Regelridderen’s guide to winning your games

[Regelridderen]

I quite like Malifaux, it is a pretty tight game - although it sometimes have rather peculiar definitions of ‘another’ - and although the primary objective of ‘faux is to have fun, it doesn’t hurt to win more. So that is why I wanted to write this little blurb on my thoughts after having reached a state, where I win more often than I should.

ADVICE #1 - BE NICE, BE LENIENT, BE FORGIVING

Opponents - even myself - will quite often make tiny mistakes throughout the game, a slight misplacement or miscalculation they suddenly realise is a little off. Now some players might say ‘Gotcha!’ and relish in taking advantage of the brain farts, but you shouldn’t. Be the nice guy, offer them that little courtesy of making that forgotten move, or adjust their model position those few milimeters - as long as cards haven’t been flipped, and nothing would have changed, then let them.

BUT WHY?

First off it lightens the mood, and the game becomes much more enjoyable. Second of all, you want your opponent to bring their A-game (even on training wheels), if your strategy is based on ‘Gotcha!’s and ‘n00b’stompin’, chances are you won’t get the experience needed to win against the players who do not make these mistakes.

ADVICE #2 - WEED OUT THE WEAKLINGS

Always kick the little guys. In ‘faux you win by having more activations than your opponent, and the easiest way to ensure this is to kill off their minion/enforcer models. Henchmen and masters often come with nasty defenses, and even if you penetrate these, they often just heal back up again. So if you’ve got the choice between bruising off a big boy or killing a lowly minion. Go for the minion - and make an example out of them so those henchies knows what’s coming to them.

ADVICE #3 - YOUR MASTER IS A DISPENSABLE TOOL

They’re not an extension of you as the player, so unless Assassinate is in the pool there’s nothing wrong with sacrificing your master. In fact most masters have decent defenses and won’t go down without concerted effort, so use the bugger as a diversion to let the little guys win the game - that’s true Hollywood heroism by the way, and in Hollywood all your darlings will get killed.

ADVICE #4 - REMEMBER YOUR OBJECTIVES

I’ve been writing a lot about killing, because killing is fun - especially with an Execute trigger - but killing won’t win you the games, remembering to complete your objectives will. I often completely forget about them (or at least I used to) instead I went into a Blood frenzy and hoped I could table my opponent by turn 3 and then do the objectives turn 4-5.

Take some time to remind yourself of what you’re supposed to do. Read the objectives again between rounds, so you’ve got them top of mind.

ADVICE #5 - DON’T FRET ABOUT YOUR OPPONENTS SUCCESS

In faux offensive stats are higher than defensive stats, so as an aggressor you can always ensure success, so expect your opponent to succeed, when it matters. Instead you should have a plan to mitigate the implications : did they focus, planning to cheat in the red joker on damage on your precious hench/master, just plan to drop a stone for a negative damage flip and deny the cheat - but keep in mind there’s a severe in store on that hand.

ADVICE #6 - THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS BAD LUCK, OR GOOD LUCK FOR THAT MATTER

Your deck only holds one Black Joker, you’ll be able to cheat all other flips, while as previously discussed the aggressor always have the upper hand in this game. Of course, this means making the choices on what’s important to you, where do you need success. Then again sometimes you’re just dealt a bad hand, and even stones won’t help you, you can hope that having 8 weak/moderates out of the deck will make a difference, but you’d better plan for not being able to guarantee success. I use those moderates to drain my opponents hand - e.g. If he wins a duel by flipping a six, I drop an eight - chances are he has a better hand than you, and will now have to dump a high card, you still lose, but that high card is out of the deck, and once you’ve emptied your opponents hand, you’ve leveled the field - although your own deck should run hotter.

ADVICE #7 - GET THE ICONIC FATE DECK

Luck might not be a factor, but I swear to you, that deck flips twice the number of severes than any other deck.

ADVICE #8 - DON’T BE AFRAID TO SCHEME WITH YOUR BEATERS

Having a 10 point beater dropping scheme markers and kicking cans might seem like a waste - and it is - but if you haven’t got a 5 point minion in the area to do the job, then it’s much more important to chew bubble gum than kicking arse.

ADVICE #9 - MAKE NUMBER 4 YOUR TOP PRIORITY

ADVICE #10 - DON’T LOOK FOR WIN-STRATEGIES ON THE INTERNET

Play games, try some things out, take your beatings, then come to the internet to ask questions about the things that aren’t working for you. You’ll have a much better chance of taking the advice in, when you have a context of experience. 
 

- rant over

[Morgan Vening]

6 hours ago, Regelridderen said:

First off it lightens the mood, and the game becomes much more enjoyable. Second of all, you want your opponent to bring their A-game (even on training wheels), if your strategy is based on ‘Gotcha!’s and ‘n00b’stompin’, chances are you won’t get the experience needed to win against the players who do not make these mistakes.

Third, it helps retain playerbase/opposition.

