I've no idea where to post this but I have a new Strategy suggestion.

[Sandwich]

This is just a really awesome Strategy Suggestion to both players / moderators. Enjoy it!

As Malifaux is, among, countless other things, a game with a hint of the Victorian era, and the Victorian era was sort of the breeding ground for Steam engines.

Soul Train! -

Victory Conditions -

4 VP if the train is in your Station at the end of the game.

2 VP if the train is in your half of the field at the end of the game.

-2 VP if the train is in your opponent's Station. (If this Strategy is shared.)

1 Versus 1 - Standard Deployment (Corners described at the bottom.)

Each player places a "train station", roughly 3" by 4" long along the perimeter of their deployment zone, with both Stations completely parallel to one another.

Three 50mm bases are placed in Base to Base contact with each other along the left or right perimeter of the Play Field with an equal distance between each player's Train Station, these 50mm bases will be your train, with each 50mm base individually acting as a Train Car.

Both players must rush to the train, and then place as many units as they can on top of the 50MM base. Each Train Car has a maximum occupancy of 3 models, or one 50mm model, who counts as three, one 40mm model, who counts as two, or three 30mm models, who count as one each. (I.e. placing one 40mm model and one 30mm model = 3 Occupancy. Or one 50mm model counts as all three, et cetera.) If you have a car filled with the above listed requirements, neither you OR your opponent may place anymore in that specific Train Car, unless room is made. A single Train car may have units from both you and your opponent.

Insignificant units will NOT count as a model that will grant the train movement in your favor. They may be placed in a Train Car and will count towards the occupancy maximum.

Insignificant units do not count towards your total units on the train and will therefor not stop your enemy from outnumbering you.

All you must do is hold out with more units on the train than your opponent until the Start Closing Phase, for every 30mm model on the train you have MORE than your opponent, the train moves 1" towards your Train Station, following the perimeter, and vice versa, in a tie, the train remains stationary. The entire train moves as one, (Train cars + units on the train cars,) in whatever direction it is heading and cannot be stopped. Units in one train car CAN engage enemies in another.

Each train car counts as hard cover for units within the car being attack from an outside source, and soft cover for units attack each other from within the train.

If a unit is placed in front of the train and comes into contact with the train whilst it is moving at the Start Closing Phase, it is considered killed by whichever player currently controls the Train. (i.e., whoever's Train Station it is heading too.)

Once the train is in a players station, it will remain stationary if they outnumber their opponent. If your opponent manages to sieze the train, it will move as normal.

If you hold the train uncontested, it will move an extra 2". This is does not add to the standard 1" per unit; it will only move 2" extra. (Meaning a maximum of 11" per turn.)

Any enemy model within 1" of the train counts as a Contesting Model and will count against you for movement at the End Closing Phase.

Diagram 1 is the setup for standard deployment.

Diagram 2 is the setup for either a 4 way, or corners deployment. (I don't know how to just add pictures.:[)

Edited September 16, 2010 by Sandwich

[RisingPhoenix]

Cool! Custom scenarios are an awesome possibility.

When we get a few more than the 5-6 regular players we have now, I'm hoping to run a campaign, hopefully with similar at key points. Mind recording any balance issues that come up here? It might help when we're trying to make ours.

[Sandwich]

My girlfriend and I actually just conceived this strategy whilst reading the Little Engine that could.

In the game we played, she proxied Rasputina and I, having Seamus and his crew, was faster and reached the train first, which caused her to try and block my path with her Ice Golem.

We both pretty much agreed that doing that would end up with whatever unit dead beneath the train, and I had taken the Assassinate scheme and we instantly realized that you could exploit the train to deny schemes, so we chose to treat the unit as killed by the crew controlling the train, to discourage blocking the train, which would still be forced to obey movement rules and whatnot.

Certainly try it out and tweak it to perfection, I know I'm going to work on it.

By the way, it was an absolutely blast.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Sandwich

[Sandwich]

I've been trying to think of a way to balance a 4way.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Sandwich

[LoboStele]

Why -2 VP for it being in the opponents station? Isn't getting 0 bad enough.

Very cool idea though. Definitely seems like a good strategy.

Have a name picked out for it yet? Maybe something about the train carrying Soulstones or something. Soulstone Train? (Soul Train...lol)

[Sandwich]

-2 is just to give further incentive to go get it, although I suppose you could go with just getting 0.

And no name as of yet, though Soul Train sounds pretty flipping epic.

[RisingPhoenix]

Thanks for the details! I agree terrain features doing things is not something very well handled by the system at the moment (for instance, Hazardous terrain killing models is not well defined at all, in terms of schemes and strategies).

For a 4 way, I don't see how it's going to be balanced because melee models are going to have huge drawbacks versus ranged models. Like if Lilith and crew are slamming into the Victorias, Ortegas could ruin their day, and a good Desolation Engine could wreck entire parts of the table.

The best idea I can think of is to do it as 'Street Fighting' scenario. They're in a section of the city outside guild control, fighting for control of artifacts. Start on 3x3, but have the entire thing covered in buildings. Make little notes about possible things in the building (I'd suggest about 50% 'it's empty') and let any model who goes on the building auto-flip whatever card is there. Some of them should be 'old building (if any model on roof, building collapses, doing fall damage') to make shooting armies jumping from roof to roof less likely.

