Faction rundown for new guy

[DeleteAccount]

Hello all. I've been having a huge interest in Malifaux lately and it's starting to pop up over at my gaming area, but I'm still undecided on faction. At a first glance, I'm interested in Resurrectionists since I've never played the token undead faction, but I would really like a rundown on the 5 factions.

I'm mostly interested from a gameplay perspective, fluffwise not so much, so I'd appreciate if it was explained to me in these terms. I'd also like to know how varied a master and his favoured units are, with this I mean if it's less about the faction and more about the master and minions you decide to field, since masters seem to favour completely different choices even in the same faction.

Thank you all for your help.

[chaosobscuros]

Welcome to the game! As for your question, Nerdelemental did this far better than I could ever attempt to:

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7657&highlight=noob

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Guild-Individually strong figures, some tricks but largely simple big numbers in key stats. No healing (except maybe hoffman on constructs can't remember) and only one master can create more minions.

Ressers- great durability and minion creation/recycling. Many units have very limited kill power.

Arcanists- Mixed bag, Skirmishing beastmaster, ice themed blaster, spider themed inventor with summoning/buffing and a battlefield controlling showgirl all with appropriate minions.

Neverborn- As of book two they now have strong reliable minion upgrading, battlefield control, skirmishers and action denial.

[DeleteAccount]

Thanks a lot for the info. It does seem like a master is almost like a faction unto himself from what I've read around. I'll still be fidling with resurectionists, at least with proxies for a while.

[The Madman]

Thanks a lot for the info. It does seem like a master is almost like a faction unto himself from what I've read around. I'll still be fidling with resurectionists, at least with proxies for a while.

Each Master (and Henchman for that matter) bring their own 'flavor' to the faction

Read the tactics forums for a better understanding of play styles

I believe it to be quite helpful in choosing a master to lead your crews

And, you never know you may end up choosing more than one

[Rathnard]

I had to hunt this down, but it's basically a crew/faction rundown I posted up earlier this year. It's pre-book 2, but it's all still correct.

GUILD: Tends to favour shooting and negating your opponents benefits/buffs. Each Master specialises in fighting a certain faction, although it doesn't at all mean they're bad at fighting anything else. They're also relatively easy to learn how to use.

Lady Justice: Anti-Resurrectionist, the close combat specialist.

Perdita: Anti-Neverborn, the shooting specialist. Considered one of the easist Masters to use well.

Sonnia Crid: Anti-Arcanist, tends to be a "jack of all trades", with abilities in close combat, ranged magic and even some summoning.

RESURRECTIONISTS: The Necromancers - tend to favour summoning and buffing their own units. For the most part they're slow but very resiliant.

McMourning, aka Dr Frankenstein: The close combat summoner. Some would argue that he's a better summoner that Nicodem - he won't raise hordes of models but he'll piece together a flesh construct very quickly. As aluded, he's also pretty capable of killing things up close.

Nicodem: The stereotypical necromancer. Can raise hordes of undead easily and has some ranged offensive spells. Very reliant on his minions to stay alive - you won't see this guy running around on his own.

Seamus: The nut with a gun. Hard to kill, average at summoning, very tame in close combat but downright terrifying at range. His usual approach is to lure enemy models out of cover with his belles, and then blow them away with his (big) pistol. He's also got some great buffs for terrifying, so he's better at making things run away than most other masters.

ARCANISTS: Tend to be fragile spell casters with some fearsome magical output.

Rasputina: The ice mage. Slow, but is very good at providing cover in the form of ice pillars and killing things with ice magic. Her usual minions tend to be very resiliant and allow her cast spells through the minions, which keeps her pretty safe (think arc nodes in warmachine).

Marcus: The Beast Master. Not alot of direct damage spells, but makes up for it by buffing the beasts he usually runs with, which are mostly fast and hard-hitting. He's by far the most capable Arcanist Master in combat, and his crew strategy tends to revolve around coordinating a single strike with most of your crew. He's one of the harder masters to use well.

