The things we love about Malifaux

[doubledragon]

Hi guys! I thought it would be great to talk about all the things we LOVE/ENJOY about Malifaux in one place. So go ahead, and let us hear what it is you love/like or enjoy about this game! If you disagree with anyones loves or likes about Malifaux, please don't post it here - there are plenty of other threads for that! The different categories off the top of my head are: 1. Game mechanics/Rules 2. Fluff (the story) 3. Artwork 4. Miniatures/Sculpts.To start it off, I will list some of the things I love/enjoy about this game: The card mechanic! The fate deck was a stroke of genius! No more silly dice rolls! The fact that you can cheat in the card you want is amazing. It allows for so many strategies and eliminates much of the "luck factor" which many other popular games rely so heavily on. The artwork! Particularly the new M2E art. It really brings to life this strange and twisted alternate Victorian/Horror/Western/Steampunk world. This new artwork has been transformed brilliantly into the new sculpts. The Ortegas. Enough said! Lucas McCabe. Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to be Indianna Jones. Now I can be - sort of The cost! This game is so easy to get into. At a very low cost (compared to other tabletop strategy games), you can field an entire crew and start playing proper games right off the bat. The variety! With 20 different masters to choose from! With more to come!What do you guys love/enjoy about Malifaux?

Edited September 3, 2013 by doubledragondy

[doubledragon]

C'mon guys. No responses?

[Soundwave]

I love zombie hookers. And funny hats. Mostly zombie hookers, though.

[Iron Heel]

1. Fate deck: it creates a nice balance between luck and strategy (If one really wanted to a similar system could probably be done with dice but it would be clunky and unfluffy.)

2. Skirmish-level play: the game began and remained a skirmish game...this does not always happen.

3. Women & Minorities: Ever notice that LGSs are filled with white guys and hardly anyone else? Favorable and influential protrayals of women & minorities in-game may help to shift this a bit along with being the right call for other reasons. Perfect...No, but much further along than the charactures that games often promote. There are many annecdotal reports of Malifaux appealing to women more than other systems. (My apologies if this comment derails this thread, but it is one of the things I like.)

4. Fluffy Crews: there are good mechanical reasons to build fluffy crews which is what I want to do.

5. Newish Aesthetic: Wyrd didn't invent a lot of the stuff in the fluff (cowboys, dimentional rifts, zombies, and whatnot existed beforehand), but they put these together in their own unique way and actually made it all work! Quite a feat as the company started with an oddly cobbled set of figures and made a game to include them.

6. Smart Revisions: responsive to player feedback, but not to their detriment; actually improved the game with a new addition which seemingly was primarily catalyzed by wanting a better game rather than selling revised army books and whatnot.

7. Plastics: I prefer not getting metal filing all over the house.

[Jonas Albrecht]

I've always loved the Fate Deck, Triggers, and Shared Strategies.

With M2e, now I can expand that list to include the design philosophy for the rules as well. We wont know for a while if M2e actually achieved the balance it set out for, but I'm optimistic.

[Matney X]

1. The fluff -- holy crap, the fluff. I started during the M2E beta, but I'm buying 1e books just to read the fluff. I'm currently in Twisting Fates, and I have only opened my M2E book to look up rules because I don't want to spoil anything (not that I haven't already spoiled stuff by reading Wyrd Chronicles 6 and 7).

2. The fate deck. I came to Malifaux from 40k, and I can't tell you how many times I've had "the dice screw me," by rolling 1s and 2s when I need 3+. Now, I can hopefully cheat the bad flip, and if I can't, it's because I overplayed my control hand or discarded too many not-so-good cards and got bad cards in return. If I lose a challenge, I feel like it's always MY fault, and not my cards.

3. The models' quality and variation. I get that I'm going to be playing less models than 40k (and I LOVE that), but Wyrd didn't cut corners and put out a single sculpt for things we'll need multiples of. And they're AWESOME sculpts (I only wish I was a better painter -- plastic doesn't strip as well as metal).

4. Cost. Again, coming from 40k, it would cost $200 MINIMUM to get a playable army. Not competitive, just 1500 points of whatever current box set you can grab (I have 2x Dark Vengeance, for example). You could budget shop it, but you're not going to come in too far under $200 for a playable army. In Malifaux, you can have two playable crews, official cards AND the rules for ~$100 -- or, as little as $30 if you're willing to buy used or old box crews, use 1.5 rules, and a dollar store deck of playing cards.

4a. Cost, again. In 40k, to change my play-style, I generally have to buy a completely new army. Another $200. In Malifaux, to change my play style, I have to drop $30-40 on a new crew -- for the price of a box of Tac marines, I can have a completely different game.

5. The ruleset doesn't encourage curbstomping your opponent. In 40k, if you can completely eliminate your opponent's army, you win, regardless of how many VP you would actually have. In Malifaux, you can wipe out your oponent's crew and THEY could win because they spent more time focusing on schemes and strategies, while you just wanted to kill.

1a. Holy crap, did I mention the fluff?!

[Arli]

I like the fate decks because I do not have to have 40 dice for attacking.

I like the schemes and strategies because I do not have to wipe the other guy off the board to win (but sometimes, it's fun).

I like the dynamic models that are scaled correctly and show action instead of boring static poses in rank and file.

I also forgot the fluff! I love the fluff. I never could get interested in "the other game's" fluff. I just didn't care to read it. The fluff in Malifaux is great.

[Malal]

Chronologically it went:

1. Aesthetics - Just happened upon the Colette box in an independent store (after 20+ years of only playing GW games), picked it up to paint, wasn't even considering playing the game

2. Game play - It turned out an old friend was a henchman so organised a game and loved the focus on strats and schemes rather than just kill everything

3. Community - I'd stopped going to GW tournaments because of "that guy" but decided to give the UK tournament scene a try and I'm glad I did! The UK Malifaux scene is very welcoming, it's also very competitive towards top-table without any associated douchebaggery.

So that's my list in order of what has drawn me in, but it would be 3, 1, 2 if ordered in preference.

[dgraz]

Honestly, it would be far easier for me to list the things I don't like.....as that is a much shorter list and I just don't have the time to list all the things I like.

The game as a whole is easily a 9-point-something, out of 10 for me.

[Lucidicide]

Honestly, it would be far easier for me to list the things I don't like.....as that is a much shorter list and I just don't have the time to list all the things I like.

The game as a whole is easily a 9-point-something, out of 10 for me.

M1E could only ever reach 8 points. That M2E can get to 10 just shows that it's a whole new ballgame, and a better one at that.

[dgraz]

M1E could only ever reach 8 points. That M2E can get to 10 just shows that it's a whole new ballgame, and a better one at that.

Agreed. There were plenty of things in classic that I loved and that I'll miss.....but there were plenty of problems that dragged the score down. Still incredibly enjoyable, but it doesn't rate like M2E for me. It's still a little early to truly judge, and I might find some problems down the road, but for now it's a nice improvement over classic in just about every area.