Malifaux, is it your favorite?

[ThePandaDirector]

**Holy crap thats a book to read. I am starting to infringe on Panda-space.

Panda says it's fun to read =]

Edit: and "Panda-space" makes me think of:

Edited July 26, 2012 by ThePandaDirector

[Utterkhaos]

Hmm malifaux is number one for me for a few reasons. First the fluff for me is enought to keep buying and trying to get others to buy the big book and not just the rules manual. Second is the company. Wyrd isn't just money gouging a**holes. I used to play fantasy and 40k. I still have and am trying to sell my army's. I play tau in 40k...it's been two additions and alot of hype about them getting a new book. I was determined to keep playing...until just last week when I was told they weren't redoing tau till next yr. the only reason they would have to push back the book that needs help the most would be because they just want to sell more product...also price raise with no explanation.

So wyrd miniatures I salute you for not being like GW in the fact you actualy care about your players and community . Hell look how many times we see the creators of the game or their direct staff commenting on stuff that people say on here.

[Balefirestorm]

If I would sit down and make a five step list of my all time favorite miniature games, it would probably be as follows:

1) Malifaux - Love the fluff, the models and the rule system. The first time I played it, it didn't really click (just before release of Rising Powers), so I only got one game in (battle report still on the forums). Then it took 1½ year before I found my way back to it again. And now it's about the only game I want to play. Just need some more opponents.

2) Blood Bowl - No doubt GW's best game. This one and the one below opened up my mind to strategic thinking and using tactics. First miniature game I played as well, way back in the second edition.

3) Confrontation (3.0-3.5) - Rackhams' models back then was just WOW. This game showed me that there were/are other gamelines out there other than GW's. Managed to gather up 3 sizable armies before the line went "belly up". That was a sad day.

4) Man o War - The first miniature game I played where I truly invested in an army (fleet). Not the best game that has ever existed, but it was really fun to play.

5) Necromunda - The first campaign system I've encountered. Great feeling to play and see your army grow and get better. Still hoping for Malifaux to take steps towards a campaign system like this.

Cheers

[dgraz]

After my initial immediate fan-boy knee-jerk reaction I figured I'd come back and give a little more info.

I started with WHFB in......5th? Played pretty much only that for a long time with my beloved Lizardmen (Dinosaurs rule). The penultimate in WHFB for me was 7th and I had a great time playing that.

I dabbled in several others.....Warmachine I dabbled with when it originally came out then dropped it until Hordes came out and I had a respectable-sized Troll force. Played FoW when it first came out....US Paratroopers but gave it up. Dabbled in Mordheim and Inquisitor but they never really took off in my area.

Battlefleet Gothic. LOVED it. Great mechanics....extremely tactical. Then they released the other factions (Necrons, Tyranids, etc) that kind of broke the game and then they stopped supporting it........a real shame.

Played some Uncharted Seas but they screwed up the rules so much that my LGS gave up on Spartan in general.

Everything I had has all been sold. Huge Lizardman and High Elf armies; A massive Imperial BFG fleet and a smaller Eldar one; large Troll force; the Paratroopers; 2 Uncharted fleets.............all gone and not one look back.

I'm dabbling a bit in Infinity but if I've played 6 games in 6 months it would be a lot. I'm still looking for a decent WWII Naval game (my favorite genre) but they're either too rule intensive or too abstract. Tried Victory at Sea for a time but some of the rules were pretty wonky and I couldn't get others to play more than once.

Sometimes you feel like you need to play something different and my partner in crime, Cornelius1424, and I have discussed numerous possible options........but when play-time rolls around........we play Malifaux anyway.

So, yeah...Malifaux is my favorite of all time (so far) followed by BFG, 7th ed, and Hordes (in that order). Infinity isn't ranked because I'm still too new with and it is so overshadowed by Malifaux that I can't really judge it fairly.

[G. Footman]

it's one of my favrites.

I also play W40k and WFB, and am interested in distopian wars, possibly when I can move to a larger space, look into a small wachine force too, it depends, there's enough games that interest me, but only such time for painting, conveg, and playing, plus some of my opponents may play one game but not others.

gamewise I'm another one who puts the lore and setting above gameplay, I like the mechanicsof e games over others, but didn't get into malifaux because I flip cards rather than dice, I got into it because I like the dark stempunk western feel of it.

otherwise my favorite depends on my mood,I have a day to spare, a willing opponent,and feel like an army of evil phsyco space elves in a large battle, I go w40k, I feel like a small personal gang of undea hookers and frankenstien-ish creations in a dark steampunk style town, I go malifaux

[Mournafein]

@ThePanda: I encourage you to try out Malifaux (Or some more!) I'm not sure how you prefer to scale your battles, when you TTG, but I didn't really like the WHF/40k scale (Though I did like the models and amount of them). I honestly haven't seen the LOTR Skirmish or anything, so I'll have to check that out! But it's good to see that Wyrd is easy to love!

