Demo Crew Question

[lululu_42]

I have a few people intrested in playing malifaux or at least learning a little of malifaux. So I was thinking of picking up two box sets and use them for demoing Malifaux. The thing is i just don't know what two to pick up?

What two box sets would be great for teaching people how to play Malifaux and are at least balanced with each other and be able to explane the fluff. (I really love the fluff!)

I was thinking of the Witch Hunters Crew (Sonnia Criid) and the Miners and Steamfitters Crew (Ramos) but im not sure since I have only really look at outcasts.

[Ratty]

It's not a bad pair to throw in, Sonnia Melts peoples face off and is quite simple. Ramos is a bit more tricky but not overly complicated.

[Doctor Amos]

For each faction:

Guild: Any guild box is very friendly to a beginner, but Lady J is balanced and her abilities transfer well to many situations. The same can also be said of 'Dida, but she's a bit of an irritant to play against, especially if your group isn't used to skirmish-level terrain yet.

Arcanists: Another easy-to-use faction, Collette nonwithstanding. Rasputina is your best bet here as she has a lot of very forgiving units and has Arcane Resevior. All said a very solid starter.

Ressurectionists: Seamus. He's cute, fuzzy, and does what he does with a minimum of trickery and (more improtantly) high levels of forgiveness.

Neverborne: Lilith. Anyone else will bring headaches in demo games.

Outcasts: Viktoria is really the only way to go. She's very "run it down and stab it," which counts for a lot in a starter.

[Ratty]

For each faction:

Guild: Any guild box is very friendly to a beginner, but Lady J is balanced and her abilities transfer well to many situations. The same can also be said of 'Dida, but she's a bit of an irritant to play against, especially if your group isn't used to skirmish-level terrain yet.

Arcanists: Another easy-to-use faction, Collette nonwithstanding. Rasputina is your best bet here as she has a lot of very forgiving units and has Arcane Resevior. All said a very solid starter.

One thing I'll say is you don't want to go with Sonnia Criid and Rasputina. They are too similar imho.

[Thunder_God]

I thought I'd post here, being the most fitting thread.

I am looking to begin playing the game, and want to pick up 2-3 starters, who'd be ran one against the other.

None of us have played Malifaux before, but we're all seasoned strategy gamers: MtG, Warmachine, etc.

So we need things to let us grok the game, but also with more room to grow. Self contained starters that do not demand additional purchases, are also desired.

Cheers!

[lululu_42]

I was mainly thinking of Guild vs Arcanists since at least in the fluff ether one is a good guy or bad guy (depending on how you look at it).

[Ratty]

I thought I'd post here, being the most fitting thread.

I am looking to begin playing the game, and want to pick up 2-3 starters, who'd be ran one against the other.

None of us have played Malifaux before, but we're all seasoned strategy gamers: MtG, Warmachine, etc.

So we need things to let us grok the game, but also with more room to grow. Self contained starters that do not demand additional purchases, are also desired.

Cheers!

OK Crews that can run fine out of the box and are good for starting. All 3 of the Guild ones should be fine, Zoraida, Seamus, Rasputina, Ramos.

I would probably go with Lady J, Seamus and Rasputina. It will give you 3 different factions so you can expand easily without having the same models. One crew is hard hitting melee, One defensive, One Ranged.

But all three of you should go for whichever one you like the look of and will enjoy painting.

[Thunder_God]

BTW, what's the spiel on the Dreamer? Seems complicated. I very much like Baby Kade and Candy, but I saw that the Pandora starter comes with big warnings for beginning players?

[Doctor Amos]

OK Crews that can run fine out of the box and are good for starting. All 3 of the Guild ones should be fine, Zoraida, Seamus, Rasputina, Ramos.

I would probably go with Lady J, Seamus and Rasputina. It will give you 3 different factions so you can expand easily without having the same models. One crew is hard hitting melee, One defensive, One Ranged.

But all three of you should go for whichever one you like the look of and will enjoy painting.

Gunna go ahead and disagree with you here. Zoraida is not good right out the box. Her trademark totem is naught to be seen, and the lack thereof hurts her significantly. You could argue she also wants weak-willed thralls like Ravag`e, but that's more splitting hairs.

[Ratty]

Gunna go ahead and disagree with you here. Zoraida is not good right out the box. Her trademark totem is naught to be seen, and the lack thereof hurts her significantly. You could argue she also wants weak-willed thralls like Ravag`e, but that's more splitting hairs.

Well you could say the same about all the crews missing their totems. I do agree you will need a voodoo doll, but I would probably pick up the totem with most crews.

I don't think you really need weak willed minions, Rathnard seems to think that Sluirid and Bad Juju both work OK with her, and none of the crews I've mentioned are particularly immune to her controlling them. Weak willed minions are only really important if you can't control the opponent.

However out of the Neverborn I think she is the best out of the box for beginners. You can easily add to her at a later date. So if someone likes Neverborn it's the one I would recommend. Note: I didn't suggest it in my top 3 choices.

Lilith needs Young Nephelim. Pandora and the Dreamer both are hard to use.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Ratty

[Doctor Amos]

I think it's safe to say none of the 'Borne are especially suitable for demos. But I suppose you need to settle on one of them.

