Starting Malifaux, Ophelia, and some meta questions

[jayandrewryan]

Hello,

My friends and I had a hobby and gaming weekend a few days ago and near the end one of our number said, "Hey, I have a lot of Malifaux models.  We should give that a try."  We divided things up based on what we liked and I ended up with an old (metal) Ophelia box, a War Pig, 2 Slop Haulers, 4 Bayou Gremlins, and Som'er (oh, and the Som'er and Peaches Avatar).  

The others have the factions they want to play and we're going to get started Sunday with 25 SS games.  I have a number of questions as I have been reading lots of posts here and articles on Pull My Finger Wiki.

All of the cards I had were wave 1, so have ordered the M2e rulebook and a wave 2 arsenal deck.  I already had a fate deck.  I have a 3 x 3 board and plenty of terrain.

Q1) Do I need anything else to play?

When I started reading the Gremlins info I was immediately attracted to Som'er and the pigs, but also Ophelia.  After looking at what I have, I would like to just go with Ophelia for right now.  Due to that, I decided to order Lucky Effigy, Burt Jebsen, and Old Cranky.

Q2) Based on the models I listed above and the new ones I have purchased, will I be able to play 25 SS games with a Henchmen?

Q3) Will I be able to increase my to 50 SS games using all of my models + upgrades?

I'm still reading the rule book, so I don't have any specific questions there (the rules seem well done).  I did notice that the cards I have for Gremlins wave 1 look like Outcasts but now Gremlins seem separate.
 

Q4) When did Gremlins become their own faction outside of Outcasts?

Thanks in advance.

[Gremlin66]

Being new also. Why Lucky effigy? 

[jayandrewryan]

Two reasons.  First, I love the way it looks.  Second, healing with Luck o' the Draw.

[Gremlin66]

Maybe I should have picked him/it up instead of Sammy. Kudos to you.

[Dogmantra]

1. You'll also need a tape measure and some markers. For Markers, you'll need 30mm scheme markers, and then depending on the Strategy you play, you might need up to 5 more 30mm markers and 2 50mm markers. Those 50mms you can also use as blast templates. You can just draw round a base and cut them out of paper for the time being. Depending on who your friends are playing, they might need Corpse and Scrap markers which are also 30mm.

2. & 3. You've got a load already! You have more than enough models to play 50 stone games. The only thing is that you only have one Henchman - Francois LaCroix. You can still play a 25 stone henchman game but you won't have any choice of who to take as your leader.

4. In 1st Edition, the Outcasts was a more "out there" sort of faction, where not only the outcasts from society went but also the outcasts from the more structured design (e.g. the Viktorias were one master made of two models). Som'er was an Outcast master who could only hire Gremlins and Pigs. Then when 2e came around, they made Gremlins their own new faction, since due to the hiring restriction, they basically were already. They also made the Ten Thunders their own faction too, since they added a Dual Faction mechanic.

[Math Mathonwy]

11 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

They also made the Ten Thunders their own faction too, since they added a Dual Faction mechanic.

TT were their own faction from the get-go when they were introduced in the fourth book of the first edition but otherwise that was spot on. In M1e basically no one could hire Gremlins other than Somer and Somer could hire only Gremlins so them being Outcasts wasn't very relevant (other than declaring Faction and then the opponent not knowing whether they'd be facing Somer or Levi or Viks).

But mostly I wanted just to add that the Somer Avatar is a legal Proxy for the Lucky Emissary. So feel free to use him for that. Or you could use Peaches without Somer riding her to represent, e.g., Old Major (a tournament legal "conversion").

[jayandrewryan]

Thanks for the information.  One last question, is it necessary to have the Wave 1 and Wave 2 arsenal decks in order to play the game?

[PositronMike]

50 minutes ago, jayandrewryan said:

Thanks for the information.  One last question, is it necessary to have the Wave 1 and Wave 2 arsenal decks in order to play the game?

The wave 1 and wave 2 arsenal decks are not needed. They contain all the cards for a given faction from the first two books. The main reason to get them is if you have the old metal models so that you have the M2E stat cards for them. The other options for getting the new stat cards for the metal models are to use books 1 and 2 or use the print on demand service from wargames vault to buy only the cards for the models you have.

