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Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio



Welcome to Malifaux, the fantastic character-driven game by Wyrd Games. This thread will hopefully answer many of the questions a new player should have about this game, and can also serve as a specific thread for quick questions about the game (if we don't answer them below).


Koyote from ORDO FANATICUS wrote:Background:

The background for this game begins on an alternate Earth. In this version of our world, magic is very real and is used in everyday life. However, whatever fuels magic is a limited resource, and by the year 1787 magic has become very hard to perform. In response to this 'magical energy crisis' Earth's most powerful practitioners search through the ether for a new source to power their magic.

Their scrying reveals another world, separated from our world by a thin magical barrier. The barrier is eventually breached and on the other side explorers discover a gloomy world and an abandoned, Earth-like city. This is the city of Malifaux.

In addition to the vacant metropolis, the explorers discover that the former inhabitants were mining a crystal that the Earthsiders come to call Soulstones. Soulstones contain magical energies, a solution to Earth's magic shortage. The name for these gems come from the fact that once a Soulstone is depleted of its energies, it can be recharged by placing it in close proximity to a person at their time of death.

After 6 months of exploration, the Malifaux world is opened to the general populace which then begins to mine Soulstones and ship them Earthside. This continues for a decade and then the Breach inexplicably collapses.

Following the collapse, magic on Earth is once again threatened and soon wars are launched to secure the remaining Soulstones. In response to this turmoil, a society of ruthless merchants, politicians, and practitioners form the Guild. Its purpose is to seize control of the remaining Soulstones and restore order.

One hundred years later the Breach reopens on its own. Malifaux is partially in ruin and all of its Earthside inhabitants gone. Signs of recent battle can be found, but not a single corpse.

Fearing that the breach will collapse again, the Guild restricts passage to Malifaux and sends in a labor force comprised mostly of criminals and undesirables. These men and women are sent to this gloomy world to "work off" their sentences or debt.

Due to the combination of so many desperate and criminal Earthsiders, the Guild's oppressive governance, and the otherworldly beasts, living nightmares, and spirits that haunt this dark and unforgiving world, for most, life in Malifaux is miserable, brutal, and typically short. Nevertheless, for those who are ambitious and ruthless enough, the riches of Malifaux can provide power and wealth otherwise unattainable Earthside.


Useful Links for Beginners
Malifaux's Official Website - Here you can find rules updates, artwork, and even a fantastic crew builder.
Wyrd Miniatures' Official Website - The website for the makers of Malifaux. You can find a wonderful forum community as well as Wyrd's other products.
Wikipedia: Malifaux - A quick overview of Malifaux thanks to Wikipedia.
Pull My Finger - A wiki site dedicated to everything Malifaux tactica, great for lists, model information, and tactics.
Pull My Finger's Getting Started - A great article on getting started with Malifaux.


Latest Update: Slowly breaking up the wall of text to make it easier to read.

This message was edited 14 times. Last update was at 2012/10/25 19:39:12


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Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

Quick Rules Explanation:

The Deck

The game is played with a standard deck of cards (i.e. the Fate Deck), including the Jokers. The Malifaux suits are Rams, Masks, Tomes, and Crows. These suits correspond to Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades. A Jack is an 11, a Queen is a 12, and a King is a 13. You can use either a standard deck and do the translations or you can buy a Malifaux deck.

Each player plays with his own Fate Deck. Decks are shuffled at the beginning of each Turn.

Sample cards: 7 of Rams, 10 of Masks, and 5 of Crows.




Duels

Outcomes are resolved by flipping the top card of a Fate Deck and then adding it to the appropriate stat. If the total equals or exceeds a target number, the action is successful. This is called a Simple Duel.

For example, if a player wants his model wants to attack a model that possesses the Harmless 11 ability, the attacking player flips a card and adds the attacking model's Will Power stat. If the total is 11 or better, then the model may attack the "harmless" model.

