Molly Squidpiddge Tactica

[hippieshopper]

Hey guys, Hippieshopper here.

I'm part of a gaming group in Tacoma, Washington that's relatively small, but we have a decently diverse plethora of masters, henchmen and gimmick crews that see a lot of playtime.

One of the Henchmen that's seen a very small amount of play, both in my meta, and the global scene (At least pertaining to what Forumites are prone to say) is Molly Squidpiddge, and her horrors.

This is in no small part due to the initial criticism she received from my brother, the infamous and often loudmouthed Sandwich. When he first tried her out, she didn't fit in with his scheme of things, and he was immediately turned off by her. Of course, instead of being rational and trying out numerous different crew builds and playstyles, he just wrote her off as ineffective and useless, and came to the forums with that same idea.

Most of you had a fair amount of respect for him, (Up until recently, at least,) because he'd written two Tacticas and gave some decent insight into matters that were fairly sensible, and so a lot of people took his criticism at face value, and stayed with it without second thought.

Although he's usually pretty calm about things, he can get whiny and tempermental and he unfortunately flipped out for really no reason and now we're at this point.

Anyway, for the past couple months he's been playing Molly pretty seriously and he feels pretty bad for the rap he's given Molly so he asked me to post this to help out newer players.

- - - - - - - -

Miss Molly Squidpiddge

Henchman 5

Molly Squidpiddge is the Henchmen of the Resurrectionist Faction and fits deeply into the "Offensive Support" role. Everything about her is designed to bring the fight forward and then finish the job without respite. There is literally no facet to her arsenal that isn't built towards diminishing enemy defenses and cutting their survivability in half.

The biggest issue that most people have with Mollygirl is how utterly non-linear she is. There's a whole lot to do, and not much notion of how or when to do it. She's got so many options for every issue that she's presented with that sometimes she'll leave players so confused that they'll often feel helpless to react to whatever is going on.

This feeling of hopeless confusion is an inevitable part of any model or crew that doesn't have a clearly defined playstyle against a large group of Models that are straightforward in their mechanics.

Von Schill, for example, leaves little room for creativity. He's got high mobility, powerful weapons, and great survivability. He's not going to be reducing the enemy WP, he's not going to go around throwing out debuffs, no. (Unless you're C.Hoffman, then HA)

Von Schill is going to go take his objectives, and then shoot you in the face, and that's it. He has no gimmick, he has no sleeper power, he's exactly what he says on the tin.

Comparing Von Schill to Molly, to most people, is a no brainer. Molly doesn't have high mobility, she doesn't have any survivability outside of stand resser stuff (cackle) and she's not particularly heavy in the damage department. Von Schill wins, Case closed. Right?

Absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it-wrong.

Part I;

What's so special about Molly?

Well, she's the only Henchmen in the game that works amazingly with every master in the Faction (Yan Lo included.) This fact makes her unique in the aspect of randomity, as any master can take her, utilize her in a different way, and achieve spectacular results.

With Seamus, She's a Belle, so she's fast(er), she can replace his summoning abilities should he manifest, and she can gain Terrifying->15 post Avatar (With Anathema from Yin), AND she makes an amazing beacon for Bodyguard (Df 4, Pitiful Wp 5, Hard to Wound AND Slow to Die) should you decide to shotgun Hulk-out.

With Nicodem, she's Undead, so is yet again a great subject for Bodyguard (Df 6, Pitiful Wp 5 with an agonizing Trigger, Hard to Wound AND Slow to Die) She can also summon the Necrotic Machine which goes from a (1)Philosophy of Uncertainty missile to Cb 6 (Paired with Toshiro) 2/2/4 nuke with a potent Poison 3 Trigger and Df 5 with Hard to Wound. She also summons on an 8:crows and is more often than not in competition with Nico over high crows. (Her spellsteal is on a 7:crows and she won't have much reason to prioritize stealing a spell over things like Debuffing, or) giving Nicodem a Wk of freakin' 6!

With McMourning, she's once again, a fantastic beacon for Bodyguard, but her main dig in a McM crew is making McMourning walk 7". That is outright deadly, and literally nothing is safe from him. An extra casting of Dissection, and her MUCH needed ability to summon Belles, Doxies, and most importantly, Crooligans(Whaaaaaaaaaat?), makes her an implacable asset to most any McMourning crew these days. Another very important thing to note is that McMourning will fight her for absolutely 0 resources, he makes enough Body Part Counters from strictly melee that allowing Molly to have the Corpse Counters to summon additional models into play is completely viable.

