Maniacal_cackle

Hi all, I'm visiting Australia a few times over the next year, with a fair bit of flexibility. Recently turning into a big Malifaux fan, I thought I'd see if I can line up a tournament for some of the visits. What tournaments/events are coming over the next year that might be worth a look when I visit from NZ? I see there is a MOAB one on October 5th; are there likely to be many others? There is a big national one each year as well, right? Thanks!

What about sculpts? Can people field models they sculpted from scratch/didn't use any non-wyrd model parts? Or does green stuff and the like count as non-wyrd models?

A major application of this is when Archie is spending a turn moving. Charge > attack > flurry/heal > move > leap is definitely a maneuver I'd use at times. I often run him on a flank, so he sometimes has to spend a turn repositioning. There are also the cases where he is at 1 life and wants to avoid enemies until he is back up to 5-7 or so (with gst, he heals ~4 a turn, so it can be correct to take a turn off to heal). If it is a legal move, it definitely has applications.

Nope, he's an enforcer now! Probably a good thing, he'd be hella hard to kill if he could clutch soulstone when he gets low.

That's a sweet strategy! Although aren't alps the best minions to summon for attack purposes? They do a damage and get a bonus attack on unburying. What do people think of a core list that looks like: * dreamer and chompy * Serena (8) * coppelus (9) * 2 stiched (12) * 2 daydreams (6) * 1 insidious madness (7) * 8 SS cache. I may be slightly wrong on costs. Seems like this crew can start lucid dreaming from the get go, has a few maneuverable models to get the ball rolling on wp duels, and has lots of options for summoning (especially once some models die). Some modifications based on strats and schemes, of course!

I believe so. I think I saw an article talking about "only fielding 10 SS (plus master/totem)". Additionally, they state they're different from normal tournaments in the listed ways. Since it doesn't list masters not being free, I'd assume they are!

Thanks everyone, this is super handy! So it's unlikely the models will be available until November? Is the crew viable (at a casual level) without the stitched together, or are they key to the keyword? I understand that summoner's are always heavily reliant on having access to all their minions, but how significant an impact would it have?

I've planned on eventually picking up The Dreamer for a while, and have realised I want some of the 2E models. So I have bumped it up my priority list! What would people say are the key models to get? So far I'm thinking: * M2E core box Hide and Seek * insidious madness * stitched together This would give me master, totem, Coppelus and all minions. Im going to try to snag the bear-ly together at Gen Con or whenever they are next available, instead of regular stitched. To make the crew more thematic, I'm also tempted to get Teddy. The Nightmare Teddy Bear crew just sounds awesome. Any other suggestions? Any reason to not pick up the above? Thanks!

I would lean towards probably not, particularly as nothing explicitly says it gets to keep the upgrades. Plus every other rule seems to treat upgrade and model as separate entities (for instance, the soulstone cost of a model is its cost, regardless of upgrades).

I play against a Kirai player regularly. I don't know the keyword that well, but have some insights from playing against. Some of my thoughts (to be taken with a grain of salt) Summoning goryo is hugely impactful, make sure to do it sometimes. Your totem can be brought back easily, and doesn't stop you from summoning other stuff. It's okay to be a bit aggressive (but not stupid) with it. Have plenty of soulstones in your cache so you can use them for the crows trigger necessary to summon. Seishin are insane, as are the other models that can do walk actions for your crew. Between summons and extra move actions, your crew is highly mobile. Abuse this. Shikome or whatever the little harpy things are great scheme runners. They're fast, flying, and can hold their own in a fight. Summon based on what is useful for the situation. Late game that often means whatever scores you points, but early game it often means maxing out the strength of your crew (summoning your second goryo). It takes a lot of resources to kill your models, and then you can summon them back! Don't be stupid with them, but also don't be afraid to lose them. Keep your master/henchmen/etc safe. They mostly seem to be strong utility, so have them buffing the rest of your crew while the expendable minions hold the lines. Just my thoughts, anyway!

That's probably my biggest error in thinking. I assumed HH would be great for casual play, but it feels even more unforgiving/competitive.

My leader has chatty and manipulative, so rounds out the crew nicely! And a ranged slow. I guess it makes sense to incentivise fast play, but it just feels like surely some keywords are not viable? As for using obey on the crooligans, that might be tricky unless the enemy is hyper mobile. They generally stay behind terrain focusing until they are ready to teleport. It just seems like some crews will struggle to move ~7 inches and drop an explosive, and it feels ridiculous that my crew can move ~24 inches and drop an explosive, or ~13 inches and drop three, or move 13, attack 4+ times and drop a marker. In 50SS that's not a big deal, but in HH it is just too efficient.

