Wicked+Doll

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 * Wicked Doll, Neverborn Minion**

=__Overview__= The Wicked doll is a cheap, if fragile minion with some excellent mobility and a variety of great offensive and support-related tricks. It's definitely a minion that's designed to play with Zoraida and Collodi crews, where the Wicked Doll is able to make full use of it's Talents.

=__Mobility__= 5/7 Wk/Cg is actually not fast for a Neverborn minion, but that's not where the Wicked Doll's mobility truely lies...

Hag's Toys
This is a great Talent that allows any of your Wicked Dolls to literally teleport from any point on the board to within 2" of Collodi or Zoraida. Given that it's a (0) action it also doesn't stop you from making attacks or interacting with objectives either, which is hugely useful. The disadvantage is that you can only place the Wicked Doll near wherever Collodi or Zoraida currently is. This isn't a huge problem, given how mobile both models can be. However it does limit the Wicked Doll's scope of options for mobility. Thus the Wicked Doll will often either be teleporting in to support Collodi/Zoraida, or Collodi/Zoraida will have to spend part of their previous activation getting into a position that benefits your Wicked Dolls.

=__Offense__= The Wicked Doll's melee damage is surprisingly good. The mediocre stats for it's Sewing Claws are made up for by being a paired weapon, plus it's combat trigger (//A Little Drop of Poison//) can ramp up the damage with poison 2. Taken together, this actually makes the Wicked Doll about as good in melee as that other, equally costed melee minion - the Terror Tot. Paired on the Doll makes up for the Tot's higher Cb, while Poison 2 is technically more damaging than //Flay//, especially against models with damage mitigating rules like Spirit.

Sewn in Poison
This handy little ability can give a slight boost to the damage output of your friendly models, and it's for this reason that you'll often want to keep your Wicked Dolls in base contact with whatever melee minions are in your crew. Two or more Wicked Dolls can also give out the Poison 1 to each other, meaning you won't have to rely so much on their trigger to deal that extra damage. A neat trick to get good use out of this ability is to charge your models in such a way that they end up in contact with a Wicked Doll once they're engaged with their target. Naturally, some smart positioning or charging of the Wicked Doll beforehand is needed for this.

To get the absolute best use out of of //Sewn in Poison//, you'll want to pair the Wicked Doll with a model that can attack and reliably deal damage to multiple different enemy models each turn (since poison doesn't stack). Any model with melee expert or the option for a (1) Charge is a decent enough choice, but models like Lilith, with her //Whirling Death// Action and //Wicked//, will get ALOT of use from that poison...assuming the Wicked Doll can keep pace with her.

Malice
The ultimate suicide attack for the Wicked Doll. As an (All) action with a range of 2 it can be difficult to pull off, and the loss of your own Wicked Doll for just 2 Wd and Slow will often be hard to justify. It is, however, non-resistable, and being Wds (rather than Dg) it will ignore any Armour or other Dg mitigation Talents that your opponent might have. Basically then, it's a guaranteed way of helping to finish off key enemy models, or to reduce the threat of a particularly nasty model via it's slow effect if you're desperate. //Malice// is not a Talent that you will find yourself using often, but it's definitely worth keeping in mind for those moments when it shines.

=__Resilience__= Generally the Wicked Doll is a weak, vulnerable little minion, even for it's 3SS cost. If your Wicked Doll get's hit, it will almost definitely die. Wp 5 definitely makes it a vulnerable target for Wp-based attacks and while Df 6 is good, it won't stop a determined opponent. On the plus side, Ht1 does make it easy to hide and being a construct means it won't need to worry about morale duels.

Defensive Stance
What will keep your Wicked Doll alive, however, is it's high Df of 6 and intelligent use of //Defensive Stance//. While having a high Df is good, it will only take one bad flip to spell the end of your Wicked Doll. You can cheat the flips, of course, but you often won't want to be wasting high cards on keeping a a 3 SS minion alive. This is why you should be using //Defensive Stance// whenever you think your opponent is going to want to target your cute little dolls. The positive flips give you a good chance of flipping a high card and will make it very hard for your opponent to hit the Wicked Doll without cheating. Like you, he'll be loathe to cheat when it's such a cheap minion, so activating //Defensive Stance// on a Wicked Doll will probably prevent your opponent from trying to kill them with ranged or melee attacks altogether.

