Suggested Starter Purchases Spreadsheet - Thoughts?

[morella]

Sample Starter Lists.pdf

A few days ago I thought it would be fun to make a spreadsheet (I like making lists for no real reason) listing the points values for the starter sets and one or two additional blisters. The idea was to try and create a suggested purchase list for someone who was brand new and didn't want to spend more than $50 to begin with until they got a feel for the game and their chosen master/faction.

I revised this to $60 (with a couple of exceptions) and limited it mostly to starter boxes, with a few alternate lists for some of the starter boxes that people don't seem to care for. I know there have been threads like this in the past, but it seems most are over a year old, so I culled the forum for info on the crews I was not familiar with. The idea here is a simple starter purchase recommendation, that would allow a new person to play a few 25 ss games with some variety without going all in and spending a bunch of money immediately.

This was just a fun exercise for me, but since they just created a new player forum, I thought it might be nice to get input and see if we could come up with something that could be added for potential players to reference. So, anyone want to help with their suggestions? Or just tell me it was silly idea. (I posted a pdf, but I could make a post for each faction and just put them in the body of this thread)

[Requirement]

I like the idea and it was nice to read through. I think it might just need a little cleaning up and maybe add in a little variety... a few crews for each master instead of just one, some labeling. Overall though, like I said, the idea is good and it could provide a good tool for new players.

[osoi]

Overall not a bad list, I tcould almost be worthwhile breaking it down a little further to budget friendly crews (Collette, Lady Justice, Sonnia, Hoffman to a degree, Perdita, Seamus, Rasputina, Kaeris, Lilith, Pandora, Collodi, Viktorias, Ophelia, Von Schill) who can do well with just a couple of purchases beyond the starter that allow for a lot of flexibility in how they are used compared to Masters that are a little harder on the wallet (McMourning, Nicodem, Kirai, Hamelin, Zoraida, Marcus, Leveticus, Ramos) to get the most out of what their respective masters can do with whats available. Not that even the 'expensive' masters cost that much compared to other systems.

Hope that makes sense

[Rathnard]

You know, this is exactly the kind of thing we could put on the Pullmyfinger wiki.

[Omenbringer]

I might add a bit to the Som'er Teeth Jones recomendation.

I would add

• Another Bayou Gremlin Blister
  
• Another Skeeter

This will allow the most flexibility and is really as bare bones as you can get (though in truth I would recommend a bit more) with him.

And definately agree this is a great tool.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Omenbringer

[osoi]

You know, this is exactly the kind of thing we could put on the Pullmyfinger wiki.

I agree its a good idea we can work it up and put it up in the new players area here on the forum and open up a new section under Starting Malifaux

[morella]

Yeah, Gremlins was just no go at the price point I had set as part of the exercise no matter how many ways I tried. My main point in doing this was because the LGS had taken Malifaux off their weekly schedule due to low attendance. I had been hoping to make it there once spring semester was finished, so was kind of bummed. So I contacted their events person, and am trying to set up demos and wanted a low price point list that gave some variety for people who might not want to get too invested in it yet. I have it as an Excel spreadsheet, but that is not listed as a file type that I can upload which is why it was a pdf. Also, I took off the individual models points values because I wasn't sure if that was okay. Anyway, if someone can suggest how to save/upload the spreadsheet I can do that. I'm not familiar with a lot of these crews, so it was a best guess based on what I found in different posts on the forum, just in case someone asked for suggestions I wanted to be prepared.

And osoi, I actually was trying out what you suggested - the brighter colored boxes were ones that seemed to be a better entry level crew based on what I gleaned from opinions expressed most commonly.

Edited July 11, 2012 by morella

[osoi]

I THink having ss costs up are fine as there arent stats and it is publically available via the crew creator on malifaux.com already, that would also be able to give people a handle on how big these crews are as well

[morella]

Made the suggested changes to Gremlins. I wasn't sure about some of the Ressers and Arcanists, especially with the price restriction (which was really just kind of a challenge for me so can drop that, though my intent was to keep the price as low as possible with the idea that it is a starter crew not a fully optimized core), so any thoughts on these (or any) would be great. I have decided that if you stick to a thematics list, Seamus has the best points/$ list of all, well, Lucius does as listed, but you probably would need more options with him as most people don't take the box contents as is (yes, I had a column to calculate pts/$, removed it so as not to be confusing, I'm a nerd).

