Newbie Request - Looking for indepth tactica/guide

[Pergli]

Hey guys,

I was looking for a more indepth type of tactica for a new player. I started about 2 months ago and have gotten in several games but I was trying to find a little more. Maybe something along the lines of: Outcasts have this master who can do this. You should avoid X or deploy like this. Something general but narrowed down per master maybe?  It might be difficult because we have so many different masters with different styles also. 

Also, I couldn't find just basic things like the following:

1. How many SS should you have on a non summoner? How many on a summoner?
- When is it worth to get that extra model instead of stones?

2. Creating a 50SS list
- How many models is "enough"?
- Should you have 1 scheme runner or two?
- Do you need a Beatstick in every list? What about two?
- How many support models is good to run or any? (Nurses, Belles, Chiaki, Malifaux Child)
---- I know this comes down to opinion but not sure if theres a general rule.

3. Should you have a all comers list and make a few modifications at a time depending on scenario?
- If you choose schemes that don't require interact actions, should you drop your scheme runners or do they have a different place?

4. Synergy ideas
- What kind of Synergies should I be looking for? 
-- I can run sebastian and get poison synergy but should I make that a focus on my list or just a small piece of it?
-- Is it only worth it with McMourning?
- What provides synergistic opportunities
-- IE: Arcane Emissary allows you to have a 6 inch + attack flip for minion bubble

5. What kind of auras are out there?
- If i'm going up against a heavy shooty list, what should I try to fit into the list?
--IE: Sebastian because of his - on shooting attack bubble

6. Deployment
- What are the deployment strategies that I should be looking into? Do I deploy right on the line to get there faster or are there sometimes advantages to not being right at the line?

7. Alpha Strikes
- What kind of alpha strikes are out there for other lists that I need to be aware of?
- Do we have an alpha strike?
- How do you defend against X alpha strike?

8. Initiative?
- When is it worth spending a SS to reflip initiative?
-- obviously if you NEED to go first and they flip a 6, you have a 50/50 shot depending on the cards in your hand.
-- Not sure if someone has done the math for this and posted it somewhere or if I should look into creating a chart?

9. SS use
- When do you use SS for
-- Preventing Damage (as soon as you take damage or later when you're closer to death)
-- Drawing more cards
-- Initiative (8)
-- Adding triggers

-------------------------------------

Maybe the above isn't that basic stuff and maybe as I play i'll work on a general guide to help other people.

The reason why i'm thinking of this is because I used to play Warhammer Fantasy years ago and there was a site where people would math out everything for every unit and every possible opponent. They were massive guides that were dedicated to giving out as much information as possible in terms of helping people understand when to do X or Y. It was extremely helpful to the community and I was hoping there was something similar here

Thanks!
-Pergli

[hydranixx]

That's such a diverse range of questions, and you'll probably find a lot of unique answers. It's hard to ever give 'generic' advice for this game, because the terrain, scheme pool, opponent and opponent's faction plays an enormous (90% +) part of what crew to hire and what playstyle to adopt.

Here's a resource you might find helpful when you're trying to get a quick understanding of what to look out for from your opponent's crew:
https://schemesandstones.wordpress.com/category/quick-reference/

If you're interested in researching individual models and synergies in our faction, here's an unofficial site that will give you a rough understanding of what to consider with crews: https://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Resurrectionists

A lot of this game is intuition. You'll know in your heart if burning the soulstone makes sense for the initiative reflip. Do you desperately need an 11+ to make that one action work, but have a terrible hand? It's worth using a soulstone to cycle 2 cards.

In my opinion, Malifaux is governed by local metas. You will quickly learn the ins and outs of your meta, and that, I find, is actually more important for a new player than learning about every single interaction and permutation you could possibly find in this game (they are almost infinite and you cannot prepare for absolutely everything)

[solkan]

4 hours ago, Pergli said:

2. Creating a 50SS list
- How many models is "enough"?

No such thing.  There reasonable limits, like you're unlike to need more than a dozen of anything...  Except maybe mindless zombies in a few rare cases.

