Hello all! I'm brand new here, first post, and glad to be here. I'm an FLGS owner with an extreme love of all games, and I'm an avid player of many various games. Ironically, the FLGS takes up most of my time and limits my actual ability to game, so whenever I find a new game I love the concept of, I'm straight up kid in a candy store. You know the type; everything's all shiny and new, and you just want a piece of everything. I assure you this will at least be somewhat relevant later. If you want the tl;dr, just skip to the starred ******* section. I'm a bit of a talker
Basically, one of my regulars swung by to pick up a curbside order the other day, and we had an interesting conversation after he'd left concerning Malifaux. At first, I didn't see a particular character that really jumped out at me. I did a bit more research and ruminated a bit over a cup of coffee, and I'm loving what I'm seeing. When you see games crossing your table on a constant basis, it's not hard to know quality when you see it, and Malifaux has all the hallmarks of a well designed game. I love the deck of cards mechanic (funnily enough, I just got my hands on a REALLY nice constellation themed deck of playing cards the same day!), the aesthetic, and the way that dice are gone entirely. Don't get me wrong; the siren song of the bones clacking together on the table is amazing, but the prospect of getting snake eyes the entire game is a constant threat and nothing grinds a great showdown to a halt than bad rolls. Now, I'm not open to the public outside of an extremely well sanitized appointment with regulars (seriously, full on plague doctor coverage) so the odds of me actually playing a match until my state declares the pandemic under control; even then, I'll probably be cautious for a while just to be safe.
Anyway, herein lies the problem with the kid in a candy store effect: everything looks awesome. I've followed the general consensus across the internet to pick a master/faction that appeals to me aesthetically. Trouble is....that's a pretty long list. Everything looks like a blast.
So, I ask for advice from regulars of the hobby, as my local community is small. If it catches on, I hope to expand it greatly. I doubt I'll ever have a following to do full on tournaments, but I'm certainly open to trying. Basically, I need a recommendation for my very first master picks, or at least to narrow it down to a top three. I'm a veteran of just about every card game on the market, and I'm no stranger to wargaming. I avidly played Deathwatch in 40k 7th, and I still play Heroclix when I find the time (Masters of Evil <3), and grew up with a LOT of XCOM, past and present. My general playstyle is very straightforward, and I don't like to have to micromanage too much in a game. I get distracted pretty easily and am fairly bamboozle-able, so I will lean towards a singular strategy and excel at that. I usually prefer to play either outright overwhelming force or control. Skillwise, I'd rank myself at a 6/10 going into most games, with a hard cap of an 8 later on; I'm, unfortunately, a slow learner when it comes to actually applying the rules.
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tl;dr Which masters would you recommend to a new player with a preference for straightforward strategies? So far, the following masters appeal to me, and I am honestly at a brick wall figuring out which one I think is the coolest ever. I'm open to any and all recommendations, so I appreciate it. These aren't ranked by interest, just by order on the site starting with Guild and going down to Bayou, since Cornelius would technically be first and last. And, all the lore appeals to me, so don't take that into account. XD And yes, I know this is mostly a matter of opinion, but at this point I'm close to grabbing dice and rolling it. Also, budget is one box for now. Just a starting team. Will likely expand later but there is no rush.
* Cornelius Basse
* Dashel Barker
* Seamus
* Professor Von Schtook
* Marcus
* The Viktorias
* Leveticus
* Hamelin
* Parker Barrows
* Som'er Teeth Jones
* The Brewmaster