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I am planning to take Christmas money and start Malifaux and I'm looking for some advice. I know I need crew boxes, but I'm more wondering about core material. Past the 2E rules, do I need the Crossroads book, or do I just need that if I buy certain crews? Also, are the fate decks necessary or can you just use regular decks of cards to start? I'm just looking at planning out my purchases.

Any help is appreciated!

The rules are all in the M2E rulebook. Crossroads has some story scenarios and a lot of new units, but there's no new rules in there. Shifting Loyalties has a campaign system, but no new core rules. So it's not needed unless you want to play a campaign. On top of that it's got a few new units per faction. Similarly, Ripples of Fate has more new units per faction, and a new master per faction, but no additional new rules.

All you need, ruleswise, is the little Rules Manual. It contains all the rules, none of the fluff. If you want to play the campaign, just add Shifting Loyalties to that. Unit and upgrade cards are all obtained with models, aside from each factions general upgrades, which are available in the generalist upgrade decks.

Best place to start, assuming you like the models, is the 2 Player Starter set. It comes with 2 Fate Decks, 2 measure tapes, a digital download of the rules manual, and 2 4 model crews. Those models can only be obtained through the 2 player starter. The models are all Mercenaries too, so you can use them with any crew (for a 1ss tax hiring out of faction).

You can use regular poker decks, but you'll need a guide on how to convert the suits. Rather than Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs, it's Masks, Tomes, Rams and Crows.

 -Loki- wrote:
The rules are all in the M2E rulebook. Crossroads has some story scenarios and a lot of new units, but there's no new rules in there. Shifting Loyalties has a campaign system, but no new core rules. So it's not needed unless you want to play a campaign. On top of that it's got a few new units per faction. Similarly, Ripples of Fate has more new units per faction, and a new master per faction, but no additional new rules.

All you need, ruleswise, is the little Rules Manual. It contains all the rules, none of the fluff. If you want to play the campaign, just add Shifting Loyalties to that. Unit and upgrade cards are all obtained with models, aside from each factions general upgrades, which are available in the generalist upgrade decks.

Best place to start, assuming you like the models, is the 2 Player Starter set. It comes with 2 Fate Decks, 2 measure tapes, a digital download of the rules manual, and 2 4 model crews. Those models can only be obtained through the 2 player starter. The models are all Mercenaries too, so you can use them with any crew (for a 1ss tax hiring out of faction).

You can use regular poker decks, but you'll need a guide on how to convert the suits. Rather than Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs, it's Masks, Tomes, Rams and Crows.

Thank you greatly. This is exactly what I wanted to know. The one thing I'm confused about is that Crossroads has new units, but you apparently don't need it. I'm assuming a unit in Malifaux isn't defined the same as a unit in 40k, for example. I'll probably buy the full rulebookk as I am interested in the fluff as well. That starter set isn't bad, though and I may grab that first, I thank you for pointing that out to me.

 Battlesong wrote:

 -Loki- wrote:
The rules are all in the M2E rulebook. Crossroads has some story scenarios and a lot of new units, but there's no new rules in there. Shifting Loyalties has a campaign system, but no new core rules. So it's not needed unless you want to play a campaign. On top of that it's got a few new units per faction. Similarly, Ripples of Fate has more new units per faction, and a new master per faction, but no additional new rules.

All you need, ruleswise, is the little Rules Manual. It contains all the rules, none of the fluff. If you want to play the campaign, just add Shifting Loyalties to that. Unit and upgrade cards are all obtained with models, aside from each factions general upgrades, which are available in the generalist upgrade decks.

Best place to start, assuming you like the models, is the 2 Player Starter set. It comes with 2 Fate Decks, 2 measure tapes, a digital download of the rules manual, and 2 4 model crews. Those models can only be obtained through the 2 player starter. The models are all Mercenaries too, so you can use them with any crew (for a 1ss tax hiring out of faction).

You can use regular poker decks, but you'll need a guide on how to convert the suits. Rather than Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs, it's Masks, Tomes, Rams and Crows.

Thank you greatly. This is exactly what I wanted to know. The one thing I'm confused about is that Crossroads has new units, but you apparently don't need it. I'm assuming a unit in Malifaux isn't defined the same as a unit in 40k, for example. I'll probably buy the full rulebookk as I am interested in the fluff as well. That starter set isn't bad, though and I may grab that first, I thank you for pointing that out to me.

All models come with all the cards necessary to use them. So a crew box will contain the unit cards for all of the included models, plus the upgrades for the master and henchman (if it has one). The unit rules in the books are just the two sides of the cards that come with the models. If you buy the books, it's perfectly legal to photocopy the cards in them, but it's only necessary if you're using non-Wyrd models for various reasons (proxying, not released yet, etc), since those cards come with the models.

The only cards you'll never get with models are the General upgrades. These are a set of upgrades that can be taken by any model within the faction. These are in the Generalist Upgrade decks. There's two of these. The first contains all of the general upgrades for every faction for books 1-3. The second contains the general upgrades from book 4, plus some 'fix upgrades' for models deemed to be a bit sub par, plus some errata'd cards.