Duels can also be opposed. An example of an Opposed Duel is where one model attacks another model. In this instance, both players flip and add their appropriate stat to the outcome -the Attacker adds his combat stat and the Defender adds his defense stat. If the attacker's total equals or beats his opponent's total, then action is successful. If the attack is successful, the difference between the attacker's total and defender's total will provide either a penalty or bonus to the subsequent damage flip.

Twists of Fate are modifiers that require the player flipping cards to flip more than a single card and either take the lowest card or the card of his choosing, depending upon whether the modifier is a Negative Twist or Positive Twist For example, if a model shoots at a model in Soft Cover, the attacker has a 1 Negative Twist modifier. This means that the shooter flips two cards instead of one. The lower of the two is then added to the shooter's stat and then compared to the defender's total.

The maximum Twist of Fate modifier is three cards. Also, Negative and Positive Twist modifiers cancel one another out on a one for one basis. For example, if a model receives a 1 Positive Twist in a Duel due to a special ability and that model shoots at a target in Soft Cover (1 Negative Twist) the two modifiers would cancel each other out and result would be a straight flip.

Spells often require that a player reach both a target number and flip a card of a specific suit in order to achieve success.

Triggers provide a bonus to the outcome of a Duel if a certain suit is flipped during that Duel. For example, many of the Guild models inflict a Critical Strike (i.e.+1 damage) if a Ram is played in the attacker's flip. Another example is that if a model misses Perdita with a ranged attack and Perdita flipped a Mask during the Opposed Duel, Perdita gets a free shot at the attacker with her pistol.


Cheating Fate

At the beginning of the game each player shuffles his Fate Deck and draws 6 cards for his Control Hand. Cards from the Control Hand can be used to Cheat Fate. Cards that are not used to Cheat Fate can be discarded at the beginning of your next turn. After discarding, a player can draw more cards from his Fate Deck up to his maximum hand size.

A player 'Cheats Fate' by replacing a flipped card with a card from his Control Hand. This allows players to replace low cards with higher cards in order to reach a certain target number or to overcome an opponent's total in an opposed Duel. Cheating Fate is especially useful when an ability or spells require that both a target number be reached and a certain suit be played. Managing one's Control Hand is an important aspect of the game.


Jokers

There are two Jokers in a deck: one black and one red. The Black Joker is bad and the Red Joker good. If a Black Joker is flipped the player may not Cheat Fate, the card has no suit, and the card's numerical value is zero. If a Red Joker is flipped, the card counts as whatever suit the player desires and the card's numerical value is 14. There are a few other Joker related rules as well. Some are tied to abilities and triggers.



Miscellaneous

Each character has a number of abilities, spells, and triggers. Success in this game relies, in part, on keeping all of these in your head. In this way, the game is more like Confrontation than 40K.

Also, the rules are very explicit and the language has been carefully chosen to favor clarity and consistency over style and fluff.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/09/05 14:53:03


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Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

List Building:


Crews:

Malifaux warbands are called "Crews". The rank-and-file of a Crew are called Minions. They are led by a Master. At this time, each Faction has at least four masters. Masters represent different aspects/themes within a Faction and confer bonuses to certain types of Minions. Through bonus based incentives a player's choice of Master encourages one to build Crews using particular Minions, but generally, the Master does not dictate the composition of the Crew. Also, with the exception of Outcast Masters, a Master may hire any of the Minions from within his or her Faction.

Also, certain Masters let you hire Minions from other Factions. For example, the Arcanist Master Marcus has the Beast Master ability. Thus, a Crew led by Marcus can hire Minions with the Beast rule from any Faction.

The Outcasts Faction includes many models with the Mercenary rule. Models with this rule can be hired by other Factions at an increased price.

Lastly, a Master may be accompanied by a Totem -essentially a familiar. A Totem is like a weak Minion but it confers special abilities onto its Master and sometimes other Minions. A Totem may also cast some of its Master's spells. Some of the Totems are dedicated to certain Masters while others can be used by any Master within the Totem's Faction. The Malifaux Child and the Student of Conflict are Outcast Totems with the Mercenary rule, so they may be purchased by Masters from other Factions.

