I'm back baby! TONS of questions

[JisaacT]

Hey there Wyrdo's,

After much time away from the game I am back and ready for some hot Malifaux action!

A bit of back story (you can skip this if you don't care) I was once a Henchman living out in the eastern US. This was in the days of 1.5 going strong. I had started a good group of folks playing at our local store. Due to unforeseen circumstances I had to move to a different state rather abruptly. During that year I had moved around a total of 5 times. Needless to say I didn't have time to play, let alone get my minis out for the hobby. Once I finally settled in a new location a year later 2E was being released with model updates and whatnot. Even though the place I was living was a larger city than where I was before, Malifaux was losing popularity in that area. I was able able to paint a bit but my play was limited. I was at least able to introduce the game to some friends thankfully. In that time I sold off about half my collection to condense down to my preferred Masters and Factions. I lost a lot of conviction to paint and do the hobby side at that time. It wasn't a great time in my life for it anyways. I ended up moving again but now up north to Minnesota. After moving there (from across the country) I got married, bought a house, moved, renovated said house, and FINALLY got my miniature area set up for painting and play. I am excited to paint, play, and get some organized play going in the city where I live now. I am now going through all my miniatures to see what I want to keep, what to trade, and what I need to base and paint. I have a new paint set coming in the mail next week to update many of my colors. I am very excited and my love of the game and hobby is back. It is such a great feeling to be inspired again.

 

Right now I have the small rule book so I am at least familiar with the base rules of 2E. I also have Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the arsenal decks for the factions that I own to go along with the old models that I still have.

Anyways onto my game questions, there are many things I have missed and not kept up on.

 

What are in the large rule books? Specifically Crossroads, Shifting Loyalties, and Ripples of Fate.  Models and fluff like before? What order did these come out in?? Have there been any reprints in the past year or so on cards or in the small rule book with FAQ and Errata or should I just look online?

 

Are Master Avatars still used in the game? I own a couple of the models. I am pretty sure the rules are in shifting loyalties but I could be mistaken. Are the way they work similar as before by doing a predetermined action then spending AP to transform? Do they still change the masters style of play similar to how they worked before?

 

What the heck are Generalist Upgrade Decks 1 & 2? Do I need the Shifting Loyalties Campaign Deck for normal 1v1 game play? I read a brief description that this campaign deck comes with a ton of cards. What is the Strategy and Schemes Deck? Is this just to help make game set up easier?

 

What are the Emissaries? Are they similar to Effigies or are they totally different? I LOVE the models for these guys but I am just confused on what they are really.

Who the heck is Master Queeg? He seems to be a solo henchman which I have not seen before. Same with Aionus. Are there other solo henchman?

 

Thanks for your help in advanced. I will be posting more questions as they come. I look forward to becoming a henchman again and becoming involved in the community online and in a new store!

 

 

 

[Ludvig]

15 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

What are in the large rule books? Specifically Crossroads, Shifting Loyalties, and Ripples of Fate.  Models and fluff like before? What order did these come out in?? Have there been any reprints in the past year or so on cards or in the small rule book with FAQ and Errata or should I just look online?

Core book has base rules and models. Crossroads has more models redesigned from m 1.5. Shifting loyalties has a campaign system and brand new models that didn't exist in m 1.5. Ripples has new models. All of them have fluff. There is an errata online which changes a few cards (Metal gamin and Leveticus to name a few) as well as clarifiying base rules like elevation. No reprinted books as far as I know.

Quote

Are Master Avatars still used in the game? I own a couple of the models. I am pretty sure the rules are in shifting loyalties but I could be mistaken. Are the way they work similar as before by doing a predetermined action then spending AP to transform? Do they still change the masters style of play similar to how they worked before?

Avatars are now proxy models for emmissaries. They can also be used in campaign play but were to difficult to balance so they ended up becoming the emmissaries.

Quote

What the heck are Generalist Upgrade Decks 1 & 2? Do I need the Shifting Loyalties Campaign Deck for normal 1v1 game play? I read a brief description that this campaign deck comes with a ton of cards. What is the Strategy and Schemes Deck? Is this just to help make game set up easier?

The generalist upgrade decks give you all generic upgrades for all factions, wave 1 is base + crossroads, wave 2 are the later ones. The campaign deck is solely for campaign play where you can get a crapton of upgrade cards granting you new abilities as well as avatar upgrades, they're not allowed in normal games. Strategies and schemes decks are just for ease of noting and keeping track of schemes.

