How do you choose crews?

[LadyLorien]

I'm sure this is a topic that has cropped up before, but I always find it interesting to discover how/why players enjoy a particular game. I was first drawn to Malifaux because of how unabashedly gorgeous the miniatures and game aesthetics are, and it was later on that I discovered that I actually enjoyed playing the game.

That being said, I find I still choose crews/Masters based solely on how they look or the theme I can create with them; as for me, the enjoyment of painting/creating still outweighs whether or not I do well in any games/tournaments. As I start planning my next crew of Ten Thunders, this is going to be more evident then ever. I am so excited to paint the fabrics of many of the models that I am paying almost no attention to the actual stats of the cards! So I'm curious, how do you choose your next Master/Faction/Crew? Do you also go for the looks of it first, or do you care more about playability? Do you aim to just crush your opponents, or do you try to find a crew you think would be most fun/interesting to play? Or a combination of all?

Because Malifaux itself has so many different directions you can go for, I'm very interested to see how people choose to immerse themselves in this universe!

[DTH]

Pretty much the same: the aesthetic appealed and I much prefer smaller skirmish games. The fact it has an interesting card mechanic for resolution is a huge plus too.

I bought my first crew (Lady J btw) because of the undead cowboys with magical coffins. My second crew was Pandora because I loved the avatar sculpt. 

Now I'm hooked 😕

[lusciousmccabe]

I generally go for aesthetics first, then pick up the ugly models needed to make the crew work, then a master that uses those models, then gradually spread out until there are more models than I know what to do with.

Then I wait a while and do the whole thing all over again.

[4thstringer]

I start with a model that I want to make work, and then work around that model.   Recently that has resulted in Iron Chef style ingredients  in our meta, which is fun, but before I usually figured out some ability or combination of abilities I wanted to make do work for me and then I would build towards that.

[Ludvig]

I'm some combination of Lusciousmccabe and 4thstringer. Pick up the stuff that looks good, pick up everything else to get the nice stuff working, forget what you were trying to do while you spend months painting and pick some gimmick and try to make it work for next weeks game. When I have had something on the table once or twice I'm already half a faction away trying to figure out how to make those awesome looking models work.

[GhostMonk]

Honestly, I got into Malifaux after seeing how much MONEY I was pumping into 40K and Hordes. Plus my fascination with the hobby and a friend kind of nudging me towards this game. So looking over the crews.......I noticed Ten Thunders, and when I saw Yu, the Rush Hour 3 play on an old time skit from Abbott and Costello popped in to my head. "Whose on first?" Plus my affection for everything Bhuddha and Shao Lin.

[-Loki-]

On 6/1/2018 at 12:07 AM, GhostMonk said:

Honestly, I got into Malifaux after seeing how much MONEY I was pumping into 40K and Hordes.

Ironically, I've spent more money on Malifaux than I ever did on 40k.

The difference is, every subsequent 40k rule or codex release created a lot of purchases I had to make to stay somewhat competitive, and my earlier purchases became dust collectors. Maliifaux creates purchases I want to make because they look interesting, but I don't have to because my stuff from book 1 is still fine if I want to use it.

[GhostMonk]

On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 12:36 AM, -Loki- said:

Ironically, I've spent more money on Malifaux than I ever did on 40k.

The difference is, every subsequent 40k rule or codex release created a lot of purchases I had to make to stay somewhat competitive, and my earlier purchases became dust collectors. Maliifaux creates purchases I want to make because they look interesting, but I don't have to because my stuff from book 1 is still fine if I want to use it.

Exactly! I look at a lot of the older models, and granted they're metal.....I want to get them but all I can find is painted ones that basically look like they were painted with a Crayola crayon. Heck, my buddy found one that claimed Professionally painted.....he got it........it was colored with sharpies. But there is also plastic ones for factions I have no real interest in playing, like the Carrion Emissary.......I just wanna get in the worst way because of how cool it looks, and the stuff I wanna do with it.