The negative to //Defensive Stance//, -2/-2 Wk/Cg, is not an issue for the Wicked Doll, since it can still teleport to Zoraida or Collodi via //Hag's Toys//. However bear in mind that //Defensive Stance// will only work for Df flips against Ranged or Melee attacks. An attack or spell that's neither ranged nor melee, or an attack that targets the Wicked Doll's Wp (such as most of Kirai's Spirits) will get around //Defensive Stance// without any trouble.

Stitchwork
Sorry, you will never use this on your own Wicked Dolls. As above, they're unlikely to survive their first hit anyway, and healing a single point of damage on a 2-Wd model is almost never worth the effort. This will, however, benefit any other Dolls in your crew, such as Stitched Together, Collodi and the Effigy Dolls. The Stitched Together tends to be the kind of model you don't mind killing off anyway (thanks to //Does not Die//), but the Wicked Doll will still make for an excellent and cheap healer for the others.

=__Tips and Tricks__=

Wicked Intentions
The Df-14 duel on this talent is actually really good. No model in the game is immune to such a duel, and the vast majority of models have a below-average chance of flipping the required card. The effect is powerful, being similar to a Paralyze, so against critical models your opponent WILL do their best to pass the duel. It becomes truely strong against mobs of models, where you're opponent will have trouble cheating every flip and you could potentially lock down a significant chunk of those models.

Actually getting multiple Wicked Dolls into range of a model for //Wicked Intentions// can be tricky. With no companion-type ability you'll need to move them in one by one, and a smart opponent will quickly realise what your trying to do and take steps to stop you (ie. kill the Wicked Dolls). Moving them after most of your opponents models have activated, in preparation of some //Wicked Intentions// duels next turn is probably the easiest route. You could also wait until one Wicked Doll is engaged by an enemy model (usually because the enemy model charged the Doll or another nearby model), and then move up the rest to activate //Wicked Intentions//, effectively springing a trap for your opponent's models. Using either approach in conjunction with //Hag's Toys// is probably the best way to hide your plans - your opponent is less likely to expect it if they've just mobbed Collodi or Zoraida and the Wicked Dolls are sitting on the other side of the table.

Ironically, //Wicked Intentions// actually **reduces** the life expectancy of your Wicked Dolls. While it can blunt any attacks that may come from nearby models, it also makes those Dolls prime targets for your opponents wrath. So if you have a few minions trapped in the Wicked Doll's web, you can expect your opponent to focus on those dolls until enough of them are dead to negate //Wicked Intentions//.

Construct
An oft-forgotten characteristic with Neverborn players, this little fellow is a construct and comes with all the associated strengths and weaknesses. As a construct it won't care about morale duels, but it makes Wicked Dolls a prime target for construct-specific spells. Leveticus in particular will love turning your Dolls into Steampunk Abominations, for instance. It will also drop a scrap counter, which several opponents may be able to take advantage of. All this means is that you need to be particularly careful with your Wicked Dolls around models that can take advantage of it's "Constructedness".

Of course your own crew can take advantage of the scrap counters a Wicked Doll drops as well, notably through Collodi and the Widow Weaver. These are discussed in more detail below.

Murderous
So you get free Wicked Dolls every time one kills an enemy living or undead model in their activation? What's not to like?! Admittedly it's not easy to pull off. As a (0) action you can't combine it with //Hag's Toys// for a teleport-attack, and The Wicked Doll's damage output (without Poison) means you'll need to pick on a heavily wounded model. That said, the summoned Wicked Doll can team up with the existing Wicked Doll to enable //Wicked Intentions//, and hey, it's a free minion! So while it's not an ability you'll be able to use regularly, it's well worth to keeping an eye out for opportunities to use it.

