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So I've got my first game of Malifaux in over a year, tomorrow.

I'm playing Guild Lucius. How does the Crew work?

Guild Lucius was one of my favorite masters for a while.

Here's my advice:

1. Always take a lawyer. They're fantastic at screwing with your opponent and that + flip to Horror Duels is essential to playing Lucius.

2. The biggest appeal to new Lucius players is that his walking hands out AP to other models. Don't rely on this and don't do it 3 times every turn for 5 turns.Issue command isn't as AP efficient, but it is very powerful if you've lined up your cards.

3. Upgrades: Legalese is the auto-take for me. It shuts down a lot of annoying things like Wong and Clockwork Traps. Surprisingly Loyal comes next, especially if Assassinate is in the pool. Hiring from this is discussed below.

Secret Objectives/Assets are the only ways to get Lucius a zero from his specific upgrades. One gives you a nice ranged attack, but you'll have to burn a stone or save a high card for it. The other gives you a nice burst of melee which can be quite nasty. Neither is super great though.

4. Hiring:

With Surprisingly Loyal, you can hire Candy, Mr. Graves, Mr. Tannen, Beckoners, and the Doppleganger.

The Doppleganger is by far my favorite. You'll be able to cheat initiative, drop scheme markers while engaged (great for plant explosives/spring the trap/Secret Objectives), and she can copy actions of other models.

Mr. Tannen is hated by my group because of chatty/having to discard to cheat, plus he's only 6 stones and manipulative. When paired with the Doppleganger, be prepared to lose a friend.

Mr. Graves is a great melee beater. Show you the door is a melee attack that does damage on a ram, but mainly pushes the target 6 inches and then Mr. Graves into base contact. You can do it twice on a charge. Kirai/Molly giving you trouble? Pull them far away and see if they live.

I haven't used Candy, but she really needs Neverborn upgrades to shine.

Beckoners are brutal with their lure. I've never regretted hiring one in any crew that I can.

Lucius also really likes a big beater due to What Lackeys are for. You negate an Executioner's slowness by throwing it 10 inches up the board into the fray. My favorites for this are Mr. Graves, the Peacekeeper, an Executioner (the only time I'll take him), Francisco Ortega, and Ama No Zako.

Captain Dashel, Lucius's thematic henchman is okay, but not great. He's very static, but brutal when Guardsmen are near him. Always take 2 Rifelmen with him.

The Guild Pathfinder is one of my favorite models. Traps are fantastic and I always hire 2 in squatters rights . He's also perfect for Frame for Murder. He dies every game because people will go out of the way to stop him from summoning traps and dropping blasts.

Austringers are fantastically good. I don't think I need to say more on that. Same goes for Guild Hounds.

Avoid Guild Guard like the plague, they're really not worth it, unfortunately.

Both the Scribe and the Proxy make good totems.

Wardens get a + flip to horror duels and are guardsmen as well.

Sidir is a solid Henchman for protecting Lucius with By Your Side as well as being great in melee and at range.

The Brutal Effigy is solid and a potent scheme runner/nuisance.

Be on the look out for Mounted Guard and Master Queeg in the next book as well.

Most importantly of all: ALWAYS hire a Witchling Stalker. Condition removal is golden in any crew and Lucius absolutely needs it in case you paralyze your own models.

5. Lucius excels at scheme marker based games. Don't take him if you have to kill a lot (though Dashel/Rifelmen can do that quite effectively). He can make his whole crew be able to drop scheme markers while engaged and hire the Doppleganger and Performers, which can do it anyway. Plant Explosive/Spring the Trap are incredibly easy to do with Lucius and there is very little your opponent will be able to do about it.


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More notes:

Lucius takes a lot of work to be effective. He has a much steeper learning curve than any of the wave 1 Guild masters.

Always make sure that you have the right suits in your hand. Lucius is very suit/card dependent, unfortunately, which is why a lot of people gripe about him, but he doesn't receive anywhere near as much hate as Yan Lo.

Papa loco teleporting into the middle of a crew via what lackeys are for is a fun trick.

But yeah riflemen are very good although once they get hit they fall over! Wardens are awesome with lucius.

bertmac wrote:
Papa loco teleporting into the middle of a crew via what lackeys are for is a fun trick.

But yeah riflemen are very good although once they get hit they fall over! Wardens are awesome with lucius.

I noticed.

I wound up running Lucius, The Scribe, Dashel, 2 riflemen, 2 lawyers and a warden. Lucius had Legalese, and the hidden sniper upgrade, and Dashel had Watch My Back.


The Riflemen got 2 focus apiece, and died before they could use them to a Friekorps Trapper. The warden spent the entire game with Hard to Wound+1 or +2, and Dashel got tangled up with a Strongarm suit.

Lawyers are amazing, and Lucius is good at crowd control and forcing actions on other models. I need more practice with him though.

Lucius doesn't work. He has aides for doing all that sort of thing.