The Gorgon's Tear

Seamus gazed into Molly's lifeless eyes and bowed his head over her,whispering "You are a lovely one, aren't you?"

Seamus Crashes A Funeral, Wyrd Chronicles, Volume 2

I still need to the OSL and water effects on the minis above.

I have been dying to play Molly for some time, but I was quite caught up with my Tara experiments. Then I managed to pick up a few of the old metal spirits plus the new plastic Molly box and here we are. Much like Seamus I have fallen in love with Molly. And with only one game with her under my belt at that. Hopefully after reading this you will begin to understand why.

Let us begin with her card...


Defense
She has a healthy Df6 and Wp6, after Tara's measly 5s (most of the time) these are looking quite good. She has very few wounds to show for herself though...just 10. It does not end there though, she is blessed with Impossible To Wound, making it hard for enemies to dictate the damage she will take.

She also has a nifty, but expensive, Df/Wp trigger called Masterful Dead. This allows her to discard two cards to reduce the damage she takes to a single wound! This requires a crow, but she has this built in for Df, but not for Wp. This coupled with Impossible to Wound will hopefully allow those 10 wounds to go further than you might expect.

To add insult to injury she also has Black Blood.


Attack Actions
Whispered Secret
Molly has some nasty secrets to whisper in your ear. This is a once a turn spell but if it goes off your enemies will be crying. Ca6 and resisted by Wp, the target gets a condition till the end of the turn where they suffer negative flips on ALL duels.

This is the perfect way to line a model up for a bad time. Any model that learns this secret is a prime target for the rest of your crew to destroy...and they will have a difficult time defending themselves on negative flips.

Revelation
This is handy little spell that will also throw out a bit of damage, namely 2/3/4. In addition a moderate will result in slow and severe in paralysed for the poor foe. To top it off it has some useful triggers:

• A built in card draw (still need to discard one);
• A mask will push Molly up to 5" away; and
• A ram will result in Molly healing 2 damage.

This spell has a Ca7 so it is quite accurate. I have found this to be an incredibly useful spell for Molly and it is her only damage.

Note Molly has no melee attack and no charge.

Tactical actions
Imbue Vigor
This is a fantastic (0) action spell that requires a 9 of rams, but if you get it off you will give one of your Minions the Reactivate condition. Get a mask on top of that and if the target is a Belle, Spirit or Horror it will get a free 3" push too.

Molly has a host of spells and abilities that really allow her to get the most out of her crew and this is the first of them.

The Ones Left Behind (Summoning)

 Molly's summoning is really characterful and quite unique. You see Molly has experienced some terrible things in her short life and she is able to inflict those experiences on others...and she summons from the pain of her enemies. When you summon a model it comes in suffering all its wounds and ignoring hard to kill and black blood - this is then reduced by the number of enemy models within 3". It also inflicts a wound on each enemy model within 3" that fails a Tn 15 Wp duel, that is quite a high flip to make and will soak up enemy cards for their key pieces. So her summoning literally inflicts pain on those around it and uses those wounds to keep her summoned models around.

This makes it fantastic to hurt your enemies but it will limit where you can summon and will limit the survivability of the models you bring in.

On her base card you can only summon in belles, but she has two limited upgrades that will also allow you to summon horrors or spirits. These are summarised on these cards.

Another great thing to remember is that Molly has the Accomplice ability. This means that any summoned model can activate immediately after Molly.

Upgrades
Molly has a choice from a number of amazing upgrades.

The Forgotten Path / Life
Her two limited upgrades are almost identical. Each adds an additional group of models to her summoning pool, either Spirits or Horrors. In addition those favoured types along with any belles within 6" of Molly gain Black Blood. This plays into Molly's desire to share her pain...hurt her friends and you will feel it too.

Each also gains another fantastic (0) action that allows her to make one her favoured spirit / horror models or belles within 10" take a (1) action. Just another way for Molly to augment the models around her. The best thing is that this action does not require any flip...it just happens.

Tear of the Gorgon

"It's called the Gorgon's Tear. It's among the first relics recovered from the ruins of Malifaux during the initial expeditions through The Breach, before it closed."

Seamus Crashes A Funeral, Wyrd Chronicles, Volume 2 

This pricey upgrade gives Molly yet another (0) action, The Gorgon's Cry. Until the start of her next activation Molly gains Terrifying (All) 12. Another useful way to keep Molly (un)alive.

But with all those (0) actions how do you decide which to use? Tear of the Gorgon makes your choices a little easier by giving Molly Instinctual. I cannot see how you would leave this upgrade at home.

Terrible Knowledge

This upgrade gives Molly's Whispered Secret an interesting Trigger on a tome, The Philosophy of Uncertainty. This gives Molly a condition that if she is killed by another model, the model that killed her is automatically sacrificed. Even in death Molly will share her pain.

The upgrade also gives her another (0) action, Obscene Truth. This makes all models within 4" of her make a Tn 12 Horror Duel. 

Take Back the Night

This upgrade can be taken by any Horror, but is rare 1. This gives the model a 10" aura that grants any Horror or Spirit an ability that allows them to draw a card if they take a model to 0 wounds (once per turn). Molly is quite a card intensive master so this can be a useful way to replenish her hand.

Initial thoughts

Molly appears to be an incredibly potent support master. She has some incredibly useful spells and abilities to add additional AP and effects to her crew. She also has a really unique approach to summoning that will splash damage onto the enemy crew. This coupled with her Black Blood aura will really make it painful for the enemy crew to get stuck in.

The other thing that stands out is just how much she can do in a turn. With 3 AP and 2 (0) actions a turn she will really be an active participant in the crew. I am used to Tara's 6AP a turn, but that came with serious baggage. Molly will have an incredible impact on any game she is in.

The one thing that looks like it will need to be managed carefully is Molly's health. At only 10 wounds and her needing to be close to the action you will need to be incredibly careful with her and do your best to tie up the enemy.

Tune in next time for my insights from my first game and where I plan on taking Molly.