Soulstones

Soulstones are used to purchase your Crew and to provide benefits to your Master during game play.

Hiring a Crew

Like in most games, players first agree to the number of Soulstones each player can spend on building a Crew (30 or 35 is fairly typical). The Masters is free. Each Minion and Totem have a Soulstone cost indicated in their unit entry. Any Soulstones not spent purchasing your Crew go into your Crew's Soulstone pool.

Some models are Rare, indicating that a Crew may only hire a limited number of these models. Other models are Unique, indicating that a Crew may only hire a single one of these models.

There are two Encounter Sizes: Scraps and Brawls.

The Soulstone range for a Scrap is 1 to 55 while the range for a Brawl is 30 to 80 Soulstones. The maximum number of Masters in a Crew is 1 for a Scrap and 2 for a Brawl. Scraps and Brawls also limit the size of a player's Control Hand and the size of a Crew's Soulstone pool.

Soulstone Pool

Each Master's unit entry indicates his or her Soulstone Cache. This number indicates the initial size of the Crew's Soulstones pool. Master Caches range from 0 to 6, depending upon the Master (3 or 4 Soulstones is about average). These Soulstones cannot be used to purchase more Crew. Also, any Soulstones not spent purchasing Crew are added to this number. This number is capped at 8 for a Scrap and 10 for a Brawl.

Each Master can perform the Drain Souls action. This allows a Master to Sacrifice friendly models in exchange for one Soulstone per model. Each Drain Souls action taken reduces the Will Power stat of every non-Master in that Crew by one.

Also, for each Scheme a player declines to take, his Crew's Soulstone Pool is increased by 2.

Models with the Use Soulstone ability (typically only Masters) can expend Soulstones during game play to gain certain advantages. A model with this rule can use a Soulstone to either prevent or to heal damage to himself. Also, during a Duel, a model with the Use Soulstone ability can discard a Soulstone from his pool and flip a second card. This card does not replace the initial flip, but instead its value is added to the initial flip. This can be done in addition to or instead of Cheating Fate.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/09/06 12:25:02


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Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

Models & Stat Cards:


Each model is accompanied by a card that lists all of the stats you need to use it. All of this information is included in any of the four main rulebooks (Book 1/1.5, 2, 3, & 4), but not the mini rules manual. Each stat card has two sides. The first contains the model's stats, abilities, actions, triggers, and spells. The back contains detail explanations abilities et al. from the front side.


Movement (Wk/Cg):
Ramos has a Walk of 3 inches and a Charge of 5 inches. Each model can generally make up to 2 walk actions or 1 charge action in an activation.

Height (Ht):
Ramos has a Height of 2. Most models in the game will range between Ht 1 to 3. This is a block of space the model takes up and is used for terrain, and LoS issues.

Will Power (Wp):
Ramos has a Will power of 6. Wp represents a model's ability to resist spells and influence from other models

Casting (Ca):
Ramos has a Casting stat of 8. This number (and corresponding suit) is added to a flip when trying to reach the target number of a spell. Looking at his spells, you will notice that next to the Casting cost (cc) is a suit. When casting a spell, Ramos adds an 8 and Tomes to any spell he casts. If you notice some of his spells have the tomes symbol greyed out, while others have a black suit. When a suit is greyed out, it means the model has met that requirement because of a suit attached to a stat, So, when making the casting flip for Arcing Screen the player needs to flip a 7 or higher of any suit (since his Ca gives him the tomes he needs). However, if Ramos wishes to cast Electrical Creation he will need to flip a 7 of tomes or higher.

Defense (Df):
Ramos has a Defense of 2. If Ramos is targeted by an attack, he will flip a card and add 2 to his total. If the Attacker's total (Combat (Cb) + flip) is equal to or greater than Ramos' total (Df + flip), then Ramos has been hit.

Wounds (Wd):
Ramos has 10 Wounds. When his wounds reach 0, he is dead. Unlike other skirmish games (ala Warmachine and Hordes), when your Master dies, you do not automatically lose the game.

