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Thinking of picking Malifaux up, Arcanists or Neverborn?


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As the title says, thinking of taking the game up. I currently only play Guildball, with Union and Alchemists as my teams (although I'm thinking of getting rid of Alchemists) I've been reading through everything, and am stuck between those two factions and was looking for some help/advice, as I know I should stick with one before I find myself with all of them.

For Arcanists, I like the look of Rasputina and Marcus, as I'm kind of a whore for ice and druid themed things, with maybe Colette or Kaeris later.

For Neverborn, I'd love to grab Titania and Zoraida, as Fae and Voodoo stuff are high on my interest levels, with possibly the Dreamer or Lilith later.

What are the pros/cons of those factions/masters, and of the masters I've listed, what are good crews for each master? Also, I would prefer masters that have decent model sharing between them.

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Well I will throw out a few warning first, a lot of masters might have a 'default' play style but the crew you take with them can make things play out very differently.  The fact you pick your crew after seeing the board, knowing your opponent's faction, and determining Deployment Type, Strategy, and Scheme means you can really customize your crew to the fight.  Sometimes a master might have a "Must Have" model to rev their engine to high gear but often that is still just an option, just one that people might prefer.

Second warning, Likely at Gencon the next book for Malifaux is going to hit and from the teasing we have gotten it will have two new upgrades for each master.  So masters are about to get some more options that might give them new potential tricks or even flex their play styles in new ways.  So likely things might be getting a bit of a shake up soon with what the masters can do.

Now that all said and taken care of, into the actual questions.  Raspy, or Rasputina, is a blaster.  She has a fairly powerful range Cast action and a means of casting it through models with the Frozen Heart ability to which her sub faction is known for.  Thanks to this ability her range can be huge but she cannot cast through them if they are in combat normally so if the enemy can start tying up models it can limit her options.  That said some Raspy players have no problem blasting away into combat and risking hitting their own guys as they can possible hit the enemy with blast markers from the attack and some of Raspy's Frozen Heart models even blow up when they die.  That said to get the most out of Raspy you have to be able to keep her blasting as much as possible more often then not, she is not good at running around or doing non-killy schemes.  She relies on her other models to do that or to pull her out of danger as she does not like being locked in combat as she cannot use her main attack when tied up.

Some would call Marcus a generalist, as has a mix of abilities and attacks that can let him do a lot of different things.  He can potentially debuff, he can buff, he can hit, he can pass hits off, zoom around all over the place, and throw his hand in all round.  He is packed full of options and pretty good at several of them.  His upgrade selection is very important to deciding what he can do and how but they are all generally very solid.  He does run into a little problem for new players as a lot look at his ability to hire beasts from any faction and assume he has to hire beasts from other factions.  Having them opens options for him and can give him some nasty combos, but if you are starting with him you can stick with Arcanist models and be alright as he still has a ton of stuff he can do with those.  Marcus is a good option as a master for a lot of different strategies and schemes making him a strong choice overall.

Zoraida is half an enabler and half a stickler.  She has a couple tricks that people find rough to deal with unless they know exactly what is coming or how to deal with it.  The ability to make other models take actions can really throw people for a loop for some Strategies or schemes as you can have people walk away from a point they need to hold, attack another model, or even have your own models get additional actions.  Her totem is one of her offensive tools as it can put a condition on people that has them suffer the conditions and damages it takes.  This lets her snag an enemy model and layer terrible things on the Voodoo Doll to make the enemy model take it as well.  A lot of people rank her lower though because she has to rely on her tricks as she is not able to destroy the enemy herself and some of the tricks require mid to higher cards so your hand can burn up quickly.  She really requires you to know what you want to do with your crew but when you do she can do some rough combos and surprise her opponent by denying them a crucial VP at a key moment.

Titania is a newer model and I will be honest I don't have a ton of experience with her.  She durable for a Neverborn master but not necessarily super durable like some masters can be.  And she is a bit of an attention hog as a lot of her stuff require her to be near the action.  She is brutal if you can control the flow of the game and leave your opponent stuck reacting to you but she also requires knowing when you are sticking her neck out to far.  She also really has a lot of stuff that interact with playing scheme markers.  I am sure others likely have better input about her to pass. 

 

Of Marcus and Raspy, you can get some sharing between them as Marcus while traditionally likes beast, he is flexible enough he does pretty well with non-beast models as well.  Raspy in turn can use some of the models Marcus like as fast options to try and remove key enemy models that make her life difficult or have a protector that can deal with the ones that try to tie her up.  Raspy will generally prefer stuff that needs enemy models dying and denying them a location and loves having good firing lanes where Marcus would generally like better cover and more close up involvement.

Zoraida and Titania I think step on each others feet a little in that both generally want their crew to do the job and either enable  your guys or disable the enemy from completing theirs.  Both like solid model choices that can handle the job but they tend to like different support options from what I have seen.  I do not think these two work quite as good as a duo choice as Marcus and Raspy and might require a larger model pool to really get both going as well.  This is not to say they will not share things, but I don't think as well as Marcus and Raspy could.

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You say you like Ice themed stuff and Druid themed stuff, and also Fae. Titania sounds like she's right up your alley, as it covers all of that (eventually).

Titania herself is a pretty stereotypical Faerie type. Aeslin is her personal Druid. Soon we're getting the Cyclops, which is very winter/ice themed - they can throw up walls of ice and use Frozen Runes to do various effects.

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