New Player kindly asking for advice!

[Newbzy]

Well first of all, Hello together. I hope all of you are healthy!

So, a good friend of mine and me decided to start collect and play Malifaux. Both of us already decided on a faction and now we are looking into getting our Master. It's not hard to realize that i decided on playing Ressers. My first Master I really like story wise is "Von Schtook". 

Now I have two questions and I hope you guys can help me out with this.

1. In "Von Schtook"'s description it says "Von Schtook is a summoner, though he approaches it in a different manner than most necromancers, in that he allows his undead students to do the summoning under his guidance."

- Do I have to purchase extra Models for the summonings? And if yes, which ones? Maybe someone can quickly explain how summonings work for me. 

 

2. I'm asking for a Buying List (what else except the von schtook core box) so I can play arround with funny and also competetive options. Money is not a factor in the buying list. 

I know, there are a lot of "new player asking advice" threads and maybe you all tired of it already. But maybe some of you guys would be so kind in helping me out here.

I want to thank you in advance and hope you have a great day!

 

[muraki]

Summoning in Malifaux is usually 'a model takes an action, which allows you to add a new model to the board'.  Von Schtook on the other hand, does actions that give upgrades to his friendly transmortis models, and when they kill stuff they can remove their upgrades to summon models (effectively turning the death into another friendly model).  If you're in the App (which you should download), look for von schtook, and the 'new student' and 'academic zeal' upgrades.

In general, as he's a summoner, you'll probably want most of his minions, which means in addition to his starter box, you'll probably want 'study group' (Sept release) and 'honor roll' (august release).

Actual rezzer players can give the details on the particulars of what is good / bad for him.

[Harlekin]

Hi and welcome at the Coffin Stackers!

1) Von Schtook hands out Upgrades to his crew and whenever one of your models with one of those Upgrades kills an enemy model you can then summon a new minion with cost less or equal to the killed model's cost

Purchases for Von Schtook are mainly the two new boxes for his keyword, available soon.

2) see: Purchases for Von Schtook are mainly the two new boxes for his keyword, available soon.

The two mentioned boxes (Study Group and Honor Roll) should be enough for competitive play. I usually stay fully within keyword with Von Schtook and get along pretty well.
The Necropunks can be another useful addition for their speed and for some sturdiness on cheap Scheme runners. And Carrion Emissary is a thing I see (and use) often. Also, the Bone Piles for some healing, Condition removal (no big deal for Von Schtook but versus some crews can be helpful) and their overall value. 

[CateranLlama]

You're probably also going to want a box of Necropunks eventually.  If nothing else, they give you a five cost minion to summon.  And the leap can be nice.

I'm not an expert on Von Schtook, but my impression is that there aren't any ook or versatile models you're really going to need up front, even though Ressers has some good versatiles.  Grab the Honor Roll box for the Valedictorian and play some games and see if there's anything you lack.

[Graf]

Welcome to the community, good decision to try out the game! I started with Schtook as well.

1.) First off, Transmortis (that's the name of Schtook's crew) isn't a dedicated summoning crew, it happens more "along the way", very rarely more than once per game. Most dedicated summoners have an action, with which the bring new models onto the table. Schtook instead gives a model the ability to summon another model, if they kill something. The bigger the kill, the bigger your summon can be. So there are a number of hoops to jump through to do it, but the opponent losing a model and you gaining a new one of roughly equal value still is a big swing in your favour. Potentially, he can summon any minion models of his own crew. Their cards are marked with the "Transmortis" and "Minion" tags. If you download the free Malifaux 3E app, you can look at their rules.

Minions are the only models you can put multiples on the battlefield, usually 2-3. This is the max. number you can have on the table at the same time, no matter if you did it through including them in your list or through summoning. So for crews with summoning abilities it's helpful to have all the different boxes available, but you'll never need spare ones.

 

2.) I think, not long ago, we had a thread with core choices for each crew... Sift through the last 1-2 month, it's somewhere there. But I can still give you my opinion for Transmortis. First you need the Core box. In my opinion, expect the first training games with small point size, you'll need the Valedictorian, it is a linchpin model for the crew. Her box will release shortly, I think it should be this month or already be available in game stores? Alongside her, the box gives you the Student of Steel, a model great as a counter-pick against armoured crews, but not an always take. I highly recommend picking up the Necropunk box asap. This gives you a lot of room to play games for quite a while already. The last Transmortis box is the one with Student of Sinew and Student of Viscera. Sinews never see more than 1 model on the table at the same time, but the Visceras are nice to have for specific missions (called strategies and schemes in Malifaux), this box would be next on my shopping list. With this you would own every Transmortis model, anything else is optional.

