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So some friends of mine have gotten onto a non-GW games kick lately, and we started Warmachine/Hordes a few weeks ago, and now we each got in our box sets for Malifaux. We knew nothing of the game and picked our boxes by looks for the most part, I took in the Viktorias crew.

Tonight I started putting them together... and I wasn't too impressed. The metal is extremely soft. Every model that came with a weapon in the box had bent weapon(s). Taelor's hammer head was bent almost double, and applying gentle pressure to straighten it caused the hammer head to effortlessly tear right off of the haft. the swords are difficult to actually get perfectly straight, they are soft enough that they will actually bend in two places in an S curve with no effort.

I like the rules, I think it will be a fun game, but my first encounter with the quality of the miniatures left something to be desired.

Sounds like you got a surprise box... I have never had this issue with Malifaux, its mainly a GW blister issue.

However, choosig the Vikkies is a good starting point.

Not only are they a sweet crew, but they play well for beginners.

Grab yourself Misaki and a blister of Ronin (3 per blister) and you will be ready for a decent game.

TIP: When learning, simply play a game with a single master and 1 henchmen from the box... in your instance Vikkies wont work as they are meant to be played together... Try Lilith and Rasputina

I'm not the only one from the group to have problems, a friend of mine had the horn break off of his Jackalope totem. The models are nice looking, they just seem to be made out of much softer metal than some of the other mini's out there.

I played my first game against Marcus with the boxed set and won, although we found quite a few things we did wrong. The Viktoria's were good, although kind of simplistic, He was doing all these spells and crazy stuff each turn, while my guys were just 'run up and hit stuff'. My opponent was very frustrated that I had three models that could ignore armor though as they quickly dispatched his dug in molemen.

Viktoria is actually one of the more complicated models to play correctly. There is alot more stratagey to playing her correctly then you have probably gotten in to. She also isnt a master I'd recommend for a beginer. As far as beating Marcus, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything but Marcus is the weakest master currently. I would recommend that your buddy picks up a Convict Gunslinger and a pair of Hoarcats.

As far as the model quality goes, i'm really suprised by your comments, Wyrd is generally known for excallant sculps. It may be that you guys got some bum boxes. If they were as bad as you say, I would have taken them back my local store.

Catyrpelius wrote:Viktoria is actually one of the more complicated models to play correctly. There is alot more stratagey to playing her correctly then you have probably gotten in to. She also isnt a master I'd recommend for a beginer. As far as beating Marcus, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything but Marcus is the weakest master currently. I would recommend that your buddy picks up a Convict Gunslinger and a pair of Hoarcats.

As far as the model quality goes, i'm really suprised by your comments, Wyrd is generally known for excallant sculps. It may be that you guys got some bum boxes. If they were as bad as you say, I would have taken them back my local store.

I'm sure strategy wise they can be very complex. I do find it rather annoying that, from what I've read, running her effectively basically requires the heavy use of Ronin, and her box set comes with... no Ronin. But her options are limited to a self melee buff (and since one cast of it effects both models, it's awesome), switching places with another vik, or pulling all viks to within 3", which is also awesome but I was running them close to take advantage of companion. Moving all Vik's to within 2" of a falling back or rallying model seems useful, but it never came up in the game. And of course if there is Ronin you can do the nifty Another One? ability.

She doesn't debuff, doesn't control, doesn't buff her party. She's all about smashing face in Melee, which is cool, but maybe because I played Orks in 40k I'm looking for a change of pace.

I don't take it personally that Marcus is a weak master, it was both of our first game, and he used Marcus poorly we've decided. He basically ran him up into melee and just used Wild Heart to buff his df and dmg. I was noting this morning that (0)Feral -> (2)Alpha-> (0) Stare Down seems like it can really screw over a model, and if it's the right model, that can screw over an entire crew.

I have a question though, Viktoria's Whirlwind Trigger, it says strike *another* target in melee range. I've been taking that to mean you can't strike the first target again, which seems to make it rather limited. Is this a correct interpretation?

The Sculpts are great, very characterful, the metal it's sculpted from just seems a little weak. Part of it is probably how thin the weapons are. I never worry about, for instance, my Hordes models bending, but when you compare them the weapons tend to be twice as thick as the Malifaux models. And as an aside, all parties involved are in their 30's and used to taking care of mini's. I'm not trying to dis on Wyrd, the game is fun (it's probably the most popular game right now at one of the stores, unfortunately that one is about 40 miles away from me.) and who can complain about an army of Showgirls or scantily clad warrior women

The Victoria set has alot of delicate models, and Wyrd in general puts out alot of small models, which is something that alot of companies dont do. I would consider Wyrd's stuff more real to life, they tend to not exagerate stuff to much, and thats where alot of the problems with bending come from. Swords, arms, that kind of thing.

