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So, I've been searching for some time to find a game that I can enter cheaply and not have to buy anything past the first purchase. I've been interested in the Malifaux system for some time and decided that maybe this could be my one and done system. I'd like to make one big purchase and then just be able to play with that for a long time. It'd give me a game to play during my long drought of being unable to buy 40k or the like, and maybe become my game of choice.

What would I need to buy to keep me going for awhile? As far as I can tell I absolutely need the following things:

Rulebook
Fate Cards
A Box set

I've been looking at the Outcasts. Specifically the Viktorias and the Von Schill(Fergkorps? Something german). I didn't know if buying the two Viktoria models (The alt sculpts) and the Von Schill box set would create a legal, or useful army. Can anyone offer any assistance? Would I be better of trying to enter another game? Or does this get rather expensive?

Any of the starter boxsets are legal to play although some are not as effective as others. Either the Viks or Von Schill are decent choices. I'd say the Viks are slightly trickier to get the hang of as none of their minions in the box have particular synergies with them, where as Von Schills cronnies all work well together and give each other bonuses.

However! As it's a cost related quiery, I would advice you that Malifaux Version 2 is due out in October! So your rulebook would become obsolete and you'd need to buy new cards for your models.

You can download the current rules from the Malifaux website!

Hope this helps!

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Any of the starter boxsets are legal to play although some are not as effective as others. Either the Viks or Von Schill are decent choices. I'd say the Viks are slightly trickier to get the hang of as none of their minions in the box have particular synergies with them, where as Von Schills cronnies all work well together and give each other bonuses.

However! As it's a cost related quiery, I would advice you that Malifaux Version 2 is due out in October! So your rulebook would become obsolete and you'd need to buy new cards for your models.

You can download the current rules from the Malifaux website!

Hope this helps!

Thanks brother. I appreciate it. I read the two beginner articles and they said that Von Schill could compliment the Viktorias and that Schill himself wasn't a "Master" but a henchman. It said that that the friegkorpsman offered a lot of ranged compliments to the Viktorias. So I'd probably want to try Schill with Vik and maybe bring along that sweet looking specialist and librarian.

Didn't know that I was coming in on the edge of a rulebook change. Would it be safe to purchase a fate card deck? They don't change with editions do they?

Also worth noting that Von Schill will be upgraded to Master status in Malifaux v2.0!

I'd probably go with the Strongarm suit with Von!

Oh damn that's really cool! So that advice will become moot on the drop of the next incarnation? So you won't be able to use both him and the Viks in the same list?

The Viks will work well with Schill!

I'm not sure if we'll need new cards. I don't recall reading anywhere that we would!

Good to know. I'll download the rules off the site and get a fate deck, proxy them together, try to get a hang of it before the next edition. So that'll be the alt viks, the Schill set, and a deck. How many "points" would I be able to make with that? 25? I heard that 25 was common.

 gpfunk wrote:
Oh damn that's really cool! So that advice will become moot on the drop of the next incarnation? So you won't be able to use both him and the Viks in the same list?

Only in a brawl. Which is quite a large game where each player has the option to team up 2 masters. And that is only if brawls remain part of the game.

Otherwise you could look into MERCS. You buy a box and a rulebook and you're done.

The problem of course is finding players.

 gpfunk wrote:
Good to know. I'll download the rules off the site and get a fate deck, proxy them together, try to get a hang of it before the next edition. So that'll be the alt viks, the Schill set, and a deck. How many "points" would I be able to make with that? 25? I heard that 25 was common.

That would come in at 35 soul stones with a 0 cache (stones left to bolster your Masters flips/prevent damage/healing flips).

As you'd be running Von Schill as a non-leading Henchman you will need to hire him at 9ss. High, but he's worth it!

 Emperors_Champion wrote:

 gpfunk wrote:
Oh damn that's really cool! So that advice will become moot on the drop of the next incarnation? So you won't be able to use both him and the Viks in the same list?

Only in a brawl. Which is quite a large game where each player has the option to team up 2 masters. And that is only if brawls remain part of the game.

Would it be possible to just get both masters and exchange them in and out with the Friekorps? Or would the loss of their 'fluff' leader make the Friekorps useless?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 angel of ecstasy wrote:
Otherwise you could look into MERCS. You buy a box and a rulebook and you're done.

The problem of course is finding players.

