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Malifaux was the second game I tried after stepping out of GW's shadow (after Warmachine/Hordes) and while I absolutely LOVED the fluff and style I couldn't get into the game itself, it was just too fiddly and unbalaced for my tastes. I've been checking out different miniature games for my return to the hobby and I noticed that Malifaux has a second edition with all new plastics minis and I found myself getting really excited. Some questions:

1. What kind of material are the plastic models? Polystyrene? PP style?

2. The sculpts themselves... All of Wyrd's pictures are of the the 3D computer generated models, how do the actual physical minis turn out? How do they compare in scale and detail to the old minis? (If anyone has some comparison pics that would be awesome)

3. The rules, are they more balanced/less fiddly now?

4. I noticed they added The Ten Thunders since I stopped paying attention. What's with the crossover boxes? Can they be played in either faction?

5. What direction are they heading in with the fluff? Did 2nd edition reboot it or are they continuing on from the last 1e book?

6. Does Wyrd plan on re-releasing ALL of their minis in plastic?

Thanks.

1. Polystyrene. It's just like working with GW plastic.

2. Fantastic. Some of the best plastic casts I've worked on. They're bigger scale than the metals though - this is a good example of the old Dreamer to the new Dreamer.

4. Dual faction boxes can be played as either/or. The master can choose to go with either faction, and sometimes has upgrades or abilities that lets them take cross faction units (Zoraida can be a Gremlin master, and if she takes the Tarot upgrade, can still take Neverborn Swampfiend models).

6. As far as I've seen, yes. They're just not very fast about it. If they don't, they will have a lot of scaling issues in range consistency.

Can't comment on the direction of the rules and fluff, I'm new myself.

http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.com/p/unboxing-malifaux.html

Rules / fluff wise I know squat but I have gotten some minis as hobby projects recently.

The plastic is polystyrene (traditional model plastic) not restic/PVC almost identical to GW. That said it feels slightly harder more like the Revel/Tamiya kits I've done and the parts are smaller than GW on the whole. It seems like rather than just blowing pices up untill they could be produced they reworked things untill they had the quality and a viable product to cast.

When compared with the metals I have the plastics are just as good if not better. Very tight tolerances between pices on the surface for negligible gaps and VERY dynamic in all the right ways.

The final products are just barely softer in detail than the renders on the tiny stuff. The Metal Gamin I have the welds are slightly softer but they are stupid fine detail and all the little panel lines are there. Meanwhile my Ice Gamin are dead on as far as I can tell. I'd say the renders are 95-100% accurate.

Now the kinda bad bits, the price of all this awesome is that they occasionally cut models up more than you may be used to so that the detail etcetera is preserved and this occasionally results in TINY pices. One of the Metal Gamin was 7 pices with the approximately 1 X 1 X .5 millimeter feet as seperate components.

TLDR verdict: Wyrd has Wargames Factory doing amazing things with their plastics but they can be finicky.

My replies in red! Hope that helps.

Zatsuku wrote:
Malifaux was the second game I tried after stepping out of GW's shadow (after Warmachine/Hordes) and while I absolutely LOVED the fluff and style I couldn't get into the game itself, it was just too fiddly and unbalaced for my tastes. I've been checking out different miniature games for my return to the hobby and I noticed that Malifaux has a second edition with all new plastics minis and I found myself getting really excited. Some questions:

1. What kind of material are the plastic models? Polystyrene? PP style?
PolyStyrene, just like military models or GW.

2. The sculpts themselves... All of Wyrd's pictures are of the the 3D computer generated models, how do the actual physical minis turn out? How do they compare in scale and detail to the old minis? (If anyone has some comparison pics that would be awesome)
The renders on the backs of the boxes in the plastic set are spot on with what the finished model looks like. Exceptions - thicknesses on sword blades. But past that, spot on. I keep the boxes for building and painting references till I'm done with the models. So do several other people I've spoken with. All of the build instructions are on Wyrd's download site, they don't come in the box. Like ChaoticMind said very tight tolerances. The models are very dynamic in pose and because this is a skirmish game where you don't need 10 of the same troop you can get away with this versus the multipose format you'd find in GW kits.

There are always some very small bits tho. That's the number one bitch people have about Malifaux plastics. If you're an experience modeler it's no problem, otherwise it might drive you a little batty.

3. The rules, are they more balanced/less fiddly now?
From what I hear from the older players the rules are more balanced. I can't speak first hand though, I'm M2E only.

