MEGAHORSE

ArtofWarStudios is UK based, but their shipping prices are fair. I picked up their acrylic set for Ressers (its a light green/yellow green acrylic). I'm a huge fan of acrylic to wood. I'm like a child. It's shiny, I like it. While they didnt have "Adversary" markers when I ordered mine, they had just about everything else. Corpses, schemes, scrap, soulstones, shard markers, blasts, Seamus's Hat, poison (picked up two packs of these and the corpses), etc. I'm pretty happy with them.

Well, I do care, as usually I'm stoning for that Crow, and cheating in the card to summon them lol. That's far from free to me! I dont see how, in your opinion, having the plus flip doesnt make them significantly better when it in fact does make them significantly better at connecting, IE Adversary? I dont mean to rag on you man, but it's just ridiculous to hear that the Punks attack getting + doesnt matter much but Adversary is great when its the same effect, but benefiting all spirit attacks, not just the Punk's melee. More often than not the extra flip is getting me from low to mid, or mid to high on my attack flips. I dont need them to attack Onyro to get it, and I dont need Shikome to hit a duel to apply it to a single model either, it's just built in. Adversary is great, when you get it to go off, and then can activate and benefit from it. Typically it drains their cards. I'm happy for that too! Not saying it's bad by any means Fetid. I'm with you there. But from my point of view, I'm just at least happy to get a single activation out of them, with any summoner. Maybe I'm spoiled from Kirai being able to accurately shoot and apply it. And I'm happy they're killing my summons. But I'm usually summoning 2 a turn if I can, and maybe that's my issue, is summoning too often? Or biting off more than I can chew. I'm not a fantastic player by any means, but I just want to understand. I think I do, I just need some practice at it. As I said, I have unrealistic expectations from the incredible potential of Punks in pure killing and staying power, and I just need to get a hang of how to properly use Spirit Molly's summons and get the most mileage out of them.

It's probably my meta then. We still have alot of new players and people who play big killy things, and despite the damage output the hanged and shikome can put out, it's getting them to survive or connect with an attack I have issues with!

I will echo this. I played my first game with spirit molly last night. I'm less than impressed with her summons (I'm spoiled by punks actually being able to take more than one hit), Datsue and Izamu flew up the field while phillip ate schemes behind them. Izamu walked up, then got a charge on huggy and tabled him. He held a point for quite a while before huggy came back and slowly chipped him down. I definitely prefer horror thus far, but I need more experience with the spirits. This may have also been due to my incredibly poor flips and playing against Lynch who just puts out such insane firepower along with Huggy being a pain. Onyro are great when their Slow goes off, or when you can take advantage of Adversary. Again, spoiled by a Hard to Kill, ML 6 with a built in positive flip to damage. I also hit issues with drawing alot of 11s. I cant quite summon a Shikome with that, but I'm stuck with Drowned(10) and Onyro(9). However, that makes 9's not as awkward as they are for Horror Molly! I guess I cant have a damn good summon for each TN! Drowned were fantastic though! definitely the tanky summon i wanted. I need to get mine finished on the paint table. Datsue is someone I will most likely take against Arcanists due to ignoring armor, but I was really missing Yin. Probably also because I usually take Yin, but was giving Phillip another go, and he definitely helps shore up her card issues, same with Take Back the Night on Molly.

apologies, didnt have the summoning card in front of me when typing. I assumed they were Horrors.

Sorry to necro the thread, but I finally tried out Phillip and the Nanny, and yeah. The card draw was just incredible. I also took her with Take back the Night and hired her with Kirai. I had 5 soulstones left by the end of turn 3 because I just didnt need them! I was drawing upwards of 5 cards a turn and seeing so many crows! I actually was able to support summoning with Kirai and Datsue as well as cheating in cards to save/heal Yin! I guess what I find most ironic about my malifaux experience is how little I've cared for Molly, and yet I find myself picking her up more often than not (Mostly because Nicodem is an NPE for a few players in my area). Her playstyle suits me, yet I feel naked and exposed in being so aggressive with her, but damn is it fun! I definitely have come around to not using belles as a crutch, or maybe just hiring one. They definitely arent as required as I thought, my initial though being that if the opponent doesnt bunch up or move up far enough for me to get summons off, I could pull some of their models in. I'm less upset about Horror Molly anymore, and it's mostly because I realized Necropunks arent a terrible summon either, given their hard to kill and ability to heal up. Plus killjoy bombing is fun. I feel like she was balanced around this fact heavily and not taking killjoy makes me also feel at a loss with Horror Molly, as I feel I'm missing something to really make her competitive and engaging.

oh shoot! It is a trigger! That makes it much less of an auto include in that case. I can see why Bloody Shears are actually worth using now haha... Yeah. In that case... I think I'll be taking Shears much more often i think.

