Widow Weaver's Competition

[Whut]

Widow Weaver sounds SO good on paper. She has an immovable way to lower enemy WP, she exhales terror to try to paralyze enemy models with horror duels, and she's just resilient enough to survive an attempt to kill her quickly. She also helps a little with card draw, and speeds up a few models.

When I first read her card, I couldn't believe how powerful of a control piece she was. But each time I try to fit her into my list, she seems to be competing with other models that provide comparable benefits.

1) If you need area lockdown, look no further than the Mysterious Emissary. The Web markers might give -1 WP, but without something to take advantage of this low WP, WW is just sitting there throwing our a TN 13 horror duel or two every turn with some minimal ping damage. The Emissary, on the other hand, for only two more points:

 

Has area lockdown in a larger AoE that causes significant damage (1/4/5), immediately dissuading models from entering.

Has an attack that not only does decent damage but also can remove conditions and scheme/corpse/scrap markers.

Can summon changelings.

Has much more resilience thanks to high defensive stats and generous built in heals - thus can actually sit on the front lines and not directly behind them.

Overall, I think that the Emissary provides better area control and better tools to impact schemes and also helps deal with conditions. Not to mention the Emissary only gets better with it's free upgrades, like Pandora's which can keep it at Armor +2 with a nearby Waldgeist or Zoraida's which helps it stack the deck and lets Zoraida obey from across the board. The only downside is that your own models are not immune to the area control, so be careful not to get pushed or lured into your own hungry land markers.

 

2) If you're taking WW just to screw with enemy activations and try to paralyze as much as possible, you might be better off with Lust. Lust may not paralyze, but she does completely screw enemy positioning, and potentially hand out tons of Slow. She operates at a similar range (6" vs 8"), but she also comes with a (0) action long range push that can help with your own positioning or hurt your opponent even more. And to top it all off, she comes with an aura that will be damaging your opponent significantly over time if they are not careful. The only downside to Lust is how squishy she is if not played carefully, but with Df6, 8 Wd, and manipulative, she should be fine in most situations.

 

What do you guys prefer? Do you think these two models make  Widow Weaver obsolete? Or at least do they make you think twice before reaching for WW for area control? What does WW excel in that really beats out these two seemingly better options?

[lusciousmccabe]

Widow Weaver is really there for the wp synergy. Her other stuff is nice but if that's all your taking her for then you'll probably get better value out of a more stand alone model.

 

[Nical]

As Lusciousmccabe said, Widow Weaver is for Wp denial / Horror duel Synergy, not for Area Control. Widow Weaver's Web Marker need to use with Wp Action / Ability for Area Control and oher models can make Horror duels. So I think our henchmen for Area Control are Candy / Bad juju with some upgrades and Widow Weaver need to use with other models like Collodi, Dreamer.  

[Shadowfane]

Also, she works very well with Pandora.... alll those Wp duels and web markers everywhere...... those two in Turf War are brutal

[PeregrineFalcon]

Valid points, and yes I do think the emissary is a good Area control piece. However, I never use WW for area control. She is there to put the hurt on to models and is an often take when I think I'm going up against Armor. The biggest issue I have with the WW is her measly Df 4. I think works best in a tag-team setup with the Doppleganger. That way you can copy the Armor ignoring with the Dopple and really put the hurt on. I typically play the WW towards the back or to speed up Constructs (usually with Collodi). With that said she is very good along with Teddy as well, giving him his much needed extra movement as well as the two working together to just kill stuff dead.

I think she gives NB something very specific and quite powerful, and alone you can drop her into any crew with her Handbag upgrade and get some summoning in a list that typically doesn't have summoning. 

[valhallan42nd]

Widow Weaver and Stitched Togethers... Try it. It kills things dead.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Widow Weaver and Stitched Togethers... Try it. It kills things dead.

Yeah helps their movement quite a bit. Only thing is Gamble your life targets Df so her Wp markers aren't too much use. Stitched with Collodi or Dreamer and WW are a really nice core set of models to kill stuff.