Newbie: Just starting with Pandora!

[Chilledenuff]

Hello all, I've just bought Malifaux and the Pandora starter because I liked the twisted looks of her crew. My local games club is about to start playing Malifaux so there'll be about 6 of us all with no experience in the game.

Everything looks rosy but then I started reading how Pandora isn't really suited to beginners (either for or against).

Any suggestions? I downloaded a tactica for Pandora which looks great but is a bit daunting as it is huge. So really I was just looking for some quick pointers.

Thanks for any help

[Chucklemonkey]

The tactica will prove useful no doubt. I am assuming it is Karn's tactica you have but I am sure there are others out there.

In case you haven't seen it, here is a link

http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/Pandora

Also, although she isn't beginner friendly as such, if you like the styling of the crew and the theme behind it I find this will give you some patience for the few losses you may incur right at the beginning.

In a general sense though I would just say that Malifaux is all about knowing your crew, read and re-read your cards so you are pretty sure you know all of the abilities your crew can perform.

Hope you enjoy the game and Pandora.

[Chilledenuff]

Thanks! yeah it is Karn's tactica. I've read it a couple of times and will reread it once I've printed a copy.

I do like what i've read about her play style so as long as i can wrap my mind about the way she plays it should all be cool, I'm just worried about the learning curve

[Iamwyrd]

Ya learning curves are somewhat steep for some masters. But Pandora you just gotta remember a few things:

1) when they target her, wp-->Wp duel. This is a big ability of hers.

2) the spell that makes them hit themselves is good.

3) when some loses a Wp duel with so many inches she gets a free push of 4". This is her main means of moving.

There's not much more in know about her, hope this helps alittle.

[Boom]

I'm relatively new to the game and I also started with Pandora (the Baby Kade miniature persuaded me ). I haven't found her to be too complicated, but I can't recommend Karn's Tactica and the wiki pages highly enough - I read through these a few times before I even had a game.

For me it seems to boil down to ensuring her 12" 'bubble' covers the right areas, so if that means taking a turn of just walking twice early on then so be it. Usually after that there's something to try and incite/pacify to get her moving faster.

If anything, it's the rest of her crew I'm still getting to grips with - haven't really got the Sorrows working properly for me until this week where I managed to get two very close to an opponent's crew and watched the wounds stack up off failed Wp tests

Candy is another model that's only really been effective for me in the past few games (love 'Sours'!). I think it's just a matter of jumping in and playing as many games with them all as you can to get a handle on how they play.

Of course, if you're anything like me then just as you start getting a handle on a crew another one will catch your eye and it's time to start the learning process all over again. Damn you Dreamer/LCB

[Guest]

I too started with Pandora, who could resist a GIANT toothy teddy bear. I can say also the learning curve is a bit steep. If you keep at it, realize that you are going to lose, and lose a lot, in the begining, she is well worth the trouble.

I read the Karn tatica. It was very helpful and helped lower the learning curve. Between that and playing a crap ton of games, people now fear :masks me. (haha).

What I can say is keep at her, realize she takes a while to master, have fun.

[rainborg]

Also keep in mind you guys are just starting so there's a slight learning curve to learn. Afterwards once you understand the basics of the game and Pandora then you will enjoy her and her crew. get a few more games in with her after you get a hang on the rules and her rules

:dreamer

[magicpockets]

3) when some loses a Wp duel with so many inches she gets a free push of 4". This is her main means of moving.

Just to clarify, it's when she wins a WP dual she gets the push - important difference

[Stonedog-7]

Well, through a twist of fate (or stock levels and my own impatience some might say) I've ended up with a Legion of Sorrows box rather than expanding my McMourning crew or starting Zoraida like i'd planned... and after a long read & listen through Karn's excellent tacticas i took her to the field against Lady J and learnt some distinct lessons straight off the bat

- Guild having WP6 is tough, not untouchable, but tough... early in the game my opponent was flipping & burning alot of high cards to stop my pacify/incite stuff before it even began meaning it took me longer to get into range than i'd expected to start the other shenanigans (as i was targetting a dead marshall that was out in front by a fair bit)

- Taking spread madness as a scheme was awesome but risky, I had Lady J on only 2w at the start of a turn, leaving me with only the option of activating Pandora first and without using any debuffs getting a self loathing off as the wounds from emotional trauma would otherwise have killed her before self loathing kicked in for the scheme... that said it worked and was great fun too

- You really can't get a spell off if the cards say otherwise... tried to dementia Lady J at one point and went all out with a cheated 12 followed by a SS cheat getting the red joker, i really thought i had it in the bag until my opponent got a flipped 13 and also got the red joker on his last SS of the game... sometimes even cheating fate doesn't work

- Sorrows are fragile, particularly against Guild with their damn Critical Strike Triggers, 2/3 got picked off early in 1 shot each as i was keeping high cards back for spells and just let the shots go through with or flat flip (think it was one of each, damn double-moderates on a neg damage flip)... don't think i will risk it next time

- Kade, he's tough but not all that for survivability, again when fate's against you just don't risk it... i let a pistol shot with through and instead of palming it off to my last sorrow took it, cue red joker for damage and no more Kade

- When you can drain most of an opponents hand THAT is when Pandora shines, the late turns of the game went far smoother even though i was down to Pandy & Candy as my opponent was out of luck on his flips and having to burn cards for everything it seemed, being able to lock models down with dementia and the movement from casting she really came in to her own and i got a proper glimpse at the scary turns of speed she can get as well as how powerful her auto-flee trigger can be

The main things i was dissapointed with was not getting a single sweetbreads trigger while Kade was alive (only 4 swings but hey) and how fragile the sorrows seemed, but i'm sure i'll get the hang of them eventually, i think i'll have to stop myself trying for Melancholy and go for Pandora's spells instead to get a little more mileage from them in game too... but otherwise i found her to be an awesome caster and although she might be a little over-dependant on WP abilities she is incredibly vicious and versatile with it in what she could make use of