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Completely New to Malifaux and could use some help and/or clarifications on getting started


Malakai1981

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Hello, I'm a new player and happy to be finally moving on from the shackles of larger companies. I'm so new to Malifaux I've never played a game nor ordered a miniature. A friend of mine was asking me to paint a model for her and came upon Malifaux. As I had a closer look at the models I knew I was switching systems. Even my friend who has never gamed in her life wants to have a go at the game with me. So please keep in mind that I will be also ordering for my friend. If it's something we can't share during a game (like Fate Decks) please let me know. We can share rulebooks, no problem.


Anywho, I would appreciate some help on buying the books and decks that I really need to get properly started.  I'm not trying to get into this as inexpensively as possible, not saying money is no object but I'm used to wargaming so this isn't my first rodeo. In other words I'm not one to be found replacing a proper Malifaux deck with a regular deck of cards. Not that there is anything wrong with it, it just isn't my style. I I'm one of those anal-retentive guys that bought the special limited edition ruler and stuff like the for the games I used to play. Still I do want to know why I'm buying it. Not knowing any of the rules has me somewhat confused and being new I found some of the item descriptions a little too vague as to their relevance to normal games of Malifaux (ie, is this book a required supplement or do you have to have your opponents permission to use rules in it etc?

So OK now that you have endured my rambling and took it as pure enthusiasm and excitement and are still willing to help let's get on with it!



#1 The Malifaux 2E main Rulebook and the Rules Manual. Am I to understand that the rules manual is a compact book without background like the smaller rulebooks GW used to put into their Warhammer boxes? Is it necessary? It says it has an expanded index. In what way has it been expanded? Are those rules covered elsewhere in another book?


#2 Not interested in getting the starter set. I don't want those models. I would like to buy a box of Neverborn and one of Resurrectionists.


#3 Other rulebooks: Crossroads, Ripples of Fate and Shifting loyalties. Are these campaign books that come with rules that may be used in regular games of Malifaux or are they compartmentalized for when you are only playing in that campaign? Help me out here. Why do I need them? As far as more fluff (And I do want to know all I can about the Malifaux world) but I'm at a loss as to how close a relationship are they to the core game. If I need them I'll get them but I want to know why.


#4 Decks: Arsenel Decks for Resurrectionist and NeverBorn, Generalist Upgrade Deck, Generalist Upgrade Deck 2, Shifting Loyalties Campaign Deck, Schemes and Strategies Deck (will I require a second for my opponent?).


#5 Fate Decks: I know I need two, one for myself and one for my opponent. They have the Arcane Fate Deck, The Arcane Fate Deck(Black), Evil Baby Orphanage Fate Deck, Bad Ink Fate Deck, Classic Fate Deck and Seriously Twisted Fate Deck. Am I right in my assumption that a Fate Deck is a Fate Deck and any Faction can use anyone of them, that they are not specific to Factions? All of these Fate Decks here are merely cosmetic in their differences?

Thank you for any help or advice you can lend. Again, really very excited to start working on models that I can enjoy being a painter again instead of an assembly line worker.

-Malakai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Malakai

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1. The difference between the Malifaux 2e Rulebook ("the big rulebook") and the Rules Manual is that the big rulebook contains stories and all of the stat and upgrade cards from Wave 1. The Big Rulebook contains the Rules Manual in its entirety, although page numbers etc will be different. You can download a free PDF of the Rules Manual from DrivethruRPG. There's nothing that is only available in the Big Rulebook, so if you play entirely from the Rules Manual you will be fine. All of the stat and upgrade cards for models come inside those models' boxes.

2. That's fine, you don't need the starter set! (although bear in mind that Crew Boxes are mostly playable out of the box but not necessarily balanced with other Crew boxes - they're more to give you a start on models that work with that Master, so you may find depending on which boxes you get that one is worth more points than another)

3. The other three rulebooks contain more stories & fluff, more scenarios, and the rules for models and upgrades from Waves 2-4. Shifting Loyalties also contains a campaign system where you can play an ongoing campaign with models that get new abilities. None of these are required for regular play. The scenarios offered are story encounters which in my experience don't tend to get played particularly often. Some of them are quite fun but they are more of an alternate way to play than a central part of the game. And as mentioned, all of the stat and upgrade cards for models come inside those models' boxes. The books can be a good way to look through all the models available and see what's what though. Crossroads is Wave 2, Shifting Loyalties is Wave 3 and Ripples of Fate is Wave 4.

