Claymore65

To be fair about the Hanged thing (and I may be wrong) they changed it to Pariah's Soul: When this model is killed or sacrificed, it is not killed or sacrificed. Remove all Conditions, heal all damage on this model, and then Bury it instead. This made it so the Hanged can't destroy his key ability. Looking at Bete Noire, it says Heal-all damage then remove conditions, so maybe the Hanged can still "auto-kill" her? Either way, if the last playtest is any indication (which it might not be) the Hanged can't completely mess Leveticus up. I agree he needed some work. He personally wasn't too OP later in the beta in my opinion, but the Steam(punk) abominations / Hollow Waifs definitely needed work. It's probably for the best that he get some tweaks.

To elaborate, the base the rules will not change. However, rules for models specifically will not. For example, the Dreamer may gain and lose abilities, change point costs (for his units) or change a bit throughout the beta. The last beta was very cool, and community input was taken VERY seriously. If you play in the beta (proxy or not), definitely post your opinions on the dreamer/Neverborn in general. A newer player's opinion is extremely valuable. Also, you'll find Malifaux is MUCH cheaper than 40k. It makes an excellent "companion" game if you don't want to put as much focus on it.

So, I was thinking about the Avatars for the M2E beta test on Monday. As we all know, masters who were formerly henchmen might have the opportunity to gain avatar forms of your own. Before we learn more, I was interested in what people might think a cool avatar form would be. For me, I'm most excited about Von Schill. I would seriously love an avatar form that summons a tank/APC/Giant Mecha suit. It would fit the technological theme of the Freikorps, and naturally be really cool. The APC could (possibly) gain some way to spawn Freikorpsmann, and the Giant Mecha/Tank would naturally be a be a brutal ranged attacker. What are some of your other thoughts on possible new Avatar forms?

Very nice write-up.

That makes sense from a model perspective...but I'm still hoping for Tyrant in Disguise...

Here's a couple of questions: For the next wave M2E beta, which master excited you the most to work on? Were you most looking forward to building entirely new one's (Ulix) or adapting an old one (the Dreamer)? What challenges did you face in adapting masters to 2.0? How hard was it to keep balance, theme, and their older play style intact? Which beta wave was harder to work with, wave 1 or wave 2? Wave 1 included the base rules, but wave 2 includes a lot of complex models. When designing a new master, what generally comes first, theme or mechanics? Do you sometimes think of an awesome mechanic (disease) which then makes a master come to mind (Hamelin in the example)? Or do you start with a theme (PIGS!) and build a character around it (Ulix)? Will there ever be more upgrades for Book 1 masters? The Avatars will be upgrades, but will masters get more upgrades in the future to represent story changes (i.e. Von Schill could get a new upgrade if he found a powerful artifact in the fluff)? Have you ever considered making alternate versions of older models (like the epic Warcasters in Warmachine)?

As a side note, I know every company does things differently. Some do male pronouns, some do female, some alternate. It doesn't make a difference to me really, but it is kind of interesting to note the differences. For example, the D&D books that I've read use male pronouns for the DM stuff, and female pronouns for player stuff. I've also seen each chapter alternating and a bunch of other methods. It's not very important to me (a book is a book), but if it makes some people feel better may as well go with that.

Fast Simply adds an additional AP at the start of their activation. People like Bishop (who effectively has 3 AP generically) can still benefit from Fast. Their starting value is (more or less) irrelevant.

Misaki's father? I haven't read much of the lore (I only have book 1 and I'm hesitant to buy the others even though the fluff is great) but I'm pretty sure he was the true leader of the Ten-Thunders. He would make perfect sense to be Ten Thunders only, especially since Misaki is now Dual-Outcasts. It wouldn't make sense for him to ally himself with any other faction. Still, I'm sure whatever they choose for the faction would be great. +1 to that Samurai idea.

Yeah, being able to activate EVERYTHING before your opponent (though you probably didn't do this too much in practice) could be very powerful. You can kill half your opponent's team before they can even react. Sure, they get a lot activations in a row now, but if you did sufficient damage they might not be able to recover. I'm personally happy with the change.

Oh sorry, I meant model rules, not fluff. Thanks for pointing that out.

That's a good point. I'm a little hesitant to buy the M1.5 books for the fluff (I overall prefer M2e). But what little I've read (Malifaux Core 1.0 and a couple of Wyrd Chronicles) I really really like. A cheaper alternative (digital or physical) would be really nice. If you want a comparison for free rules and fluff, I know Infinity provides those. I completely understand not wanting to give out your products effectively for free though. With proxying, you can play and never buy a single model. Still, a wave 2 book would be a great fluff primer for a lot of people. I would love it to be a shorter, cheaper book but focus more on model rules than fluff. Maybe it could be in the $25 price range (about 3 Arsenal decks)? That would be cheap, and still provide fluff/ information. Not sure if that's realistic though (I have no idea how much printing costs, only RPG books).