[Ratty]

I think it's safe to say none of the 'Borne are especially suitable for demos. But I suppose you need to settle on one of them.

Lilith is not too bad if you pair her with someone like Perdita, however she doesn't work out of the box particularly well.

[Doctor Amos]

Lilith is not too bad if you pair her with someone like Perdita, however she doesn't work out of the box particularly well.

I hear this often (probably just from you, all said), but the question is; is she bad with someone else? Does she pair poorly or with ill demonstrations when paired with another crew?

[Thunder_God]

Weird; I heard Lilith is a good Master to use in beginner games.

Well, Seamus, Justice and Rasputina will be how I begin, and after I get some games under my belt, provided I'll still have who to play with, I'll slowly pick up the Neverborne.

[Doctor Amos]

Weird; I heard Lilith is a good Master to use in beginner games.

Well, Seamus, Justice and Rasputina will be how I begin, and after I get some games under my belt, provided I'll still have who to play with, I'll slowly pick up the Neverborne.

Lilith is good, actually. She's the most strait-forward and really has a lot to offer for a starting crew. But, her crew wants to be "leveled up" so to speak, and the starter box doesn't have the mid-level evolution forms. ::shrug::

Also, while they are the weirdest group, the 'Borne are easily the most popular and well-liked (go figure). If you're organizing for a group, or especially out of a store, you really do kind of need to have them.

[Ratty]

I agree, if your willing to pop a couple of Young Nephilim, (and something else to make up points, if your not going to use the Mature Nephilim to start and evolve into it) on top of the crew box it's not a bad starter crew.

[Deuce]

One thing I'll say is you don't want to go with Sonnia Criid and Rasputina. They are too similar imho.

I'd have to disagree, here. Not with the statement, but with the reasoning. While I can't really comment on which crews might or might not be good for a beginner (beginner, myself), I do think using crews that are very similar in play is a positive point for demoing a game, if not for building a collection. It creates a more balanced feel and reduces game-swinging surprises for those not intimately familiar with each crews abilities.

IMHO.

[Ratty]

With a demoing game your trying to show as much of the game as possible. Which is why GW always goes for different style armies in the starter set. Elite vs Hoarde. Close combat against ranged.

I remember having to intro the Return of the King game. It was almost impossible to build any character or tension into the crew as orcs and minas tirith had almost identical stat lines, so it ended up with them running together and each side rolling a tonne of dice. whereas Two Towers was much easier to build up the imagery as Riders of Rohan vs Uruk-hai have very different play styles.

5 years of introing games to kids gives you a good idea of what you are after.

With two crews like Sonnia and Rasputina, it's too easy to end up with them staying at range and just firing back and forth, meaning you end up with it being down to the card drawer. Beginners like to think that their tactics actually matter (even if they don't). Combat vs Ranged, means one person is trying to close, while the other is trying to keep distance.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Ratty

[Buck Dog]

My first ever game of Malifaux was Sonnia vs Raspy. Despite losing, I had an absolute blast and have been hooked ever since. What helped was that the strategy (hold an objective in the middle of the board, can't remember the name...) was pre-selected for us rather than randomly flipping which meant we had to move in on each other rather than just sitting back and blasting from a distance

Having said that, I think Sonnia vs Seamus is the perfect demo game. They both play well straight out of the box, between them you cover a huge amount of the basic game mechanics (shooting, melee, offensive magic, terrain creating magic, tricksy / luring magic, summoning, terrifying, the list goes on........) and Seamus and his lovely ladies do tend to draw new players in !

[hippieshopper]

Even though he's not great out of the box, McM has also been pretty fair for people learning.

Seeing as most newbie games tend to gear toward Melee vs. Ranged...McM fits very nicely into the Melee category seeing as both he and his Frankies are melee tankers. It's also good because you have some pretty simple triggers to learn about and of course what the Ressers do best, summoning.

Again the major problem is that his box is not too good starting out, you always want more dogs, if nothing else. Nurses are average but I have never needed more than one because I don't always get lucky with my high crows.

Just putting in my two cents.

[lululu_42]

So I should look for box Sets that when a played will use a little of Every rule? So im thinking Sonnia and Samus. For the stratagies though is it better for both players to have the same or would it be a good Idea to for each to have there own like Sonnia (Reconnoiter) while Seamus (Treasure Hunt.)

[Doctor Amos]

Seamus doesn't have much in the way of spells to counter. There are worse matchups, I suppose. Rasputina might be better...

But, I digress. I say flip for strategies. It's a fun part of the game. Unless you're just running a 5-minute demo or something like the same. In which case you have more problems than just scenario.

[lululu_42]

Alright I picked up sonnia Criid box set and now im down to 3 choice's for the OpFor.

Colette: I think this might be a good choice my only problem is that theres only 2 models with a ranged attack (otherwise its all spells) and that they heave low wounds.

Ramos: Only ranged attacks are spells but otherwise looks durable.

Rasputina: On par but I already know someone who plays her(although he rarely gets a chance to play.)

Overall Im thinking Rasputina although I'll probable get Colette too since I like her models but that may be months later.

Whats your 2cents on this?