4. You don't need Arsenal Decks. Those were for people who had the old metal minis from 1st edition to get new stat cards for models they already owned. The Generalist Upgrade Decks contain the few upgrades that don't come with any models (because they are faction wide). Deck 1 has the upgrades from the Waves 1-3, Deck 2 has the upgrades from Wave 4. These upgrade cards are also in the books, so if you buy the books, photocopies or pdf printouts are 100% tournament legal to use.

The Campaign Deck contains cards with all the potential upgrades you can get during a Shifting Loyalties campaign. If you're not interested in playing that, you won't need that deck, and even if you do want to play a campaign, those rules are all in Shifting Loyalties, the deck is just a more convenient form.

A Schemes & Strategies deck can be useful, but it is not required. The Schemes & Strategies (basically the game objectives) are all available in the book, the deck is just a convenient way to see which are available in that game. Also, the schemes & strategies change yearly in the tournament document called Gaining Grounds. You can use the basic rulebook ones, but most players tend to use the latest Gaining Grounds document. It's free to download here (scroll down to Resources and click on organised play formats).

5. Fate Decks are all the same, the only difference is cosmetic, they are essentially a standard deck of 54 playing cards with custom suits and two different jokers. Although be warned that the Evil Baby Orphanage deck (and the much harder to find Puppet Wars deck) is very difficult to read from across the table and might not make you many friends :P

 

Welcome to Malifaux! I'll just flag up the fact that there has been some errata to various models. You can download the updated cards for anything that has been errataed from here, just scroll to the bottom.

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I can try to help.

#1 Yes the manual is just rules and no fluff. The core book has three masters a faction and the wave 1 models with pictures of their stat cards and upgrades.

#2 I recommend looking at the main Malifaux site and reading up on the two factions that you mentioned and then finding a master/crew set for each to start with.

#3 Shifting Loyalties is the only book with new rules per se. It contains rules for campaign play. Each book does however have fluff and stat cards for models released in that wave and sometimes story based encounters.

#4 Arsenal decks contain wave 2 stat and upgrade cards for the faction. General Upgrades contains all upgrade cards for each faction from core and Crossroads book. Shifting Loyalties deck is cards for those campaigns only.

#5 All Fate Decks are the same just cosmetic differences.

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On the topic of strategy and scheme deck stuff, not only are all of the strats & schemes available in the books and/or website, there is a host of apps that will happily do game scoring for you that also contain the full text of all strategies and schemes.  All are fan made, Wyrd is working on one at the moment but we don't know much about it or when it's coming out.

If you prefer a more "offline" tabletop experience, the strats and schemes deck comes with all of the ones in the first book, along with some "fun time" variants that can accommodate more then 2 players.  For gaining grounds, you can get a deck of cards printed from http://www.wargamevault.com/.

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Thank you guys so much. If I do get a strategy deck would it be possible to share with an opponent or will they need their own? Also if you're interested I'm looking into Pandora for the Neverborn, Seamus for the Resurrectionist and possibly Leveticus for the Outcasts. I have read that they are not as straightforward for beginners as say a Guild army would be but I have always chosen my armies by the look of the miniatures first (this is especially important for me in Malifaux, their background secondly, which I had a chance to look over some last night and I really liked their style and only lastly do I worry about winning. I'm it it to paint minis that I like and have fun. That's it. Not losing all the time IS a bonus but not required. :)

 

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If you are set on one of those 3 masters whoch are unfortunately all from different factions and the look of the minatures are the main factor for you, I would look at other models and crew boxes in the respective factions and go with the one where you like the most models as if you get into this game you will definitely be expanding your collection.

