Gloom

2 minutes ago, Clement said:

Something is up with that score.  The most you can score from each of your two schemes is 3 points.  The most you can get from the strategy is 4...  So your max possible points is 10.

Ok, well - like I said - we're both newbs and our Henchmen had to step out, so we were winging it with that most helpful (serious sarcasm alert) Rule book with it's awesome  "bounce you all over the effing book before answering your question" method of answering your question; hell, the Index doesn't even do its job.

When we read the rule book we both flipped two cards for the schemes - so he had 4 different options to score points where my two cards were both RAM, so I only had 3 options for scoring points.

My opponent and I were the only ones there to (officially) kick off the league, so the Henchmen has since said (as of an hour ago) we're going to scrap that game and start new next week using a different rules set.  So, the Deities of Malifaux have smiled upon me... this once.  

6 hours ago, Clement said:

Having to include your henchman in the cost means any soulstones you get for taking that henchman are literally free money (you sure on this?  It's non-standard for crew creation and HEAVILY favors the 0 cost henchmen like Hungering Darkness and Viktoria of Blood).

 Sebastian may not take a punch particularly well, but he'll have 6 free soulstones to chew on to keep himself up, so as long as you don't throw him directly into the heart of the enemy crew he actually should be fine.

Relating to that, he's quite frankly amazing at killing minions with his bonesaw.   Don't be fooled by the 2/3/5 curve....  there's 3-6 extra poison damage waiting for them before they activate.  Whatever he gets his mitts on will likely die horribly unless it can spend soulstones or has a bonkers number of wounds.

Interesting you should ask because my opponent (also new to Malifaux) had heard from the same Henchman that he did NOT have to include the SS cost of the Henchman chosen as Leader (Master).  So the rule book says you use a Henchmen for the Leader (in lieu of a Master)  for =/< 25ss, but - apparently - the Slow Grow League rules (Shifting Loyalties?) say you DO count the Henchmen/Leader's SS cost into the 25ss count. 

I wondered if Sebastian would survive attack(s) if I didn't deliberately throw him into the mix.  Thanks for the input there.

Just my luck, my first opponent played Guild, so my first ever full complete game of Malifaux I got my ass handed to me (14VPs to 5VPs, if we were adding them up correctly), and I couldn't even try to overwhelm with numbers because no Nicodem, and no Mortimer.

So far my slow-grow league 25ss crew is:
+ Sybelle (8)
   *Bleeding Tongue (1)
+ Rogue Necromancy (10)
   *Pack (1)
+ Rotten Belle (5)
=== 25

2 hours ago, mojopin said:

Taking mortimer with no summoning engine is not worth. I LOVE sebas but too fragile to stand some hits. That leaves sybelle that have ranged attack, autokill trigger, targets both wp and df, terrifying... And it will synergize well with Yin and Rogue necromancy. That would be my choice along a rotten belle

You make sense; honestly, the reason why I thought of bringing Mortimer was just so I would get more familiar with him.  I've yet to use Sebastian because I just built him (bought just him from Gadzooks), but I have played with Sybelle and I like her.

So no Valedictorian?

 

Hello fellow Rezers.

I'm still really new to the game; in fact, I've yet to complete/finish a full 35ss game.  I've done the first few 2-Player Box scenarios, and had one full 35ss game that I had to quit in Turn 3 because it was my kiddo's bedtime so we had to leave our FLGS.

PART I:

I have my first slow-grow league game tonight.  I chose Nicodem, but we don't get to use a 'Master' until later in the league.  Our "Master" is a henchmen of our choice.  I'm gradually collecting all of the "Nicodem must haves" (hory shet there's a ton of them! ), but I'm looking for ideas, opinions, strategies, etc. for which Henchmen (that I own) should act as my Master.  Here's what I have for Henchmen thus far:

+ Mortimer (of course) ~ I'm considering him because he'll likely be part of my lineup.  Chatty seems like good objective control, plus Found-A-Bone, and Fresh Meat.  Poison is always a bonus as well.
+ Sebastian ~ poison pain and more.
+ Madame Sybelle ~ Board control, movement shenanigans, and other shenanigans like discard & peon.
+ The Valedictorian ~ Movement, trigger control, and good damage.

I love all of them and don't know what to do.  
 

PART II:
The first game or two is 25ss, and that value also includes your Henchmen-as-Master.  As far as crew building goes, here's what else I have available if you'd like to chime in on advice, ideas, strategy, etc.

