Tale of Malifaux Bloggers 2: Intro
My name is Martin Wodehouse, I’m a Malifaux Tournament
Player in the UK (although I don’t get to anywhere near as many tournaments as
I’d like to!) I’ve been playing Malifaux for about 4 years now and I like to
think I’m pretty good at it. I’ve decided to sign up to the Tale of Malifaux
Bloggers for several reasons:
- I struggle, like many gamers, to find the time to build and paint models, so having a deadline will help.
- I want to try something new and build a crew from the ground up, experimenting and adapting as the collection of models I have available expands.
- I hope I can give some insight to new players (and maybe some experienced ones) on how I approach my games.*
*If I do this right, I should be able to include battle
reports (hopefully including photos of painted models!) as I progress.
Now, as a tournament player, starting off with a blank slate
may seem like I’m taking less than optimal choices at times but I feel that
learning to get the best out of what I have available, is actually going to teach
me a lot about models that I may otherwise overlook. I’ve always found I learn
best ‘on table’ as opposed to ‘Theoryfaux’, not that I have a problem with it,
we all have preferred methods of learning and you should go with what suits
best. I still read online tactica but not that much and prefer to think things
out for myself as I go.
Where to start then? Well, although I’m limited in
expenditure and I want to start with a brand new crew, I also don’t want to
pretend I’m right at square 1. So, to start with, I already own all of the
current books and arsenal decks, along with plenty of the paraphernalia that
goes along with the game (Decks, Tokens and Markers). So I’ll be concentrating
purely on buying, painting and playing with models. Those of you that have met
or played against me will know that the main Faction I use in games is Arcanists;
I’ve taken them to every tournament I’ve played in.
For this project then, I’ve already said that I’m going to
try something new. When picking Masters in the past, I’ve always started with a
very aesthetic outlook; picking a model I really like the look of as my
starting point and building from there. Looking around at the moment, I
actually really like most of the current range that Wyrd are producing but one
model that really stands out for me is…
Lucius!
Purchase 1 – the Bound by Law box (£29.69 from Firestorm
Games in Cardiff)
I think this will give me a nice challenge, both in terms of
painting and playing. Win Win!
Lucius is a Dual Faction Master (he can be taken as either
Guild or Neverborn), so I can potentially buy models from either range but a
quick look at the Crew box shows that the other models in it are all Guild,
apart from Lucius’ Totem ‘The Scribe’ which shares his Dual Faction traits.
This means initially I will have to play Lucius as a Guild Master.
Taking a quick look through the Upgrade cards in the box,
Lucius can take one called Surprisingly Loyal. This allows him to take up to 4
models, with the Guardsman or Mimic characteristic, that are not in his
declared Faction. So I can still get some Neverborn models then, great! Looking
through the Rulebooks/Arsenal Decks, there are a few potential Mimics but I
think my choice here is actually quite easy.
Purchase 2 – The Doppelganger (£6.75 from Firestorm)
For anyone that doesn’t know, the Doppelganger has some
awesome abilities in Malifaux, not least of which is the ability to cheat the
Initiative Flip. This can be potentially game winning at the right moment.
There are other reasons to get her but I’ll go into more detail with that at a
later date.
This takes my expenditure to £36.44, leaving just £3.56.
Now, I do have a fair amount of stuff in my bits box to use and luckily I
remembered that I had some wooden decorations purchased cheaply from Hobbycraft
last year. They look like this:
They fit reasonably well on top of a 30mm base and I have
about a dozen of each. Anyone who has read the Lucius story in the Crossroads
book will know the significance of the one on the right, so I’ll definitely be
using at least one of these when basing my crew.
On to the gaming side; I generally play 50SS games and I
want to try and stick to that if I can. So first of all let’s add up the models
I’ve just bought:
- Lucius (free as he’s the Leader!)
- Captain Dashiel 9SS
- Doppelganger 7SS
- 2 x Guild Lawyers 12SS
- 2 x Guild Guard 8SS
- The Scribe 2 SS
This only comes to 38SS, so straight away I can see I’m
going to be using every model and a lot of Upgrades in month 1 but that’s okay,
it will help me identify strengths and weaknesses for this crew in the various
Strategies and Schemes available in Malifaux. The first Upgrade obviously has
to be Surprisingly Loyal, as I need this in order to include the Doppelganger.
Before I go any further, I need to have a read through the Lucius card to see
what abilities and synergies are going on.
My new Master has a reasonable stat line, with decent Df(6)
and Wp(7). He doesn’t have that many Wd(10) and is also a bit slow (Wk4 and
Cg6) and of average Ht(2) but stat lines are only part of the story. Looking at
the abilities on the front of the card, it becomes apparent that Lucius would
probably be most efficient as a support Master for his crew, rather than
fighting on the front lines.
Devil’s Deal
allows him to spend a Soulstone and then do 3 damage to a friendly model within
6” to get the Soulstone back. Seems quite a bad return on first scan but very
in keeping with the background and I’m already thinking of situations where I
would do this.
Highest Authority
means Lucius can discard a card to give someone attacking him a negative flip.
This could potentially be very useful against some beatstick Minions and
Enforcers and even against Masters and Henchmen in certain circumstances.