Combat Actions (Cb):
Ramos has a Melee Attack with a range of 1 inch. This is indicated by the claw marks and the 1 beneath his Clockwork Fist. When Ramos attacks with this weapon, he adds his Cb 3 to his attack flip. Again, this stat includes a Tome so anytime Ramos needs a Tome in order to access a melee trigger, he automatically gets one Tome. The damage his Clockwork Fist can inflict is 2/2/5 (weak/moderate/severe). Ranged Attacks work exactly the same, but have a gun icon to indicate ranged attacks.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/09/07 13:04:21


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Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio


Turn Sequence


Turn Sequence
The Game Turn begins by flipping for Initiative. Starting with the player that flipped the highest card, players take turns activating a single model. After all of the players have activated one model, the winner of the initiative flip activates his second model. This process is repeated until all of the players have activated all of their models. Once the last model ends its activation, that Game Turn is over.

Some models have the Companion rule. If two models with the companion rule are within 6" when either model activates, both models may activate simultaneously. The model initially activated completes its activation first, followed by its companion. As you can imagine this is a very powerful rule that can allow 2 or more models to group up on an opponent before that opponent gets an opportunity to react.

Action Points (AP):
All models in the game have at least 2 general action points and 1 (0) action point. A model does not have to use any or all of it's AP, but once a model ends it's activation it usually does not reactivate that turn. Any unspent AP are lost.



More Action Stuff:
This is in addition to other action points that model has to spend. Alternatively, a model can perform a single (all) action during its activation. A model that performs an (all) action cannot perform any other actions that activation, including (0) actions.

There are rules that can add or subtract action points. A model with the (+1) Fast ability has an additional action point to use during its activation. On the other hand, a model with (-1) Slow ability has one less action point to spend. Both Fast and Slow can be innate abilities of a model, or they can be conferred upon a model by a spell, trigger, or another model's ability. A model that receives a Paralyzed effect from a spell, ability, or trigger, has 0 action points to spend during its next activation.

In addition, there are action related abilities tied to specific types of actions. For example, (+1) Casting Expert gives a model 1 additional action point per activation that can be spent only on a spell. (+1) Instinctual lets a model perform two different 0 actions during its activation.

If you take another look at Ramos' Stat Card (spoilered below) you can see the action point cost for each of his spells and abilities. Also note that Ramos has (+1) Casting Expert.
Spoiler:


Game Setup:


A game begins with with each player choosing a faction, but not a Master nor Crew composition.


Board and Terrain:

Games are typically played on a 3' x 3' board. The general type of terrain used is determined by flipping a card and referring to the Encounter Location Chart. The location (e.g. ruins, industrial zone, bayou, mountains, etc.) provides players with the suggested type of terrain for the Encounter. It also directs you to another chart to determine special rules for the Encounter. These special rules can be things that affect the entire board, like howling winds, or they can be special terrain features that provide bonuses or penalties to models near or in them.

After the terrain is set up, deployment zones are determined by flipping a card and referring to the Deployment Chart.


Encounters:

To determine victory conditions, one player flips a card and refers to the Encounter Chart. This will determine whether the Encounter involves either Individual Strategies or a Shared Strategy. If the result is Individual Strategies, each player flips on a chart to determine his his crew's individual victory conditions. There are 13 different Individual Strategies that include things like claiming an objective, escorting a supply wagon across the board, ending the game with models in your opponent's deployment zone, etc. At the end of the game a player scores either 4, 2, or 0 VP depending upon how completely that player achieved his objective. The 13 Shared Strategies are identical to Individual Strategies, except that rather than each player having his own victory condition, both players have the same shared victory condition.

Wyrd also provides a number of Story Encounters. These are special, holiday themed scenarios (usually Halloween) that are released each year on the Wyrd website.


Hiring Crews:

After the terrain has been set up, deployment zone type is determined, and each player ascertains his Crew's strategy, players THEN select Masters and build their Crews. This order of set-up and army creation is very different than most table top wargames.


