Ashlian

I think that the big problem with fluff is that many people don't make the distinction between "lore" and "story". for example: I really love the dragon age games. the individual stories told in the game are rather bad/mediocre but it's the lore and history of the world that makes me like the game so much. On the other hand we have something like 'the last of us" wich has relativly good storytelling and character development, but horrible lore (just zombies). If you want to see a combination of the 2 => bioshock 1. (I could do this with books as well, but don't know how widely known every book is). In wargames I feel the fluff should mainly present interesting lore and background. Malifaux does this very well => earth + city history, every master has a clear reason/power/background, tyrants and prison are a nice backdrop that allows for a moving timeline,... etc. In this regard I actually think they nailed introducing Titania: 1) she naturally came out of the overal narrative (little ex machina) 2) she has a clear background and place in the world/faction 3) she pushed the overal plot into a new arc 4) clear reason why the master was absent in previous events. 5) her model/rules might not be the scariest thing ever, but malifaux is still a balanced game first and story second. Malifaux lore and fluff isn't a novel or grand literary work and I think that expecting it to be this amazing narrative is just not productive. Malifaux is a wargame, not a story. the story should only be there to enhance the game by provinding background, lore and ambiance. the real stories, dept, ...etc. should be in the mind of the reader/fan fiction or through the breach rpg play that focusses on non-main story line characters that try to survive in this weird world. If at some point great novels would be written that elevate the storytelling in malifaux to the next level i'd be more than happy, but for now I regard all the tales as lore that build into a big world (and not a true story that has good narrative).

We actually don't know a whole lot about marlow => he could be a mage/summoner? As for upgrades: give him 7 expensive limited upgrades that let him bring another guild master with him => kinda like the boss is going out and needs one of his generals there to protect him. (just being silly here, not serious)

I would actually prefer if they waited 1-1,5 extra year. just focus on "the other side" and "through the breach" and let "ripples of fate" sink in some more (getting a bit scared of model bloath). Also I just realised that there are 2 other relativly important characters that don't have models yet: the abbyssian professor (zipp story) => henchmen/enforcer for guild or something? and Albus von shtook (molly and sandeep background) => resser master/henchman?

Hello, Finally read the complete 4the book. Although plot-armour for named characters makes it impossible for the main storyline to really suprise me, I really enjoyed some of the new master introductions and vignettes and the entire book had this lovly "malifaux vibe". After finishing the book I suddenly noticed that there are 2 major characters that aren't represented as masters in the game: oyabun (TT) and the governor (guild). Let's assume the Oyabun will be murdered/replaced by Misaki in future stories so just like the old governor he's more of a plot devise to keep the story going but not really someone who will stay around or be important later on. The new governor, Franco Marlow, on the other hand seems to be a very interesting new addition and actually a very active new player that can not only have big influence in malifaux, but also tie "malifaux" and the "other side" together. He only got mentioned on the last few pages, but I instantly fell in love with the character. He's just so efficient and no BS (and finally someone shot down lucius ). I know it's very soon to start talking about this as the 5th book will probably be 1-2 years of, but wouldn't marlow make a fabulous 8th master for the guild? he could be accompanied by some enforcer elite guards from his personal staff to boot. Also he would complete the guild and its the hierarchy all the way to the top. (for as far as I know all other factions apart from TT get all their characters represented as masters).

i solved this problem with converting toolkit's into watchers (floating spheres with camara eye) and converting a warden with cape into a guardian (used shield and sword from original guardian, but it looks way cooler with cape and more dynamic pose).

