Is it safe to start Malifaux

[Whiskyjumper]

Hello all. 

I have been looking at, and reading about Malifaux for a little while now. I love everything that I am seeing. I want to get into it but I have a very small gaming budget. I am worried that as long as Malifaux has been out that I will start it and then the line will end. It doesn't help my worries when I checked both of my FLGS and neither of them stock it. Is Malifaux still going strong? Do you guys see it being around for a good long while?

Thanks!

 

[Pyrflamme]

I wouldn't be too worried about Malifaux (read: Wyrd) going out of stock anytime soon. The game has a devoted community and passionate developers, and they are continuously releasing new products. The new book with all the new crews promise to keep people occupied for a good while, and Wyrd is also working on a companion, WMH-scale game that should diversify their product lines.

[Adran]

On the whole the game is growing.

In the UK, there are more and more events happening, and the numbers attending them are going  up and up. 

The game was first released 7 or so years ago, and they have introduced new models for it every year since then, so I don't expect the line to end any time soon. judging by my gencon order numbrs for all those years, they are selling more and more product  each year as well

[OldManMyke]

The UK Nationals have gone from 66 to 88 to 128 this year with a waiting list of near another 20 and as Adran said, we have a massively growing tournament scene in the UK with it being possible to go to an event pretty much every weekend

Dont think you need worry

[PeregrineFalcon]

I can't see there being any way the game shrinks in popularity anytime soon. The amount of new stuff the developers have continuously given us both in rules and models is staggering. I see no slow down, and to be honest Wyrd is finally back where they worked so hard to be after transitioning from metals to plastics ~4 years ago. They have worked hard to be able to turn out constant models. As far as player numbers, I see it continuously grow year after year. We have local events in the Northeast that are constantly in the 30 player count. On top of that all the major miniatures conventions have a Malifaux tournament that is well attended.

Not sure where you play out of but take a look at the Henchman list off of the main Wyrd site and that can always help, plus the different regions of on the forums.

[Whiskyjumper]

Thanks guys. That sounds encouraging. I was thinking of just picking out a couple of box sets. One for me and one for my boy to get started. Is that a good way to get started and learn the game? I like the idea of the starter box set because it comes with two decks of cards and two crews, but I am not crazy about the crews that it contains.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Just now, Whiskyjumper said:

Thanks guys. That sounds encouraging. I was thinking of just picking out a couple of box sets. One for me and one for my boy to get started. Is that a good way to get started and learn the game? I like the idea of the starter box set because it comes with two decks of cards and two crews, but I am not crazy about the crews that it contains.

The starter box is your best option to progressively learn the game if you don't have anyone around to teach you. Besides that I'd suggest looking thru the Wyrd sites faction areas and reading the differences. Of you do that and go with them"rule of cool" (ie what you're most excited about theme and models wise) you really can't go wrong. Yes some masters are a little tougher to start the game with but none are bad. Once you've picked a list of a few boxes come back here and ask more questions. The community is great at helping players like yourself narrow down their choices. 

[Cinnamon Bear]

Guerrilla Miniature Games has a video series on learning Malifaux you can find on youtube, that goes over the starter set missions and explains how to play step by step if you'd rather learn that way. They also have some well produced battle reports if you're interested in how certain crews play (although Guild/Neverborn/Outcasts seem to show up most often). Also, the rules PDF is free if you head over to DTRPG.

You'll have more fun picking a crew you like the look of, but some are still better choices than others just in terms of difficulty to learn or the contents of their box sets (Ramos comes with nearly 50SS worth of models in his box while Kirai barely has twenty or so). If you have any questions, the people here are pretty friendly and helpful.

[-Loki-]

A store not stocking a game isn't a sign of the health of that game overall, just the health of that game to that store. Stores only stock what sells for them, otherwise its wasted space, and very few stores are large enough to stock anything but the most popular items in that area. I've got an FLGS who has two stores about an hour and a half apart. One store stocks lots of CCGs and Historicals, because those sell at that store, and carries token stock ranges for other games like Malifaux for the casual browser. Their other store carries token Historical stock (though still lots of CCGs, naturally) but good ranges for other games because Historicals are less popular there but Malifaux, Infinity, etc are much bigger there.

Take store stock with a grain of salt. It's never indicative of the health of a game or company. Worst that happens is your store just never stocks it and you either find it somewhere else or buy it online if no-one around you stocks it.