@LordZombie: Totally agree. It's rare that a game is totally hopeless, to me, but I love the game, nevertheless! It's very difficult for me to not like a match of Malifaux, even if I am getting decimated, I'm laughing! XD

@Rancor: I go through withdrawals often, which is a shame! I think about Malifaux almost as much as my fiancé! Haha!

@Zombie Kitt: Right there with you. I need my fix!

@Cornelious: I played them and enjoyed Warhammer, but since I paint all of my own stuff, I get attached to it, so it's a real shame that I don't get rid of my minis!

@Boardgameguy: +1 to what Cornelious suggested!

@Sybaris: I really like Bloodbowl, too! But I don't seem to agree with dice, or vice versa, somehow! I used Skaven and I could never catch the ball! Caused a lot of injuries, though! I may really have to check out the LOTR thing, though.

@Nix: Glad to have your response! We can easily agree, then, that Malifaux is a no-contest winner! I really like the interaction that the creators and admins have with the community, as well. It's really interesting that everyone seems to be a post-GW player. It's a shame that you had so much invested in WH! Did you sell them all that you don't have anymore, if I may ask? I also played Legion in Hordes, so I feel you, there!

@Nix + Panda: Reading is fun... And it'll take more than a couple long posts to encroach on the bamboo forest! XD

@Utterkhaos: Totally agree! It's nice to have a company like Wyrd that listens to its populace and interacts, instead of just stabbing our wallets right through our kidneys!

@Balefirestorm: Agreed on the Confrontations models, back then!

I'm gonna post again, to respond again! I need a break! Haha.

[nix]

@Nix: Glad to have your response! We can easily agree, then, that Malifaux is a no-contest winner! I really like the interaction that the creators and admins have with the community, as well. It's really interesting that everyone seems to be a post-GW player. It's a shame that you had so much invested in WH! Did you sell them all that you don't have anymore, if I may ask? I also played Legion in Hordes, so I feel you, there!

I still have all of it, in fact a portion is sitting in a case right next to my 2 Malifaux cases. Its really just down to having to make a choice between playing Malifaux or playing Hordes. When the choice comes up, I grab my Malifaux cases.

I am going to be picking up the new massive dragon that PP is going to bring out for Legion, and might even commission out the painting of my hordes stuff so its painted. Most likely I will get it painted and it will fill a couple shelves of case space with my Dwarves and Eldar.

[Mournafein]

@Dgraz: I liked the fanboy reaction, either way!! Haha But I am right there with you on all the dabbling. My group and I have experimented , but we have a a diverse group and our TTG ADD/ADHD kicks in and we move along. Malifaux seems to have stuck around the longest, which is great, because I love it! We also discuss other games... But go back to Malifaux, anyways! Haha.

@GFootman: I think we're all a little mood-oriented... It just depends on what mood I'm in that picks what crew I use!

[Hateful Darkblack]

Is Malifaux my favorite miniatures game? By far. It's the only one I've ever played and everything I see about other games makes me disinterested.

Is Malifaux my favorite anything at all? Not quite, but it's certainly up there!

I have never played any other miniatures wargame, nor had any serious interest in one.

[the imp]

Malifaux is my favorite. Though, to be fair, I've only played a single game of 40K. I'm really more of a miniatures collector than anything else. And in that realm, Wyrd is not quite my favorite minis company. It's definitely in the top five though.

[Gruesome]

I would be remiss if I did not bring up a game that for a very long time was my favorite tabletop game as a contender. Star Fleet Battles...

Around 1980 or 1981 a friend of mine showed me the game and I spent the next several years playing it. While it did have hexes rather than tape measures, it still put the love of miniatures and war-gaming into me that never went away.

I happened to come across a box of stuff for it a couple weeks ago looking for something for my son. (Also found a couple White Dwarf magazines from back when it was basically just another version of Dragon Magazine, supporting Dungeons and Dragons... )

[ThePandaDirector]

@ThePanda: I encourage you to try out Malifaux (Or some more!) I'm not sure how you prefer to scale your battles, when you TTG, but I didn't really like the WHF/40k scale (Though I did like the models and amount of them). I honestly haven't seen the LOTR Skirmish or anything, so I'll have to check that out! But it's good to see that Wyrd is easy to love!