There are versatile models (models you can include in any crew without paying extra points to include them) handy for Transmortis, but none are essential. The Emissary of Fate is beloved by many as a support model, which can also hurt things if necessary. The Dead Rider is the opposite, as it mostly is a beater model. Both need another box (Residents of Rothenburg) to be played fully, since they both can summon Zombies, which can be found in this box. Sometimes, Bone Piles are handy to have, since they are very good in one specific strategy and give the crew a bit more healing capabilities. But let me say this again: Versatile models are entirely optional, Transmortis works well without them, therefore I highly recommend starting with the actual Transmortis boxes. I would not worry about out of keyword models for quite a while and until after you've gained a decent amount of experience with this game.

 

Lastly, a general advice for starting the game with Schtook: It is a strong crew, which you can play into nearly every scenario, but it also is challenging to play, especially for a new player. The benefit of this is: you already cover most bases with it and don't need to rush to buy another crew anytime soon.  You will find new moves and ways to play the crew again and again. The plethora of options in any given moment in a game can tire your mind at the beginning, you have to stick with it to learn it. It's both the pain, but also the beauty, of this crew.

[Newbzy]

Oh wow... Thank you so much to all of you for your reply. Thank you thank you! Really helped me out a lot!

For the app. Do you mean the official "Malifaux Crew Builder" App?

 

[muraki]

Yep. Should be this one

https://www.wyrd-games.net/m3e-crew-builder-app

Will have all model cards / upgrades / etc. And the ability to make crews and play games. It's really all you need other than an opponent.

[Newbzy]

Do I need to buy the ressers faction book when I download the App. It seems the App has everything in it!?

[Graf]

Nope, the app and all the rules for Malifaux are completly free of charge. The print versions are for story, fluff and pretty pictures. Since you already have a friend to play with, only models, a fate deck (could use a poker deck, the Malifaux version uses unique suits though), gaming board and measuring tape are necessary.

[Newbzy]

Awesome, thank you again guys! Really appreciate you answering all my newb questions!

[muraki]

Also if you wanted the 'fluff' there are the breachside broadcast podcasts that have been going through the lore from the start of malifaux first edition.  They've recently moved into some of the m3e stories.

[Maniacal_cackle]

If you're wanting to be competitive and money is no object...

Get all four Transmortis boxes (a must, as having every summon option is important to maximise your gameplay), carrion emissary, and mindless zombies (either in the Residents of Rotenberg box or any other method).

Then feel free to come back for advice on gameplay!

[Newbzy]

I managed to pick up the following boxes at my local shop. 
- Von Schtook Core Box
- Necropunks
- Carrion Fate
- Honor Roll
In the End of september I'm gonna order the "Study group". So basically those are the models I'm going to start this hobbys with. (I'm sure more will follow in the future.)
 

On 9/11/2020 at 9:35 PM, Maniacal_cackle said:

Then feel free to come back for advice on gameplay!

Oh, I'm happy you suggested it to me. If you hadn't done it, I think i wouldn't have asked for it because I don't wanted to get on your nerfes of all my newb questions.

I really appreciate a few tips on how to play him/Combos/etc.

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 minute ago, Newbzy said:

Oh, I'm happy you suggested it to me. If you hadn't done it, I think i wouldn't have asked for it because I don't wanted to get on your nerfes because of all my newb questions.

I really appreciate a few tips on how to play him/Combos/etc.

It's quite the opposite! The more people starting conversations, the more lively the forum is. Typically for every person who asks a question, there's dozens of people who follow the thread and get tips from it

I'm not too knowledgeable about the crew compared to others here (like Graf), but here's one of his basic tactics for turn 1:

• If you win initiative, have your opponent go first.
• Possibly use some pass tokens to delay activating.
• Use Von Schtook to give an upgrade to the Valedictorian
• Use Von Schtook to give fast to the Valedictorian.
• Position Carrion Emissary and the totem near the Valedictorian for bonus movement.
• As your very last activation, send the Valedictorian in to absolutely smash something (and they won't be able to respond by hitting her with too many things, as most things will have activated.
• Go to turn 2.
• Try to win initiative.
• Use Valedictorian to finish off whatever she was attacking.
• When she kills something, she summons something, thanks to the upgrade.

