Easiest starter per faction

[tallghost]

Hey all. I'm looking to get a collection of starter crews together so that when I want to introduce a friend or two to the game, I can give them a choice of crews. 
So my question is this. What would you say is the easiest crew to use out of the box, for each faction? I'm talking simplicity of rules here. They can graduate to more complex play styles once they get hooked. 

[Gypsey]

As a resser player, I think Seamus is the best starting master. He has good tricks that are simple to understand and very basic summoning. Also his box is basically a strong core crew, adding a nurse and an enforcer/hanged/shikome for a full 50ss crew.

[Trample]

Outcasts = Von Schill

Gremlins = Ophelia 

I play Outcasts and Gremlins the most, Arcanists and Ten Thunders only a bit so I'm not as confident with opinions on them, but I would say:

Arcanists = probably Kaeris 

Ten Thunders = Misaki

I don't play the other factions at all, but based on facing them I would say:

Ressers = McMourning

Guild = either Lady J or Perdita

Neverborn = Lilith 

That doesn't mean they're the best crew boxes as starters, but probably the easiest to play. 

 

[tallghost]

42 minutes ago, Trample said:

 

That doesn't mean they're the best crew boxes as starters, but probably the easiest to play. 

 

This is exactly what I'm looking for. 

51 minutes ago, Gypsey said:

 He has good tricks that are simple to understand and very basic summoning. 

Again, this is the kind of advice I'm hoping to get

 

[LordZombie]

I would say Raspuntina for Arcanist, Seamus for Resurrectionist and Lady Justice for Guild. Other than that, the list look pretty good. 

[Bengt]

1 hour ago, LordZombie said:

I would say Raspuntina for Arcanist

Or Mei Feng. Definitely not Kaeris, she requires careful positioning and activation order to stand out. Without proper use of her support effects she becomes just a rather lacklustre single target damage source, IMO. I thought Kaeris box was one of the "easier" to paint though, but now we are getting into the extreme end of subjective.  

[Rathnard]

In my mind, a good starting crew is one that does not require a pile of extra purchases to play well and doesn't have an overly complicated playstyle. With that in mind, I feel the best crew/s for each faction are;

 

Guild: Perdita and Lady Justice

Resser: Seamus

Arcanist: Rasputina

Neverborn: Lilith & Jakob Lynch

Outcasts: Von Schill & Misaki

Gremlins: Ophelia

Ten Thunders: Jakob Lynch and Misaki

 

I list two for some because as far as I can tell, they're very close to even as far as starting out goes. Ultimately though, while getting an "easy" crew to start the game with is all well and good, I think it's more important that you get a crew you like the look of!

[Breng77]

While I don't know the answer to the following, if you are lookin to demo starter vs starter you may also want to consider relative power to one another.  Boxes like perdita though easy are also quite powerful as starters go.

[Munindk]

Why not pick up the starter set, its made specifically for introducing new players to the game

[D6Damager]

For Gremlins I would say Wong's box is easier than Ophelia's. She really wants Lenny and a slop hauler in her crew to make it work without killing yourself from your own triggers. In Wong's box all the models (with the exception of the Lovely Assistant) can be self sufficient as well as synergize with each other.

[Kobayashi]

14 minutes ago, D6Damager said:

For Gremlins I would say Wong's box is easier than Ophelia's. She really wants Lenny and a slop hauler in her crew to make it work without killing yourself from your own triggers. In Wong's box all the models (with the exception of the Lovely Assistant) can be self sufficient as well as synergize with each other.

Well, while Lenny is the optimum for dumbluck; I play just fine without him. especially in a 35 SS game, a size that feels great for beginning players. The game is already taxing as is and I lost the last game 10 - 9

[tallghost]

1 hour ago, Munindk said:

Why not pick up the starter set, its made specifically for introducing new players to the game

This is a great question. I actually do have a starter set, and it seems to do it's job very well (I have only tried it out twice)

But I teach at a boarding school, and I am trying to get together a "club set" of crews so that any students who want to try out the game can pick from among the very flavorful factions before they buy in on their own. The idea would be to learn the rules from the starter set, then play with a couple of different box crews to get the feel for things, then buy your own.
To be honest, it is kind of a throw back to our limtied run of a club based around a different tabletop game. Without mentioning names I will call it Schmore Schmammer 1000. The kids became super interested, dropped more money than they should have on starting armies, and then realized they didn't like the game/ factions they chose. I realize that the nature of Malifaux makes it cheaper than Schmore Schmammer, but I want to give the guys as much of a fighting chance as possible to try out the game so that they enjoy the hobby, not resent it.

