Malifaux 2nd Edition

[Primarch]

Wyrd have just announced that the 2nd edition of Malifaux will be available in October. (With a pre-release at GenCon if anyone is attending?).

From what they have said, the rules will be a bit more streamlined, the cards will be revamped and there will be the usual wave of new masters, henchmen and ne'er-do-wells. They are planning to introduce rules to allow you to upgrade characters which is something that you can't do currently as well as to continue advancing the story forward.

Honestly, I love the game, so something that makes it easier to play should be a good thing in my opinion.

[me_in_japan]

As long as they move the story along and provide all the factions with new toys, I say fair enough. It'll be interesting to see how they handle that, actually - if they do move the story on, and (presumably) replace rulebook v1 with rulebook v2, where are new players going to get info about the start of the story?

Oh, and character advancement rules? Yes please

I haven't played half as much Malifaux as I'd like - its small scale, cheap to start, and has some of the best setting/rules I've seen in a game. Note to self: must play more Mali.

[Primarch]

Some updates on V2. or M2E as it is being called on the Malifaux forums. They have rules for their open Beta up on the site, but I think I'm going to wait until the printed, final version is available. Rumour is that they will do Warmahordes style Faction Decks of cards to catch everyone up at the same time.

This is by no means a complete list, but a lot of changes that have gone through from Malifaux 1.5 and M2E can be found below. I'm not infallible (which might surprise some). I may have misread some of the document, and I'm certain I've missed some changes. If you have any you think should be added, please do so and I'll try to keep up with updating this post.


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Game Length

The game is 5 turns instead of 6. You begin checking for extra turns after the fifth turn.

To determine if the game continues, the First Player (the one who won initiative that turn) flips the card, not the player who activated the last model.


Traits

Living is a trait on cards.

There is no limit on how many Henchmen you can hire.

Totems do not leave the game when Masters die.

Models will have the traits that indicate them as a Peon, Minion, Enforcer, Henchman or Master.

Traits do not have intrinsic abilities with them. Constructs, for example, are not automatically immune to horror duels. Spirits still take half damage, but that is written on their abilities.



Terrifying / Horror / Harmless / Morale

Terrifying / Horror now work on certain model types as indicated by the ability on the card. So Terrifying (Constructs) only works on Constructs, and Terrifying (All) works on everything.

Horror / Terrifying works completely differently (largely by providing Paralyze rather than making things run off the board)

Terrifying only triggers when a model walks into the terrifying range or targets a terrifying model with an action (attack or otherwise). A model may remain in terrifying range with no problem as long as he does not target the terrifying model.

A model must test for terrifying each turn. Once a model successfully passes a terrifying test, it is not subject to any further from that model for the rest of the turn.

A model with Terrifying is not immune to other models' Terrifying abilities.

Harmless works like the old Pitiful – you have to test against it each time you target a model unless that model has already activated this turn.



Spells / Casting

Not every Spell has a TN. Some non-spells can have TNs.

Cast is no longer a model's trait. It's now associated with the specific spell being cast, similar to how the Combat values of melee and shooting were associated with specific weapon profiles.

Ca duels are treated the same as ml and sh duels (both flip at the same time). Even if the casting model has not yet met the TN of the spell, the resisting model must cheat first if they are losing the duel.



LOS / Measuring

LoS is a largely new system.

You are now allowed to premeasure at any time.



AP / Fast / Slow / Reactivate / Paralyze

Masters get 3ap base, so things like Fast/Melee Expert/Etc become really effective

Melee Expert, Casting Expert, etc can be combined with 'general Ap'.

You generate AP when you start your activation, so if a model gains Fast or Slow during the middle of its activation, nothing happens and it ends up removed at the end of the model's activation without doing anything.



Soulstones

Soulstone pools cap out at 7 stones instead of 8.

Soulstones cannot be used to heal.

Soulstones can be used to do a psudo Rush of Magic (cycle your hand), to prevent, to add a (+) to duels (and if that is a resisting duel, it also applies a (-) to any resulting damage), to reflip initiative, or to add a suit to a duel before flipping.

Soulstone Use is declared as the first part of a duel. Before you flip anything.



Jokers

Jokers still trump cards like they used to, but Red Jokers give Severe+Weak damage when used in damage instead of Severe+Flip.

If a Red Joker is flipped in an opposed duel, the opposing player may not cheat.



Generic Action Types (Charge, Focus, Defensive Stance, Interact etc)

There is no Pass action and models no longer have to spend all their action points during their activation

There is no Bash generic attack.

Charges generate two attacks instead of one, and have no (+) flip to them.

Charges must always end within engagement range. You cannot make a charge unless you would succeed in the charge.

Focus can be used more than once (up to a max of (+)x3) and sticks around until the model chooses to use the (+) flips, though if the model does not use it before the end of the turn, the focus goes away.

Defensive Stance can be any number of AP, requires you to ditch a card, and grants a (+) to Df duels per each AP used.

No Interact Actions can ever be used while engaged (unless the Interact is with an enemy model).




