Thinking of starting up

[Stur]

Me and a friend are thinking of starting up in Malifaux. Reason behind this is we both love the models and we currently are playing infinity as our main game and are looking for something to just play casualy for fun. Looking at malifaux it looks fun and on the cheaper side of miniature games.

Only one "problem" there is no local environment for malifaux where we live and it will only be the two of us to begin with (we will see if any else decide to jump aboard later )

So with no one to teach us and show us the game we are at abit of a loss.

We will not be starting with the 2 player starter since we do not enjoy those minis at all. So we are wondering, realisticly what is the buy in price for this game. 

All we know is that we of course need minis so one crew box each will probably be a start, but how many extra models is reccomended?

And what about extras, cards, markers and stuff? Was thinking about just using D20 to keep track of wounds but beyond that I have no idea what to get.

And keep in mind this is just for casual play, read through some posts where the buy list for models was just about half or so of what is available for the faction hehe, bit of a heavy investment and I think unnecessary for just casual fun play.

Thanks in advance and any and all help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Cinnamon Bear]

https://schemesandstones.wordpress.com is currently going through and suggesting $100 buy-ins for those who want to get started in a faction. That might be more than you are willing to spend though.

Crew boxes tend to be in and around the 35SS mark, but the game tends to be more balanced around the 50SS mark. Depending on what crew you like the look of, its probably possible to buy the crew box + one other box to make a perfectly fine list. http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.jp/2014/10/m2e-starter-set-soulstone-values.html has the values of each of the released Crew Boxes to give you an idea. Some boxes have relatively more expensive stuff in them (like Ramos) while some have barely anything (Kirai).

If you are looking for a minimal investment and low model count, I'd advise strongly against any sort of summoning master (most Ressurectionists sadly fall into this category). Depending on what crew or faction you like the look of, the suggestions will probably differ.

[Gremlin66]

Do you and your friend have a crew or faction that you are interested in?

[Cinnamon Bear]

Oh, and for extras, I assume you already have measuring tape and most other wargaming supplies since you said you play Infinity. For markers, the easiest solution is just have extra bases that you can write on with a dry erase marker to stand for different things. For cards, the fate decks Wyrd makes are wonderful but you can also just use any normal deck of playing cards (including two jokers).

Hearts = Rams

Spades = Crows

Clubs = Tomes

Diamonds = Masks 

[-Loki-]

2 hours ago, Stur said:

Me and a friend are thinking of starting up in Malifaux. Reason behind this is we both love the models and we currently are playing infinity as our main game and are looking for something to just play casualy for fun. Looking at malifaux it looks fun and on the cheaper side of miniature games.

This rabbit hole, it is deep.

I was in the exact same boat. My brother, nephews and a friend and I play Infinity. I wanted something else on the side that was different. My plan was to buy a couple of crews, do some demo game,s and see if it catches on. Ended up roping my brother in to starting with me, and we started with 1 crew box each. I grabbed Lilith and he grabbed The Thunder.

It's about a year on, and I have almost as much Malifaux as I do Infinity. So does my brother. Both of us across multiple factions and multiple crews in those factions. I've got a huge set of Through the Breach sitting in the cupboard for Christmas and my birthday.

If Malifaux grabs you, it's grabbing you and dragging you right to the bottom of the rabbit hole.

[Adran]

As a minimum you will need a deck of cards each, tape measure, you can use your dice for wounds. You can use infinity models on 30 mm bases as markers. You can download the rules manual for free. 

Crew boxes aren't all the same size, but most of them will be playable without another purchase.  You will want to pick a points value and play at that, which might mean one of you doesn't use all their box. Because of Upgrades and Cache, I would typically suggest you can play games at 5 ss above the apparent soulstone cost of the box easily, and some will go even higher. 

I would say the game plays best at 50ss, but a lot of them mechanics do still balance at lower mechanics, so you can certainly play smaller games. 

The typical crew box contains 1 master, 1 totem, 1 henchman and 3 identically statted minions. (probably about half the boxes don't meet this, but its a rough guide). An easy way to start is try a few duels with minion v minion to get the hang of that. Then  try a game with multiple minions (and because they are all the same stats you only need to learn 1 stat card up to this point), and then a henchmen lead game with minions, then going to a master game, and then bringing in upgrades. For learning games, pick a stratergy (turf war is probably a good start as you don't score by killing, but it is forcing the models to be in the same sort of area to make them interact with each other)and then slowly add scheemes to the game, possible first by both just having the one scheme and then starting to add choice. The variety of the game is really due to the victory conditions which change from game to game. 

