New to third, need to choose a master

[micahwc]

I played a lot of Malifaux in 1st edition, I had the entire neverborn and guild ranges at one point as well as a significant number of arcanists…..then the people I played with moved away and I moved to a town where no one played.

 

years later my local gaming group wants to give Malifaux a try. Nice. I don’t have any of my stuff anymore and will be starting from scratch. No problem.

 

I go online to find my master’s box set and discover Lilith isn’t a thing anymore. Boo.

 

not sure if I want to do Titania, Nekima, or Pandora.

 

I like pandora and the sorrows, but don’t care for Cade or candy at all aesthetically.

 

I love my nephilim but feel like I should hate nekima on principle alone after what she did to Lilith.

 

i will likely try to get my wife involved and my guess is she will either play Lucius or Collette. (Law student who used to be a ballet dancer, just a hunch she will pick one of them)

no idea what the rest of the group is choosing.

 

How do the different neverborn masters play now? Everything I know is two editions out of date. 
 

thanks in advance.

[Hawkoon]

It's a bit of a diffucult time choosing masters right now, as every master in the game just got another version of themselves. We're all scratching our heads trying to figure them out, and how this aspect impacts the game as a whole.

For the sake of this thread let's just ignore that shall we?

Just going by the original 3E masters the easiest to get into the game is probably Nekima and Titania (I started playing during the latter part of 2E, so I don't know much about 1E, but what I do know is that 2E and 3E are very different games, so I'd suggest you approach the game as you would a completely new game).

The nephilim are your typical offensive, fast, alpha strike force. And are quite squishy in return. Some find them too straight forward, but my experience is that you'll have to think about placement a whole lot more than with some other crews. One bad placement often results in a models early demise.

Titania is a bit of the opposite of Nekima. She's really really hard to take down, but even though Titania herself is quite fast, the rest of the Fae is a bit on the slow side. She is a very forgiving master to play as both her and her crew tend to be more resilent (no one plays bultungin, so i'm not counting them). So a bad placement doesn't completely screw you over in the same way as with Nekima. She also likes to play with 50mm terrainmarkers, so placing them at the right places is quite improtant to playing her well.

Dreamer has long been considered the best master in nvb because he is a summoner that have some really great keyword models. He did get a bit of a nerf, but is still very good. His keyword has such a large pool of models that he can be played in many different ways, from big beefy beaters to speedy schemers. Because of this playing Dreamer is pobably the biggest moneydrain in the faction as you need A LOT of models to utilize his full potential.

The biggest contender for best in faction is probably Zoraida. She can be played in both Bayou and Neverborn, so has access to quite a large keyword as well across both factions. The biggest strenght of Zoraida is her stat 7 Obey action which has 2 really great triggers, one for giving the obeyed model 2 actions and another for giving it fast. As she can arc her spells through firendy swampfiend models you do want a some keyword models in her crew, because she isn't exactly fast, and you don't want to waste her actions wlaking. Silurids are now Bayou, but as they share keyword with Z she can bring them into her neverborn crew, and you really should because they are one of the best schemers in the game. Oh, and her bonus action is great. Both players discard their hand and draw up to their hand size.

Pandora is quite good, and still plays her misery bubble pretty well, though it's not as powerful as it was in 2E. I always take Candy with her, as Candy can be really oppressive for your opponent if played well. Her basic play is to deal out stunned to opponents and pinging them for damage (or move them if that is relevant). Her crew is quite vulnerable to ruthless opponents that ignore terrifying and minpulative though, so I feel she's a bit hit or miss already at crewbuiling.

Then there is Lucius... He plays a bit like Zoraida in commanding his own models around the board and drawing tons of cards in the process. His keyword does have a lot of support models, but generally lacks good beaters, so he often ends up with some models outside of his keyword. In neverborn I prefer to hire Mature nephilim, and because they are minions he can command them around even though they do not share his keyword. A good case can be made for Insidious madness as well.

New to the neverborn are Marcus and Euripides.

