Malifaux General

"New Player Copies Last OP" Edition

Black Friday Edition

>Books
Malifaux (Including Ripples of Fate): mega.nz/#F!cg00BCoD!mDHocpgWP_hkkM3CpCBwrQ

Through the Breach (Complete): mega.nz/#F!Z9sVSYTS!U2J243KhVsUuOqAnsqTj4A

Book 1 - Basic Rules and first wave of updated (from 1st edition of malifaux) models
Book 2 - Second wave of updated models
Book 3 - Campaign system and new M2E models
Book 4 - Entirely new models

Discord voice chat for malifaux chat and memery: discord.gg/xWkuFRz

Through the Breach Fated Almanac - Basic rules for the RPG set in Malifaux
Through the Breach Fatemaster Almanac - GM stuff for the RPG

>What is Malifaux?
Malifaux is a 32mm Skirmish Tabletop game, with a focus on completing several different objectives, while denying your opponent their objectives

New Gaining Grounds Tournament Rules:
themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/114900-gaining-grounds-2016/


Topic: What are you planning on getting for black Friday?

OP here. I'm excited to start playing, but I'm unsure of whether I want to start with Arcanists or Neverborn. Fluff/model-wise, I like Kaeris and Rasputina from Arcanists, and Dreamer and Lynch from Neverborn.

I largely come from an MTG/TCG background, and I like playing highly synergistic, "engine-based" combo decks (Storm, Tron, Dredge, etc), and making my opponent have to scramble to try and interact with what I'm doing. I want to be proactive and have the gameplay come from having my opponent try and stop me from accomplishing my primary gameplan, but not "just" be aggressive in the "beat face" sense.

Does one of the Malifaux factions make sense in this context more than the others?

Look at Colette's playstyle.

She seems pretty sweet. All that teleportation and placement definitely fits in to how I'd like to play.

Would Arcanists be better than Neverborn for this kind of playstyle, then? Seeing what people could do with Lynch was one of the things that drew me to the game, but I could see switching over to a different faction.

I guess I'm looking for a tricky faction and not just individual tricky crews, so I have a good path forward beyond my starting box.

So how do people feel in the wake of pic related?

I was, unfortunately, kind of underwhelmed.
That's in no small part due to the fact that a Kill Team league stole 80% of the Malifaux player base a matter of days before Divergent Paths started.

I like what they tried to do with the chop'n'change story, but it just didn't quite work
as far as keeping all the factions equally interesting, or in a few cases even slightly interesting.

Still pretty happy with the Arcanist Lawyer-Wolf though.
I'll be interested to see how the new models/characters work out.

>Colette
I wouldn't, personally.
Go for Kaeris, if you like the models and fluff.
She does a fair amount of crew-interaction stuff, as I understand it.

But yes, go Arcanist, I agree with that.

Pic related?

So, Arcanists are better for that style of tricky play? I want to take a billion actions a turn and do crazy things that my opponent was completely not expecting; things like Lynch's Brilliant/hand tricks, Dreamer's summoning/LCB gameplay, Kaeris's Burning/flying movement, and Raspy's threat ranges/throwing all were the type of "How did that happen?" type of gameplay I want to go for. However, I haven't really found much beyond those crews that I've really loved. What crews in those factions also inspire that type of gameplay? Does one of the two factions have more masters that support that playstyle?

Why do you say Arcanists?

>Pic related?
Gaaaawdfukkendamnit.
Pic Related.

I think Arcanists would generally be best for tricks, yes.

A lot of the crews in Malifaux are fairly plug and play, with the Master defining/providing teh suite of tricks available.
I've been told it's a lot like MtG in that respect, but with a greater focus on the Master dictating the style of the crew.

I play Colette - I think she's fucking great fun, but complex as all dicks to learn to play with. She was my first Master too, and gave me a decent understanding of the fundamentals, but only through a long and frankly frustrating period of getting the shit kicked out of me all over the table.

