A while back, I typed up the guide to the Molik Missile on battlecollege. I certainly didn't invent the Molik Missile, which is essentially just using various methods for getting one of the hardest hitting warbeasts in the game up the field as quickly as possible. I rarely use it when I play because it is relatively easy to counter if you're prepared.
Nonetheless, I thought it would be nice to re-visit what I wrote up and illustrate it using the awesome VASSAL program and the Warmachine/Hordes module.
Analysis
Let's look at the attributes that allow Molik to turn into this "missile". He's got SPD 6, which is the same as the reach of the Cyclops. He's got Reach on both his falchions so that extends his threat range to 11" on a normal charge. His MAT is "only" a 7, which means he's still got to be careful about going after high DEF models.
His weapons are only P+S 13, which by itself is almost anemic compared to the other heavy warbeasts out there. However, he does have Weapon Master on both attacks, which averages out to more like P+S 16.5. That's better. FURY of 4 is average, but he has tricks to make sure he's FURY efficient that we'll talk about in a minute.
One of Molik's most important rules is Side Step. When he hits an enemy model with an initial attack or a special attack that is not a power attack, he gets to advance up to 2" after the attack is resolved. He can't be targeted by free strikes during this movement. With 2 initial attacks, Molik can hit, move, hit, move, and end up even further into the enemy lines. Or he can use it to free himself up for using his animus to get away.
His animus is Fate Walker. After all friendly models end their activations this turn, a model under the effects of Fate Walker can make a full advance. Since Fate Walker says nothing about ignoring free strikes, you need to make sure that Molik is out of enemy melee range for this to work.
Another important rule for Molik is Future Sight. This is what allows him to better utilize his 4 FURY. With this ability, he can choose to boost an attack or damage roll after rolling his initial dice. He still needs to be careful about high DEF targets, as I stated above, but at least he might be able to save a FURY here or there if he rolls so well he doesn't need to boost or so poorly that boosting won't help.
The Support
Without support, Molik Karn is "only" a Weapon Master warbeast with a starting threat value of 11" who can get 15" if both initials hit and he is allowed to Side Step further. Good, but not good enough.
Enter the Titan Gladiator and his animus:
Rush - Target friendly warbeast gains +2" movement and Pathfinder. Rush lasts for one turn.
It costs 2 and has a RNG of 6. This makes our numbers 13" and 17". That's better and it can be used by either the Gladiator Titan itself or your warlock.
Skorne players almost never leave home without the Paingiver Beast Handlers. On the turn where you fire the Missile, you're going to use the Enrage ability to give Molik +2 STR and force/allow him to charge for free, saving a precious FURY point.
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| Let's do this thing. |
With these two pieces, Molik is now P+S 15 with a charging distance of 11". On average, the falchion is going to hit for 29 on the charge, and 25 on the follow ups before you boost. If you kill, sidestep, kill, sidestep, you can arrive at your real target full loaded with all 4 FURY available too.
Lastly, one new piece has recently been added to the Skorne ranks: the Mortitheurge Willbreaker. The Willbreaker does two things for Molik. Most importantly, he is a Beast Master. This allows him to force friendly warbeasts in his command range as if he were their controlling warlock. This is extremely important because Molik needs to reach his primary target while still being in the control area of the warlock so he can be forced. Before the Willbreaker, warlocks had to expose themselves and get up the field more if they wanted to keep Molik Karn in range for forcing. Secondly, and less important but still neat, is Puppet Master. Puppet Master is a RNG 10 spell. If cast on Molik, it will automatically take effect. It would allow Molik to reroll one or more dice of your choice rolled for a command check, attack, or damage roll. Between Future Sight and Puppet Master, you shouldn't have to worry so much about missing a critical attack.
So what does this look like in practice? Here's a scenario involving my least favorite Retribution caster, Kaelyssa. She starts the turn all smug and arrogant almost 17" away. (Note: For this to work, we have to assume she didn't pop her feat that would prevent the charge). Molik gets the buffs he needs from the Titan Gladiator and the Beast Handlers and charges.
Note: In this picture, the "Range 130" is there to represent how far away the targets were initially, not how far Molik moved.
With MAT 7 versus DEF 12, there's a good chance Molik will hit just using 2d6. If he misses, he uses Future Sight to boost and get that extra die. With P+S 15 and four dice (charge + weapon master), there's no way he doesn't kill the ARM 17 Sentinel.
