Jockjay's Malifaux outing. First painted crew and first game.

[Jockjay]

SO,

Long story short, in an attempt to convince myself to start AoS, I ended up buying Malifaux stuff.

I have the Hamelin crew and Brotherhood of the rat boxes coming. With the Tara box for a friend.

The above rocks out at roughly 30ss per side with upgrades. Note for Hamelin I will be proxying 2 canine remains and using that god awful blob that comes with him as a 'sorrow'. Trying to detract from buying models (with ss) that can be created later.

My other group member is using Lady J.

I tried MF in the first edition and found the combos and stuff a bit 'I have my trick, you have yours, let the best trick win' but I am back with a fresh perspective after wanting to try games where synergy and narrative are key.

I will hopefully turn this page into a kind of blog, where I can show some good pics and reports. And of course get the feedback and stuff form you guys.

Yes there is a MF official forum etc, but outside LAF I don't really like forums .

SO,

starting crews;

Hamelin.
Wretch 2ss
Rat Catcher 5ss
Rat 2ss
Rat 2ss
Nix 7ss
Sorrow 3ss
Canine remains 2ss
Canine remains 2ss
Stolen 2ss

28 souls so far, without upgrades.

Tara
Karina 5ss
Nothing beats 10ss
Void wretch 4
Void wretch 4
Void Wretch 4

27 ss without upgrades.

I think these two (and the lady justice crew) will lead to some good games, bearing in mind all three of us are just starting out.

After a few games we look to head into the actual campaign dynamic in the 'Shifting Loyalties' book.

My questions are: who are good henchmen with which to start a campaign and 'grow' into these masters?

Any help appreciated.

Painted models up soon, promise!

Jay.

[Major_Gilbear]

Hooray, and welcome! I hope you enjoy the game. 

I tried MF in the first edition and found the combos and stuff a bit 'I have my trick, you have yours, let the best trick win' but I am back with a fresh perspective after wanting to try games where synergy and narrative are key.

You do still have the "tricks", but the game is balanced differently:

• It is pretty difficult (impossible?) to kill a Master with no damage on them in a single activation now.

• Soulstones can do more (i.e., be used for more things), but are less powerful now as you have to spend them before you flip cards for the outcome.

• Interacting with Scheme Markers is a whole new aspect of the game to consider now, complete with proper core rules and particular abilities that work off them.

• Most master and high-level minions have lost a lot of their abilities; you can now "buy" some of these (or other new ones) back for an appropriate cost, and the more powerful abilities add up quickly.

We've mostly played the games which have shared objectives (as well as individual secondary objectives), and have had a great time of it. We normally just pick a master before we begin, and determine the rest following the usual procedure.

I will hopefully turn this page into a kind of blog, where I can show some good pics and reports. And of course get the feedback and stuff form you guys.

I look forward to it!


I am a slow painter (...understatement!), but you can see some of my poorly-photographed efforts via the link in my sig.

After a few games we look to head into the actual campaign dynamic in the 'Shifting Loyalties' book.

My questions are: who are good henchmen with which to start a campaign and 'grow' into these masters?

I would play a good number of non-campaign games first. The game is complicated enough that you would be missing out on a lot by jumping into a campaign fairly early.

There are *loads* of scenarios to play, and as you all have limited model collections anyway, you can link the games you play into a narrative on your own (you can even agree the scenarios with your opponent as you go rather than flipping for them).

The campaign is fine (as these things go) but it does encourage crews built from a lot of random models from across the faction. You also don't use Masters; instead you start with a Henchman and develop them as you go.

Personally, I find I'd rather use different crews for variety rather than trying to make any one Master's crew overly large to permit lots of different builds. The nice thing about games like this is that for a cost of about £40-50 a crew, you can have something completely different!


Oh, one last thing: Hills. We've found that the rules for hills are vague at best and downright confusing at worst. I would do yourself a favour and either ignore them, or use small ones and count them as "Height 1" platforms that you can climb up onto as you would with any other obstacle.
It's a shame, because it's the only bit of the entire game that I think is really crap; everything else works smoothly as intended.

[Jockjay]

Thanks Major, your posts are always really informative and concise.

If your slow painting results in those bad boys in your sig....keep it slow.

I didn't know that in the campaign the henchmen become masters. Whilst I think that is a great idea for narrative, it would mean more models, and I don't want to do what I did last time where I buy a new model every week to fill a gap that cost me a game (read- bad workman blaming his tools), only to have so many models I have not really understood what each one is supposed to do before shoe-horning it into what I think it should do. I never really learned anything.

Thanks for the hills advice, I have a couple, but mainly houses. What is your average SS limit and how long do games last, I only ask as I have been warned that when using Hamelin, double your game time for swapping rats for rat kings etc and also having 3500000 activations.

[Major_Gilbear]

You're most welcome - I'm always happy to help if I can!

With respect to the campaigns, Guerilla Miniature Games (hosted by Ash Barker on YouTube) ran an open campaign of this type on their channel. It might be worth a watch if you want to see how such a campaign is structured and runs (if you haven't watched them already). Link here for the a run-down of how it works and the crew generation, with the first game in the series here.
(As an aside, Nix the dog is Hamelin's Henchman, so you could use him as your leader(!) in such a campaign without needing to buy anything more).

In our group we play a fair few 40SS games in order to ensure that:

- We can use a starter box (maybe with a couple of extra models)
- Buy some upgrades
- Have some SS left over to augment the Master's Cache to at least 5 total

However, we've recently been playing 50SS games, which I prefer. At 50SS I can try out some of the more expensive upgrades, afford to suffer a few casualties, and include some of the big hitters. I also think the slightly bigger game size lets you focus better on the game and its objectives; in smaller games your choice is more often to try and stop your opponent or just do your own thing and hope for the best - you just don't have enough models to do everything otherwise.