[Gremlin66]

Lots of great info and help above. I like you am new to the game. I picked Gremlins and the wife picked Outcasters. Mostly because of the models (Viks) for her and Gremlins for me. With a little searching and a few questions here. You will find a couple of factions you want to play. Theory is all factions can win. It's how you play/build them. As for if Wyrd will stick around for the long haul? Lets not put bad Negative Waves on a good thing.

 

 

 

[Whiskyjumper]

Well I have been following the advice and looking through the Malifaux website factions. Oh my, what a tough choice. I need two factions to start with, one for me and one for my son. How to decide? Hillbilly gremlins? Heck yeah!  Creepy children and monsters? Oh yeah! Flaming skull death marshals, undead zombies. I want them all. Unfortunately I can’t afford them all. I do not yet know what faction my boy will go with but I have narrowed it down to three. I really think I like the Neverborn best. Followed by Gremlins then the Guild. Can you guys suggest a good box to start with for each of those three?

Also If you could suggest a $50 Malifaux item from GenCon for a new player like me, what would you suggest? I know someone who is going.

[Gremlin66]

My wife and I are just getting into Malifaux. I'm going with Gremlins. I picked up the Somer boxset. The wife has Outcasts with the Vik's boxset.

[Omenbringer]

18 minutes ago, Whiskyjumper said:

Well I have been following the advice and looking through the Malifaux website factions. Oh my, what a tough choice. I need two factions to start with, one for me and one for my son. How to decide? Hillbilly gremlins? Heck yeah!  Creepy children and monsters? Oh yeah! Flaming skull death marshals, undead zombies. I want them all. Unfortunately I can’t afford them all. I do not yet know what faction my boy will go with but I have narrowed it down to three. I really think I like the Neverborn best. Followed by Gremlins then the Guild. Can you guys suggest a good box to start with for each of those three?

 

Also If you could suggest a $50 Malifaux item from GenCon for a new player like me, what would you suggest? I know someone who is going.

 

I would highly recommend the 2 player Starter. It will have have two "crews" lead by Henchmen, the fate decks, and "walk thru" rule book. All the models are Mercenaries so will be usable once you decide which factions you want to collect. It is a really good way to get into the game, particularly if you are trying to suss things out yourself. One of the included factions is Neverborn the other is Guild and they are fairly well balanced against each other. The models are also quite a bit easier to put together than the standard crew boxes. I would also add a download of the mini rule book (its free on drivethrurpg). I wouldn't recommend jumping in with a crew box or two until later as not all crew boxes are created equal (Gremlins in particular tend toward a higher cost of entry, especially Som'er).

After that if you really want to come down to the Bayou for some barbecue and moonshine we'd be happy to have you.

[Whiskyjumper]

On 7/30/2016 at 3:43 PM, Gremlin66 said:

My wife and I are just getting into Malifaux. I'm going with Gremlins. I picked up the Somer boxset. The wife has Outcasts with the Vik's boxset.

You are lucky that your wife will play. My wife will not play any of my games. 

 

On 7/30/2016 at 3:52 PM, Omenbringer said:

I would highly recommend the 2 player Starter. It will have have two "crews" lead by Henchmen, the fate decks, and "walk thru" rule book. All the models are Mercenaries so will be usable once you decide which factions you want to collect. It is a really good way to get into the game, particularly if you are trying to suss things out yourself. One of the included factions is Neverborn the other is Guild and they are fairly well balanced against each other. The models are also quite a bit easier to put together than the standard crew boxes. I would also add a download of the mini rule book (its free on drivethrurpg). I wouldn't recommend jumping in with a crew box or two until later as not all crew boxes are created equal (Gremlins in particular tend toward a higher cost of entry, especially Som'er).

After that if you really want to come down to the Bayou for some barbecue and moonshine we'd be happy to have you.

Thanks for the advice. I know that it is good advice to go with the starter set because of everything that you mentioned. It's just that I do not like any of the miniatures in it. It is the option that I will most likely go with but it's a shame that I have to spend that much money without getting any minis that interest me. 

On another note the cost of terrain that I will need is concerning me. I first heard of Malifaux as a miniatures game that was fairly inexpensive to get into but it is starting to look like the terrain requirements could make it expensive. Any ideas to keep those cost down? Without using common household items?

[Cinnamon Bear]

I think if the Starter set minis don't interest you, you shouldn't feel obligated to get them. Its good if you like the models, but you can watch some great tutorials on youtube (look up Guerrilla Miniature Games) that introduce the rules step by step and teach you how to play. 