Quote

3. Should you have a all comers list and make a few modifications at a time depending on scenario?
- If you choose schemes that don't require interact actions, should you drop your scheme runners or do they have a different place?

Remember for a moment that scheme select is a secret, but both players know what the available schemes are.  If you don't take any scheme runners, it's obvious which schemes you took (assuming you don't summon scheme runners, but still...)

If you do take scheme runners, or you can summon scheme runners, it's still a mystery.

[hydranixx]

I can only answer a few of your questions.

4 hours ago, Pergli said:

1. How many SS should you have on a non summoner? How many on a summoner?
- When is it worth to get that extra model instead of stones?

Soulstones are so good. I personally always find use for surplus ones, so I seldom make any list without at least 6 in my cache. I think I'm biased towards this. 

I would suggest trying around 4-5 per non summoner, and 5-7 soulstones for a summoner. If you have henchman who likes soulstones, you should probably opt towards the higher end, though conversely, if you have models that generate soulstones in the game, such as Sebastian with his personal upgrade, you might opt to stick with only 4-5, even as a summoner.

4 hours ago, Pergli said:

2. Creating a 50SS list
- How many models is "enough"?
- Should you have 1 scheme runner or two?
- Do you need a Beatstick in every list? What about two?
- How many support models is good to run or any? (Nurses, Belles, Chiaki, Malifaux Child)
---- I know this comes down to opinion but not sure if theres a general rule.

There's efficient crews that start with 6 models, and there's efficient crews that start with 12, but these are both extreme ends of the spectrum. I usually aim for 7-9 as a rule, and only veer outside of this if I feel like I desperately need to out activate the opponent. 

If your scheme pool is entirely around interacting and dropping markers, then your 10-12ss beatstick isn't as useful as 2 or 3 cheap Crooligans. If your scheme pool features at least a little bit of killing or holding ground, then by all means bring in a big swinger. If your scheme pool is exclusively killing and kill denial, stock up with the muscle and bring in support.

Support model usually find their way into every Resser crew, simply because our support models are reasonablyc . Nurses Belles and Chiaki are all excellent value pieces. I bring in a Nurse in 90% of my games, a Belle about 80% of the time, and Chiaki, well she's just the sex. She's in 95% of the time. I find myself fine even with all 3 showing up, because I can still afford something hitty, some scheme runners and I tend to summon in a lot of my damage too.

[Adran]

The reason you can't find answers to those basic questions, is that they aren't basic questions. Malifaux is very different to something like Warhammer, and you don't win by killing, so producing charts to tell you the value of a unit is pretty impossible, because there is much more to it than killiing power and durability.

That said, here are a few "answers" to ypur questions

1 How many Soulstone?

Its not as easy as summoner/non-summoner

You need to look at your crew and decide what you need the stones for. Do you have a number of tactical actions that require a certain suit? Soulstoens are good for these. Do you need certain cards, Soulstones are good for getting these. Are you going to be hit a lot and have no other defence, Soulstone are good. Do you have several models that can use soulstone? then you probably want more stones. Are you .likely to be playing in an aggressive way so you really want to win Initiative, if so more soulstone. 

The answer depends on you a lot more than "how many magic weapons do I want?" would in Warhammer.

The best way to find out, is play your crew with as many stones, and see how many get left at the end, then try playing with minimum, and see how soon you run out and want more. Every master is different in what it wants. For example, McMornming is a Master that can summon, but he doesn't really need suits for anything. He heals a lot of damage naturally, and is not hugely card dependent. You might find in games where he is your only soulstone user that you use only 1 or 2 all game. 

2 50 ss crew. Build to score you your points and deny your opponent theirs. 