I have a stratagey for marcus that im going to try out one of these days, basically it involoves 7 Hoar Cats, I think it might work in certain situations.

if your looking for a some ranged combat then I would suggest picking up a Convict Gunslinger for your Vic crew, it is a beast at ranged combat. But the Vic's are definatly a close comabat faction, if your looking for something more shooty then you can't go wrong with anything in the Guild, perticularly Perdita, Resputina, Ramos...

As for the Whirlwind Trigger, the way its supposed to work is, you either run or teleport Vic into close combat with a group of models and you whirlwind through them, but you cant hit the same model twice. Its not the best ability if she is just attacking one model.

Catyrpelius wrote:The Victoria set has alot of delicate models, and Wyrd in general puts out alot of small models, which is something that alot of companies dont do. I would consider Wyrd's stuff more real to life, they tend to not exagerate stuff to much, and thats where alot of the problems with bending come from. Swords, arms, that kind of thing.

I have a stratagey for marcus that im going to try out one of these days, basically it involoves 7 Hoar Cats, I think it might work in certain situations.

if your looking for a some ranged combat then I would suggest picking up a Convict Gunslinger for your Vic crew, it is a beast at ranged combat. But the Vic's are definatly a close comabat faction, if your looking for something more shooty then you can't go wrong with anything in the Guild, perticularly Perdita, Resputina, Ramos...

As for the Whirlwind Trigger, the way its supposed to work is, you either run or teleport Vic into close combat with a group of models and you whirlwind through them, but you cant hit the same model twice. Its not the best ability if she is just attacking one model.

With Marcus's Beast Master ability, there are quite a few new beasts in the new book, including spirit beasts and undead beasts, that should give him a boost.

Whirlwind may be useful in larger matches, but at 25 points where there is ~5 models, the opportunity never really came up, but I can see where it could be nice as a thresher type ability. The 0 soulstone cache hurt too, especially when you're looking at probably needing 3 for each 'Another one?' (2 to trigger, one to cheat)

I think I will try Collete, she seems to be all kinds of tricksy that could be very fun to play with.

Just to throw this out there, a standard game is considered 35 points. Also you can only use one soulstone per action.

The way the cheating system works. You flip a card, you are then able to cheat it form your hand, then you can spend a soul stone to flip another card and add its symbol and value to the first.

I'm pretty sure another one requires you to discard two soulstones, maybe it was control cards though

I can't say for sure, I dont have the book and Vic isnt a master that I play that often. Without knowing for sure, usually the only abilities that make you discard 2 soul stones are ones that summon another model. I can look when I get home and give you are more difinative answer though.

Catyrpelius wrote:I can't say for sure, I dont have the book and Vic isnt a master that I play that often. Without knowing for sure, usually the only abilities that make you discard 2 soul stones are ones that summon another model. I can look when I get home and give you are more difinative answer though.

"Another One" has a cost of 2 soulstones and a high CC, so you probably don't do it until you have the Red Joker or a SS to cheat with.

Abilites like that tend to have a pretty signifaciant, almost game changing, effect to the game.

Well yes, it's the ability that allows you too, if a Viktoria is killed within 2" of a Ronin, you discard the two SS and try to make the cast (which has a very high CC value and two suit requirements), if it succeeds you sacrifice the Ronin but place a another Viktoria in play (with the limit that there can never be more than two). It's why 25 point Viktoria lists tends to look like:

Viktoria
3 Ronin
Convict Gunslinger
5 soul stones

I'd really recommend going up to 35 points, most scraps are 35 points... You really wont find 25 point games outside of your group.

As for casting Another One?, this is a very situational abilitie, I can't really think of a time when I've ever actually used it. It just never seems worth while to me. There are 3 cards in your deck that will allow you to cast this spell, the 13 of Rams or the 13 of Masks and the Red Joker, you really need to have one of these cards in your hand in order to have a good chance of getting the spell to go off.

I dont know if you've looked into it, but at the War Store weekend in October I'm going to be running alot of Malifaux open play and two tournements. I dont know if youwere planning on attending, but its worth looking in to.

Kroot Loops wrote:Well yes, it's the ability that allows you too, if a Viktoria is killed within 2" of a Ronin, you discard the two SS and try to make the cast (which has a very high CC value and two suit requirements), if it succeeds you sacrifice the Ronin but place a another Viktoria in play (with the limit that there can never be more than two). It's why 25 point Viktoria lists tends to look like:

Viktoria
3 Ronin
Convict Gunslinger
5 soul stones

You do know that you get both Viktorias? They count as one master.