Good starter sets, for a complete beginner, for the three factions you are interested in would be:

Neverborn- Lynch, Lilith

Guild- Perdita, Lady Justice

Gremlin- Wong, Ophelia

Zoraida can be used with both Gremlin and Neverborn, but is slightly more complicated.

[solkan]

35 minutes ago, Whiskyjumper said:

On another note the cost of terrain that I will need is concerning me. I first heard of Malifaux as a miniatures game that was fairly inexpensive to get into but it is starting to look like the terrain requirements could make it expensive. Any ideas to keep those cost down? Without using common household items?

You have to keep in mind that wargaming terrain is like Christmas decorations or dollhouse furniture--the amount of nice things you can buy will equal or exceed any budget you want to choose.  If you had a $10,000 terrain budget, there are some gorgeous tables that you can buy with tons of sculpted or laser etched details, cobblestone streets, etc.  If you have $500, there are still nice tables that you can buy. 

If don't want to spend any money on terrain, don't want to use books, cans, and household items, a $50 trip through the local crafts store and hardware store for terrain can still get a decent amount of terrain.  You don't need to spend huge amounts on PlastCraft terrain to play Malifaux, and the alternative isn't spending the same sort of money on lasercut wooden buildings and a pile of Battlefield in a Box painted ceramic terrain pieces. 

For as long as wargaming has existed, people have been carving styrofoam insulation sheets into hills; cutting popscicle sticks into fences and and buildings; making trees out of wires, clay, and flocking material; making walls and tombstones from clay; etc.  For more recent history, companies of various sizes have been selling the same sorts of things ready made, to let people spend money instead of time on craft projects.

But all of that commercially produce terrain sure will look nice and sure will be easy to buy. 

Edit:  And, to be really frank, the three most practical components of my terrain collection are:

- a 150 piece wooden block set

- a 156 piece Lincoln Logs Fort Lincoln set

- a box of $1 Christmas pine trees purchased (the whole box of $1 trees, so about a dozen of them) at a "the week after Christmas" sale

Add a little bit of felt or cardboard to cut up into pieces to mark areas, and that's terrain.

 

[dancater]

Malifaux is to my knowledge a game with a solid and devoted player base.  Admittedly smaller than the GW and PP juggernauts (in war games terms) but it is well loved and growing.

It is a complicated game to master because the importance of the schemes and strats add a great deal of nuance, the Starter Box is good for this reason because it really does 'ease' you in.  But it is not essential and most of the factions have fairly simple and nicely complete crews 'out'o'the'box'.  For Arcanists I think Rasputina would be a solid starter pick, for Guild Perdita, for Neverborn Lilth, for Gremlins The Kin, Outcasts the Viks are good.  I'm not as sure with Ressers maybe Seamus (many ressers are summoners which complicates the straight starter) or the new master Reva maybe and for Ten Thunders Misaki is probably good but I'm not really familiar with TT crews.

Terrain is truly an experiment is two things budget (you can go really cheap or over the top nuts expensive) and creativeness.

Going cheap I'd grab a green (fields, grey or brown for other looks) cloth, sheet of piece of felt, cut this into 3' by 3' square - there is your play area.  Then use the excess cloth/sheet/felt and cut it into shapes (rounded edge irregular) and you've got forests, swamps and other area drop terrain (even better is if you go a couple of different colored cloths to differentiate [brown for swamps, different green for forests etc] your terrain).  Go buy some cheap larger sponges (green, grey and brown if you can get them, but some cloth dye if you can't) and then cut them into smaller irregular lumps, this gives you stand ins for rocks, trees and mud piles in swamps.  Getting a hot wire cutter and some ceiling tile foam with a little green paint and this with some simple cutting gives you hills - you can even try to find foam off cuts from a local supplier if you are real polite and beg.

At its cheapest I'd reckon you could do a table like this for <$US100.  It will be functional, the terrain will be obvious to players and it'll look OK.

You want more then it'll cost more but ultimately its one of those things which builds over time, I've been war gaming now for something like 30 years and I have enough pretty good terrain to have multiple tables if I want.

[Omenbringer]

16 hours ago, Whiskyjumper said:

You are lucky that your wife will play. I wife will not play any of my games. 

 

Thanks for the advice. I know that it is good advice to go with the starter set because of everything that you mentioned. It's just that I do not like any of the miniatures in it. It is the option that I will most likely go with but it's a shame that I have to spend that much money without getting any minis that interest me. 