At 50SS, my crews are usually not bigger than about 10 models. At 40SS, I normally expect about 7 models and go light on upgrades.

I might actually suggest 35SS games for a starting size so that you can get an upgrade or two, and bump your Cache up a little (helpful as Hamelin only starts with 1SS in his Cache otherwise). Since most starter boxes build crews of about 27-35SS anyway, this is very achievable without needing to purchase anything more.

We are quite relaxed and chat a lot when we play, so 40-50SS games tend to run a couple of hours typically. Setting up and going through the scenario/crew determination procedure can take 15-20 mins too. I'm sure that more focused people get it done in about half the time (it is easily possible), but we aren't on a schedule or anything and don't therefore feel the need to rush. It also takes longer if one or both of us is running a new and complicated crew!

If you find yourself losing a lot, I would delicately suggest that it might be more prudent to look harder at what secondary objectives you choose, and perhaps focus more on getting the VPs than fighting your opponent! Buying more models is not usually the answer to improving your success rate, although I admit some Masters do find some models very convenient. We often play two games back-to-back in one session with the same crews (or with a minor tweak like dropping an upgrade and adding an extra minion instead), and just change up the scenario; it's interesting to see that the second game is often quite different from the first!

With respect to the number of activations... More is not always better; they are essential up to a point, but past that, it's what a model can do with its actions that's more important.

Also, summoning models doesn't usually result in a full new model appearing and activating; there is usually a cost involved like the summoned model starting with fewer wounds, having Slow or Paralysed (which reduces its available action points until the effect wears off), or requiring you to play specific cards in order to get them onto the table.

Summoning masters are fairly common in Malifaux (every faction has at least one Master that can), and a lot more thought has gone into balancing them this time around. They are a bit slower to play because there are more models involved, but unless you dawdle a lot you should be fine.

Speaking of Soulstones earlier: I'm a sucker for all sorts of themed game accessories, and therefore like to use something suitable and visible to represent these (so my opponent and I can easily keep track of what I may have left). My solution is to use some acrylic gems (supposedly for wedding table decorations or somesuch) and are very cheap to find/buy in the US. In the UK however, you can only buy them in silly numbers like 150+ pieces which makes them not so cheap any more! I have some in amber yellow and some in a greeny colour that I'm not using; if you are in the UK and would like some, drop me a PM and we can sort something out. They look like these:

[Jockjay]

I'm good for gems. I have a billion of those glass bead thingys in a variety of colours. I used to live in Wolverhampton bud, but have since moved south or we could get a game on . I have 'order dispatched' on my models now. I'm basking in the excitement of a new project

[Major_Gilbear]

I used to live in Wolverhampton bud, but have since moved south or we could get a game on .

...And I'm originally from Bristol! Ah well.

[Jockjay]

As promised. Got these done in a night, My spray did that horrid thing where it looks like bloody sand on Karina and the beast...But got them done. Just Hamelin and 300000 rats to do.









I painted Karina up to be totally different from the rest, with a bit of brightness. I honestly lost motivation on her after the spray incident. So she looks rubbish, may go back to her later. But they are table ready.

My first game was 35SS against Lady J. Using Hamelin.

All in all the game feels more fluid than 1st Ed, but not when I'm playing . I spent ages trying to summon more rat kings, when I should have been just using the rats. At 35 SS we had all the upgrades which just made things more confusing as the list of triggers/ actions grew. Next time we will tone it down and use no upgrades and just play the game a bit more mechanically rather than playing for the win, actually learn the ropes. We ended up running out of time as we had to keep reading our cards/upgrades/rules. Plus I was summoning a billion things a turn rather than actually playing.

In all I 'got' Hamelin towards the end of the game, rat catchers were excellent, I initially left the at the rear, reactivating rat kings, which whilst effective, was not as good as when they get in combat and start generating rats, then the rats spread blight, and Hamelin/ Nix can pull off bleeding disease. which hurts.

The scales of justice (Or is it lady J) are great for removing conditions though, so it was hard to ramp up the blight.

All in all, a more cerebral game than I am used to, but something I want to embrace.

[Hobby Services]

Boy, those Void critters are begging to be retasked for 40K/Grimdark Future/Science Fantasy gaming purposes, aren't they?  Just the thing for a bunch of Inquisitorial henchmen or xeno hunters to be brawling with.

[Jockjay]

Agreed, they are pretty ambiguous for genre. They are as much alien/ bug as they are Victorian Gothic horror. My only drawback is they have three legs. And to me 3 legs is either one too many or too few.

2 legs- one breaks, you can't stand/walk.

3 legs- one breaks, you can't stand/ walk.

4 legs- one breaks, crack on, just a wee bit slower. .

So by my uber reckoning, 3 legs is a waste. This fact alone put me off getting Ghar for Gates of Anteres. I was so very close, until i seen them up close.....THREE LEGS!!!! GODDAMN IT!!!

[Hobby Services]

Agreed, they are pretty ambiguous for genre. They are as much alien/ bug as they are Victorian Gothic horror. My only drawback is they have three legs. And to me 3 legs is either one too many or too few.

2 legs- one breaks, you can't stand/walk.

3 legs- one breaks, you can't stand/ walk.

4 legs- one breaks, crack on, just a wee bit slower. .

So by my uber reckoning, 3 legs is a waste. This fact alone put me off getting Ghar for Gates of Anteres. I was so very close, until i seen them up close.....THREE LEGS!!!! GODDAMN IT!!!

Wells' Martian invaders would beg to disagree with you, at least in All Quiet On the Martian Front.  Losing 1/3rd of your legs is almost meaningless if your gyros are good enough.