Molik side-steps up closer.
He could either swing on another generic Sentinel or the Officer. In this case, he's going after the regular guy to clear his path and get the most from his second side-step. Again, MAT 7 versus DEF 12 is good odds at a hit and we can always fall back on Future Sight. Even without boosting, the damage is enough to take out the Sentinel no matter what we roll.
Molik side-steps closer again.
He's now in melee with Kaelyssa and could have all 4 FURY still available to him. She'll be DEF 16 and ARM 14 which probably means buy an attack, boost the to-hit (using Future Sight), take normal P+S 15 + 3d6 damage, and then do the same again. On average rolls, she's dead. If the Willbreaker managed to hit Molik with Puppet Master, it becomes much more likely.
Admittedly, this is a perfect scenario with a caster who was too close and models spaced out such that Molik could use them as stepping stones. The 2013 Killbox rules do force people further away from the board edges so it is possible that warcasters/warlocks may be a bit more likely to fall into this trap, however.
Mission Control
We've got our support staff in place (and spend at least 12 points in the process). The final piece becomes the warcaster we choose to use. While all casters can use the Missile as illustrated above, some can add more to it.
Archdomina Makeda
Any time Molik is with a version of Makeda, he's better. Because of his Affinity [Makeda] he goes from a FURY 4 warbeast of a FURY 5 warbeast as long as he's in her control area. If you're playing with the Mortitheurge Willbreaker and hoping to use Beast Master for forcing, keep that caveat in mind. He'll still only be a 4 unless Makeda is far enough up-field to have Molik in her 12" control area.If the Titan Gladiator can cast Rush on Molik, Archdomina Makeda can use her 6 FURY as follows:
Cast Savagery on Molik for 2. This is a friendly upkeep that gives a friendly model/unit +5 SPD when making a full advance. If Molik decides to make a full advance instead of a charge, he's got SPD 11 plus Rush for 2 more inches of movement. With his reach weapons, this extends his threat out to 15" instead of the 13" it was before. He doesn't get the extra die for charging, but it's still 23 damage on average.
In this case, though, he can't be whipped by the Beast Handlers because they force him to charge (as well as giving him the +2 STR). You're giving up damage for the ability to move further and not be forced to move in a straight line. Plus if you do run up against a caster like a Kaelyssa or Rask who prevents charges, your opponent may be surprised to find out it doesn't bother Karn as much as they thought.
If the Archdomina is close enough to be able to force Molik, she may also be close enough to affect things with Carnage for 3 of her FURY. Friendly models attacking enemy models in her 12" control area gain +2 to melee attack rolls. This gets Molik up to MAT 9 against enemy models that qualify. If she had cast Savagery on a prior round and was just upkeeping it on the turn you fire the missile, you could use the 6 FURY to upkeep Savagery, cast Rush, and cast Savagery. Then she can charge something across the field and move 9, hopefully far enough to keep the missile in her control area and affect some enemies with Carnage.
If you want to use Molik as more of a boomerang than a missile, Savagery helps with this too. That +5 SPD bonus affects his Fate Walker move (as does Rush). He can move 13" up the field, and 13" back when he's done (assuming you save 2 FURY for Molik to animus himself).
0. Starting Location.
1. Move up to engage the Sentinels. Attack and kill number 1.
2. Side-step. Attack and kill number 2.
3. Buy an extra attack. Attack and kill number 3. Use Fate Walker animus.
4. After everyone else activates, move back 13" away from the remaining Sentinels.
Even with Vengeance moves, the Sentinels can at most move 3", charge 8", and threaten 2" more... but the remaining Sentinels shouldn't be in range of Molik even after all that. He's got 2 FURY (if he's in range of Makeda) to burn if he needs to use Future Sight at any time.
Sure, using an 11-point model to kill 1 point grunts might not be the most effective thing in the world, but in a world of attrition you've just bought yourself an edge.
Supreme Archdomina Makeda
Supreme Archdomina Makeda is really the perfect compliment to Molik Karn. Her spell list is perfect for getting Karn even further up the field than before.Leash - Immediately after this model ends its normal movement, target warbeast in its battlegroup can advance up to 3" towards it.
This is a RNG 6 spell that costs 2 FURY to cast. It's upkeepable on top of that.
