New Player: faction building

[Bathawk]

  hello all, big fan of Malifaux, and while I have gotten the four 2nd edition books (haven't tried "through the breach yet")

  Had a couple questions about how you put the crews together, on the surface, it seems a lot like Warmachine....in that your "King" (to use a chess term) is free....a Master or Henchman depending on the points that are being played....but is there a certain point level where you can have more than one Master? or Once you reach 50 points or so, is that where it becomes less fo a skirmish game and more of a wargame? (which I believe Wyrd deliberately shies away from)

  Secondly, I understand there are seven factions; Guild, Arcanists, Resurrectionists, Neverborn, Ten Thunders, Outcasts, and Gremlins, and outside of Mercenaries your Crew needs to be only of one faction.

I also know that models have descriptors under their name in smallprint that have other game effects; Construct, Living, Undead, Rare

But many have additional descriptors in bold print below it. C.Hoffman of the guild faction, has "M&SU" as a descriptor, and Anna Lovelace has "Friekorps"....my gut tells me these bold types have some help in building a crew...but can't find where in the rules these bold print descriptors come into play

Any advice would be appreciates, plus where in the books I can reference these questions in the future

(oh P.S. I have some questions about the fluff as well, what forum is best for those questions?)

[Bengt]

In a normal game you only ever have one Master. Special scenarios can have other rules.

The game is balanced for 50 SS (i.e. points, but people called them SS or stones), people rarely play for more than 50, lower is a bit more common (especially Henchman Hardcore at 20 SS), but 50 is the standard.

You can have models and upgrades from your declared faction, up to two mercenaries (which costs 1 more SS each). Some masters (and even fewer henchmen) also have special rules that allows you hire models based on characteristics or name regardless of faction. Page 72 in the rulebook/90-91 in the manual.

Both the italics and bold text under the name are characteristics, the bold ones are only referenced by other cards, while the ones in italics have rules in the rulebook in addition to being referenced by other cards. Page 54-55 in the rulebook /64-66 in the manual.

I would use "Malifaux discussions" for general fluff questions and the faction specific sections for faction specific fluff.

[Bengt]

9 minutes ago, Bathawk said:

 Thank, but where does this rules come up? Or is it specific toan individual's card like "This master can hire any M&SU model regadless of faction"?

Yes, it will be on the cards. Some examples:

Crossroads page 38, Arcanist Assets upgrade.

Rulebook page 140, Moonlighting and On the Clock upgrades. McMourning is a dual faction master, but you still have declare one or the other faction when playing him, those upgrades lets him bring some models from the other one.

Rulebook page 150, Call of the Wild ability on Marcus' card.

Crossroads page 216, Pariah of Bone and Pariah of Iron upgrades.

Rulebook page 254, Infiltration(Foundry) ability on Mei Feng's card. Like McMourning Mei Feng is a dual faction master and can bring her themed models to either faction.

Rulebook page 177, Enthrall ability on Zoraida's card.

[santaclaws01]

20 minutes ago, Bathawk said:

Thank, but where does this rules come up? Or is it specific toan individual's card like "This master can hire any M&SU model regadless of faction"?

It will be on the model's card or it will be on an upgrade for that model. To continue with Hoffman, he has the "Arcanist Assests" upgrade that gives him the ability "Arcanist Ties: Crews led by this model may hire up to 4 Arcanist Construct models with the M&SU Characteristic that are not the Crew's declared Faction". So while you're creating your crew, if you take that upgrade, you can hire 4 Arcanist M&SU construct models. Most Ten Thunders masters also have an Infiltration ability, that will allow them to hire up to 4 models with a certain characteristic regardless of faction.

[Bathawk]

3 hours ago, Bengt said:

 Some masters (and even fewer henchmen) also have special rules that allows you hire models based on characteristics or name regardless of faction. Page 72 in the rulebook/90-91 in the manual.

  Thank, but where does this rules come up? Or is it specific toan individual's card like "This master can hire any M&SU model regadless of faction"?