Quote

What are the Emissaries? Are they similar to Effigies or are they totally different? I LOVE the models for these guys but I am just confused on what they are really.

The emmissaries are the compromise avatars turned into. Thematically they are effigies evolved. Mechanically they have a base statline and gain special abilities depending on which master they crew is lead by (through an upgrade).

Quote

Who the heck is Master Queeg? He seems to be a solo henchman which I have not seen before. Same with Aionus. Are there other solo henchman?

Henchmen are a lot more common than they used to be so there are quite a few solo ones floating about. Queeg is a sadist from the Guild, he mind controls people by breaking their psyche down or something similar. He plays as a buffer/debuffer bascially.

 

Glad to have you return to the community!

[Flinroz]

Where are you in Minnesota? I have a few friends on facebook who own models, but I don't think they get to play much. I could try and put you into contact with them, if you are interested I will message them and see if they are still trying to play.

I'm down in California now, moved here from Duluth.

[JisaacT]

59 minutes ago, Flinroz said:

Where are you in Minnesota? I have a few friends on facebook who own models, but I don't think they get to play much. I could try and put you into contact with them, if you are interested I will message them and see if they are still trying to play.

I'm down in California now, moved here from Duluth.

Oh nice! I am in Winona though so I am quite far from Duluth. Once I get my two crews painted up I am trying to be a henchman either in Winona at Pipe Dream Toys and Games or somewhere in Lacrosse, WI

[JisaacT]

1 hour ago, Ludvig said:

Core book has base rules and models. Crossroads has more models redesigned from m 1.5. Shifting loyalties has a campaign system and brand new models that didn't exist in m 1.5. Ripples has new models. All of them have fluff. There is an errata online which changes a few cards (Metal gamin and Leveticus to name a few) as well as clarifiying base rules like elevation. No reprinted books as far as I know.

Avatars are now proxy models for emmissaries. They can also be used in campaign play but were to difficult to balance so they ended up becoming the emmissaries.

The generalist upgrade decks give you all generic upgrades for all factions, wave 1 is base + crossroads, wave 2 are the later ones. The campaign deck is solely for campaign play where you can get a crapton of upgrade cards granting you new abilities as well as avatar upgrades, they're not allowed in normal games. Strategies and schemes decks are just for ease of noting and keeping track of schemes.

The emmissaries are the compromise avatars turned into. Thematically they are effigies evolved. Mechanically they have a base statline and gain special abilities depending on which master they crew is lead by (through an upgrade).

Henchmen are a lot more common than they used to be so there are quite a few solo ones floating about. Queeg is a sadist from the Guild, he mind controls people by breaking their psyche down or something similar. He plays as a buffer/debuffer bascially.

 

Glad to have you return to the community!

Dang so my Avatars are kinda useless now aren't they, other than looking cool Oh well I still like the models I have painted up at least for my collection.  Is the campaign made for single player or multiple people? I know nothing about it so right off the bat it is a little confusing. It seems like a lot to learn and I feel like I have a ton of catching up to do.

 

I will certainly be picking up the generic upgrades 1 & 2 now as well as the Strats and Schemes Deck.

 

Can the Effigies and the Emissaries be used in the same game or is the "upgrade" you mentioned just for fluff purposes?

 

Thanks for the quick reply and help! I really appreciate it.

 

 

[Somnicide]

Most emissaries are actually pretty awesome, so the Avatar models aren't useless.

[Gnomezilla]

Emissaries vary from auto-take for some masters to nearly useless. Very dependent on masters owned and playstyle. But your avatar models can still see table time. I wasn't here for 1.5 but I got an avatar instead of the emissary model. I like the sculpt of Brutal Emissary, and it is cool, but it isn't quite as cool as a disturbing giant stompybot.

An effigy and an emissary can be in the same crew. Collodi hires multiple effigies (and if Zoraida ever did, she doesn't now). I think the Carrion Effigy is the only one I haven't seen yet. Effigies are very sturdy for their cost.

[Dogmantra]

3 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

Dang so my Avatars are kinda useless now aren't they, other than looking cool

The avatar models are legal proxies as that faction's Emissary, so you can use those avatar models in a regular game.

4 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

Is the campaign made for single player or multiple people? I know nothing about it so right off the bat it is a little confusing. It seems like a lot to learn and I feel like I have a ton of catching up to do.