Enforcers:
~ Bete Noire
~ Yin The Penangalan
~ Rogue Necromancy
Minions:
~ Student of Viscera
~ Nurses (2)
~ Carrion Effigy 
~ Rotten Belles (3)
~ Punk Zombie (3)
~ Student of Steel
~ Student of Sinew
Peons:
~ Graveyard Spirit
~ Vulture

PART III:
For what it's worth, I have Necropunks waiting for me at my FLGS to pick up, but I doubt I'll have time to build them before my game tonight.  I'm pretty picky about 'cleaning' the models and washing them before assembly.

Here's what's on my 'Buy List' each week for the League, in this order:
= Hanged
= Drowned
= Mindless Zombies
= Crooligans
= Canine Remains

Other purchases I'm considering - just because I like their look - are:
Carrion Emissary
Flesh Construct
Gaki
Dead Rider
-Maybe Izamu (I like Rogue Necromancy for a beat-stick though)
-Maybe Guild Autopsies

On 4/13/2017 at 4:56 PM, Strype McClaine said:

I'm really bad at posting in a timely manner, and this is probably incoherent. (Freaking Spring and Pollen everywhere)

If your playing once a month, its pretty close to a double session in time? likely? So you'd probably resolve two player's destiny steps in that adventure. The Destiny mechanic re-enforces the idea that you focus on one-to-two players in an adventure, giving them the spotlight before shifting to someone else for their time in the sun. Sure a "Good DM would do that anyways" but when the mechanics follow with what a good DM wants to do, things just work happily.

You also "level" at least once per session, and the system is very encouraging for multi classing, it just requires you to declare what class your leveling per session.  So theirs Job advancement, XP spends, and Destiny spends, giving players tons of little nobs to twist on how their characters play out. So if I was doing a monthly game, I'd do a two act game, and do an intermission between acts, let players switch class during intermission so they could more cleanly be job A & job b  , give healthy xp, and resolve two player destiny steps per session. For each player that'd be at least 5 Sessions per 2 players. 5 Player party, Aprox 15 sessions with wiggle room?
Then again, there's nothing to say that the players don't keep going on adventures, try to rival the masters or maybe even tyrants....but the game is designed to cleanly close about that time.
(No one ever REALLY said that the epic level hand book is a GOOD idea in D&D...but its fun every now and then...)

In all seriousness check out some of the Penny Dreadfulls (The published modals, they are super fun) or the adventures in the wyrd Chronicles for some examples on how they document and structure it. Its taken just over a session to finish each act of the current global campaign and that's just out of how things tend to play out. 

Best way to dodge wife aggro (I say as an unmarried man, who has gamed many many time with married friends) find games that you can bring the spouses into....

Also, Savage worlds IS INFACT DOPE.
I would also half recomend a SUPER unknown game by the Name of StarChildren: The velvet revolution. It ALSO uses a deck of cards mechanic simmilar to malifaux/through the breach, but is about alien rockstars from space (think, ziggy stardust.)

That being said.
Play through the breach.
Its a fucking great game.

I payed a visit to a few local game stores.  One of them near me is starting a Malifaux slow-grow league in the End of May, so I'm going to join that.  They're also starting a Through the Breach game, so I'm going to join that as well.

Thanks for all of the input and detail.  I appreciate it!

2 hours ago, iamfanboy said:

When each person makes a character, they do it by flipping a short Tarot - and where the cards land also form a Destiny for the character, split up into five parts. Each time a character fulfills a part of their Destiny they get radically stronger - and by the time they've gotten, I think, 3 parts of their Destiny done they're the equivalent of 9th-level characters, real movers and shakers. The Fatemaster Guide (if I remember right) recommends having a Destiny part fulfilled for at least one character every session, or at most every other session. So spread over 5 people with 5 destinies that's 25 adventures until everyone's Destiny is fulfilled by the book, or 50 if you REALLY want to stretch it.

But here's my take on it: I've only had maybe two or three campaigns my entire life last longer than thirty sessions. TTB's system is advantageous in that it gives the GM a way to weave a coherent, long-term plot in the game mechanic itself, and a campaign that lasts 25-30 sessions but ends with the players feeling as though a REAL story has been told is way better than one that goes on for two years and only stops when the players get kinda bored and just... wander away.

Alternately, you could look at Savage Worlds. Their Deadlands setting has a lot in common with Malifaux, and it does fairly well at scaling up even at the highest levels.

