Newbie Question: Any Reference, or Do Factions Lean Towards Specific Traits?

[Punchausen]

Hi folks,

I come from a 40k background, and while usually a devout GW Acolyte, everything I've heard about Malifaux has pretty much impressed the hell out of me, to the point where I've found a local gaming club willing to demo the game to me before I splurge the cash and dive in!

While I'm looking forward to reading the rules and seeing the game in the flesh, unfortunately my early attempts at pre-empting and getting a feel for the behaviour or traits of the different factions has been quite difficult to say the least...

I love the various figures, they are so full of character, but part of my problem is that I herald from the Land of Obvious: If a character is powerful in 40k, he's either twice as tall, or carrying twice as much bling as the next man. Likewise, if an army has an affectation for spikes and skulls, you can bet your bottom dollar they like a good old-fassioned punch-up more than the sleak-looking army with hover-Tanks!

In Malifaux we have everyone fearing (from what I've gleaned) a skimpy-clad girl in Chaps and a big Cowboy hat; Babies with knives and lollipop-holding cute little girls, heros with no obvious weapon to scare people with, and a boxed set considering of a Dapper Gent leading squad of dead Hookers (how does that win fights??).

Is there any reference guide to the various characters/factions, or failing that, do the specific factions lean towards any specific traits, whether it be Magic, Melee, Ranged (I assume Guild lean towards this, but I don't see much other ranged weapons in the other factions?)

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

[Aberration]

I'll try to answer this as best as I can...All of the factions have their niche, but some masters may behave differently than what one would expect out of the faction.

An example of this could be Marcus of the Arcanists, which a mainly spell-slinging faction...yet he is more melee oriented. Ramos and Rasputina are the other two masters and they both excel at standing back and letting loose brutal spell damage.

The Guild is based on heavy physical damage, where Lady J and Perdita excel at melee and ranged, respectively. Sonnia Criid is the third master who is nasty at throwing out fire spell blast templates and counter-magic, making her a touch different than the other two.

The Resurrectionists do a lot of...resurrecting...while many undead have low defense they boast high wounds and resiliency, and potential swarm tactics due to summons. Nicodem is an excellent summoner and buffs all of his undead to ridiculousness and plays the spell slinger part. McMourning is a melee monster, and Seamus pretty much has a handheld cannon. Both of the aforementioned masters summon specific models only, while Nico can summon most any undead.

Neverborn represent trickery and manipulation. Zoraida can move ridiculously fast and works via controlling card draws and enemy models. Lilith is absolutely ridiculous at melee and can ignore terrain completely while hacking people in half. Pandora forces willpower checks and morale duels while pinging people to death slowly, extremely annoying and brutal to face (speaking from personal experience).

The outcasts are a ragtag bunch, high point cost models for the most part and usually very specialized. Tough to play but very powerful in their own right. Leveticus can destroy almost anything in one turn, including himself! The Viktorias can swap themselves around the board and have great damage output (plus you get two masters, in essence!).

Hope I answered some of your questions, sometimes I have a lot of time to blow at work hahaha

[Lucidicide]

I think Aberration has a pretty good summary there.

Factions have specific feels, and Masters can send you for a loop within that Faction. I think you'll find a lot of people who argue that the Outcasts are really more like a few small Factions as they have very limited Crew selections... It's probably best to look at it Master by Master and decide what you want, and you can use the above to help you out with that some.

[WookieeGunner]

The crews do follow themes, but not from the point of view you are thinking of. The themes are around pop culture more that anything else.

Note this isn't official, but here's my personal feeling on the themes I see:

The Guild - The Law

Lady Justice - The Blind Swordsperson from Hong Kong Action Movies

Perdita - Selma Hayek from a Robert Rodrigez movie (for example Once Upon a Time in Mexico)

Sonnia Crid - Salem "Burn the Witches"

Resurectionists

Morgue Master McMourning - Dr. Frankenstein

Nicoderm - Body Snatcher

Seamus - Jack the Ripper

Arcanists

Marcus - Animal Magic and Shapeshifting (think AD&D Druid)

Ramos - Steampunk Technomancer

Rasputina - Ice Queen (literally)

Neverborn

In general the Neverborn masters are the three "goddesses", the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone

Lilith - the Mother of Monsters

Pandora - the Maiden, the bringer of Sorrow to the world

Zoraida - the Crone, the movie form of a voodoo priestess

Outcasts

Leveticus - The "Cursed to never die" loaner

Viktorias - Movie twins (they each have a definative "this I what I do taht is different than my sister" but then they will swap spots from time to time to trick you).

Som'er Teeth Jones - Red neck hillbillies who date their sisters and raise their pigs.

[Vanor]

I think Aberration has a pretty good summary there.

I'd say so too.

Malifaux is unlike 40k, in that any faction you play, you can find a master that suits your play style for the most part. This seems to be even more true with Book 2.

It's also unlike 40k with smaller "armies" so you could actually have two different factions in your collections.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Another big thing that while each master has a subfaction of sorts (models associated in fluff and often mechanics with a particular master) masters from the four main factions can recruit anything from their faction. This can give you a very different feel and often a more powerful/versatile force than than their starter or a crew exclusively from their subfaction.

[Punchausen]

Thanks everyone, some excellent and informative replies - that's certainly helped clear things up!