Jakob Lynch

[Morfil]

Hey,

 

I am thinking to start playing Malifaux, but can't decide between Jakob Lynch and Jedza. Could you help me and write some pros and cons about them, their gameplay, competitiveness etc?

 

Thanks a lot.

[thewrathchilde]

Lynch:

Pros- Not Explorer’s Society, Card Draw/Real Good Card Manipulation, movement tricks, flexibility, access to great versatile models, often underestimated 

Cons- Questionable survivability (Lynch- this can be somewhat mitigated with play), Lack of good cheap scheme runners, questionable mid-range keyword models

 

Jedza:

Pros- resilient crew, great threat projection, good scheme running & denial, card draw, marker removal, lots of unimpeded or similar abilities, access to good versatiles, great models throughout the keyword, movement tricks/healing tricks/some healing denial & auto damage 

Cons- lots of ES hate right now, most of the models are not currently available.... Jedza in the top 3 receiving hate based on people’s knee jerk reactions and theory-faux...

[Aemaru]

i would add the complexity factor : 

jedza is really great but as explorers she is very complexe to play (many auras to remember , order activation etc). It will be very frustrating to start with

jacob lynch is a bit easier to handle.

 

i don’t know your wargames background but usually to start malifaux which is already a complex game with many schemes and strats to learn easier is better
 

 

[Morfil]

Thx a lot.

Btw i have only boardgame and Warhammer exp.

[bedjy]

Lynch is not that easy to play and you'll have a great learning curve. It has a gameplay a bit oppressive for the opponent and one of the coolest theme of Malifaux.

Jedza I don't know enough, but the hate said above comes from some NPE (negative play experience) she generates because of unresisted actions/damage. She is on the very strong side of the masters and will probably be nerfed in the times to come (some people can't handle nerfs !).

But otherwise, I think the best way to choose your master is to look at the rest of your faction, see if you got some interest in developping it in a longer terms.

Good luck !

[Vessien]

The recommendations so far are pretty good and I would like to contribute with my grain of sand.

I would consider the factions played by your usual playgroup and go for the one that has less players. In the end, Malifaux is a game you play with factions and having a wider pool serves for more interesting games.

At least, I enjoy the pregame - that is, encounter analysis, master selection and crew building - almost as much as the game itself. And it is funnier the more options you and your oponents have.

[Morfil]

Thx a lot again. Can you give me some  info about Nekima and The Dreamer  too ? They have awesome modells  and  it's hard to choose:)

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 minute ago, Morfil said:

Thx a lot again. Can you give me some  info about Nekima and The Dreamer  too ? They have awesome modells  and  it's hard to choose:)

Nekima is very difficult to play because the crew is so squishy. But one of the best players in the World Series plays her as their main crew, and absolutely wrecks with her. She slams into the enemy and keeps them distracted, and then the crew grows Mature Nephilim and sends a never-ending stream into the enemy. Very maneuverable, hits hard, but you have to position perfectly to negate every point of damage you can.

Dreamer comes in two forms: elite Dreamer and Minion Dreamer. Minion Dreamer was nerfed severely, so I'll cover elite Dreamer. You start with a solid crew and get summons on top of it. You focus on bogging down the game and tying up your opponent so that they can't kill any of your stuff. Then, over time, your endless stream of summons coupled with your solid base crew just secures the game as you grind the enemy to dust.

[Aemaru]

I think the Dreamer is better to start with

[Morfil]

3 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Nekima is very difficult to play because the crew is so squishy. But one of the best players in the World Series plays her as their main crew, and absolutely wrecks with her. She slams into the enemy and keeps them distracted, and then the crew grows Mature Nephilim and sends a never-ending stream into the enemy. Very maneuverable, hits hard, but you have to position perfectly to negate every point of damage you can.

Dreamer comes in two forms: elite Dreamer and Minion Dreamer. Minion Dreamer was nerfed severely, so I'll cover elite Dreamer. You start with a solid crew and get summons on top of it. You focus on bogging down the game and tying up your opponent so that they can't kill any of your stuff. Then, over time, your endless stream of summons coupled with your solid base crew just secures the game as you grind the enemy to dust.

Thanks, and which crew  is must have / recommended for the elite dreamer?

[Maniacal_cackle]

6 minutes ago, Morfil said:

Thanks, and which crew  is must have / recommended for the elite dreamer?

Five boxes I think:

Core, stitched & daydreams, insidious madness + Serena bowman, widow weaver + bandersnatch, Teddy I reckon.

At least, that's how I ran the crew.

[Maniacal_cackle]

I guess it should be noted that summoners can be hard to start with because you need so many boxes.

Molly can be viable with two core boxes, and I think Nekima technically can run a crew with just core xD but you'd want at least two boxes I imagine.

[thewrathchilde]

10 hours ago, Morfil said:

..... it's hard to choose:)

something else to consider is overall faction aesthetic you like. As you mentioned, it is hard to choose and typically first master is a gateway into a larger selection of the faction. There are some players that main one master regardless and there are a few masters flexible enough to play every combination of pools....however, most players end up with a selection of masters from within a factions to enable them to choose which is best suited for a particular game. 

With Nekima and Dreamer you don't get too much crossover where their models are really good in/with other keywords in the faction. IMO this is pretty common for Neverborn as a whole. You end up with a lot of individual crews that share a faction and don't really use models across crews (except Rider/Serena/Emissary (maybe)). 

With the Explorers option there are common models (Emissary/Effigy) that you will us win almost every crew and models like Mikhail that you will use sometimes out of keyword in the other crews. 

Similarly in Ten Thunders there are some common versatile models that work great with Lynch that are also good in other crews as well so you can get a small core of models that will play effectively with Lynch and then also make it easy to add additional crews with minimal investment. With Lynch you can start with his boxes (core, Friendly Faces, Dark Dealings) and get quite a few games in....I would almost say skip the Dark Dealings box and get Silent Strike (Lone Swordsman & Samurai) and you can have a pretty good crew and the Samurai and Lone Swordsman are good in a number of other crews too.

Ideally if you can find the M2E Lone Swordsman who was packaged by himself get that and the separate M2E Fuhatsu box. Those two single models plus the Lynch core and Friendly Faces will give you a really good and strong start....especially if you can get a couple of depleted or go ahead and get Dark Dealings if you can get the separate Lone Swordsman and Fuhatsu. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

It should be noted Dreamer has crossover with Pandora (Teddy and Carver, although I think most people don't like Teddy in the crew even though it can fit into it). 

Nekima's Black Blood Shamans are probably one of the most common out-of-keyword hires, so you do get a bit of crossover with Nekima.

But yeah, both those crews do tend to be pretty keyword focused without as much to share around the faction.

Personally I think that's one of the draws of the faction. Every new crew you get will feel super unique. In Ressers I often feel like I take the best models in the faction into many crews xD