Claymore65

Ashes and Dust is pretty awesome. With Rusty's Burn out, you get to reactivate him and he follows a Death/Rebirth cycle, so the damage he takes doesn't matter. If you love your Steampunk Abominations and your Desolation Engine, he buffs both of them, and makes more Steampunk Abominations of anything he kills. He's also fast, nasty in melee and has a variety of cool and dangerous abilities (if your opponent misses their charge attack, they die at the end of their activation and become an SPA for example). He's very expensive at 13SS, but he's usually worth it, espeically if you like a "thematic crew". Since it sounds like you like constructs, try out Lazarus. He has a nice grenade launcher and can copy other constructs abilites. He's pretty darn cool, especially if you copy stuff from Ashes and Dust. He won't work with any Guild model, so no Watchers (which rock by the way), but otherwise he hasn't got many negatives. With Levi's lack of synergy with a specific force (and lack of buff spells in general, though his only one is good on a desolation engine...), he can build a huge variety of different crews. If you like Joss, feel free to at least try him out.

For the "upgrade all named characters" that's not exactly true. Some named models, such as the Judge, will be henchmen. Other named models will be "Enforcers" meaning they can have two upgrades (like henchmen) but can't use soulstones or lead a small crew. That's what I've gathered anyway.

For those you own, I would suggest Ramos, Viktorias, and probably Mcmourning. Ramos isn't too challenging to play, with his straightforward "keep summoning" play style. His generic crew (lots of spiders) doesn't have anything with extremely crazy abilities and activation order shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Viktorias are always very straightforward. Be a little careful, as they are quite squishy, but they should be easy enough for beginners. Mcmourning isn't too crazy. Try not to focus on killing your own dudes for body part counters and no one should have too big of an issue. Tell them to focus on cutting up enemies and summon when you feel like it. That's what I would suggest.

Hello, I have a confession to make: I haven't read all of the fluff. I've read the fluff in the 1.0 Rulebook (the only book I own besides the rules manual) and I really loved it. I got the book cheap relatively recently when someone wanted to sell it to me. I bought it for the fluff, and I thought it was great. I was considering buying the rest of the books, but then the announcement for Malifaux 2.0 came out. I don't want to buy 3 more books just for the (awesome) fluff. What would be really amazing is if Wyrd released a "story manual" which contained all of the actual stories/fluff from the rest of the books (including book 1) I would buy it in a heartbeat. It would be a great way to introduce any newbies to fluff once 2nd edition came out, and I would be really grateful for not having to buy three new $35 books. My reasoning is pretty selfish, but what do you guys think? Would it be worth it to you?

As for the Mcmourning debate, I'm personally fine with it. I would love to see some "animosity Death Marshalls" ability on him so you can't take Death Marshalls, but otherwise I am fine with it. Besides, the fluff may make more sense than you'd think. Lucius has always been into some shady buisness, perhaps he learned of Mcmourning's little secret and now wants to use him for missions he doesn't want the rest of guild knowing about (or being accountable for). Having an insane Necromancer who can kill almost anyone with a scalpel has many uses, especially for a man like Lucius who values assasination and subterfuge. I like the idea that he might not be able to take the summoning upgrade. It would make a lot of sense. Alternatively, he could put huge trenchcoats on his flesh constructs to hide the fact they are undead. As another side note, what does everyone think of Hoffman being Guild/Arcanist? I personally think it makes too much sense that someone with a lot of Acranist connections (and the Arcanist ties special rule) should become dual faction. He already has a relationship with Ramos and the Miners and Steamfitter's Union, so it would make sense for him to take a job for them every once in a while. I'd be fine with taking the whole Neverborn thing off of Lucius if that's what's stopping Hoffman from being Dual Faction. Lucius should be a human with Neverborn connections (like a deal or a magic artifact) in my opinion, I hope they don't completely ruin the mystery of the character (unless he's a tyrant...).

I'm thinking Misaki will be dual faction outcasts now. She kind of was anyway (can hire Outcast Mercenaries), so that would make sense. That leaves us with: 1. Viks, 2. Von Schill, 3. Hamelin, 4. Leveticus, 5. Tara, 6. Misaki. I think the last will be a gremlin. They used to be part of our faction, so it would make sense we kept one of them.