Oh yes, it's definitely a powerful action, especially if you're fighting Gremlins or summoning alot of Shikome and the ilk. It's not something I will take every time, but it will be very beneficial for Interference. Kirai has so many strong upgrades just for her, having to choose a third can be incredibly difficult! It's something I dont have with Molly. I always start with Forgotten X, but sometimes just run that and do just fine. Thank you again for the ideas One thing to keep in mind OP is how powerful Kirai's gun is. Especially with Unforgiven (I think it is) that raises its minimum damage to 3. With the built in crow you're applying Adversary on hit, and if you kill the target and declare the double crow?(or crow-mask) trigger, you get to summon a Gaki. Unlike Nicodem's Decay which is pretty lackluster outside of nailing your own models to heal them (and possibly 2 damage to an opposing mode), Kirai can put out some hurt and it really synergizes well with the rest of her crew. Even if you dont take (unforgiven i think it is?) and take Bloody shears, you can apply adversary, swirl up Izamu, and charge him in off accomplice hitting with + to attack and damage flips for 3 attacks!

I didnt realize you could summon seishin off of each one that dies, which is pretty significant i just want to point out that you cant get scheme markers off of them. Per Spirit Whispers "(1) Spirit Whispers: Until the end of the turn, when another non-peon Spirit is killed within 6",...." the zombies arent spirits, and they are peons. The zombies also can be used as awesome ht1 models for Ikyro to pop out from. The opponent may not expect that they can help spawn Ikyro too. I'm not a huge fan of running too many non-spirit beaters, as Kirai cant swirl them in place of a Seishin. Ideally you take Izamu and summon/walk a seishin near a key opposing model, then swap it with Izamu.

It's unfortunate given that KJ and Yin are two of the best enforcer hires that can be made by Molly. As others have said, Valedictorian, Rogue Necro, and our Emissary are pretty great.

Yes. I was typically keeping her around to tie up certain units, although the best play, if you have the cards to spare, can sometimes be summoning her, she spreads Adversary. You activate her next. Swing with a + flip. Spirits move up, if necessary. Sacrifice herself. Let the opponent hit a model again, resummon her, spreading more adversary. It's really up to the situation. Against shooty crews, it's a really unique defense. I'll let someone more experienced chime in, however, on the rest of your questions or correct/clarify my own answers.

There aren't any major blog posts or podcasts yet due to the fact that her spirits werent out in plastic until recently. Much like Nicodem or Molly, she can function one of two major ways: Summoner Support Not to say that support cannot summon, or summoner doesnt support, but that they can be built one of two major ways (that i've seen so far and experimented with) For example, with Kirai, you can take a Flesh Construct (I tried a Necropunk along with it due to its self healing and it worked well) as summoning batteries if you plan on that route. Alternatively, you can use seishin as your summoning batteries and play support, hiring mostly beatsticks and support, and Swirling them in. In either case, I really like Datsue ba as a way to summon Seishin in either build. She also ignores armor, which is nice vs Arcanists. I'd search this subfourm for topics on her. People are still experimenting. I've yet to play support but I plan to this coming week. She's definitely incredibly strong and resilient. Just incredibly card hungry. Incredibly, between masks for movement and crows for summoning, and mid-high cards for summoning spirits and seishin.