--Kirai Section to Come--

With Yan Lo, she begins the game augmenting mobility, becoming a beacon for debuffs after Yan Lo spirit hulks out. She hasn't had much playtime with Yan Lo in our meta, so I haven't got much strategy for her in this aspect yet.

Her individual synergy with any crew she's available to (In the Faction) makes her spectacular on paper, but

Part II;

How does she do it?

By bringing unconventional things to the table that are underutilized until they're tried in a practical setting. Something like +3 Wk is outright brutal when you stick it on Seamus or McMourning, because that is instantly removing the one and only limitation on that master and forcing your mashed potatoes onto your enemies plate. If you give Seamus a Wk of 7", that makes the "Walk Once, Focus .50 Cal" not only viable, but outright lethal, non-restrictive and terrifying. If you let McMourning run full tilt at Wk 8", go ahead and try to explain to your opponent just how a cruise missile found its way into a Victorian Tabletop game.

Adding to that the fact that she literally gains something from anyone, (6 Wk from Seamus, 6 Df from Nicodem, Dissection from McMourning, Spirit from Kirai, And Chiaki from Yan Lo) and that it is exactly what she needs to keep her in the loop with that specific crew, makes her an amazingly well designed and unfortunately poorly received model.

Another tragically overlooked aspect of Molly is her (0)Whispered Secrets. Or the spell that allows her to steal a (1) action Spell and then cast it again with a 7:crows Ca.

Whispered secrets with a Ca of 7:crows AND Use Soulstone (Emphasis mine) alone makes her a 9 point model. Stealing (1)Supressing Fire from the Convict Gunslinger and then blasting the enemy crew with a "24 with your Willpower" is an INSTANT half Crew disabled, other half unable to cheat because they have NO cards. Molly with the Dead Doxy's (1)Seduction in a Yan Lo or Nicodem crew is good game for any model unfortunate enough to insult her shoes. Molly Stealing (1)Absorb from a Gaki and then eating a bear (I mean anything) is just outright brutal, especially if you blast them with (1)The Shocking Truth first just for an added bitter taste in their mouth.

Ignoring Whispered Secrets on Molly and then spouting how she sucks is the equivalent of taking the tires off of a Ferrari and then complaining that it can't go fast.

I haven't even MENTIONED (1)Terrible Secret yet and I bet you already are rethinking shelving poor Mollygirl, huh?

No?

Oh, well then. A :-fate on ALL Attack and Defense Flips. At a 7:crows Ca with Use Soulstone. No suit requirement, you need a 7 of anything to cast it. Did I mention she's underplayed on McMourning for absolutely NO reason. (1)Terrible Secret gives any Master who has a lacking offense (Cough) the ability to absolutely rip apart a high profile model without much fear of respite. It alone will shut down just about any model that could be overly problematic.

Why?

Most "High-Damage" models (Like the Steamborg Executioner) are designed with HEAVY offense, decent mobility, moderate-to-low defense.

With a single (1) Spell (Again, Ca 7:crows with USE SOULSTONE) you not only put that Heavy Offense at a deficit (Heyo, screw Paired, you're still at a ) but you completely remove their ability to defend themselves.

I have seen Molly and an Onryo dismantle Perdita, Lady Justice, Lilith, LCB, Von Schill, A. McMourning, and many others through the combo of (0)Speal (Official rename 2012) (1)Mark of Jigoku from an Onryo, cast it, and then destroy their sense of preservation with (1)Terrible Secret only to have the Rogue Necromancy, McMourning, or some other dirty violent model to come in and destroy my target.

This spell is especially destructive if you target a model that ISN'T Immune to Influence because then you can pair (1)Terrible Secret and some big mean friendly model with (1)Imbue Vigor stuck on them to instantly deliver horribly comical punishment.

Do you yet understand the error of your ways? (Unless you've always thought of Molly as top tier)

No?

That's fine, I've got more to convince you than you know.

Not only is Molly a powerful Offensive Support, but she's also 98% unkillable.

Not only is Molly unkillable, but she's scary as sh*t to even try to kill.

