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Looking for Advice - Beginner


seraphsong

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Hey everyone!

Let me start out by saying that I understand that a static list is not optimal.  Totally get that, and that answer won't work here.

I'm looking for a 50ss list to learn the game.  I lean towards Pandora or Titania aesthetically.  Or Collodi.  I am planning to go to KingdomCon at the end of April and spend a day playing pick up games..

Suggestions welcome for any and all masters.  Plan is to buy and paint it by then.

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Playing a fixed list while you learn and determine what you like playing and how you like playing is a perfectly fine way to learn in my opinion. 

Are you looking to adhere to a cost of some sort (using most of the models in the respective crew box) or are you just looking for a supportive list that covers a few bases while you learn and work the kinks out? 

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50 SS Neverborn Crew
Pandora + 7 Pool
Primordial Magic (2)
Widow Weaver (8)
 - The Mimic's Blessing (1)
Teddy (11)
 - A Thousand Faces (1)
Doppleganger (7)
 - A Thousand Faces (1)
Sorrow (5)
Sorrow (5)
Insidious Madness (5)

I had a newer player in my meta using this for Pandora and enjoying it. You have room for upgrades as you see fit but it gives you some card draw, WP manipulation, a Melee beater, and works well with the Pandora basics while feeling very Neverborn-y. 8 Models is what I see as the "common average" for most crews. 

You can also swap in Baby Kade (7 stones) if you want some more speed on the Teddy and ML damage or Iggy (5 stones) if you want some ranged Burning or more Incite. If you want a bigger beater you can upgrade Teddy to Nekima (13 Stones) as she also has some decent synergy with Pandora and her crews. 

Doppelganger, Nekima, and Primordial Magic are faction staples and show up in many crews across multiple masters.

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Spend time reading and understanding the schemes and strategies. Otherwise, it's possible to table your opponent and still lose.

Ive played Lynch, Lucius, and Voices Pandora. Of all of them, Lynch with Endless Hunger, Huggles, three Illuminated, and three Stitched together was the most forgiving to me as a new player. It was a very easy and forgiving army to play, but still effective for all that. And all you need is the starter and a stitched together box.

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(0) Welcome to Malifaux!

I think that you'll get as many lists here as there are players; a lot of choices in crew-building in Malifaux come down to variations on personal preference, expected opposing crew, terrain, strategies and schemes.  That said, I think that you'll get good mileage out of playing a lot with a mostly-fixed crew until you know what you want to do.  Indeed, I often play crews with only small variations between them as I find that the improvement in familiarity with what my pieces do is worth more to me than having a perfectly optimised crew (also, it's not practical to own and understand every piece in your faction).  That said, here are a few crews that I've found fun.  If you intend to pick up the whole faction anyway then you'll be able to field them all eventually.

Collodi (Strum The Threads, Fated)
Arcane Effigy
Brutal Effigy
Lazarus (One Thousand Faces)
Marionette
2 Bunraku
2 Stitched Together

I have a battle report with this list here, and ones with variations on the theme here.  If you're into theme, it's all puppets except for Lazarus (who has his own synergy with Collodi).  It has a lot of potential AP between using Strum The Threads for Fast and Collodi using My Will.

Collodi (Strum The Threads, Fated)
Brutal Effigy
Barbaros (One Thousand Faces)
Nekima (One Thousand Faces)
3 Terror Tots
Black Blood Shaman

This is quite an effective way to play a Grow list, which some people (certainly me) find amusing.  The key is not to focus on actually Growing / Maturing your Nephilim, just let it happen when you want it.  The other crew has to respect the threat of a Tot turning into a Young after it's activated.  If you don't want to go down the Grow route, just swap something else for Barbaros's One Thousand Faces.  The same crew works well with Lilith (remove Collodi and the Brutal Effigy, and replace with Lilith and the Cherub); I have battle reports for both versions here.  I haven't used it in a tournament yet, but in friendly play, you can do the same tricks with Pandora by swapping Collodi and the Brutal Effigy for Pandora (with The Box Opens and Fears Given Form) and the Primordial Magic.

If it would help to go into more detail about how these crews play then I'll be happy to post more.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd agree that Collodi is the better choice for beginners there.

Collodi is a good crew, plays well and is fairly (as these things go) simple.

Pandora is a harder master to play and her crew is tricky, the main problem is that well played she is very difficult to kill and incredibly frustrating to play against but if you don't play her well (and experience with the game will dictate this initially) then she is fragile and her crew vanishes in a puff of ectoplasm (she is very similar to Arcanists, my main faction, Colette in this way)

Titania is a harder proposition as she is still quite new, book and box only recent releases, so there is less established knowledge on her and her crew, but so far the whispering I've heard is she is lower end power curve and reliant on scheme marker manipulation to win.  So I'd advice avoid.

Basically I think the hardest thing about learning Malifaux is wrapping your mind around the complex and multifaceted scheme/strat - objective aspect.  It moves the mind from a more 'traditional' gaming paradigm of I win by killing the other guy.  This can be a difficult hurdle to conquer initially until the light goes on and so I'd avoid playing masters which specifically play into the weird tricks and scheme heavy concepts of Malifaux until I've conquered the basic game with a more basic master.  

Avoid but not discount.  For all that I'd play first and foremost the master and crew you like the best and learn with them, it may be a little tougher but it will be more rewarding.  So assuming everything is about equal I'd go a starting master, but if you have a clear favorite take them regardless and learn by doing.

I'd rank the NB best starting master as Lillith by the way probably followed by Collodi.

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If you can pick her up I'd say go for Titania. Her box set doesn't have a ton of easy-to-forget aura's and effects, and her crew is all pretty durable so there's less 'feel-bad' of getting totally wiped out by your opponent. Add in a box of silurids becasue they are just the best scheme runners in the game and you should be set up with a very versatile, though basic, crew to start out with.

titania +audience with the queen, behold my glory + 4ss

the gorar 

Aeslin +taproot

the claw

the thorn

the tooth

2x silurid

From there you can start to see what you like [this model can shoot, this one is highly mobile, I need more activations] and expand accordingly.

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You take the horrible dirty trick if you're going to go Titania, which is this:

Use Barbaros with her, and give her the "Behold My Glory" upgrade. I can't take credit for this one, it was on the latest episode of schemes and Stones.

It works like this:

Barbaros activates early in the turn (if not first) and issues a challenge. Enemy models within 8" of him have to make a WP14  duel to attack anything else.

Titania activates and plinks two, maybe three, heavy hitters with a trigger to put the "She'll End us all!" condition on them. Your opponent has to discard two cards if those models want to attack anything other than Titania.

This means that you can arrange for heavy hitters to have to make a WP test to attack Titania, discard two cards to attack Barbaros, or do both to attack anything else. This leaves your other models free to pursue strategies and schemes relatively unmolested. It falls apart when your opponent has a horde of models that can easily make WP duels, or hit hard enough to take Barbaros down quickly if you have to cheat in the duel.

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