Really good points, thank you!  25 sessions @ (roughly) once per month is easily two years, and that's about where we're at now - give or take.  Sometimes we miss a month just because some of us have wives (wife aggro!  ), and all of the group but one has a child or children, so that takes time as well.  If it's not crazy to get 20 sessions out of a game then this is something worth considering.  I did play Savage Worlds once, a decade or so ago, and liked the system.  Thanks for the input.

4 hours ago, Strype McClaine said:

I'll just stick my head in here really quick.
Through the breach is a great great game and plays like a freaking dream.
Character creation is a breeze, and once people get past the learning curve combat just hums. With the mod'ed malifaux rules it plays like a players-roll-all-the-dice variant of 3.5/pathfinder, but everyone gets a control hand which gives SOME agency over every flip, even damage. 
The Skill challenge system is one of my flat out favorites of any game I've ever played and I've actuary ape'd it into most of the other games I DM (includeing 5e). Basically it sets incremental thresholds for sucesses, failures, and total sucess/failures. By law of averages it makes sure that a stray black joker(or nat 1) doesn't ruin the event, rather it just adds some spice.

The downside is it REALLY IS NOT built for a long term campaign, and characters will get to the point where you will need to retire them, and the game has systems in place for that event (The destiny mechanic).

Its one of my favorite games to DM, if not my favorite... (Fragged Empire and Urban Jungle are REALLY CLOSE TIED......Same with Cypher Core /Numeneria...but that's just when you want to game but don't need to mess with mechanics).

As your friendly neighborhood M&SU Union man arcanist/....
Good luck picking and sticking with a faction. There is something for everyone in every faction, nearly every playstyle core is represented as well (with factional flavor).

IF you got faction ADD, look to some of the psudo-all-commer's masters for a tournament list, and then just build and play the rest for fun with friends.
Or just do what most of us do.
Succumb to the desire of our needs outside of our main faction, slipping ever closer to owning way way too many crews...
Internal thoughts --- (BUT HOFFMAN IS UNION....i gotta's have the hoff....but then Tara is so bad ass.... Whats a arcanist loyalist to do? Oh wait. Buy more....right)

This is a great description, thank you.  Is there a way to make the Malifaux RPG more long-term?  I've been running a Pathfinder game for the last 18 months with the same group of peoples, and they've gone from level 1 to 7, and are almost 8.  I imagine will taper off around level 15 or so and look into retiring the group.  Not sure how 'short term' Malifaux's RPG is, but I imagine it's not like 15 levels - as such?

On 4/2/2017 at 0:10 AM, iamfanboy said:

As far as picking models just because of looks rather than because they're 'winners' or 'losers'... Malifaux is very friendly to this, because the power gap between various masters isn't as high as other games. 

I find this very encouraging ~ Thank you iamfanboy - you've been extremely helpful!  So much so, that I bought the 2 Player box set, have assembled the two crews, and have played through the first two scenarios (against myself LOL).  It was quite a process for me to learn  to work with (true) plastics as all my years of experience in building/assembling has been with white metal and resin.

Anyway, based on the information you provided, and that I already have Nicodem's (old) box set, I am going to pick up:  Hanged, Drowned, and Penangalan once it's available again.

I've also arranged a trade on Bartertown for the Titania box, and I still want to get Sandeep's crew someday.  Then there's the Gremlins... see what I mean?  Faction A.D.D.  

21 hours ago, Greebo said:

I'm on my mobile so posting a link or researching is a bit hard but if you have a look for the "A stitch in time" event here in the forums or on the main page you could be lucky to get in late. It is a campaign with 4 (or 5, I can't remember) one shot adventures with pregenerated characters that uses shortened quickstart rules of the upcoming edition. For me as a newcomer to this RPG it is a great and fun start and has infected me quite a lot. I just got all the PDFs for the other books and some penny dreadfuls and my group will go on playing. 

"Penny Dreadfuls" ~ are those the people that play the RPG?  I've seen a couple piece of literature (or brochures?) with that title, but I wasn't sure what they were.  I'll go look for that forum you suggest, thanks.

I also meant to ask, what is Puppet Wars?

4 minutes ago, solkan said:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5162/Wyrd-Miniatures/subcategory/23027_23029/Through-the-Breach

The two almanacs are going to be revised to a second edition "within a few months", so you may be able save yourself for a bit.  

Have you played it?  Is it fun?  I've always been a fantasy (AD&D & Pathfinder) player, but this setting seems like it would be really fun!

3 minutes ago, solkan said:

There's more background detail in the RPG books, and adventures, too, but that's beyond what you need to understand the wargame.