Well, i mean, that is the idea right? I was responding to both you and Blitz at once. The way folks on the forum here describe it, you'd think pulling that off happens perfectly every game turns 1-2 and the opponent never recovers, or learns to counter it. Even then, you can take out a solid 6-10 point model and have the opponent table killjoy and then continue to out activate you the remainder of the turn and further put you back on wounds, AP, and stones. Careful bombing is key. Ideally behind some cover and or blocking terrain so he will survive a few turns and continue his rampage. I just want to point that out, and say that I agree with Blitz and you! Back to the topic at hand... there are many scenarios where molly is ideal over Nicodem and Squatter's Rights and scheme heavy lists come to mind. Not that Nico is bad at those, but Molly puts alot of pressure on the opponent, where Nicodem has a strict bubble and is fairly predictable in that aspect. His support bubble is too strong to leave, especially within 6". 8" nets him zombies off corpses. He supports his summons better, but I personally think Molly edges him out in being able to just eat AP and cause more of a psychological impact. Whether its with Horror or Spirit. While she technically "is" a bubble master like Nicodem, the rest of her list isn't neutered being outside of the bubble. They just lose black blood, accomplice, and a few other minor tricks. Another thing to note is the fact she has a smaller summoning pool, with Punks, Students, Shikome, Drowned, and the Hanged being the main targets. I've not yet tried summoning Belles or scheme runners much yet (although Necropunks wouldnt be bad for turns 3-5 scheme running, ie, turn 5 leaping to Protect markers and healing up to make HtW matter). It's just less options and makes her less flexible, but as Blitz says below, she seems to heavily favor interactive, aggressive strats/schemes due to her summoning style, tricks like bete and killjoy bombing, etc. I personally love Molly for Deliver a message, between the synergy with Crooligans and Bete, it becomes stupid easy. I constantly harp on Molly about how awful she is compared to Nicodem, but I've probably hired her the most out of any master for lists. She's versatile and doesnt telegraph like Nicodem or Mcmourning. Which makes her more fun to me anyway, than she is on paper. On paper I really dislike her. She's squishy, wants to be too close to the enemy for comfort, and her cast actions seem to not do a ton for me, but they eat cards and work well with Yin's 0.

What Blitz is referring to is a player who isn't put on an emotional tilt by the threat of killjoy and can either kite it around with ranged units, or get in its face prior to its activation (assuming it wasnt accomplice'd). Killjoy is 13 points, and 2-4AP can remove that from the game. That will set you back dramatically. Proper use of the bomb is key. Use it to take out some camping units, support, etc. Dont just run it in and let them just tear it apart. That's asinine.

Mindless are a may! If that helps at all

While the Emissary is very good, the opposing factions also get their own fun new powertools. It's like any other wave of releases for a game, we need to shake up the meta and shore up weaknesses inside of certain factions/masters/models and help give new tools to old ideas and problems. Or, like giving us new models that help us do something NEW rather than just stick to the same playstyle we've always had. I think Sloth and Harry do that for us, theyre 7-8 cost enforcers that change the way we approach a situation. Heck, if you look at our Wave 2, and compare it to wave 1, you have the same sort of "woah, what happened here?" While you CAN take the emissary and do well, it may not be best for every scenario. Will it help you will x scheme or y strategy? These also help make campaigns more interesting by having new models to buy and unlock new, broken, and fun combos

Pandora is on my list, got her off a new player moving her up too close to Sebby and Douglas. I'm aiming to pick mcm against someone who loves Ramos to try it on him through Counterspell.

So the person who won initiative == First Player?

Okay, for example, I have a Carrion Emissary and Sebastian hiding behind his two Shard Markers. These markers are removed, per the rules on his card, at the end of the turn. Say I have two enemies in front of the shards, both with Poison. My question is, as I dont have the rulebook handy, in what order do End of Turn effects resolve? Do the markers fall off prior to Poison/Burning ticking? Or vice versa? Or simultaneously? If simultaneously, are they then also affected by Sebastians aura of adding +2 damage to poison ticks if they are within range?