I considered that, but I actually didn't like the art style and models. Seemed too generic.

 gpfunk wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:

 gpfunk wrote:
Oh damn that's really cool! So that advice will become moot on the drop of the next incarnation? So you won't be able to use both him and the Viks in the same list?

Only in a brawl. Which is quite a large game where each player has the option to team up 2 masters. And that is only if brawls remain part of the game.

Would it be possible to just get both masters and exchange them in and out with the Friekorps? Or would the loss of their 'fluff' leader make the Friekorps useless?

Definitely not useless, they're pretty solid minions. The Librarian in particular works very well with the Viks as she has a healing spell which will heal both Viks at the same time!

There are actually many game systems for you to make one purchase only. Malifaux is actually not the one. It depends on whether you limit the game to 35 SS or expand it to a brawl. Besides, having better tokens and effects may cost you more.

A good example for a "one time buy that is it" system is Reaper Warlord. 1000 pts is the standard game. I use the same miniatures since 2004. Yes, eventually, I expand it to 1500 pts because this is what I want but I don't have to.

 gpfunk wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:

 gpfunk wrote:
Oh damn that's really cool! So that advice will become moot on the drop of the next incarnation? So you won't be able to use both him and the Viks in the same list?

Only in a brawl. Which is quite a large game where each player has the option to team up 2 masters. And that is only if brawls remain part of the game.

Would it be possible to just get both masters and exchange them in and out with the Friekorps? Or would the loss of their 'fluff' leader make the Friekorps useless?

If you check out the Malifaux Crew Creator you can play around with list building, the thing to note is that if you look down at the bottom you'll see Minions, Mercenaries, and Special Forces. Models can only hire 1 type of special forces at a time (need to double check my rulebook on this as I rarely play with special forces), and the Viks are able to hire the Freikorps models.

As to Malifaux being a 1 and done purchase, it is a wargame, so you can make a decent initial purchase (150 USD) will get you more than enough pieces to play without having to buy more, but every book they release will release more models that are available with your masters, you may have to pick up a piece or two once a year. But Malifaux is pretty good on the "one and done" style, but there will be smaller purchases down the road. For 65 dollars I can make a competitive crew using the Rasputina box and a few blisters. From there I wouldn't have to buy anymore models, but if we bump it up to 150 dollars, I can have practically every Cult of December model, and a few pieces like Kaeris to give her additional options to play with, but when the next book comes out, there might be more models for her (usually 1, maybe 2).

I hope that helps.

As to the comment about the brawl, when it comes to a brawl, it's a points level thing, not a level of masters thing. You can play a Brawl at 85ss and only have 1 master, the option of a Brawl simply opens up the number of masters to 2.

I was in the same boat as you and just started picking up my crew (gremlins) last week. I pretty much spent around $150 and have everything I will probably need for a long time (until they release new models).

Also on a side note if you are worried about the fate decks you can always just use a normal deck of cards (wish I knew that before I bought a fate deck).

 UnCool Villain wrote:
I was in the same boat as you and just started picking up my crew (gremlins) last week. I pretty much spent around $150 and have everything I will probably need for a long time (until they release new models).

Also on a side note if you are worried about the fate decks you can always just use a normal deck of cards (wish I knew that before I bought a fate deck).

I have 4 fate decks >_< I have a regular one (Guild colors), the Puppet War's deck, the Retro Fate deck, and the AdeptiCon limited edition deck... I need more

I know myself well and I am sure once I get a couple more starter sets down the road I will buy matching decks with each crew... ugh I have problems.

 UnCool Villain wrote:
I know myself well and I am sure once I get a couple more starter sets down the road I will buy matching decks with each crew... ugh I have problems.

I had a green one to match my ressers, and then gave it to my buddy to match his ressers crew... I use the Retro deck in almost all cases, though when I want to get a good shuffle going, I tend to use my regular guild colors deck.

Just the 2 for me! Ressers and Retro! I do NEED an Outcasts one though!

 Alfndrate wrote:
Smart words.

Thanks for the advice. It's quite helpful. If I can drop down 150 bucks and be able to play happily then I'll take it. I'll wait until the new edition drops just so I won't have to replace any unit cards, etc.

 gpfunk wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
Smart words.

Thanks for the advice. It's quite helpful. If I can drop down 150 bucks and be able to play happily then I'll take it. I'll wait until the new edition drops just so I won't have to replace any unit cards, etc.

