Malifaux Article – Getting Started!
April 10, 2013 by crew
Having been a Malifaux player since it took its first baby steps into the hobby community, the one question that everyone poses to me is this: How do I start?
A question that has plagued new hobby enthusiasts for aeons and still does to this day I shall answer for all to see.
One of the first things posed to you as a new Malifaux player is, which faction do I start with? So what you need to decide for yourself is how you like to play war-games and what kind of strategy you would like to follow.
The Guild are the “law” in Malifaux, stalwart and strong, they focus on being able to do a bit of everything. Jacks of all Trades if you will.
The Resurrectionists are the undead of the system, applying their dark knowledge of the arcane to reanimate the dead to serve them.
The Arcanists are heavy magic users and machinists, who like nothing more than to throw fire, ice or lightning at the enemy or have an army of mechanical monsters tear them limb from limb.
The Neverborn are the original inhabitants of the world of Malifaux and are nightmares brought to life, using their superior willpower to destroy their foes.
Finally The Outcasts are just what they say on the tin, the mercenaries, who synergize with other factions since they can be hired by others, as well as being able to gang up together to make strong crews themselves.
Once you have decided either which models you like the most, or which faction you like the feel of, you can work on strategy to help you to bring your gang to victory on the fields of battle.
The creators of Malifaux, Wyrd Miniatures, have done a very good job of creating balanced and fair starter box sets for their game which is the best place to start for any new player. So this is the place for your first model purchase, grab yourself a starter box for the faction you like the most.
The Red Chapel Gang
Constructs of Order
The Hag's PuppetsA helpful “pro” suggestion for when you get your first crew is to laminate your character cards. This not only provides great protection for the card, but it also allows you to mark off health points with a dry wipe marker, rather than use dice or more counters in the game.
Some, but not all, of the starter boxes will come with one already, but if your starter box doesn't come with a Totem, this is what your next purchase should be.
Totems do a fantastic job of amplifying the abilities of your master, as well as providing a new set of skills and abilities for your other crew members to interact with.
At this point, you will have played a few games with your friends and other hobbyists and have got a feel for the game and how you like to play. This is your chance to really go crazy and expand your crew to the 25 soulstone threshold, which is about the size of your average game. This is where you would refer to your rulebook to find the next model(s) you can add to take your crew to this 25 stone point limit.
Synergistic models that enhance your crew and their skills will be the most practical method to improve your game. For example, if you are using The Viktorias as your masters, the next step would be to pick up the model Vanessa, Treasure Hunter as she synergizes very well with the already potent “cruise missile” powers The Viktorias already possess.
Hopefully this has helped you decide, or made your decision easier with choosing your first crew, but always remember the golden rule of gaming. HAVE FUN!
Cheat Fate or Lose Your Soul!
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Funny that last week I decided to pull the malifaux out of my “stuff I bought over the years, but never really done anything with”, and now BoW posts an article about it. Almost finished painting my Ophelia crew, after which Rasputina will get some paint. Next week its time for the first games of malifaux!
Liked the models for a while but never really been willing to take the plunge and buy a starter for it… convince me otherwise?
I am no expert in malifaux but it is a very good game. The rules are very solid and well written which leaves little confusion. The stat cards, similar to warmachine/hordes, pretty much let you play a game without consulting the rule book every 5 mins. The fate deck mechanic does throw you at first but once you see it’s pretty much like rolling dice you soon get the gist of it. I would suggest getting the full size rule book and reading the fluff. I do not really get into fluff of games but I was hooked on malifaux… Read more »
I actually found this rather useful as I am going to pick up a starter and was wondering where I should head with it after that
I have been attracted to the miniatures. The game seems twisted and dark. The alternate world is weird (Wyrd). And the game mechanics challenge the dice rolling normal. This article helps. I would like to see a demo game video, possibly a few Tips and Tricks vids and more painting videos for Malifaux. BTW:I would not have considered Malifaux without seeing it on BoW.
over at wyrd forums there are some handy topics on starting Malifaux on a budget
Arcanists http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33382-Arcanist-on-a-budget
Guild http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?32875-Guild-on-a-budget
Ressurrectionist http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33380-Resurrectionist-on-a-budget
Neverborn http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33383-Neverborn-on-a-budget
Outcast http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33384-Outcasts-on-a-budget
And ofcourse the wonderful Malifaux wiki http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/
Hope this helps (potential) new players
BOW needs to do more malifaux stuff!