Welcome back! In terms of master choice, make sure you go with one you think is fun/looks cool. If they are hard, don't let it stop you. Here are some easy (and cheap) crews you can start with anyway. 1. Freikorps Box Set: Von Schill is an excellent Henchman. His primary crew all comes in the box set. It is an excellent crew, featuring healing, durability, movement, anti-armor flamethrowers and lots of great shooting. The Freikorps box set is extremely forgiving, as Von Schill has Slow to Die, which means with a soul stone he can heal himself and prevent his own death. Von Schill isn't too complicated to use, yet still has a variety of versatile abilites. The crew is easy to learn and stays effective. In addition, Von Schill and his crew are all mercenaries, so you can hire them anyway with most masters. It's my highest reccomendation. The Freikorps are a great shooty crew, but there are lots of other great ways to start. The Viktorias + their box set or 3 Ronin and a Convict Gunslinger (or some Freikorps) make a great simple slashy crew, with the Convict Gunslinger providing ranged support. From the Neverborn, Lilith supposedly isn't too hard, being tough in melee and having a cool crew that grows stronger as the battle goes on. For Resurrectionists, Seamus is pretty easy to play, with his rotten belles luring your opponents into range and him blowing them away with his humongous pistol. Others can give you more advice. Feel free to check out the pull-my-finger wiki for more information on not only starting out but also learnign about different masters. Have fun!

I don't have much say, as I'll probably be buying a faction deck for my main faction (Outcasts!) even if they release free pdfs. My buddy plays almost exclusively guild, so he's fine as well (though if plastic Ramos or Mcmourning or Kirai comes out...). This is not fact in any way, but I assume that the open play test on May 31st will release the playtest materials via online pdfs. To all of the fans of the game, they will have the (hopefully) free pdfs available to playtest. I sincerely doubt the playtest will release the actual faction decks as one of the goals is to get some player/community input. These playtest pdfs will not be erased from your computer after the playtest will be complete. In fact, the latest of the playtest packet will most likely be valid. This means that you will have free pdfs as long as you are willing to participate in the playtest. I think that might be a fair trade. Wyrd gets a ton of external playtesting, and the playtesters get free pdfs of the cards. As for after the playtest, I'd be fine with them releasing some of the cards. To be most fair, I would say release the cards for only the Book 1 masters or some other qualification (like 1 master per faction and X minions) and release those online for free. Add in a free rules manual as well (like they already have). This would be the same as releasing the v2 cards online and the rules manual. People curious about the game can proxy a match or two using a smaller selection of models, and those who want free pdfs can get them for many of the units. It might be a good compromise, but who wants to compromise...

About the whole "long preparation time" thing, I have some suggestions. I personally think that the "narrative" encounters might actually be exactly what you're looking for. Most likely, they will have a specific encounter in mind, if they are anything like the Halloween/Christmas encounters. If both players know the encounter, there won't be too many problems. All of those encounters were built so any general crew can play them pretty well. Sure, some crews are more suited to the scenario, but all of the special terrain is pre-rolled and the encounters are mostly fair for a "generalist" crew. Ideally, they could have a small pool of 4-7 schemes to choose from attached. All you would have to do is set up terrain (about the same amount of time for Warmahordes) and get to playing. I'm fine with building more "generalist" style crews. My Freikorps team, for example, is versatile enough to handle most strategies well. If you don't have access to a lot of models (I don't have too many personally) you have to build more generalist style crews. If you have a decent crew built, you only have to change one or two things. Honestly, it's exactly the same as Warmahordes for me. I play casual games, so when I'm playing Cryx I might take certain models wheras when I'm fighting Cygnar I might take other ones. Otherwise, my list is exactly the same. My advice, if you don't want to do narrative encounters, is to simply use pre-built lists and set up the table. Determine strats/schemes right before you go, it really doesn't take long at all if you're list is mostly built. I think another option for M2.0 would be to have pre-built strats/schemes/terrain around a theme. For example, maybe you have a pre-built scenario called streetfight, with the shared-slaughter strategy, and only Assasinate, kill protegee and 2 others are available as schemes. It might have X has a pre-built terrain feature. All you would do is pick a pre-built scenario from the list, and you can go straight to playing (after terrain of course).

Definitely sounds interesting. I hope the changes aren't too drastic, but I look foward to fixing any flaws with the game and/or rebalancing of certain models. There are lots of little rules that could use some cleaning up and some rules that need better explaining. I really like the standard card size. That always annoyed me, as I had to use dice to record health instead. Looks cool. Also, VON SCHILL AS A MASTER!!! Rusty Alyce as henchman?

