Getting Started

[A Goose]

Hey all!

I bought the Kin and Copycats boxes just intending to have them as a fun painting project to be honest. When I got talking to my friends about it though they immediately found crews they wanted too, and it looks like we're going to be giving the game a whirl at some point in the next couple months when everyone is painted and ready.

I've been lurking for a couple weeks and hungrily absorbing as much info as I can so I think I kind of get it. We're all experienced wargamers and we've all played a wide variety of games so I don't expect the core concepts to be a huge issue. At a quick glance the rules seem to make sense (though I know that there's a huge difference between watching some battle reports and reading the rules on paper then throwing the models on the table yourself).

The masters we'll be starting with are Ophelia, Kaeris and Youko (all original versions).

I've seen it said that the recommended progression is Henchmen Hardcore > 35 point game > 50 point game which makes sense to me.

My big questions would be:

What do folks do about markers early on? I'm not sure I want to drop £40 on tokens if we wind up not playing the game long term. Are there maybe some printable resources I've missed?

Are there particular schemes/strats that we should consider for the 35/50 point games that show off the best of what Malifaux is about? From prior experience we can be a bit fickle with games if we have poor experiences early on and after having a lot of fun putting the first minis together and painting them I'm probably going to wind up with a large Bayou collection anyway so I want to give it the best opportunity to shine.

And lastly - are there particular interactions we should worry about with the three masters we've chosen? From what I understand of the three Youko is the one with the highest complexity out the gate and a set of mechanics which can feel potentially negative to play into and difficult to win with, and we need to make sure we put down decent terrain to break up sight lines and stop the Kin just shooting everyone off the board, but I'd appreciate any advice on other pitfalls that might not be immediately obvious.

Thanks!

[Adran]

Markers - the cheapest source is just cutting 30 mm circles out of cardboard (if I remember correctly, the faction logo on the boxes is about 30mm.). Your bases are 30mm circles, so you can use them as a template.( Likewise for the 50mm markers, but I'm not sure off the top of my head if you get any 50mm bases in what you are buying, but the Kaeris player will certainly need some ). I'm sure that there are 30 and 50 mm circle templates out in the real world, but I don't have a link. You probably don't need to label the templates, but roughly have them in 4 different colours for 30mm, and that would get you though most situations, 

You can use blank bases as well if you have any of those around.

I wouldn't recommend henchmen hardcore as a way to lean, but I know plenty of other people do. I'd probably suggest starting around 30 or 35 ss games, which is easily done with just the core box of the leader in the cases you have. (For example a Firestarter crew plays very very differently to a Kaeris crew when you're just using the core box, so whilst it does restrict what you need to learn, you are probably missing out on a very important part of what you will get in the larger games in several cases)

If you want to pick scenarios for your crew, then I would try and make sure variety was there, you don't want a set that easily lets you score all the points in the same location, or too many points scorable by killing. I would probably start off using the core rule book for strats and schemes. I'd guess something like

Turf war, Vendetta, Power ritual, Detonate Charges, Take Prisoner, Search the Ruins   would give a game in which killign is useful but not critical, and there are a variety of reasons for dropping scheme markers.

Terrain is an important thing, try not to give too many straight lines for shooting that are more than 8" long. (or at last give ways for non shooters to avoid those shooting alleys)

Youko is hard to pick up, and one of her strengths is hand pressure, which is reduced when you play smaller games, so you will probably get the best effect from her hand size reduction when you get up to 50ss games. 

 

[Regelridderen]

Bases or faction logos from boxes work great as markers. If you happened to stuff like GW 25 mm bases, they’d work too - they would be the wrong side, but they’d work, and the important thing would be that both crews were using the same sizes. 

Conditions, health etc. Is easily tracked with the app. Along with turns, scoring objectives etc. - or wet erase markers on the (sleeved) cards. 

But don’t worry too much about not liking the game. It’s the best mini game out there. 

[Scoffer]

45 minutes ago, Regelridderen said:

If you happened to stuff like GW 25 mm bases, they’d work too - they would be the wrong side, but they’d work, and the important thing would be that both crews were using the same sizes. 

Changing marker size from 30mm to 25mm will seriously affect the game.

1) 25mm marker can be hidden under a model on 30mm base (30mm can not);

2) 25mm is less than 1", therefore such marker can be guarded by a model with 1" engagement range even it is not standing on the marker.

[Cats Laughing]

4 hours ago, Adran said:

Markers - the cheapest source is just cutting 30 mm circles out of cardboard (if I remember correctly, the faction logo on the boxes is about 30mm.). Your bases are 30mm circles, so you can use them as a template.( Likewise for the 50mm markers, but I'm not sure off the top of my head if you get any 50mm bases in what you are buying, but the Kaeris player will certainly need some ). I'm sure that there are 30 and 50 mm circle templates out in the real world, but I don't have a link. You probably don't need to label the templates, but roughly have them in 4 different colours for 30mm, and that would get you though most situations, 

You can use blank bases as well if you have any of those around.

I wouldn't recommend henchmen hardcore as a way to lean, but I know plenty of other people do.

 

I completely agree with all of the above regarding markers.  Take your 30/40/50mm bases, trace out those sizes on thin cardboard (like cereal boxes or even just the boxes your models came in) and cut them out.  You can label them (and even write the effects for stuff like Pyre Markers) if you feel like cutting out a bunch.

Just FWIW, the faction symbols on the boxes are supposed to be exactly* 30mm for the purpose of cutting them out to use as markers.

*within the same tolerances a 30mm plastic base would be, in anycase

 

As for Henchman Hardcore, I agree on not using it to learn your crew (since you won't get a master and the master is the lynchpin of a keyword), but I think it is a perfectly serviceable game size to learn the basic mechanics of Malifaux, so don't be dissuaded against doing Henchman Hardcore.

[Regelridderen]

3 hours ago, Scoffer said:

Changing marker size from 30mm to 25mm will seriously affect the game.

1) 25mm marker can be hidden under a model on 30mm base (30mm can not);

2) 25mm is less than 1", therefore such marker can be guarded by a model with 1" engagement range even it is not standing on the marker.

Yes, it’ll affect the game - not seriously though. And not for people trying to get a feel for the game.

[Cats Laughing]

Adding to my comments above. 

If you do cut out markers and label them (such as labeling Pyre Markers or Ice Pillars or similar) you should absolutely also write down the relevant rules for the marker: Like Height 5, Impassible, Blocking, Destructible; or Hazardous (Burning +1); or Severe and Concealing; etc...

Some markers, like corpse, scrap, scheme have no inherent rules, but markers with rules benefit from having the related rules on the marker itself.

 

Unless, or course, you use some sort of art print and have no space for text.

[Harlekin]

Is something like this helpful:

 

Markers_complete_v3s.pdf