Now, in the couple times I've checked back on the forum (And also had a few spectators bring up) there's a serious complaint about Molly and her Wp of 5.

And to those that wish to see a HIGHER Wp stat on Molly, I have one simple response,

"Are you insane?"

She's Df 4, Wd 10, with Hard to Wound 1, Slow to Die, USE SOULSTONE, and Pitiful, has one gut-crushing(Brick Joke) Wp trigger, and another hilarious Df one (Emphasis Mine).

Having read this far down in the Document, I believe you can see why exactly I believe that her title as "Offensive Support" is absolutely fitting.

The weird thing about Molly, is that she doesn't define that Role as you think she would.

Lucius defines the Role Defensive Support. He's tanky, he's pretty good at getting his boys to do as he needs them to, but he brings next to no offense to the table. Other defensive supports include the Crooligan, the Metal Gamin, or the Rat Catcher.

Von Schill defines the Role Mobile Offense. He's fast, he's bursty, but if he's focused down, the only way to keep him alive is to to quickly expend resources or he's a goner.

But what about the Offensive Support role? Molly's got nothing but Offense. She gets her crew into the enemy's face, Continually blasts the enemy with debuffs, damage, or stolen magic, all while maintaining a heavy presence in the fight.

There's other Offensive Support models, the Silent Ones, Nix, the Witchling Stalker.

What happens if you focus down any of those models?

They die. And fast as hell, too.

What about Molly, what happens if you focus down Molly?

You get burned. You get burned and burned and deal very little damage. And then after you've wasted a swath of resources on bringing her down, she turns the fight in onto you and you scramble to fix what you've done.

She's one of the most hard to kill models in the game, physically and psychologically.

Part III;

"Generalization?"

Yet another aspect of Molly that is some how overlooked is Wp 5 and the trigger "Wp(:crows) Twisted Mind: After this model wins the Duel, the opposing model suffers 2 Wd."

Molly has Hard to Wound 1, Slow to Die and Use Soulstone WITH Pitiful, and not only that, but she can DENY your enemy from harming her, and then INFLICT damage on them JUST. FOR. TRYING!

Wp 5 is admittedly average, but if it were any higher, she'd be overpowered. Just the fact that she's a non-master model that can maim you for even trying to hit her is enough for me. (Take that, Pigapult)

Molly is a lot like Seamus, she can customize herself mid-game to counter just about anything that's thrown at her and still come out with a strong lead, and she's not nearly card dependant as some other crews, and her cost is reasonable (If not really low) for a model of her caliber, so fitting her into just about any sized game isn't too hard.

Before moving on to other "Underdog" models, lets wrap up Molly with a really quick review of her Arsenal,

- - - - -

Extraordinary Dead: Gives her some serious synergy Belles and Horrors. A Rogue Necromancy (Or Yin) with a 7" Wk is just a bad news bears for anyone who isn't on your side. With Seamus, your Rotten Belles will roll around with an 8" Wk out the gate. This is an Aura, meaning any models that aren't within 4" of Molly do NOT gain a bonus to their Wk.

Hard to Wound 1: Just makes her that much more frustrating to kill.

Necrotic Spray: Works on about a third of the models in the game. 1 Wd against living models can be nice, but it just isn't as effective as Black Blood.

Pitiful: Makes swinging at her dangerous to even swing at. Try to get your Trigger off any time you to hit home that Molly isn't someone to target.

Slow to Die: Badaboom, Soulstone heal that last wound.

Special Forces Leader (Horror): Belles and Horrors are all you get when she's leading a crew, trust me when I say that's all you're gonna need. (And Totems.)

Superior Dead: She can ignore effects that specifically target the Undead. Pretty standard issue for leader models with Characteristics that can be exploited at this point.

Actions

(+1)Instinctual: Two different (0)s, you'll need em.

(0)Impossible Knowledge: Hands out Necrotic Spray to nearby Undead. Again, effective against about 1/3 of the models in the game.

(0)The Gorgon's Tear: Terrifying -> 14. Now imagine for a second, there was a model that gave out Anathema. Make it something scary from Japanese culture... Like a Penangalan. It'd have to be a Horror, too, so Molly could take it. Maybe give it a ton of Wp shenanigans, too. Yeah. Name it Yin, or something. That'd be perfect.

(0)Uncontrolled Crying: Reapplies Pitiful. Get used to using it, every time you Activate.