First of all, welcome. I hope you have fun with the game. The easisest suggestion is to have everyone get a starter box. The starter boxes let you play around the 25 SS (think points) range, which is pretty good. Most starter boxes give you a pretty decent crew to start with. I would advise your players to take a quick look at the different masters/box sets out there and just try one. The box sets aren't too expensive, and the game is cheaper to expand (overall) than Warmahordes or 40k. For your casual players, I would suggest an easier crew, like the Freikorps box set (it is fantastic) or try some of the guild box sets. For your "system monkies" players, you can try a harder crew, like Hoffman's box set (and a Peacekeeper, otherwise he doesn't have 25 SS worth), or Leveticus. Most importantly, have them try out a set they think looks cool/plays interestingly. There is enough variety between the factions/masters that everyone can find something they think is cool. After playing some box set games, feel free to expand whenever you feel like. The normal game size for many players is in the 30-35SS range, which would only require a few models worth of expansion. Check out the Pullmyfinger wiki (just search Malifaux wiki on google) for more information on the masters and the box sets (which one's are good, etc.). Good luck, and more importantly have fun.

To be fair, I really do like his original sculpt...

Other tips: 1. Remember your options when expanding. If you find you need more melee hitting power, try out Ronin. They are cheap (5 SS), fast, deadly and ignore armor. If your meta has a lot of Kirai spirit shenanigans, try buying a Mercenary with a magic weapon (Taelor is one of the best, but there are also many great options, like non-master Misaki or Johan). 2. Remember all of Von Schill's awesome abilities. If you're facing Ramos, don't forget you have a pulse that can inflict slow on contructs. It works on Hoffman, but you have to be careful on the range as he can stop pulses originating a certain distance from him. If you're facing ressurectionts, especially Nicodem, don't forget Von Schill not only get's bonuses against them, but he also can remove all corpse counters in a certain distance of him. This can be fantastic against Nicodem especially, as Mcmourning can turn them into body part counters and Nicodem's mindless zombies count as Corpse counters anyway. 3. Card Management: For the Freikorps, you don't have to worry too much about card management. With the Viktorias you may want lots of high masks so you can do a Whirlwind bomb, but it's normally not too big a deal with the Freikorps. The only card management thing to keep in mind is that you should ALWAYS (if possible) keep an Rams in your hand for the Librarian. The Librarian gives you an extra card, but you have to use one on her turn. If you give her a rams, she only needs a very low card to use here healing skill. That rocks! 4. Rely on Volume of Attacks (sometimes). If you're facing Hoffman and he already killed your Specialist (as he ignores Armor) don't forget you always deal at least one damage. With each Freikorpsman dealing 1-2 damage each turn, you can deal a surprising amount of damage. If you have a very heavy armor meta, try out Ronin or Taelor (or anyone else who ignores armor) to help you out. 5. Von Schill is quick: This game is all about your schemes and strategies. Von schill himself with nimble and augmented jump (almost always one of your instinctual abilities) can reach most objective very quckly. Augmented Jump lets you get out of any combat you want to (you ignore any kind of disengaging strike). If your opponent's armor is too high, Von Schill is still pretty darn good in melee and his knife ignores armor. Overall, you chose a fantastic starting Crew that will serve you well, either with Von Schill as a master or as a Henchmen for anyone else (I love him with the Viks). Have fun!

Don't forget to take a look at other mercenary options. Even if you only use Von Schill, you can take any mercenary you want. Taelor is great for killing constructs and has a magical weapon for spirits. If you meta is very construct heavy, Lazarus may be a great choice to buy. He can copy other construct's abilities which rocks. If you need cheap 5pt killers, give Ronin a try. They are fast, strong, and ignore armor. Take a look at the other mercenaries and you may find one you like a lot (or at least the sound of).

Personally, VP denial hasn't been very prevalent in the casual games I've played. I think that is mostly because nobody has really considered doing that. I'm very happy about that fact, that my gaming group has been pretty fair and reasonable. I agree that it is not the biggest problem neccesarily, and model fixes should probably come first. However, I do say that it is a definite flaw within the game, and why should we just leave the flaw if it can be easily fixed. As you said earlier, there are other schemes/strategies that could use some tune up, such as Eye for an Eye or most Master Specific schemes. While yes, you can just ignore them, why ignore them when in the future (no need to rush) you can fix the problems and improve the game. It's like a small pothole on a small road. Sure, most people might be able to ignore it, and others won't even drive on that road, but for a small group of people that pothole might ruin their driving experiences. Sure, it's not the biggest problem, but if you can fix it easily, why not do it?

