New player looking for advice on choosing the right crew!

[gozer]

I'm brand new to miniatures and the combination of low(er) cost, fast(er) game play and an awesome setting have lured me to Malifaux. The problem is I'm not sure which faction, master and crew would be right for me. So, here is a short list of the things I enjoy when I'm playing any game:

1. Play styles that involve thinking outside the box. Yay creativity!

2. Mitigating randomness. Nothing irks me more than winning or losing by sheer chance.

3. Easy to learn, hard to master strategy (eg. chess).

4. Anything Lovecraftian in flavor or style. More insanity, viscera and misanthropy please!

Thank you ahead of time for all of your suggestions!

Edited October 14, 2013 by gozer
Grammar!

[Dracomax]

Okay currently, Wyrd is betaing wave 2 of second edition. While many or most of the models have been released for first edition, the rules for the wave 2 models are not yet finalized. Most of the trickier masters are there. If you can wait, the following options might fit you. You can check them out (with weekly updates) in the beta forum.

Wave 1(rules have been released, in the book, most models available in metal, but plastics soon.) models you might enjoy:

• Sonnia(guild) she is a mage. the mage. her standard crew is a bunch of little models whose purpose in life is to get next to one of the opponent's and hurt them or die. either way, they put burning on the model, and then Sonnia and her henchmen shoot around corners to place large amounts of damage down(in Sonnia's case, over large areas.) Balancing burning and model management are going to be the hard thing to learn here.
  
• Ramos(arcanist) He summons spiders, and buffs constructs. He will have fewer, bigger models in the early game and more, smaller models in the late game. balancing summoning, buffing, and attack are where you are going to have a lot of learning to do. He works exceptionally well, and is fun to play. With the right upgrades, you can give your models stronger defense, stronger attack, and armor, and you can draw an extra card to cheat with, so risk mitigation is a big factor here.
  
• Brewmaster(gremlins)He gets you drunk. (adds poison to you) in order to make his own crew better and your crew worse. I've seen people pick him up and win games against people who were playing crews that they had played a dozen times before, so he should fit there okay.
  
• Somer Teeth(gremlins) He's a bit of a Jack of all trades, master of none. He can summon, support, and do direct damage. Learning how gremlins work in and of itself will be a work of months or years, but he will be worse, simply because he works with so many different options and can play so many different roles. however, if you run him as a damage dealer, he is fairly easy to learn.
  
• Perdita(guild) lots of movement, some of the best and most expensive upgrades and minions in the game. Her crew is going to work well together. Some of the best melee and ranged weapon users in the game. truly mastering all the synergies and tricks is going to take you a long time, but you can win right out of the gate. Terrain and movement control are going to be important. with too little terrain, she will be a bit OP, just because lots of very good guns.
  
• Pandora(neverborn) she punishes those who have low Wp. not particularly powerful herself, she has a lot of things that do small amounts of damge constantly(sometimes multiple times per turn) and can bring mature nephilim and other heavy hitters for damage dealing. The biggest problem yo will have with her is that while everyhting is difficult to hurt without getting hurt yourself, she and her base crew go down fairly quickly when you can hit them.
  
• Zoraida(Gremlin/Neverborn) she makes a voodoo doll, then stabs it for extra damage. She manipulates your hand(giving you a lot of control) and works well with models that have low Wp.
  
• Mei Feng (arcanist/10T)She jumps from model to model, and then jumpkicks the opponent. She has some nice synergy, but order activation is going to be important. she does a lot of damage and has access to a lot of good models.
  

Wave 2 models(rules in flux, some models do not exist yet)

• Leveticus (outcast)is looking like he might fit here. He dies and comes back, using waifs and abominations to put low levels of hurt that continue indefinitely on large areas.
  
  
• Jack Daw (outcast)has one wound. you manage to hurt him and he dies. he is exceptionally difficult to hurt. His mechanic is currently to put curses on other models that make life difficult for them. He brings a lot of tricky and unusual models that do debuffs and damage, and Terrifying is a major mechanic for them. He might be a bit harder to learn, though. For fluff, he can bring any model with the keyword "tormented." That should tell you all you need to know. While you can find the individual model out and about, his box crew has not been released.
  
  
• C Hoffman (guild)brings constructs. Everything he can bring has been released in metal. He doesn't do much himself, but focuses on making constructs better and using them for damage and scheme/strategy success. He's fairly easy to learn, but mastering him is going to involve learning when to go, which models to activate in what order, and when and what to buff.
  