Elite Training
gives friendly Minion models within 3” a positive flip to Ml attacks. Always useful
and one reason to maybe keep him near the front lines after all.
Commanding Presence
is interesting. If Lucius walks, he can make a friendly Minion within 18” and
Line of Sight take a TN13 Horror Duel. If they pass they can take a (1) Action.
At first glance, this doesn’t look very helpful (although, again it seems to
fit the background well). I have played Colette though and know all too well
what handing out actions to other models can do for you.
On to the back of the card…
Lucius only has one Attack Action, his Sword Cane. It’s an okay attack at Ml6 with a 2/3/4 damage track.
It only has one trigger (on a double Ram, he has one built in) and this gives
an enemy model damaged by the attack double negative flips against Minion and
Mimic models until the end of the turn. This could be incredibly useful in
stopping my opponent’s key models from hitting mine.
Lucius has 3 Tactical Actions:
What Lackey’s Are For
is a Ca Action. It allows Lucius to place a Scheme Marker inn base contact,
then place himself in base contact with a friendly model within 10” and then
place that model in base contact with the Scheme Marker. It needs a 5 of Masks
or better to cast and can only be taken once per turn but this is a great
movement trick and can get an important or slow but hitty model further
forwards.
Guild Intelligence
is another Ca Action. It allows friendly Minion models within 6” to take
Interact Actions while engaged. It needs a 7 of any suit to cast and I think
it’s a great ability to have on your models in Malifaux. I’m certain I’ll be
using this spell at some point.
Last is Issue Command, also a Ca Action. This targets a
friendly (non-Austringer) Minion model within 8” that has not already been
targeted by this spell this turn, and gets them to make a (1) Action. If
targeting a Guardsman or Mimic, the range is increased to 14”. It needs a 7 of
any suit to cast and has several triggers: a Ram gives the target Focussed +1
prior to taking the action, a Tome allows the target to take a (1) Interact
Action (note they still get the action from the spell as well) and a double
Mask (Lucius has 1 built in) gives the target Defensive +1 until the start of
their next activation. Another really useful spell.
I’m already excited to try Lucius out on the table! Before I
do though, I need to select the rest of the Upgrades for the crew.
I’ve already said that I need to take Surprisingly Loyal, so I can have the Doppelganger. It also has
another ability which is a Defensive Trigger. On a Ram and a Mask, Lucius can
pass a successful attack against him on to a friendly Guardsman or Mimic model
within 3”. A couple of things here, firstly it requires 2 suits and Lucius has
neither built in, so he will need to spend a Soulstone for one of them.
Secondly, the model it passes on to becomes the target. This is very important,
as a number of effects still occur on the target model with other damage
reduction/prevention methods in the game. I have a few ideas where this will be
very handy but will report on it once I’ve used it in a game.
The next Upgrade I’ve chosen is Legalese. This has two abilities, first at the end of the game it
allows Lucius to change all enemy Scheme Markers within 4” of him to friendly
ones and secondly, it allows Lucius to count a s friendly to the enemy crew for
any Aura and Pulse effects that he gets caught up in. I think both of these
will come in extremely handy in certain circumstances.
The last Upgrade I’ve chosen for Lucius is Secret Assets. This gives him a (0)
Action (he has none on his card) and it is an Attack; Hidden Sniper, which has
a range of 12” and a 2/3/4 damage track. If the target is within 3” and Line of
Sight of a Scheme Marker, it gets a positive flip and ignores Line of Sight and
Cover. That’s awesome! It does need a minimum requirement of a 6 of Rams but
has two Triggers. A Ram (which we know we are going to have, as it’s required)
for Critical Strike and a Mask (which again means we need to stone for a suit)
which, after damaging, allows you to discard a Scheme Marker within 3” and Line
of Sight of the target and place a friendly Scheme Marker within 3” and Line of
Sight of the target.
It looks to me as though Lucius is going to be messing about
with Scheme Markers a fair bit, so I expect him to probably perform better when
Scheme Marker based Schemes are available in the Scheme Pool.
Adding the stones for the Upgrades to my crew cost, I’m
still only at 42, so I’ve just picked a few Upgrades for Captain Dashiel and
the Doppelganger without a great deal of thought. Lucius is the key part of
this project for me, so everything is experimental at the moment. My first 50SS
Lucius Crew is therefore:
- Lucius (Master 4SS cache)
- Legalese (1) Secret Assets (2) and Surprisingly Loyal (1)
- Captain Dashiel (Henchman) 9ss
- Watch My Back (2) and Plant Evidence (1)
- Doppelganger (Enforcer) 7SS
- Lead lined Coat (2)
- Guild Lawyer (Minion) 6SS
- Guild Lawyer (Minion) 6SS
- Guild Guard (Minion) 4SS
- Guild Guard (Minion) 4SS
- The Scribe (Peon, Totem) 2SS
Total 47SS leaving 3 to add to my built in Cache for an in
game Cache of 7SS (the maximum allowed).
In my first update, I’ll let you know how I’m progressing
with building/painting the crew and hopefully have a report on how my first
game goes.
- Martin (@MartinWodehouse)
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