This has been bugging me for a long time, but I really don't get why almost no other company does what corvus beli (infinity game) does. 1) Give all the rules to the community and update those PDF's after errata => wyrd does this when it comes to the basic rules. 2) A complete armybuilder app that is kept up to date with all errata and faq's + is configurable for different formats of gameplay => wyrd sucks at this. What prompted me to write this post is the last added errata. I find this to be very problematic. Not because they changed things, but because the are starting to yet again make a mess of their rules and making it harder to find the correct ruleset for models. I get that they give free PDF's for updated models, but I find this to be lacking. this is also very unfriendly towards newcommers or the more casual player. Leveling the playingfield for everyone and creating a very clear ruleset is easy => make a free accesible crewcreator that is updated once or twice every year and can be considered the current legal ruleset. This would not only make the rules more clear and manageable, but also greatly improve comfort for making new lists and playing the game. To illustrate my point, this is what corvus belli provides for their costumers: https://army.infinitythegame.com/ I strongly feel wyrd can and should do the same as i see no downside for the company itself and only advantages for the playerbase. Should their already be an official wyrd endorsed crewcreator then I appologize for this rant, but I can't seem to find any. (PS: the same is true for the "the other side" game => you really should consider an armybuilder for that as well)

will be good on LJ I think => she doensn't really have "must have" upgrades so you don't lose out on that part and you can then basicaly make any type of elite crew that you'd like as she goes with everyone. furthermore if you go after her more likely then not you can force situations where you can get her in meelee because they try to hunt her down, which in and of itself is a huge +.

Liking those upgrades. A bit sad that there isn't one that affects marshals (would've gone well with that new recruiter), but really want to try an elite marshal list with curfew. Also Hoff + peacekeeper + howard + rail golem + curfew (maybe swap one out for emmisary) could potentionally be brutal early on

Hi, just wondering if some people are willing to give some info on the new marshals in Rof. naturally i don't ask for exact rules and stats, but more a general explanation like: 1) how many do we get? (is the chained prisoner thing part of a large base marshal or are they new minions?) 2) minions? enforcers? henchman? low/medium/high SS range? 3) what do they do? (again not exact rules but just a general purpose) 4) do they have HtW? 5) can tara hire them?

I would actually completely disagree with this. to me it would make sense to give every specific master a specific playstyle and specific crew build choices. if you don't want to play witch hunters, fine you got hoffman for construct lists, DM with LJ,... etc. not saying that taking 1 or 2 constructs with sonnia should be bad, but it would make most sense to me to have the following: pick faction => pick master => pick about half of the crew based on master theme => fill out crew with random models or more themed models. 1 master should not play the whole faction => it are the diverse masters that make the faction in my opinion. for the most part i even think wyrd succeded in doing this: *perdita and family are very good and diverse crew possibilities. *sonnia works with witch hunters and without. *hoffmann is in my experience also viable in heavy construct lists *dokter Mc Mourning works very good as well with multitude builds *lucas works with about everything *LJ just doesn't work great at moment in themed crews and without franc, BUT very hopeful with this new book and the added upgrades / marshals + recently released emissary (please be in the mail fast!) *lucious is very thematic but apparently to weak? (i don't play him) new reporter crew looks like it has some potentional depending on those minions and henchman. so i really only find LJ an lucious to be a bit underwhelming (and the guild guard as well => don't like most sculpts and very boring rules all round)

The guild is competitive, just not diverse. If you want to win you have to take certain masters and crew models because otherwise you just make i difficult for yourself by going out with sub-par crews. some other factions (like neverborn) just got a lot more diverse, themed and powerfull lists with a lot of internal synergy, but those many lists aren't amazingly better than our few. generalist upgrades can help for sure, but i feel that in some cases more crew specific upgrades are needed to make the weaker ones work (like DM and guild guard => what wyrd tried to do with last blossom 0ss upgrades) => that being said: super excited for the new upcoming marshalls + that merc guy (forgot his name). PS: I noticed in a lot of threads (not only this one) that people are making the claim that our faction may or may not be designed with "el mayor" in mind (and sometimes also austringer). I also notice that this is a subject that never really gets a straight answer. I'm starting to get curious about the validity of this claim.

playstyle of masters is similar: ranged casters who can use an ability to hit without direct line of sight + blasting + extra effect on the attack (burn vs cold effects) (even 1 upgrade almost same: ice pillar vs flame pillar) so the masters themself are very similar (at least I play them similarly). point is that rasputina has a lot more different crew possibilities that work relativly well together. furthermore the whole frozen heart model range has some neat little tricks they can pull of. this is far less the case for guild. this does not mean i dislike guild or sonnia, but id feel they have less interesting crew building options. This is especially true when comparing all the upgrades. just look at all general, master and frozenheart upgrades (rasputina) and compare them to the guild upgrades for witch hunters (and general). To be honest i find that the upgrade system is underused. apart from the 2 oss upgrades for last blossom I can't come up with new upgrades that were released to buff underused or less interesting models. example of this could be: upgrade for guardsman, hounds and guild guard can proc eachothers abilities.

what @trikk said. Sonnia for example is very similar to Rasputina, but look at difference in hiring pool and upgrades and possible internal workings of all the different crews, even without factoring in the abilities of the respective masters.