Most games I have played/seen ran around 30-35ss. Gives crews like the Viks a chance to add/swap a bit.
Maybe its my group, but we still mostly run the crew boxes, with a swap or two.

The game seems to balance well wround the 35 SS mark, and then again around the 55 SS mark. The majority of tournements and offical events are going to be 35 SS, anything larger is generally going to be a brawl.

When I play Vic, I generally dont start the game with any extra SS then I have to, I think I usually wind up with 2. Ronin, meens that you dont really need extra soul stones, thanks to the combination of Hard to Kill and Seppuku.

Kroot Loops wrote:So some friends of mine have gotten onto a non-GW games kick lately, and we started Warmachine/Hordes a few weeks ago, and now we each got in our box sets for Malifaux. We knew nothing of the game and picked our boxes by looks for the most part, I took in the Viktorias crew.

Tonight I started putting them together... and I wasn't too impressed. The metal is extremely soft. Every model that came with a weapon in the box had bent weapon(s). Taelor's hammer head was bent almost double, and applying gentle pressure to straighten it caused the hammer head to effortlessly tear right off of the haft. the swords are difficult to actually get perfectly straight, they are soft enough that they will actually bend in two places in an S curve with no effort.

I like the rules, I think it will be a fun game, but my first encounter with the quality of the miniatures left something to be desired.

I just picked up a box of gremilns, And i don't have problems with the quality. some thin arms here and there, but they are not bended I started work on them immediately, you can follow it on my thread. I started the game out of interest in the models, rather then to play with them. Don't get me wrong I will play eventually, but 1st comes the modeling part . The models look pretty kick ass.

(here is my progress thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/311940.page )

i really dig Malifaux, but my main hang-up is the GW style of releasing rules before models. the second book "rising powers" just got released and offers up a slew of new models we will have to wait for. proxying a few here and there is fine, but there are so many that we wont see in a long time.

barring that i like it alot, i play perdita alot, and i just picked up lilith as a counter demo force to teach other the game.

Scarazza, the downfall of the Gremlin force is the amount of models that you need to play a 35 soul stone game. Regularly my 35 SS crew is

1 - Som'er Teeth
1 - Giant Mesquto
1 - Bayou Gremlin
2 - Hog Whisperers
2 - Warpigs

But I need to bring

4 - Giant Mesquitos
8 - Bayou Grmlins
4 - Piglets

To make the army work, a Som'er Teeth force gets big quick, good luck with the painting though, cant wait to see them painted and played.

thanks for the advice! But at the moment I am just busy with the modeling aspect. I haven't stated gaming yet. I haven't bought a fate deck or the rulebook yet. Just a box of sommer teeth jones gremlins and some decorative bases.

but why do you bring only 1 bayou gremlin? do you use, the 'bring y'er bro' rule? I would use

Sommer teeth jones. (how many points is this fellow?)
4 gremlins 8 points
1 warpig 8 points

Basically everything from the box.

and the, fill the rest up with other models. But I don't know how many points they cost, I don't even now how you make an army. Are they limits in troop choices?

Som'mer Teeth is a very hard master to win with, but it can be done.

I would recommned getting yourself the rulebook, its hard to explain the game to someone without being able to show them how things work.

I might just do that. (after I get enough money. )

Just bear in mind that Wyrd just released an expansion to the game, called Rising Power, it adds alot of great new models. You still need the first rule book though.

yes I noticed there was another rulebook released. I'll be sure to buy it.

^THis is one of the best Malifaux threads I have read in some time. Usually, on the Wyrd forums, its fanbois arguing over how a rule should be interpretted and others trying to outdo eachother with cheesey lists...

Grats on that guys. Back on topic:

Scrazza - Gremlins got AWESOME in Rising Powers... PIGAPAULT! Now you do not require so many of the same sculpt to play a viable scrap, due to Ophelia's crew... no more Mozzie fart spams.

studderingdave - Wyrd actually had a tonne of models released before the Core Rules were even in print. Som'er and a few other Masters were on sale along with alot of Wyrd minis that never made it into the rules. Other than that, its good to see you are introducing others to this awesome game and playing demos. Remember: Take pride when the new guy you introduced brings in his awesome crew and beats the snot out of your crew... you have succeeded when this happens... (had a kid's Ramos crew absolutely smash my Rasputina...)

Avatar, we try. Its a great game, and is building alot of excitment. I really enjoy seeing a new minatures company suceed.

Catyrpelius wrote:Avatar, we try. Its a great game, and is building alot of excitment. I really enjoy seeing a new minatures company suceed.

Likewise mate. However, would enjoy seeing closer shots of your crew/s

I have something special that I'm going to throw up in the next couple of days....

can't wait.

Looking forward to your diary... PM me a link when tis done.