Added column labels (I was just being lazy before) and individual points costs. Obviously prices are in USD, but could add other currencies. I have attached a pdf with changes, as well as a tab delimited txt file, which is a pain to read but can be imported into Excel for anyone who likes tinkering with this sort of thing.

Sample Starter Lists 2.pdf

Sample Starter Lists 1.txt

[Omenbringer]

Perhaps we can get this posted in the New Players section, I think this would be a nifty tool for those thinking about getting in with a particular master/ crew.

[morella]

That was my hope - I may go post in the individual factions sections with a link here first, since I don't think this area gets a lot of views, just to see if there is any more feedback on the draft version.

[Omenbringer]

Just send Justin (Lalochezia) a PM and he can probably just move it with his admin powers.

[Boshea]

Interesting stuff, especially since I was looking at a budget approach on expanding into the guild a few weeks ago. About the only suggestion I'd make is to swap the Student of conflict in the Alt-Vik list for a Convict Gunslinger. Gives the crew some ranged threat, and is an amazing model to pick up since it can be run in several crews.

[Davian]

And I wouldn't put the purifying flame in Sonnia Criid list. Swap it for a desp merc, an austringer or guild hounds. If the player wants her totem he'll get it later, but I would not counsel it to begin with.

But it's a nice work btw

[JisaacT]

Hey I have a proposal when you get the numbers up and finalized I would like to make an infographic with the information if that is ok with you!

[Omenbringer]

And I wouldn't put the purifying flame in Sonnia Criid list. Swap it for a desp merc, an austringer or guild hounds. If the player wants her totem he'll get it later, but I would not counsel it to begin with.

But it's a nice work btw

Though I would agree that a Guild Austringer would give some more ranged offensive power to her normal crew, the Purifying Flame isn't that bad of a choice (especially if the SS for hiring are low after hiring the Witchling Handler).

It has some decent durability (ranged strike Defense buff, Spirit) and a decent chance of successfully casting all of Sonnia's spells (11% Flame Burst, 13% Flame Wall and 5% Violation of Magic with/without cheating but without using a SS).

[morella]

Hey I have a proposal when you get the numbers up and finalized I would like to make an infographic with the information if that is ok with you!

I have no idea what this is, but I am fine with it I am sure. I have the excel spreadsheet, if anyone wants it to toy around with it, feel free to pm me with your email and I can send it to you (can't figure out how to save it as an accepted file type).

Or maybe I can figure out how to put it up on google docs or something and post a link so other people can edit it. Will look into it.

[JisaacT]

Info-graphics are just a way to organize information in an easy to read format. They are made by graphic designers usually for fun. Just helpful for stuff

That needs organized and I can make it look really slick.

Once we have all the numbers and crew

Possibilities finisallized I'll work on it but I need all the information first.

[morella]

I uploaded this to google docs here

and I believe I have it set so anyone can edit - I will try and go in occasionally and save any updates in case something bad happens to the file online

Edited July 21, 2012 by morella

[ttsgosadow]

I find this list to be very useful, not only for myself, but also to point to as a guide for new players. Are there plans to update the list with the Book 4 releases? Maybe there are other good combinations for starters of the box sets of the previous books, and ofcourse Ten Thunders deserve a spot in the list.

[morella]

I have not had much time to update this, and frankly had kind of forgotten about. Will see if I can do something with it in a few weeks when I have more time. However, in my previous post there is a link to the document on google docs, which should allow anybody to add to it and make changes, so please feel free to do so.

[HtUnliving]

Otherwise good but I have to be of the opinion that even with Nicodem the first buys should be Mindless and Necropunks, for they are so much better than Canines for almost the same price.

But a nice idea, all of this.