Schemes:

Next, each player may select up to 2 Schemes. Like Strategies, Schemes are objectives that can earn a player additional VP. Schemes include objectives like assassinating an opponent's Master, selecting a model from your own Crew that must be killed by an opponent's Master, keeping enemy models out of your deployment zone, etc. Generally, each Scheme that a player announces to his opponent is worth 2 VP. If a Scheme is kept secret it is worth only 1 VP. There are 11 General Schemes, 10 Faction Specific Schemes, and one Master Specific Scheme for each Master in the game (20 total).


Choosing Deployment Zones:

Finally, each player flips a card. The player that flips the highest card nominates a player, who then chooses a deployment area. This player then deploys his Crew within this area. The other player deploys his Crew in the remaining deployment area.


Game Length:

At the end of Turn 6, a card is flipped and if it is a 10 or higher, the game continues for another turn. This process is repeated at the end of each extra turn, but the target number increases by one each time.

The Factions


Guild
The people want us here; they're just afraid to say out loud that they're scared and need our protection. -Abner Mathiesen, Prefect Monarch of the Guild
The Guild exists for one reason and one reason only. There is talk of justice and peace, but these are the Guild's secondary interests. The Guild exists to maintain the production and control the supply of Malifaux Soulstones. Everything else comes second.
The Guild can be best described as the Old West Marshals of Malifaux. With a strong backbone of Guild Guardsmen keeping peace supplemented by specialist teams that target a particular peril facing Malifaux.
The Guild gives players a choice of strong masters, thanks to the diverse range of supporting models a player can adapt their crew to their immediate needs.

Lady Justice - LJ is a melee master, and her box tends to be the "anti-Ressers". Her and the Death Marshals tend to have abilities that disrupt Resurrectionists. Their abilities don't create corpse counters, and when they die, they don't drop corpse counters either. This prevents many of the summoning abilities of the Resurrectionists, at least those that require corpse counters.

Perdita Ortega - Perdita and her family are the "anti-neverborn" faction. They tend to be ranged combatants, and Perdita herself has some abilities that allow her to see through cloud effects, ignore forms of cover. Her crew can all activate together based on the Companion rule, though not all of them are ranged masters like Perdita.

Sonnia Criid - The Pyrokinetic Witch Hunter . The Anti-Arcanist, capable of fighting in Melee and at Range, but specializes in Magic (both casting and countering it). Her powerful 'pyrokinetic abilities' punishes all she faces with ash and immolation. Her crew also has ways of disrupting magic.

C. Hoffman - The Deus ex Constructica. A Construct Synergist. Rather than summoning new minions (like Ramos and Leveticus), he instead specializes in maintenance - buffing his mechanized army and removing their weaknesses.

Lucas McCabe - The Treasure Hunter. Dual Faction Ten Thunders. A fast-moving mounted master with variable equipment. Lucas McCabe has several effects that Slow or Paralyze opponents, and gets tougher when surrounded.


Resurrectionists
People say I hate the living; it's not true. I just happen to see the potential inside all people, those great things anyone can do if they arent trapped in their own consciousness and morals. And when I unlock that potential, death is a side-effect, I cant help that. -Doctor Douglas McMourning
Resurrectionists offer a solid and fun crew to play. The ability to raise models from the corpses of others coupled with a strong resistance to damage, the Resurrectionists provide a solid challenge to any opponent. Resurrectionists offer a great range of masters from the Pimp Seamus and his undead hookers, to the mad doctor McMourning and his flesh constructs.

Dr McMourning - (aka Doc Frankenstein) The Close-Combat Surgeon Summoner. Fast and hard to kill, this Master dissects his opponents before stitching the stolen body parts together to produce Frankenstein-style monsters that do horrible things to opponents in melee.

Nicodem - The Zombie Horde Lord. Somewhat fragile without a bodyguard of undead, but can raise and buff his hordes of undead easily and has some nice ranged offensive spells.

