first post! new player, few questions

[jackfrost]

so I dutifully read the pullmyfinger wicki as well as searching out as many "I'm new" posts to see the answers that already exist.

 

wow you folks are nice!

 

so my questions are these if you please

 

1. mei feng doesn't seem to get mentioned all that much except in passing. is she bad? is she bad running ten thunders instead of arcanists?

 

I'm a metal worker in real life and I was drawn to her box set. should I go elsewhere? 

 

2. if she isn't bad, what is a good way to expand from the box in a way that only benefits her (like maximizing railwalk parties).

 

thank you all for any replies as well as for all the other replies I've read from other people's first posts.

[admiralvorkraft]

I think she's great. I do like her better in Arcanists because you get access to better constructs but there are people who swear by her with Toshiro. I think she's just not particularly tricky or controversial. She does her thing in her way better than anybody else, but she really only has the one thing in a couple of different flavors.

[Dirial]

Welcome to Malifaux!

 

Mei Feng is a great Master. Strong, fun to play, easy to learn, but not easy to master, with some fun tricks and great potential for head bashery.

 

Do you play her as TT or Arcanist? I don't really get what you mean by "just benefit her"....

 

The first things I would advise on buying would be the Rail Golem, Metal Gamin and perhaps Willie, rest depends on faction choice.

[MasterDisaster]

(0) Welcome to Malifaux!

 

First of all Malifaux isn't one of those games where you get power factions or crews. It's incredibly well balanced. I'd argue one of the most balances systems out there. The usual advice given to people like yourself who is inquiring about their first crew is "Just go for it!". Every Master and crew is very capable at every objective, some more so than others. Go with what you drawn too, if you're a metal worker then definitely go with Mei Feng. She's all about the Foundry and her skills certainly reflect that. 

 

As for avenues for expansion, Dirial gives some great suggestions for the Arcanists. The Metal Gamin, Rail Golem and Willie the Demolitionist are all solid choices. As they also have the Foundry trait they can be taken with her Ten Thunders crews as well. Be careful though, Ten Thunders can be a slippery slop into a million other factions. Take a look at my signature, those Masters all stemmed from Misaki!

 

If you want to play her exclusively as Ten Thunders there are other models that will prove useful although many are still in the process of being released etc so you may need to proxy in the mean time. Basiclally anything with "Construct" on it's card works well with Mei Feng, especially if they can dish out some Burning. Komainu are fantastic for this, coincidentally Toshiro the Daimyo who is Yan Lo's henchman, he can not only buff the living crap out of all minions making Mei's Rail Workers utterly crazy but he can summon Komainu from Scrap Markers and Ashigaru from Corpses. To further add to this synergy Mei Feng's Totem can create scrap for you! 

 

Really it depends on which direction you want to focus on. Ten Thunders will no doubt lead you into a bunch of other crews and Factions. Arcanists will probably do the same however it'll be more focused on the Arcanist faction as Ramos and Kaeris' crews both have a lot of useful crossover with Mei Feng. 

[chris_havoc]

I agree with everything that has been said. If you want to play Mei Feng she is great as an Arcanist or 10T Master and her Foundry models are available to you in both. Which Faction you expand into depends on the aesthetic you prefer. If you like the Asian theme then 10T is the way to go if you like the big steampunk robots then Arcanists will be a better bet.

[Argentbadger]

I've played a lot of Mei Feng in Ten Thunders, so hopefully I can add to the other responses here.  Firstly, to answer your specific questions.

 

1.  I've had a lot of success with Mei Feng on the UK tournament scene playing as Ten Thunders so it would be my opinion that she isn't weak.

 

2.  If you specifically want to bring on the Rail Walk parties then I'd recommend a box of Metal Gamin.  They're cheap significant minions who take a fair bit of work to remove.  They won't be able to punch their way out of a paper bag, but you're not taking them for fighting.  Probably the Rail Golem would also be a good purchase on the 'only benefits Mei Feng' side, but I don't own it so I can't comment (other than that I haven't missed it).  There are plenty of other great options in Ten Thunders which are good for Mei Feng, but they're good with all sorts of other crews too.

 

If you search in the battle reports forum for threads started by me you can see plenty of my games using Mei Feng to varying success against some very strong players in the UK.  They might give a little context to what works (for me at least) with Mei Feng.

[jackfrost]

Aw wow thanks for all the well thought out replies folks

Okay so im definitely going to go TT on this and it seems like there is a simple list that follows out of that.

Metal gamin, daimyo... ill skip the rail golem this time... then im not sure what ither TT stuff to add..

Id like to start off with a 50ss list so could you kind folks just throw down what i should buy on top of my mei feng box?