Doll House and Objectives
Being able to remove Insignificant from your Wicked Doll makes the little fellow quite useful for helping to achieve any of the game's Strategies and Schemes that require non-insignificant models. It combines particularly well with //Hag's Toys// too. For instance Zoraida can use //Raven// to move up to an objective requiring an Interact action, such as a Treasure or Dynamite counter. The Wicked Doll then uses //Hag's Toys// to teleport to that objective, lose Insignificance thanks to //Doll House// and spend it's own AP for an interact (as opposed to Zoraida wasting her own AP).

The ability to gain or lose Insignificant at will with your Wicked Dolls is actually very effective for two objectives in particular - Escape and Survive and Eye for an Eye. In Escape and Survive you score points according to how many non-Insignificant models you have left in play as a percentage of the non-Insignificant models you began the encounter with. So if you keep your Wicked Dolls Insignificant at the beginning of the encounter (and thus not count toward your initial model total), that starting number will be much easier to reach later in the game, once you use //Doll House// to remove Insignificant from your Wicked Dolls.

In Eye for an Eye, being able to gain/lose Insignificant on your Wicked Dolls at will should make it much easier to keep your total number of non-Insignificant models within one of your opponent's crew.

Bad Juju can also be used to help remove Insignificant off a Wicked Doll. However without the benefit of //Hag's Toys// you don't get the great teleport/Interact combo that you can do with Zoraida. This is mitigated somewhat by Bad Juju's //Eternal// and //From the Earth// Talents. The Wicked Doll may not be able to teleport to Bad Juju, but Bad Juju can still be summoned next to a Wicked Doll.

Removing //Doll House// via a trio of Wicked Dolls ensures that you won't need to rely upon Zoraida or Collodi to remove Insignificant. But while this can come in handy if your Master is dead or otherwise proccupied, it's probably the least useful combination. As above, it's not usually that hard to kill a Wicked Doll so if three non-Insignificant models are going to cause problems, it shouldn't take too much effort for your opponent to kill one and disable //Doll House//.

Note that while Doll House doesn't work with Collodi, he already has a Talent that strips Insignificant from a Wicked Doll anyway. So anything above regarding Zoraida will also work for Collodi.

A Voodoo Doll
There is currently only one model in the game with the //Create Voodoo Doll// action, and that's Zoraida. Using Zoraida to create a minion from nothing more than 2AP is a very good deal, especially when it's a model with all the abilities of a Wicked Doll. Some good tricks would be; The latter two options are almost like giving Zoraida her own attack that deals direct damage to a model, which is normally something she can't do (short of Manifesting into the Avatar of Fate).
 * Summon a Wicked Doll in the late game to help claim objectives via //Doll House//,
 * Pair the summoned Wicked Doll with a second Wicked Doll to enable //Wicked Intentions//,
 * Summon a Wicked Doll so you can immediately sacrifice it for non-resistable damage via //Malice//,
 * Summon a Wicked Doll and then //Obey// it in the same activation to charge an enemy model,

Having said all that, DO NOT assume that //A Voodoo Doll// means Wicked Dolls are not worth hiring for a Zoraida Crew. They still cost 2 AP, which effectively means that Zoraida spends a turn not moving, summoning her Voodoo Doll or getting full use out of her awesome spell list. In any given turn, Zoraida is already going to have quite alot to do, and the effect of her spells on the game is usually quite significant. So while you could indeed spend a few turns pumping out Wicked Dolls, you'll often find it more productive to actually cast her spells or conduit an enemy minion with a summoned Voodoo Doll.

=__Master-Specific Tips__=

Zoraida
Most of the ways Zoraida can take advantage of a Wicked Doll have already been addressed. Suffice to say that Wicked Dolls are an excellent choice for our Voodoo Swamp Hag, whether you're hiring one for your starting crew or summoning one during the game.

One thing to note, however, is that the Wicked Doll is a Special Forces: Doll minion. Thanks to her //Enthrall// talent, Zoraida actually has access to models from most other Special Forces available in the game. Taking any of the non-Doll Special Forces will prevent Zoraida from hiring and more notably, summoning a Wicked Doll. Losing the chance to summon a Wicked Doll might sound like a bad idea, but it shouldn't automatically prevent you from considering non-Doll Special forces when hiring your crew. Some of those Special Forces minions are excellent, and as above, Zoraida doesn't usually need those summonable Wicked Dolls to win games. She was, after all, an excllent Master for a whole year before the Wicked Doll rules were released in Rising Powers, and many players didn't even use those Wicked Dolls until after the models were released, some months later.