Seamus - (aka Jack the Ripper) The Mad Hatter with a Hand Cannon. Not a great summoner, but he and his crew of dead prostitutes lure enemy models in before either blowing them away with his hand cannon or making them run with his excellent terrifying abilities.

Kirai Ankoku - The Spirit Master. Uses her own wounds rather than corpses to summon her very resiliant spirits, and supports them by providing excellent mobility and healing the wounded ones.

Yan Lo - The Enlightened Necromancer. Dual Faction Resurrectionist/Ten Thunders. Yan Lo grows in personal power as models die around him. He can store friendly dead Ancestors and rebuild them with Corpse Counters, and gains new abilities from one of three paths when non-Ancestors are killed near him.

Arcanists
There is nothing here but smoke and mirrors. -Colette Du Bois
The Arcanists share an affinity for manipulating the energy of Malifaux into almost magical effects, whether this be breathing life into machinery, commanding fierce beasts or even nature itself. However, its not all about magic for the Arcanists, they all strive to meet their goals via vast underground networks operating under the very nose of the Governor. Whether it be profit or knowledge the Arcanists rarely fail to achieve their goals. The Arcanists offer a unique range of Masters from Summoners, to Controllers, to true Magicians, they have it all.

Marcus - The Beast Master. Not a lot of direct damage spells. With his crew of beasts he plays an aggressive hit-and-run game

Ramos - The Cyber-Spider Summoner. He has some direct damage electrical spells, but for the most part he specializes in creating mechanical spiders that move up and kill/detonate vs. enemy models.

Rasputina - The Ice Witch. Slow, but very good at dealing a lot of damage by throwing ice magic through her minions from a safe distance away (Warmachine players: think arc nodes)

Colette Du Bois - The Stage-Showgirl, Soulstone Master. Colette focuses mostly on swapping models in her crew around, making and using soulstones to power her spells, while dancing around the board to stay out of danger. A tricky master to get your head around.

Mei Feng - The Human Freight Train. Dual Faction Arcanist/Ten Thunders. Can leapfrog convoy along chains of friendly Constructs, and bounce from opponent to opponent in long chains of Strikes, Spells, and Triggers. A melee spellcaster.

Neverborn
Men come to me to learn their fate. What they don't learn is that I'm the one pulling the strings. -Zoraida
The Neverborn represent all the things that go bump in the night. A horrific mixture of nightmares, monsters, and masters that play on peoples fear and emotions. The Neverborn are a strong faction with a wealth of big and nasty options available to them, alongside subtler manipulators. Once you have mastered a Neverborn crew you will be a thorn in any opponents side.

Lilith - The Vampire/ Monster Breeder; a very swift, melee-focused, infamous "cradle-snatcher". She throws her opponents into disarray by shifting models around, switching foes with her minions, and summoning earthquakes or forests to create or prevent charge lanes. Once in melee she drains the lifeless bodies of her victims of blood to feed her Nephilim and help them mature.

Pandora - The Mind Freak; uses willpower duels for protection, movement and to destroy enemy models one wound at a time.

Zoraida - The Voodoo Swamp Hag; tends to manipulate everyone around her to suit her goals, preventing her opponent from cheating down cards and forcing enemy and friendly models to attack each other

The Dreamer/Lord Chompy Bits - The Innocent Menace; the psyche of a sleeping child made manifest in Malifaux. Believing it all to be a dream, he plays with his foes without realizing these toys are real people. Flying about the board, he summons and buries his crew of "Nightmares" and when he takes his fancy, he becomes the massive and extremely lethal "Nightmare".

Jakob Lynch - The Bliss-Pushing Card Shark. Dual Faction Neverborn/Ten Thunders. Manipulates his hand and his enemy's hand in a variety of extremely potent ways, while relying on his dangerous Spirit Totem to do the heavy combat. His crew infects enemy models with Brilliance, then gain benefits from it.

