Spoiled for Choice, or What Faction to Play?

[Talthar]

New to Malifaux but not to table top gaming, and I must say I am having a heckuva time deciding what faction to play.  Neverborn are off the table because that's what my room mate and best friend wants to play, and I don't do "goofy" factions so no Gremlins (nope, never played greenskins in 40K or WHFB ).  All the other factions are appealing in their own way, so I am in a bit of a quandry as to what to play.  The least appealing are the Arcanists, but all the rest are definitely in the running.  Would any experienced players be willing to share why they chose their faction and any tips they can give a new player.  Thanks!

[LunarSol]

I'd start by making a shortlist of say, the 5 masters you're most interested in.  That should give you a better idea.  Sonnia was my first love and remains the reason I mostly only dabble outside of Guild.

[Talthar]

I think my top 5 Masters (at the moment) would be Lady Justice, Seamus, Jack Daw, Perdita, and McMourning. And all really just from story aspects more than anything else.

[godswearhats]

All Masters seem broken and overpowered the first time you fight against them. There is a good mix of aggressive vs supportive masters in every faction, and the same goes for Henchmen and other models.

The best advice I can give is just to buy the models you want to paint the most and go from there.

[SpiralngCadavr]

26 minutes ago, godswearhats said:

All Masters seem broken* and overpowered the first time you fight against them.

* Except maybe lucius  

[Ludvig]

6 hours ago, Talthar said:

I think my top 5 Masters (at the moment) would be Lady Justice, Seamus, Jack Daw, Perdita, and McMourning. And all really just from story aspects more than anything else.

Can't go wrong with any of those I think. Jack Daw is probably the least straightforward but he is also the only one I haven't played or faced of those.

I'm a guildie. I picked them since I loved the models for guild guard, Lucius and McCabe to death and found that I also liked a lot of the other models in the faction. I now dabble in multiple factions. Before I made the choice I also had several master styles I liked but after reading model rules on pull my finger for a few weeks I figured that I could probably play only models I liked the style of in guild whereas I might have to mix themes in the other crews I was interested in.

The guild playstyle is usually to try and hit hard and neutralize the enemy before they gain the upper hand with high damage but squishy models. I would say guild has less super fast schemers and less fancy tricks than most other factions but they can apply buffs to their own models and move each other around (Perditas crew in particular)

Ressers are their exact opposite with very durable models but a little less raw damage on a lot of stuff. Ressers like to apply conditions to enemy models to control them and do more damage. (Edit) Forgot that ressers summon stuff too. Like every resser summons stuff and in guild there is only one theme that has very limited summoning. That's why the guild needs to get stuff done fast, some ressers will swarm the board in new models.

McMourning can be played in both factions but his box favours a start in ressers.

[godswearhats]

31 minutes ago, SpiralngCadavr said:

* Except maybe lucius  

Bah! I got my butt kicked by him the first time.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Heh, yeah, that's definitely a risk, but I feel like there's a difference between getting blindsided and then someone like Leveticus and the shock of his sheer damage output.

[Gnomezilla]

19 minutes ago, godswearhats said:

Bah! I got my butt kicked by him the first time.

Please. Lucius is going to paralyze his own crew one time too many, and get shot by his own henchman, one of these days. Not even in the back. It'll just be straight up "we don't need to put up with this any more".

But back on topic, I picked my first master the other way around. I made a short list of what I liked in game mechanics (support masters! complicated playstyles!), and then looked for overlap with what I love (steampunk robots, you say? support-optimize-obey-copy-complicated? sold!). So.

Your shortlist has two masters that hurt people in melee (Lady Justice, who lightly buffs her crew as well; McMourning, who either buffs other heavy hitters or summons in more bodies), two who shoot people at range (Perdita, whose crew also shoots people; Seamus, whose crew lures people into melee), and one support master (Jack Daw. He's...complicated. Some range attack, some debuffs, some pushes on other models, some obey effects, some copy effects, I'm sure I've forgotten something.).

