Boshea

The similarities between the boxes are primarily low model count crews, low model synergy, and/or fairly durable/killy masters. Really depends on what you want to play though since every box listed is a great starting point for each faction. Lady Justice and Seamus is the standard henchman demo match up, with Perdita versus Lilith being the more advanced version.

Just because it isn't listed as a beginner box doesn't mean it won't work. With other boxes you'll just have a little steeper learning curve figuring your crew out (Dreamer/Colette/Leveticus), or you'll need far more models (Hamelin/Som'er/Marcus). I tend to agree with the guys at CheatedFates that Nicodem is probably the best master to start with if you want to play ressers. While Seamus's box contains almost every model you'll ever need for him, 99% of what you buy for a Nicodem crew will likely be used by any other Resser you play.

Con-He doesn't have Frozen Heart. That's always factor in a Raspy crew since she wants as many models to shoot spells through as possible. He is also fairly pricey, and for around the same cost you could run the Blessed or Snowstorm whom both fit into her style better.

Pros-He's a great bruiser with solid stats across the board. He shines better in a Ramos or Mei crew due to their better interaction with constructs. Him and Jhohan are also a very effective melee team, though pricey.

Overall he's a good model, but doesn't bring anything to a Raspy crew other than being a good model. The Blessed is faster and can bring just about as much melee damage for a point less, and Snowstorm is a powerful model to build an entire list around for 2 points more.

The game can be very newbie friendly depending on which master you start with. pullmyfinger has the masters separated fairly accurately for beginner ease. You can generally learn the fundamentals of your crew after one or two games if playing with experienced people. Another nice thing is low initial investment, at least compared to other games I play. Most boxes can play an average sized game by just adding one or two blisters to your starting crew. Going from starter to 35 points in Malifaux is far cheaper than starter to 25 in Warmahordes or starter to 2K in Warhammer.

Malifaux's playstyle is also very different than other tabletop games I play. VPs are all that matter in the game, and they are what you should be focusing on either denying or gaining them every turn. Other games either your scenarios are meaningless until the last few turns, or they are secondary due to the ease of just killing your opponent.

Beyond that there is the hobby appeal. While Malifaux doesn't lend itself to conversion work as well as Warhammer, it has a far nicer model range. Every model has a great deal of character, and even when playing a very high model count crew painting models doesn't get monotonous as quickly as other ranges I find.

It took just about everything you had to buy that ticket, but you're finally in Malifaux. With nothing more than the clothes on your back, a pocket full of stones, and a fist of scrip you plan on making a name for yourself. You know it won't be easy though. Malifaux is an easy city to die in, and you've heard its even harder staying dead. You overheard some other passengers on the train say that there is always work at C's No Evil, and with no better options you start making your way there......

A little something I've been putting together with the help of other henchmen, with a big thanks to Pierowmaniac. The goal of this league is to ease new players into the game, and possibly get the current players to try some new things. Here are the details so far, but some things may change based on feedback.

-Participation in the league will cost $5. This will all go to prize support.

-Duration of the league will be 6 weeks, from March 4th to April14th.

-Each player will choose and play with one starter box, may include 1 additional blister/clam box worth of models, and one master-specific totem blister if not included in the box.

-The first game will be 15 SS and will increase by 5 SS every two weeks.

-Players may play 1 or 2 league games each week. If they play 2 games they will score their best score for the week +1.

-Players can not play consecutive games against the same opponent.

-Games are to be played at either Gamezilla Fredericton, or CFB Gagetown gaming club.

-Players earn 1 additional game point if they play an opponent they have not played before. This resets if you have played every opponent in the league.

-Each week there will be a primary strategy which must be played for Game 1. Game 2 can either be the same primary strategy or randomly determined using the standard strategy generator in the Malifaux rulebook/manual. Strategies will be announced at the start of each week (Along with more terribly written fluff by me).

-Each game will use standard deployment.

-Ignore the rules for location and special terrain.

-A win will be worth 3 points, Draw 2 points and Lose will be 1 point.

-Starting from Week 3, painting scores will be introduced with 2 Points being earned from playing a game with no unpainted models.

-At the end of Week 6 each player will cast 1 vote for the crew he/she thinks is the best painted. This vote = 1 painting point.

-The player who has the most points from games will win a prize.

-The player who has the highest painting points will win a prize.

-The player who has the most points overall will win a prize.

-Additional prizes will be based on number of players.

Rules for blister and starter choice

-If playing a dual-faction master you must declare which faction you will be playing as for the duration of the league.

-Your blister can not be a master, henchman, or avatar

-The Necrotic Machine, and the Drill Sergeant count as master-specific totems for Molly and Lucius respectively.