Thanks for the feedback all I don't generally like 'going easy' on people, but will take up some of these suggestions (especially the scheme suggestion to challenge myself)! The general concern was that the learning curve of the game is already quite steep, so I'm looking for ways to smooth it out a bit. I do try to give tips to my opponents (and receive them), but some simple masters to play against should help out. I'll look into some of these suggestions! Edit: also love the suggestion to minimise model diversity/use the same minions.

Over the weekend I played a few games of henchmen hardcore, and it was certainly interesting! It seems like an intensely competitive format, where lots of lists/strategies keywords simply may not be viable. That said, it was only a few games, but here are my first impressions of the rules and their effects. EDIT: overall I found it a fast and fun format, and is great for when time is constrained. TLDR: The combination of Plant Explosives AND scoring points turn 1 is a bit broken. Either it should be turf war (start scoring turn one) or plant explosives (start scoring turn two). Game size is 30 soulstones, no free leader or effigies, henchmen leaders, soulstone cache 3, fixed for event. 4 models exactly. No summoning. This makes for interesting list composition, significantly narrowing what you can take. Smaller SS games is the point of henchmen hardcore, so not much to say about it here. The soulstone cache limit of 3 is important for keeping leaders killable, and fixed crew lists prevent cheesing out opponent's weaknesses every game (which would be worse at this size than 50SS I reckon). Like this part. Similarly the four models exactly excludes certain ridiculous lists. No summoning is also a no-brainer. Max hand size of four A necessary change. 6 cards is far too many for 4 models. However, it does provide a bit of a buff to crews that are good at hand manipulation (either their own or to others). Leaders have an action limit of 2. Important flavour wise (they're still just 'henchmen') as well as balance wise. Assassinate would be extremely difficult with triple action leaders in such a small setting, and the leaders could very easily do plant explosives. Strategy: Plant explosives. Schemes: assassinate & vendetta. Score points from turn 1 on. Wedge deployment. This is nice in that it makes for a very interactive game, but the scoring starting turn 1 breaks the game a bit. Planting explosives early is already hugely rewarding - models can go harass the enemy after they drop off their explosives. Throwing in an early victory point lead can be devastating. The result is really only one kind of list seems viable: highly mobile, hard-hitting crews. A crew that can easily drop it's payload of explosives and then slog it out in combat is going to emerge as a clearly dominant strategy in my view. I was playing Resurrectionist, and Archie + 2 crooligans + any henchmen seems ridiculous. Dropping 3+ explosives is reasonably trivial unless the enemy all-ins on denying. And if they do, scoring vendetta & assassinate is easy with this brutal crew. This particular combination just makes for a very narrow range of strategies being viable. Slower keywords just don't stand a chance, and sending an early strategy runner to drop an explosive token opens your model to getting squished. It really needs to be a crew-wide maneuver. It seems like the setup would be better if scoring was delayed a turn (so slower or shootier crews had more time to setup), or if it was based on turf war (so any crew could snag their first turn point, and combat still happened over the 5 markers). EDIT: Flank deployment, with its huge deployment range coverage, would also be worth considering as an option. I recommend tinkering with different scenarios for casual clubs trying this mode out!

My club has a wide variety of skill levels, and so I want a couple different masters to be able to swap between competitive and casual environments. The Neverborn seem like an appealing faction generally. Are there any masters people would recommend for playing in a casual environment, especially against new or inexperienced players? Ideally said master would be relatively easy to understand for an opponent, is easily counter played, and a bit underpowered. I really like the look of the Dreamer, but worry it looks very powerful (between summoning, lucid dreams, and the models generally). Suggestions appreciated! Currently I play Molly/Forgotten, and I feel a bit overpowered. It feels especially unfair against players who haven't played as much as I have, and the crew has loads of abilities that feel 'unfair.' So am looking for the opposite of that!

Just played a few games today with the list I mentioned above (Philip & the nanny, Archie, 2 crooligan, 2GST). It was crazy good. My opponents had no good avenues to score points on schemes (Vendetta against Archie is hard), and the explosives were insanely easy to place between Archie and the Crooligans. Not to mention how difficult I could make life for the opponent. Archie + crooligan can drop their loads in the first one-two turns, freeing up the rest of the game for harassing them. This could be countered by attacking Archie, but that never ended well. Would not be surprised if this turns out to be a Tier 1-2 crew.

