Molly - upcoming game

[Butch]

After a long pause I'm finally getting a game of Malifaux again. I'm still learning the rules and my main goal is to get confident with a keyword Molly crew (my first master). So at the moment it's not interesting to me what faction or crew I'm facing.

The setup of the game tonight is: Symbols of Authority / Flank Depolyment / Leave Your Mark, Breakthrough, Spread Them Out, Claim Jump, Research Mission

My pool is: Molly, Necrotic Machine, Philipp and the Nanny, Archie, Forgotten Marshall, Rogue Necromancy, Dead Rider, Crooligan, Night Terror, Rabble Riser

So my three qustions are:

1. what Scemes would you take

2. what crew (bonus: why)

3. how would you deploy and how would you activate the first round

Question 3 is the one where I loose the most time in my games. As I'm still not familiar with Molly and still have to learn the Strategies and Scemes so I'm a bit at a loos during setup and the first round.

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

One thing about Molly is that she is very much a control & denial crew - so to some extent you're always wanting to take your opponent at least a little bit into account. But since these are learning games, should be all good!

1. For schemes:

• Claim Jump is viable (if you have Philip with GST)
• Leave your Mark is usually pretty solid with some crooligans to sort it out

Breakthrough should be super easy to get given how massive the deployment zones are (and annoyingly, will be trickier to deny). However, you're already going to be taking so many interact actions and running around the board, I'd be hesitant to take it (unless you only want one point out of it).

Spread them out has the same issues as Breakthrough, but since you can put the markers down where you're picking up their symbols of authority, it should actually be really good. It's a good option (but not what I'd go for).

Research Mission you could score off all the symbols, but I find it a bit clunky (usually the symbol you're standing near you want to remove, not leave it til the end of the turn).

2. For crew:

Probably something like:

• Molly & totem
• Dead Rider
• Archie
• Philip and the Nanny with GST
• Night Terror
• Forgotten Marshal with The Whisper
• 6 stones.

I don't own the Forgotten Marshal myself, but it's a good model to include as you can then get some practice with all the minions by summoning them. You could possibly hire a crooligan and only have 2 stones, but if you're claim jumping philip and the nanny you may want stones to keep them alive.

The key with the pool you're facing is mobility, since you'll be running all over claiming (and denying) symbols. For this reason I'd focus on a list that can dart across the centreline and grab symbols, but then come back and smash the enemy. Archie, Dead rider, and night terror help with that. Philip and the Nanny lets you grab claim jump.

By taking schemes that focus on the centre, you can use that as your base to do everything else for the game.

3. For turn one...

Basically you want to do something like:

• If you win initiative make them go first.
• Use pass tokens to skip activations (though possibly save some for winning initiative next turn).
• Activate some minions, keeping them near molly.
• Use constructive criticism on the minion
• Activate it again.
• Activate Archie or Dead rider last - if they've over extended, smash them.

You can read more about this tactic on my July 15th post on this thread:

 

[Butch]

@Maniacal_cackleWow! Thanks for taking the time. This helps a lot!

I took the marshal in my last few games, but he didn' do much summoning. If the only reason he is in your list is because I could experience more of the keyword models I think I'd rather take another model. So If you had to play with this limited pool what model would you pick instead? Maybe two Crooligans to help with the sceaming?

And in your list the Night Terror is the only minion Molly can target with constructive critisim? Should he just focus the first activation?

[Maniacal_cackle]

@Butch, fair point. Drop the marshal with upgrade (9 stones), and grab a rabble riser + crooligan.

If you're worried about learning too many models at once, could grab two night terrors and only have to learn one minion type

[Butch]

I went with the Dead Marshall. I thought mybe he can support a steady flow of Scheme runners during the game. I played against a Parker crew.

 

We managed two rounds. After these rounds my experience is:

Molly: still feels very defensive to me. Buffs the crew with premonition and critcism in the first round. In the second premonition again and filled up my hand with 6 cards eating markers.