With the 2 player starter, they played around a bit with the crews. You've got Guild (the Doctors) and Neverborn (the patients). Guild is generally known as the 'shooty' faction. They have lots of guns, but lack a little on the melee side. So the Guild models in the starter are melee models, and the henchman is downright nasty. Neverborn are generally known as the glass cannon melee faction. So they gave them two sturdy melee minions, a ranged damage and support enforcer and a ranged damage henchman, things Neverborn generally lack. So overall it's worth it as it does fill some gaps in those factions as well as provide two crews to learn with. On top of that, again, they're all mercenaries. This means for 1 more point you can take them out of faction. So if you decide eventually to want to get into Arcanists instead, you can still make use of every model from the starter.

Thanks Loki. I like the mercenary aspect of this a lot since I wasn't looking at either Guild or Neverborn for a faction. I think I'm either going 10 Thunders, Outcasts, or Arcanist as those are the ones whose overviews intrigue me the most. All of this information was really helpful.

Another question, are the crew boxes fairly well balanced? When I started 40K, I decided to play Tyranids and, while I love the models and the fluff, the faction is gak. I just don't want to hamstring myself at the beginning again.

 Battlesong wrote:
Another question, are the crew boxes fairly well balanced? When I started 40K, I decided to play Tyranids and, while I love the models and the fluff, the faction is gak. I just don't want to hamstring myself at the beginning again.

No master is going to be easy-mode/Tau bs, but there are certainly some that are stronger than others. The gaps in power level in Malifaux are much smaller than those in 40k though (Lucius might be the worst Master, but he can still take down Kirai or Lilith often enough to keep his chin up). The good news, though, is that while there is a slight disparity in power level of the Masters, that doesn't really stay true when comparing faction-to-faction. On a total faction level, Guild are just as strong as Outcasts are just as strong as Neverborn and on and on.

 Battlesong wrote:
Another question, are the crew boxes fairly well balanced? When I started 40K, I decided to play Tyranids and, while I love the models and the fluff, the faction is gak. I just don't want to hamstring myself at the beginning again.

Something else to bear in mind when you start is that not all of the crew boxes are balanced in terms of soulstones (points). Most we've come across are around the same but then there are few outliers that seem to have more than everyone else or less. I think we worked out that the Rasputina box compared to some of the others we were looking at was under in terms of model points. That's not necessarily a problem is the crew has upgrades you want to take but worth considering.

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. To be honest, I think I'm leaning toward Misaki or Kaeris at this point. Although, even though the guild doesn't do much for me, I must admit I love the Lady Justice model...

 Battlesong wrote:
Thanks guys, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. To be honest, I think I'm leaning toward Misaki or Kaeris at this point. Although, even though the guild doesn't do much for me, I must admit I love the Lady Justice model...

Especially to start with, I would strongly advise getting a master from a faction that overall appeals to you. I ended up getting one Outcast Master that I liked and built a crew for them, but my main investment was in the 10 Thunders, making sure I had more room to explore what I liked and didn't within the faction. Get Lady J once you know you like the game and know that you'll enjoy her play style.

 tomjoad wrote:

 Battlesong wrote:
Thanks guys, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. To be honest, I think I'm leaning toward Misaki or Kaeris at this point. Although, even though the guild doesn't do much for me, I must admit I love the Lady Justice model...

Especially to start with, I would strongly advise getting a master from a faction that overall appeals to you. I ended up getting one Outcast Master that I liked and built a crew for them, but my main investment was in the 10 Thunders, making sure I had more room to explore what I liked and didn't within the faction. Get Lady J once you know you like the game and know that you'll enjoy her play style.

Thank you for the advice and that's where I'm headed. Just trying to decide which one appeals to me the most. I'm just happy to hear that the factions themselves are fairly balanced. I'll probably have more questions come January when I actually start this up.

Factions are quite well balanced; masters generally are too though each faction tends to have a couple duds.

Lady J is a good example of something to be careful of. She's... fine, but not really well supported by the faction around her. Guild players are more likely to wind up playing Perdita or Sonnia or Nellie or Hoffman or McCabe in the end.

A Guild player invested in the faction for one of those masters is happy to have her as an easy way to switch to a melee beater playstyle when they need to/feel like it, but she's not defining the faction. As a new player looking for a starting point, you might get a better experience out of the Viktorias or Misaki or even Lilith if the playstyle Lady J represents is what you're after.

Bear in mind, when people call a master a 'dud', they're not actually bad. Masters strength is judged based on how how many schemes and strategies they work well in. If a master is considered 'good', it's because they're flexible enough that they work in the majority, or all, schemes and strategies. A good example is Lilith, for Neverborn. She's very flexible, being that she's a support master. Her support comes from moving friendly and enemy models around, 'rooting' enemies in place to stop them moving, creating terrain, luring enemies and more. She's a real toolbox. She's also pretty handy with her greatsword, though you tend to use that if there's a juicy target and she doesn't have an unactivated beater to teleport into its face.

Pandora, while really nasty, is generally considered a few rungs below Lilith. She's got a higher learning curve, and of her two playstyles, one is heavily synergistc around her crew staying close by to get overlapping damage auras. This makes her ideal for games where you and your opponent will be in one place, like Turf War, but for games where you want to spread out for table control like Reconnoitre, she's at a disadvantage because her overlapping auras are spread out.

So don't be put off if someone says the master you're interested in is a 'dud'. They're all good in their own way, it's just in some games you'll have an easier time getting your objectives done than in others.