[Adran]

From the sounds of it you don't have the wave 1 cards, you have the first edition cards. Those aren't going to be any use to you for the new edition

And the models you have are gremlin models that will be in the wave 1 arsenal deck. So if possible I would suggest cancelling your wave 2 deck, and try and find a wave 1 deck. 

If not, them there is the print on demand service. 

 

As a group you will probably want to buy the general upgrades pack, as that contains upgrades for all 7 factions, that aren't obtained by buying the models.  (tehy are in the arsenal decks, but there are soem in both wave 1 and 2) But since you all seem to be playing different factions, you can split that between you all if you want. 

 

[jayandrewryan]

Fortunately, I have a Gremlins Wave 1 deck, with Wave 2 on the way.  Unfortunately, the Neverborn player does not have the Wave 1 deck.

I don't understand how new players can get into the game when the Wave 1 boxes are out of print.

[Adran]

All the cards you need will come with the models as you buy them. 

The few cards that don't come with models appear in the general upgrade decks. 

The Purpose of the Arsenal decks was to allow people who played in the last edition to still be able to use their models, and now that we are 4 years after the edition changed, the number of people that have old metal models and not new cards, that start playing the new edition is quite small. If you just started playing now and bought the figures now, you would have no need for the arsenal decks. 

[azog]

28 minutes ago, Adran said:

All the cards you need will come with the models as you buy them. 

The few cards that don't come with models appear in the general upgrade decks. 

The Purpose of the Arsenal decks was to allow people who played in the last edition to still be able to use their models, and now that we are 4 years after the edition changed, the number of people that have old metal models and not new cards, that start playing the new edition is quite small. If you just started playing now and bought the figures now, you would have no need for the arsenal decks. 

Then how do you get the non-named upgrades? At least I solved it by buying the arsenal decks, but maybe there's some better way? Especially since there seem to be new upgrades coming now in the new book that I don't understand how to get. *n00b*

[Math Mathonwy]

16 minutes ago, azog said:

Then how do you get the non-named upgrades? At least I solved it by buying the arsenal decks, but maybe there's some better way? Especially since there seem to be new upgrades coming now in the new book that I don't understand how to get. *n00b*

General Upgrades Pack holds the Upgrades that aren't specific to a given crew and therefore don't come in the starters.

[Adran]

And General Upgrade pack 2 contains all the non crew specific upgrades in Ripples of Fate. I got mine at Gencon, but I would expect a september release for it in line with the book. 

 

 

[azog]

Right, that explains it. Thanks!

[Dogmantra]

Also, Gaining Grounds 2016 (the official tournament document) explicitly calls out that photocopies from the rulebooks or printouts from the PDFs are 100% legal to use as stat or upgrade cards.

[jayandrewryan]

56 minutes ago, Dogmantra said:

Also, Gaining Grounds 2016 (the official tournament document) explicitly calls out that photocopies from the rulebooks or printouts from the PDFs are 100% legal to use as stat or upgrade cards.

The PDFs of the cards no longer seem to be available.

[Dogmantra]

20 minutes ago, jayandrewryan said:

The PDFs of the cards no longer seem to be available.

Ah sorry, I could have been clearer - I meant printouts from the various rulebook PDFs, which are available from DrivethruRPG. The Big Rulebook (just called Malifaux 2e*) has all the wave 1 stat cards, Crossroads has all of wave 2, Shifting Loyalties has wave 3 and when it comes out, Ripples of Fate has all of wave 4. The metals you have are all from Wave 1, except for the Som'er and Peaches avatar, which is no longer a model in normal games, but can be used as the Lucky Emissary from wave 3 (shifting loyalties). With your new orders, they should be M2e plastics and therefore will come with an appropriate stat card. Other than the Emissaries though, all of the models available in 1st edition are covered in either the Rulebook or Crossroads.

 

*make sure you get the Rulebook for the cards and not the Rules Manual. The Manual just has the rules and has a picture of a guy reading a book on the cover and is free. You want the other one if you want the stats.