WWHSD

Henchmen Hardcore usually prohibits summoning. Her Shapechange ability is a summon. I'm not sure if that ability was a factor in your choice ot not.

Bundle of Holding has a Malifaux PDF bundle available for the next couple of weeks. The PDFs can be downloaded directly from Bundle of Holding and they get linked to your DriveThroughRPG library.

$14.95 gets you:

• M2E Core (version with fiction and stat cards)
• M1.5E Core
• Rising Powers (1.5E)
• Twisting Fates (1.5E)
• Storm of Shadows (1.5E)

$27.85 (or more) gets you more 2E books:

• Ripples of Fate 
• Shifting Loyalties
• Crossroads

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Malifaux

A couple people have mentioned using a tray. In other games I will typically use one but it seems like it wouldn't work as well in Malifaux.

I'd think that I'd want to keep my collection hidden from my opponent until I reveal the crew that I chose. Am I not giving my opponent an advantage in their crew selection if they know that when I say "Arcanists" what I actually mean is "Some combination of Mei Feng's box, Ramos's box, Johan, Carlos, Electrical Creation, and Soulstone Miners"?

If I did have a large enough collection that knowing what I can choose from doesn't really provide any insight to my opponent it seems like it would be a little unwieldy to toss it all on a tray and hope that nothing gets knocked off of it during a game.

Or are people not really using the trays for their models, just for all of the other BS that needs to be carted from table to table?

7 hours ago, Adran said:

Just to give the counter view, a lot of the time when I have faced people with markers on the table, I'm spending at least as much time working out what the markers are, how many  there is there of each type, and which of the 5 models in that group the markers are applying to (especially when the model they actually apply to was pushed away and didn't take the markers with it, or the the pile was moved out the way to next to a different model because you wanted to place something where the pile originally was ) as I would asking to see it written down. 

Do what works for you. I'm probably lucky enough to have the sort of memory that I remember what has happened that turn well enough that I don't really need an aide memoir, as so find they clutter much more than help. In other games (guildball for example) I am a fan of counters, but I find that you can end up with too many on the malifaux table to make them easy to read. 

 

The lack of standardized tokens probably makes quickly identifying them a bit trickier. 

21 minutes ago, solkan said:

When you ask how "most people" play, the answer you get is going to depend on how the people got to Malifaux, I think.

Some games like Warmachine/Hordes have tournament standards where tokens and markers are mandatory, and there are games like Infinity where marker states exist and a player pretty much needs at least generic condition tokens. 

But you still occasionally run in to the die hards want each game to look like the old studio photos without anything to tell you that a game is being played, or something. 

Disclaimer:  I use activation markers, and dice to make wounds visible when I remember to bring dice to a card game. 

X-Wing was kind of the first minis game that I spent much time playing so that's probably why I fall firmly in the "if there aren't tokens on the table, how do you know what's going on?" camp.

1 hour ago, Gnomezilla said:

The nearby meta (whom we meet at tournaments) uses activation counters on the table, to be placed after a model has activated. While as a general rule I hate visual clutter on the table, those are so handy I keep swearing to try them at the next tournament (I'll remember some day, I promise).

I was fully intending to have everything covered by tokens that get placed near models. Is that not the way that most people play? It seems like a lot of things will get missed if you have to constantly ask your opponent which models have which conditions.

I'm trying to figure out what I need to gather up as my "starter kit" before I head off to my first event. Is there anything that I'm missing? Any suggestions for what to use to track the various conditions that need to be tracked?

- Tape measure
- Fate deck
- Rule book
- Current version of Gaining Grounds
- Cards for models and upgrades
- 10 x Corpse markers (30mm)
- 10 x Scrap Markers (30mm)
- 10 x Scheme Markers (30mm)
- 4 x Blast marker (50mm)
- Something to track wounds
- Something to track conditions that might be inflicted by your crews

 

19 minutes ago, dancater said:

To difficult a question without context of opponent, schemes and strats.  That is the Malifaux conundrum the nature of schemes, strats and crew selection means you cannot make blanket yes/no strong/weak statements on models and combos.

Joss+Johan are more expensive than Howard and overall vastly less killy but probably more durable (individually Joss is more durable than Howard, Johan less so depends if you consider as group or not).  Howard is fast and provides amazing auto-kill potential with terrifying min damage but likewise attracts all hell and fury from opponent so rarely survives a game (or even mid-game), but equally in certain strats (notably frame for murder) this can be its own advantage.

Joss amazingly durable and flexible henchman with some potential damage and exceptional value for points, but he is a little slow and is generally the ultimate backstop but not your home run hitter on either killing or schemeing pools.

Johan is potentially dangerous, heals, has ranged and really boosts M&SU but he is slowish and by no means is he a slug it out model, a concerted round of "I want that dead" and he's going down fast.

So really its what master you take, what master they take, what is the scheme pool, strats? 

Is it Howard vs Joss and Johan or Howard and 'x' vs Joss and Johan????

