Malifaux (3rd ed.) - An Introduction

[Primarch]

Without going into too much detail (I hope):

The Nephilim are a melee faction. They want to get up close and bloody. They have acidic blood (think Aliens), so like a good brawl. The crew's thing is to feed on the opposing models and to 'grow' their minions. They start out with small, weak figures, that can grow into stronger fighters or specialists, which can then grow into big monsters. The master, Nekima can lay a beating onto anything in the game and then feed it to the weaker Nephilim.

The Dreamer's faction is based around summoning and control. The Dreamer summons nightmarish creatures while debuffing the enemy and filtering out poor cards from your card deck. The Dreamer himself is (I think) the squishiest Master in the game, so you need to keep him safe, but he can bring along some of the nastiest monsters such as his totem 'Lord Chompy Bits' and his beloved 'Teddy' as backup.

Hinamatsu fits into every Neverborn crew. While she won't grow your Nephilim or spawn nightmares, she is a solid melee choice and has the ability to drag enemy figures closer where you'll be able to overwhelm them more easily.

Nexus is the master for the Cadmus keyword. According to discussion on the Malifaux forums, Cadmus is currently the most powerful crew in the game and is widely expected to get nerfed in the next set of updates. Nexus is a hivemind and the crew is largely a control crew. The idea is that you need to infect enemy models with parasites, which then allows you to control those minis for your own nefarious purposes.

The Gremlins as a faction focus on a push-your-luck playstyle, often being able to damage themselves in exchange for a buff effect. They also tend towards having lots of small, weak models in play, though there are more elite builds if you try.

[Balloonacorn]

Without going into too much detail (I hope):

The Nephilim are a melee faction. They want to get up close and bloody. They have acidic blood (think Aliens), so like a good brawl. The crew's thing is to feed on the opposing models and to 'grow' their minions. They start out with small, weak figures, that can grow into stronger fighters or specialists, which can then grow into big monsters. The master, Nekima can lay a beating onto anything in the game and then feed it to the weaker Nephilim.

The Dreamer's faction is based around summoning and control. The Dreamer summons nightmarish creatures while debuffing the enemy and filtering out poor cards from your card deck. The Dreamer himself is (I think) the squishiest Master in the game, so you need to keep him safe, but he can bring along some of the nastiest monsters such as his totem 'Lord Chompy Bits' and his beloved 'Teddy' as backup.

Hinamatsu fits into every Neverborn crew. While she won't grow your Nephilim or spawn nightmares, she is a solid melee choice and has the ability to drag enemy figures closer where you'll be able to overwhelm them more easily.

Nexus is the master for the Cadmus keyword. According to discussion on the Malifaux forums, Cadmus is currently the most powerful crew in the game and is widely expected to get nerfed in the next set of updates. Nexus is a hivemind and the crew is largely a control crew. The idea is that you need to infect enemy models with parasites, which then allows you to control those minis for your own nefarious purposes.

The Gremlins as a faction focus on a push-your-luck playstyle, often being able to damage themselves in exchange for a buff effect. They also tend towards having lots of small, weak models in play, though there are more elite builds if you try.

Thank you for the information. It is not making my task any easier as I like everything you said about all those models and teams.

Now I am also considering The Brewmaster - poison everyone with alcohol!

[Primarch]

I tried a game of Malifaux the other day to get back into the swing of things.
I used my Journalists (Nellie Cochrane) crew and Kojibear used his Mercenary (Victorias) crew. This was my second game of M3e, and Koji's first, so we only got through a few turns, but some things quickly became clear.
- Malifaux is still a lot of fun.
- There is a ton of depth to the game. As you become more familiar with it, you'll find new tactics and solutions.
- It really pays to know what your crew does. For example the Mercs get to move all their models 2" at the start of every turn, regardless of being engaged with enemy figures. We both remembered this point several moves into each turn.
- For some crews, counters are going to be important. Nellie and her fellow reporters were handing out half a dozen types of buff/debuff effects like they were candy.
- Cards (or print outs of the cards), seem like a good idea. You can use them to record which models have moved, and they provide a convenient place to stack counters instead of cluttering up the table.
- The Focus action is really important. During the game one of my journalists held off three (albeit slightly cheaper/weaker) Mercs due to forcing negative twists when attacked. After the game I found that spending an action to focus would have allowed Koji to add a positive twist to the duel, thus bypassing the defences of my rather squishy reporter.

[me_in_japan]

Glad to see you chaps have been able to get a game in. I’ve looked out my Lynch crew and have decided that they need to get some paint on em. I also discovered that you can buy single minis from the Wyrd website directly, so I’m pondering getting the two ladies I lack to complete the crew. They’re not cheap for single minis, but it’s still less than I’d be paying if I got the boxes they came in (and since I already have all the other stuff from the boxes, it makes sense, assuming I want em at all, which I’m still pondering. Anyway. It’s an option, which is nice.

[Primarch]

Do you mean the Special Order minis? If so, be aware that the period for that offer ends this month! It also doesn't apply to all minis, there is a very short list.
Shipping from the US is also prohibitively expensive. You may want to check with ring-tail, or your European retailer of choice if they can order the minis for you.


On a slightly different topic, I just saw this on the Wyrd site.

-Why don’t I see a certain item in the store?

Once an item has been released, we do not sell it in our webstore immediately to encourage individuals to buy from any local game stores. That item will be listed in the store a few weeks after the release date.

Now compare that to a certain other company's policy of driving all sales through their own store...


#edit#
New Lynch from Malifaux Burns.