(1)Reveal Philip: 4" Morale duel for Living models. Useful against about half the models in the game. You've got better things to do most of the time, but great against Gremlins / Rats.

Triggers

Masterful Dead: Flip a crow and then discard two cards to negate and damage you'd suffer. Defense Trigger. Awesome as hell.

Twisted Mind: Flip a Crow, win the Duel and BAM! Enemy model suffers 2 Wd. Wp trigger.

Spells

(0)Undead Construction: Summon a 30MM Belle or Horror, or her Totem. Sack two Corpse Counters. Summons on a lower card than Masters. Has a LOT of uses, do NOT write it off as inferior.

(0)Whispered Secret: Steals a (1) Spell from the model. Has about a trillion uses in any given game. Get used to Casting it, often.

(1)Imbue Vigor: +3 Wk on a 7:masks. Invaluable. Get used to casting it, often.

(1)The Philosophy of Uncertainty: Save it for your Totem (Unless you're Nicodem, then ignore it.) Sacks this (Or Totem) model, kills the target. Powerful, but outclassed by...

(1)The Shocking Truth: 2/3+Slow/3+Paralyzed. At 7 Ca with no suit requirement, getting Close to Molly is instabanishment.

(1)Terrible Secret: :-fate on all Attack and Defense Flips. Just pure love.

- - - -

The Crooligan

4 Soul Stone Cost

The Crooligans are actually really, really awesome.

Wait, what?

Hold on, hear me out.

The Crooligan is one of the better models in the game. They're efficient highly defensive models with powerful mobility and top tier utility. They are more effective objective grabbers than Night Terrors or Necropunks, have a decent damage profile and translate well into later-game skirmishes. They are lacking in a few places, but so are Belles and Witchling Stalkers.

Crooligans perform decently alone, but their mobility is significantly stymied without the leapfrog of (1)Curiosity Calls.

They are powerful counters to Ranged Crews, which is ridiculously important because ranged crews hard counter a lot of Resurrectionist builds (Particularly McMourning) and have the ability to stagnant fast crews long enough to allow your meatyfists to catch up and put them down for good.

The only issue with Crooligans is in a Timed Competition, as they flat out take 2-3 turns to grow to their full potential.

They have about the same generic usability as Rotten Belle, substituting (1)Lure with (1)The Mist and a 6" Wk in games where they have no objectives to grab.

They have very average stats, pretty well 5 across the board, (Although their Wk and Df will bump up to 6 and 7 respectively with (1)The Mist.) which is actually pretty good for a 4 Point model.

A big complaint a lot of people have been having, and one that I will say is fairly legitimate, is that Return to Sender is a (2) Action.

While it does feel underwhelming, they'd be way too powerful for 4 Point models if they couldn't instantly poof 10" and drop in with Obscuring for their master. It just wouldn't be in any way fair, at all.

Also, Return to Sender with Seamus is awesome against Guild Crews because of Creepy​.

With Nicodem, they become Df 9 Cb 6 with a maximum Damage profile of 3/4/5. (While giving out Obscuring) so I don't really understand how they're in anyway underwhelming, especially when they're only slightly less combat-effective than Punk Zombies. (And pretty even with Toshiro)

With McMourning they give him much needed Ranged protection, and with Molly included, as mentioned earlier, he's just pure murder in a can.

I'll admit, they're not that great with Kirai, unless you get their Spirit trigger off and throw them around to protect key models.

And Yan Lo, I have no idea.

- - - -

GREAT MOLLY MODEL COMBOS

Molly + Convict Gunslinger

Each turn, have Molly Steal(1)Supressing Fire and then recast it as high as possible. This will force your opponent to discard practically their entire hand or else leave most of their crew Paralyzed. This then opens up many, many opportunities to swoop in and kill whatever you'd like without fear of respite. It also helps to give the Convict (1)Imbue Vigor on the first turn so that he can get to a great choke point early and then hold it. Couple him with a Crooligan to provide cover after he Activates and you've got a great hold early on.

Molly + Onryo: While the Onryo don't have much worth stealing, the Onryo and Molly have a very symbiotic relationship. For one, the Onryo removes Wp immunities and bonuses, allowing Molly to always function at her highest level possible. Molly's Imbue Vigor works well with the Onryo because it's a Spirit with decent melee Damage. Her Terrible Secret also does wonders to ensure that you see a lot of moderate and Severe Damage flips.

