decker_cky

I'm curious...you say you're usually playing group games. That probably is adding 10 minutes to the setup too. More solo games probably make sense while still figuring out the game.

As to the treating the symptom and not the cause, I don't think that what you're complaining about is an issue per say. It's a feature which your group doesn't like, but that many consider integral to the game, possibly even a major draw. There will always be features that some like and others don't. Where you have a like-minded gaming group, it's appropriate to house rule how you play. It sounds to me like house ruling would be the best solution for your group.

I noticed that Wyrd seems to be talking about keeping the faction decks as cheap as possible, so it seems like they'll run them as a product with minimal margin. If that's so, then I don't see why they wouldn't consider PDFs. Yes, it is a difference of a little money in Wyrd's pockets, but if the faction decks are being offered at a reasonable price, there's little difference with regards to proxies, etc.., so it's not ensuring people buy Wyrd minis. All it's doing is making the game more expensive to upgrade.

On the other hand, ordering during Gencon packs a significant price premium.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to know that the stuff is available ahead of time, but let's also recognize that not everyone can justify paying that extra, even if the Miss ____ and/or other perks are totally awesome.

Point being, just because it's available doesn't mean everyone will necessarily have access to it prior to the official release/global distribution.

Yeah...the rulebook in particular balloons the shipping price. Last year I ordered the crews I wanted during Gencon (enough to get Miss Terious), then waited to get the book in-store. I'll probably do the same this year, picking up a crew or two and the cards, then waiting a month extra for the book (with shipping time to Canada, that tends to be the difference).

I'm a big fan of the list tailoring approach used in Malifaux. It makes for less 'ideal' model choices. If something is situational, there will be times when taking it makes sense, even if it's not covering a common weakness from an all-comer's perspective. It's one of the things making Malifaux unique in my mind.

Darguth: Seems to me like your gaming group could benefit from one of those RPG randomization tools to do all the strategy and scheme generation ahead of time. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to have someone mock up a script to draw a strat and email all players, then draw 5 schemes and email only the player who drew them. Show up at the game, set up terrain, draw for deployment and deploy.

This is one concern I see. The WarmaHordes Caster cards tend to be two cards, one for the Caster and one for the Feat. I'm picturing a scenario where they do something similiar, 1 for the core and then 1 for each upgrade. So you could end up with 20-30 cards in front of you in a normal size (12-15 model) game.

Let's use a Seamus box for example:

Seamus - 4 cards

Madam Sybil - 3 Cards

Rotten Belles (x3) - 6 cards

So that is 13 cards (potentially) just for a starter box.

Agreed on this. I think Minions should be what they are. Too many customizable models will create a complexity issue too. I really don't think the possibility of 3 different variations on Rotten Belles in a crew at the same time will create a positive play situation.

Masters I don't think are an issue - 2 or 3 would work, but I think Henchmen and enforcers getting 1 upgrade each (maybe 2 for henchmen when leading a crew) would limit the number of cards effectively. Or maybe 2 for henchmen and none for enforcers. Let the 'leaders' be something special, with the rest being what they are.

Seems like all named unique models will be either Henchmen or Enforcers with Totems moving to Peon

Jackalope should clearly be classified as an enforcer. Don't diminish it with your hurtful labels!

I hear some Henchmen are being upgraded to masters.

Please let one of them be me.

Marcus right now can 99% of the time really only care about Wild Heart, Instinctual, Stare Down, Howl, Defend Me, Primal Reaction and Surge (along with all the abilities).

Feral, Alpha, Pack Leader and Primal Flame are all in need of a revamp, and these are most of the abilities that make Marcus a beast master (2 abilities that compliment your beasts, and 2 abilities that are about controlling enemy beasts). So how Marcus plays right now is much more as a hit and run master that occasionally has some great abilities against beasts, while he's written as a balance between that and a beast controller.

Avatar for the most part has abilities slightly more exaggerated than Marcus, but the abilities that work best are the beastmaster ones. On the avatar the attack abilities are dependent on dropping cards at minimum, or on casting a spell and burning a soulstone. The avatar also loses the defensive abilities that help Marcus excel in hit and run situations (particularly defend me).

IMO, they've flipped what Marcus should be. In normal form, he should be more in control - releasing only the small amount of bestial ability when needed (wild heart), however, in maintaining that control, he's more able to affect other nearby beasts. In avatar form, the beast inside Marcus takes over. He focuses less on others, but should become a true combat beast (something like add all of the wild heart boosts to his basic stats).