This. Each upgrade is supposed to help shore up a weakness of the master and encourages taking it. Seamus's upgrade is ok. it allows the Emissary to heal along with Seamus with failed Wp duels, which will help keep it around longer and make its Hard to Kill that muhc more annoying. It also gains a "toss" for enemies within 2" to be thrown 6" away and possibly take damage, which plays into the crew's ability to manipulate the board, as well as getting Copycat and Seamus out of melee combat. Sadly it has no Wp duels to help proc his heal nor Seamus's, so keep that in mind. But being able to make Ht4 shards is the real kicker here. Get in your back alleys when and where you need them. Also provides ranged Ca duels. Belles are suddenly the best scheme runners within 6" of it and sybelle. McMourning is the one most people arent excited about, but I really want to try. The Emissary brings a ranged shooty option that is much more reliable than the Guild autopsie's, and does some actual damage if you want to kill things without Expunging them (while also applying poison at range, without a build in suit). Shards allow you to move Sebastian up the field more easily. The big downside is possibly losing support in bringing the Emissary, or Rafkin (and a second Transfusion). Claims of the Dead uses otherwise useless Corpse Markers to help you accomplish schemes. The big boon is the upgrade, giving a (0), if you dont need Shards, to a Ca Gun action dealing 1/1BB/1BBB and giving ALL affected models Poison 1. In addition, the upgrade gives the Emissary a + to attack flips against Poisned models. I'd shoot a flesh construct and just nuke their crew with chip damage. I'd compare him to a ranged Rafkin. Myself, I dont care for Rafkin. He's a Shikome that heals off poison that can carry an upgrade for 1ss less, but with less defensive measures. I know others love him, but he either does nothing the entire game, or kills a single model. I think the Emissary can better let me hand out poison, while also having its OWN self healing, and helping position sebastian for fun shenanigans. I need to ask this in the rules forum, but what happens first? Shards disappearing, or Poison/Burning damage at end of turn? As if he's behind shards, and enemies are in front of the shards, and the turn ends, do they take the extra damage?Nicodem gets the least mileage out of the Emissary, and yet, the most. He finally has a solid ranged option as well, and the Shards allow him to sit in the backfield away from snipers and make mindless zombies and raise the dead without fear. Even better, the markers make another zombie each turn. March of the Dead is just more salt on the wound. The additional walk helps, as most of his crew is walk 5 at best. Helps Izamu or your Nurses a bit .Again, not much. The upgrade is key for Mindless Zombie activation control, allowing them to get +1Ml for each other Mindless near them. ML6 zombies means your opponent isnt going to be able to disengage very easily. Board control! I guess he also has a new 0 to pitch a card to give a friendly undead + on attack flips, but that's pretty eh. Horror Molly gains A TON. More movement just means turn 1 Punk Zombie bombs are more eminent, the ranged attack is nasty, the Shards make zombies, and the upgrade grants Horror to Mindless Zombies, so Manical Laughter suddenly is a very viable choice since the Mindless will splash out Black Blood if theyre near both Molly and the Emissary. That will probably be the trick. also, on a 4 of tomes, he can hand out Fast as a (0) as well! While Spirit Molly may be considered "fine", I was still disappointed that side of her didnt get an upgrade to compensate. I guess she can have him take the generic upgrade. I'm the least excited to use him with Spirit Molly unless someone can convince me of his usefulness. I'm excited for Kirai and him. He becomes a spirit and grants friendly spirits within 4" the ability to treat Ca actions as Ml actions for the incorporeal ability. Which makes some models EXTREMELY tough to remove now. He also has the ability to 0 to push a friendly spirit 4" on a 6 of any suit within 6". Definitely just more shenanigans for Kirai to abuse. Again, like Nicodem, Kirai has many slow models and relies on pushes and abilities to swap models around, he has that in spades, as well as more movement when youre near the guy. And most importantly, he wont be needing any healing from her. This helps alleviate her AP being used on movement and healing when he can certainly help out. Generic upgrade: He grants friendly minions within 4" + to attack flips. And on a 0, he can discard a soulstone to draw two and discard two cards, which is pretty solid, I guess. The important bit is it's any attack flip, so Guild Autopsies can become a better ranged option by not having to focus!edit2: fixed a few things. these are just my thoughts reading the card and upgrade and what he can offer the masters given his upgrades and abilities. I'm not a great player so take it with a grain of salt

I like it. Poor guy had some bad luck on those flips in the heat of things. Was this his first time playing against Dreamer or a summoner? I know Marcus can be a bad time if he gets the jump with Cerberus, so kudos on keeping him in check. The terrain did seem pretty relevant! I disagree there after seeing what you mentioned about the twins and him having an optimal deployment zone. Overall, Good report.

