Taking Molly out for a spin

Here is the summary of my first few games with Molly. This is a follow up from my Gorgon's Tear post.

Highlights:

• The Madame Sybelle delivery service is amazing for Molly. It allows her to skip spending AP on needless walking and also gives her an incredible threat range for summoning even in turn 1.
• Izamu and unnerving aura just create a massive threat range. If you can tag the grave spirit in there too Izamu won't be giving up space soon. Molly's zero action can be great to make Izamu use his heal out of turn.
• Onryos are great little summons. They are dangerous enough in combat that they need to be dealt with. Plus on their way out they give even more WP tests for slow AND hand out Adversary. This is fantastic.
• Shikome and Hanged are terrifying summons and can have a huge impact on the game, particularly if the Onryos have done their Adversary duties.
• I think I have mastered Molly's summoning actions, but I need to not forget her other actions. Whispered Secret can ruin a model's life.
• Molly is so card hungry. I was running out of cards so quickly. As a result I found that I was not really able to take advantage of her reactivate (0) action. This really calls into question my original thoughts on Tear of the Gorgon...for the turns you can do this it is fantastic, but they turn out to be loss common that I'd like. I will try dropping this in future.
• If your opponent bunches up you can really punish them. 

Detailed game analyses:

Game 1 vs John

Reconnoiter
A Line in the Sand
Murder protege
Make them suffer
Protect territory

Reconnoiter does not look like the best strategy for Molly as her summoning needs to be close to the enemy. It looks like it could be okay where I need to deny corners for the opponent.

John brought something like the following:

Rasputina
2 x silent ones
2 x mages
1 x ice gamin
Essence of Power
Burt Jebsen

And this was my molly crew:

Molly (Forgotten path, Tear of the Gorgon, Take Back the Night)
Chiaki
Madame Sybelle (Bleeding tongue, Not too banged up)
Datsue Ba (Spirit whispers, Spirit Beacon)
Izamu (Unnerving aura)
Crooligan

This was the first time that John was facing Molly and he was running a fairly experimental list that was aiming to blow me out the water. The biggest thing that changed the game was me using Sybelle to drag Molly up to summon models in melee range with Raspy. She didn't pack her armour this game and struggled to get away. The splash damage from the summons and the black blood quickly overran the Arcanists.

I was amazed at how quickly this crew can get where it needs to. I was worried about not running a belle but I didn't miss it this time. Datsue did not need the various upgrades. Izamu was fantastic in the middle. Due to me closing down quickly I easily scored on the strategy. Protect territory and murder protege (Burt) comfortably scored too.

Win for Molly!

Game 2 vs Andreas

Squatters' Rights
Breakthrough
Bodyguard
Plant explosives
A line in the sand
Don't remember the last scheme, but we both went for plant explosives and breakthrough

Andreas brought the following:

Tara (I Pay Better, Obliteration Symbiote, Knowledge of Eternity)
2 x librarians
Hannah
Strongarm Suit
Freikorps Trapper
Void wretch

I ran the following:

Molly (Forgotten path, Tear of the Gorgon, Take Back the Night)
Madame Sybelle (Bleeding tongue, Not too banged up)
Datsue Ba (Spirit whispers)
Izamu (Unnerving aura)
Crooligan
Rotten Belle
Necrotic machine

I discovered quite quickly how annoying Hannah's aura was for my summoning engine. But a couple of well placed onryo and shikome managed to tie up a few of Andreas' models. The Freikorps were annoying as they ignored the pulse damage on the summons. Hannah went down quite quickly to my angry shikome while the onryo tied up a trapper. The strongarm suit charged down Datsue. In a single turn she dragged him down to 1 wound. I discovered how quickly I could run out of cards and soulstones in this game. Andreas did a fantastic job of using Hannah;s and the librarians' auras. I used some late turn Drowned summons to create some scheme markers in breakthrough territory. 

This was a close game that I managed to steal in the end.

Game 3 vs Bradley

Extraction
A Line in the Sand
Assassinate
Bodyguard
Distract
Frame for Murder

Brad was running something along the following lines:

Ramos
Joss
Mechanical rider
Johan
Performer
More spiders!

My list was roughly:

Molly (Forgotten path, Gorgon's tear, Take back the night)
Datsue Ba
Madame Sybelle (Bleeding tongue)
Izamu (Unnerving aura)
Rotten Belle
Chiaki
Grave spirit

The table was dominated by a huge piece of impassable rock in the middle that would dictate the movement throughout the game. I think Brad underestimated just how fast Molly could be in turn 1. With the Madame Sybelle delivery service plus her +1 walk aura I got Molly up close enough to summon an onryo right in the thick off things. This splashed damage across most of Brad's crew and disrupted his movement. The following turn I added a shikome to the mix.

This was the first time I tried out Izamu and the grave spirit...and then Joss was placed on the table. But the combined wave of black blood and little attacks took their toll and with one Whispered Secret Joss was torn to shreds. I cannot tell you how many spiders Ramos was creating. And every time I took them down the bastard healed right back up.

The Mech rider ran round the otherside of the mountain to lay some metal gamin eggs. At this point Sybelle and Chiaki changed direction to try close it down.

I think I denied one scoring turn for Brad but I managed to only kill Ramos in turn 5. This finished out at 9 all. This was a really tough game. And despite Brad losing most of his big hitters he kept his eyes on the goal and racked up huge points elsewhere.


Thanks all for the great first few games with Molly.