How to enhance 35ss and/or HH

[Aregan]

Hello,

I played malifaux with some friends and my girlfriend.
The fact is when we met for playing we didn't have enough time to play in 50ss.
So, we played in HH and sometimes in 35ss. Actually it's a little bit boring for us to play the same strat and schemes in HH, and we want to play more with our master.
I read the 35ss is not really balanced too.
I was hoping that the GG2 will add some new setup for small format, but nothing...

So my question is how to enhance them without breaking the game too much?
Do you play with other schemes and strat in HH?  Fan made setup?
Do you use special rules in 35ss to balance the game?
Or has anyone created format that works?

Thanks for all

[Maniacal_cackle]

You could check the Tiny Terrors thread where I'm trying to develop a new format. 35 stones, no models over 6 stones other than leader.

Or some other tips!

Maybe try 50 stone games. You may be surprised how fast you complete them if you make an effort. Most of my games are less than 2 hours now.

Or if doing 35, try it with regular pools and maybe ban summons, then see how it goes.

[Adran]

You could play 35 ss games, and see how they go.

Whilst the size isn't the level it was balanced at, most things don't break the format. The areas that are slightly problematic are things that add extra actions to the game (typically summoning) and things that rely on your hand of cards (Discard effects, and static duels, so summonign again) because with the smaller game you have less drain on the hand.

I'd say around 90-95% of the game still works basically the same at the smaller size, so unless you are unlucky with the crews you own., you probably wouldn't even notice the difference in balance (in most cases its not a huge change, unless you are fairly close in skill level, you would probably just assume its based on 1 player being the better one)

(if you have a crew that is largely based on summoning and static duels, that is being played by probably the best player in your group, then a couple of options to try to re-balance are limit the plentiful of the upgrades to what it would be if they weren't the leader, and try reducing the hand size to 4 or 5 cards and see if that alters it enough). 

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

I don't know what masters do you play, but summoners and masters who are effective killers can really dominate 35 ss format. If you already know yours and your opponents models then jumping directly into 50ss game may not be that overwhelming as it seems.

[Aregan]

Thanks fo your answers.

The only summoners we had are Sonnia, Tara, Som'er.

 

[SEV]

 I Agree with @Maniacal_cackle 50SS gae can be played quite fast (you can even ask @ooshawnhow to have a 10 minutes game).

When I started 18 months ago my game use to take 4h+ now I usually play in 3h. 

Still in 35ss summoning is the big problem.  Beside that I think you'll be fine.

[Maniacal_cackle]

I think Tara suffers enough from the six card hands at 35 that she might be okay. She isn't a 'real' summoner anyway xD. (Because she is so powerful when not summoning, it is almost a secondary part of her kit).

[Vessien]

We kind of had the same situation, we started with normal games that took 5-6h+, in which we made tons of mistakes and played badly.

So we decided to start a mini league with 3 rounds:

1st HH 

2nd 35SS Henchman leaded crews 

3rd 50SS games

So, if you are in the "we are are bored of HH games phase", I suggestst you try to play 35SS games leaded by Henchmen. You can check a discussion I opened for this asking for suggestions In this thread.

Other option is to apply the restrictions and play 35 SS master leaded games:

- 5 card hand 

- 7 SS pool limit

- No summoning allowed

However, I find the masters too powerful for smaller games, and removing them makes things simpler so you can focus on scoring points for the game and learning the rules. Which in the end, will speed up your games a lot.