Outcasts
Why we eating horse again ? You know i likes the piggies better. -Gremlin
The outcasts represent the fringe elements of Malifaux, hiding from the ever watchful Guild while trying to survive and prosper. Often hiding in the Wastelands that surround the city. The Outcasts provide the widest variety of masters to play. From the wild and uncontrollable Gremlin's to Mercenary Masters available to the highest bidder. Often not the easiest crews to master, once mastered they provide a solid force capable of frustrating your opponents.

Leveticus - The Steampunk Necromancer. This creepy old man blends technology with necromancy to deliver death and turn his victims into steampunk monsters who further the assimilation. His fearsome arsenal of spells are powered by his own life force, causing him to constantly die each turn only to be brought back to life in the next, Nothing short of killing both him and his totem-like Waifs will remove him from a battlefield. He is considered one of the hardest Masters to learn.

Som'er Teeth Jones - The Hillbilly Horde Master. A crew of happy, self destructive Gremlins and Pigs with poor stats but fully capable of overwhelming other crews through sheer weight of numbers.

The Viktorias - The Twins. Two Masters in one, and poster children of Malifaux. Their crew tends to consist of some excellent specialists with minimal synergy between them. One of the easier Masters to employ but by no means the weakest.

Hamelin the Plagued - The Tyrant of Plague. Kills you with Blight Counters, hordes of rats and by making your models unable to target Hamelin or take objectives. Linked in the background to Hamelin the Piper, a seperate model who was Hamelin prior to becoming the Plague Bringer.

Ten Thunders
This is a brand new faction. There is currently only 1 pure Ten Thunders Master, Misaki. The other four are dual-faction Masters, which means they can be hired as their respective faction, or Ten Thunders, which limits which models they can hire.

Misaki, Mistress of the Ten Thunders - The Assassin. A single-target specialist. Misaki gets many actions every activation, with many abilities that set her into a one-on-one fight with a single enemy. She also has potent defense, some crew support, and the ability to steal Soulstones from enemy leaders.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/09/14 20:48:16


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Made in us
Nimble Dark Rider





Land of Lincoln

This is an awesome write up, excellent work. Not gonna lie, i linked this around the interwebs a little bit.

Malifaux - Rezzers
The Other Side - King's Empire & Abysinnia
40K - Iron Hands


 
   
Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

Thanks, I didn't come up with the format, but I hope everything someone needs to know is in here.

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Infiltrating Prowler






Yorkshire, UK

Question - what's the deal with the rulebooks?

There are 4 as far as I can see:

The core rulebook v1.5
Rules Manual
Rising Powers (expansion)
Twisting Fates (expansion)

From what I can gather if you want all the fluff (although some is badly written from what a few people have said) you need the core book and the 2 expansions. If you want all the rules either core 1.5 or the manual both have the same text and the expansions don't add anything rules-wise.

Is this correct or way off? I really like the look of this game and want to get into it as my new year project but I don't know what book(s) I should have as my first purchase.

Also - I have heard a rumour that a Malifaux v2.0 is in the works. Should I wait to get new rules or is this just internet wishlisting?

Thanks for putting this together btw . Really helpful

While you sleep, they'll be waiting...

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Made in us
Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

I have not heard anything on Malifaux 2.0, there is a Malifaux RPG in the works though.

If you just want the rules to play the game, you ONLY need the Rules Manual (the little 15 dollar book).

Book 1 and 1.5 contain the original fluff to the game (which is a little rough on the fluff). Book 1 contains the original rules, and is next to impossible to find. Book 1.5 has the updated rules in the Rules Manual plus edits due to FAQs and Errata.

Book 2 (Rising Powers).has some Henchmen and more Masters, it has a few strategies and schemes that have been put into the Rules Manual.

Book 3 (Twisting Fates) has the rules for Avatars, though the rules to use Avatars are contained on their stat cards.

Book 4 (Storm of Shadows) has the rules for the new 10 Thunders faction and the duel faction masters.

There is fluff in Books 1 to 4, but not the rules manual.

