New player looking for a faction

[SHAKALL]

Hi all

I have been nibbling at Malifaux for a long time and, with the 3rd edition,  it might be the right moment to jump into the boat. So it is time for questioning

1) Books and stuff: Is the rule book compulsory? It seems to have nice stuff inside but I have to say that I never read the background of any game. I just focus on the minis and the type of gameplay.

Wyrd launched a new pack of cards, but i do not like its style (too many colours, nothing really immersive, ...) nor want to use poker cards. Any alternative?

Tokens? I saw that pack. Is it plenty enough to play for 2 persons? Art of war

2) Scenery: What should I buy? Is there a minimum needed to play? I have a few stuff for heroic fantasy games, lot of stuff for DMH and Mousquets&Tomahawks  and recently bought a 3D printer.

I saw that Plastcraft was also producing nice products.

3) Faction: I always dreamt i would be a good tactician one day, but as years flow, i have to admit that I am nont So i have difficulties to see synergies between figurines or create/use an original gameplay. This is enhanced by the fact that i play many games withoit investing into a specific one. I like "what figurines look  like", original/rare factions (ok, I know ...), jack of all trade crews, inspiring figurines, ... I really have no interest in machines, abominations, ... So everything  with Frankensteins, mechanical allies, ... stays in the box

I like the look of the Guild, mostly because of the Death Marchalls (1st edition seems to be the best in my memories). So will it be a "good" crew to start as it seems they can shoot or fight in hand to hand combat?

I am also considering the Bayou  as Gremlins look really fun and dumb. However their chaotic behaviour might be difficult to handle for a newbie. I have been offered a Somer's Crew (- Crew somer v2 , 2Banjonistas, 3 Bayou criers, Old crancky. What do you think of this plz?

Waiting to be reading from you.

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

1. Nope, just use the digital files and you have all the rules! The app can provide you with all the cards for stats for individual models (and there's a pdf dropbox floating around as well).

2. You need quite a bit of terrain, but you can improvise it (for instance, a piece of paper with a few trees on it is a whole forest). About 40-50% of the 3x3 board should be covered in terrain. A good variety is useful to mix up your games. The Gaining Grounds 0 document has some good advice for terrain.

3. Malifaux is too complicated to understand the crews just by reading them. Experience is really the best thing you can do! Pick a core box, try out the crew. If you don't like it, you've not spent too much at this point, and you can swap!

[Adran]

Welcome -Echoing what Maniacal_Cackle says. You don't need to buy a rule book or a faction book. The rules are available for free on line. Personally I like having a paper book to carry around, but lots of people prefer electronic rules.

Beyond that all the rules you need to play will be on the cards that come with the models (and you can down load them for free or get the free app with all the stats should you want to look at others, or you find some old sculpts you would rather use).

Wyrd has done a lot of different card deck styles over the years, so there is hopefully one out there you like. Any 54 card deck with 4 suits can be used, but the wyrd ones have the advantage that you can see if you have the suit you need without having to convert in your head or refer to a conversion chart. I've only ever used a wyrd deck or a prize fan made deck. I've not looked at other companies for cards, but they won't have the right suits so you still need some form of conversion.

That token set is more than is needed as a minimum. I would say as a minimum you need about 5 Strategy markers, 5 scheme markers per player, about 10 corpse markers and 5 scrap markers between you and (All of which are 30 mm circles, so could be spare bases) and 2 blast markers (50mm bases). Some crews may come with there own need for different markers, or want to up those numbers because their mechanics are based on them. Everything else is optional (I use dice to count soulstone and pass tokens, and write conditions on models with a dry wipe marker, but plenty of people like tokens next to models to mark conditions). (you could even just use a sheet of paper to note them down).

Scenery is pretty important for the game. It is quite a high scenery game so you would need to cover about 1/3 to 1/2 the table in bits of terrain. This can be as low tech as cut pieces of paper to act as forests, pencils to act as wall and books to act as buildings if you want. ( Obviously owning proper terrain makes the game look better, and the more you have, the more you can vary the board between games which cane make the games feel very different). Lots of small bits of terrain is better than 1 or 2 big bits.

One advantage of M3 is that the keyword system gives you a good clue as to what models go together. You can pick your master, and then buy their keyword models and expect to do reasonably well with some synergy built in. There are certainly interesting synergies between keywords as well, but as a beginner you are unlikely to go wrong by getting things that share the keyword with the master you choose. Any of the masters can be used to learn with, so I would pick one you like the look of, and go with it. Gremlins aren't quite the crazy luck of games workshop greenskins, so you ought to be fine learning with them. I would suggest you get the master box you decided on (or that sommer set ) and play with that to learn the basics of the game. If possible try and play smaller games to start with, to get you used to the rules, and not have to buy more models than required to learn.

Good luck

 

[SHAKALL]

Hello guys

thanks a lot for your tips and long answers.

Shall have to forage through my old boxes to get some stuff and I think it will be Gob Powa' before getting to the Guild if i can find those nice Death Marshalls.

[SAYNE]

Bayou is the strongest. Ask any distillery!

Somer is a challenging master to start, but he is my first love too. Definitely has a steep learning curve.

I recommend grabbing some of the Bayou Versatile models (you can find them in the FREE M3E app or the website), to sub in once you understand the crews strengths and weaknesses. For Somer I recommend the Lucky Emissary and Gluttony of the Crossroads Seven depending on what you're trying to do with your lists 

Good luck and don't be discouraged! If you are, have a drink or six and make your own luck. Malifaux is a tough game to grasp, but the payoff is so rewarding.

[touchdown]

10 hours ago, SHAKALL said:

3) Faction: I always dreamt i would be a good tactician one day, but as years flow, i have to admit that I am nont So i have difficulties to see synergies between figurines or create/use an original gameplay. This is enhanced by the fact that i play many games withoit investing into a specific one. I like "what figurines look  like", original/rare factions (ok, I know ...), jack of all trade crews, inspiring figurines, ... I really have no interest in machines, abominations, ... So everything  with Frankensteins, mechanical allies, ... stays in the box

I like the look of the Guild, mostly because of the Death Marchalls (1st edition seems to be the best in my memories). So will it be a "good" crew to start as it seems they can shoot or fight in hand to hand combat?

I am also considering the Bayou  as Gremlins look really fun and dumb. However their chaotic behaviour might be difficult to handle for a newbie. I have been offered a Somer's Crew (- Crew somer v2 , 2Banjonistas, 3 Bayou criers, Old crancky. What do you think of this plz?

So'mer is a little harder to learn than some crews because he's a summoner. So you need to build a crew and decide during battle which extra models you're bringing in. That said, if it appeals to you I'd say go for it. Malifaux is not a simple game so I wouldn't say there's any easy to learn crews.

If you're having trouble figuring out what crew to put together, just ask in the faction forum, people are more than happy to help you.

[SHAKALL]

Thx again to you two.

Summoning and Brewing will be my new way of life. And 6 pints seems to be a nice quantity for having fun