It's inevitable really. My main issue with TTGs isn't the sale as much as it's the table, and terrain and such. The space required and the fact I don't know any local gamers makes it hard for me to get round to building a proper crew and taking the plunge. With PW I can convince most people to play a game from time to time. Haven't played LotR in about 7 years, but I prefer individual models to squads/regiments, and because of LotR's simplicity it can handle battles with 40-100 models (but I never play with heroes). The complexity of Malifaux does get in my way a bit, but more than that I want to just go in and tear it apart, create modularity with integrity and put it back together as a proper character-driven game like Inquisitor or Mordheim. Going crazy over synergy is fine in an abstract game like Puppet Wars, but it ruins thematic games like Malifaux for me.

Buying into Tor Gaming and Studio McVey has taught me that I really like having models from as many different ranges as possible, I'm really starting to like the variety. Puppet Wars playtesting has taught me that I really like rules design (strangely because of how little I usually enjoy gameplay) and so I think it'd be nice for my number one to be my own creation =]

[G. Footman]

there's some games I like the look of, but haven't been able to justify getting aside from as an excuse to paint the models, Infinity looks interesting, and has a couple people in my area who play it, but none of my regular opponents do. Rezoluton has a decent cyberpunk feel, but noone in my area plays, te shop dosn't even have any selecton for it. Pulp city heroes, again, I like superheroes and would get into a superhero minis game (still have alot of heroclix), but noone in my area plays, superheroes don't really seem to appeal to my gaming friends that much, or comics in general, while my comic friends aren't into games.

I've seen battletech classics for sale, but I know if I got that, it would mainly be me and my brother playing, as we're really the only big battletech fans in the area.

the new DnD mini's game looks interesting, I'd be interested in the drow faction, but they're the DnD prepainted minis, andas such, the drow always look like crap.

I have gotten into playing super dungeon explore at halflingspy's, but it's more of a boardgame/gateway into miniatures game

[WolfDayDream]

Its my fave in terms of looks and unlike with Heroscape and DnD I can play by myself and make a blog story telling my battles lol I tried Heroscape and I had a lot but I got bored with it being so massive and DnD figurines all of them were never in the books so it was like a diff setting with Malifaux thu I can paint the models and use em as decor when not playing and then play them like I would action figures just by the games rules lol.

[Boscotopia]

Shocking to see Malifaux is number one so many times on the Wyrd Forum..............

[Gruesome]

and?

[Boscotopia]

That said, despite all of the crap I give the company: it is an awesome game. It will be #1 once they get their rules written concisely (way too vague and open for debate and interpretation), gets one rulebook that does not need a FAQ or Errata search, and finds a way to MOSTLY balance their characters. I know it is impossible to balance entirely, but what it is now is not great.

---------- Post added at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------

and?

It is like going to a church and asking how everyone ranks God. Just wondering what the point of this post is...... This post might have some weight if it was on a neutral gaming Forum.

[Dustcrusher]

Sybaris- high-five on Blood Bowl and especially Warzone (I'm interested in Dark Age mainly because I've heard it plays a lot like Warzone). I can't bring myself to sell stuff from either game, even though my last board game of Blood Bowl was 2nd Edition and my last game of Warzone was in the 90s.

Side note- if anyone has Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition for PC and is up for a game, let me know.

Just wondering what the point of this post is...... This post might have some weight if it was on a neutral gaming Forum.

A couple of years ago this probably would've gone differently than you might expect. A fair number of people play Malifaux as a secondary game even now, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Is Malifaux my favorite? I hate absolutes and I hate committing. I'm rather capricious (in case it hasn't been painfully obvious already)- one week Malifaux will be most on my mind hobby-wise, the next will be something else.

Is it among my favorites, as in top 3? Definitely, and it will stay there for the foreseeable future. Unlike 40k and WFB which have plenty of alternatives, Malifaux is distinct and scratches a different gaming itch. It's just too distinct to be easily replaced.

For faster games/introducing new players to miniatures gaming, I play Alkemy for now. That will probably be replaced by Song of Blades and Heroes soon. Malifaux is what I play when I want to be Wracked with Brain- I have to push myself hard to do well because the game is much deeper. Compare a Malifaux model with 3 or 4 special abilities and a couple of traits- it's considered rules-light. In Alkemy the most rules-laden characters have 3-4 unique abilities and a few common abilities (akin to things like Surge and Slow to Die).

Fluff-wise, Blood Bowl will likely be my all-time favorite. For sentimental value, Necromunda will be the top spot- lots of good times with that one. Malifaux is the first game since Warzone that's hooked me with the overall package.