Combat

Being Engaged only relies on having Close attacks, not Melee attacks, so your Close Ca actions give you an Engagement range.

If you are shooting into melee, you only check to see if you could hit models within 2" of the target model. So if a model is engaged by a model with 3" reach at 3" away, the model would not be checked against for shooting into melee.




Summoning & Corpse/Scrap Markers

You only drop one corpse or scrap regardless of base size. (Some models may drop both a Scrap and a Corpse).

You need LOS to a marker to summon off of it.



Companion / Multiple Models Activating

Only two models may activate in a row on a given side now (unless the opponent has no more models to activate).

The old Companion rule has been changed to two new abilities - Companion (the model with Companion may activate after another friendly model ends its activation near it) and Accomplice (another friendly model near the model with Accomplice may activate after the model with Accomplice ends its activation).



Conditions

Most v1 "Effects" are now called "Conditions" and remove from models at the end of the turn unless otherwise stated.

Conditions with a number value (like Armor +2, or Burning +1) stack.

Burning does an amount of damage equal to the burning condition at the upkeep stage, and then is removed. Poison does one damage during the upkeep stage, and then its value is reduced by one. Both conditions stack with themselves, so if something has Poison and gets hit with another Poison-generating attack, it gets more Poison.



Movement (Walk / Push)

Pushes are interrupted when a model strikes an object (includes terrain and other models) but ignore severe terrain.

Pushes are always directly towards.

Pushes do not count in any way as a move

Disengaging Strikes only trigger on the actual Walk action (so anything saying Push or Move do not trigger disengaging strikes... nor do charges).

Disengaging Strikes happen when a model declares the Walk action that would take it out of Close range, so if the Disengaging Strike succeeds, the model does not move.




Healing

Healing with a Soulstone is no longer in the game.

Healing actions indicate the amount that will be healed similar to a damage track.

Healing flips can be cheated.



Terrain

Hard cover is a (-) to attack and a (-) to damage.

Recommended terrain coverage has increased. Many people who try the new rules will find things they don't like that can be mitigated by having more terrain. This was a common occurrence in the closed beta. More terrain equals better game.

New rules for 3d terrain via Vantage Point terrain



Strategies and Schemes

You create a scheme pool when determining which schemes you are allowed to choose from at the beginning of the game - you cannot choose from all schemes (when using the Standard Encounters)

Any model (that does not have a rule preventing it) may interact anywhere on the board to lay down a Scheme Marker. Scheme Markers are used for specific schemes, and each marker can only grant points for one scheme.

Schemes max out at 3 points each, while your strategy maxes out at 4 points.



Misc

First Player is a new rule. When you win initiative it give you an advantage for the whole rest of the turn in simultaneous instances.

No differentiation between wounds and damage

Auras affect the model generating them.

Any model can discard soulstones when required by a trigger such as decapitation.

Drain souls is gone

You only have to flip attacking cards when attacking your own to model (though you may still choose to flip defending cards if you like) except if a target number is required it is assumed to be a tie on the attack flip. If target number is not reached action fails.

If an action is illegal (usually do to no LOS or no Range to any legal targets) it fails without any AP being spent and before cards are flipped.

Positive flips are no longer calculated before negative flips. In the previous edition positive flips were calculated before negative ones. Now both are calculated at the same time. E.g. In V1 if you had 6 positive flips and 6 negative flips your final duel total would be a triple negative. In V2 if you have 6 positive flips and 6 negative flips your duel total is neutral.

A number of old abilities on models (Slow to Die, Gunfighter, Immune to Influence) are either gone or have been replaced by other similar rules.

[The Underdweller]

What? but I've only played half a game of the current edtion! Oh well, better this way than to get first and second edition rules mixed up all the time, I guess. And if it's easier to learn, all the better.

[me_in_japan]

*shrug* well, as UD said, I haven't played enough of the old game for these changes to really make a huge difference. That said, I wonder how the new cards will work. Are we talking the entire Arcanists faction as one deck? That's a lot of cards. If separate decks for sub-factions, where would stuff like gunslingers come in? Suppose I want a couple of Oiran with my showgirls? Oiran are ten-thunders, but work fine in a showgirls crew. Hum de dum - things could get tricky...

[kojibear]

If you are shooting into melee, you only check to see if you could hit models within 2" of the target model. So if a model is engaged by a model with 3" reach at 3" away, the model would not be checked against for shooting into melee.

Well this certainly adds synergies to characters with reach backed up by gunslingers.

[me_in_japan]

Wave 2 cards are up:

http://wyrd-games.net/community/files/f ... s-low-rez/

[The Underdweller]

Wave 2 cards are up:

http://wyrd-games.net/community/files/f ... s-low-rez/

Thanks! It's nice that they are putting these up for free.

[me_in_japan]

For sure. I don't play half as much Malifaux as I'd like, but I'm a big fan of Wyrd's attitude to gamers.

[Primarch]

Just read through the showgirls new cards. They've changed a lot. They still have a lot of razzle dazzle, but it's based on scheme markers now, which is kind of interesting. However, they are still pretty fragile.