On another note the cost of terrain that I will need is concerning me. I first heard of Malifaux as a miniatures game that was fairly inexpensive to get into but it is starting to look like the terrain requirements could make it expensive. Any ideas to keep those cost down? Without using common household items?

Terrain costs are a real concern, however there are methods of keeping the costs lower if you are "crafty" about it (and willing to use common household items). For example you can make your own mats easily and cheaply with just 2 tubes of silicon caulking, a canvas drop cloth, and some crumpled tin foil. Another option is 18" x 18" vinyl floor tiles which are usually around $2.00 per tile. You can make tons of buildings with a sheet of foam core, some 18" by 18" vinyl floor tiles, and "play ground" sand. Another option here is to find a well stocked model train store and get some textured sheet styrene or balsa wood for your buildings. This is great for stone buildings and western style buildings and doesn't cost a whole lot, particularly given that a single sheet will usually be enough for 2 structures. If you do end up heading to a model train store you can also usually find a big "blister" of pre-made trees (around 20 trees in each one) in various colors, just add basing (you can use 50mm bases if you happen to find a lot of them cheaply, or pick up a few bags of 3" balsa wood disks from the craft store). Christmas time is great for getting deals on the Evergreen trees, you can often find a large bag of them for around $5.00. Hedges are easily made with green scouring pads, you can usually find a big bag of them at the DIY stores that will allow you to make an absolute ton of them. Severe terrain can be a bit more difficult however the craft stores have a product called a "pot topper" for silk plaints, these are great for severe terrain and fairly inexpensive. Another option is to use some green toweling.

Keep in mind that just because a lot of these things are "common house hold items" doesn't mean they can't look really good with just a bit of work. Several of the terrain features I used on my last tournament tables were crafted from these materials.

16 hours ago, Cinnamon Bear said:

I think if the Starter set minis don't interest you, you shouldn't feel obligated to get them. Its good if you like the models, but you can watch some great tutorials on youtube (look up Guerrilla Miniature Games) that introduce the rules step by step and teach you how to play. 

Good starter sets, for a complete beginner, for the three factions you are interested in would be:

Neverborn- Lynch, Lilith

Guild- Perdita, Lady Justice

Gremlin- Wong, Ophelia

Zoraida can be used with both Gremlin and Neverborn, but is slightly more complicated.

I would not recommend Jacob Lynch as a first crew. Aside from a higher cost of entry, his box is extremely potent and a bit more involved. The rest though are good starting crews (this does not mean they aren't also good experienced crews just that they are generally self sufficient with just the crew box, a bit more straight forward than others, and also fairly balanced against one another). I would recommend Lilith and Perdita as they are "themy" oppositional crews.

[Wolfpact]

Though let it be said if you enjoy Lynch he does have the benefit of fewer models to work with - a box of Beckoners puts you to 50ss with him, and their shared price point with Illuminated allows you to decide if you need three Illuminated and a Beckoner or two of each; he's not overly tricksy either - there's definite room to expand and learn but he's actually pretty straightforward - cycle cards, collect Aces, wreck face with ridiculously high burst damage. He was my first Master and I've let other completely new players use him and they tend to click fast.

[Parker Barrows]

On 7/30/2016 at 3:36 PM, Whiskyjumper said:

Well I have been following the advice and looking through the Malifaux website factions. Oh my, what a tough choice. I need two factions to start with, one for me and one for my son. How to decide? Hillbilly gremlins? Heck yeah!  Creepy children and monsters? Oh yeah! Flaming skull death marshals, undead zombies. I want them all. Unfortunately I can’t afford them all. I do not yet know what faction my boy will go with but I have narrowed it down to three. I really think I like the Neverborn best. Followed by Gremlins then the Guild. Can you guys suggest a good box to start with for each of those three?

 

Also If you could suggest a $50 Malifaux item from GenCon for a new player like me, what would you suggest? I know someone who is going.

 

I can not recommend Lilith enough. She's fairly easy to learn, but a lot of strategy behind it. For example, one her crews mechanics is the ability to push, and I quickly learned how powerful it can be. Plus, she can create a forest which helps give protection against ranged crews (the bane of the Neverborn) and can be used to control the board (I can't tell you how many times I've cut off a model or two from the rest of the Crew by dropping a forest in between regular terrain).

Plus, it comes with Terror Tots which are amazing Scheme Writers.

