In the hope that last week’s diatribe, which can be loosely summarised under the heading ‘why I tried Malifaux’, hasn’t put off too many people, I thought the next logical topic would be crew selection. This seems particularly pertinent given that the #ToMB thing seems to have taken off (spend a given amount of money per month on selected toys) but there’s not been much I’ve seen to give newbies a bit of help on where to start.
Item 1, the first thing you should go out and buy, is undoubtedly the M2E rulebook. Don't argue. Buy it. If you can’t find it (and there’s a picture below to help steer you towards the right one, through any attempts by eBay sellers to flog you the wrong one) there’s a full colour rules manual that literally contains just the rules, but seeing as the fluff is such a big part of the game I would really recommend you get the rulebook. I haven’t yet but that’s only because I’ve blown all my money on models (don’t do what I do, do what I tell you).
The next bit of advice is ‘read the rulebook’. Don’t buy any models alongside it, just get the book, sit down in a comfy chair and read it. Get a feel for the rules, and go through the fluff and the background. I can say this now they’re outdated – look around on the internet for PDFs of the old 1.5 books and just read the stories.
If you do this without having sunk any money into toys, then you can look at the various crews and models with a completely impartial eye and then decide what you like. This always works best if it’s an organic process. You will naturally find yourself gravitating towards one particular faction or another, and there might be a couple of models you really like. If you’ve already bought something else completely then that won’t help. It might even put you off finishing what you’ve already bought.
At that point, having done your homework and immersed yourself in the glorious backstories, you’re good to take the plunge.
My advice to my fellow rookies is to buy what you like the look of. Do not, under any circumstances, let yourself worry about playstyles, how good the rules are or what the stats look like. Because at this point most of that stuff might as well be written in Mandarin. It won’t mean much to you at all and if anything you might end up buying something you don’t really like.
What works for your mate down the club in his tournament practice will not, and trust me on this, work for you at all in the short term and probably not even in the medium term. When you’re starting out it’s best to let something hook you in.
From here a good starting point is the crew box you like the look of. They’re a pretty cheap way into a game system and for this hobby that’s a rarity. Starting out in the Warhammers or Hormachine requires a substantial investment in the hundreds. A Malifaux crew box is around £27. Buy the one you want, build it, paint it, and play a few games with it. If you decide you don’t like it, by that point you’ll have identified a better fit and be well placed to pick a different crew, and all it’ll cost to start you down that new route is another £27 and you’ll have the other crew handy for your mates to borrow if you want to give them a game.
What I’m basically saying is, that first crew box can be completely disposable. It’s not a major investment and if it turns out you don’t like it, oh well. You’ve been able to get into the game with something you did want to use and it’s helped you learn the ropes enough to pick up something else.
And if you do like them, then another £30-40 will see you add enough reinforcements for a pool of models you can take to events and play bigger friendly games with. Either way, we’re talking about the cost of a takeaway rather than the cost of a car.
If it helps I’ll give you my own route in. It’s not entirely stupid, which is a rarity from me, and might actually work for normal people too.
I’d decided I wanted to play Malifaux off the back of rave reviews from friends whose opinions I trust. At that point I went and sat in front of my personal favourite webstore, the fantastic Element Games (they’re not paying me and I still recommend them over everyone else!), and looked at the pretty pictures of Malifaux models. The factions meant nothing to me. At this point I didn’t know a lot about the background either. And I came to the conclusion that I liked ‘the ginger bint with the huge sword, pneumatic chest and leather kecks with all those warped kids’ and ‘that old bloke with the spiders’.
It took a couple of goes but with a little help from Twitter it turned out I was referring to Lilith of the Neverborn and the Arcanist Ramos. My unwilling mentor Joel Henry had a longstanding offer to give me a demo game so I contacted him for advice on the two. Lilith turned out to be a good beginner’s master – whilst starting you can go for plan A, which is tw*t things with a big f*ck-off sword, and then later develop a plan B around the spells she can cast and the effect she can have on the scenery. Ramos required a certain level of finesse that was going to take a while to develop.
For once I took some advice, and when I turned up for the demo Joel was kind enough to lend me his own Lilith crew for the game whilst he used ‘the ginger bint with the huge sword, pneumatic chest and blindfold’, or Lady Justice as the manufacturers would prefer. By the end of the game I was on my phone placing the order for Lilith’s crew box and a couple of extras, having taken Joel’s tips on what worked well, whilst we were still packing away.
From there it’s all gone rather well. I’ve painted up Lilith’s crew and the initial extras, and I hate painting. There is nothing I dislike more intensely than having to sit there with a stick of wood with some hair on one end, doing something to my models which halves their value. But I actually found being able to do one figure at a time quite therapeutic, and the plastic models in particular are really good to paint. More toys have been added and I’ve played games and watched some more.
Last night I even won a game for the first time (Aron Britchford, your name is forever entered on the Roll of Shame…).
Ultimately it was the gentle introduction with a crew of my choosing that got me started.
I know some fantastically good Malifaux players. At the time of writing the aforementioned Mr Henry is top of the rankings with a perfect score. Two other clubmates, Graham Bursnell and Hutch, are in Masters contention, and I’m a loose acquaintance of the reigning Master #fatcraig Johnson (nobody will ever admit to being his friend. If you know him you’ll understand). I could have gotten the latest uber-competitive lists that smash face. And knowing me I’d have been blasted off the table in short order and sold the lot.
Instead I picked the toys I wanted, took the early losses on the chin as I wasn’t expecting to win, and am starting to work this game out. It could be the start of something beautiful.
Slightly creepy romantic references aside, that’s the salient point I hope that people take from this.
Cheers
Ben
- From the PanzerPad
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