I watched a demo game for a while, it was on here I think, anyway I thought it looked a tad boring just quietly. Im a 40k player and I know it can be a 40gay sometimes but……..
To be fair Joey Berry’s Malifaux videos are only reason why I am little interested from this game.
Malifaux’s something I’ve only recently started getting into and I find it to be a very tactical and fun game based heavily around synergies and popping abilities off in orders to make the most of it. The lack of dice is what initially drew me to it just to see how it would work and I’m glad I got a demo game in at Minicon. One thing I’d advise as a beginner is to do some research on the starter boxes, some of them are not very straight forward and can be a bit confusing to start with. You’ll find… Read more »
thanks for everybody’s criticisms and i’m glad that you enjoyed the review 😀 hopefully ill be writing many more to come for Mailfaux as well as other things but to answer a few peoples questions. @nazgahllion the starter boxes are all well balanced and are a great place to start learning the game. This and a micro rulebook will get you started, its a great game that is highly tactical and allows for great variety in strategic gameplay. @dracs good news on the interest and the purchase of a starter box, next you will want to find a totem model… Read more »
Never heard of the game before, but by-gosh, my interest has definitely been peaked now.
Thanks for the introduction and info!
*adds Malifaux to his ever increasing list of games to checkout*
an other great resource for the beginnning malifaux player
http://malifools.podbean.com/2013/02/23/episode-33-stepping-off-the-train/
Great! Thanks, sunabe.
I played a demo game and it was really cool. I play a lot of Dark Age and WarmaHordes and it was weirdly enough to me sort of a card system using kind of mash up. Which was really interesting.
Eventhough the starter sets are a great way to start this wonderfully weird game some are not that starter friendly. Pandora and Leveticus being the most notoriuosly difficult to get started with (I should now I started with Pandy and it took ages to get a grip on her). The Victorias, Shamus and The Ortega’s ( or their Gremlin counterparts in the form of Ophelias KIn) are one of the easiest sets to get a hang of the game and its trigger mechanics. If you like starting with nasty combo play Collodi and C. Hofmann are a good start. One… Read more »
Oh and I almost forgot : http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/
For tactica and more beginner advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0_6ViI_54
Hopefully this link might also serve to enlighten the un-enlightened.
It is a tad long but stick with it the bat rep is very clever.
This was a good intro and bat rep on Malifaux. Thank you for sharing it.
no problem Zoglin, happy to help.
I’m afraid that Malifaux has got its hooks well and truly in me, even though I haven’t actually played a game yet. The minis look nice, the fluff is superb but the fact that it is primarily a skirmish based game rather than a huge battle scenario is, I find , the most attractive thing yet.
Next best thing to a dungeon crawl …eh?
Keep an eye on this space as more articles are soon to follow with tactics, reviews and other helpful tid-bitz to help you on the way to malifaux 😀
Been playing this a while now and absolutely love the game. The card mechanic, and the ability to cheat fate, adds a lot to the game by allowing you some control over the luck factor. The rules are like most games, a little complicated when you read them but fall into place when you start playing. The mini’s are excellent and great to paint. Enough detail to make them interesting but not so much as to make the mini over busy. But one of the best things is the playing area is only 3×3 so is a lot easier to… Read more »
I recently last week purchased the 1.5 rulebook and some Ressurectionists (which the seller kindly game me the deck too). The models are superb and the rules seem pretty solid. This is my eyes is an under the radar game which has the potential to break out if it has the players to support it (which I feel is the only negative about the game). With you being able to play a game with just a few models is another positive. I am quite astonished that it is also not a featured link in BOW. Anyone with a few pennies… Read more »
If you ignore book 3 and about 70% of the models released for that book. The game is pretty good
@undeadking
as someone who doesn’t know much other than the basics, what may i ask is wrong with the third book and its models?
http://malifaux.com/Downloads.php
Lots of downloads here if anybody’s that keen.