Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Just wondering if there are any tanky factions / masters in Malifaux?

Or factions focused around one or two big guys.

Ressers are quite tanky. Not focussed on big guys. A lot of their stuff is hard to wound.

Ten Thunders and Neverborn can run Tanky crews quite well.

A Neverborn Reckoning crew consisting of Bad Juju, HRider, Nekima and Teddy, all of which bar teddy have Three Mimics Blessing is a nightmare. If it touches you, you die, and you're at negatives to kill anything bar teddy and the master.

Guild can do tankiness quite well with Judge, Death Marshalls and whatnot.

Ressers are the toughest over all, Outcasts are spoiled for expensive big guys.

Ressurectionists and Guild for sure.

Ressurectionists are slow, have good healing, and lots of hard to kill models with a lot of wounds to heal back up.

The Guild is also slow and the models are sturdy (they lack a lot of healing though). Look here if you'd like ranged attacks more.

The single master with the tankiest crew will usually be Leveticus. He needs at least a few big guys for his core mechanic to work, and Ashes & Dust is one of the most expensive models in the game and works great with Levy. A&D, Alyce, and Mechanical Rider can all three easily fit in a Levy crew.

 tomjoad wrote:
The single master with the tankiest crew will usually be Leveticus. He needs at least a few big guys for his core mechanic to work, and Ashes & Dust is one of the most expensive models in the game and works great with Levy. A&D, Alyce, and Mechanical Rider can all three easily fit in a Levy crew.

None of those models are tanky except Ashes & Dust (who can get his cycle busted pretty quickly if you're smart about it). Levy is strong and he has board presence, but he dies to a stiff breeze and damages himself to do more. He can't soak up wounds well. It's like saying the Dreamer is tanky. He's got a nifty ability that keeps him out of the way, but will cost you if done poorly.

The really tanky masters would be Lady J, Yan Lo (especially fully ascended), Seamus, surprisingly McMourning, a supported Ironsides, Jack Daw, Shenlong (despite lacking defensive abilities, he'll pile on the defensive condition), and a couple others.

I would actually highly recommend Yan Lo. He can make himself stupidly hard to kill, put out a lot of hurt in the later turns, get around very well, support his crew, and if you've taken 1+ Ancestors (I never run him without 2), which are Izamu, Toshiro, Yin, Chiaki, and now the Carrion/Shadowy Emissaries, you can re-summon any of the ones you hired once per game after they die.

The tankiest master is probably Von Schill. Not sheer face tanking, he just doesnt die.

Maybe I should have said Lazarus instead of Alyce? I'd definitely say that A&D is tanky, and Levy himself too, since they don't stay dead. Anyway, Levy is the best answer to his other question of a crew built around a few big models.

I suppose it depends on your definition of "tanky", but I'm a big fan of Perdita. It's the "Latigo Posse's" one trick pony, so to speak, but having her run around for a couple of turns with Df and Wp 9 (From Francisco) and +1 dmg flip (From Papa Loco) make her very difficult to contend with.

Even only at 10 Wds, with Aura Ancestral and Trick Shooting, there isn't much that she can't kill by herself.

Post Note: Sorry, so to answer your question, it would really depend more on your preferred playing style. Guild has a lot of fast moving, high damage output Masters that can be classified as "tanky". Resurrectionists depend on their "Impossible/Hard to Wound" abilities, making it difficult to cheat damage flips against them. Arcanists have models with EITHER very high damage output, or Armor. Usually one or the other. Neverborn have a lot of heavy hitting models, but they tend to be more easily hit themselves, especially if facing a crew that is immune to Wp duels.

My suggestion for picking a faction: Read over what some of the Masters can do, and pick one that suits your style of play. All Factions have a few Masters that can compensate for one another. If you go with Guild, Lady J and Perdita are two very heavy hitting Masters for melee and ranged combat, while Sonnia is a casting specialist. Lucius and Hoffman are what I would consider to be "Support Masters", in that they make their crew much better. It's more about which Masters appeal to your playing style than picking a Faction that has overall "tanky" attributes, tbh.