As for why Arcanists - because, for my local meta, they have the reputation as tricksiest.
Neverborn are scary and beat face, Guild are shooty and beat face, Ressrs summon and beat face, Gremlins are numerous and wacky but mostly just beat face...

Havign said that, every single Master has their own shenanigans, and it might be difficult to pick out one you'll enjoy playing just by reading the hundreds of cards and trying to cross-reference, or by reading the dozens of "why you should play this Master" articles around.

If the option is there for you, look up some local players and ask for a few games borrowing crews (maybe ones they choose for you) to get a feel for what things do.

So I've started my Outcasts collection (traded some stuff for it)

So far I've got:
Levi and his box (Alyce, waifs, aboms)
Ashes and Dust
Freikorpsmann x1
Ronin x1
Freikorps Specialist
And Pride is kicking around somewhere

For undead I have Crooligans, Bete, Flesh golem, dogs, rogue necromancy, Philip and Yin

Anything stand out that I absolutely need next? I really don't like belles.

bump

>Havign said that, every single Master has their own shenanigans, and it might be difficult to pick out one you'll enjoy playing just by reading the hundreds of cards and trying to cross-reference, or by reading the dozens of "why you should play this Master" articles around.
I guess that's my problem; I like a lot of things a lot of masters from different factions do, but I'm having trouble finding a particular faction that excels at a particular strategy? Are they just "skins," or do certain factions excel at certain strategies more than others?

I've certainly never regretted the choice to include Johan in a list.

>playing Through the Breach
>GM usually shows us portraits of all the NPCs
>when he doesn't, we all know by now that it's a villain in disguise, because villains in Malifaux are shit as disguises.

Come on, guys. The standards for making yourself not look creepy in Malifaux are extremely low, because even the good guys look like goth junkies. You just have to not look like fucking Freddy Krueger and you'll probably get away with whatever your evil scheme is.

Also, if you are a Neverborn disguising yourself as a local shopkeeper while secretly murdering and skinning people, COME UP WITH A BETTER FAKE NAME THAN "TATTERSON FLAY"

New player here, I've just got Wong's box and I've got my first game on Sunday.

What would you say would be good stuff for Wong beyond his initial box set? I suspect that my mate's got me Burt Jebsen for my birthday, but beyond that, what would be good?

Sammy LaCroix works well with him, gets you both limited upgrades. Burt and Gracie also work well. Stuffed piglets if you want cheap activations/targets to bounce blasts around. Wong is pretty fun

>Also, if you are a Neverborn disguising yourself as a local shopkeeper while secretly murdering and skinning people, COME UP WITH A BETTER FAKE NAME THAN "TATTERSON FLAY"
The Neverborn can't into human names. Why do you think Lucius has such a huge train of goods for a full name? That's what they think a human name looks like for someone in that station.

Prior to Book 3, I think there were very distinct roles that different factions were suited to above others, and several clear weaknesses.
With the last two releases, I think that is far, far less the case.

So they're not quite "just skins", but in many ways they are close enough that how a given Faction is 'supposed' to play is probably less of a concern than how much you like their aesthetic or model range, or whether they contains a couple of your favourite Masters.

Aracanists, therefore, is the correct choice.

>TATTERSON FLAY
It is kind of perfect though, isn't it?
If Wyrd introduced not-Sweeney Todd tomorrow, and called him Tatterson Flay, I'd accept it.

Sounds cool about Sammy, I assume that you give her 'Ooh Glowy' while Wong keeps 'A Gremlin's Luck'? Also liking her ability to discard enemy scheme markers and getting a Stuffed Piglet.

>So they're not quite "just skins", but in many ways they are close enough that how a given Faction is 'supposed' to play is probably less of a concern than how much you like their aesthetic or model range, or whether they contains a couple of your favourite Masters.
Guess I'm probably going Neverborn then. Arcanists are cool and all, but Lynch/HD and Dreamer/LCB are probably my favorite master combos in the game, both in fluff and action. Probably going to pick up the translucents tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice, user.

For people that have them, is the translucent/dayglow effect cool? It looks sweet.