Continue smashing, making your crew bigger and bigger as you kill them.

[Ogid]

26 minutes ago, Newbzy said:

Oh, I'm happy you suggested it to me. If you hadn't done it, I think i wouldn't have asked for it because I don't wanted to get on your nerfes of all my newb questions.

I really appreciate a few tips on how to play him/Combos/etc.

Haha, don't worry about that; most people will be happy to answer your questions

I'm not much into RES, so I'd leave the advice for RES players. But I'm here to tell you there is an ongoing Vassal tournament with a video of a VS game (and VS winning that game). It might give you an idea of how he plays in the table in the hands of an experienced player doing well in that tournament (if you are into whatching other people play):

Team Russia #2 vs. Northern Moose Infantry: Aleksander (Shenlong) 1:5  Andreas Söder (Von Schtook)

 

[Graf]

I will write a Transmortis guide, guess it's time for something like that to be included here. Give me some time, it will take a bit to distil my thoughts into text.

[Sagrit]

As for buy list i would say that you also want Sloth. It's just 1 model from Crossroads box, but if money doesn't matters - buy it. Or you can check EBay or other places for a separate model of Sloth. Or you can share Crossroads box with your friends because every faction would like a model from that box  

The reason is that Transmortis are pretty fragile to be honest. You want extra heal and Sloth will give 3Wd heal without any card flips as a bonus Action on 10" range. The downside - he will also give Slow to your model. The good side - Von Schtook removes conditions with the same action that he use to give Fast. So Sloth Heal your model with Bonus, Von Schtook removes Slow and gives Fast instead. Also Sloth can give Fast to friendly Undead as well, so it allows Von Schtook to do something else instead of being pure support

[Maniacal_cackle]

12 minutes ago, Sagrit said:

As for buy list i would say that you also want Sloth. It's just 1 model from Crossroads box, but if money doesn't matters - buy it. Or you can check EBay or other places for a separate model of Sloth. Or you can share Crossroads box with your friends because every faction would like a model from that box  

My plan is to just sculpt a sloth (animal) and use it as my mini xD

[Sagrit]

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

My plan is to just sculpt a sloth (animal) and use it as my mini xD

Good plan  Definitely depends on tournament meta, but still good one  

[Newbzy]

On 9/13/2020 at 6:05 PM, Graf said:

I will write a Transmortis guide, guess it's time for something like that to be included here. Give me some time, it will take a bit to distil my thoughts into text.

So looking forward for this. Can't wait!

 

 

Well, I'm gonna Ebay and see if I can find a Sloth =)

[muraki]

7 minutes ago, Newbzy said:

Well, I'm gonna Ebay and see if I can find a Sloth 😃

I'd personally just buy the set so you don't have to re-buy models when you (invariably with this game) start playing a second, third, fourth.... 8th.... faction ha.

It will also allow you to play Sloth as the master and hire in the rest of the band into Rezzers (tho it's been a while since i did that, so no guarantee they're competitive)

[Graf]

12 minutes ago, Newbzy said:

So looking forward for this. Can't wait!

It's taking longer than even I expected, I'm on page 5 with size 10 by now. Bear with me, I nearly finished painting my Tormented crew within a week at the same time... 😅

[Cranky Old Man]

My experience with Von Schtook is that while the undergrads are good value I like to always hire a student of viscera. They are fast tough and can do some damage. The opponent will be focussed on Valedictorian, due to her reputation, and the student can do good work. This is my core

Schtook Core (Resurrectionist)
Size: 50 - Pool: 10
Leader:
  Prof. Von Schtook
    The Whisper
Totem(s):
  Research Assistant
Hires:
  The Valedictorian
  Anna Lovelace
  Student of Viscera
  Undergraduate

‘Then I can flex in another undergrad or necropunk depending on schemes. I love taking the gst upgrade on a necropunk, terrifying and regen 2 makes them even tougher to get a hold of.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Student of Viscera with the upgrade for Deadly Pursuit is soooooo damn mobile!

[Cranky Old Man]

Ambush and unimpeded means they can get anywhere usually. I think they are a great model. Plus they can heal living. Great tool box model.