It's essentially rules for a group of players to play a series of games which start kind of small and grow into larger games, with continuity between them. You start with a Henchmen led crew and each week you can hire new models and buy new upgrades with currency you earn for winning the game but also completing objectives each week. Every time a model dies it might get injured (e.g. they receive -1Sh because they fractured their wrist) but after every game you can buy equipment or skills for your models. It's kind of interesting but it's definitely not necessary to enjoy Malifaux, personally I find it to be a little bit too much tracking to be worth it (although I'm still having fun in my campaign running at the moment).

8 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

I will certainly be picking up the generic upgrades 1 & 2 now as well as the Strats and Schemes Deck.

Just bear in mind that there are two Strats and Schemes decks right now - the M2e rulebook one and GG2016. The rulebook one contains the basic strats and schemes in the rulebook. GG2016 contains the newer strats and schemes available in the Gaining Grounds document, which is available in the resources section. Personally I like the newer ones more, but they are slightly more complicated. Also it's coming up to January and the release of the new gaining grounds document (well I assume there's a new one), which might contain new strategies & schemes (Aaron hasn't said anything publicly), which might mean you want to hold off on getting a deck to see (people tend to prefer the newest set, but there's nothing stopping you playing the older ones)

 

11 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

Can the Effigies and the Emissaries be used in the same game or is the "upgrade" you mentioned just for fluff purposes?

The Emissaries being the powered-up Effigies is just fluff. You can run them both together

[Justin]

Hey, I remember you from back then. /waves/

[Nikodemus]

41 minutes ago, Dogmantra said:

Just bear in mind that there are two Strats and Schemes decks right now - the M2e rulebook one and GG2016. 

There's an actual, physical, commercially available deck for GG schemes?!

[Dogmantra]

18 minutes ago, Nikodemus said:

There's an actual, physical, commercially available deck for GG schemes?!

A print on demand one from wargamevault: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/171684/Gaining-Grounds-2016-Strategy-and-Scheme-Deck

[Flinroz]

1 hour ago, JisaacT said:

Oh nice! I am in Winona though so I am quite far from Duluth. Once I get my two crews painted up I am trying to be a henchman either in Winona at Pipe Dream Toys and Games or somewhere in Lacrosse, WI

Ah, probably not then. Oh well. 

 

Hope you are able to get some players!

[Bengt]

10 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Henchmen are a lot more common than they used to be so there are quite a few solo ones floating about.

Yeah there are almost 70 Henchman models across the factions now. While they can the be the leader in small games, for the most part you just put them in your crew like other models. Some (most?/all? ) of the 1.5 Henchmen were made into Masters in M2E (e.g. Kaeris, Lucius, Von Schill).

[Ludvig]

1 hour ago, Bengt said:

Yeah there are almost 70 Henchman models across the factions now. While they can the be the leader in small games, for the most part you just put them in your crew like other models. Some (most?/all? ) of the 1.5 Henchmen were made into Masters in M2E (e.g. Kaeris, Lucius, Von Schill).

All of them I think. Molly was also a hench.

[-Loki-]

Misaki was a Minion, wasn't she?

[Squirrelich]

Hello, I recommend you check out "Twin Cities Beach - Minnesota Malifaux" Facebook group, beyond holding the TC players we have representatives from at least Rochester, St Cloud,  Des Moines, and La Crosse as well. It is also the main communication point for events in the TC area (several are already posted if you're are interested). The others from the other cities often share their events here too to try and encourage cross pollination between gaming groups.

[JisaacT]

7 hours ago, 7thSquirrel said:

Hello, I recommend you check out "Twin Cities Beach - Minnesota Malifaux" Facebook group, beyond holding the TC players we have representatives from at least Rochester, St Cloud,  Des Moines, and La Crosse as well. It is also the main communication point for events in the TC area (several are already posted if you're are interested). The others from the other cities often share their events here too to try and encourage cross pollination between gaming groups.

Wow awesome! Thank you I will get on that for sure. I checked the main Henchman page on the website and didn't see anything for southern MN, Rochester, or Lacrosse. Maybe it needs an update for the listings? Anyways Ill get in contact with someone as Lacrosse isn't too far. I work in Rochester but with the hour commute I doubt I would have time to play there and get home at a decent hour.

[Squirrelich]

Just throw a post asking who is from your neck of the woods, I know there are at least 4 henchmen (probably more) in the group, but that doesn't mean that they are from down there. (It has grown past the point of me being able to keep track of everyone... but to be frank I start to lose track at about 20 )

[JisaacT]

@Lalochezia @Ludvig @7thSquirrel and everyone else Thanks for the warm welcome and information! I have quite a bit of painting to do so that I can get a couple simple crews ready for demos. Hopefully I can be a henchman here in Winona or work with the henchman in Lacrosse, WI. I know I will have a ton more random questions so I will post them here if there is no specific forum section for them like rules and such

[Ludvig]

Post away! Hope you get a nice playgroup going.