So, I'm thinking about starting up. I want to do Neverborn, start with the Lilith box. any chance I'd be able to get one cheap with black friday coming up? Also, super mad I cant use the pumpkin man in OPs picture in an actual game.

Planning on playing zoraida in gremlins. Played a lot of games with the brewmaster and I want to try something new. Pic related it's her voodoo doll Wip.

A guy in my meta came through with the save! I'll be able to get my Bishop after all with a split order.

I'm getting stuff for myself and my brother and the list is currently Twisted Fate Deck, Dead Bandits, Wokou Raiders for me, with Akaname, Fermented Monks, and Terracotta for my brother.

What can I get to reach $150 for my Parker and Viks or my Brothers Brewmaster and Yan Lo (10T).

>Yan Lo (10T).
Toshiro and Yin, Jorogumo and/or the Dawn Serpent, Low River Monks and the generic upgrade deck 2.0

When's the Twisted Fate deck coming out? I know it's on sale this Black Friday, but as a general release? Wyrd's website says November...

>I want to do Neverborn
>Also, super mad I cant use the pumpkin man in OPs picture in an actual game.
Why can't you?

His stat card demands he only be playable in his own specific story encounter.

I really wish he was a legal proxy for killjoy. I'm thinking of converting the model a little and using that as a killjoy proxy.

Bump. Anyone want to comment on translucents vs dayglows? Trying to decide which to go for tomorrow.

Yet another new player here, decided on 10T. What models should I be looking into buying first? What are the best crews for beginners?

Ten Thunders' Gimmick isn't infiltration. it's buffing. You have low numbers by comparison, but you flip a million goddamn cards per guy. Play to that.

Lucas McCabe is generally recommended for both new and experienced players, and allows entry into Guild, another fairly newbie-friendly faction. Toshiro the Daimyo is something you're going to want eventually, and his summoning is top-notch, making you want ashigaru and komainu. Ten Thunders Brothers help. They're subtle, but they add a lot to your play that you don't notice is missing till it's there. If you do go for McCabe, you'll also probably want a kickass minion model, which will be either the Dawn Serpent (Breaks the 10T paradigm by being HUGE NUMBERS) or Jorogumo (Tanky, respond well to buffs).

I have a few translucents (Kaeris, Raspy, and Tara) and they look pretty cool, but joins between different parts can stand out sometimes and you need to be pretty careful with mold lines and any other trimming or filing you do.

No experience with any of the day-glos though, so I can't really compare them.

Why do you have to be more careful with the mold lines than usual? Sorry, I'm completely new to wargames in general; I come largely from a TCG background.

That's right. If you scrap them the wrong way it will bruise the plastic and it will stand out from the rest of the model.

>If you scrap them the wrong way it will bruise the plastic and it will stand out from the rest of the model.
Is this moreso because of the transparent effect? I'm guessing it's also a problem if you're too conservative and don't remove enough mold lines?

Well it will happen with any plastic model depending on what happens. Just use the back of an exacto knife rather than a file and you will be fine.

Hi Malifags,
I've found pic related in a cardbox where my brother used to keep his 40k army. Who are those guys?
I was told on /40k general/ they do not belong to 40k but probably Malifaux

I've heard 10T is underpowered compared to other factions. Is this true?

Yes, though the way Malifaux is played means that 'underpowered' can be extremely relative. Due to the psychological aspect of the game, a good psych player can outplay a better list every time, and not realize that it's because of himself rather than the list.

Can you explain the "psychological aspect" a little further?

Malifaux plays a lot more like a card game than a traditional wargame, and even then it's a bit of a misnomer. You aren't trying to engage your opponent most of the time, save to keep their killers away from your killables. With Schemes and Strategies working the way they do, it's very easy to bluff an opponent into spending AP, the only resource that matters, on dealing with a scheme that you /don't have/.

Kaeris, as an example, is considered a bad master. She lacks a lot of versatility, her entire gimmick is Burning, which is removable through anything with condition removal, and not only is her thematic crew shit, but the things that work with her work better with other things. However, she has an upgrade, pic related, that has won her games against me because I wasn't paying attention.