I think the main guild "problem" is the basic definition of the faction itself. Most of our models are mainly focussed on just walking and doing damage and yes, family has some internal synergy and hoffmann can do things with constructs, but apart from that I feel like guild just doesn't have the internal model interactions that the other factions have (lucius not really my territory). This can make gameplay feel somewhat stale. compare this to stuff like pandora, Colette, Jacob, leveticus, dreamer.... they all have very pecific unique qualities and model interactions as well as many exotic models in the factions itself. Guild original 3 are: hit it, shoot it or burn it. I think that a lot of the "stagnation" has more to do with the basic simplicity of most guildmodels. We have strong models, but not interesting ones (take a look at marshals for example: all individualy very strong, but can't work together and apart from bury and gimmicky "make undead" not really anything to them apart from move and shoot gun.) This is not necessarily a bad thing, and I also know that this is being a bit to harsh as guild can pull of some combo's. But the faction is rather simplistic in it's gameplay and like mentioned above, some models are just to good compared to others even when you take them with their specific master (Lj almost needs franc and franc will always be better then marshal henchman judge even with specific upgrades attached).

@Adran The thing I'm trying to say is not that she is underwhelming as a damagedealer => she's very clearly one of the best. The problem is that it's her only real use: If you want to make her pure damage and nothing more, fine. but then she needs either some sort better engagement tools to get into damagedealing mode more consistantly or her damage has to be foolproof. as it stands now she can be evaded by a lot of models and in some, admittedly rare, cases she will encounter a wall that she can't take down. If you want to make her only damage at least 1 of these cases has to go, either let her deal with the rare wall models or let her catch up to the more slippery ones. the things that just seem specificaly weird to me are: *covering fire needing a crow (make that one more consistent and you have a fairly thematic and relativly usefull action) *Vendetta not being on her normal card. onslaught and vengeance are good triggers that actually make it so she can deal with any type of cc opponent, but paying 2ss and an upgrade slot is just to much for the rare situational moments that either would be better than just a straight up crit hit. *implacable, justice unleashed and flames of the pit are just not all that useful most of the time and don't add anything to her play in my opinion. *just don't get why she doesn't have HtW like all other marshals have. Once again I don't dislike her, she my number 1 favorite master. I just don't get why they couldn't make her and marshals a little more interactive and interesting => would that really have made her that OP when you can compare her to a McCabe, Hoffman or McMourning lists? Just an upgrade like the 0ss lost blossom ones would go a long way.

And that core is for me exactly the problem => i don't want to "have" to take franc (and maybe sidir) to make her work. take that same list and plug in any other guild master except hoff and it will work just as well if not better. it's not a justice list, it's just a general list that works even without any specific master support. lucius can run it, perdita can run it, criid can run it and all 3 would probably do a better job than Lj. Not even mentioning Mcabe.