I am a fan of 4th edition the most, mostly because the monster design/monster creation rules. Answering another question, the whole "GM doesn't roll for anything" aspect of Through the Breach isn't nearly as scary as it appears. After reading more on the Kickstarter (which I missed unfortunetly), what it really means is that the GM only uses static numbers for the attacks/skill check DCs/whatever else you would normally roll for. For example, if a player was being attacked by a gremlin, the gremlin might have a to-hit value of 9. The player would then have to flip a card over and add their def (it might be swiftness or some other stat name, I forgot) and if they get over 9, they dodge the attack. In other words, the player's dodge attacks instead of the GM flipping to hit. If the player is hit by the attack, the weak/moderate/severe flip still exists, although the card is flipped by the player. This allows them to cheat low cards in to get them weak damage. It sounds scary at first, but makes a whole lot more sense once you learn more.

This has been a pretty interesting discussion. I really like Kriltic's suggestions. I like the reduced VP idea. It allows sacrificing your minions to be an option, but not nearly as attractive of one. It would prevent you from taking a trap option and prevents your opponent from completely denying you VP, but allows a bit of denial. On denial, I agree that VP denial is and should be a large part of the game. I think that's partially why lots of the character specific schemes are very hard to achieve. If you, for example, got VP for summoning X minions with Ramos, this isn't very hard to do and it may or may not be preventable by your opponent. I agree that if your opponent takes Assasinate, you should be able to deny them VP. But I think that should be done by hiding your master, keeping them safe with structures/your own units, not by simply killing him yourself. This is something your opponent can get around, by taking fast moving units, maybe relying on ranged attacks or the structure your master is hidden in might become the location of an extremely brutal pitched battle. That sounds like a lot of fun actually. I like the idea of reduced VP with this one as well. Maybe if you kill your own Master, your opponent only gains 1 VP instead of 2, but he should still get some VP. After all, your goal was to kill the enemy master and he is dead...

This discussion got real interesting since I last checked. I'll give a couple of my own opinions: 1. Icons: I don't hate them, but I don't love them. I've been playing a lot of Warmachine lately as that's what's most popular at my LGS. I'm having a good time, and it has gotten me mostly used to icons. I don't know if I like them as much as real words, however. For me, it heavily depends on the icon used for the ability. The icon needs to easily represent the ability. If I look at the icon and I can't connect the name of the ability to icon then the icon isn't representative enough. Warmachine, in my opinion, has both great icons and terrible ones. For example, the incorpreal icon looks like a little ghost. It's easy to tell that it implies moving through objects/units and non-magical damage can't hurt them (it's a ghost). The symbol for pathfinder (letting you move through rough terrain) is a little boot, it's clear that at least it affects movement. These are great icons. The symbol for tough, however, is a little nail with two nails crossing eachother. It took me a while to realise my Wardog had tough because the symbol wasn't instantly recognizable. If you want to put symbols in for basic abilities, I'm okay with it, but make sure they are easy to learn. Maybe armor is a little shield or slow to die has a hourglass inside of a heart or something. Make sure they are easy to understand, and only make icons for very common abilities (like hard-to-wound, etc.). I'd be a little more happy without them, but they definitly wouldn't kill the game for me. 2. Sacrifcing/Killing Own Models: I think killing your own models/sacrificing/drain souls should NOT prevent strategies or schemes. I don't think a massive overhaul of the strategy/scheme system is neccesary, in fact the individualized goals/strategies is one of the game's greatest strengths. The wide variety of them and customizable nature of them makes the strategies/schemes fantastic. I don't like that sacrificing prevents victory even though the other player was doing great. I shouldn't possibly lose victory points in Slaughter because my opponent brought Stitched Togethers and they sacrifice themselves instead of dying normally. I mostly play casual games, so it's less of a big deal, but the whole "I'll kill my protegee so you can't" is not only irritating but also can be downright broken. By announcing your scheme, it is supposed to be giving an advantage to the opposing player in return for VP. It shouldn't give the opponent a chance to completly nullify it, it should allow your opponent to prepare for their tactics. I don't think an overhaul is neccesary, and I'm a-ok with the various tactics involving killing your own models, but I don't think they should deny your opponent VP. Killing your own Canine remains to get a hollow waif is fine, but it should't prevent your opponent from winning even though he killed more SS worth of your troops. This wouldn't require a "mkII" only a simple errata about a page long explaining it. 3. This is more of a question for everyone. Balancing certain models has come up multiple times in this interesting thread. With some of the biggest offenders fixed (Hamelin and the Dreamer) what other models do you think need cuddles/Buffs/Changes? Do Lelu/Lilitu seem worth more than 7 SS? Should guild autopsies be able to drop corpse counters? Does Leveticus deal too much damage (I say that as a Levi/Viks player myself)? I don't play competively, and it would be interesting to see who people think are overpowered. Neverborn in general seem to grind my gears, with awesome, quick, and deadly models for less points than I would have to pay for them in Outcasts. Still, when I one turn Lord Chompy Bits with Levi it's certainly worth a laugh. 4. D&D Edition Wars: This probably isn't the place to talk about that...but while we are I do love DMing 4th edition. It is much easier since the monster system is divorced from the player class building, so building monsters becomes very easy math and coming up with cool powers for them. The fact that I didn't have to build two 3rd level characters Orc opponents to make it a fun encounter is just great for me. All I had to do was open the monster manual and pick out 1 "Orc Shaman" 2 "Orc brutes" and 4 "Orc Grunts" and away I went. The monster system is fantasic in 4th. I think all editions have their own advantages (1st is simple, 2nd has some great lore, 3.5 has awesome character cusomization, 4th is more balanced etc.) and I like both 3.5 and 4th (I mostly like 4th), but all still have advantages and disadvantages.

