Starting Molly

[D_acolyte]

I am thinking of trying a few games with Molly, stealing her from a friend for a game or 5. I was wondering if there is any good advice that can be given. Please do not point me to pull my finger, I have read it and found an error in it. Ama No Zaku is not a Spirit but only an Oni.

 

I plan on going heavy horror built and then trying some spirits sense I have some from Marcus, night terrors and shikome.

 

I am also not wild about Philip and the Nanny and want to know if people find him useful? 

[Dirial]

Do you mean heavy horror build as in Horrors, or Horror duels? Because Spirit Molly and Horror Molly isn't possible in the same list.

 

Most people consider Spirit Molly somewhat stronger, as in more synergies.

[D_acolyte]

Starting with the Horror Molly and then I plan to use the Spirit Molly.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I've lately been experimenting with Philip, and he's not bad and in fact can be great. The problem is competition. Ressers have some of the best support models in the game. Nurses, Rotten Belles, Chiaki, and others are all amazing pieces, and it's very easy to overload on support. Philip is control support, and has some nice features.

 

First he can get a Chatty aura up. This is huge. Anyone who has even had to deal with a Chatty aura knows it is one of the most annoying things ever, and in my games if something is putting up Chatty it tends to get targeted somewhat fast. The issues are that firstly, the aura is actually a little anti-synergistic with Philip. Philip isn't all that hard to kill, and one of his best defensive measures is Manipulative 13. Repeatedly making an enemy take duels is a great way to drain their hand and or make them decide to pick on easier targets. Philip's aura though is a (1) action which means unless you use another model's ability to make him use his chatty aura (Molly's 0 action from her limited upgrades, say) he's going to lose one of his best defenses putting the aura up. And secondly that as an activated ability it might not be available when you want it. So if you are counting on Chatty its hard not to just look at Mort, whose aura is active all the time.

 

He has some great speed, move 6 with a bonus 2" if you move him with your own abilities (Doxies are especially good for this) means he can often get where he needs to very swiftly.

 

His best abilities though, in my opinion, are his ability to turn enemy scheme markers into Corpses, and his ability to destroy friendly scheme markers to draw and cycle cards.

 

Being able to destroy enemy scheme markers, without having to kill the model on top of them, can be game winning if the scheme pool goes in a way that supports it. Ideally being able to use the Corpses is great as well, but just getting rid of the marker is decent enough.

 

And when Philip has nothing better to do you can activate him to put down a scheme marker, then destroy it to draw 2 cards and then discard one. This is a pretty useful ability, but it's very hard to really justify a cost for it. I did have a recent game where I was trying out Philip and for 5 turns, that's all Philip did. It was hard to really rate as ?I did get much better cards all game, but still was basically playing a model down it felt like.

 

Because of all this, to me, Philip is a back field control piece. He's resilient and offensive enough to cause a serious threat to enemy scheme runners, and with a little support from a Doxy can easily catch most of them if he tries, and can reach out and destroy their markers if needed, and when not doing this can help get you better cards, or get low cards out of the deck. For this reason I'd almost always run him with either no upgrades, or Take back the night and or Necrotic Preperation, for the increased flip to disengaging strikes. 

 

But having said all that, he doesn't jump into all that many lists as he is really only really worth it if the scheme pool dictates he is a good piece to stop the enemy's schemes.

 

 

Now on to Molly. If you are building her as a Horror based build there are some models you are going to want right off the bat:

Madam Sybelle, Punk Zomibes, Crooligans, Yin, Killjoy, the Drowned and University of Transmortis.

 

Madam Sybelle is almost an auto include for Molly because on her own she is a decent enough Henchman, with some fun upgrade potential, a ranged attack, a decentish enough Ml attack, and being fairly resilient. Add to this the ability to Move Molly around every turn, from up to 12" away as a 0 action, and she just becomes almost always take, as never having to spend Molly's AP for walking is extremely useful. Sybelle does have the downside that she isn't a Belle, Horror, or Spirit, so you do have to be careful how you position her so as not to get destroyed by your own black blood, but there are ways around that as I'll mention later.

 

Yin is also, I feel, almost an auto include for Molly, Horror based anyway. Firstly there is the trick Adam from cheated fates pointed out with Yin and Sybelle. Yin has an ability as a 0 action to give a model a negative flip on all Ca and WP duels until Yin is killed or activates again. Pair that with Sybelle's other 0, which makes a model which targets anyone other than sybelle with an action have to take a wp 13 duel or the action fails. Landing both on an enemy means that unless they can, and do, spend SS on the simple flip, they are unlikely to be able to win any WP duel (including Terror) or use their own CA actions. Yin is also very resilient as she has her mass of viscera giving a negative to attack and damage flips against her, and has two really good attack actions, in addition to being one of the few models in the game with Wicked. She sybergizes well with Molly because Molly's debuff can only be used once per turn, but targets WP, so Yin landing her debuff almost certainly allows Molly to land hers, and they stack, so WP based attacks now cause the enemy to suffer a double negative flip...which is just brutal.

