Finnegan

Hey, I managed it with the Dreamer! Mostly by facing good opponents. And charging with Chompy for the lulz.

1. When to consider creating a new rat-catcher. 2. How to position and when to activate Nix for maximum efficiency. 3. What totem to take for which occasion (if any). 4. How to make sure you don't completely ruin your opponent's fun - i.e. how to be efficient without being unbeatable.

That pretty much depends on the leader you're taking, Sardonic. Gremlins, Hamelin and Nicodem will invariably have a lot of model spam (respectively gremlins, rats and mindless zombies), but you can go completely the other way and have someone like Perdita who brings her entire family of unique models with her. In most cases though there'll be a couple of repeat models due to cost/efficiency reasons.

But how else is the Dreamer supposed to beat Gremlins? It's going to be such an uphill battle now *grin*

And the Dreamer is Height 1. Those are Hamelin's only 2 options.

Hamelin's Lure of Emptiness trumps McMourning's Height 2, Significant and non-Soulless. Or to put it another way, they can't both be in the same crew.

Hi there, Commisar, Welcome to our ranks First of all, thanks for putting all your questions so clearly and in one post. It makes it very much easier and more enjoyable to answer than when people just ask questions right off the bast (as I myself am wont to do ) I'll try gogin through your post in order. First of all, Encounter rules. I myself am of the same opinion as you, i.e. unless you have a lot of varied terrain available it's better to skip them. I didn't actually know the reason why that section existed until I discoverd Ratty's Malifaux page, where you can find the various locations and the special terrain you can find in them. For your first game, going for Standard deployment is fine. Strategy-wise, once again, you've got the right idea. Flipping for it on the Encounter Chart allows an element of randomness to the game which affects your crew decision - for example you wouldn't take a slow crew for Destroy the Evidence. Schemes: for your first game, you're fine playing without them - it's better to focus on familiarising yourself with the rules. I do recommend you pick them up form now on though, as they add another layer of complexity to the game: yyou get to decide your schemes once you know your and your opponent's crews and strategy, so you can pick schemes that help you or that hinder your opponent. Your crew selection lacks a bit to be desired, but then again it was your first game. I myself prefer the Primordial Magic to the Malifaux Cherub because of the Arcane Reserve, but opinions differ. Nekima works better with more tots, say 3 or 4, so I wouldn't field her at a game of less than 35 Soulstones. For a 25 SS game, with Claim Jump, I probably would have taken a Mature Nephilim from the get-go and added another Terror Tot for the same price. Although you only have 2 Young Neph, it's a viable strategy to keep a tot until the end of the game - they are fast little buggers and can get where you want them in one turn very easily. Now comes the game itself, and your questions. Blood from Stone, in my opinion, is much more situational than the way you used it. Yes, you would have found it difficult to get blood counters unless you killed Kirai herself when she wasn't a spirit, but since it's a zero cost action you can do it on any turn, just like you can grow your tots on any turn. My biggest problem with blood from stone is that it costs you a lot of SS, which your opponent knows you won't have anymore. In addition, it is nearly always better to use the totem to cast illusionary forest in order to leave lilith with more options. To answer your questions, no you can't use brood mother to re-activate a model. Companion can be used in conjunction with Brood Mother. The important distinciton is that companion means both models activate simultaneously, meaning you could companion the cherub, start by activating the cherub, then activate lilith, then brood mother nekima. Or, if you wish to activate the cherub after lilith, you would first companion him, activate lilith, brood mother nekima (which now takes precedent), activate nekima, then activate the cherub. I've never played Kirai myself and I've only played against her once, so I won't try to give advice on how to use her - I'd certainly be wrong XD Turn 2: As you pointed out yourself, both blood counters used for maturing have to be from the same model, which is why I would have taken the mature from the start in this case. Is it worth it buying a second mature? That's debatable. The group I play with is fine with model proxying and I have a Teddy with the same base size, so any time I would need a second mature I could just throw in Teddy instead. If your friends don't like you proxying, I think it's better to keep with your one Mature until you get to higher soulstones games. I find that the blood shaman, while a good model, does not make it that much easier to get blood counters, so at low soulstones you'll very rarely get to field two Matures. Regarding the resist, you do have to flip for resist even if they are your own models, BUT you can decide to ignore their results and say that the results are a draw. This is important when, for example, you're meleeing your own models: you'll probably end up with a double negative flip for damage. Finally, with regard to Lelu and Lilitu, I know how you feel. I've ordered them in early December and Lilitu still hasn't arrived :'( They are very good, and consequently very popular models, which may explain why it's so hard to get a hold of them. Do keep in touch with the forums, there's always new ideas coming Edit: Curse you for nabbing my answer, Q'iq'el!