Of those 3 be a little wary of Levy as he is the most complicated rules wise and has an unusual hiring pool where he can hire in out of faction undead or constructs depending on the upgrades you pick for him. That said if you are an experienced gamer and he is a standout favourite dont let it put you off him. However for your friend who is completely new to table top gaming there are definitely a few masters I would suggest avoiding until they have a decent understanding of the rules

As to the apps mentioned my clear favourite is crewfaux it won't give you the stats for models but is an excellent crew builder that takes things like upgrades alloing out of faction hires in to account it also has the rules for the schemes and strats as well as a scenario generator. I use it in most games 

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I use one strategy and scheme deck to keep two tables supplied at once, as long as they don't have any overlap in the schemes selected by suits. :D Not necessary at all especially if you are using an app to track scores as well, but handy for picking up and reading the exact scoring conditions; for sorting the schemes in that game's pool into 'scores via scheme markers', 'scores via kills', etc. for overall planning; or for showing the game off to passers-by if you play at the FLGS.

Leveticus has a card in the January 2017 errata--be sure to pick it up as it changes how he spends his wounds for bonuses and so changes his playstyle more than most errata'd cards. He doesn't feel that complicated to me, interacting only with the placement of other models and not so much with interlocking abilities. Pandora and her overlapping auras with other models give me more of a headache. Seamus is independent and very easy to grasp.

A guide to where to find the Malifaux fluff, if you're interested in that

+1 for Crewfaux. I am very traditionalist and much prefer pen and paper. I still got Crewfaux. It's just flawless (no matter what my regular opponent may say about its frequency of generating Frame for Murder in the scheme pool ;)).

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I will definitely be getting the Seamus and Pandora boxes right off as that is what my friend and I will play. Leveticus just seemed like a nice box I might get down the road. As far as being pulled into one faction I'm not really worried about that. Don't get me wrong I will definitely expand the factions I get but I'm not limiting my model purchases to stats or sometimes even factions (though I will be wary not to expand past models that I am unable to field unless they are really cool of course!).

You now yesterday was a bit of a revelation for me. I've been playing GW stuff for 15 years. With the grim dark aesthetic moving away from the models, the realization that putting together hundreds of models that look basically the same (and who's looks are not that great), I sat back and added up what it would take to finish of all of my armies. If I threw in the towel now but still wanted to complete them the cost, as I'm sure you can imagine, was embarrassingly high. And I don't even play AoS! This wasn't a hobby anymore, it was a money pit that had become a job. It was killing the painter in me and I was rarely even playing, just buying more stuff.

Of course I was aware of Malifaux models, I'd scoped them a few times and was impressed. Victorian Gothic Horror is one of my favourite genres; still I had my job to go to. When my friend asked me to paint a miniature for her and to help her pick it out (she's a goth, horror fan like me) I had a chance to REALLY look at the models. Each one of them is  unique. It's like always painting a character model, but in a genre that I feel very close to. I had the feeling that the sculptor was allowed to really express their selves  when sculpting and/or imagining them from scratch.

Today I'm in the midst of packing up all of my GW stuff, sorting terrain and some few items that will be useful, and putting it all in my hobby closet. I'm not joking. I want to be excited to paint models again than for no other reason than they are dark and they are beautiful.

Still no dice? We'll see how that works out.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, I meant to ask. What is the deal with only being able to play the Carver under certain circumstances? When I first saw Malifaux models before I decided to get into this game he was the first model that stuck out to me. I'll still buy him but would be nice to know why I can't play him too.

-Malakai

Edited by Malakai1981
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You can now. The Carver was originally statted as a story encounter since his special rules, a holdover from last edition, were just impossible to balance for normal play, but as of this year (see also GG2017 tournament pack, I think?) he is a legal proxy for the mercenary Killjoy and so can be played with any faction. You might need to check his base size...wait I have the book with Killjoy now, give me a moment...ok they're both on 50mm, they're fine.

Speaking of awesome models and proxies, while the emissaries are amazing models (and every Resser especially loves the Carrion Emissary, can't see why Seamus would differ in that opinion), you also have the option of proxying those with last edition's avatar models. Seamus, Pandora, and Leveticus were all masters in Malifaux 1.5 and so they all had avatar models made, but any avatar model of the appropriate faction will do.

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Crewafaux can completely replace getting a scheme deck. If you want to browse schemes and strategies outside of a game they are detailed in the Gaining Grounds documents and rulebooks. Crewafaux lets one player randomize the schemes, strategy, and deployment and then generate a QR code that the other player can use to import the settings. It then lets you track your score.

