

If I'm right, the flexibility, crew synergy, and in particular denial-by-not-feeding-the-enemy-easy-points of spirit Molly will be important to learn. Many thanks to @Argentbadger for his thoughts on this aspect, and I second curiosity as to some sample lists for some killy/schemey/mixed pools. Also, liked the idea @Stewbert, would require some set up and hand drain, but a nice option to know about.

Lest I be accused of making Horror seem overly 2D, alpha strike is clearly not the only way to play Forgotten Life. For example, J Varney seems to have had success with necropunk-spam in certain pools. It would be interesting to hear how people approach more pool-tailored, less all-or-nothing Horror crews.

Finally, 'mad props' to Molly's debuff powers. However, this seems to be an important element of in-game tactical use of Molly, whereas the choice of life or path dictates the broader strategy of how to approach a game, which I am more interested in currently. 

[Argentbadger]

Thanks to Hydranixx and Mo11usq for their thoughts and experience.  It is certainly true that variations in local preferences (i.e. 'the meta') can have a big impact on what is perceived as good or bad.

This is the base crew that I've been working from, obviously with alterations as needed to account for the board, strats/schemes, opponent, my mood on the day:

Molly Squidpiddge (Forgotten Path, Take Back The Night, Wronged Spirits), Izamu the Armour, Datsue Ba, Anna Lovelace, Onryo, Dead Doxy, Grave Spirit, 2 Night Terrors

In case it is easier for commentary, the battle report mentioned is also posted on these forums (link).  At the moment, it represents the sum of my documented tournament experience with Forgotten Path Molly; I plan to add more as I attend events in 2018.  The forthcoming GG2018 might make a big difference to how best to use Molly of course.

Between Molly herself, Izamu, Datsue Ba and Anna there is a lot of threat that has to be dealt with and they tend to arrive at pretty much the same time.  I almost always lose one or two of these before the end of turn 2, but I am usually able to trade them for either momentum in the attrition game or favourable board position.  For very killy strategies or scheme pools I'd drop the Night Terrors as they are a bit of a liability there (AP inefficient to kill, but not very hard either) and bring in a Belle to Lure my victims in.

I'm on the fence about whether Anna Lovelace is the right pick.  She has a lot of amusing tech that comes up reasonably often, and having a gun that doesn't randomise into melee is obviously helpful in a crew that wants to jump right down the other crew's throat at the first opportunity.  Rush of Magic helps get high cards / crows too.  All in all I feel like she's a little bit of a lot of good things that Molly likes.  Nonetheless, there is certainly a lot of testing still to be done, and Malifaux's balance is good enough that one could make a case for a lot of the other 'tech picks' in the same 9ss slot.

Regarding getting the good cards for summoning Hanged (or whatever else) I have found that the card draw from Take Back The Night is really helpful.  I also try to be a bit circumspect about summoning models that will come in on 2 or fewer wounds.  3 seems to be the magic number in this case as it stops people just landing a couple of weak damage hits and dropping your new Spirits too easily.  Most Horrors will drop after 2 hits from pretty much anything unless you can bring them in within range of 4 victims; this is of course not impossible, but is seems quite rare.  For Spirits, 3 wounds will keep you safe from even two hits at weak damage of 2.  Depending on what I else bring, I might also consider that trade of 1 master AP plus a decent card is worth it to waste something's AP to attack a summoned Spirit anyway.  In addition, if I expect that something will die very soon after being summoned, I try to leverage the Black Blood as much as possible, sometimes even coming in with fewer wounds than the maximum possible (i.e. cuddling up close to a couple of models that I want to get Black Blood over rather than summoning in the centre of the enemy crew.

Stewbert - that's a pretty cute trick with Izamu.  I'm not sure I can see myself spending the extra Soulstone for Spirit Beacon on Izamu though; it feels rather situational.  And Seishin are just not that amazing.

[hydranixx]

Interesting, @Argentbadger, you've given me much food for thought. I appreciate the detail you've gone into - cheers for that!

My core build was very similar to yours - I used to always take those same 3 upgrades on Molly, Izamu, Datsue Ba, Graveyard Spirit, often an Onryo and either a Belle or Doxy - so maybe I was doing something right with my spirit builds after all.

I frequently played Sybelle but I don't think I'd bother with her again (unless Assassinate is in the pool - she's decent at saving Molly and passable at killing with her upgrade). Anna seems more useful overall, she's a star.

Do you ever hire Philip and the Nanny? In my early builds I always found room for him, but more recently I've been feeling, for both Horror and Spirit, that Take Back The Night + Molly's cycling triggers are enough to get by with, and saving 8+ss for damage/threat models seems good.

I won't lie. I'm a little bit inspired to bring out Forgotten Path Molly a few more times to see how I go again. I just wish I could turn Kentauroi into Spirits :L

[McSkip]

 Had a nice game yesterday with Horror Molly against Lillith.

Lillith crew did their usual game ganging up behind these forest markers and placing my rougue necromancy into their crew to kill it with nekima. I could get LOS with my belle and could lure the necromancy back behin the trees so nekima had to fly in the forest marker to get 2 hits. Rougue lives.

Kentauroi moves twice, Molly summons 2 punks in the forest, does minus flips to Nekima and reactivating Kentauroi. Kentauroi charges Nekima killing her. Punk zombies both die. Top of turn 2 Molly summons 4 Mindless zombies in the middle of the enemy crew with Asura in LOS... game over

[Argentbadger]

On 12/19/2017 at 12:16 AM, hydranixx said:

Interesting, @Argentbadger, you've given me much food for thought. I appreciate the detail you've gone into - cheers for that!

My core build was very similar to yours - I used to always take those same 3 upgrades on Molly, Izamu, Datsue Ba, Graveyard Spirit, often an Onryo and either a Belle or Doxy - so maybe I was doing something right with my spirit builds after all.

I frequently played Sybelle but I don't think I'd bother with her again (unless Assassinate is in the pool - she's decent at saving Molly and passable at killing with her upgrade). Anna seems more useful overall, she's a star.

Do you ever hire Philip and the Nanny? In my early builds I always found room for him, but more recently I've been feeling, for both Horror and Spirit, that Take Back The Night + Molly's cycling triggers are enough to get by with, and saving 8+ss for damage/threat models seems good.

I won't lie. I'm a little bit inspired to bring out Forgotten Path Molly a few more times to see how I go again. I just wish I could turn Kentauroi into Spirits :L

I'm glad you're inspired!  Molly is certainly a lot of fun whether I win or lose, have her strong at the end of the game or dead in turn 2.

I tried using Philip and the Nanny in early testing.  Of course, they are great because of the keywords, but lately I've found them too static to keep up with the rest of the crew rushing forward as fast as possible.  I'm also a bit cautious since I consider them to be very pure support and I just don't like spending 8SS (plus whatever I've got to drop the scheme markers) just to hang around in my own deployment zone drawing cards.  I've found the model to be a bit more appealing in a Kirai crew, partly because Philip can hold Take Back The Night which obviously synergises well with her summons and partly because I find Kirai to want less of a breakneck rush down the other crew's throat.

I've been trying Hannah and Anna as a combination with Molly and liked it well.  Hannah can do a lot of work in addition to just giving that sweet Arcane Reservoir and having Anna around means that she's never short of something good to copy with Make A New Entry.  Being immune to Black Blood is quite a bonus since it means one less positional aspect to worry about.  I got one tournament game (link) with this combination was happy with the results.