Teaching Yan Lo to Complete Newcomer to Wargames

[Kalkris]

Hey all,

 

I am looking to teach more newcomers about Malifaux and I have piqued the interest of one person in particular, who has no prior experience in wargames. I have already successfully pitched the concept of Malifaux to the protege, and he has taken a shine to Yan Lo as a starting box. My questions to you are these:

 

What should I emphasize to this player when describing playstyle for Yan Lo? I've already mentioned his dual-faction status and he likes his other faction as well, so that is helpful, but what else do I make note of for him? I suppose that once I have posted this I will head to PMF for tactics, but beyond those, what should I make clear?

 

Who should I pit Yan Lo against, in order to accentuate the positives without a) being too hard on the new player, or being too easy on him? My crews are as follows (besides Yan Lo): Perdita, Sonnia, Lucius, McCabe (who I have never used in M2E), Seamus, McMourning, Mei Feng, Pandora, Lynch, Dreamer, Collodi, Hamelin, Tara, Misaki, and Jack Daw. Assume the full thematic suite for most of these options. What I *am* missing thematically include: Witchling Handler, Guild Guards or Dashel (I have not assembled mine yet XD), Dead Doxies, Flesh Constructs, Widow Weaver, Ten Thunder Brothers, Punk Zombies, Onryo, etc.

 

How big of a game should we play to start? Should I even bring in Yan Lo right away? If not, who is similar yet easier, from those I own? And who should I pit that master against? And then when I do allow the use of Yan Lo, how big should that game be (if different)?

 

I do have a few unpainted metal Punk Zombies (like about 6 or so lol) - maybe I can start him out with a Toshiro-led Henchman game or something. Maybe like 25ss or the like. Should I maybe consider learning McCabe/Sidir in that case?

 

Thank you!

 

~Lil Kalki

[D_acolyte]

Hello, hope you two have fun killing each other on the table top.

I recommend sticking with one master till you get the rules down unless you hate that master and remembering this best kept secret keep your eyes on the objective. I know simple, so simple that people forget it and get caught up in kill models or removing an annoying enemy, especially the big impressive looking ones.

Yan Lo is about the use of Chi to adapt when need and running support for key models (ancestors). That being said ancestors are expensive point wise and can cut down on your numbers of other models I recommend 2-3 in any game, activations count in Maliflaux because if you can hold your big guns in reserve capitalize on you opponents moving forward it make the game that much easier.  Each ancestor has a roll that they are good at and the rest of the crew is there to help to either make up for that models short coming or to support in that role.

As a sparing partner, I like hand to hand masters and Misaki is easier then Mei for newer players as being less trigger intensive. If you like shooting go Predita or Sonnia. I would stay away form Pandora, Dreamer, and Tara at the beginning.

I would start with the battle box, they are roughly the same points I think and if not scale down to the lower. I have not played many henchman games so I can not offer to much of an opinion there.

An easier master then Yan Lo is McMourning or Misaki.

[daemonkin]

I would definitely go small to begin with - 25-30SS henchman games with known schemes and a simple strategy - Turf War with Breakthrough and Distract. This means getting mpodels to the centre for scoring, Breakthrough will teach him how interactions with scheme markers work and Distract shows interactions with enemy models (not necessarily killing them) to score points.

 

With Toshiro he can also summon Ashigaru from corpses which will show summoning rules (slow, half wounds) and will also get him playing some models that come with Yan Lo's box.

 

D.

[Wake of Godzilla]

Yan Lo can be one of the trickiest masters to work with, after playing him for a while now I still end up scratching my head and trying to work out why I would use him over other masters.

 

Daemonkin's suggestion to start small with 25 stones henchmen game is a great one. Run Turf Way and maybe one scheme. The maybe introduce something slowly (Izamu is a good next option). 

 

A lot of Yan Lo's strength can be his crew synergy and models which can be frustrating at the moment getting hold of the Konamu and Onryo is a little challenging (unless you have them already).