Welcome, graeme In my opinion, Nicodem's a pretty good choice for starting Malifaux. He has farily simple mechanics but you still get to learn new ways to play him every time you field him. My favourite point about him is that he teaches how to use blast counters, which are dang useful. Unfortunately he may end up costing a lot because of all the zombies he fields: lot of models to buy, lot of cash to spend. Levi, on the other hand, is rather hard to start with. He has a huge models selection and you'll want to have many of them to optimise your choices depending on strategies, schemes, opposing masters, etc... And that's an even bigger financial investment. Plus, his playstyle is so radically different to other masters that I think it's better to leave him for later if you're looking to learn how to play. The official Malifaux wiki could give you more details if you want to take a look.

Interestingly enough, I found that Coppelius works relatively well in a dreamer crew with the twins - just attack lelu twice on your first turn, cheating crows in to get the trigger: hurray for 2 free eyes! Lelu takes two poison damage on activation and ends up two wounds down at the end of turn plus another wound next turn, but he can heal that right back up, and here you are with the beginning of an Alp factory/Neverborn healing machine! Considering they collectively cost 23 SS, this is more interesting in 45-50SS games, but I must say I like the mechanics of it.

p10 of the mini corebook: "Models with the Undead Characteristic are non-living" Not so much a rule as a definition: can't be both living and non-living at the same time.

Don't let that deter you from picking them first if you really like them, though. I personally started with the Dreamer, both because I love his fluff and because I like a steep learning curve with good payback. Though I must warn you that people may not like playing against you if you make Pandora your main Master: she's pretty much all about punishing your opponent for doing anything at all, and can be annoying to play against if you're inexperienced.

Don't the totems disappear once your Avatar manifests?

Here's all of her options, if that's any help.

Hi all, Has anyone ever played a Hamelin vs Hamelin game? I'm wondering how the dynamics of it would work. For instance: if a model died within six inches of two rat-catchers, one from each crew, to whom would the spawned rat belong? The person playing the turn? The person whose model is closer? That is, if a rat is spawned at all. If it isn't, I can see the game becoming a very interesting resource-management that is very different from normal Hamelin games. If a rat is spawned each time, I can see the game becoming very, very silly :-! "My crew is bigger than yours now!" "Well, MY crew is bigger than yours NOW!"

The slightly more detailed answer is: voracious rats specifically states that one rat is spawned and that no other model can be spawned. So that's one rat maximum, no matter what.

I resemble that remark I must, however, point out that the madness' and coppelius' relevant abilities are auras, so terrain is not going to help a lot against them. And if the gremlins that surround Som'er die of fright, that leaves room for the Dreamer to unbury some nasties next to him. On the other hand, if you make sure to activate the models that aren't in range of the auras before those that are, you should out-activate the Dreamer, then you can spend your last activations having some of your gremlins die of fright and drawing a ton of cards from Som'er, which should prepare your hand nicely for next turn.

Spiku's got the right idea there. I must, however, add the caveat that against an Insiduous Madness' Psychopathic Episode coupled with Coppelius' Night Stalker and Teddy's Smell Fear, sheer numbers won't do the trick - they're pretty much all going to die. If your opponent fields Madnesses against Gremlins, you know he's just aiming for a quick win without any pretence of fairness. So yes, Avatar Som'er all the way!

Yep, you ignore terrain-related LoS for charges too. You still can't move through impassible terrain, but you can charge in a straight line to hit an ennemy you couldn't normally "see" as long as you don't go through impassible terrain and are in melee range when you're trying to hit him.