Easiest way to get someone to quit the game never to return, is have someone just be overly anal-retentive over trivial stuff and gotcha crap, which lowers the playerbase for everyone.

And while some people won't quit the game, they may just refuse to play you again, lowering the playerbase for you. While it hasn't happened in Mali (everyone I've played has been pretty awesome), in other games I've openly conceded games in low stakes tournaments of GW and MtG (I don't enter high stakes tournaments) rather than play a known asshole.

Sure, it completely sinks my own chances at a good tourney placing, but anyone who's ever played me knows that that wasn't on the books before the first game started.

[Regelridderen]

22 minutes ago, Morgan Vening said:

…I've openly conceded games in low stakes tournaments of GW and MtG (I don't enter high stakes tournaments) rather than play a known asshole.

There’s a certain comfort in remembering that there is only one winner in a tournament, so chances are, it won’t be you. So if you want to have the most fun, making winning your primary objective is a poor decision.

[Angelshard]

Great write-up. The only advice I'd add is:

Plan your hand. If you know you need a certain suit or tn, save those cards for that. Saving a model from death by cheating in a high card sucks, if that high card was also the one you needed to guarantee a leap that scores you a point. Also try to identify the two or three actions that absolutely has to succeed and save the cards for that. 

[Regelridderen]

6 hours ago, Angelshard said:

Great write-up. The only advice I'd add is:

Plan your hand. If you know you need a certain suit or tn, save those cards for that. Saving a model from death by cheating in a high card sucks, if that high card was also the one you needed to guarantee a leap that scores you a point. Also try to identify the two or three actions that absolutely has to succeed and save the cards for that. 

That’s a really good point. Having a specific purpose for a card also makes you aware of the cost in using it and judge whether it’s worth it - e.g. sometimes you just need to cheat in that thirteen of crows you’d reserved for an execution to save a lowly minion, if it means that lowly minion will hold back your opponent from scoring for another turn.

[SEV]

I player Malifaux for almost 2 years now. I went from beginner to decent player (but no way near the skills of the really good player out there).

I think most of your points are valid. I would add some other tough :

1) Play more games... If you're fortunate enough to play IRL often, do so it's the best. If you're not, play on vassal (it's not as fun, but your game will improve tremendously)

2) Know you crew... than know the opponent crew. Faux heavily favorite deep knowledge of the game wich can be daunting for a beginner... But, if you know your crew very well, you'll need less time to think about what you're doing and you'll be able to foucus on what your opponent can do... So less gotcha moments. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions to your oponent about his crew and models (if you play against someone who never play against your crew, please gi e him the common courtesy of explaining what you can do and what are your basic game plan).

3) Seeks advice an DO search on the net for good strategy (I don't agree with the OP here). I often read about a crew before playing it... Obviously nothing replace experience, but I like to have a base of knowledge to build on.

4) improve your technical play. Like in most complex game this is where you can improve your game quickly (it's hard to develop strategy and it take a while acquiring a deep knowledge of the game, but you should be able to eliminate big technical flaw quickly).

Technical play has nothing to do with strategy, it's about execution. In Faux you have to do stuff on the board and with your cards. Forgetting a defensive triger or that you can use a stone to put your oponent on a neg flip are common technical games mistakes that can cost the game... Falling short on a movement, letting one of your  models expose to a clear shot or being unable to drop a scheme because you're within 4" of an other scheme markers are all technical positioning mistakes. Repetition is the key to get rid of those mistakes, but self awareness and playing with better players that will point out your technical mistakes help.

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 hour ago, SEV said:

3) Seeks advice an DO search on the net for good strategy (I don't agree with the OP here). I often read about a crew before playing it... Obviously nothing replace experience, but I like to have a base of knowledge to build on.

 

My stance is basically becoming:

• If someone says that a model works for them, respect that and see if you can get it to work for you.
• If someone says a model is terrible or doesn't work for them, ignore them and see if you can make the model work.

You can learn a lot of awesome powerful combos from the internet, but if you believed the internet no one would use Bete Noire or McMourning for instance xD

[HomelessOne]

One of my fondest wargaming memories was a tournament day when some guys came down from another meta to participate and, in the words of one guy, "stomp some n00bs". He ragequit after he got destroyed in round one.

[regleant]

On 11/11/2021 at 5:06 PM, Regelridderen said:

ADVICE #10 - DON’T LOOK FOR WIN-STRATEGIES ON THE INTERNET

I debated pointing out the irony of this line item in a thread titled "Guide to Winning your games." 🙃

Otherwise seems on point.

[Regelridderen]

18 hours ago, regleant said:

I debated pointing out the irony of this line item in a thread titled "Guide to Winning your games." 🙃

Otherwise seems on point.

There’s no irony at all - I mean, have you read #1-9? 😇

[KristiTaylor]

it's never easy when the opponent and we have equal strength i saw about this tournament at adrenalina gol apk modilimitado they were actually quite perfect