Road to War - Friendly Faction non-warlock models activating in this model's control area gain +2" movement this turn.
Road to War costs 3 FURY and can't be upkept.
And then we have her feat:
Instruments of War - While in Makeda's control area, friendly Faction models gain boosted melee attack rolls and cannot be knocked down or targeted by free strikes.
Then on top of all of that, eMakeda has her Tier 4 list advantage: Heavy Warbeasts get +2 SPD during your first turn.
Makeda can cast (or upkeep) Leash on Molik Karn. She can cast Road to War and give out +2" movement to Molik and everyone else in her control area. She pops her feat allowing boosted melee attack rolls. If she was able to upkeep Leash, she could cast Rush or Molik could get it from a Gladiator or a Cyclops Shaman.
She then moves up the field. I do NOT believe she can "failed" charge something across the battlefield because I think the failed charge will end her activation before Leash has a chance to go off. I think in my battlecollege write-up I said she could failed charge and Leash but I don't think that works. However, you can always move a sacrificial model up and let her charge that.
So now let's add up all the movement tricks you might have:
- If you're playing Tier 4 and it's turn 1, you have +2 SPD.
- You've got 3" of movement from Leash that has to be towards but not directly towards.
- Road to War is +2" movement.
- Rush is +2" movement.
- Base SPD is 6.
So we're looking at SPD 8 and 7 inches of additional movement plus the 3" from the charge and 2" from reach. Say hello to 20" for the initial attack and potentially 24" using two side-steps. Of course if you can move that far, you can easily be out of Makeda's control area. This is less of a problem now that we have the Mortitheurge Willbreaker as that model can run 12" (14" if affected by Road to War) and make sure that Molik is in his CMD of 9.
When Molik does attack, he'll ideally be getting automatically boosted attack rolls because of the feat. He's not going to miss often with MAT 7 + 3d6 to hit (and Future Sight), and he's looking at P+S 15 + 3d6 (or 4d6 on the first charge attack) with 5 FURY to spend however he likes.
Overall, eMakeda is probably the best option for making the Molik Missile work.
Dominar Rasheth
Molik doesn't get a lot from Big Pimpin'. Obviously Molik wouldn't mind hitting a model with -2 ARM from Blood Mark. Carnivore could give Molik +2 to hit versus living models. Rasheth's Plague Wind feat gives all living enemy models in his 16" control area -2 ARM and it's easier to keep Molik in a spot where he can be forced with that huge control area as well.
If you can manage to get an enemy caster affected by both the feat and Blood Mark, it's all over if Molik gets into melee. He could be at an effective P+S 19 (17 versus non-living) and casters don't usually last long against that.
Fate Walker gives Rasheth a little bit of extra movement and this actually is a considerable boost considering his SPD of 4 and the 14" killbox rules.
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
pHexeris offers almost nothing to Molik Karn to support this missile other than the ability to clear some charge lanes with his spells and feat.Lord Arbiter Hexeris
eHexeris only really offers Black Spot to help the missile. An enemy unit suffering from Black Spot will be -2 DEF and the extra attacks could help Molik clear out larger clumps of chumps. Black Spot and Side-Step work well together. You can attack, kill, side-step, and then use the bonus attack from Black Spot. You would not be able to side-step off the bonus attack, but you could repeat the same thing over again using his second falchion.Master Tormentor Morghoul
It used to be a lot harder to combine pMorghoul and Molik before the advent of the Willbreaker. pMorghoul's big disadvantage was his 5 FURY stat, which only allowed a 10" control area. Now that's been remedied. So what benefits does pMorghoul (known as a "beast caster") bring to Mr. Karn?Abuse is the biggest thing. Sure, Molik will take d3 damage points, but he'll get +2 SPD and +2 STR for one round. If you combine this with the Beast Handlers, he's P+S 17. Morghoul keeps Molik safe for launch by using Admonition on him, allowing him to get away from the melee threats trying to lock him down.
Morghoul's feat is amazing if you're going up against warlocks, too. He won't be able to transfer to any beast that is in Morghoul's control area. Admittedly this is only a 10" radius, but that's still pretty good (especially if Morghoul manages to get in a good spot using his high SPD and Sprint). And of course if Morghoul puts Fate Walker on himself, he'll less likely to remain in a risky position at the end of the turn.