Molly + Izamu: While I could've just written "Izamu + Anything" and it would've been just as sound, Molly giving Izamu a Wk of 7 is no laughing matter. Models in his melee at a :-fate to their Attack and Defense flips, however, are.

SPELLS OF SPECIAL MENTION TO STEAL

Convict Gunslinger: (1)Supressing Fire: An AoE Spell that requires the target model to Discard a Card when it activates or it receives Paralyzed. This spell, cast by Molly will guarantee that your enemy either loses their hand or half their crew.

Dead Doxy: (1)Seduction: This is the counterpart to Molly's own (1)Terrible Secret. Seduction reduces Defense and Resist Flips by :-fate. Casting this in a Nicodem Crew will ensure paralysis, or worse.

Seamus: (1)The Face of Death: 4" Terrifying -14. Best if saved post Manifestation, for Terrifying->15. Or if used with Yin for Anathema.

Nicodem: (1)Reanimator: Allows her to summon a wider array of models at the cost of a higher CC.

Gaki: (1)Absorb: Sacrifice a target model with 3 or Less Wd and then gain Fast. Possible to gain reactivate if you take Absorb one turn, and then cast it in another, only to steal it back again and kill another model. Again, this spell is attach to a model with 3 Ca. So casting it with a 7:crows is just too sweet.

Onryo: (1)Malevolence: Dg 2/3/5 with Use Soulstone. Enough said.

Yan Lo: (1)Weight Of the Ages: Very high damage potential and allows Yan Lo to focus on other things (Like melee)

- - - -

More to come, soon."

I'll post whatever else he sends me.

Edited December 14, 2012 by hippieshopper

[Rhonlore]

I feel like I've been beaten over the head with USE SOULSTONE.

Fantastic write up! I'll definitely be giving Molly a go with McMourning tomorrow.

(stuff in edit is irrelevant)

Edit:

Open Spoiler

I don't have the wording of Reanimator, but I assume it would specifically mention a model which means Molly can't steal it. I would like to clear that up, and maybe it's just because I don't have the card in front of me.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Rhonlore

[hippieshopper]

(1)Reanimator

CCRSTRG

Sacrifice a number of Corpse Counters within 6" equal to the base size of 1 non-spirit, non-unique Undead Model. Summon that model. Draw 1 card for each Corpse Counter sacrificed.

[Rameses]

Well written, insightful and I am grateful you took the time to write.

Since I have only recently started playing Malifaux (meaning this year) A LOT of my opinions were based on opinions from people such as your brother. People who took the time to write Tactica's that gave insight into the workings of Faction Masters.

Often times I had to ask myself, how many people beyond me had their minds made up about "X" model by the opinions of Prominent Forum and Podcast presenters.

Again thank you for this Tactica.

[Rhonlore]

(1)Reanimator

CCRSTRG

Sacrifice a number of Corpse Counters within 6" equal to the base size of 1 non-spirit, non-unique Undead Model. Summon that model. Draw 1 card for each Corpse Counter sacrificed.

Oh very cool. Thank you hippieshopper! I'll have to give this a go sometime too!

[Sholto]

Terrific write up

[Fetid Strumpet]

I'd have to say I never based my opinion on Sandwhich's write up of Molly. I used her with Seamus continually for 9 months. I certainly appreciate your write up, although I personally disagree with a good deal of it. In the interest of potentially having new players to Molly make up their own minds I will say thank you for attempting to bring Molly forward.

[hippieshopper]

I'd have to say I never based my opinion on Sandwhich's write up of Molly. I used her with Seamus continually for 9 months. I certainly appreciate your write up, although I personally disagree with a good deal of it. In the interest of potentially having new players to Molly make up their own minds I will say thank you for attempting to bring Molly forward.

The last time he and I discussed Molly, before he sent me this to post, one of the things he kept saying was that what had held her back most was her inability to fit into the meta of Book 1.

The only gimmicky crews in the game were Pandora and Som'er, and really Som'er was only gimmicky because you had to choose between a gunline or pinball.

So when she came out and everyone tried using her in the current meta (Which was WAY more straightforward than most crews are now) she was just kind of this iffy "Do nothing" spot in the middle of Punk Zombies, Frankies, Crooked Men, Rotten Belles because while they were all "I AM X, I DO Y" She was "I am X, I can do A B C D E F, but you have to guess which would work best" and so people didn't really want to use her because the current models all performed well enough.