[Whiskyjumper]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I really appreciate it. I'm really thinking it over.

 

As fo terrain, I didn't mean to indicate that I was opposed to some homemade terrain. I just meant that I dont want to resort to cereal bowls, Tupperware, and Dixi cups. Heck I have some Heroscape terrain that I might be able to find a use for.

[Gnomezilla]

You might be able to buy the starter set decks and tapes off of someone else inexpensively. The good thing about that set was the minis were useful even to experienced players, so there's players who bought it who already had decks and tapes. One of our local players bought it for the minis and was even converted to using the flexible tapes instead of a ruler because movement in a curved line IS legal in Malifaux and the flexible tapes better showed the possibilities of that. He has used a walk action to walk a 50mm base mini around a mini of mine that he was attacking, then using the base in its new location to block an incoming aura which might have saved my mini. It was smart, and very annoying.

Our local game store only had a shelf or two of Malifaux although we had players every week. They just liked to special order everything in the months when FLGS promos were running, so boxes came in but were very quickly sold. (Wyrd has promos some months where if you spend $60 in an FLGS on Wyrd product, and you email Wyrd a photo proof of purchase with itemized receipt and/or photos of boxes, they will mail you a limited edition figure at the end of the following month. The next one is probably September, but not certain yet, and certainly not August. Even if it's a figure that's not for your faction, it's a good idea; there's a healthy second-hand market in trading limited edition figures you can't use for ones you can.)

If you are on Facebook, there's a very large group called A Wyrd Place, with more than a few members who are also playing Malifaux with their families and have had lots of good info on not curbstomping younger opponents you have to live with while playing Neverborn.

[Whiskyjumper]

 

17 hours ago, Parker Barrows said:

I can not recommend Lilith enough. She's fairly easy to learn, but a lot of strategy behind it. For example, one her crews mechanics is the ability to push, and I quickly learned how powerful it can be. Plus, she can create a forest which helps give protection against ranged crews (the bane of the Neverborn) and can be used to control the board (I can't tell you how many times I've cut off a model or two from the rest of the Crew by dropping a forest in between regular terrain).

Plus, it comes with Terror Tots which are amazing Scheme Writers.

I have been eyeballing Lilith for sure. And after your description she sounds really fun.  She is definitely one I am strongly considering. Thank you!

[-Loki-]

2 hours ago, Whiskyjumper said:

 

I have been eyeballing Lilith for sure. And after your description she sounds really fun.  She is definitely one I am strongly considering. Thank you!

 

You'll see a lot of people say to drop the rest of her box, but she plays fine with them. Her Terror Tots are some of the fastest cheap scheme runners in the game, though card dependant. Barbaros, her henchman, is a good tank. Her Totem, the Cherub, has a couple of nice tricks. If you want to stick with her thematic crew, there's quite a few options out there for expanding it. If you want to expand outside her crew, she really does play well with most of the faction.

[Whiskyjumper]

16 hours ago, Gnomezilla said:

You might be able to buy the starter set decks and tapes off of someone else inexpensively. The good thing about that set was the minis were useful even to experienced players, so there's players who bought it who already had decks and tapes. One of our local players bought it for the minis and was even converted to using the flexible tapes instead of a ruler because movement in a curved line IS legal in Malifaux and the flexible tapes better showed the possibilities of that. He has used a walk action to walk a 50mm base mini around a mini of mine that he was attacking, then using the base in its new location to block an incoming aura which might have saved my mini. It was smart, and very annoying.

Our local game store only had a shelf or two of Malifaux although we had players every week. They just liked to special order everything in the months when FLGS promos were running, so boxes came in but were very quickly sold. (Wyrd has promos some months where if you spend $60 in an FLGS on Wyrd product, and you email Wyrd a photo proof of purchase with itemized receipt and/or photos of boxes, they will mail you a limited edition figure at the end of the following month. The next one is probably September, but not certain yet, and certainly not August. Even if it's a figure that's not for your faction, it's a good idea; there's a healthy second-hand market in trading limited edition figures you can't use for ones you can.)

If you are on Facebook, there's a very large group called A Wyrd Place, with more than a few members who are also playing Malifaux with their families and have had lots of good info on not curbstomping younger opponents you have to live with while playing Neverborn.

 

Thanks for all the info. That sounds like a cool move from Wyrd with the limited edition figures.

I couldn't find a Facebook group called A Wyrd Place. I only found a Google+ group.