I found this marker generator: https://birgerro.github.io/Malifaux_Marker_Generator/Malifaux_marker_generator.html I'm using 30 mm for corpse & scrap markers, 20 mm for conditions, and 25 mm for conditions with an X (like burning, poison). The intention is to put a die on top of the 25mm conditions to keep track of what the number is. Saves me the trouble of keeping track of a bunch of different colours of dice. I'll print them out, pop them on some cardboard, and just drop them onto cards as models develop conditions (or in some cases, on the battlefield next to the model. Slow & fast work best on the field, IMO). EDIT: I use 2nd edition cards as trackers for my models: whether they've activated, HP, etc. I have a separate pile of 3E cards that I use to reference the rules. In this way, I can easily keep track of which condition/health card relates to which model, without having to flip the card around to read the rules.

Neat find! Seems situationally useful (largely when you're happy discarding your hand) Early turns, can make night terrors move extra distance (charge a friendly model + attack = 10 inch move?) Can full heal archie (worthwhile if they're vendatting him and trying to take him down, for instance). Probably not worth it on rabble risers (as they already discard to flurry and get focus on the extra attack), but maybe occasionally (especially if P&N is nearby?) Crooligans already eat schemes just fine, but potentially. Rogue necromancy can stack quite a bit of poison (again, potentially useful early if you have something for it to attack?) Definitely something I hope to use at some point, but I think it'll be rare that it is worth the cards. Molly, etc. already have lots of ways to trigger discards, but it is one more tool in the toolbox.

Whoops, you're right, I was mixed up. It's the 'helping hand' ability that doesn't matter (free effigies with henchmen). Guess we'll just have to play them out and see how they go! EDIT: In particular, note the wedge deployment. Seems like that'll make a big difference here, where engagements can be forced pretty easily with the rest of the team coming up as well.

If you can't avoid archie, how do you ensure you drop an explosive token every turn (including the first)? You get 5 explosive tokens and 5 turns to score points with them. If a single model is killed or your opponent snags one off the ground, you're behind again. Also you can't take the fate upgrade. I've always found plant explosives to involve heaps of interacting with the opponent (between trying to kill the explosive carriers and snagging them after they drop).

I think choosing to ignore vendetta might be a meta choice that actually happens. For instance, the crew of leader + archie + rogue necromancy + mindless zombie is possible. Such a crew would be intentionally giving up vendetta for the ridiculous power (and possibly just wiping the enemy team). If someone chose to go the route you're suggesting, I'd probably just focus on taking away their option of scoring plant explosives (after all, they're likely a pretty weak crew).

Crossroads seven might be good? I haven't looked at their models, but four strong models seems a pretty good deal. Philip & the Nanny might not be that bad - access to Archie or Rogue Necromancy is a nice boon (and technically could take both + mindless zombie). P&N seems solid for plant explosives and assassinate: durable leader and you make it difficult for your opponent to plant explosives. All the minion options are solid as well. Rabble risers have some decent fighting power, but crooligans are probably what I'd go with. Very good for both schemes and placing explosives. Can run off by themselves to plant explosives, and if the opponent decides to engage, they can teleport back (often with less cards in hand, making them quite dangerous). P&N is the only henchman I own, but I'll be starting with: Philip & the Nanny with GST (10SS) Archie with GST (11SS) Crooligan (4SS) Crooligan (4SS) The regenerative power and sheer tankiness of the crew will make it hard to score the schemes, and the crew has great killing power and huge power for plant explosives. Not to mention that a lot of crews will want to focus against them, which P&N helps against. EDIT: Max hand size four is another rule! Definitely makes this crew list weaker... But still probably what I'd go with! Possibly replace a crooligan with a rabble riser.

I'll second the terrain. It's a hugely important part of the game, and if you're skimping, it hugely favours the ranged crews.

I generally agree, and for many buildings we simply have 0 entry points (it's just a block of impassable, blocking terrain). Perhaps not as elegant, but has been very effective for small buildings.

Totally support this. I got in a few months ago, and starting with M3E has major upsides. We only had to learn one ruleset, we got to learn the most relevant rules, and we purchased models based on the most up-to-date rules (one person considered a dead man's hand model before finding out about those rules). Also, 50 soulstone games are hard even for experienced players, IMO. I'd start them with something super simple for the first few games. Maybe do a game at 15, 25, and 35 soulstones (sans masters).