 

Crooligans have great synergy because they are one of the two great scheme runners for ressers, and while in that specific role they aren't as good as necro punks, because they cannot drop scheme markers first turn, ever (way more important then it might otherwise seem) they can deploy via from the shadows, put up aura's of cover, and can put up an aura that causes Molly's summon to potentially do more dmg to enemies caught in range.

 

You'll want Punk zombies because for Horror Molly they are the most popular summon for her, as they have hard to kill, meaning they often take 2 ap to remove, and they have a built in positive to their attack, and if you are going for exploding ball of death molly, they have slice and dice which can also benefit from the Crooligan's aura and can hit other summoned models in order to splash more black blood over everything.

 

You'll want the drowned because they are decent enough summons, and when they are killed (such as summoned into an area where there aren't any enemies) they drop a scheme marker due to their finish the job ability.

 

You'll want Transmortis for the options the students give you for summoning. Have an enemy with pesky armor? Summon a student of Steel to just ignore it. Dealing with Ressers and really are tired of their Hard to wound? Summon a student of Sinew to ignore it. In addition all the students have an ability to totally shut off an enemy model's triggers as a 0 action (they target wp, so Yin's debuff combos well here as well). Facing a rider on turn 3+ and it's just shrugging off your attacks? Summon a student, use Molly's 0 action to give it focus (the riders have an ability to give negative twists to attacks at their WP) Accomplice them next and hit them with Lecture Notes and just take their triggers away for the rest of the turn. Riders really hate seeing the students. I'd personally never hire one of the students, but their summoning potential is good enough for her you'll want the option.

 

Horror based Molly will also want to occasionally hire the Valedictorian, as she is a Horror, is very fast and maneuverable, and very durable with armor 1 and hard to wound as well as use SS and 10 wounds. I usually run her with unnerving aura and necrotic preparation to make her a very nasty control Henchman.

 

You'll want Killjoy for the option of the turn 1 deployment zone bomb, and as he is also a Horror Molly can give him extra AP via her 0 action from her limited upgrades.

 

You'll also most likely want the Carrion Emissary when it comes out as it will enable you to use any undead model with Mollly as a Horror, as the upgrade Molly gets for it gives out an aura to 10" that makes all friendly undead in the aura (madam sybelle for instance) a Horror. This will also allow you to build a potential black blood bomb by giving Molly the Maniacal Laughter upgrade. Molly doesn't have a lot of uses for corpses, so they tend to pile up around her. With Maniacal Laughter she can raise all the corpses around her as mindless zombies, who then become Horrors if within 10" and LoS of the emissary, who then, if within 6" and LoS of Molly, all gain black Blood. Surround and enemy, summon a Punk Zombie, and Slice and Dice for lots of splash damage against anything that doesn't also have black blood.

 

These are all just basic tricks. The big thing that you need to be careful of when playing Molly is not letting her get targeted. She can die very easily if she gets focused on, and if she does and you keep her alive via her trigger, you are going to drain your hand for doing anything else that is useful during the turn. I also feel that the spirit build is the stronger of her two builds, but neither of them is bad, you just get more synergies and more summoning options going spirit.

[Dirial]

I hear fun things about Philip with Corpse Bloat, but have never seen it.

[D_acolyte]

Thank you, Fetid Strumpet. Luckily I access to most of those.

[Rob Lo]

Awesome post, Fetid! The kind that makes me want to play a master even more, and Molly is already one of my favorites.

 

Phillip is one of those models you bring only when you see a clear, specific reason for bringing him, rather than being part of the core 'almost always take' crew you think of for Molly. Even when he is the right tool for the job, his effects are often 'soft', less obvious and less felt but there none the less. His card draw can be so helpful because Molly, like most summoners, want cards.. lots of cards. When things go right, he can shine, but there's a lot of ways for him to not shine along the way.

 

And I happened to face off against a Phillip with corpse bloat this past weekend. It was used a little to good effect, and I'm not entirely sure why it wasn't used more. I was very aware and afraid of it the whole time. He seems a good model to put it on, to me.

[Eichohrkatz]

Hi I'am new at Malifaux and thinking about starting with Molly too.

But I don't know what molly i want to play, horror or spirit Molly. Can someone tell me about spirit Mollys playstyle and what models fit with the spirit molly.

 

Sorry for my bad english it's not my mothertongue.

[Fetid Strumpet]

It's basically the same as horror Molly, your tools just change. Spirits have a wider array of SS costs to summon, have the best minion summon, the hanged, and a good chunk of spirits have ways to give out te adversary condition, which gives all spirits attacking a model with that condition a positive flip to attacks. the downside to Spirit Molly is that there aren't alot of big unique spirit models but she still has access to some amazing spirit beaters like Izamu.