Now, with Yin, she's becoming increasingly hard to put off to the sidelines and the sooner we all get accustomed to her the faster she'll get fully fleshed out.

We think she's probably got some of the best inherit design of any of the models currently available, time will tell if other people end up trying her out.

At least, that's the hope.

[Gruesome]

I like getting the talk going again...

Gotta say there is some stuff in there that is the opposite of my experiences...

But that's ok.

[Fetid Strumpet]

IF she could do any of the things she can do exceptionally reliably I might agree with you. However she can't.

[hippieshopper]

IF she could do any of the things she can do exceptionally reliably I might agree with you. However she can't.

She's absolutely reliable, all of her spells require moderate cards, she doesn't need anything higher than an 8 to Cast anything. With a Henchmen Cache of 5, she's on the higher end of SS Pools when she's a Leader (I think Collodi and Ophelia are 7 and 6, respectively)

For Suit requirements, she needs a 5:crows to Spell Steal and a 7:masks to give +3 Wk, which is hardly out of the Ball park, even Colette has hard CC than she does.

I can understand the irritation of needing 2 Corpse Counter to summon a 30MM but balance wise it makes sense, and in the crews where that's a serious drawback (Nicodem) you have absolutely no real reason to even use her summon.

Her two Morale Actions (Gorgon's Tear and Reveal Philip) are admittedly underwhelming often, but that's not her fault, that's the Morale mechanic in general.

She's got great mobility for a model of her class, and it's even greater with Seamus (Where it NEEDS to be to remain relevant).

I just don't understand how she's unreliable.

[mistercactus]

Has your brother had much experience playing against Mr. Tannen yet?

Nice writeup, thanks for posting!

[Fetid Strumpet]

Because you are making assumptions based on moderate cards and when you'll be getting them. Colette is reliable her spells for the most part Always work, she might not get all her triggers as often as she wants but her spells work.

Let's look at Imbue vigor. Sure it needs a 7+ of masks, so in a deck there are a total of eight cards in the entire deck which allow her to cast that spell. Now in order to use that spell reliably you have to count on having one or more of those cards in your hand at any particular point in time, and often the very first turn is when you'll most often want to use it. So of those eight cards you are more than likely not going to often want to use the 11, 12, 13, or red joker to cast it, as those high suit cards are so valuable for so many other things, so that drops the total amount of cards that you'll actually want to use to only 4, and that assumes that you don't have other models in your crew that also want High masks, like Sybelle, Crolligans, or McMorning for example.

And that's just for one of her good spells. Whispered secret has exactly the same problem. Again you are more than likely going to want to steal that spell you want early in the game so that as Molly is moving around the board you can use it exactly when you want, and deployment is the perfect time to make certain you have LoS and range to the appropriate target. If in your opening hand you don't get the crow to use it, and in more than half the games I played with Molly when I was trying to do this very thing I didn't get the Crow I wanted on opening turn. If you don't get it then now if you want that ability you have to constrain how you move in order for Molly to have the range and LoS to grab it, and cards in hand are worth progressively more on turns 2 and 3 because those tend to be the heavy engagement turns, so dropping a card from those turns to get a spell that often you'll have to cheat another card to make certain goes off... I hope you see my point. The Crow is another issue as more than masks almost every decent model Ressers take has good uses for crows, even mid range ones.

So that's my point about reliability. Being able to use your spells and abilities whenever you want is what makes a master reliable. Pandora is reliable. McMorning is reliable. Collodi is amazingly reliable. Von Schill is reliable. McCabe is reiable. Molly is not. And what makes her not is how many of her abilities require extra suits to use.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Fetid Strumpet

[Gruesome]

I am not going to detail the usual laundry list of issues with Molly when facing a crew that has WP defenses and/or non-living, I am just going to talk about some of the things brought up in the OP.

Its fine to talk about stuff like Molly+Izamu and them being great, but the fact is, she cannot hire them, so she is not the leader of that crew.

So, what you are REALLY talking about is 19 points of models NOT including a totem.

For 19 points, people can say a LOT of model combinations are great.