Collodi
When you run out of Marionette's to take, your next choice of cheap minion is likely to be the Wicked Doll. Unlike the other choices for Collodi, the Wicked Doll can at least keep up with their Puppet Master through //Hag's Toys//, and they should be able to make make excellent use of //Stitchwork// as a healer for the rest of the crew. Collodi will also be able to boost their damage output with his various buffing spells and abilities, which in turn gives you a better chance of being able to activate //Murderous//. Wicked Dolls also drop scrap counters, so Collodi will be able to build a new Marionette out of one if needed.

Lilith
Lilith is not the sort of Master you'd expect to find using a Wicked Doll, especially when her crew synergises so much better with a Terror Tot around. That said, if the Wicked Doll can keep up with Lilith then it can grant poison to Lilith's melee strikes, which will improve her damage output considerably from //Wicked// and //Whirling Death//. It may not be a game-changing combo, but it's worth thinking about if you want to try something different with your Lilith crew.

=__Minion-Specific Tips__=

//Sewn in Poison// means that a Wicked Doll will have some synergy with most melee-oriented models without an existing poison attack, but his best synergies come into play when there are other Doll minions around.

Effigy Dolls
As said above, //Stitchwork// enables the Wicked Doll to become a cheap and effective healer for other Dolls if need be. The Effigy Dolls in particular will appreciate the odd healing flip. With Object 1 and some decent defensive stats they can take some punishment, but won't win most battles of attrition without some way of recovering their wounds.

Widow Weaver
The Widow Weaver herself can use //Thread from Nightmares// and //Craft Doll// to become a Wicked Doll-generating machine if she wanted to. She could also recycle the scrap counters left by the Wicked Dolls into more Wicked Dolls and if she has enough, gather those scrap counters together to build a Teddy with //Create Plaything//. Wicked Dolls created by Zoraida are almost like free scrap counters (well, they cost 2AP). So if you're particularly set on pumping out a Teddy in record speed, use Zoraida to summon a Wicked Doll via it's //A Voodoo Doll// Talent, kill it and, say, a Malifaux Raptor for a scrap counter and two corpse counters, and then use the Widow Weaver to Thread from Nightmares the final needed scrap counter to construct Teddy. That's a brand new Teddy for the loss of a Malifaux Raptor and Zoraida's activation to build the Wicked Doll.

Like Collodi, the Widow Weaver can also buff the Wicked Dolls with her various spells. However she lacks Collodi's amazing mobility and without //Puppet Master//, the Wicked Dolls cannot teleport to her with //Hag's Toys//. All in all, she plays the role of an excellent, if static, Summoner and Buffer for your Wicked Dolls.

Bad Juju
As mentioned in his own article, Bad Juju will benefit from having a Wicked Doll by adding poison to his melee attacks and perhaps more importantly, will remove Insignificant from the Wicked Doll for the purpose of claiming objectives.

=__Playing Against Wicked Dolls__= Even with a Df6, Wicked Dolls are very fragile. It will only take one hit from most models to kill one so if it's causing a problem, don't be afraid to swat the thing. However if your opponent activated //Defensive Stance// on a Wicked Doll and you don't have a way of getting around it (ie. Wp-based attacks or non-melee, non-ranged attacks), you're generally best off not trying to hurt it at all. Getting through Df6 with a double :+fate flip is more effort that it's worth, so unless it's going to lose you the game then your efforts are better spent elsewhere.

It's very easy to be caught off-guard with //Hag's Toys//, especially when the Wicked Doll also loses Insignificant from //Doll House// and your opponent uses them to claim an objective. There's not too much you can do about this except be aware. Remember that at any time, a Collodi or Zoraida player could teleport their Wicked Dolls to within 2" of themselves, and be sure to plan accordingly.

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