She sets things on fire in a pulse around her, they move up to be in range for Convict Labor (Have scheme markers within 3" of the center line) and sure, I can go deal with them easier, but I absolutely have to remove those scheme markers if she's doing CL. Meanwhile, my opponent had Breakthrough, and proceeded to fuck their master off to my backlines ("To hide") and drop --> move --> dropped on turn 5 for Undercover Breakthrough. Meanwhile, my dumb ass has been trying to clean up the center of the board, because OBVIOUSLY the master is no threat, and all these scheme markers are how she's winning.

Worse rules than my Shenlong. No question. But better play, and better psychology.

So you play 10T? I heard that Shenlong ends up being strictly better than a lot of masters in the faction, especially McCabe. Is this true, or do they each have their place?

What masters in general are strictly worse than other masters in their same faction? I get that you're supposed to play for the fluff and all, but I'm just curious what masters end up having at least a small niche in their respective factions at a competitive level.

It's a bigger issue with the transparent models because with regular ones you can just paint over any scrapes or scratches. This isn't really an option for transparent plastic, though, because painting makes it not transparent anymore.

They are Griffon fusiliers, from Confrontation by Rackham games, now dead and sadly gone.

Bump to cheat fate

Divergent Paths was nowhere near as cool as nythera. Without a map or faction loyalty there just wasn't much to get invested in. Scenarios were really cool, though.

Johan, Sue, and Big Jake are outcast staples.

Sammy, Lazarus/Killjoy, Stuffed Piglets, Burt, Old Cranky, Rooster Riders

Special plastics look really cool. Translucent is a more brittle plastic, so be careful and use plastic glue or you will cloud the plastic.

The Wyrd sale is more prereleases and special editions, not so much cheaper stuff. FLGSes and online stores will have normal stuff cheaper.

You may be in for a pleasant surprise when Gaining Grounds 2017 comes out.

The only one you probably don't want to start is Asami since she's a summoner and you'd want to buy her summoning pool.

Lust, 10T Brothers, Katanaka Snipers, Lone Swordsman, Effigy and Emissary are good to start with.

Nope, they just have a smaller playerbase due to newness and faction dilution from all the overlap. The current Malifaux champion is switching to them for the upcoming year.

What of the old alts are usually in sales? Like will I be able to buy the Dr Dufresne model from last years sale?

I think so.

Why is translucent more brittle; isn't it made of the same material, but transparent? Also, will regular plastic cement work, or is there a special kind of plastic cement you should be using?

Starting the game with about ten games under and 10T are definitely underpowered without summoning models which I haven't tested yet. Just not enough ap and dakka compared to Ressers fex. I mean my Shenlong got nothing on teleporting Seamus with -2wp aura and corpse bloat. Imo summoning is also way broken in Malifaux.

Fun game nonetheless.

>What masters in general are strictly worse than other masters in their same faction?
Beaters. Unless you're Seamus or Perdita, killing things is costing you more AP than it's worth. In specific, Mei Feng exists only to Vent Steam, and Misaki basically is played like a cruise missile while the rest of your crew does "real" stuff. Lynch gets a pass because of his hand manip.

>summoning is also way broken
Yup, Malifaux really needs a new edition, the game is terrible rn.

What are the "beaters" in each faction?

Why's summoning broken?

Yeah, there is really nothing you can do when the Dreamer summons a fucking Teddy with a king and a soulstone and then Teddy proceeds to chainactivate and heal 4-6 wounds. Also, no matter how shitty model is summoned you usually have to deal with it or it locks your model in melee.

>Why's summoning broken?
AP is second to only VP in importance. Summoning spends one AP this turn for two every turn after and one this turn. Even if you can one-shot whatever they summon (protip, you can't) you're only breaking even, and you have to do that to EVERYTHING they summon or it snowballs.

It's a different material. Plastic cement should be fine, anything that melts and bonds it.