The restrictions of the Special Forces, (aside from maybe the Union Miners being Assets instead of just being Members) weren't all that restrictive. Most crews only wanted either one or two of them (much like taking up to two Mercenaries), or they wanted all of them, and thus took the Henchman along (except Zoraida and Ramos) anyways.

I found that for Mei Feng, the assets restriction came into play quite often. Can't take 2 LSPA and a rail golem. Also was restricted from soulstone miners fairly often (I think Mei Feng is a master who could stand to have a bit more synergy with the living members of her crew btw).

I've seen special forces listed as an issue on crooligans too.

I think those types of restrictions should be reworked into synergies if possible. You can make kaeris take M&SU members and assets either by saying that's all she can take, or with synergy. Either make M&SU members boost kaeris, or have kaeris boost M&SU members. Rasputina is well written in this regard - she has models she works well with, but there's other models that work better to support her sometimes.

I am hoping for V2 Molly to be Miss Underestimated.

I'm hoping for alt Mei Feng to be Miss Tea.

There's also damage prevention and other abilities which will increase in importance. Masters will still be more versatile, have the best abilities, and the most resilient, but when an average combat master ends up in range of a steamborg executioner or nephilim, they're gonna have a bad time.

Yeah...these seem like they'll work out to be pretty across the board weakening of masters - they'll likely need to be a lot more afraid of strong minions than they currently are.

The models currently released will not be worthless. They may change a bit in playstyle but the "feel" of the model will remain. At least that's what has been said on all the podcasts. Pandora isn't suddenly going to become a melee beast so I think that Nekima will be fine, and you can still use her after the new V2 releases.

I'm kind of hoping they do something to fix the feel of Marcus vs the feel of Avatar of Marcus. Don't neuter what Marcus does now, but adding more beast control to Marcus, and making the avatar more of a pure combat monster seems like a better fix than the current setup.

I'm sure there's a few other masters that would improve with a slight adjustment to their abilities.

I'm hoping Hoffman is an arcanist. It makes a lot of sense.

I imagine gremlins and outcasts will both see the henchman to master transition, since they're right now the two factions that will be lacking in number of masters.

Do you think the current starter boxes and models will still be on store, or will they be replaced with new models?

I imagine it will be a mixture of the two over time. It's not like we'll get to GenCon and there won't be any new miniatures to sell. Since they state there's new masters, they'll need a release, but I imagine some of the old models will be redone in plastic. Even if the plan is to make everything plastic, that will take time, so other metals will be available in the meantime.

I'm thinking it will have to be released as a book of rules and a different book of profiles to update everything. Updating all the profiles in a single book along with the background and rules would be a lot of content.

While I agree with you on Malifaux models, did Puppet Wars have to follow suit?

If anything, PW was perfectly suited to just make one piece molds on nearly all of the sculpts, adding wings or comically oversized hypodermic needles as needed, just like the pewter ones.

It's meant to be a boardgame that uses a fun element from Malifaux in a silly, yet tactically sound way. The easier it is to play straight out of the box, the better.

Keep in mind, I'm a fan of the plastics, but I'm left wondering if maybe the company running the plastic side of things for them isn't giving them the most sound advice.

I agree with Puppet wars - should have been at most 2 part snap together models ideally. Hopefully there's at least an assembly guide.

BTW, count me as someone that strongly supports the number of pieces that the models are in. If you start to limit that, you greatly lower the quality of poses you can make the miniatures in.

If anything, maybe Wyrd should have a starter set with a few slightly easier to work with crews, and a guide for how to work with Wyrd plastics.

I'd recommend a plastic glue for particularly fragile parts, as it essentially melts the two plastic pieces together.

Couldn't lazarus assimilate reactivate on a turn the rail golem gets reactivate?

Lifer really needs to be in there now that Mei Feng has it without description.

Looks like I started something. Some has the Relic Hunters split up on ebay now.

Not sure what their terms with Wyrd are regarding such things, but if it isn't banned, than it'd be really smart for a store to sell split up box sets over ebay. I'm guessing they'd make more money than a box set would, but even if they don't, they'd make some profit, and do so selling a lot more kits than they would selling full box sets. If you aren't picking up the box sets at a decent discount, I'm not sure if you'll dependably make a profit when ebay and paypal fees are factored in.

I would so love to buy a single Metal Gamin (who would ever field three??).

10T bros and 10T archers are the same way. 1, maybe 2, but why 3?