He's packaged with the new Leviticus and a shared model for both masters called the Soul Battery, a cheap support mini that enhances nearby duels and can hand out Brilliance. There is also an upgrade card that makes the Hungering Darkness into the crew's leader.

[me_in_japan]

I do indeed mean special order minis. I guess I’m just lucky that the ones I want are available for now. I’ll need to check the shipping rates. Are the special order minis available from non-direct sales sites? And ring tail will get my money when they make it possible to actually order from their site without emailing them. I’ve tried a few times and the faff involved in buying from them isn’t worth the small savings you might get. If that changes, sure, I’ll consider em. Until then, honestly, I’d be more likely to buy direct from GWJ.

[Primarch]

Sorry, forgot you had problems with the ring tail site.

Anyway:

Special Orders can be made for any completely new Malifaux models (those that weren’t around in M2E) and shipped through us or a local distributor directly to your friendly local game store so that players can pick up any new models without the hassle of duplicates.

[me_in_japan]

well, color me corrected. I'm feeling sufficiently lummied up regarding malifaux that I actually decided to go and Spend Some Money on minis, which is quite the commitment, given my usual ah-just-proxy-things stance these days. Not only that, but I bought books! and cards! CARDS! That I could even just print off if I wanted! Madness, I tellz yer.

I listed em up on the Wyrd site (along with Kitty Dumont, which is a specially-orderable model in the current Lynch set that I dont have) and on RingTail. RingTail was (predictably, and not unfairly) more expensive. Then I got to the shipping bit, which Wyrd (suspiciously) keeps behind the "click here to go to purchase" bit of the webstore. And....naaaah. I aint paying 50something bucks on a hundred buck order, which I'm mostly making for a 14 buck model. So, somewhat optimistically, I continued with ringtail, and...it worked! Totally no probs at all setting up my account and ordering me stuff. They even had a couple packs of the Ten Thunders update cards, which are getting a bit hen's-teethy around the net (incidentally, if anyone sees the arcanist pack, plz let me know. Can't find it for love nor money.)

Anyway, I am now the proud owner of (yet to be shipped...)

Malifaux rulebook
Gwyneth Madox (helpfully available as a standalone box)
Ten Thunders faction cards (thank you ringtail for not being sold out)
Ten Thunders faction book (which I know I dont really need, but I was feeling flush)
Alternative model of the Hungering Darkness (which is nice to have, as the one I've got looks a bit goofy, imho. Glad there is an alt-version)

So, huzzah. I suppose I'd best get on with painting the buggers now, really...

also, I dont actually have a friendly local game store, so, eh, I guess I can live without Kitty. Aside from anything else, if I really, really feel I need her, I can just take any period-appropriate female civilian model and paint her up in a ghosty style and use that, so no major worries on that front.

[Primarch]

...So, somewhat optimistically, I continued with ringtail, and...it worked! Totally no probs at all setting up my account and ordering me stuff. They even had a couple packs of the Ten Thunders update cards, which are getting a bit hen's-teethy around the net (incidentally, if anyone sees the arcanist pack, plz let me know. Can't find it for love nor money.)

Anyway, I am now the proud owner of (yet to be shipped...)

Malifaux rulebook
Gwyneth Madox (helpfully available as a standalone box)
Ten Thunders faction cards (thank you ringtail for not being sold out)
Ten Thunders faction book (which I know I dont really need, but I was feeling flush)
Alternative model of the Hungering Darkness (which is nice to have, as the one I've got looks a bit goofy, imho. Glad there is an alt-version)

So, huzzah. I suppose I'd best get on with painting the buggers now, really...

also, I dont actually have a friendly local game store, so, eh, I guess I can live without Kitty. Aside from anything else, if I really, really feel I need her, I can just take any period-appropriate female civilian model and paint her up in a ghosty style and use that, so no major worries on that front.

Your Magical Malifaux Meth dealers are all set for M3e.

Sadly the Arcanists pack is nowhere to be seen. I need cards from it, as does Kojibear. Guess I'll need to print my own.

Looking over the Lynch crew cards, it looks like you're going to need some Brilliance tokens, potentially quite a few. Interestingly, Brilliance is not a Condition. There are several ways of removing conditions in the game, but almost nothing an enemy crew can do to shake off Brilliance. I guess you can use dice or beads or something, but it may be worth keeping your eyes open for suitable small token-esque things.

Speaking of, I just ordered a bunch of condition markers from here.
https://art-of-war-studios-ltd.myshopif ... compatible
No VAT and a 10% discount on your first order, but shipping is a little steep. (They do stuff for other games too, like MtG).

At some stage in the future I may order the expansion box for my Journalist Crew as I need 5 of the 6 models in the box. The box also contains a model I already have, Alison Dade. With some green stuff, she might make a good proxy for Kitty? If I get the box, you can have the model if you'd like? Plenty of other stuff to build, paint and play with in the meantime.

[me_in_japan]

I’d certainly be interested in a spare not-kitty, if one was going at some point, if it please ye squire.

I wonder if it might be worth our while putting in an order for print on demand cards? There’s a link on the Wyrd site to a place that does em, and it’s 50c per card, plus annoyingly pricey shipping costs. If enough of us wanted enough cards, it might be feasible? I’m after Ramos and all his crew, Colette and all her crew, plus the upgrades necessary for aforementioned crews. Just a thought.

Also, it’s kinda funny looking through yhe markers available on that site. Wall markers, bomb markers, loot markers. All the usual stuff. Then there’s…piano markers. Ah Malifaux, you amuse me sometimes…