Having seen a lot of buzz generated by the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers, or #ToMB for the etymologically disinclined, I thought I'd give this a go.
First, a disclaimer. I know virtually nothing about Malifaux. I'm studying, but as of this moment have played six games and won none of them. If you want pearls of tactical wisdom this is definitely not the place! I would instead recommend joelfaux.blogspot.co.uk for such endeavours, written by my good friend Joel Henry who also happens to be one of the best Malifaux players on the planet right now.
I also don't know the rules for this ToMB thing, and to be honest probably wouldn't keep to them if I did! When I decided to invest in Malifaux I went for it and bollocks to budgets and model limits. This blog is more for entertainment value, and to hopefully share the experiences of a rookie trying a new system.
A word about my background. I'm coming into Malifaux from nearly 20 years of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, starting out as a primary school boy throwing sustained fire dice at the cat and turning into a winner of 14 40K tournaments with my still-beloved if Codex neutered Ork Speed Freeks. Nowadays I'm a regular on the Fantasy tournament scene with my Ogres, where I'm known for an unhealthy love of Stonehorns, quick fire insults and an uncanny ability to blow up cannons or Slaughtermasters right when they need to do something useful. Dice are not friends of my big lads.
I've dabbled in the cardboard crack habit that is Magic: the Gathering but got out before bankruptcy, and tried Warmachine but really couldn't get along with it. The false corporate 'ethics' of the manufacturers and a number of players really didn't sit right, and ultimately I just didn't find the game itself all that enjoyable.
Malifaux though always drew me to it. Whether it was the background, the genuinely different rules mechanisms, or just the undead hookers and monstrous teddy bears I'm not entirely sure. The fact remains that Malifaux is in no way a ripoff of another game. It is entirely its own beast.
The best illustration is how you win your games. In the Warhammers, Fantasy in particular, the aim of the game is to dismantle your opponent's army like a fat lad takes apart a chip shop. You spend two and a half hours calculating which bits to slice apart and how many victory points you get for doing so. Warmachine is all about nailing that caster kill, and Magic likewise is a slugfest based around doing nasty things to an anthropomorphic personification of your opposite number. A simplification I know, but those are still the fundamental win mechanics. Take all your enemy's toys off, or make him eat his own Plains cards in frustration, and you win.
In Malifaux you can lose all your models and still win. Body count can be completely irrelevant, and don't let the fact that it's a skirmish game fool you. There is normally a pretty big dead pile at the end. But the aim of the game is to complete your schemes and strategies, and that's what you have to focus on. If your entire crew gets gunned down (and so far mine are getting extremely used to this experience) it may not matter if you've been able to hold your strategic objectives or gesture over the shoulders of enough enemies and exclaim "oh look, an eagle!".
Anyway. I'm gonna leave it here for now. Hopefully this has given you an idea of what this blog will be about. There'll be some pictures of toys in the next few days and some game reports, and maybe, more by luck than judgment, there'll be some lessons to take away from all this...
Cheers
Ben
- From the PanzerPad
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