Draft up some rules on building collapse (I'd include large models being able to charge into critical support walls to collapse the building, injuring themselves and people on the roof), some nifty things they can find in the ruins, and throw in some sort of secondary enemy (I'd suggest a poisonous fog that wanders around the city streets randomly during closing step, using card flips to choose direction and whether or not to attack) and you could have a really, really chaotic 4 way. I'm not sure it'd be balanced at all, but it would probably be too insane for anyone to exploit heavily.

[Sandwich]

I'm still thinking of a way to balance melee and ranged for this scenario.

One way would be to make the Train Cars act as soft/hard cover for those inside, I suppose.

I don't know, I'll think of something.

I like your idea.

I can think of some things that'd work with that pretty well.

[LoboStele]

Yeah, pieces in the train should definitely get at least soft cover. Hard cover wouldn't be too bad either. Force the opponent to focus attack on one train car and knock somebody out of it. Then move one of their pieces into there and attack people from the inside.

[Gremlin Swarm]

I like it.

You might also want to allow movement inside the train (from car to car), but have it count as severe terrain. (Moving down narrow aisles and dealing with doors between cars and such.)

If you get ambitious, you could make some cardstock or foamboard pieces to represent the train cars. Since you could make them a bit bigger, it's make moving the models around on them a bit easier.

Hmm...How about an s-shaped track? It could be parallel to the board's ends in the middle, and curve towards opposite corners. (This might be good for the corners setup arrangement.)

[Sandwich]

Someone should get Eric's attention so he can print this out in book three, for everyone to see.

And yeah, I never thought of inter-train movement for some reason, but that's excellent.

Should the train cars count as hard or soft cover? I'm thinking hard.

[LoboStele]

Should the train cars count as hard or soft cover? I'm thinking hard.

Can bullets go through the walls of train cars usually? No. So I say Hard Cover.

Then again, maybe Malifaux bullets work different than Earth bullets. :tongue2:

[Sandwich]

Another idea for a 4 way game is to simply place the train in the very center of the playfield, and have it on a sort of X track.

Sure it would have a shorter distance to each station, but it'd be more vicious trying to get the train to your station and whatnot.

[LoboStele]

Actually, do you think you could post a picture or draw a quick diagram of how the set up is supposed to work. I'm not sure I exactly follow where you are saying to place the Train Stations and the 50mm markers. There's 3 different stations? And I don't really know what you mean by 'perimeter'.

[Sandwich]

I'm not entirely sure how to upload a photo, but I hope this works.

[LoboStele]

Cool ok, I get it now. So, if you fully control every car on the train, with 9 30 mm models, then you could move it 9". Looks like the full amount it would have to move, on a standard 3x3 with standard deployment, would be about 24-30 inches. Seems like it should work well. I assume that if a single 50mm piece holds one of the train cars, it would count as 3 30mm for determining how much the train moves?

And I could certainly see this one working as a single Strategy as well. Might be really tough to stop your opponent from getting their strategy too if all your pieces are on the train. But, you could probably spend the first 3-4 turns getting the train to your station, and then go try to stop your opponent after that perhaps.

[Sandwich]

For a 4 way match, it could be set up like this.

[Sandwich]

My girlfriend and I played it as a shared strategy, but I'm certain it wouldn't be too bad if it were a single player's strategy, as you could put one or two units on it and then go deal with your opponent.

And as for the larger models and whatnot, yeah, 50mm counts as 3, 40mm counts as 2, and 30mm counts as one.

:]

You should try it out and tell me what you think.

[LoboStele]

As a single strategy, I'm quite sure you'd need to put 4-5 models on it, in order to get the full 4VPs within 6 rounds. As I said above, it has to move about 24" or so to get from the side to your own train station. So in 6 rounds, that means it has to move a minimum of 4" per round. Maybe give some sort of condition where if there are no enemy models on it at all, you get to move an extra 2"?

[Sandwich]

That's perfect.

If you own the train uncontested, it moves 3" per unit instead of 1.

There'd have to be some balance mechanism between fast and slow crews.

Like if there's a unit within 3" of the Train, the 3" movement won't take effect, or something along those lines.

[LoboStele]

Well, I wasn't thnking 2" extra per unit. I was just thinking 2" extra period. 3" per unit would mean the train would move 27" if you held all 9 spaces uncontested.

[hippieshopper]

Soul Train is a good name.

Or just go with it's inspiration, call it The Little Train that Could.

[Gremlin Swarm]

I think it'd be best as a shared strategy.

Maybe you could grant a +1" movement per model (30mm equivalent) on board if the train is held uncontested, but allow any model within melee range of the train to 'contest' it. (That could represent opposing models messing with the running gear and such, even though they're not currently trying for direct control of the train.)

If it were up to me, I'd grant hard cover vs. attacks (melee or ranged) made into or out of the train or between cars. I'd also grant soft cover (vs. ranged attacks only) for attacks made within the same car (to represent ducking behind chairs/benches/etc.).

[Sandwich]

I think it'd be best as a shared strategy.

Maybe you could grant a +1" movement per model (30mm equivalent) on board if the train is held uncontested, but allow any model within melee range of the train to 'contest' it. (That could represent opposing models messing with the running gear and such, even though they're not currently trying for direct control of the train.)

If it were up to me, I'd grant hard cover vs. attacks (melee or ranged) made into or out of the train or between cars. I'd also grant soft cover (vs. ranged attacks only) for attacks made within the same car (to represent ducking behind chairs/benches/etc.).

Yeah.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback!

Let me write it up all fancy like and what not.

[Sandwich]

Just played this game with my girly, Seamus vs Seamus.

It was very, very fun.

And really frustrating.

Really, really, really frustrating.

I like it.