Oh there's an RPG?    That's dangerous (for me).  LOL

On 3/29/2017 at 10:59 PM, solkan said:

[...] the PDF versions are only $28 each, so you're looking at $112 for the four PDFs compared to $180 for the four books as softcovers.  Is approximately the cost of two crew boxes too severe a price to have all of the cards available for reference?

This is a really good point, and now that I have a quality tablet I could probably pull them up and read them when I'm not at my PC as well.

Just so I'm clear - to get all the fluff, cards, rules, scenarios, and whatever else, it would be 4 books total; basically, everything printed that's "Malifaux 2e"?

On 3/30/2017 at 9:35 AM, MudgeBlack said:

Personally I tend to compose my crews with "what I just got painted" and "that looks entertaining".  Needless to say, I am not what you would call a competitive player, I enjoy the process more than the end result (winning is great but not what drives me).

I generally tell people, pick a box you like the look of, paint'em up, play'em, learn the box, then expand from there.  If I like the look of models, I enjoy playing/painting them.  If I don't like the look/theme/fluff I don't enjoy them, no matter how good they are on the table.  I'd say, just start small.

 

If you ever get out California way, you are welcome to try out any crews I have. : )

I think we have this in common.  Rarely do I "like" a model/faction because it's a 'winner'; rather, it's the look of the mini, or their story line that makes me a believer.  That said, it's kinda sucky that Malifaux has so many cool looking minis!

Sandeep's box looks pretty cool, as does Collodi, and then some of the beasts and undead type creatures (Penangalan) look pretty awesome.... then there's Gremlins!  I mean, who doesn't want to launch a pig across the board?

1 hour ago, Dogmantra said:

For example, you mentioned Arcanists, and it's quite obvious from some of the masters' cards what to focus on, for example Marcus has lots of interactions with Beasts so you want to take Beasts, and Rasputina has interactions with Frozen Heart models, so you take them. Over time you'll be able to see which of those models achieve what, and then what you feel like you're lacking, so you can pick up some different models.

So let's say I bought the Beacon of Knowledge box set.  I now have his card and the cards of the others in the box, and I can read/understand what they do; however, when I start looking at other Arcanist models to purchase, I don't have their cards so I don't know what they do and how they'd fit with Sandeep.  Perhaps he's not a good example, because he has a Genie/Indian theme and there's a box set of guards that look similar to him out now, so let me pick something more ambiguous (to me).

I really like some of the undead (Resurrectionist) models - crooligans, the hanged, the drowned, Penangalan, etc. so I could start there, but then I'm not sure which Master to get.

I thought about asking in the faction specific forums, but my interests and likes seemed too broad.  I thought about looking in the literature for the card-stats, but I think I'd have to buy every book to see every card.

2 hours ago, MudgeBlack said:

I can relate, I have anywhere from 3 to 7 masters from each of the 7 factions (total of 28 masters).   Too hard to decide on one.   Too many models, and I am behind on the latest wave.  Ooh, shiney, gotta go grab that....

Totally!  (wow, 3-7 masters per faction!  )  LOL

How do you know which models will work well together?  By reading the forums and info-sites, it seems like - for example - an Arcanist Master can use any model in the faction, but some masters work better with some faction models than others, etc.

I'm afraid if I just start buying and painting what I like - even in the same faction - I'll end up with uber weak combos, no synergy at all, or unplayable trash.  

3 hours ago, iamfanboy said:

Okay.

Don't get me wrong. I WANT lots of models - I love Molly and Kirai's models, stories, and playstyles, I adore the ninja Misaki of the Ten Thunders, and Nellie's reporters are delightful sirens beckoning me to the Guild.

But I've gotta be the responsible Henchman/adult. Filling out my Neverborn and Arcanists first, THEN dipping into Ressers/Outcasts/Guild is the sensible thing to do.

I made the mistake of watching a youtube video talking about the factions and their strengths, weaknesses, why you'd play them/not play them, etc. and I pretty much wanted to try them all; no surprise there.  When I started collecting, it was all Neverborn and Necromancy (Resurrectionists), and there were a few Gremlins I wanted to pick up because I thought they were funny.  Now, I'm screwed.  I like Neverborn still, Arcanists, Gremlins, Ressers, and the list goes on...
 

On another trading site, someone offered the Queen/Titania box set for some of my WM/H I'm getting rid of... her play style seems interesting, and the models are cool.