Malifaux defies simple strategy questions in the same way as Malifaux models defy simple construction.

Sorry, I meant does it make sense to take Johan and Joss instead of Howard and either Johan and Joss.

Lots of great ideas here. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

6 hours ago, 7thSquirrel said:

What is that you've mounted the spider on?

Is Joss+Johan usually worth leaving Howard in the box?

After assembling my Brass Arachnid I glanced at the card a sawthat it uses a 30mm base. It looks like it would be tricky to fit it on a 40mm. 

Any hints to get it on the right sized base?

I'm not much of a painter but I'm trying to get reasonable looking paint jobs on my Malifaux minis. I don't mess around with a bunch of highlighting to layers. I throw on a base coat, slather in shading ink or minwax, and then maybe touch up a few spots that got too dark.

I usually use Army Painter Barbarian Flesh to paint skin. I am about start working on my Rail Crew and realized that I don't think I want them to look like a bunch of white guys dressed up for Halloween. I also want to avoid making them offensively yellowish. The only people that are yellow are suffering from jaundice or are living in Springfield.

What's a good (and low skill way) to make these models' skin look like it belongs on an asian character?

I've had good luck with getting my own mats mat with www.pixartprinting.com. Printing a 3x3 vinyl banner with your own art on it runs around $15. The mats I've order have turned out nicely. 

The heavier mousepad material mats are nice but for what you pay for those you could have 3 or 4 different mats printed on vinyl to give you a bit of variety.

They are cheap enough that I'm tempted to get one with a bunch of terrain printed on it permit for quicker setup that's more portable than having to lug around a box of terrain and set it up. The trick will be coming up with a terrain layout that's fairly balanced for both sides using the various deployments zones.

I've finished assembling and am about halfway through painting my first Malifaux purchases. I'm looking for advice on what to add next to give me some options on what I put on the table.

I've got M&SU box, Rail Crew box, a pack of arachnids, and an Electrical creation.

I'm considering getting Johan, Soulstone Miners, Carlos, or possibly the Ironsides box. Carlos and the Soulstone Miners both look like the could be a lot of fun, Johan seems like he beefs up what I already own, and Ironsides gets me a third master, a solid support piece in the Captain, and the mages bring some ranged attackers to my melee heavy model collection.

I haven't played a game yet so I'm just guessing at what I'll need in my toolbox. What do I need to look at adding to my collection next to have the tools to deal with most schemes? Am I on the right track with the models that I'm looking at? 

I'd prefer purchases that make the two masters I have work better instead of branching out more but am not totally against getting a third master if the box is full of stuff that everyone will use (like the Ironsides box). I'd like to focus on getting some depth and flexibility with Ramos and Mei Feng instead of spreading my attentions.

You're rotating masters but are you doing the same with the rest of your list? Do you have a few combination of models that seem to end up in your crew when certain scheme show up regardless of which master you are bringing?

To people that have pinned the spiders (I just had to look up what that was to see if it was exactly what it sounded like, it was); did you use the tips of the feet or the bottom of the body?

39 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

That would indeed be a tough spacial equation to solve. What I did on mine is take a hand drill/pin vice to the spiders' bellies and glue in a 1/8" magnet, then pick where I wanted it on the base in relation to the others, having already put cork down a rocks. Hand dril intonthe cork, shove more magnets down the hole with some glue (making sure the right polarity is facing upwards to attract the spiders) and wait for it to dry.

Can be intimidating to start for sure, but breaking it down a piece at a time helps.

Also, magnets. They're just fun.

Thanks for the advice. Doing something other than just painting bases and maybe using a some sand or flocking isn't something that I've really given much thought to. 

I'm more interested in Malifaux for its gameplay aspects than I am for modeling but I figure that I should get my feet wet with the hobby bits instead of just throwing gray plastic on the table.

3 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

What are you having trouble with on the magnets?

Just for some background on my modeling experience, the arachnids are more complicated than anything I've ever assembled.

I was planning on attaching the spiders to small washers and then attaching magnets to the bases. In messing around with positioning 3 spiders on the 40mm base, I'm having trouble making them all fit without having their legs overlapping which doesn't seem like it will be possible with the legs glued to a washer.

I'm new to Malifaux (just started on my first crew and have yet to play the game). Ramos looked like a good box to start with since there's other Masters in the same faction that appeal to me and he comes with models that look useful no matter which Master I'm using.

I ordered the M&SU box and a box of spiders to get started. I was planning on magnetizing them so that I could have 12 spiders or 4 swarms or some combination in between. However, when the models arrived and I assembled them I realized that my plan exceeded my skill level.

What I'm wondering is, "Will Ramos ever need more than 6 spiders or 2 swarms?". Assuming a 5 round game and Ramos summoning two spiders per round, the most spiders that I should ever need will be 10. Hitting 10 also requires nothing to be killing my spiders which means that all that scrap has to be coming from somewhere. 

Will I kick myself for making 2 swarms and 6 spiders? I really want the flexibility from magnets but I'm not sure how to pull it off.