[JisaacT]

Can the old Guild Guard Captain be used as Captain Dashel for new and improved Lucius box set? Or are those now two different models? I have the old metal models right now.

Do you think C. Hoffman is too complicated to use for demos? I have quite a few of my old models painted up and I would be able to demo a bit quicker using my C Hoffman crew. Maybe I can just use a model or two to show off duels and mild interactions of the crew together.

 

Is VASSAL hard to set up? Ive never used it. It seems interesting. Can I 1v1 myself on it to get a feel for how it works?

[Bengt]

49 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

Can the old Guild Guard Captain be used as Captain Dashel for new and improved Lucius box set? Or are those now two different models? I have the old metal models right now.

There isn't a Guild Guard Captain anymore, at first I think people proxied him as a guild sergeant as his weapons marched that (Axe and Pistol). But then Wyrd made the plastic Lucius box which had a "Captain Dashel" who also had an Axe even though he had a Baton rulewise (like the old Drill Sergeant). So I guess you can use him as either as long as you make sure your opponent knows what it is.

[Gnomezilla]

58 minutes ago, JisaacT said:

Can the old Guild Guard Captain be used as Captain Dashel for new and improved Lucius box set? Or are those now two different models? I have the old metal models right now.

Do you think C. Hoffman is too complicated to use for demos? I have quite a few of my old models painted up and I would be able to demo a bit quicker using my C Hoffman crew. Maybe I can just use a model or two to show off duels and mild interactions of the crew together.

 

Is VASSAL hard to set up? Ive never used it. It seems interesting. Can I 1v1 myself on it to get a feel for how it works?

Now that I have the metal Guild Guard Captain and the metal Drill Sergeant, I have been putting them both on the table and saying, I want to play Dashel (or I want to play guild sergeant), pick the mini that you think looks more like it. So far my opponents have picked by their builds instead of their weapons. Or the guild guard captain could be either one, but the drill sergeant only matches the picture on a guild sergeant card. Or the captain has been chosen for Dashel because his head is painted more bald than the drill sergeant. I can only guess.

When I show off Malifaux while waiting for my group to show up, I like to use Hoffman and constructs for the opposing force since the armor can absorb hits and they can hit it a few times, so the only variables are the cards' duel totals. And there is nothing creepy horror about constructs*, which helps put me at ease at least. But I also played Hoffman for my first master, for my first minis game altogether...and that was probably a very bad idea. His upgrades are complicated, and he can't be run without upgrades for anything longer than a five minute demo. When the game was demo'd to me, with Hoffman, at my request, my turn with Hoffman + upgrades ran over ten minutes I am sure. The opposing master needs to be easier, and should probably be a different aesthetic as well.

 

VASSAL loads VERY slowly and its interface is very dated. Once you get the Malifaux module loaded the worst of that goes away and it gets interesting. I can't really play a full game on the computer but I can keep one set of cards in real life and the other on the computer (even though the VASSAL module supports both players on the computer) and that seems to do. Slowly. Good thing my opponent is an idiot.

 

*well, not Guild ones anyway. People don't even flinch away from plastic Ryle. There are a LOT more arachnophobes in the world than I ever realized, though. When I put the large arachnids out for display beside me at the game store, even though they have a benign paint scheme that's easy for non-gamers to identify with, people do NOT stop and ask about the game!**

**therefore, if you need some uninterrupted painting time for whatever reason, but must paint in public...

[-Loki-]

Question about Vassal since a couple of us want to try it to get games in. I've installed it and been playing around with it. It seems that it doesn't actually do any of the game tracking itself, is that right? It's literally just a way to represent the board digitally?

So you need to flip your cards, tell each other the results via the in game chat, compare to physical cards, and manually apply damage, conditions, manually move models while making sure they don't move too far, etc? Doesn't seem like there's a 'start game' and 'end game' eaither, you just figure out your lists, put them in your deployment zone, and agree when you start, etc?

Do people find it better to just have a fate deck beside them or use the in game fate decks?

[solkan]

When you work with the deck in Vassal, the vassal program handles communicating card values and deck manipulation (drawing, shuffling, etc.) for you.  So that's supposed to be better than taking at faith that you're not just giving yourself whatever cards you want.

Managing the decks, hands, and displaying model positions, wounds and conditions are pretty much the core features for Vassal.