4. I noticed they added The Ten Thunders since I stopped paying attention. What's with the crossover boxes? Can they be played in either faction?
So in Malifaux 2E now there are 7 factions each with 7 masters. Of the 49 masters 10 of them are dual faction (Meaning physically there are a total of 39 masters). Due to storyline fluff only as near as I can tell because there aren't an equal number of dual faction masters in every faction (for extreme example Ten Thurnders has 6 DF's, Arcanists have 1). Also most of the dual faction masters have some great storyline fluff for being DF. A dual faction crew box will have a number of characters that can play in both factions either due to traits on the individual character's cards or upgrades that the Master/Henchmen can take. Past that, you fill out the rest of your crew with the faction you chose. The upgrades you choose can only come from the faction you choose.

5. What direction are they heading in with the fluff? Did 2nd edition reboot it or are they continuing on from the last 1e book?
They're not rebooting. They're moving the fluff forward. Albeit slowly forward because I more character development than anything else between the 2 M2E rulebooks and the Wyrd Chronicles. But definitely not rebooting.

6. Does Wyrd plan on re-releasing ALL of their minis in plastic?
They didn't give a definitive yes, but they are implying that they are. Currently every model in the M2e Rule book is in plastic, which was a goal of their before making plastic models from the wave 2 cards (which is now the Crossroads expansion). I speculate it will be all the way through Jan 2016 before all the models in Crossroads get finished. They've got a lot of artwork and renders already mocked up and the Malifaux community is loving it. They release about 6 new kits every month, but even so there are a lot of wave 2 models to cover.
Thanks.
Welcome

Not all of the stuff from the M2E rulebook is in plastic yet. A notable exceptions are the Brewmaster crew and non-Nightmare Whiskey Golem and Tara crew. Pretty sure there's a few more individual models too.

 -Loki- wrote:
Not all of the stuff from the M2E rulebook is in plastic yet. A notable exceptions are the Brewmaster crew and non-Nightmare Whiskey Golem and Tara crew. Pretty sure there's a few more individual models too.

Actually true. They (Wyrd) counts the Nightmare stuff towards their plastic releases which sucks because the Tara crew is really cool and you just can't get it for less than $100 right now. I paid more than that for mine. But it was the Nightmare art in the M2E rulebook for both the Tara crew and the Whiskey Golem. They'll certainly get to it, but for now there isn't even art for the non nightmare editions of those two. As for the Brewmaster, Wyrd actually penned them to release this summer (May/June). Who knows what issues they had back in China concerning Brewmaster. Gremlins are finicky, super small figures. The Malifuax community feverishly awaits him.

Guild Guard sort of fall into this category as they were supposed to get their own box the same time as Brewmaster, but not technically because they're part of the Lucius crew that came out at GenCon.

 MightyGodzilla wrote:
Gremlins are finicky, super small figures.

Can't be worst than Baby Kades arm or the mini-Chompy walking with Dreamers leg. feth those bits.

Two words: The Depleted.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, the finicky assembly has made me really happy recently. It reminds me of building old model cars. MUCH FRUSTRATION! POWERFUL FUN!

The Dreamer crew so far is the least well made kit I've built (Lilith, Pandora, Dreamer). Liliths had some filing needed on Barbaros wing joint, but otherwise went together easily. So far I've needed to file down parts on 2 models in the Dreamer crew (crouching Alps arm that rests across his leg abd Copellius legs to fit in the body slot) and Chompy has some hefty gap filling needed once built (to be fair, so does the Mature Nephilim).

Still a fantastic looking crew, but it just feels like it was really puching the limits of plastic for some of them. The Alps are all 8-9 peices each!

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm not too worried about fiddly bits I've been assembling models for seventeen years so I am sure I can manage. Now it's just about choosing some crews. I'm thinking I'll grab a crew from each of the original four factions just so I can attempt to sway some people into the game.

Personally, I'd lean heavily towards Dual Faction if not getting a ton of extra stuff for a given Faction as, at least you'll have a few more options for each.

Example:
Perdita, Seamus, Lilith, Rasputina, Hamelin
-->none of these models have any overlap, can play one master from each of 5 factions you bought

Lucius, McMourning, Zoraida, Marcus, Viktorias
-->there's a lot of overlap and you can play 6 factions (and 2 factions have 2 options, while all but one master gets new options from another boxed set):

Lucius can take Zoraida's minis as Neverborn
McMourning can Lucius's models as Guild, and Lawyers as Resser
Zoraida can be fielded in 2 factions
Marcus can take Zoraida's Silurids
Everyone can take the Viks' mercs (including another henchman and totem option)

I'll take any of the fiddly new sculpts over zoraidas POS 1st E sculpt... Grumble grumble