Found a great deal on 2e starter set - expanding

[acseric]

Hi All,

I just found a great deal on a Malifaux 2e starter set and purchased it.  (very excited)

So, after learning the rules better (and teaching my brother) I will probably look to expand the two crews included in the box.

What 2 master crew boxes would you suggest to expand the starter set?  Are there any single figures you would suggest.

My main goal is to expand our options and allow for full games.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

[Thedeadclaw]

Based on 2E (because 3E will change this some) Lilith is hands down the right choice for the Neverborn half of the starter set. Lots of Nephilim, all with the Black Blood trigger, and very aggressive. She is being put in Dead Man's Hand next edition but most of her box will still be useful, and Nekima, another useful puchase and a henchman for her in 2E, will be replacing her archetypal mastership.

I personally don't play Guild, so I may be wrong, but McMorning goes well with the starter Guild crew afaik. (I plan to run him as a Resser, so it's a little bit different there.) I imagine that Lady Justice could also use the crew fairly well though!

[Ludvig]

I would second Lilith for the neverborn side but I think McMourning is a poor choice for guild. He looks good next to the starter models but can't use his whole box in guild currently so is bad for reaching a 50ss game and he doesn't have much synergy rules wise. I can't remember if the starter models would stay hireable in any faction or just be versatile in their respective factions but McMourning is going back to being a pure resser so he might not even be able to use the starter models in the next edition.

 

Sonnia has some synergy because the models have the witch hunter tag so she has a few upgrades that interact well with them and she greatly appreciates pushes from Grimwell. Sonnia can be a bit love or hate, especially for new players since she can feel rather hopeless to defend against. Lilith might actually be a decent counter to her though, especially if you experiment with adding a lot of terrain to limit Sonnia's rather overpowering blasting ability.

Lady Justice is always a pretty solid starter pick as well, she is very straightforward and not overly concerned with crew synergy.

Hoffman doesn't do that much with the starter models if played "naked" but has a decent starting box and if you have the latest upgrade deck he can make anyone a robot so they fit his playstyle.

A note on Lilith: dead man's hand masters will still be fully playable and get new rules just not 100% tournament legal (but likely allowed in most competitve events)

[Gnomezilla]

I’d get the Lucius box, right now, and try him out. He will still be both Guild and Neverborn, so he can dip into either side of the box. One of you will end up liking the indirect, buff-and-support playstyle (or the ‘putting the ‘style’ in playstyle’ flair) more, and can dibs the faction he wants.

One warning, his own box is half Guild-only. While you can hire Dashel and the guild guards into Neverborn with an upgrade on Lucius, I strongly discourage it. (Guild can provide Dashel with an upgrade to summon the guild guard, which works much better than hiring them outright. Neverborn lack this upgrade.) Try Lucius, Scribe, one side of the starter box, and fill in with lawyers and upgrades to taste.

I am a Guild player, and my last Lucius list added Master Queeg (Lucius makes interact an always possible action, Queeg makes it a 0 action) and guild investigators (when a model interacts, it makes a scheme marker: when a scheme marker drops, an investigator gets a free, no AP, no resist, no target restriction push). Between the investigators’ pushes and Lucius switching places with What Lackeys Are For, I had no trouble whatsoever scoring position-and-scheme-marker VP. I couldn’t kill, but I didn’t need to as long as I was outmaneuvering my opponent. In fact, if I remember rightly Dashel was in there too, summoning guild guard who then dropped markers for investigators. It did not have the brutal effigy: that is a fine model in almost any Guild list and a good purchase, but Dashel was summoning in enough cheap armored chaff that I didn’t need to hire it.