Thursday 11 December 2014

Fire and Filth - A Malifaux game



I played a game of Malifaux with my friend Ben this week. We've both been playing it for a while now - we started in back during 1.5 and kept playing through the change to M2E (second edition is #MyFaux as far as I'm concerned) but had been frustrated that they'd not released the rules for all our models yet. See when they redid the game they split it into two waves for playtesting and a lot of masters we both played ended up in the second wave...

Since we got hold of the Wave 2 rules we've been slowly trying the reworked master we knew and loved - the last time we played I'd used Dreamer (I still love Dreamer thankfully!) but this time I plumped for Zoraida the Swamp Hag (a wave 1 master) while Ben tried out Kaeris the Burning Angel.

Do not Google Burning Angel.
It's NSFW.

Strategy and Deployment

We played the Turf War strategy (score a point at the end of each turn after the first where you have two or more non-peon models within 6" of the centre point - maximum of 4 points) using corner deployment.
I couldn't find a funny picture for Turf War sadly
Schemes

A player picks two schemes at the start of the game and chooses whether to reveal them (some are easier to score the maximum three points were scheme if revealed).

* Line in the Sand (get 5 scheme markers along the centreline by the end of the game for 3 points) 
* Breakthrough (score a point per scheme marker within 6" of your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game)
* Protect Territory (score a point per scheme marker more than 6" from your deployment zone at the end of the game that also has a friendly model with 3")
* Vendetta (score points for one of your models killing a nominated enemy)
* Cursed Object (an odd scheme that also you to give your opponent a condition that you can end for points, if they don't take an action to remove it first)

"That's another point to me..."
We both took Cursed Object while I took breakthrough and Ben took Protect Territory. 
The game ended 10-9 to him but I don't think I could have scored the extra point for Turf War as I ran out of non-Peon models!

I took a few photos during the game that show some interesting points. I'd like to say they were key or pivotal moments but they are mostly when Ben was outside having a smoke. Taking better in game photos using my mobile is one of my challenges for the future. Tips welcome...

Kaeris looking into the square, wondering if Willie has noticed the scilarid sneaking up behind him...

Zoraida watching the Bad Juju getting ready to wreck some faces

An awful shot of the contested centre point at the end of the game

Two Union miners hanging around in the back field
The game was a lot of fun and a couple of firsts for us both. It was Ben's first time playing Kaeris this edition and it was the first time I'd played Zoraida has Neverborn rather than Gremlin. I'm very pleased with the way I managed to use the Voodoo doll - Zoraida summoning a doll then linking it to one of Ben's models allowed me to kill Willie, a Gunsmith and Union Miner over three turns making it hard for him to contest the centre point and making him for for his Protect Territory and Cursed Object points. Kaeris herself seems to be a little more about buffing her crew and throwing around scheme markers than she was in 1.5 (where she was a DPS master through and through).

It's a bit more complex than this.

After the game we were talking a little bit about Malifaux and how we'd both come to realise we were pretty good at scoring points now (Ben got the full 10, I only dropped 1) but that neither of us have quite mastered points denial yet. A bit part of this is working out which of the five schemes your opponent has picked, it's not always obvious until it's too late. Another factor is building your crew to take into account the strategies available - taking a henchmen that is harder to kill when Assassinate in the pool seems an obvious example but I'm sure there are lots more. This is something that I think we are going to learn a lot about over the coming months but it feels like we've hit another level of play.

Once again I was reminded why I prefer objective based games over the GW "kill all the dudes" model.

Somebodies dudes are going to get fucked up.

I've also been painting some Bolt Action Soviets with pretty awesome snow effect bases so I think my next post will be about those. I'll probably put a mini tutorial in there too in case anyone is interested. Feel free to weigh in on the objectives vs. slaughter or Malifaux Scheme tactics in the comments!

2 comments:

  1. SOunds like a fun game. I do prefer it when they are close. How are you getting on learning Vassal - If you skype me sometime I can show you how.

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  2. It was very tense - the last turn in particular!

    I've yet to do anything with Vassal, it's something I'm going to sort out in January once Christina is working away. But we shall Vassal, I promise!

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