The whole LJ debate for me just comes down to this: *She's supposed to be so strong because she can absolutely murder a model..... but she can't do anything to bypass armor/HtW/HtK/impossible to would....etc *She's CC so she needs to close the gab => no real mobility (even needs an upgrade to just get unimpeded) *without mobility she would need some form of tankyness => most normal other beatsticks wreck her face especially from a distance. *because she is a 100% glass canon, you would expect some sort of crew benefit => no she doesn't got that either. *some strong very cost efficient upgrade? no. compare that to other combat masters: McMourning: because of precise can actually do more damage to high priority targets, lot more survivability, extra mobility options, strong upgrades and multiple ways to build both strond and thematic crews. perdita: maybe not as much damage, but still deadly, more def, better crew options and mobility + ranged. lilith: cc like justice only a sword upgrade to make her range 3", other interesting options for spells and abilities especially moving around. victoria: lot more options to move her around and get work done. misaki: amazing alpha strike potentional (less sustained damage, but amazing point and click murder for 1 turn) they may not all do as much damage as LJ, but all come close or can, in some cases, do even more damage + they get either staying power (tankynes), crew synergy or mobility. LJ get's nothing apart from that base 3/4/5 low damage output, which is cool, but far from to strong and most of the time avoidable or pointless => it won't get you to control objectives or markers and is won't put a dent in stuf like izamu. Btw this is not me trying to hate on those other masters, I love lilith for example, But just trying to make a point that justice just hasn't got that extra little thing that makes her fun to play and not just "playable" because i want to play with a blindfolded woman wielding katana's. I feel like she needs a sort of special something that really sets her apart from the other damage masters, because at the moment she is just a very high output enforcer.

@SpiralngCadavr 1) to be honest I don't know what aionus does. 2) trying to make marshalls work: i play LJ + judge + loneM + 2 DM + emmisary + exorcist (sometimes swapping models out for hounds or watchers). It can work, but all depends on the shemes + if opponent has gone for optimal list and knows what he's doing you're kinda in a bind I stil play mostly just for fun and thematic crews are all i play. I know this involves losing and i don't mind. I just don't get why the supposedly most badass katana-wielding master of malifaux is thinner than paper and is not even close to being in the top 3 of the best CC-masters . 3) emissary in criid list works, but it's not as fabulous as you might think. I mainly play it because i can proxy her avator model for it and it looks cool. But definatly not a must include, if only you wouldn't need LOS to trigger reïncarnation.... (but that would probably be a bit to strong ). => long story short, you can also hire peacekeeper or horseman in that ss range and i find them to be more useful overal. (not as fluffy or good looking of course)

Not going to meddle in the lucius/guard discussion and going to stick to what I know: 1) LJ: needs hard to wound (better survivability and all other marshals have it). furthermore lower cost on her upgrades or mix them up (if not this, then give her onslaught trigger on her card for free or some extra movement or magic option on her base card. Only 1 of previously mentioned would be fine) 2) marshals need some more teamplay synergy to make marshal heavy crews more viable compared to other compositions. would love something with bury and/or making undead and more interaction with undead (like exorcist). 3)Sonnia: needs 1 or 2 new witch hunter models for extra options (running stalkers and handler + sam is getting old). And I know orderly are WH, but really what do mental hospitals have to do with magical witchhunting (they should've been McMourning minions)? I would prefer a fantastical fire beast that is summoned by criid. I don't know, a big fire serpent maybe? perhaps with "tyrant" keyword? and somewhere in the 9-12ss range? 3)Hoffman and constructs are fine/fun, although an alternative playstyle to hoffball could be fun => maybe 1 more upgrade to encourage a different playstyle? so basically: pls do something for the existing marshals. maybe do something for the witchhunters by releasing a new crew-specific model. If there really is nothing else left to improve on try some fun variation on hoffman playstyle.

hi, I'm not american so the whole "black friday" wasn't really on my radar. is there any way to get the alternate models at a later time? interested in female sebastian + Francisco + barbaros.