Like other people have said the difference in Fate decks is all cosmetics and the material they are made out of. I'd do some searches for the different decks to find one that you like the look of. I have both the Arcane Fate Deck and the Classic Fate Deck. The cards in the Classic Fate Deck are nowhere near as slick and glossy so I find that they are less prone to sliding around. I also find them to be more readable than my Arcane Fate Deck.

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4 minutes ago, Malakai1981 said:

I had imagined on getting card protector slips for my cards but I've never played a card game before. Can you suggest a good company?

-Malakai

If you end up getting one of the plastic decks (most of them are actually plastic) I'd discourage getting sleeves for your fate deck.  They honestly don't need it.   For the rest, I sleeve my stat cards in some "ultra pro" sleeves that are great quality and a snug fit.   Dragon Shield is also another popular brand.

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I picked Dragon Shield for the stat cards since they're extra thick plastic. One of the people on my old group went so far as to use completely sealed hard plastic sleeves but those seemed like overkill.

After my Arcane fate deck (slippery plastic) got a little dog-eared, I sleeved it in KMC opaque backed so I could keep on using it. I definitely like KMC over Ultra-Pro when it comes to sleeves with color backs. More sleek for shuffling at the edges, and none of these have split whereas my Ultra Pros did (and those weren't even used with a game with vigorous shuffling like this one).

Classic fate deck is paper and it is wearing out but it's so legible! I love the feel of the Iconic deck, delicate plastic but not as slippery as Arcane. Bad Ink is a stiffer plastic.

I'm clumsy and have a hard time shuffling my sleeved deck sometimes...and always had a hard time shuffling the unsleeved Arcane. Others in my group had no problem.

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I don't sleeve my stat cards, though I do keep them in 9-slot card pages in a binder. They come out for games and go back in after. Nor do I sleeve my deck, it's a plasticky composition which isn't particularly vulnerable to wear and tear. My old, more papery deck shows a lot of fray, though.

Couple suggestions I don't think anyone mentioned:

You want to have a host of 30mm markers to serve as scheme markers, which is a game marker that counts towards various schemes. Your models (barring those with special rules like Insignificant) will place these during the game. Malifaux also uses corpse and scrap markers which some models use for summoning or other sordid purposes. I've just used said 30mm markers and placed a token on them to differentiate them from scheme markers.

I have from another game I play, blank acrylic tokens. I find them very handy for writing conditions on, and easily to work with than writing on the cards, with or without sleeves. If conditions are bouncing on and off, I just need to set aside the token and don't have to repeatedly erase and rewrite. I also track wounds suffered with 6-sided dice, which as long as they don't get bashed around, feel much easier to keep track of from both sides of the table.

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Thanks Pyrflamme. I would like to try and find something that is aesthetically pleasing when it comes to markers and tokens. I know it's a mechanic of most every tabletop game but they have always seemed to detract from the ambience of the board that your lovely scenery and painted models have worked hard to achieve.  A necessary evil but I'll see if I can't get creative with them when I understand more about them.

Speaking of scenery, and this question should probably go in the terrain section, but since I'm getting a lot of really great tips I wanted to ask a question about Malifaux's Terraclip sets. They really have the look and feel of what I'm looking for in a gaming board intended to represent a Victorian English(ish) looking city. I had intended on buying all three of the sets: Buildings, Streets and Sewers of Malifaux. My question is I was wondering if just one set of each would be enough to cover a proper 3X3 table?

Once again thanks so much for all you guy's kind help.

-Malakai

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Finding terraclips is not easy, its been out of production. Any 2 sets can be used to cover a 3*3 board, but it can be a bit of a push. And if you want multiple levels then any 3 sets is much better. 

Scheme markers can easily be made to fit in with the look of your crew, even in the simplest form of them being the same basing as the crew, just without a figure on. More elabarate things can be done to make them fit your crew if you want. 

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Wow, didn't see that coming. It looks like an excellent set! You'd thing that Wyrd would have found a company to replace WWG by now. Luckily I'm not completely bereft of terrain but was REALLY looking forward to doing a bit of one stop shopping and concentrating on just my models for once.

Honestly Wyrd, those sets were beautiful. Please bring them back or something similar. It's a big selling point for people, like me, who are looking to get into Malifaux from scratch.