Necrotic Machine: healed Dead Rider and got shot (ignoring armor)

Archie: I made a mistake and moved him far to the side. Let's pretend he was looking for some ice cream. But I guess he would've come back later in the game pummeling stuff.

Dead Rider: My first game with him. I think I played too offensive the first two turns. He was down to 1 HP, but got healed by heroic NM. I guess I have to keep him in the back till third turn, making the most out of his triggers.

Forgotten Marshall: I played him too offensive. He was down to 1 HP. After that he hide behind a building hoping to get some more summons later in the game. But it took my opponent some ressources to get him down to 1, so that'S okay too.

Crooligan: Got summond first turn and jumped after Archie. She would've removed the second strategie marker in hte third round.

Night Terror: Removed the first strategy marker in turn two. Thanks to agile he walked out of engagement. I liked him very much. Another was summoned in turn two but did not much this turn.

 

All in all a good game - as always thanks to my very relaxed opponent who patiently wants to get me good at the game! According to him I did well.

After turn two it feels easier to me because I'm not afraid to make mistakes and try to play as fast as I can. But turn 1 still feels like 'OMG what do I gonna do!?!'

[Maniacal_cackle]

3 minutes ago, Butch said:

After turn two it feels easier to me because I'm not afraid to make mistakes and try to play as fast as I can. But turn 1 still feels like 'OMG what do I gonna do!?!'

Haha, yeah, it is just a matter of playing plenty of games and getting lots of practice!

It can be hard with Molly, as she really does pay off sequencing your plays well. But here's one general tip that should help: end of a turn, send in your beaters. Start of the next turn, pull them out to safety. If you follow that simple rhythm, you should get pretty good beats in while keeping your beaters safe. Of course you can get fancier than that, but that's a good start.

Glad you had a good game!

[Cranky Old Man]

Molly can be a damage dealer later in the game when you activate her later in a turn and do 3 irreducible damage if they have 3 or less cards

[Maniacal_cackle]

5 minutes ago, Cranky Old Man said:

Molly can be a damage dealer later in the game when you activate her later in a turn and do 3 irreducible damage if they have 3 or less cards

For sure, another tricky element of playing Molly is knowing when to swap from support (card draw, handing out slows, etc) to nuke (9 irreducible damage potentially xD).

Honestly Molly is my master that makes my brain feel most exhausted after a game xD

[Cranky Old Man]

I love me molly girl, but the Archie nerf has hurt her crew. He needed to be nerfed to split up the wonder twins but too much.......that’s another thread.

Molly and Reva are my favourite masters fluff wise, for want of a better word they are the “good” ressers

[Butch]

1 hour ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Honestly Molly is my master that makes my brain feel most exhausted after a game xD

And I always thought that was Malifaux in particular. After a game I always feel like I have to change to Mantic's Deadzone....

😄

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

3 hours ago, Butch said:

And I always thought that was Malifaux in particular. After a game I always feel like I have to change to Mantic's Deadzone....

😄

 

Yeah, some crews are easier than other. I can do a whole tournament playing Reva without my brain melting (I take a very 'smooth' Reva list that is easy to play).

[Butch]

42 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Yeah, some crews are easier than other. I can do a whole tournament playing Reva without my brain melting (I take a very 'smooth' Reva list that is easy to play).

That sounds great. I guess you just determined my next crew. I was thinking about McMourning (when finally his ME3-Box is available), but I always wanted to paint Reva. Now let's hope I'll finnish her before ME4.

[Maniacal_cackle]

2 minutes ago, Butch said:

That sounds great. I guess you just determined my next crew. I was thinking about McMourning (when finally his ME3-Box is available), but I always wanted to paint Reva. Now let's hope I'll finnish her before ME4.

I think McMourning is also pretty straightforward to play.

One warning about Reva, though - she is one of the hardest masters in ressers to learn, as all the combos are not necessarily that intuitive (unless you steal a list from Da Git like I did xD).

[Butch]

Thank's for the heads up! I missunderstood easy to play would be the same as easy to learn.