Hi, I want to make a list that focusses heavy on the marshal-theme, but I'm having some problems. For starters I want to include LJ + brutal Emmy + judge as the hard hitting core. In general the idea is to let brutal and LJ hold the middle of the board and have LJ box port to where she is needed around turn 3 or so. Judge takes care of 1 of the 2 flanks andmarks 1 enemy for the kill . As this is supposed to be a marshal list DM are mandatory (at least 1). this results in: *Lady justice +last stand (-1ss) => 53SS crew pool *judge (-9ss) *brutal em (-10ss) + LJ upgrade (0ss) *death marshal (-6ss) => 28ss remaining and this is where my problems begin. I find it impossible to fit in 1 extra DM + 1 exorcist + 1 lone marshal + 1 brutal effigy. exorcist would go with judge on a flank to pull judgement combo's + break big threats + deal with incorporeal. lone marshal would go on opposite side of judge to take care of that side of the board (schemerunner + anti scheme killer) extra DM would go where needed (2 Dm running around doing schemes/shooting things) if i would include this it would make: 28ss-6ss-8ss-7ss= 7ss still 3 points for upgrades and then a nice 4ss cache for justice (badge or vendetta + expert sleuth on lone marshal) this gives list 1: LJ + last stand + vendetta/badge of office + 4ss judge brutal em + lj upgrade Lone marshal + expert sleuth exorcist death marshal death marshal there are however 2 problems I have with this list: 1) can't include Brutal effigy 2) no real expendable and effective scheme runners why I came up with list 2: LJ + last stand + vendetta/badge of office +4ss/5ss (hound/watcher) judge brutal em + lj upgrade Lone marshal + expert sleuth death marshal brutal effigy either 3 guild hounds or 2 watchers this however isn't perfect either because: 1) no exorcist 2) only 1 DM (and i have miss terieus and another jumping one i quite like, so 2 would be ideal ) 1 final idea would be to drop exorcist from list 1 and fill with a watcher or 2 hounds and only swap in exorcists for 1 or both DM when i know I'm facing a lot of undead/incorporeal so to get to my actual questions: 1) which list seems better? (I prefer the first, but afraid it will go very badly in scheme-drop heavy matches) 2) how good is the exorcist? (never played him, seems a bit "meh" to me unless against incorporeal/Htw and undead) 3) would effigy really make a difference or would a watcher be better spend ss? 4) how many ss does Lj actually need? (I prefer to have at least 4+, but maybe that's a bit to much for her as she doesn't rly need suits and has juggernaut) to conclude: *I refuse to include family models or austringer. *I know this game does not realy allow for standerdized lists, but i really like thematic forces and I want to make marshals work for me.

yeah I know. I would mostly take: LJ + badge + unimpending hunters or peacekeeper or both (chain spears + objective runners) brutal and with future release probably emmisary (student of conflict is fun sometimes to give out fast, although pretty expensive and unruly to position)

