New Player Seeks Advice On First Faction!

[Dyakwee]

Hello all! I'm brand new here, first post, and glad to be here. I'm an FLGS owner with an extreme love of all games, and I'm an avid player of many various games. Ironically, the FLGS takes up most of my time and limits my actual ability to game, so whenever I find a new game I love the concept of, I'm straight up kid in a candy store. You know the type; everything's all shiny and new, and you just want a piece of everything. I assure you this will at least be somewhat relevant later.  If you want the tl;dr, just skip to the starred ******* section. I'm a bit of a talker

Basically, one of my regulars swung by to pick up a curbside order the other day, and we had an interesting conversation after he'd left concerning Malifaux. At first, I didn't see a particular character that really jumped out at me. I did a bit more research and ruminated a bit over a cup of coffee, and I'm loving what I'm seeing. When you see games crossing your table on a constant basis, it's not hard to know quality when you see it, and Malifaux has all the hallmarks of a well designed game.  I love the deck of cards mechanic (funnily enough, I just got my hands on a REALLY nice constellation themed deck of playing cards the same day!), the aesthetic, and the way that dice are gone entirely. Don't get me wrong; the siren song of the bones clacking together on the table is amazing, but the prospect of getting snake eyes the entire game is a constant threat and nothing grinds a great showdown to a halt than bad rolls. Now, I'm not open to the public outside of an extremely well sanitized appointment with regulars (seriously, full on plague doctor coverage) so the odds of me actually playing a match until my state declares the pandemic under control; even then, I'll probably be cautious for a while just to be safe. 

Anyway, herein lies the problem with the kid in a candy store effect: everything looks awesome. I've followed the general consensus across the internet to pick a master/faction that appeals to me aesthetically. Trouble is....that's a pretty long list. Everything looks like a blast.  

So, I ask for advice from regulars of the hobby, as my local community is small. If it catches on, I hope to expand it greatly. I doubt I'll ever have a following to do full on tournaments, but I'm certainly open to trying. Basically, I need a recommendation for my very first master picks, or at least to narrow it down to a top three. I'm a veteran of just about every card game on the market, and I'm no stranger to wargaming. I avidly played Deathwatch in 40k 7th, and I still play Heroclix when I find the time (Masters of Evil <3), and grew up with a LOT of XCOM, past and present. My general playstyle is very straightforward, and I don't like to have to micromanage too much in a game. I get distracted pretty easily and am fairly bamboozle-able, so I will lean towards a singular strategy and excel at that. I usually prefer to play either outright overwhelming force or control. Skillwise, I'd rank myself at a 6/10 going into most games, with a hard cap of an 8 later on; I'm, unfortunately, a slow learner when it comes to actually applying the rules. 

*******************************************************

tl;dr Which masters would you recommend to a new player with a preference for straightforward strategies? So far, the following masters appeal to me, and I am honestly at a brick wall figuring out which one I think is the coolest ever. I'm open to any and all recommendations, so I appreciate it. These aren't ranked by interest, just by order on the site starting with Guild and going down to Bayou, since Cornelius would technically be first and last. And, all the lore appeals to me, so don't take that into account. XD And yes, I know this is mostly a matter of opinion, but at this point I'm close to grabbing dice and rolling it. Also, budget is one box for now. Just a starting team. Will likely expand later but there is no rush. 

* Cornelius Basse

* Dashel Barker

* Seamus

* Professor Von Schtook

* Marcus

* The Viktorias

* Leveticus

* Hamelin

* Parker Barrows

* Som'er Teeth Jones

* The Brewmaster

[Adran]

Welcome. 

A few suggestions- that may or may not be helpful.

Dashel, Von Schtook and Sommer are summoners, which means you probably need a few more models to start with, and possibly need a greater understanding of what to summon in when. 

I would say that Hamlin is a micromanagement master  Its in a controlling manner. Brewmaster might also be as you try and get the right poison levels on the right models. 

I would probably suggest Victoria's or Parker, because you have several outcast masters listed, and they can have some overlap as you expand.  

[Dyakwee]

That is definitely helpful! Parker definitely seemed like fun, and wild west ninjas sounded pretty neato too. I'll will keep that in mind. Thank you for your prompt response! 

[Trample]

Yeah, Parker is a really fun master. Easy to learn but he has a lot of depth to him as well. You'll play him a number of times before you start to realize how many different things he can do. He is also pretty easy to get started with. There are a couple of other models you'll want, but probably slightly less than with most crews. He can play a 30 point game or so with just his box. The box that has Sue and the Convict Gunslingers would probably be the first I would add on and would get you to 50 SS. 

[RisingPhoenix]

Nothing on earth is more straightforward than Leveticus.  He really must be the most straightforward master in all of Malifaux (at least that's at a decent power level).  You wish to take your Alyce and your Leveticus, and you're going to do this:

 

Then there becomes a minigame of "Protect the Alyce" which is lots of fun, you get all sorts of tools to do that (Leveticus can't really die, so there's that).  You usually want to score some points in there too, but he really isn't an 8 point master, he's just going to be busy destroying stuff.  He gets fantastic scheme runners, tanky models, enormous reserves of health, you really have only a small number of things he's not great against and even then he can usually play competently.  

You have lots of positioning and health management to learn, as well as scoring techniques, but those are just core parts of Malifaux.  

Parker Barrows is also very straightforward, but I feel like he's slightly more complex because he often relies on outscheming and outscoring rather than just on murdering everything that moves (although his crew is quite deadly).  On the plus side, his box is currently out, while Leveticus appears to be Corona delayed.

