First malifaux tactics article

[SpiralngCadavr]

Hi, so, after playing McMourning a bit, I decided to try my hand at writing a short/beginning guide to McMourning on my blog. I've done a little of this before, but this is my first with a Malifaux piece.

Link!

I'd love feedback on strategy, formatting, etc. I'm probably going to explore different Masters a bit before diving back in to playing McMourning (mostly because I don't want to pigeon-hole my strategy by playing one master too much), but wanted to get this one started, before moving on.

[LordZombie]

Looks pretty good. Got most everything covered. Are you going to add in a part about using McMourning and Molly?

[Fetid Strumpet]

Has anyone found Molly advantageous to take with McMorning? I have enough trouble bringing her with Seamus, and at least with him she has a walk of 6. I don't even like thinking about walk 4 Molly *Shudder*.

[Da Git]

haven't read all yet, but something i noticed about killing the canines is that you are using the V1 card (disection no longer gives a corpse counter). otherwise looks good. It is always good to read other people tactics to add to my own repetoir!

[Oscilioth]

I'm just about to start playing McMourning and I quite liked it, it was good, fairly unbiased and had a decent variety of strategies with different minions.

I thought it might be worthwhile to note that the Grave Spirit can't offer its Armour +2 to McMourning or Sebastian, which leaves mainly the Flesh Construct, which it might have a hard time getting to if it's summoned.

Just my two bobs, my first opinion of the Grave Spirit had it looking great, but when you take a closer look it doesn't fit with McMourning well (my Nicodem will love him though), and if this guide is at all aimed at newer players it might be an idea to distinguish this.

Good job!

[EnternalVoid]

Another thing to add to your tactical article that I noticed.

In the part about Scalpel Magic, in the Melee section, being a trigger as well as A Piece for Me it is kind of irrelevent. Scalpel Magic is on Ca where A Piece for Me is on Cb. So a Piece for Me only works when he uses his Surgical Implements and Scalpel Magic only works on his spells. Also I don't know about the V1 card but the V2 card for McMourning says for Scalpel Magic "After resolving a (1) spell defender failed to resist, make a Surgical Implements Strike against the defender if it is in melee range." This means they have to fail to resist Rancid Transplant for you to get the free attack.

Now don't get me wrong, this is a very Valid tactic. If you have a high mask card, a spare body part, a free soul stone, and your target does not have the Use Soulstone ability, it might well be a kiss of death. Few things are going to beat a master with a decent Cb, a high card, and some extra on top of it from a soulstone. But it requires you to be careful as against another master it might not work and might cost you one of your valuable AP.

Overall an interesting read and always nice to take a look at things like this. One thing I have seen from other posts about McMourning is that people like the Grave Spirit if they are bringing the Dead Rider, as he can give it +2 Armor to help with its survivability. All it costs is the Chihuahua's position and ss.

Edited April 18, 2012 by EnternalVoid

[SoulG]

I believe dissection also prevents the model from dropping any counters?

[SpiralngCadavr]

Since the first part got eaten by a copy-paste error, reconstructing...

LordZombie-- is that with the interaction with the RN? I'm not sure what you're suggesting that would work well specifically with McMourning.

Da O&F Git-- well, that changes how that spell works... gotta fix that

I thought it might be worthwhile to note that the Grave Spirit can't offer its Armour +2 to McMourning or Sebastian, which leaves mainly the Flesh Construct, which it might have a hard time getting to if it's summoned.

Just my two bobs, my first opinion of the Grave Spirit had it looking great, but when you take a closer look it doesn't fit with McMourning well (my Nicodem will love him though), and if this guide is at all aimed at newer players it might be an idea to distinguish this./QUOTE]

Yep, you're right, I should clarify that.

That'll teach me to not look more closely at the changes in cards!

Thanks, all, for the feedback. I'll work on the corrections (based exclusively on the v2 card!)

Edited April 18, 2012 by SpiralngCadavr

[LordZombie]

I mentioned Molly as she is the Resurrectionist's henchwoman and no matter how bad some thinks she is, she should still be included. Even if it is to just metion she has no real synergy, it would something to mention. If the guide is a beginners look into McMourning then it will help out and point out if she should be taken or not. For that matter, you could also include a small part about Von Schill. Taking a henchmen is just as much an option as taking totem or mercs.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Oh, I'm definitely planning on expanding the article, I just was going with what I've actually used. I'm trying to avoid theory, since I don't have an intuitive grasp of Malifaux pieces the same way I do with systems I'm more familiar with...

[LordZombie]

You are a smart one. If only more people would quit playing theory games and play real ones, it would make soooo many game systems much more enjoyable.

[Toonook]

Another thing worth mentioning that I only recently discovered: if you're affected by slow as mcmourning, you can spend a body part to gain fast, and since you can't have slow and fast at the same time they're both cancelled out and you return to normal. You can then spend another body part to gain fast. I may be wrong but by the wording of the rule book I'm pretty sure it's legit.

[LordZombie]

I agree on the fast to cancel slow, but I do not think the second part works. If that were the case, you could use all the body parts you had to keep gaining fast. I believe since it is an action, you can only do it once.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Correct.

[Toonook]

I disagree, look at the example "Action Modifier Examples" on page 34.

"Lilith has (+1) Fast and Mortimer casts (-1) slow twice on Lilith. The first Slow cancels Lilith's Fast, and the second Slow nets Lilith (-1) on her next activation." It then goes on to explain that the Student of Conflict can't give Perdita Fast because you cannot stack Fast.

Therefore, reversing the process, McMourning gives himself Fast, which cancels the slow. He now has nothing. He then gives himself Fast again, which means he now has Fast for this activation. He couldn't continue giving it to himself because he has already gained Fast to his talents for this turn.

You can't stack fast, but when you use it to remove slow you don't have it so spending another body part doesn't stack it.

I'll put a question in the rules thread.

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?30809-McMourning-Passion-for-his-Work-and-Slow

Edited April 19, 2012 by Toonook