While I like the writing of OP, its still very much of a sales pitch, often leading the reader towards the idea that all Molly's detractors could not have tried the ideas put forth as they come up.

Now I admit to not having tried any 10T stuff with her.

I think that its telling how often USE SOULSTONE is brought up. Much of the post is about her working with a master. So, lets make sure we are all saying the say thing here.

Every soulstone she uses is one that your master does NOT use. Every high crow that she burns is one that your master does not.

And crooligans... Bleh... I had high hopes when I saw them mentioned, but did not see something new. Admittedly, like most things, the devil is in the detail but I am still waiting on someone to post an honest to goodness battle report detailing how crooligans were useful in a way that was not a statistical aberration.

I am completely willing to cop to being stupid on a wide range of subjects... (I was way off on Drowned) but I see nothing new here about crooligans and think maybe you've gotten lucky or played the wrong people or something...

I used to like a lot of Sandwich's posts and actually agreed with a many of his base points when it came to certain inequities in the game, but still felt the need to call him on occasion for some of his hyperbole. (I remember once being on his side in an argument until he tried to trash the Dead Rider... I had to call him on that)

To me, a lot of the OP feels like the same sort of hyperbole in a new direction.

That having been said, its nice to know he is lingering and I look forward hopefully to his return sometime.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Gruesome

[ozmo]

Great write up.

Definitely plan on giving Molly a second look

[Ausplosions]

You say Molly with a master is a good target for selecting the bodyguard scheme.

Isn't the Master of the crew the subject of bodyguard. She is only the Master if she is leading....

[Gruesome]

I think its fair to add that the OP did give me a new idea for a list I have been toying with lately... Namely "hordes of necropunks".

I do not often think about Necrotic Spray... But against a living crew with a list like:

Ressurectionists Crew - 35 - Scrap

Nicodem, The Undertaker

--

8 Pool

Grave Spirit [1ss]

Molly Squidpiddge

[9ss]

Necrotic Machine [2ss]

• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  
• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  
• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  
• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  
• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  
• Necropunk
  [3ss]
  
  

I think there is some fun to be had. The punks are pretty fast and with them getting all over models bolstered from Nicodem and needing always AT LEAST 2 hits to go down because of hard to kill, the necrotic spray would be doing 2 damage all the time... And their slow to die hits, and slowing the models engaged with them, etc...

I could see Molly making that list more fun and had not considered her for it before.

[PZN]

You say Molly with a master is a good target for selecting the bodyguard scheme.

Isn't the Master of the crew the subject of bodyguard. She is only the Master if she is leading....

You are also able to take it with your Hanceman! U had to choos betwen ur Master or Henchman while u declaring the sceme.

[Gruesome]

You are also able to take it with your Hanceman! U had to choos betwen ur Master or Henchman while u declaring the sceme.

ANd its pretty fun to do. I have been dabbling with Guild lately and I really like JadyJ with Lucius, where i put bodyguard on him and basically build HIM a list and use her like a guided missile of awesomeness.

In a lot of ways, I agree with above that Molly as non-leader would be a very nice choice if you have bodyguard available since she is seldom a specific target for other reasons and she is pretty hard to kill if you have any resources to defend her.

Gotta say, while I might disagree with some stuff, I am getting the itch to play her again soon since I miss her.

She is, as ever, my favorite frustrating model.

[rancor709]

Interesting write up. Have to say I don't agree with part of it but I don't agree with lots of things. That said and to be fair the one talent I have found Molly to truly have weither taken as the Leader of the crew or as a side kick is she is a resource sink to kill off. Pitiful absolutely key to that, being a factor. My main issue is in the way I build crews and view the game a 9+ soulstone model needs to be a strong,consistent, damage dealer. Support models need to 7 and under and really now focusing on the under. Toshiro brings far stronger consistent melee boosting and movement boosting than molly does for a stone less.

Imbue Vigur can be very strong but the key is can be.

Molly is a lot a ss to use on a model that simply doesn't do its job continually. While she can fill roles, those roles only manifest themselves if you have the cards in your hand. Additionally with smaller resser cache sizes, molly gets even less attractive to take because in many case your on lower model counts initially due needing to save stones to get to workable cache numbers which if your taking molly than go to keeping molly molly alive starving your master.