It's tricky when you're starting out, but summoning is mostly fine. It's resource intensive and definitely hits diminishing returns turn 4 on.

Seamus can be mean, but he's only killing one model. His Df is tragically low so anyone who wants to hit him can. With impossible to wound and healing, though, you have to commit to it. That said, one Guild Hound with reactivate, nimble, and the Glowing Saber could probably do it in a turn.

10T, the faction with McCabe, Sensei Yu, and the Shadow Emissary do not have a problem with AP.

Well, Seamus is actually Seamus + CCK +- the Forgotten Marshall (yeah I know the Marshall has to teleport to Seamus before Seamus teleports) + a rotten Belle in two/three activations. Impossible to wound is also not the same as hard to wound + cheating stop so abilities which ignore hard to wound don't affect impossible to wound in any way. Then there is that damn Terrifying with -2wp. After that Seamus can *tip le fed* so that one six damage flip you got in is ignored. I've been able to kill him twice but that has taken my whole crew for one turn.

Shenlong also pushes + fasts so it's great.

Trying to figure out whether to start with McCabe + Lynch (10T) or Lynch + Pandora + Dreamer (NVB). Having trouble deciding, lol.

Summoning isn't that broken. The cost is usually pretty high if you want a decent model summoned and if they're using cards/soulstones to summon its cards they aren't using to cheat fate with.

Sure, I summoned a Hanged with a 13 but thats a 13 I can't use later in the round to kick your face in.

Saying that, I AM a Resser player so I'm horribly biased.

How about a little of both, Lynch, McCabe, and Dreamer? Dreamer will be the most expensive since you'll want to buy his whole summoning pool.

Pretty high, eh? Like seven for Seamus and a Belle? Even that 13 is just one card and maybe you don't even have to cheat. How many cards must an opponent use when trying to kill that damned hanged? How about Datsu Bae with (0) summon and that one stone upgrade which let's you do two (0) actions once? Ressers are ridiculous with hard to wound on every model.

Every turn every time except maybe just maybe the last I'd exchange all my high cards and a few ap to new 6-12 stone models. Alas, I cannot and I'm proud of it.

Can that 13, on its own, undo the Hanged before he does what you summoned him for? If not, your 13s are better than your opponent's

Pandora seems pretty fun if you remember to do that aura damage every time. I would't so every game I'd have to "if" if I'd lose.

There may be some pleasant news on the way soon...

That (0) summon is for Seishin if Seishin are fucking you over then I have to wonder about what your opponent is telling you about his cards. And the two (0) action upgrade is exclusive to Molly I think?

And it's the Belles that are broken, not the ability to summon them.

>And the two (0) action upgrade is exclusive to Molly I think?
Nope. People are using it on the Emissary to get extra walls, at least.

Summoning is fine. If you're having trouble playing against summoner, play as one a few times. You'll realize exactly how you can gum up the works, ways to pressure them to reduce performance, and how fighting enemy summons is largely a trap.

This guy is pretty spot on. If there is a summoner who might be over the top it's Kirai. She's really, really good, but summons is only a part of it.

I thought it was a legal proxy?
Or was that just something I heard here?

They look way cool. Shame Confrontation is dead.

I'm hoping the Divergent Paths scenarios are forming some part of the ongoing Scheme or Srategy writing.
I thought they were pretty enjoyable for swap-ins.

Your math is a little off. That hanged costs a mask, a corpse marker, and a 13 (plus possibly a stone). To bring in a model with 4 wounds and defense 4. That you can probably kill with a minion's activation.

Seems pretty fair to me.

Currently, The Carver is not an official proxy for anything.

But if you like his model and you like Killjoy, you might want to paint him up...

>Even if you can one-shot whatever they summon (protip, you can't) you're only breaking even...
But that 10-13, plus the required suit, plus often a stone, is a shitload of resources down for the rest of the turn and game.
No, you aren't killng Teddy all that soon, but you've got a far better chance of killing something else, or successfully disengaging or luring or whatever elsewhere,thanks to that resource cost.