Ramos: The Summoner. He has some direct damage abilities but for the most part he specialises in creating mechanical spiders that can then run up and kill/detonate vs. enemy models. Armour makes him and his spiders relatively resiliant, and while the spiders can traverse most terrain, their raw movement speed tends to be average.

NEVERBORN: All about speed, hard-to-hit models and deception. All three masters play very differently.

Lilith: A straight-up beater. She runs up to the enemy under cover of a summonable forest (much like Rasputina's ice pillars), and then pile-drives an enormous sword into their faces. Her usual minions are all very fast and designed purely for combat, although they can also 'grow' into bigger minions as you kill opposing models. She's an easy Master to figure out.

Pandora: VERY unique in her playstyle. Everything she does revolves around the willpower (Wp) stat. Basically, she's a hit-and-run caster that gradually drains away models wounds through Wp duels until they run away or die. Enemy models need to pass a Wp duel to target her, which can make her very difficult to kill. Her crew supports this Wp=damage/protection approach and in the right circumstances with the right crew, Pandora can move vast distances and deal obsene amounts of damage in a single turn. One big negative is that certain crews/abilities (eg. Perdita) that can neutralise her Wp abilities will give her a very tough time. A hard master to use right, but once you figure her out she's one of the strongest in the game.

Zoraida: A sort of support master. She's very fast and difficult to hunt down/kill, but by herself she's not going to do alot. What she can do is support her minions in their own damage-dealing capabilities as well as mess with your opponents deck and hand. Her "usual" minions tend to be ambushers, either with a very long charge range (silurid) or the ability to appear anywhere it wants (Bad Juju). That said, she's got no obvious synergy with either so she tends to work really well with whatever minions she picks.

OUTCASTS: Not really defined by anything aside from the fact that they don't fit into the other factions, and their ability (usually) to make use of most suits in the deck. Each Master pretty much has their own way of playing.

The Viktorias: The Mercenary master, is actually two Masters in one. They can deal out alot of damage up close, but individually they're somewhat brittle. Aside from the Viks/Ronin, there's not alot of synergy between the models in her crew, but they're all quite capable of doing their own thing. On the negative, the Viks minions are quite expensive so you won't have a large crew.

So'mer Teeth Jones: The horde Master. Think goblins crossed with hillbillies, with plenty of pigs, and you have So'mers crew. They're potentially very destructive, doing alot of damage to both themselves and they're opponents. As a result everything is cheap and easy to kill, although this does give them some issues when facing certain crews that have hard to hit models (Pandora, Lilith, Perdita etc). As such they're not an easy crew to use.

Levictus: A caster that summons minions, buffs minions, does obscene damage at range and up close, and kills himself every turn to do it. Seriously, many of Levi's abilities deal damage to himself, and when he dies he's summoned back at the end of the turn so long as his "life insurance" (summonable minions called hollow waifs) is still alive. His choice of minions is huge, since he can pick almost any undead or construct from any faction. This is a very complicated master to use and NOT recommended for beginners. You should really only try him once you fully understand the rules and feel like a challenge.

[meatwagon]

Very helpful breakdown. Thank you.

[shekbo]

Basically, if you're interested in ressers, there are a few different flavors, basically corresponding to how much summoning you want to do.

Nicodem is the most summony resser master, also the worst in straight combat. He's got a fairly back line reinforcer/summoner strategy with very little direct attacking.

Mcmourning is a summoner/close combat wrecking ball. He gains parts as he fights to assemble monsters, so there's less body collecting, as with Nicodem.

Seamus is a combat master with a little summoning on the side. He's got a massive ranged/close combat threat and he's terrifying (in game as well as out of game) to opponents. Also he has a tiny leprechaun version of himself, which regardless of usefulness, I feel is required in any seamus list.

Kirai brings a new level of fiddlyness to the ressers. She's got lots of abilities, and not a single one of them is straightforward. She doesn't fight, period. Her summoning costs her health, and she is required to be 8" away from a killed model to get a "summoning ingredient" which is actually a really weak minion that can also double as a shield, health pack, or summoning fodder for her. Her spirits are strong, mobile and tough to kill, though, so she's supported well for her fragility.