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 as the title says really what is it?
I'm coming in from 40k and I saw it a couple of times but never bother until I relised its a heck of a lot cheaper to play than 40k (the price for the 40k rulebook is enough to have you set to play for Malifaux).
That's about it really if you guys could give me a run down on it that would be great thanks.
Sorry if this is on wrong forum.
Cheers

Well, it's a Steampunk/Weird West themed skirmish game set in the parallel world of Malifaux.
Crews lead by different Masters of varying factions duke it out for control of the powerful, alchemical/magical resource known as Soul Stones.

What really sets it apart from other games is the card mechanic - instead of rolling dice to determine actions you draw from a deck of playing cards. But you also have a hand of cards which you can draw from at any time to give yourself a better result, or spend precious soulstones to give yourself a major boost! This certainly helps you get into the whole Weird West theme.

Much like Warmachine/Hordes, you choose a faction; Guild, Arcanist, Ressurectionist, Neverborn, Outcast; and select a Master which will determine your crew's playstyle and what their strengths are.

There are 5 factions, The Guild, Arcanists, Resurrectionists, Neverborn, and Outcasts/

Arcanists consist of many of the more powerful wizards and spellcasters alongside with the 'common man' union workers, and hard laborers. They also have tons of constructs and machines.

Neverborn are essentially the flavorful equivalent of daemons that have infiltrated this world. They don't have many ranged weapons, but they have many strange effects such as controlling our units and playing with fear effects.

Resurrectionists are just that, they have tons of zombies and the like. Their stuff is generally easy to hit, but circumvented by damage reduction or tons of wounds. They also have a lot of spirits that require magical weapons to harm effectively.

The Guild is "The Government" in pretty much every way. Their three big masters are a Neverborn-Hunter, an Arcanist-Hunter, and a Resurrectionist-Hunter. They're pretty good overall at having tons of ranged weapons and more down-to-earth abilies.

The Outcasts are mercenaries in a way, but a faction in their own right. Their masters are often really strange and odd in many ways that change the game completely.

---

Gameplay uses card-flipping instead of rolling dice. This seems like a gimmick at first, but it gets interesting because you have a hand of cards as well. If you don't like your flip for a given action, you can play a card from your hand to replace the current flip. Your hand replenishes every turn. Some abilities let you manipulate your hand in odd ways from drawing more cards to discarding them for effects.

The game is an IGO-UGO structure. You flip for initiative every turn, and whoever wins, activates a single model. When that activation is done, the next player activates a model. Continue until everything is activated.

Each model comes with a card with all the abilities on it. Each model, especially the masters and more expensive models, have a TON of abilities and triggers. Thismay be the biggest downside to the game in that it's complicated even if all the information is right there.

Triggers are also what makes the game unique. Many models have 'interrupts' of sorts that trigger when a certain event happens. Or example, Perdita Ortega shoots you in the face with her gun if you miss her with a ranged attack. Also, you're flipping cards, so the suit may matter. There are triggers based on the suit you flip. That's why you have a hand of cards and a soulstone cache to add to the flips. You keep a balance between wanting that right suit or simply wanting a high card.

Thanks guys just bought the rulebook it is great I'm think either Outcasts or Arcanist's Thank you very much
Cheers

A few notes--

It's a fairly difficult game to learn, but I find that, once it clicks, it's a lot of fun, and the learning curve levels out pretty quickly, so, don't worry if you struggle at first.

Also, it's very adaptive and scenario-based, so you're not likely to have a good all-comers list (though, a core that goes with a given master is definitely possible).

Terrain, terrain, terrain! 50% board coverage is not unheard of, and certain forces will mop the table with others, if you don't put down a substantial amount of terrain.

Also note, some masters radically diverge from others, so it's worth paying attention to what selection they can take: cross-faction options start to get expensive, quickly, since you sometimes need to practically buy a mini-faction (or play with a lot of factions ).

The malifaux forums and pullmyfinger (the mali wiki) are good resources for beginners.