I think it drastically depends on the master/avatar . Viks have a great Avstar, but are still highly effective without it. Not having an Avatar saves you two stones. I run Viks and Von Schill so the extra SS are critical for me. Sonia has a fantastic avatar as well.

I don't really play Ressurrectionists, but I like Sebastien more. While slow, bringing Igor with a Buzsaw is too much fun. He can get a lot of body part counters if he connects , and can summon a dog or two . The Freikorps set is fantastic , it is an amazing starting crew and you could hire Von Schill with Mcmourning if you like both a lot. For Mcmourning, consider getting his totem and rouge necromancy.

I wouldn't know much about the inside of the company, but I don't forsee a Malifaux 2.0 coming anytime soon. I think the game is pretty complex and that can be a bad thing sometimes. For example, my friend lost multiple matches by messing up activation order with C. Hoffman, allowing me to beat him easily. The complexity, however, is mitigated by choosing easier masters/models, allowing you to slowly build up in difficulty. All in all, it isn't much more difficult than Warmahordes in my experience, just the small model count requires much more detail to be interesting. Unless they want to do some major changes to a non skirmish game, there isn't really much to fear. What might be cool is a second game for non-skirmish scale, but I think it would probably be unneccesary and the RPG is cooler in my opinion. What I could see, however, is a massive errata update coming eventually. Ideally, this would balance the game more. I'm not saying it is too unbalanced right now, but I could see some tweaks made to certain (especially older models) to either bring them up to the current post storm of shadows power-level or weaken particularly powerful models. We already saw this in the fantastic Hamelin update, making him both less complicated and more balanced while still keeping his flavor. I could see some models getting updated and some other balancing moves. Maybe some of the Neverborn models could be a little more expensive in SS, or they could buff up some old Guild models. Still, I don't forsee any big changes to the game, at least in the near future.

My guess is you would probably like Hoffman better. He has access to the Peacekeeper, one of the biggest, stompiest steampunkiest robots availabe. Ramos still has many large robots, but all of his have a arachnid theme that you may or may not like. If I were you, I would look at the starting sets for both and see which you like the look of better. If you buy Hoffman's pack, be sure to buy a Peacekeeper as well, it's almost neccesary for the point value of other starting sets. Hoffman also looks more "steampunk" than ramos, what with Ramos having fire in his model. Hoffman also feels less like a mage. If you are doing a Brawl (meaning you can have 2 masters) having both brings you one of the most destructive and steampunk combos available. My advice is look for tactics on the both characters (whether here on the faction forums or on the Pullmyfinger wiki) for more information. Links: Hoffman on the Wiki: http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/C.+Hoffman Ramos on the wiki: http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/Ramos

Sounds interesting, but no one mentioned taking Von Schill? I always take Von Schill with my Viks. He is an extremely versatile unit, capable of buffing, ranged support, destroying enemy counters, giving slow to constructs (and even more!). In addition, I usually take 1-2 Freikorpsmann with my Viks, as th 4 pt models can really help me with activation advantage. As a side note, while the librarian does take a card activate, she also increases your hand size by one. If you try to keep a low rams in your hand, when you discard it you can cast 3 heals for 2 cards, or 2 heals for the oh-so-high cost of a low rams, which is an awesome deal.

That looks fantastic! It looks much better than pretty much all of the stuff I've painted. Nice job!

To Kill A&D, you have to kill the Ashen Core. Don't bother trying to kill the Dust, but the Ashen core can easily die due to concnetrated fire. If you run him near the side, he is very hard to kill (but not hard to kill lol).