Depending on how fast you pick up rules, you might skip several of those steps, or you might want to spend a while on each of them.

The minimum required cost is low. But it is very hard to not just expand your options, because you build the crew once you know what you need to do, so you can make use of specialist models quite easily. Enjoy, and as you have questions, they can get answered here generally fairly easily. 

 

 

[Stur]

6 hours ago, Gremlin66 said:

Do you and your friend have a crew or faction that you are interested in?

I am mostly interested in Arcanist (This is purely based on looks and not playstyle) need to read up on that when I got time.

It sounded like my friend was most interested in neverborn Titania, but i can see that its gen con only for the time being so need to find out if he is willing to shell out for that, since we are in europe.

4 hours ago, -Loki- said:

If Malifaux grabs you, it's grabbing you and dragging you right to the bottom of the rabbit hole.

Oh I have no doubt that in time the collection will grow but I am going to try and contain myself for as long as possible haha.

[Sordid Strumpet]

2 minutes ago, Stur said:

I am mostly interested in Arcanist (This is purely based on looks and not playstyle) need to read up on that when I got time.

It sounded like my friend was most interested in neverborn Titania, but i can see that its gen con only for the time being so need to find out if he is willing to shell out for that, since we are in europe.

Most factions can do most things (Summoing, movement shenanigans, casting spells etc.), they just go about it in different ways. Arcanists have a lot of armour (on constructs, most often played by Ramos), two casting-focused masters (Rasputina with her ice theme for huge amounts of blast damage and Kaeris who's more of a support master that occasionally sets things on fire but doesn't have to), a scheming mobility master that's one of the most powerful in the game (Colette, but she's quite hard to master), a true brawler (Mei Feng) and one that looks like a brawler but is in fact more of a support master (Ironsides) and a beastmaster (Marcus).

[Stur]

 I was wondering if there is any reason not to get the rule book? (big "expensive" one). Other than of course money..

Was thinking more on the lines of if there is any real danger to 2ed to go out in 6 months and we get a 3rd edition.

Also is it not the only place to see all the unit profiles other than buying them?

Is there any crew builder online or is it just old fashion get the book/cards, pen and paper and get to it?

Will I need the schemes cards or can that be found in the book aswell? If I understood correctly they are secondary objectives similar to classifieds in infinity?

Sorry, know thats alot of questions and I really do appreciate the help you have given ne so far :)!

[JoeJones]

If you want the big rulebook, get it. Rules, fluff, art all are good. You will not regret it.

Wyrd is just now finishing up getting all the 1e models released in their M2E plastic form. It is extremely unlikely that they will put themselves through that again for another few years.

If you want to see the stats, you will have to get access to the books or cards. Except for the masters, that is. Wyrd just posted their star cards (front and back) on the master profile pages.

Crewfaux is available on both iOS and Android. It is a very useful crew building app.

The schemes and strategies can be found in either the core rule book or the (free to download) rules manual. Wyrd also sells a schemes & strategies deck which I highly recommend to anyone playing the game. Also available are the Gaining Grounds 2016 scheme and strategies. They are a different set of schemes and strategies better balanced for tournament play.  They are available in the Gaining Grounds 2016 pdf available from Wyrd's website, and as a schemes deck from Wargames Vault.

I hope this answers your questions. Welcome to Malifaux!

[-Loki-]

Earlier this year one of the staff said third edition wasn't even on the horizon at the moment. 2E itself doesn't need it. The ruleset is fine.

Not to mention they're currently working on The Other Side, so I doubt they would be actively developing two large releases at the same time.

[Omenbringer]

Not that I disagree that third edition is a ways off, but not on the radar can mean as little as 6 months to a year away. I also disagree that the ruleset is fine, there are things that need some attention (mainly the elevation rules).

Also I have little doubt that Wyrd could handle two large releases concurrently. A third edition doesn't have to be a huge departure from what has already been written, 2nd edition is fairly similar to 1st edition in terms of "core" rules. New editions tend to be more about re-balancing models than dramatic core rules adjustments.