I'm a bit bored so felt like going on a "little" rant, don't worry it's relevant to this page so LJ: I am mostly in this hobby for the modelling/painting and lore. I don't really play competetive and my crews mostly consist of models I like visually or find interesting. with the above in mind i can say I love LJ and she is my favorite master lorewise and in mental image (unstoppable katana wielding women that personifies cold absolute justice). Alas, I must also say that I hate playing her. In previous posts I notice that people say that she does the highest damage in the game, but this is false. On paper this is certainly true and with a right card + build in ram + potential stone = highest single attack damage for 1 AP. In practice It just doesn't work that way. As Myrra pointed out, her main problem is getting in a situation in which she can do that amazing damage and even then that's not a guarantie as she has no build in way to deal with hard to wound/armour/hard to kill, so against these types of opponents some other models might even be better than her even after she gets in melee when just comparing raw damage on the target. Long story short, her damage is just not amazing enough to justify all her drawbacks: -no real mobility -can do nothing consistent except deny an area of the board and doing melee damage -upgrades are bad and don't really improve her that much or give her playstyle any depth or flexibility (although "last stand" is almost mandatory to help her with her mobility) -juggernaut is useful, but 1/2 (0)heal is just to little to really keep her going (4 is possible, but mostly need to cheat => not good use of resources) -restore natural order, could've been great but the cast cost is way to high to actually reliably pull it off. -inspiring swordplay gives a little bump in power, but not substantial enough to really call support and it's very situational. -riposte, should either have been build in (no mask) or also work against ranged attacks (and just give it a base damage of 3 or 4) -covering fire is a joke -greatsword, impressive weapon but not that awesome because of immobility, if it would've been 3" like lilith (upgrade) then at least her controll buble would've been a bit larger. -no hard to wound, this would not have made her OP and would've inforced her marshal status. -No relevant synnergy/mechanics/interactions with her crew, this last one is why i hate playing with her. when playing hoffman or sonnia or almost any other master you at least have some basic interactions that give your crew a core tactic or unique flavour. (more on this later) of course there are also some good aspects: -lore -wounds -final repose (although situational) -blindfighter -very satisfying when you can just utterly destroy an enemy master/henchman/enforcer (although if your oponent plays it smart this was just a sacrificial move to keep her away from the real objective) if you insist on comparing with other models (will limit myself to masters I have some real knowledge of): -Sonnia: a little less pure damage, but can damage at range 14", doesn't need Los if burning (and just awesome abilities all round), burning boosts her attack damage, usefull and consistent tactical actions, very compact core crew (just take some witchlings and handler to punp out burning), very good and cheap upgrades (flame pillars, summon witchlings,...), can do more than just do damage (pillars). -perdita: less flat damage but very consistent in getting damage applied because range 14", very good with the whole family, many options both on her card as in upgrades (damage, obey, family interactions,...). -Mcmourning: compared to justice he's the real monster. Between all the poison and his amazing threat range via scalpel combined with an amazing thight crew he can be utterly unstoppable. -hoffmann: amazing buffer, he lives for his crew and his crew lives for him. not really a fair comparison with LJ as they are completly different types of masters. (support caster VS solo hero) there just isn't any reason to take LJ over any of the above unless you take into account "I want to play LJ". The best crew I can come up with is either a construct list (hunters, watchers, peacekeeper, guardian, some extra filling) or a guild guard list (just any guardsmen with dashel/sergeant/drill master). -constructs, guardian stays close and rest goes objectives elsewhere. this works not because LJ is that good, but because hunter + peacekeeper + watcher will work in any crew. swap LJ with perdita or sonnia and it will stil work (maybe even better as the extra options and range help a lot). => this list is of course even more potent when you just keep 12points open for miss step/HL and go for hoffman. hoffman + hunter + watcher + miss step + peacekeeper = awesome at almost everything (and missstep with nimble and decapitate can easily outdamage LJ) -guild guard: works because dashell/sergeant/drill can form a really closed group with guardsmen, riflemen, hounds, mounted cav,... so LJ not being able to synnergies isn't that big a problem. However,.... why not go lucius in this scenario? or for that matter if you yet again swap for sonnia or perdita the crew will still work and in most cases will work even better. So to sum it all up: In my opinion there isn't a single scenario where you would prefer to take LJ over perdita or sonnia. what needs to change: -something that makes justice, justice. apart from lore and looks she doesn't rly have an identity apart from "the one that does damage". (condition removal and marker removal could be great but the way that is build in now is inadequate to be substantial to her kit) -better inner crew workings, synergy. hope for the future: -addition of emmisary might breath some life into her as it will give her some much needed mobility gimmicks -upgrade system allows to have targetted future releases for certain masters to pimp up their upgrades. so fingers crossed that at some point justice will get a little boost to make her more interesting -future model releases that have specific interactions with LJ/marshals. I still love this game, world and it's characters so this isn't meant as pure negativity. also LJ can work, but if someone says she is just as good as other masters that's just plain wrong. the effort you got to put in her is substantional and her options are very limited.

just my 2cent: Sonnia has no weakness and is awesome! (slightly biased) But, generally i don't think matchup are the most important factor when determining advantages. I mostly notice that the objectives are what can cause a game to get a bit unbalanced. sonnia and basic crew is good, but lacks tools like better mobility or crowd control like a hunters harpoon. so if you want to increase crew strenght of sonnia in my opinion you should get: *witchling handler + extra stalkers (never enough) *guild guard + hounds + sergeant/captain (so maybe lucius box) * hunter + peacekeeper *austringer (but i personaly don't like playing them) I don't really think you need a second master to bypass her weaknesses. just construct your crew depending on the situation and if you don't play to reckless and protect her, then sonnia wil always be a glorious shining artillery piece that will lay ruin to all who stand in her way! but as mentioned above perdita is nice, although i would personnaly recommend L justice (heavy meelee instead of heavy range so ideal for "bad matchups". just keep sonnia out of Close Combat and get LJ in it as fast as possible)

dreamer is in wave 2: check the beta forum and download the stat cards. you should check again every week as they are not yet finished with the second wave models rules. when the open beta is finished the wave two neverborn arsenal boxes will include the official and final rules for this model and the crew.