[farabaugh100]

14 minutes ago, tallghost said:

This is a great question. I actually do have a starter set, and it seems to do it's job very well (I have only tried it out twice)

But I teach at a boarding school, and I am trying to get together a "club set" of crews so that any students who want to try out the game can pick from among the very flavorful factions before they buy in on their own. The idea would be to learn the rules from the starter set, then play with a couple of different box crews to get the feel for things, then buy your own.
To be honest, it is kind of a throw back to our limtied run of a club based around a different tabletop game. Without mentioning names I will call it Schmore Schmammer 1000. The kids became super interested, dropped more money than they should have on starting armies, and then realized they didn't like the game/ factions they chose. I realize that the nature of Malifaux makes it cheaper than Schmore Schmammer, but I want to give the guys as much of a fighting chance as possible to try out the game so that they enjoy the hobby, not resent it.

Keeping that in mind i think it is also impotent to get crews that best represent the faction as a whole.  For example some one above suggested ether Jacob Lynch or Misaki for Ten Thunders.  I would go with Misaki because I feel that she represents the Ten Thunders Faction as a whole better than Lynch.

[Math Mathonwy]

May I suggest the following:

McCabe for Guild

Mei Feng for Arcanists

Yan Lo for Ressers

Lynch for Neverborn

Misaki for Outcasts

Brewmaster for Gremlins

Shen Long for Ten Thunders

 

...

 

 

(Not a serious suggestion)

[D_acolyte]

from a learning the game point of view:

Gremlins: Ophelia

Arcanists: Raputina

Neverborn: Pandora

Ten Thunders: Mei

I chose Pandora over Lilith because i feel that she is a little more strait forward then the mistress of pack tactics and crew separation.

[Clockpunk Fox]

As primarily a guild player, I find the best bet is to grab Lady J's starter box and then either Perdita's or Sonnia's, depending upon your preference of master and minions.

 

I think the most important thing with this game and building crews is having options, so having the choice between two masters and henchmen and then different enforcers and minions allows multiple playstyles. Also stops you from getting burnt out on one crew 

[moxypoo]

On 1/26/2016 at 8:10 AM, tallghost said:

This is a great question. I actually do have a starter set, and it seems to do it's job very well (I have only tried it out twice)

But I teach at a boarding school, and I am trying to get together a "club set" of crews so that any students who want to try out the game can pick from among the very flavorful factions before they buy in on their own. The idea would be to learn the rules from the starter set, then play with a couple of different box crews to get the feel for things, then buy your own.

For the factions I'm most familiar with:

Guild - Sonnia. I know that most people suggest Lady J, but Sonnia is a viable option as well. The box gives a nice mix of ranged and melee models, teaches new players about conditions and other mechanics like . As the players advance slightly, there's more depth such as shooting your own models to drop on enemies or using proper activation order to get the most out of Sonnia and Sam. The internal synergy of the box is also very good.

     Honorable Mention: Lady J.

Outcast - Von Schill. The Friekorps do a good job of introducing new players to Armor and healing, and provide a good mix of both melee and ranged attacks. Tactical actions also play a large role in the Friekorps. Once the new players graduate from simply using VOn SChill as a sledgehammer, there's lots more depth in the box as well as internal synergy to teach them about advanced play.

     Honorable Mention: Misaki.

Arcanist - Ramos. I'm recommending Ramos over Rasputina, because Raspy is essentially the Arcanist version of Sonnia. Because of Ice Mirror, I find that new players find Raspy frustrating to play against. I think Ramos does a good job introducing new players to summoning and a support playstyle, with some obvious combos like using the Brass Arachnid to Reactivate Joss.

     Honorable Mention: Mei Feng

Neverborn - Jacob Lynch. This box will teach players about activation order (using Brilliance to power up later activating models), give them a master that can play multiple styles, and has great internal synergy. It's also quite simple to play at a basic level, and your players can squeeze more power out of the crew easily as they become more advanced. Lynch is probably one of the easier dual faction masters to use as well, giving you an opportunity to introduce the dual faction concept.

     Honorable Mention: Lilith

These four boxes are all similar in power level, with Ramos's box probably being slightly higher on the curve with Von Schill's box being slightly lower. However, I don't think the power differences will really be noticed until the players become more advanced.

Hope this helps!

[Ice_cat]

After playing more factions than I should at once, these are my suggestions based on simplicity and how well they represent their factions. I've avoided masters that require too much reading the cards to avoid missing advantages.

Guild - I've seen beginners play both Lady J and Sonnia Criid and they both seem to work well. May have to give my vote to Lady J though, as she is a strong opponent and quite straightforward.

Arcanists - My first master and love in this game: Rasputina! She is easy to learn, and her starter box works extremely well with her! As she can give out frozen heart, it doesn't really matter what they might want to add, although acolytes and silent ones are good choices. Hoarcat pride works well for scheme running with her.

Resurrectionists - Seamus. He is Jack the ripper AND the Mad Hatter in one, and his rotten belles are good enough to survive long, and then he can summon more - which introduces a simple form of summoning as they are the only thing he likes to summon.