You can also force him to summon too early in a turn by going after his hand with discards or attacks on key models, or using the threat of a Depatitate or Assassinate or similar to force him to save those cards too long.

Summoning is very hard to counter, but most summoning machines have a support strut you can kick out, or can be suicide bombed to disrupt operations.

Is it advisable going multi-faction like that? Also, is Dreamer completely not worth playing unless you go summoner? I was talking about getting these crews just to start playing with out of the box.

Picking one to start is the best, but get what you like.

Dreamer is fine without summoning, but his crew box isn't enough to play with since nearly every model is a summon.

Austringers fuck over summoners so hard. A moderate value mask can kill 2 cards.

All I know is I like Lynch, but none of the other masters in either faction seem inherently too appealing.

Are there any other masters that focus on card draw/card manipulation? I really lik the card aspect of malifaux.

Resser here.
What models are most important to have when starting Nico?

How is Ironsides rn?

Same as always, only good for her aura.

That's kinda Lynch's thing. Lilith has rush of magic that lets her draw an additional card and discard one, so does the Primordial Magic so you see them together a lot.

Punk Zombies, Hanged, Belles, Necropunks/Crooligans, Mindless Zombies, Shieldbearers, Chiaki, Nurses, Emissary. Nico is they only resser master I don't like, so take that with a grain of salt.

I won't be able to make it to my FLGS for awhile. how hard is vassal to use and how easy is it to find a game on there?

The sheishin are shit fo shure but they are still free stalls, charge blocks and moving hardcover. You need at least 3 damage to kill them and they are usually not worth it. They wouldn't matter if the Datsun didn't summon them with a fucking (0) or was not actually a competent melee beater.

Do not get me started on the fucking stiched togethers and their automatic reactivations on summon. Who the hell thought no gun cast for them was a good idea?

No reactivate from summon damage has to be from attack action.

Is Titania gonna be good? She looks fun.

I just put in order in for the Parker Barrows crew and Dead Bandits from the Black Friday sale. Wokou Raiders are due out any day now, so I figure I'll just get them from my FLGS.

Here's hoping I can "click" with Parker, because I really like the aesthetics of the bandits.

Normally I play Viks, but I've been hitting a brick wall recently, it feels like my deck is out to get me.

I do have Levi as a standby, but since my meta is casual bringing him out feels unsporting. Even after the nerf.

My local Henchmen is also a moron. Always has special snowflake grow leagues that never really work out that great. Current one grew 5 pts a week. Started at 30ss and ends at 50ss. Your crew roster only has whatever the max SS is for the week and if something goes in your crew it's locked there for the leage, and you have a "sideboard" that's 10ss less than the week's value that can change freely throughout the week. The kicker is that any and all of your summons have to be in that sideboard. Because fuck Ressers I guess.

The guy also strictly enforces a "no proxies, ever" rule. Only exceptions are the Miss models (Johanna, etc... are fine) but shit like trying to use the Turtle for Izamu is strictly verboten. He says it would be too confusing. Pretty sure it's because he's not the brightest and gets confused easily.

But doesn't the turtle have literally the exact same "This model counts as X in every way" rule as the Miss models?

Your Henchman sounds utterly terrible.
There's no good reason for pretty much any of that.

It does. But he says it doesn't look like Izamu the way the Miss models look like what they're alts of.

He also didn't allow using the Avatar models as proxies for the Emissaries.

Yeah, he's pretty bad. Has a loose, at best, understanding of the rules but treats his word as law when it comes to rulings.

I'd contact Wyrd and throw him under the bus but we don't have anyone else that could pick up the mantle. I would, but I live an hour away from the FLGS.

How much brittle/fragile is the transparent material? I was thinking about ordering some, but I'm not the gentlest on my models.

If you don't pressure the summoner of course he's going to to shit out summons every turn.

Go for the source, even if you don't kill the summoner the other player is going to do whatever it takes to keep them alive.

You can only summon Teddies if you are running Tannen, and even then you need a 13 Masks or a RJ. This is really corner case.