If you have any more questions, let me know

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Infiltrating Prowler






Yorkshire, UK

Cool, thanks for that. I'll probably start with 1.5 and Storm of Shadows then - I love the new 10 Thunders models and want them as my first faction , then maybe add Rising Powers and Twisting Fates for more fluff later (I am a fluff nut in any game I play )

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Lakewood, Ohio

No problem, glad I could help.

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 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
(although some is badly written from what a few people have said)


Being an avid reader, and someone who makes gaming (playing/purchasing) choices based on fluff, I feel the need to comment on this.

The web zines they put out were entertaining, and far more experimental than I generally expect in gaming magazines.
The first book had a fun narrative and solid characters, but suffered heavily from repetitive language (i.e. sounding awkward to write the same adjective twice in one sentence).
The second book still suffers from repetitive language, but has even stronger character concepts.
The third book is very well written. That's it. I feel like it's one of the most solid gaming books I've read in a long time. There were numerous twists and developments that 1: I didn't see coming and 2: cared about. That's highly unusual for me in gaming writing.
(I haven't read the fourth book yet)

Over all, the first bits are worth reading for context, and from the second or third book on (depending on how forgiving you are), it gets quite good.


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Lakewood, Ohio

Updated the "final" post of the guide with a quick over view of the masters for each faction.

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At a Place, Making Dolls Great Again

is puppet wars a seperate game or is it part of malifaux?

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Portland

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
is puppet wars a seperate game or is it part of malifaux?

It's basically a spinoff- a number of similar mechanics and themes, and arguably the same setting, but it's a non-compatible board game.

(The decks and, technically, the pieces are compatible, but there's no rules overlap (like warmachine + hordes))


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Lakewood, Ohio

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
is puppet wars a seperate game or is it part of malifaux?


What SpiralingCadaver said. Once I get my hands on Puppet Wars and learn how to play it, I'll probably do a similar write up/beginner's guide.

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Preacher of the Emperor




At a Place, Making Dolls Great Again

that sucks, those were my favorite miniatures they made

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Lakewood, Ohio

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
that sucks, those were my favorite miniatures they made


They are re-releasing the minis in plastic, lowering the cost of the box (not by much) and updated the rules. And like SpiralingCadaver said, you can use the models and the cards in Malifaux (I use the Puppet deck for demos when I don't want to touch the players' decks).

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At a Place, Making Dolls Great Again

so I can use them in a normal game of Malifaux?

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Lakewood, Ohio

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
so I can use them in a normal game of Malifaux?


Yes, but you would need to purchase the stat cards from Wyrd at 50 cent a card. Like Pokey Judge (one of the puppets) can be used as the Judge in Malifaux.

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At a Place, Making Dolls Great Again

sounds easy enough

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Lakewood, Ohio

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
sounds easy enough


Yup, just remember though that there isn't a 1 to 1 puppet to malifaux figs... There are plenty of malifaux figs without puppet versions.

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Portland

As a note, the Resurrectionists translate almost perfectly (just call the zombie chihuahua a canine remains), and is a pretty decent crew.

Also, Puppet Wars bases fit exactly in Malifaux ones, so you can easily just stick them in blank bases when you want to use them for Malifaux.



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Drone without a Controller




45th Parallel

One of my cousins plays Malifaux and I was thinking about starting it. After going to the website and here and reading stuff, I'm trying to decide which faction to play as. Are there specific trends to each faction (example: Gremlins are more close-combat) or does each faction have guys from different categories? From what I've read, I like the Arcanists and the Neverborn.

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Pile of Scrap




West Des Moines

Holy buckets this information is old! Is there any way this can get updated?
   
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Old Sourpuss






Lakewood, Ohio

Edit: Dr. What PM'd me about this 2 years ago, and made a new updated thread that you can find here. https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/652464.page

I'm going to request a mod lock this thread as it's out of date and been necro'd.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/02/07 00:57:43


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Sentient OverBear






Clearwater, FL

Locked as requested (check out the new thread though!).

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