Again thank you fine folks. Youve actually made it very clear what direction i want to take now.

[zFiend]

Very cool models in TT are Ten Thunder Brothers but they aren't avalaible atm. 

 

From models that are avalailable Mr. Graves is usually worth his cost. Doesn't bring much synergy apart from beating face and throwing Kang around. But he is a bit on the slow side. 

 

I think Katanaka Snipers should be coming out soon if you want some firepower. Ten Thunder Archers bring that as well. Oirans are pretty cool with their new upgrade if you want to pick those up. 

 

Ama No Zako gets a lot of positive feedback too. 

[tomjoad]

I know not everybody will agree, but I think 10 Thunder Brothers might be the best model in the faction. I recommend any 10T player who is willing to own/deal with metal models should try and find them online somewhere. They don't have any particular synergy with Mei Fang that I know of, but they are just excellent. If you want firepower, the Sniper (which is on the docket to be released in April) kinda can't be beat, and I've had good times with the Samurai as well. I have no experience using Thunder Archers (they seem good with the archer upgrade in Crossroads, though) and Fuhatsu doesn't strike me as being strictly as GOOD as samurai, but he does seem super awesome and fun all the same.

 

In a Mei crew you might find that including very many of these guys doesn't work very well. They aren't constructs or anything, and she needs those to move and kill things. Still, a few of these (especially Brothers) will really help you win games.

[jackfrost]

Okay thats good advice, ill try out the brothers.

One thing tyats confusing me though is this.

I bought the wave1 and wave 2 cards and i cant find the pathfinder or traps or the ashigaru cards anywhere?

[zFiend]

Ashigaru are in the Rezzer deck where as the pathfinder is in the Guild. But if you buy those you'll get the m2e cards with them so no worries.

[SpiralngCadavr]

I like her quite a bit- this is a little outdated (from a personal perspective), but here's a decently in-depth intro to her that I wrote some time back: link

[jackfrost]

okay wow, that was a great read on top of everything else. and the battle reports from argentbagder are also very helpful.

 

this is my current list I want to build.

 

mei feng

emberling

metal gaminx2

punk zombiex2

rail workerx2

toshiro the daimyo

 

with everything else that comes with the models that you get from those packs as well as the pack that contains the ashigaru I feel like I'll have enough for 2 relatively okay lists?

 

what do you guys think?

[Furio]

The biggest thing to remember is that in Malifaux you build your list in the minutes before playing, once you have already seen the table, and which of the schemes and strategies that you will be playing with. There are times when you want loads of models and others that you will want a small elite crew.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Glad you liked it!

 

Regarding building after you know conditions, that depends. With the right master and enough experience, you can pretty easily design around 3/4 of a list as a strong all-comers list.

 

That list looks like a strong generalist list and should do well, assuming no scenario stuff is particularly bad for it, etc.

 

I'd replace the Punks with Illuminated since they're tougher and have a ranged option, but Illuminated will compare well to just about anything, and I always prefer to have ranged options (regardless of game). From the perspective of a pretty regular resurrectionist, unfortunately Punk Zombies are not great hires. They're fantastic summons, but especially when you have Illuminated, they're really only fun as a hire from a fluffy perspective IMHO. It's not that they're bad, but their mileage is closer to a 6 when they need to slog it across the field.

 

Hmm... actually, with vent steam, that could compensate quite a bit. Still, I'd highly suggest proxying them before buying, unless you plan on eventually playing ressers anyway.

 

Either way, to be clear, I don't think hiring Punks is going to be shooting yourself in the foot, it just probably won't be optimal.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I've never found hiring punks to be worthwhile, unless you have access to cheap lures, and even then they are a suboptimal purchase in my experience. But that is from a competitive viewpoint, not a get models on the table and move them around.

I don't personally play Mei, but if I were building a list for her, for myself, I would try to mainly hire constructs. I wouldn't only hire them, but any model that wasnt would have to really earn a place.

[SpiralngCadavr]

I really only find that she needs around 3-4 before you start to get diminishing returns: Fewer, and you're not taking advantage of her mobility; more, and I feel that if you're obsessing over them then you could be ignoring options when a little better positioning will accomplish the same thing (not that I wouldn't grab a construct over a non-construct if all other things were equal).

 

Toshiro's quite nice with her typical crew composition and totem, probably my favorite non-thematic model and not a construct (though able to make more), and Scraps will make her list even more flexible, since anything will be able to become a temporary construct.

 

I don't think it's like some condition masters or marcus where if they don't have a trait, they need to excel at another purpose. Once you have that core of constructs, really anything that has decent crew interactions or acts well independently can work.