Models shouldn't change much, though many are getting a resculpt and new plastic boxes. Honestly if you've got some friends that are willing to learn, public beta test for 2nd edition goes live either this weekend or next week (starts in June). The beta rules will be free, and should give you all the tools you need to learn the game and get your mind around how things work.

Also if you like the look of a starter box, I'd snap it up now before it becomes plastic (though the art I've seen so far looks awesome).

 Alfndrate wrote:
Models shouldn't change much, though many are getting a resculpt and new plastic boxes. Honestly if you've got some friends that are willing to learn, public beta test for 2nd edition goes live either this weekend or next week (starts in June). The beta rules will be free, and should give you all the tools you need to learn the game and get your mind around how things work.

Also if you like the look of a starter box, I'd snap it up now before it becomes plastic (though the art I've seen so far looks awesome).

Are the sculpts going to change drastically? Or will it just be a redoing of the same positions with plastic instead of metal? Cause I prefer plastic to metal when I can get it. Is it likely the content of the starter kits will change?

 gpfunk wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
Models shouldn't change much, though many are getting a resculpt and new plastic boxes. Honestly if you've got some friends that are willing to learn, public beta test for 2nd edition goes live either this weekend or next week (starts in June). The beta rules will be free, and should give you all the tools you need to learn the game and get your mind around how things work.

Also if you like the look of a starter box, I'd snap it up now before it becomes plastic (though the art I've seen so far looks awesome).

Are the sculpts going to change drastically? Or will it just be a redoing of the same positions with plastic instead of metal? Cause I prefer plastic to metal when I can get it. Is it likely the content of the starter kits will change?

I'm not sure, and the Beta rules don't go live until about midday today (I'm assuming noon PDT (so... GMT-8?). The closest example I can give you is the following:

Here we have Rasputina's box in metal, as it exists now. It contains 3 Ice Gamins, 1 Ice Golem, and Rasputina


In this box, you see resculpts for all the models in the box above, as well as some new faces (idk who they are ).


Now you can say, "Alf, that's just art they're using to promote the box. It's not going to look like that." But if you look at the book 4 releases, which were the first ones to take advantage of display art to 3d rendering to actual sculpt you get something like this:

Misaki's art matches misaki's model almost to a T (slightly thicker on the model where the energy trail is).

So you can expect the new Malifaux models to look like their box art.

Also from what I have seen, the changes to Malifaux seem to be pushing for a larger "standard" game size. In 1st edition boxes sit at about 20 to 25 soulstones, with 1 or 2 purchases getting you to 35ss standard. Looking at the previewed art (like the 'Tina box art above), and some of the stuff on EricJ's twitter (which I'll be adding to the Malifaux 2nd ed thread in News and Rumors) it looks like every box is going to come with a few more minis than they did.

Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

That would make plenty of sense, that's something that's been happening with the new plastic boxes, it's the crew plus the master's totem.

 Alfndrate wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

That would make plenty of sense, that's something that's been happening with the new plastic boxes, it's the crew plus the master's totem.

I'm not particularly enamored with any sculpt to the point that I'd have to pick it up now or be severely disappointed if it got changed. My main issue was there actually being less models in all of the Starter packs. You think that they'll keep the same specific models in the box? Like the Librarian and Specialist being in freekorps box? And Bishop and Taelor being in th Viks box?

 gpfunk wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

That would make plenty of sense, that's something that's been happening with the new plastic boxes, it's the crew plus the master's totem.

I'm not particularly enamored with any sculpt to the point that I'd have to pick it up now or be severely disappointed if it got changed. My main issue was there actually being less models in all of the Starter packs. You think that they'll keep the same specific models in the box? Like the Librarian and Specialist being in freekorps box? And Bishop and Taelor being in th Viks box?

I don't see to many changes down the road, I haven't seen the Von Schill art, and I've heard rumors that the Viks might become all girls (probably viks, student of conflict, Taelor, and 3 Ronin).

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

...Meaning that everyone who already has the 'Tina starter would do well to get himself a wendigo before they get discontinued as a separate metal model...

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Pretty sure the extra dude in 'Tinas box is her Wendingo Totem attacking some poor Guild guy!

...Meaning that everyone who already has the 'Tina starter would do well to get himself a wendigo before they get discontinued as a separate metal model...

True. And as far as the art we've seen on the new starter crews and looking at the Book 4 crews, all Totems will now be included in the starter boxes.

So basically if you have a Master you don't intend to replace with plastic you should get their Totem pretty soon!