4 models can be enough, 14 can be too few. It really depend on what you are trying to do. If you are playing reckoning, then common consensus is a smaller elite crew works well as it means its very hard for your opponent to score points. But the same crew will really struggle to score any points in Reconnotre because you can't contest enough quarters.

You need enough scheme runners to score you your schemes and then maybe some spare. You don't always need 1 beatstick, but sometimes you want 3 or 4. You can play with 0 support models, but I've also seen crews with 9 belles win games  and won games where my 11 stone merc Bishop was my scheme runner

3 All comers list or not?

Personally I would say no. Some people say yes. If you are learning the game, then it is much easier to learn by using the same crew several times, as you get to see what they can and can't do. 

4 Synergy

No answer. You can build a list that uses poison really well that doesn't contain Sebastian and McMorning, but instead utilises Shikome and Canine remains charging as a 1 action. Autopsies and Rogue necromancy can be giving it out at range and so forth. For that sort of list, sebastian is not so good because you probably haven't got many enemy models in the same place to suffer from his bonus damage (as you are giving poison out at range to allow you to spread out).  

5 What kind of Auars are there? 

All sorts. Some boost your crew, some add cover, some do harm. To many to list really

6 Deployment

best advice is remeber how you plan to score points. If you are doign power ritual as a scheme (or even want to bluff it) remember to set up a model that can drop a scheme marker within 6" of a corner in your deployment zone. Sometimes you want your models as far forward as possible. Other times being back a little makes them much much safer from enemy attack on the first turn. 

7 Alpha strike

Every faction is capable of doign soem form of alpha strike, in the form beign able to get a big beater attackign your crew on the first turn. There are hundreds of different ways, and no 1 tactic cancels them all. Ressers can do it in reverse by luring enemy models to you, which has the advantage you are less liekly to be killed in retaliation, but the down side that you are less likely to be denying them scoring points, and enabling your scoring. Tara can easily get a model deep into the enemy deployment zone turn 1 if you want. Nicodem can summon punk zombies surprisingly far forward, and then make them fast on turn 1 if you want (Molly can do similar except they get re-activate instead of fast) . Seamus can get himself with 1 shot and his totem with 2 shots pretty much anywhere on the board. Killjoy can do it for anyone. Reva has a potential 18" threat with 4 attacks that can ignore most defenses. Kirai can easily swirl Izamu across the board. 

8 Initaitive

Its hard to give exact maths for calculating it, as you can know up to 20+ cards that aren't in your deck before the flip. Card maths are much harder to calculate than Dice maths because the results of the first flip affect the probability of the next flip and so on. you can do a rough calculation that if you need to beat a 12 its about 1 in 13, to beat an 11 is 2 in 13 and so forth. But as you said, the exact odds will depend on whats in your hand, as well as what cards you might have already discarded before the initiative flip. 

9 Soulstone use

Its really situational when to use it.

I will draw cards when I'm looking for certain things and don't have them (This might include certain numbers or suits to get some things off, such as leap, or summons). I normally only draw cards when I have at least 2 bad cards in hand to discard, but thats not a hard and fast rule. 

I damage prevent when I think I need to to keep me alive. Or when they have after damaging triggers I want to stop. If they have lots of low damaging attacks, I might not start to prevent until my master is nearly dead (if I want to keep them alive. Sometimes I'm happy for them to die), but if they have some high damaging attacks I'll start earlier. 

Suits when i really need to meet a target number, or get a trigger off. This is hugely master dependent. 

positive flips when I'm tryign to counter negatiev flips and I want to cheat. Also on defence when I don't want the opponent to be able to cheat their damage against me.

Initative, personly very rarely, but I learnt to play year ago, and I think I lost about 80% of the initative flips for several years, so I expect to go second, and my turns actions are based around that fact, so I'm much less likely to need to go first. Other play styles will flip more often to win here. My rough advice is its not worth doing against 10+ unless it really is the difference between winning and losing. 5-9 I'll do if it guarantees some VPs that are harder if I don't go first.