  
  
• Colette is fast. Early beta has her and her crew manipulating soulstones and schemes to get additional effects that involve movement, stunning, and survival. Her crew has been released in metal, but rules are still being worked on. Her crew is going to like hit and run tactics, and you should be able to be successful if you focus on objectives. You can win without necessarily knowing how all the tricks work, but there are enough tricks to keep you learning and working out new things for a long time.
  
  
• Dreamer (neverborn)is going to be interesting to you as well. I haven't looked at his new rules very much, but if he plays anything like his old rules then he likely will be hard to learn, hard to master, and powerful, simply because of his tricks.
  
  
• Kaeris(arcanist) is going to be all about putting a lot of burning on both your own crew and your opponent, to get bonuses and extra damage. Probably more difficult to learn, but consistant damage.
  

Really, most crews will give you what you are looking for here, M2e is really well balanced in that respect. I just like these for the trickiness better than others.

[gozer]

Thank you for your thorough response! I spent a couple hours reading over these suggestions and investigating a little more myself. Here are the Masters I really liked along with one I was surprised didn't get mentioned:

Zoraida, Jack Daw and Jakob Lynch

I really like the card manipulation and trickiness that these masters offer, plus their flavor is my style. So, I have a couple more questions with these three options in mind:

1. How expensive are these masters to build a respectable crew?

2. Which of these masters (if any) come in metal? I much prefer it over plastic.

3. Do any of these masters have glaring balance issues that make them weak (or overpowered)?

4. Have any of these been released in 2nd edition?

5. If you had to pick one of these three, which would you pick and why?

Once I figure out how to use the "thank" option in the forums I'll be sending it out!

[N1ck]

1) Each starter crew (Master and a few models) will cost you roughly $35-$45 depending on the box set you get. However if you want to get more models then of course it will cost you more.

2) Zoraida and Jack Daw are both metal models however Wyrd is converting to plastic so they will eventually be in plastic as well. Jakob Lynch and his crew box are entirely made of plastic

3)In my opinion right now I would have to say Jack Daw. Reason being is because he is still under the Beta rules. That means he will be fluctuating weak, below average, average, above average and over-powered. Come January he should be settled and be on par with the rest of the masters

4) Yes and no Zoraida metal has been released for some time as to her plastic will not be released for a while. Jakob Lynch began in plastic, so he is already out the only thing you would need for him (and Zoraida in that matter) is the stat cards Jakob Lynch's stat cards will be in a Ten Thunder Arsenal deck, while Zoraida's are in the Neverborn deck. Jack Daw still being in Beta testing does not have "official cards" to use yet. Jack Daw has a metal version released however that was before he was a master therefore most of his crew is "non-existent" meaning you will have to wait until they come out in stores within the next 6+ months or so.

5) If I had to chose, I would either chose either Zoraida or Jakob Lynch because they have already been released and you would be able to obtain the physical models of them. Also they are both apart of the Neverborn faction, which in time if you expand to both of this crews you can use each models for each master.

Welcome to Malifaux and if you have anymore questions, comments, or concerns do not be afraid to ask.

[Claymore65]

Jakob Lynch is a great suggestion. If your looking for very tricky crews, you may also enjoy Tara. Her Nothing Beast is straight out of Lovecraft's nightmares. Her rules are in Wyrd Chronicles #7 (I think). That's a free magazine you can find here: http://www.wyrd-games.net/content.php?235-Wyrd-Chronicles. Her models have been sort of released already, but it's not in general release mode yet (it was a special Gen-Con release). Still pretty cool though.

[Dracomax]

Only reason I didn't mention Lynch is that I haven't played him or seen him played. I tried to limit it to those masters I had seen played, or who are in beta, because otherwise, I could have made an entry for every master, even Lady J, who I consider to be a point and shoot master for complexity/tricks.

Basically, look at the models, fluff, and playstyle, and decide what you want to play based on that, and you can't go wrong. also, http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/ is a great resource for learning about models, and as m2e fills out, it will be a great resource for picking up tricks and tips for playing and playing against models.

[gozer]

I appreciate everyone's help and advice. Thanks again!

Has Jakob Lynch been released as a boxed set for 2nd edition yet? I saw it listed as 2e in the shop but I could swear that was the same one someone showed me for 1e.

[N1ck]

I appreciate everyone's help and advice. Thanks again!