[Dyakwee]

Definitely some love for Parker I've seen. I can certainly approve of some good old fashioned gun slinging. ❤️ 

Parker's probably going to be the guy here, although I did connect aesthetically with Cornelius. Seems like there's not a big consensus on him, though. Is Cornelius Basse pulling good results so far, or is it too early to tell? I like the Guild aesthetic a lot, so that is also catching my eye. Sonnia Criid and Lady Justice look pretty badass. 

Eh, there goes the kid in a candy store again. Everything's just so cool.  I appreciate all of your advice and I shall put it to good use. 

[RisingPhoenix]

Way too early to tell on Cornelius.  He's missing half his crew, making the remaining parts of his crew unimpressive.  So far I was distinctly underwhelmed, but for all I know the new faction will bring out something amazing.  My impression was that he's a solid model as a master, but his henchman is terrible (10 stone 2 AP beater model, it's just bad) and Paul Crockett clearly belongs in Marcus - Cornelius doesn't even have any decent beasts right now.  His minions are not bad for guild, which is to say there's no saving graces there.  My advice is definitely don't pick him up - you'll be playing half a crew, and it'll feel like playing half a crew.  

The guild is in a weird place right now.  Just distinctly an underwhelming faction.  It'll certainly be buffed, but at the moment I'd have a difficulty recommending it to anyone.  

[Dyakwee]

That's a shame! Stylistically, Cornelius is just gorgeous. Oh well, at least there are other options. 

I think thanks to the generous feedback of the forum I shall be going Outcast main. Parker or Leveticus seems a good starting point, as they both appear to be a nice learning curve for a player such as myself. Realistically a buy won't happen until May, though I might make my decision once Leveticus comes out XD Rusty Alyce's stats look absolutely nuts and it might make a nasty firing line to pair her with Parker once in a while as well as with the mad doctor. 

Once this pandemic clears and I'm certain I have a small community built, I'll likely try to build it up. I don't know if I'll ever have tournaments but it would certainly be nice to see tables full of terrain and weird west shootouts. I doubt we'll ever cross paths directly, but if any of you show up in my little store in Ohio and show me you're a member of this community I'll give you a discount I appreciate your prompt feedback and I am very excited to dust off my miniatures kit and get to work again. Now to decide if I want to do a traditional paint scheme or something different. Hmm. 

[Adran]

Some people aren't Basse fans, but there have certainly been cases of him winning events so he can't be too bad.

He is duel faction with a faction that doesn't exist yet, so it's hard to say how much more to his keyword there will be. ( that said you weren't planning on buying outside the crew box to start with, so the size of the keyword is less an issue). 

Good luck with building a community. You don't need many to run tournaments, it's a good excuse to play several games on the same day. If you can get 4 people, you can have everyone play everyone in 3 rounds. 8 players in theory leads to 1 perfect record in 3 rounds, as long as people don't get ties. 

[Dyakwee]

Indeed. I have a feeling this will quickly spiral out of control with multiple teams like the great Deathwatch explosion of 2017, but thankfully the price point and need for large quantities of boxes is much more reasonable than 40k. But, hey, what fun is a miniatures game without a fun collection of hand painted works of mayhem to play with? It's like Legos, but violent! 

[RisingPhoenix]

Well the plus side is that Malifaux has been going since 2009, so there's a lot of commitment to making the game work.  First edition brought us one new faction, Ten Thunders, 2E brought us Bayou (or rather split Bayou off from Outcasts) and 3E has added explorer's society.  So we'll probably be at 8 factions for a while.   I also very much doubt 4E is in the cards, at least until about 2030 - Wyrd looks to avoid edition changes, and the platform of M3E with the keywords is a great basis for extending the line.  

So I think whatever you go with is a very safe pick to stay similar to what it is now for at least a decade.  It might see small tweaks, but you won't see a viable crew ripped out from under you, or made irrelevant. There's not going to be the codex rollercoaster here.

[Dyakwee]

Thank goodness. Warhammer's constant shifts every couple years is exhausting. 😧 

[RisingPhoenix]

You're not the only refugee from Games Workshop 🙂

[Dyakwee]

It's surreal seeing just how much more Gee Dubs asks of both retailers and it's players compared to this game. Night and day, legit. 

[Regelridderen]

My first advice is always : go by the models, that makes you want to paint the most, and whose theme speaks to you, then the rest will come. Yet, I just started my tenth keyword, despite I’m only playing two.

That said, summoners like Hamelin, Von Schmuck, Dashel and Som’er require some investment modelwise, and aren’t as straightforward. 

I’d definitely go with an Outcast master, as you’re listing most of that faction, so you’re halfway there. Of those, I would go with the Viks, if you just want a couple of chicks with katanas to do your killing, while the rest of the gang just cheers them on. Hamelin is cool, but a little complicated. Which leave Parker and Leveticus a cowboy outlaw and a mad scientist. 

[Dyakwee]

I can agree with your assessment, certainly. My biggest problem is that the ones that didn't speak to me were the vast minority  It's effectively a tie between Parker and Leveticus, but with the delays on new models and Leveticus being a new one coming along Parker's probably going to win that tie. Really depends what happens in the world, and May will certainly be interesting. 

Nekima also intrigues me, but it seems she completely lacks a box at the moment, so that kind of eliminated itself. On the upside...outcasts yay!