Your opponents pitch cards for the TN15 Def duel? Lucky duck! Usually they fall for that once, then I do it 10 more times over the game and they learn their lesson

I am about to listen to your second episode shortly. I really enjoyed the first, but it did suffer from being a bit jumpy, almost like it was recorded without editing pieces around or editing out tangents. What I'm trying to say is at times it went off topic from the model at hand, as I found myself trying to rewind multiple times to confirm what i heard as it went off topic, or if i missed the topic jump. But I definitely like the format. I really enjoy hearing more than one or two people discuss a model. It really helps to know what the other side of the table thinks when they see it, or what they do to neutralize the threat, as well as tricks on how to play the model. I eagerly await the next episode!

The Hanged is very good, I highly recommend summoning them if When the opponent is packing high wound models or Cerberus-like models. Halfing Cerberus's hp neuters his Three Headed ability. This doesnt get by armor, but if you can deal more damage than you could with a Punk Zombie/Student, they're worthwhile, and at range. If you take Yin, use Yin's (0) to give the target - on all Wp duels, then Whisper Secrets to it. It will go down in a hurry. In addition, if your opponent is packing low Wp models, The Hanged is a good way to drain cards or just straight up remove units from the table, between it's Horror duel and Whispers. Taking Yin and summoning The Hanged is solid, since Nicodem primarily focuses on buffing his melee units and defense. Attacking Wp will give you more avenues to strike. The opponent packs healing, and no conditional removal. Suddenly they're SOL. I wouldnt summon The Hanged, most likely, if the opponent has many ways to ignore Wp duels. Sure, the hanged can remove immunities to Wp duels, but... Models that can remove conditions. Whispers places a condition that prevents the opponent's models from healing. However, if you can nail some high wound models with whispers and they really want to heal them, this will tie up Johan and pal's AP for a turn or more. Your opponent has Obey-like moves, ie, Collodi. Nothing worse than getting Whispered by your own Hanged. As to your other questions, well, I wouldnt complain about options. Sure, it's overwhelming at first, but then you have a master like Ramos that can just summon spiders. If you REALLY dont like options, there's that! It's what helps Nicodem be so powerful, is just the array of options, between support pieces like Belles, to scheme runners like Canine Remains, Necropunks, and Crooligans, to beaters like Punk Zombies, the Students, to tarpits like Flesh Constructs. My favorite summons are Punk Zombies for sure. They're the most AP efficient to summon due to their hard to kill and built in + to attack flips. If you can manage to have an abundance of high non-crow cards, Flesh Constructs make good tarpits. Summon one in, and sling some decays at it for blasts to heal your models and damage opposing models. A very niche scenario, I prefer to hire them (in other lists), but if you need tarpits to block lanes, they *can* be better than punks for a 10. I like Students as well. They suffer from costing the same card # as Punk zombies (or The Hanged), without hard to kill and a built in + to attack flips. They do, however, gain the ability to remove triggers from models until EOT, which can be invaluable. In addition, they also have armor 1, hard to wound 1, and terrifying 12 vs their preferred targets. With Yin, if you hire her, you can easily lock down models similar to how Molly Kirai and Seamus like to do, by giving a big target the opponent has - to Wp and Ca duels, then slither your student up to them. They should have fun on that uncheatable wp duel! and uncheatable denial to triggers. Again, situational. Options! If I summon a scheme runner, it's Necropunks. Again, hard to wound. Watch for things that ignore this. From the schemes and stones podcast, he recommends summoning as much as possible and not healing. Healing *can* be useful, but if you have the cards, summoning is better. Why? Within Nicodem's or the Vulture's aura, summoned models cannot gain slow. So you're turning 1AP into 2AP instantly, assuming they survive to activate. Using Decay to heal a model for 2 points isnt worth it. I think if you can blast it onto multiple models, it can be useful, particularly if your hard to wound models are stuck at 1 wound remaining. Next, is his ability to hand out fast and slow. I've yet to need to hand out slow, but handing out fast tends to have Punk zombies murder things quick (charge+1AP attack/plant/walk/defensive). Or allow a non-scheme runner to plant a scheme marker, walk, plant another. etcetc. Then you have Reaper Grin which lets you use a (1) to gain the benefits (I believe, dont have the card in front of me) of Soft cover in an aura, which I find invaluable against Hans and other snipers, as you typically hang back the first two turns, then move up if needed. They want to exploit this, so if you suspect shooting (or assassination for the defensive trigger on the upgrade), you may be taking this upgrade as a 1ss and 1AP tax to further protect your dudes from danger. Hope this helps.