I will say, I'll be getting her on the table again to see, if she improves when facing the corpse heavy 10t. My gut tells me she won't but I'd like to test it and see. There hasn't been a game I've brought molly I didn't feel that bete noire or the Dead Rider wouldn't have been a far stronger use of the stones.

[Omenbringer]

Any chance your brother saved the other two tactica's that he wrote up? It would be real nice to see them again.

[hippieshopper]

Any chance your brother saved the other two tactica's that he wrote up? It would be real nice to see them again.

He's self centered so probably, I'll ask him about it tomorrow.

[Kadeton]

Like most people here, it seems, my experience doesn't really reflect what was written in the OP.

I've certainly found Molly to be an incredibly difficult model to kill, and that's a great asset for the crew. The rest of her really useful abilities (Whispered Secret in particular) have often been difficult to get to work due to card requirements - mainly because there's usually something else in the crew that also really wants those cards.

I think Imbue Vigor deserves a special mention for its offensive capabilities, which I didn't see mentioned. Having the same range as Lure and no Resist makes it so much easier to drag enemies away from their crew and into your killing zone.

I'm also in the "Crooligans are not as bad as the internet would have you believe" camp, but I still think it's a huge stretch to say that they're better than Night Terrors.

Anyway, an entertaining read, even if there weren't really any new ideas presented. It's good to know that some people are having good experiences with Molly!

[Cats Laughing]

Re: Molly vs ten thunders.

My last game with Molly vs Mei Feng, saw the game end with something like five or six corpses strewn across the battlefield, Sybelle had been summoned twice and two other belles had been raised cause Sybelle hadn't been dead at the time. Mei was the only remaining Arcanist, and faced a Rogue, Molly, a Doxy and Belle when the game mercifully ended.

Now I feel that game had a lot go right for Molly, but the point is that there were plenty of corpses to go around.

[DeleteAccount]

I've never felt she had a hard time getting corpses, the last time I used her she summoned Sibelle twice. I did use her and Izamu in the same list, it wasn't pretty when I lost Izamu quickly to some Creed fire and a red jokered desperate merc because it left me naked.

Have to side for now with the NAY crowd, seems too much like a sales pitch. I will admit though that I don't play as much as I'd like and have barely tested the poor thing, but telling me Crooligans are better objective takers than night terrors and slightly worse at bringing pain than punks is outright hyperbole.

I am thinking of maybe using her with Kirai for the lols and having her do Kirai's summoning for her to add even more models in quick succesion in one turn or to cast weight of ages with some true reliability (though no Onryo trigger), but I know this will mostly be to play around.

Molly by herself still feels very much a train wreck and I have to heavily agree with Strumpet that yeah, it ain't high cards what she needs, but almost everything useful she does needs a specific suit and that's a big problem. Kirai overcomes it since she can get cards through eating spirits and the payoff of her suit abilities is huge, Molly doesn't seem so much.

What really kills Molly is simply that she is a 9 stone piece that is competing for stones with your master and has mostly a support focus that attacks WP and that is suit intensive. This means that in a Seamus list, I have Seamus, 2 belles and Molly and I'm already packing 17 stones on utility models and the only thing remotely scary is Seamus gun and his live for pain and god knows the crew has nowhere near the keep away ability that Colette does to live without caring about killing people. Add in a totem (stone spirit) and maybe avatar and a couple of night terrors and you only really have like 4 stones left for a crooked man or if you don't need objectives, a big guy like Dead Rider or Izamu or Bette Noir or two punks, but you are still very outnumbered.

Also, Molly may be "hard" to direct attacks, but she crumbles like tissue to AOE and blast, my first game using her was vs Creed and she got burned to a cinder through indirect fire and then got Witchlingised. The moment Molly is at low wounds, she is burning a stone every attack just to stay there, her lowish WP means pitiful ain't stopping all attacks that may be heading her way and as for her df trigger and her wp trigger, they are both crows. We have a model that wants crows to defend, crows to repel WP, crows to revive, crows to steal spells, see the problem now? It's all about bloody crows and there's only 13 in your deck and the low 4 are only useful if you don't want to burn a stone to try and reduce damage WHILE destroying the rest of your hand.

I do think maybe Nicodem will love the lass and he can get some more results out of her. Yan Lo frankly could care less about her seeing how the expensive ancestors are cheaper, will be more useful, can come back and most important of all, they don't cannibalize his very limited stone pool (if you are interested in starting with a path active).