Lord Assassin Morghoul
eMorghoul is not a great warlock. He does, however, offer a lot to the Molik Missile. First, Ghost Walk lets Molik advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and he can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. He can't go through models though (friendly or enemy). I suppose he could trample and that could be thought of as "moving through", but that's not what we're talking about.Silence of Death is good stuff as a friendly upkeep on Molik, too. Those two falchions gain the ability to prevent Tough rolls, prevent healing, and prevent transfers.
And there's the feat: Assassination Run. It certainly sounds like it should help Molik do the missile thing, doesn't it? While in Morghoul's control area, friendly Faction models gain +2 DEF and Evasive. Evasive means you can't be targeted by free strikes and if an enemy ranged attack misses you, you get to advance up to 2". The +2 DEF is nice but we're looking for offense. We get a little bit of that by ignoring free strikes, allowing us to better position Molik. It also helps if he needs to disengage with Fate Walker when he's still within melee distance of opponents.
Just like his prime version, this version of Morghoul also loves Fate Walker on himself. He can run up, blind everything adjacent to him with his epic fan dance, and then scoot on back.
Master Ascetic Naaresh
Not much to see here. You don't want to suffer the -1 SPD penalty or else you're not firing the missile, so Iron Flesh is out (even though it's a fantastic spell).His feat should grant Molik +3 STR (one for each aspect) which is incredible. P+S 18 means that even taking out a closed Devastator becomes feasible...
Just kidding! Never send Molik after any 'jack/'beast with insanely good armor. With ARM 25, each +3d6 hit is only doing 3.5 damage. A +4d6 hit is only doing 7. Seriously, if you go after a Devastator or a ARM 21 Stormwall, you're wasting your 11 points.
The only time when it's allowed is when you're just trying to use it to side-step to something more valuable.
Supreme Aptimus Zaal
I may end up showing bias here because Zaal is one of my favorite casters of all time. Zaal loves to spend his points on cheaper units that generate souls, but there's always room for Molik.Awakened Spirit is fantastic because it saves Molik 2 FURY. If you are ever worried about having to save that 2 FURY for his animus, don't be. Zaal takes care of that for you.
But if that's not enough of a buff for you, check out Last Stand plus Molik.
Last Stand - Target friendly model/unit gains an additional die on its melee attack and melee damage rolls. If an affected model makes a melee attack, it is destroyed at the end of the turn.
That's right: an additional die! Your P+S 15 charge initial is now +5d6 and that's 32.5 damage on average. Follow up attacks can either be boosted to duplicate that or be at 29 damage on average. So now what was that about not charging a closed-up Devastator? (Hint: Still don't do it.)
How do we really make this over the top? Rage of the Ancients, that's how.
Rage of the Ancients - Zaal gains a number of ancestral rage tokens equal to the number of friendly Faction warrior models that have been destroyed and not returned to play since the start of the game. While in Zaal's control area, friendly Faction models can spend ancestral rage tokens on Zaal to boost melee attack or melee damage rolls.
You cannot buy additional attacks with the ancestral rage tokens, but you can with your FURY. You get two initials and buy four attacks after that. If you had 12 rage tokens sitting around, that's fully boosted to-hit and damage on every one of them.
Now you can finally go after that closed-up Devastator if you get Last Stand plus that many tokens.
Unfortunately, Zaal doesn't have any movement tricks to help Molik get up the field faster, so you're relying on the standard Rush animus plus the Beast Handlers to charge for free.
Tyrant Xerxis
Xerxis also has no movement tricks. What he does have, however, is Rage. Anyone would love +3 to melee damage rolls. Couple that with Xerxis' feat:Total Annihilation - While in Xerxis' control area, friendly Faction models gain an additional die on their melee damage rolls. While in Xersis' control area and B2B with another friendly Faction model, friendly Faction models gain +2 ARM.
This is great for the missile, but most of the time Xerxis is going to want Fury on an infantry unit such as the Cetrati. Still, if you're going to want to hit something(s) hard, this is a combo that gets the job done.
Void Seer Mordikaar
Not much to see here. He can give out Ghost Walk. That's about it.Conclusion
I've rambled on long enough about a trick that's rightly feared across tabletops everywhere. You can counter it by understanding threat ranges, putting models where side-step isn't an option, etc. Molik is an 11-point model but he's relatively fragile. Unless you use some of the tricks at your disposal, you're probably not going to get your points-worth for him.Thanks for reading.
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