-If a model is only available in a starter box, it may be selected as your one blister. This applies to unique models in starter boxes, and all models in book 4 starters (currently). For example if you play Lady Justice you may take Nino Ortega as your one blister since Nino can only be gotten through the Ortega Starter. You can not claim an entire starter box as your one blister.

If you're looking for additional information on the game here are your best sources.

http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/Gathering+Supplies-A great resource in general, but this page gives a general overview for starting the game

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33067-New-Player-Resources-Kind of catch all for introduction resources. Posts of note would be morella's master starter selection, and my faction starter suggestions.

http://www.malifaux.com/Rules.php-Contains links to the free pocket rulebook (less art and some strategies and schemes missing than the actual pocket rule book), as well as the links for FAQS/Errata/Clarifications if anything has you a little confused.

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33856-Resolved-Issues-Resolved topics that have not been updated to the errata documentation yet.

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?37795-HAMELIN-ERRATA-(OR-maybe-the-world-is-ending-after-all)-If considering Hamelin be aware that his rules were errata's recently, and the PMF tactica have not been updated for him.

Me-I'm always willing to teach people how to play, and I can give you a few suggestions on what would be a good blister choice or starter based on your play-style.

If you have interest in playing than either post here, shoot me a PM, or talk to me in person.

Pg 46 in the big rulebook. Its on the first page for magic when describing Resist Duels. Friendly models must flip as normal, but can choose to tie for the final result.

Nix did a pretty good outline on how he'd approach the guild in the budget thread linked in my sig.

1. Sonnia Criid starter box
   
2. Witchling Handler
   
3. Lady Justice Starter Box
   
4. Perdita Starter Box
   
5. 2 blisters of Guild hounds
   
6. Enslaved Nephilim
   
7. Blister of Guild Guards
   
8. Lucius Starter Box
   
9. Drill Sergeant
   
10. Hoffman Starter Box
    
11. 2x Wardens (if this is after they release)
    
12. Exorcist (if my local area had a fair number of ressers)
    
13. Pale Rider
    
14. 2 blisters of Austringers
    
15. 2 blisters Desperate Mercenaries
    
16. Avatar Sonnia
    
17. Avatar Justice
    
18. Executioner
    
19. Governors Proxy
    

You already have death marshalls in your list, and you're considering the judge, so I'd say just grab Lady Justice's box. Criid box, Perdita box, Justice Box, 2xblisters of hounds, and the handler is the agreed upon best way to start guild at $150. With your limit of $275 it gives you room to specialize a little more. Out of the stuff you want from your list I'd probably grab everything except the purifying flame, exorcist, and pistoleros. Exorcist is extremely situational and the other two are underwhelming. Based on everything I'd go with the list of the following.

• [*]Criid Box

[*]Perdita Box

[*]Justice Box

[*]2xGuild Hounds

[*]Witchling Handler

[*]Enslaved Nephilim

[*]Executioner

[*]Riflemen

[*]2xAustringers

[*]Abuela

[*]Sue

[*]Avatar Criid

[*]Total:$270

Believe Frame for Murder is a Mjnion. Hungering Darkness is a Totem, and Totems are not Minions.

That was my thinking, but its non-Master model. This allows totems to be selected for it.

If you can fit her in, take Molly simply because she can summon Sybelle. In an avatar list Molly is better simply because she can make use of the corpses to summon in more models, as well as having some decent WP focused stuff of her own.

To use MTG terminology, it would depend on when states are checked. Flaming armor would trigger first since it resolves on hit, and Carve a Swathe resolves on damage. I assume death is checked for after each step so Izamu wouldn't be able to get a damage flip.

Surprised I never posted here. In my signature I have links to the threads discussing the best way to approach starting each faction on a budget. Basically the macro version of Morella's thread. These are pre-ten thunder, but so far only Arcanist were changed significantly by that. Expecting some changes in Outcasts, but I need to wait for everything to get released before starting discussions again.

My favorite entry is Ophelia hiring McTavish.

Ophelia can hire McTavish to reach high-up shelves, fight Hamelin, or handle heavy terrain, but she often doesn't get as much benefit from McTavish as she does from other Lacroix.

Some WIP stuff. Alt-seamus is pretty much done, except I need to figure out what I'm doing for a base on him. Loving how he turned out overall, and really liking Kislev flesh as my new fleshtone. After doing closer comparison with the store Alt-Seamus I realize my Seamus's gun blade was miscasted. Going to look through my bits and see what I have that may work, or just cut something out of plasticard. Also dotted his eyes green, because Gorgon.