Horror Molly has a slightly larger collection of big unique models like Yin, Killjoy, the Rogue Necromancy, and the upcoming wave 3 model sloth. She can summon the most popular Resser summon, the punk zombie, and has better synergy with the spare parts upgrade, and the better synergy with her wave 3 emissary of fate upgrade. Additionally one of the two best scheme runners in ressers, the Crooligan, is a horror. It's not strictly important as Crooligans, I find are useually operating far away from Molly, but there are some tricks with them that are harder to do if your playing spirit Molly.

From a fluff, theme, and story perspective, I prefer Horror Molly, but from a competitive perspective I think Spirit Molly is much stronger, because of the more common synergies spirits give each other.

That doest mean Horror Molly isn't good or competitive. I've been playing Horror Molly for the last few games I've played her, and won all those games, but I feel just because of the way the implemented the spirits to carry more of Kirai's theme on themselves, Molly makes better use of that internal synergy.

But as far as actually Playstyle, they're not that different from each other.

[D_acolyte]

Also spirit Molly can summon night terrors which I enjoyed in my mark 1 Dreamer and Marcus army. They are lovely little models that had a good movement effect in mark 1 and hard to kill. I have not used them in mark 2 but they seem like a good little black blood bomb for spirit Molly as long as you can get to enemies with in 3 for wounds and 1 or more in 1.

[NorjanPaavi]

Old topic but have you ever think taking Toshiro with Horror Molly? I have planned to to test Toshiro with that summon upgrade + maybe corpse bloat. Ashigaru may be good add to hold enemy for one round.

[joediamond]

Old topic but have you ever think taking Toshiro with Horror Molly? I have planned to to test Toshiro with that summon upgrade + maybe corpse bloat. Ashigaru may be good add to hold enemy for one round.

 

I don't think you'll have the cards to power BOTH of their summoning, but I recently had to fight Horror Molly.  A model that gives fast and a 4" push to recently summoned Punk Zombies/Students, who are then in a position to flurry with Toshiro's   melee attack buff is....not fun.  

 

Also, I second whoever says Phillip is useful.  He's VERY good when there's a lot of scheme marker objectives, and reasonably fast and durable.  He has Manipulative, Df6, Hard to Wound, and soulstone prevention.  Defensive stance can make him a nightmare to kill.  I've yet to use him with Horror Molly, but I like him with Kirai, and I can't imagine black blood and being able to make him take a (1) action out of activation makes him worse.  He's a very niche Henchman, sure, but oh what a glorious niche!

[admiralvorkraft]

I don't know if he's niche - between his card generation and scheme marker removal I've seen him in quite a few resser lists.

[joediamond]

I just meant he has a specific task.  He's a specialized henchman.  Card/Corpse generation and Scheme Denial.  Although he can be a decent "scheme runner" for things like Plant Evidence/Explosives due to the fact that his melee attack can drop free scheme markers.

[admiralvorkraft]

Fair enough, but those things are useful most of the time.

[Sligui]

In my (admittedly limited) experience, Molly likes to play close up the field in order to hand out her black blood buffs and because her abilities have a mid to low range on them. How then, does one persuade their opponent to target other models in her crew instead (knowing that her defences aren't really all that great).

[Fireuser]

Keeping the enemy models engaged can make it difficult to get to Molly.  Some models are very good at keeping other models engaged.  Punk Zombies for instance, have to their attack flips, and this counts when used as a disengaging strike.  They are also Hard to Kill and can take two or more AP to remove.  Molly is really all about AP efficiency in my experience.  Force the enemy to waste AP getting out of engagements, or taking out the models they are stuck with (and getting damaged for their trouble).  Even her damaging attack is very efficient for its AP.  And she can hand out more Ap exactly where you need it.

[kross1]

I like running her with one of her limiteds & unnerving aura and necrotic preparation, it really punishes models for targeting her. Combine that with all the pushes and lures she and her crew generate, can make sure she is where she is needed most. If you add in multiple unnerving aura she create a vitual killing field.

[Sligui]

I'm really liking that combination of upgrades for her. Going to try those out! (Wasn't really a fan of the other Molly-only upgrades besides her limiteds) 

[kross1]

If your playing against Ressers or Grenlins look into corpse bloat also. Might as well blow up corpse marker for the nice damage spread and/or burning a resouce they need.

[Kogan Style]

What's not to love about Tear of the Gorgon! Extra AP is golden in this game (imo) Terrifying isnt great but its another layer of defence if you aren't attempting to reactivate (since you should always be getting the free one action out of your models) 

Terrible Knowledge I've only run when assassinate was in the Pool, but my opponent didn't choose it so possibly a waste. I tend to only run ToG and the limited when I play her, I want SS in the cache!

[Metalhed]

I love Tear of the Gorgon. It adds an extra action for each turn she is alive. Hell yes, and her (0) actions are fantastic. 

[kross1]

For 3 pts its to expensive.

[Metalhed]

For an extra action per turn, potentially up to 5 turns. I completely disagree. Both Arcanists and Outcasts have a one use upgrade for 1SS and those are considered amazing (which they are).

 

And it is not as if her (0) actions are weak.

[jonahmaul]

Yeah, ToG is great and almost compulsory in my eyes for Molly.