Marcus is probably slightly better in arcanists because of their upgrades, but as he doesn't have to pay extra for beasts in his declared faction he has a lot of beast models to play with in neverborn. His playstyle is that of a support master that can hand out and cycle upgrades to you keyword models and beasts, and command them about. I tend to play him mostly in keyword (and that means mostly arcanists models), but there are some neverborn beasts like Grootslang, will o' the wisps and Bandersnatch that does play well with him.

Euripides is a bit of a mixup between beater, control and support master. He does a little bit of everything. Though he has a lot of health you need to be carful with him, because he does tend to bleed out fast and it's hard to keep him out of sight becuase of his sheer size. The most important things he does is to fill up the board with ice pillars that does damage to your opponents when placed and can be used in various ways by his kewyord models. Placing the pillars right is key to success wth him as they are block off your opponets paths, provide cover, heals and gives shielded to your keyword models. Important thing to note is that he does have an ability to teleport to ice pillars, so he can actually be higly mobile despite appreance.

 

Wall of text there, but hopefully helpful. Most important, pick one that seems fun to play and appeals to your sense of aesthetics.

[SEV]

Dreamer, Zoraida : Control

Dora : prison/denial

Titania, Euripides : midrange

Marcus, Nekima : aggro

Lucius : wear a mask.

But the playstyle can vary a lot in malifaux depending on how you build your crew. Zoraida herself his a control master but she can play all the style with such a big keyword +ook models. And this is true for most master.

So go for something you like estheticly and expand from there...

if your are not sure if you can love Nekima after what she does to Lilith, summon @Kharnage for a love speech about the new queen 🤣.

 

[Adran]

The Neverborn — Wyrd Games (wyrd-games.net)

Is a good place to get an over view on the masters.

You can Play Lilith if you want, she is a dead mans hand master (which basically means she has rules, but may not be allowed in tournaments). You would have to get an old box and find the cards for the new edition though. 

IF your M1 enjoyment of the Nephlim was the hitting, then Nekima still does that. If it was the terrain markers and movign enemy models, then  you may find Titania does that more. 

Pandora is still death by 1000 cuts, but its more about givign the enemy models conditions, and then using those conditions to your advantage, that her win willpower duels of old. 

 

Welcome back, I hope you enjoy the new edition

 

[muraki]

20 hours ago, micahwc said:

I like pandora and the sorrows, but don’t care for Cade or candy at all aesthetically.

not sure if it helps, but there was a 'limited edition rotten harvest' pandora for last halloween, that had some alt candy / kade models (that were special alts not part of the box).  Not sure if they'll be on the next wyrd sale, but thats a possiblity if the OG models just dont look like stuff you'd want to play with (if you dont like the rules too, well thats a different story).

[Morgan Vening]

15 hours ago, muraki said:

not sure if it helps, but there was a 'limited edition rotten harvest' pandora for last halloween, that had some alt candy / kade models (that were special alts not part of the box).  Not sure if they'll be on the next wyrd sale, but thats a possiblity if the OG models just dont look like stuff you'd want to play with (if you dont like the rules too, well thats a different story).

Yeah, while I'm not enamoured by the Witches and Woes alt Candy, there's several versions now (including teenager Candy if you can find the old Avatar box) that there should be something you can use.

But the W&W alt Kade is my favorite version of Kade, and at least in the top 5 of all Wyrd miniatures, period.

I'm still waiting for him to be painted, but he's getting done in a manner that makes him a mini-me to my Cookie Monster Teddy.

It's gonna be adorable.

[Regelridderen]

Stop wondering and just get the crew that makes you want to paint the most.

You're inevitably choosing 'wrong' anyway and/or you're gonna need multiple masters, so stop overthinking and just doing it – you're gonna have a lot more discovering what's 'right' when playing anyways.

-

Besides... Pandora is my favourite master, and nothing really beats a murder baby with a giant frenzied teddy bear.

[micahwc]

Are there any out of keyword models y’all recommend with Nekima?

Edit: some of the alternate models are pretty cool. I’m wondering about running a Miss Anthrope as an alternate Candy, and Miss Ery for Teddy.