Got alt-stabby-Vik painted as well. Mostly so I could put her arms on before I lost them again. Painting my Viks up in a combination of the studio colours and the puppet joker colours. Going to do Gun-Vik's coat in the same way that I did my Marshals. She still needs a wash, but I want to give her a once over on fresh eyes since I know some of the paint got messed up when attaching her arms. Also need to see if I have any wood bases left, or if I need to get a new batch made. I like the change of giving her pants, but I also realized that she still is fighting bra-less with a completely open shirt. That or I just can't see the details.

Had Avatar Seamus painted up, but stripped him over noticing a lot of problems. One is that I need to replace some of my washes due to their age since they are just not working correctly. Mainly my black, but also going to replace my brown and flesh ones. I also noticed some very bad pooling in the stuff I painted white. This was mostly caused by haste in my painting since the vallejo paint takes longer to dry than I'm used to. His pocket watch also broke while stripping him, but I may have gotten that fixed. Going to add a little milliput to it to reinforce it, but if it breaks while painting I'll just lay it on his foot or the base instead of having it swinging from his pocket. Also can't tell if he has eyes, or if his face is just so ripped you can't see them.

If you start investing in terraclip terrain, you get a ton of tokens with each kit.

I can't read today apparently

Rapid Fire does not work in melee. Rapid Fire lets you make 3 ranged Strikes, and gun fighter lets you use your pistol to make melee Strikes. You could flurry with gunfighter since flurry is 3 melee Strikes.

Adran has it covered. If you want to check out the majority of their rules and fluff, grab book 2. The Strongarm is in book 4 and I'll sum him up as buy him the second he is available. Schill also has the largest model pool of all the henchmen since he can hire his friekorp as well as any mercenary (except Sure due to Sue's hiring rule on Ruthless). This mostly lets you cover the Freikorps' lack of magical attacks and heavy melee hitters.

Expose Fears is exactly like Pitiful, except it doesn't end after Pandora activates for the round.

Considering we've already had the Hamelin errata updated, I can wait for cards.

The nastiest match-up I've played versus the Guild as the Viks was against a proper Hoff-ball. That thing is fairly cruel against a melee-centric crew. The Ronin do rather wreck face against it, though.

Perdita is always solid against everyone, and she's just fine against the Viks. Witchlings and Austringers (and Nino, natch) are your friends.

Lady J vs the Viks is really random. At some point, there will be a situation where Justice and the Viks will be in position to kill each other, and (barring horrible luck) it just comes down to that one Initiative flip.

That's been my experience, anyway.

Initiative and triggers determine a Vik v Lady J showdown. Lady J doesn't need a group of models to get more attacks, and a poorly timed Riposte can ruin your day.

Don't group up. If you think Papa is annoying you haven't seen Criid violate her own Stalkers.

Pillars last until the end of the encounter or until they are destroyed since they create terrain. Rasputina can only cast Biting Chill once (not including overpower) since it is a 0 action. Casting Expert just giver her an extra Ap for the purpose of casting spells. It would let her walk twice and cast Ice Pillars for example.

Edit-double Ninja'd

Yeah, but I sort of like the fact that she has to take pretty terrible models. I didn't want to make a new Horror or Belle.

If she could get better models then we wouldn't keep trying to find ways to keep bringing back the Rogue Necromancy every time somebody tries to fix Molly. If she had better models she wouldn't be completely screwed once her zombie chimera goes down. Most other henchmen don't have overly great model selection, but are far better at supporting those models. Collodi easily has the weakest model choices, but he supports them very well. Lucius also has fairly weak model choices, but can utilize them greatly. Von Schill, Ophelia, and Kaeris all have great model selection for how those crews will play. Molly has Belles and Horrors, which leads to a crew filled with support models lead by a support master. If the crew had more to support than the Necromancy and Sybelle for damage dealers then she would lead crews far better.

Most of Molly's crew leading problems could be fixed by Horrors and Belles having some better options than Sybelle and the Necromancy for a heavy hitter.

There will be demos this week on Jan 15th at the CFB Gagetown gaming club. Time and location are the same as last week.

Most people consider Perdita underwhelming at times, but I believe that comes more from trying to play pure family. Pretty much any guild model can one shot an archer with ease if they're out in the open. They want to be hiding in cover to increase the odds of Hasty Retreat. Perdita can ignores this, but her CB will be the same as an Archer's defense.

Perdita and Misaki are fairly evenly matched. They stand equal chances of hitting each other, and similar amounts of AP. Miskai also has Armor 2 until she gets Perdita in melee. Through a combination of "You're Mine" and either of her CB triggers you stand a fairly good chance of taking her down in melee. You'll two shot her with moderate damage, and as long as you can hit her once she can't cheat her defenses without going into Defensive formation first. The trick with guild in general is simply getting into melee.