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A buddy bought me a pandora box, so rather than just keeping cool looking models on a shelf, I've decided that i'm going to try my hand at building a crew out of her. Only problem is, I really don't know where to start. Pullmyfinger gave some advice, sure, but ultimately it is lacking when it comes to specifically what works //well// together vs. what is just nifty or flavorful together. From reading on her effects and abilities, it seems like a large crew of cheap models with wp effects would be best, but i really am out of my element here (my experience thus far has been mostly with ressers and arcanists).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Some general tips for Pandora:

Board Control: Pandora has a 12 inch bubble for Emotional Trauma, meaning that she will want to be within the action as best that she can. Her walk is slow, but she has ways of moving around. Whenever she wins a wp duel, she can move four inches. So if you start winning wp duels early on, she can quickly reach the center board, and if you bring a linked Sorrow with you, she has a little body guard.

On the note of Sorrows, your sorrows have 2 damage dealing abilities that work well with Pandora. The first is life leech. Move the Sorrow up to b2b and link to the model (it can be enemy or friendly, since it just says model). If that enemy model activates and does not have the martyr ability, they will take 1 wound while in b2b with the Sorrow. The other is Emotional Stress which works exactly like Emotional Trauma, but has a smaller range.

Offense: Pandora is a powerhouse when it comes to dealing out mass tons of tiny little pinpricks of damage. She has a few ways to do this. First casting Project Emotions on a group of models to give them a debuff. I generally use Pity for the negative twist to wp duels, which means they cannot cheat wp duels, giving you a better chance of winning, or forcing them to burn high cards. Self-Loathing is her main damage dealing spell, when cast you make an attack with that model's melee weapon (remember all models still have the Bash strike of 0/1/2). So if you do that spell while within a Sorrow's Emotional Stress and Pandora's Emotional Trauma (believe the spell range is less than 12 inches). Then even if you manage to only do weak damage, you're doing at least 2 points of damage to the model in question.

Pacify/Incite: These two (0) action abilities force wp duels on your opponent against Pandora (Candy, Kade and any Sorrow in b2b of Pandora can also use these abilities). Winning the duel with Pandora means your opponent takes a wound from Emotional Trauma, triggers your Fading Memories (win a wp duel and move 4 inches), and as a special bonus, you can use that ability again. Besides all of this, you get to tell your opponent his activation order. if you only cast it once or twice, you can use it to prevent a big model from activating near your models and could possibly take him out since he's forced to activate last (I prefer pacify over incite). Remember: You can't jump between Pacify and Incite. If you pick one and win the wp duel, you HAVE to keep going with that one.

Defense: Pandora has a few ways to prevent models from hitting her. The first is Martyr. When a linked Sorrow is in b2b with her, she can transfer the damage to him instead of her, which gives her a few extra wounds to play with. The second is Expose Fears. Any enemy model attempting to target Pandora must succeed in a wp->wp duel (meaning against Pandora) before they can attack her. This means that if they fail the duel, they cannot attack her and they will take a wound from Emotional Trauma. What this does is force your opponent to waste higher cards just to get the chance to attack you. This can be countered by throwing Project Emotions: Pity on to a model before they can attack you. The other is Dementia (which is great as an offensive tool as well). Putting Dementia on a model means that they must pass a simple unopposed wp duel to do ANYTHING, even passing. If they fail the duel, they take 1 wound if they are within range of Emotional Trauma.

I know my Pandora army isn't optimized (since I've just started playing her), but my 35 ss list for casual games is the following:
Pandora
Candy
Kade
Teddy
3 Sorrows
and aPandora.

I've won the past few games I've used that list with. And yes, I know I'm supposed to tailor my crews around the strategy, but for casual games I just take a pre-made list and run with it lol.

I do hope this has helped you out some.

Edit: On your question of picking models, pullmyfinger gives a great list of models that work with her and has this little nugget of info: Pandora is unique in the fact truly any model you can hire with her will be of use (to varying degrees of course). You will usually want at least 1-2 models that can force Wp duels or help Pandora with hers, but from there you can take anything and get good results.

Pandora is one of those Masters who has the ability to work as a super solo as well as fully embeded within her crew. This can make building crews for her a bit tough. I would strongly recommend to stay away from her Avatar until you get comfortable using Pandora and her crew.

I find that while there are a number of good builds with Pandora, I tend to start out my crew with a couple basics.

Pandora
Primordial Magic
Lelu
Lilitu

Lilitu provides a way to control the board via Lure and to generate additional WP duels to benefit Pandora. The Puking Snake (Primordial Magic) allows Pandora to draw an extra card in her had, which is nice for Pandora as she looks for high crows. Lelu provides a nice back-up melee beater to use as an attacker or counter-attacker. After starting with those 3 models (eating up 16 SS for you) you can weave in other Neverborn models you find interesting. Pretty much anything else can work well with her.

Hope that helps!

Agreed with the Primordial Magic as the go-to totem for Pandora, that extra card is much more useful than the slow ass poltergeist. Stitched are good for Pandora as well as they are all about WP duels, so you can constantly inflict damage with her even out of activation.

Coppelius is my choice for melee beater, as against living things (gremlins for example) he can go to town, causing morale duels, inflicting Poison, paralzying any threats to Pandora and most importantly - Keep up with her once she gets into her zone of effect (i.e. once she makes contact with the enemy)

Insidious Madness can also keep up, and has a bundle of WP abilities too. However it does die quite easily, even with the spirit ability.