Thanks for the update. That is a very helpful app.

My guess will still be Ashes and Dust. He was expensive before, I doubt he'd suddenly become cheaper. I actually hope he's still extremely expensive and extremely tough.

Like others have said, everyone take their time. Putting out new content for a previous edition can be a very touchy business, especially when the edition has literally just changed. I wouldn't expect any right to make "official" homebrew content for an edition until at least a year after the new edition is out. If this was as huge a change as say, D&D 3.5 to D&D 4.0 (with D&D 3.5 having an Open Game License which made this argument irrelevant), I would understand the rush to get an answer. I would honestly suggest (for now) simply using the website (or make a new one, whatever) as a kind of gathering place/forum for fans of M1.5. Wait a while, probably at least a couple of months after the new masters boxes are released. Then ask if it is okay to make M2.0-M1.5 conversions. I wouldn't expect anything official, especially not during a busy time. Trust me, rushing people / demanding decisions from someone to help you doesn't work great, especially when the situation is not time sensitive.

I'm pretty darn lucky everything I wanted was out of stock. Still, I might pick up the Arsenal boxes and maybe the M2E book since I couldn't get to Gencon.

They were out of everything but the actual clip packs when I got to it... Actually, they still have the sewers of Malifaux set. How is that one?

Hey guys, I was just wondering who uses the official Terraclips terrain for Malifaux. I don't have any good 3d terrain (at home I use 2d D&D adventure tiles) and I was wondering how people like them. With the miniature market sale going on (50% off of Wyrd Products) I thought now might be a good time to pick up some terrain. I'd probably pick up the "Buildings of Malifaux" pack with some connecters, and maybe the "Streets of Malifaux" pack as well. What do the more experienced players think?

Don't randomly pick a faction. My advice would be to take a look at the different ones. See which one's you like visually AND playstyle wise. Pick a master in my opinion. The Freikorps and Leveticus got me into the game. I loved the story behind Leve, and the Freikorps simply looked too cool for me to not use them. With the Viks (and now Misaki), Outcasts became my favorite faction. Look at the different masters and see what you want to try. For now, I'll vote Outcasts because we have a lot of variety, but play what you think is interesting. As a quick summary(and very general, each master changes a bit) the factions playstyles and looks are: Guild: Good Cheap units, awesome ranged game and lots of cowboys. Arcanists: Spellcasters with robots and beasts, their look varies incredibly on master. Ressurectionists: Cheap undead that can overwhelm the enemy or tricky tactics from the master. Lots of zombies. Neverborn: Very fast and hard-hitting, but also squishy. Has a monstrous theme with the demon-like Nephilim and Zoreda's swamp beasts. Outcasts: A group of (not really allied) mercenaries, mad sorcerers and the like. Their playstyle varies between master the most, with Viks being melee and Leve being a master spellcaster. Gremlins: Lots of troop spam and the most comedic faction. Hillbilly gremlins use guns and pigs to trample (or in case of the Pigapult, flatten) their enemies. 10 Thunders: An Asian inspired faction (expect Ninjas) infiltrating the other factions. All other factions have a 10 thunders master, making them easy to go into (get Jakob Lynch because you like Neverborn) or go out from (Try out the Outcasts because you like Misaki). These are very general and each Master's crew changes things. Look into the factions. Try the wiki. Even though it is primarily M1.5 right now, you can still get a good idea of how each faction/masters play.

I'm not saying M2E is perfect or anything, I'm just saying some of the flaws I found with M1.5 have been fixed (in my opinion) by M2E. I disagree with some of the complexity of M1.5. My buddy shouldn't have failed at Hoffman because he didn't know he was supposed to cast protect in a chain, he should lose because his positioning was bad or he made bad tactical mistakes. I like complexity (I play Levi a lot) but the combos shouldn't be too challenging to figure out. You should be able to figure out the basics of a character just from reading the card, not reading online. To use a fighting game analogy, you shouldn't have to go to Dustloop or something like that to figure out some (basic) combos, you should be able to learn the basics of a character after spending a little while in the training mode (practice games) and the command list (the card). I agree with the existence of crazy cool combos (the protect chain among them) but they shouldn't be required to play a character effectively. Just so we're clear, I like M1.5. If I didn't, I wouldn't have played it. I just feel that M2E has some improvements that I really like. I like that some older models are now much more useful than they were (Steampunk Abominations, Malifaux Child etc.). I'm not saying each model should be equally useful with each crew, and I'm not saying some models won't be stronger than others. What I am saying is that there shouldn't be models without a use. I like M2E more, but it doesn't mean I hate M1.5.