Ten Thunders - Misaki as she looks like a ninja, is a straightforward assassin, and doesn't have a lot of special buffs and bonuses to be remembered. She does her thing, and she does it well.

Gremlins - would probably say Ophelia. Add slop haulers for more points, and Burt.

Outcasts - Viktorias, as they are good as they are, and with their synergies they get even better.

Neverborn - The trickiest one as they do so much stuff. I do think Lilith might be the easiest to start with, or perhaps Collodi.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Guild: Perdita, since she doesn't even need to close

Ressers: Seamus, since he's tough and has good support

Outcasts: Von Schill since he's well-rounded and tough

NB/TT: Lynch since despite being a condition master he runs really well even without it.

Don't know arcanists well enough, and gremlins are self-destructive enough that I don't think they're good to learn on.

[Furycat]

I can only really speak for Ten Thunders since that's what I play pretty much exclusively at the moment, but I would say either Misaki or Jakob Lynch. Very much NOT Shenlong, he's pretty damned complicated.

Misaki is a very straightforward master. She runs around very fast and kills things. Her crew are pretty much left to get on with it without anything in the way of interactions or synergies from her. Torakage are okay, generally better as scheme runners than flat-out combat minions, but they can generally mulch most enemy scheme runners. Ototo is a nice solid beatstick who gets very scary indeed when he's hurt.

Jakob Lynch starter crew is pretty much about Illuminated and Hungering Darkness eating things. He's got a couple of card based interactions himself but nothing TOO complex, and Huggy is a rock solid murder-monster. Illuminated are also fantastic minions, very tough and very good in melee, pretty solidly self-sufficient but have a nice little interaction with Hungering Darkness. (He has a built in trigger to make targets brilliant, which then gives the Illuminated +2 damage vs that target, can make for some brutal combos).

As a nice bonus the two crews actually combo pretty well to give you a solid base for 10T. Illuminated are fantastic with Misaki, and Torakage make good scheme runners in either crew, and Ototo is a nice beatstick that goes well in many crews, though he does get a bit overshadowed by Izamu or Kang if you get hold of those later on. (Izamu is amazing)

[Kalkris]

As an Outcast player, I have absolutely no experience in Von Schill or the Viktorias (or Misaki, even). As a Malifaux player, I have no expereince in any other games but Magic.

I find Jack Daw most intuitive and that's my point: It's all based on what is more intuitive to the player in question.

That said, maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment XD

~Lil Kalki

[Math Mathonwy]

On ‎11‎.‎4‎.‎2016 at 5:39 PM, Kalkris said:

As an Outcast player, I have absolutely no experience in Von Schill or the Viktorias (or Misaki, even). As a Malifaux player, I have no expereince in any other games but Magic.

I find Jack Daw most intuitive and that's my point: It's all based on what is more intuitive to the player in question.

That said, maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment XD

~Lil Kalki

If you have no experience with Von Schill, Vikkies, or Misaki, then how can you tell that Jack Daw is more intuitive to you than them?

[Kalkris]

5 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

If you have no experience with Von Schill, Vikkies, or Misaki, then how can you tell that Jack Daw is more intuitive to you than them?

Well, I mean, I do own the full factional leader base, and have perused the cards of Misaki, Von Schill, and the Viks (sans Student of Conflict - I got the metals hand me down) - to be fair, I guess my basis is in theory... Who knows? Maybe the Freikorps or the Sisters are workable... That said, I have also seen all 3 of said masters in action both as a spectator and as an opponent and found them to appear either unfun (in the sense that they were boring) and/or downright underpowered. VS and the Viks in the first case, Misaki in the second. I suppose much of that does boil down to opinion.

Going back to the ultimate point I have to make here is that when I appreciate an aesthetic of, say, a Magic card or a Malifaux model, I go the extra mile to make that game piece work in a decent context. I am of the opinion that there are 2 sub factions in the Outcasts: Mercs and Pariahs. Von Schill, Misaki, and the Viktorias fall in the Merc camp while Daw, Tara, Hamelin and Leveticus fall in the Pariahs camp. They're all outcasts, but they seem to suffer from a discrepancy of aesthetic - one which I have to say I dislike for the sake of factional resonance. That in mind, I am more with the Pariah half of the Outcasts than the Mercs, and as such I try to make them work a bit more often than the Mercs (and with that comes more practice, and thus better play in the field).

So I mean, yeah, you're absolutely right about me probably needing time in the field with those three masters, but I must say that I like the Pariahs more and will probably be more biased towards them when scrutinizing and analyzing the Mercs.

~Lil Kalki

EDIT: Just so I am clear enough, I have to make the point also that the Mercs and the Pariahs have fairly dissimilar playstyles and that's why I find one better for me than the other.

[trikk]

I think for Guild I would go Sonnia > Perdita > Justice as I think all 3 can be played pretty straightforward at first but the Sonnia Box is most self sufficient and Sonnia is easier to use than Perdita.