I just started not that long ago. I thought I could avoid having to buy two crew boxes to get a firm 50 soulstone force. I was wrong and I should have just bought two boxes which went together instead of spending that extra $50ish on separate models which, although they do work well and make a 50ss crew, still aren't quite as many models and options as the crew boxes would have given me. Lady J + Perdita boxes play well together. Seamus + McMourning boxes play well together. I have no idea what would be the best extra purchase for a Jack Daw box, although the usual Outcast default box is a Von Schill box.

And the Leveticus players can keep their stinky rotten filthy hands off my nice clean constructs!

[admiralvorkraft]

20 minutes ago, Gnomezilla said:

and one support master (Jack Daw. He's...complicated. Some range attack, some debuffs, some pushes on other models, some obey effects, some copy effects, I'm sure I've forgotten something.)

You forgot crazy assassination runs.

If OP wants a one master faction then Jack Daw is the way to go. The Tormented keyword goes a long way, gets a great variety of models that can do anything. The only additional big boxes I would suggest are Levi (for Alyce, plus a better master for Interference/Recon) and the Crossroads 7 because it has like half the Tormented models in the game. Hunt down a solo Papa Loco, Jaakuna, Crooked Men, Drowned, done.

If I were to start the game again, the above is my buy order. No question.

[Gnomezilla]

5 minutes ago, admiralvorkraft said:

You forgot crazy assassination runs.

If OP wants a one master faction then Jack Daw is the way to go. The Tormented keyword goes a long way, gets a great variety of models that can do anything. The only additional big boxes I would suggest are Levi (for Alyce, plus a better master for Interference/Recon) and the Crossroads 7 because it has like half the Tormented models in the game. Hunt down a solo Papa Loco, Jaakuna, Crooked Men, Drowned, done.

If I were to start the game again, the above is my buy order. No question.

That's super helpful for the Jack Daw newbie, but...not even nurses? I thought everyone adored nurses.

[godswearhats]

Question for the original poster: what kind of player are you? Are you likely to be a competitive tournament player, or more of a casual play-with-your-buddies sort of player?

For the tournament player, there's a high likelihood you'll end up purchasing most models in your faction, so look at a faction as a whole and decide what aesthetic, fluff and models appeal to you the most. All factions have their strengths. I started with Ten Thunders and ended up going into Resurrectionists instead because a lot of the factions models didn't have the same appeal as my first choice had (Misaki).

For the casual player, I stand by my previous comment of picking your favorite looking models and going with that. I started with Misaki, bought a few more Ten Thunders models and played ~20 games before deciding that I wanted to switch to Resurrectionists.

Alternatively, start with the starter box - all the models in there are Mercenary, so you can effectively use them with any crew or faction once you've got your head around the game.

[admiralvorkraft]

32 minutes ago, Gnomezilla said:

That's super helpful for the Jack Daw newbie, but...not even nurses? I thought everyone adored nurses.

Nurses are great, but the problem with Jack is that he runs out of stones way before you've taken everything you want. Too much support is a trap I've definitely run into.

But yes, a solo nurse is probably worth adding to the buy order.

[Talthar]

14 hours ago, godswearhats said:

Question for the original poster: what kind of player are you? Are you likely to be a competitive tournament player, or more of a casual play-with-your-buddies sort of player?

I am very definitely a casual player. The tournament scene isn't for me...I really just like playing with friends and having a good time.

Alternatively, start with the starter box - all the models in there are Mercenary, so you can effectively use them with any crew or faction once you've got your head around the game.

That's what I'm thinking, because the Guild models would work with McMourning's "hospital of horror" theme really well. Plus you get Fate Decks, tapemeasures...a lot for your money.

 

[admiralvorkraft]

For what it's worth, the tournament scene (as far as I've been exposed to it) is mostly a way to get three good games in and not so much about winning at all costs. That's probably meta dependent, but I wouldn't rule tournaments out.