3 hours ago, MudgeBlack said:

Its a little past this part of the discussion but,

I had the metal Nico when the Vulture became hard to come by.  As he wasn't painted yet, I carefully carved the small vulture off of his arm, did a little sculpting/carving on the arm, mounted the vulture on a cross on a grave, voila! totem.

Pow!  What a great idea!  Is that legal for "official" play?

6 minutes ago, solkan said:

Due to personal indecision, about twenty crew boxes (spread between Arcanists, Guild, Ten Thunders, Outcasts, and Neverborn) worth of models fits in two 19 gallon (2' x 1.5' by 13') storage boxes in foam trays.  I wouldn't want to walk to the game store carrying that, but I know I can carry it from a hotel parking lot to a convention hall.

I think a 40k army (a single one) was around 19 gallons worth of foam the last I played.

So, okay, I think I exaggerated a little.  If you had absolutely everything for every faction, you'd probably have to choose between which boxes to bring each day. 

You're definitely right, even if exaggerated - it's still very true.  I don't do GW, but I can't imagine having faction ADD in any of their games!  Not even WM/H - Malifaux seems more manageable.

8 hours ago, solkan said:

Nonsense.  The light plastic models are perfect for those situations where you can't decide which faction to bring, so you pack everything.  

 

That was easy in 2009, but there are so many models now, and the factions are so big!

I don't think this is a good game for people with faction A.D.D.  Even in MMOs I'm an ALTaholic. 

15 hours ago, iamfanboy said:

It varies from 15ss to 50ss - and even at 50, it's not supposed to take over 90 minutes and usually doesn't take over two hours, provided both players know their rules and don't spend two minutes agonizing over every decision. They also have a variant called "Henchman Hardcore" which is cut down, meant to play in half an hour.

Whereas I've NEVER had a 75pt WM/H game go shorter than 3 hours, and four is a more likely number.

I'm not sure about the Shastar Vidiya Guard, I've never played them, but they do look good at what they do. Yes, any Arcanist master can use them. Wind Gamin and Metal Gamin are a little better than Poison, I think, but Poison will do for a while. I also feel as though Sandeep wants Oxfordian Mages, which are in the M&SU Troubleshooters box.

Solely ranged Crews don't work very well, but some shooting is vital, and all the factions have good ranged attackers. Heck, Sandeep himself is a decent ranged attacker.

15ss (soul stones?) to 50ss - so how many SS are in Sandeep's box set, for example?

Like I said, WM/H is "supposed"  to be anywhere between 25pts and 100pts, but I never see 25pt games unless it's a Demo for a newb; that said, 25pts doesn't really give you a feel for the faction at all, Cryx & Menoth are a perfect example of that.  I also never see 35pt or 50pt games - I can get a 50pt game if I specifically ask for it, but half my local meta won't play 50pt games because the Tournaments are 75pt games.

So even though some Malifaux games are 15ss, is that like the WM/H 25pt game?  Like, technically it's an option but no one uses it except to teach other players?

Solely ranged crews don't work very well - fair enough, so there's:  shooting,  melee,  board manipulation?  controlling your opponent's models?  What are the basic strategies in the game?  I read the link one of you provided up there, but it was a pretty shallow explanation of the different faction's strategies.  Maybe I'll read it again more critically.

EDIT 4/3/17: I've decided to keep what Malifaux I have, and I already have the 2 Player Starter Box; however, I'm still looking for some minis, so if you're selling (cheap), or want to trade for my miscellaneous other items (non-malifaux), then let's talk.   I trade (a lot) on bartertown, so you can find my feedback rating there under the user ID 'Connivingsumo'.

Wants:
+ Hanged
+ Drowned
+ Penangalan
+ Collodi Crew Box
+ Sandeep Crew Box
+ Shastar Vidiya Guards
+ Gremlins (possibly)

6 hours ago, Myyrä said:

Edit Profile > Basic Info > Member Title

Don't know if you need a certain number of posts, though.

I think you and Bengt are correct.  The path you provided (Edit Profile > Basic Info > Member Title) just has my birth date & enable/disable status updates.

Thanks for the input. 

I think when I joined the forums there was something going to happen with the 'Rank' under your user name - above your avatar pic.  I can't recall if they were still talking about if they wanted to make a formal ranking, or leave it self titled - heck - maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Anyway, I don't hate my rank but it was made in jest.  I'm wondering if there's a way to change your 'Rank'?  If not, no big deal, but I couldn't find anywhere in editing my profile where I could make the change.

Thanks