There are some pretty good reasons M1.5 was unbalanced. First of all, in my opinion, was the large amount of models that had extra AP. An extra AP is a huge benefit and this model will almost always be able to do more than one without it. Look at the Ronin for example. It has melee expert for only 5 SS. That makes it better than some of the other 5SS minions that lack that ability. Other models simply did much more than their cost allowed them too. The Neverborn twins had way too many special rules for their comparatively small cost, especially considering one could even summon the other. Neverborn in general had very fast cheap hard hitting units that some factions (such as Guild) often had trouble fighting it. The other problems included masters with Negative Play Experiences (NPE). Fighting the original Hamelin was extremely demoralizing and frustrating. Nearly endless rat activations and preventing most attacks from going through on a Master who is already very difficult to kill in the first place is not fun to fight. They made him a lot better to fight with the update. Still, in M1.5 many models are simply useless. The Malifaux Child is now an excellent totem for any outcast army, something that sounds insane in M1.5. The rules system has been cleaned up and looking up special rules is easier as well. You no longer have situations like Lifer which the ability is only described on one model's card (and not in the main Rulebook) despite the many models that have the ability. The abilities of many masters and models has seen some simplification (Leveticus has normal card drawing/discarding etc.) and the upgrades system allows new players to have an easy start on their chosen master before expanding their abilities. Overall, I think the edition change is solid.

To be fair, Sonnia is a pretty hard match-up. She can cancel out your suits while casting and is generally good at anti-caster matchups between the Witchling Stalker's Dispel Magic and Sonnia's own Reflect Magic, Ancient Runes and Visions of Flame. She's a highly effective anti-Pandora. Using a more varied model set with a variety of quick (or tough) attackers is a good idea. The Witchling Stalkers are strong in melee, but you can still kill them easily. Good luck, it's a hard match-up, but it's definitely winnable.

Hey, I was just wondering what people would think about Hoffman becoming Dual Arcanist. He already had Arcanist Ties to hire their constructs and considering McMourning is now part guild would it make sense to have him change? Or do you think he should just stay Guild, with or without the ability to hire Arcanist Constructs (probably an upgrade if he keeps it)?

In M1.5, there is an (All) action that gives the user 1 Scrap counter. Any unit with the scavenger ability may take this action. The reason you may be confused is that Ramos has a (2) action that does the same thing. Since it is only a (2) action, it is overall better. I'm not sure if this ability still exists in M2.0. For Hoffman, this is the only action you can take during the turn, and there are often much better uses for it. Alternatively, kill a Large Steampunk Arachnid early on to give you 3 Scrap. This action isn't usually worth the trouble, but remember it when you might need it. It's on page 32 of the Rules Handbook (the small one). If you have the pdf version (which is free) just ctrl-f scavenger and you'll find it.

Right now, I'm a huge fan of M2E. I found it much easier to get into and try out some more options. A lot of needless complications are gone now (Leveticus lost some of his card shenanigans that made him more confusing etc.), and a lot of cool fluffly upgrades exist now (Mcmourning's On the Clock and Moonlighting). The game has, in my opinion, become more focused on your personal tactics rather than order of activation and crazy combos. I understand missing some of those things, but I really enjoy the game now. For those of you wishing for more complexity, one factor to consider is the "really" complex models/masters haven't been seen yet. For example, the Dreamer and Hamelin are seen as some of the more complex masters but they aren't in the beta yet. Once they come out, we'll have some more "complex" masters to play. The biggest advantage for me, however, is my brother is now willing to play. Back in M1.5, he started with C. Hoffman. I started with Von Schill, and I generally trashed him. He didn't look up tactics on the forums too much, he just wanted to play with the models he had (Hoffman Box Set + Peacekeeper). Because of this, I ended up brutally winning almost every match, as he didn't know tactics like the Protect Chain and such. Order of activation killed him sometimes as well. He played Sonnia later but still struggled. Once the M2E beta started, he is seriously enjoying the game more. He plays Sonnia and loves it more, and can easily make decisions with the options he is given. He likes that is more about his personal tactics then memorizing all of the rules on the card. Does he have trouble occasionally? Sure, but he enjoys the game much more. I'm not saying everyone will have this experience, but I've found it is easier on new players but still offers most (if you include upgrades) the complexity of M1.5 without requiring me to look up rules/faqs/erratas online to figure out if a certain combo works.