Has Jakob Lynch been released as a boxed set for 2nd edition yet? I saw it listed as 2e in the shop but I could swear that was the same one someone showed me for 1e.

Since it was already in plastic form, I highly doubt they will re-release it again in plastic again. Maybe sometime later on in life as an alternate sculpt but just not now.

[Claymore65]

I remember hearing somewhere that eventually they will update the current plastic box sets / plastic units (10 thunders stuff etc) with M2E cards. I don't think they are getting new sculpts though. Most are pretty fantastic, so I'm personally fine with that.

[Drix]

Claymore is correct, they will eventually update the "old" Ten Thunders boxes with the 2nd Edition cards, there will be a "2e" sticker on the box.

If you don't want to wait, Gozer, then you can buy the Lynch box and the 2nd edition Ten Thunders arsenal deck which will have Lynch's stuff in there (but not Beckoners, they're in the Neverborn deck.)

I second Lynch as a good master, he's got a lot of tricks to learn, but you can ease into itby not taking upgrades in your first few games. There's also only "three" models to learn rules for- Lynch, Hungering Darkness, and the Illuminated (you get 3 of them each with different sculpts.)

[Grim]

I am not sure how many of the old plastics have been updated with the 2E cards, but when I bought Oiran during the GenCon 2014 promo from the Wyrd Online store, it came with the 2E cards. I suspect if you buy directly from wyrd you have a better chance of receiving 2E cards for those blister/sets that have 2E cards available.

[gozer]

Could anyone confirm whether I need to make two purchases (the box set for the miniatures and the arsenal for their rules) to get one functional 2e crew?

If so, this sounds pretty expensive for a new player, especially considering I also would need to purchase the 2e rulebook with an optional fate deck.

My debit card will be sad.

[Mako]

I believe that the plastic boxes that were in wave 1 are now being packaged with the new cards, not the old ones. Metals I have no idea about though.

Course, all the cards for wave 1 are in the rulebook so you can get by without the cards initially. If you want the physical cards for the generic faction upgrades then you'll need to get the arsenal pack for whichever faction you want them for, but they are also in the rulebook.

That might cut down on what you need initially, you should be able to get going with a crew box, rulebook, and maybe a fate deck (though in a pinch you can use a standard deck and just try to remember which suits are which). Arsenal packs can always be bought later on.

[Emberlost]

I'm in the same boat as the OP here. I thought about getting into Malifaux last year, when my FLGS started carrying it. Got put off a bit by the rules, put it on the back burner. Now I'm looking at it again, and can't make up my mind which crew to buy.

Things I like are high mobility models. I looove dancing around the battlefield, dashing in to strike, then fading away. I also like screwing with my opponent's models. Raw damage is nice and all, but frustrating your opponent is great. I hate models where all they can do is move and attack. Boooring.

Edit: I should also add that I'm something of a risk-taker as well. I'm perfectly willing to do something absolutely insane just to see if it works, or if I think it's going to be funny.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Emberlost

[huntroll]

I'm in the same boat as the OP here. I thought about getting into Malifaux last year, when my FLGS started carrying it. Got put off a bit by the rules, put it on the back burner. Now I'm looking at it again, and can't make up my mind which crew to buy.

Things I like are high mobility models. I looove dancing around the battlefield, dashing in to strike, then fading away. I also like screwing with my opponent's models. Raw damage is nice and all, but frustrating your opponent is great. I hate models where all they can do is move and attack. Boooring.

Edit: I should also add that I'm something of a risk-taker as well. I'm perfectly willing to do something absolutely insane just to see if it works, or if I think it's going to be funny.

Lilith and her nephilim are your traditional "blitzkrieg" crew imho, quite fast and heavy hitting, and they can screw with the opponent quite well with pushing his models around and putting down forests to block LoS/charge ranges.

My other suggestion is Seamus and his Belles. The girls are surprisingly fast with Sybelle around, they can pull enemy models toward themselves and gang up on them when they get there, and have some nice debuffs. Seamus and his Copycat Killer do the "kill then fade away" part very well. While in cover Seamus can teleport into the enemy crew, shoot someone with his gun, and with the proper upgrades even cut out some unnecessary body parts from himself, explode it into the face of the enemy, and then heal back the damage he caused to himself. His totem can also teleport to him and then shoot/cut something surprisingly well. And when you are done, you can lure them back with the Belles or with another upgrade use the corpse of an enemy to distract them and teleport back to safety.

I