 

-Malakai

 

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1 hour ago, Malakai1981 said:

Thanks Pyrflamme. I would like to try and find something that is aesthetically pleasing when it comes to markers and tokens. I know it's a mechanic of most every tabletop game but they have always seemed to detract from the ambience of the board that your lovely scenery and painted models have worked hard to achieve.  A necessary evil but I'll see if I can't get creative with them when I understand more about them.

Maybe take a look here: http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/122275-homemade-cabochon-tokens/

 

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You forgot to post your link Mutter.

 

Looked at some Plastcraft stuff. Frankly it's not as cool and far more expensive. I'll probably end up grabbing something from them but not much. It's  just not moody enough. I'll keep looking around for other things that I can snatch up. I do have GW's Garden of Morr and 4 Citadel woods along with a Pegasus Games cathedral (I'm not using cities of death sets as they are too sci-fi) so I'm not totally without a start. Still bummed about the Terraclips. It looked cheap and fun.

 

-Malakai

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2 minutes ago, Mutter said:

No. :)

Forum does funny stuff with embedded links. I changed it to display URL instead, now it should work ...

Thank you for the link Mutter but your images appear to be down, however I can see the one at the bottom and those look quite nice. I may have to "borrow" that o

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19 hours ago, Malakai1981 said:

Thank you guys so much. If I do get a strategy deck would it be possible to share with an opponent or will they need their own? Also if you're interested I'm looking into Pandora for the Neverborn, Seamus for the Resurrectionist and possibly Leveticus for the Outcasts. I have read that they are not as straightforward for beginners as say a Guild army would be but I have always chosen my armies by the look of the miniatures first (this is especially important for me in Malifaux, their background secondly, which I had a chance to look over some last night and I really liked their style and only lastly do I worry about winning. I'm it it to paint minis that I like and have fun. That's it. Not losing all the time IS a bonus but not required. :)

 

You can play the game without a strategy deck, just with the rulebook and read out the strategies, but I find having the deck does help me remember during the game what I'm doing (and acts as a easy way for me to record any secret schemes), and what the opponent might be doing. If you are going to use your deck for this, then you will need a deck each, because you will both want the same 5 scheme cards to look at. 

Picking based on look is a good way to do it. Some masters are harder to learn than others, but none are impossible to learn with. Seamus and Pandora are both relatively simple to pick up a basic play style for (although still hard to master). They both do focus on Wp duels a lot more than most, so learning with these two will give you a slightly warped view of the game,  but not significantly warped. You'll probably value high wp more than most people, and prefer models that can attack wp. 

When playign these boxes against each other, the Pandora box has more SS value. I would suggest games of 30-35ss, allowing you some customisation of the crews, which might mean that panodra doesn't use one of her sorrows, or many upgrades. If you want to start playing without upgrades (A bit like playing Warhammer without buying Magic items for the Characters) then you might want to play 25-30 ss. As you expand your collections, I would recommend playing 50 ss games, its the most balanced, but smaller games are still fun, and a good way to learn. 

 

I started sleeving all my figure cards, but it was too time consuming, so not I use the 9 card pages to put my crew in and use dry wipe onto those. I think the ones I have are ultra pro, but any gaming shop that does ccgs will have some, and they are really cheap. 

 

Enjoy

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5 hours ago, Malakai1981 said:

Thanks Pyrflamme. I would like to try and find something that is aesthetically pleasing when it comes to markers and tokens. I know it's a mechanic of most every tabletop game but they have always seemed to detract from the ambience of the board that your lovely scenery and painted models have worked hard to achieve.  A necessary evil but I'll see if I can't get creative with them when I understand more about them.

If you do get creative with your tokens make sure that you've got something that can be swapped in if a model needs to overlap the token. 

I found this site very helpful for quickly making all the tokens I needed to get playing while figuring out what I wanted to use as a more permanent solution.

https://birgerro.github.io/Malifaux_Marker_Generator/Malifaux_marker_generator_IE.html

You choose a marker size, a color for the outer ring, add a label and an image and then print out a sheet of them. I had the best results in printing using Firefox. Chrome doesn't seem to want to print the correct size. I printed all my tokens, attached it to card stock (my printer doesn't handle the 110lbs stock I wanted to use very well) and then cut it all out.   

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