As I embarked upon my Odysseyan quest
to sample the delights of the various game systems on offer following the Great
Schism of 2015 my first port of call in the storm of uncertainty was the
peculiarly unique world of Wyrd’s Malifaux.
This is a game that I had always
been intrigued by, but had little knowledge of. The sum of my knowledge, in a
general sense, was an episode the fantastic podcast World’s End Radio did years
ago discussing the background and fundamentals of the game. More locally I knew
it as the game that current Warhammer ETC Captain #FatCraig used to play, apparently
inevitably getting into and placing in the Masters, before quitting, I believe,
as people do across all games, at an edition change. Even more recently, in the
past 18 months or so, occasional guest author on this blog, the Panzer himself,
had finally had enough of dice hating him and, leading to him throwing himself
into the game full bore.
I was loosely aware of some of
the models (some of which I thought was great, some of which do nothing for me)
of course, and the general pseudo steampunk Western vibe. I also had a vague
recollection that the background and imagery was supposed to be rather… ‘racy’
You’ll agree then, limited
knowledge going in.
Which is fun really.
The below are some short thoughts
following my initial exposure to this game:
So, first up, I browsed around
online to see what was, as they say, what. Some cool resources on there – the
PullMyFinger website has a *lot* of information, which is handy, because Wyrd’s
website really doesn’t. On a related note I noticed for the first time (and I
never thought I would say this) that Games Workshop’s website is really very good,
allowing for easy browsing of the various models and armies on offer. With
Wyrd… well, not so much. I literally have no idea what is out at all, what is
only out in the old metal models, and what has been released in plastic, and
end up having to resort to checking out Element Games to see what they have on
sale.
[I am sure that maybe the information is all out there on Wyrd’s
website… but I haven’t found it – not that I tried too hard, but then I shouldn’t
have to, surely?]
One other thing I learnt from the
internet is that if you go down this particular rabbit hole you have to change
out the end of as many words as possible to ‘-faux’ to be taken seriously. A bizarre affectation to be sure, but
is seems a small price to pay…
So, enough foreplay and into the
meat of things.
The local club, South London
Legion (the guys who have put on the very well received London’s Burning and
London’s Calling events) is a good group of guys who play pretty much
everything out there, including a small core of Malifaux addicts.
Here I managed to organise some
intro games, playing three short games with a growing number of models to get a
sense for the feel of the mechanics.
I liked it.
My wallet was not happy about it,
but hey, that’s half the fun.
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| My main girl Perdita has been doing a good job of shooting things in the head so far |
Cue weeks of trying to get a
sense of what was out in plastic (I have no interest in metal models). Going in
to a new game, I could get into things purely from a model perspective. Here I
noticed the paucity of centralised information relating to the actual models
around.
I did eventually find out
something quite useful though. I don’t actually like most of the models out
there. Other than a lot of the guild models and some of the Ten Thunders stuff,
the more ‘fantastical’ stuff really doesn’t appeal to me. This meant I could
more easily limit the number of models I bought, and encourage me to paint things.
Win win (well perhaps less so on the last bit)!
Cue some more reading up (and
listening to podcasts – there are a *lot* of them out there!) as I decided on
what to get to get the ball rolling. My first purchase consisted of:
- Lady Justice crew box
- Perdita Ortega crew box
- Sonia Criid crew box
- Guild Austringers box
- The Malifaux 2E book
- Deck of Fate Cards
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| Bringing law, and traffic cones, to the dark streets of Malifaux |
Not long after I added:
- Abuela Ortega
- Lone Marshall
- Crossroads Expansion book
- Scheme & Strategy Cards
The thinking was simple enough… get
enough to get my teeth into things and to give me some flexibility
The next day (seriously, these
deliveries are fast!).
Down the rabbit hole we go!
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| Nino the Ninja. Or something |
So… the book is an interesting
beast.
The rules are all pretty clearly
laid out and make sense. All good.
The background (really the key to
my enjoyment of things) is cool… but very short. After the succinct descriptions
of the overall world, and the short summary of each faction in the game I
noticed an interesting quirk of this game – the way they convey the background.
This is, of course, coming from
historical bias. I am used to the stage being set in a pseudo encyclopaedic
style (even if sometimes knowingly coloured by narrative bias). Even without
realising it, it turns out I really like it, and am not a fan of this
alternative way of doing things.
I get it, of course. Conveying
the background in story form is a fantastic way for people to swiftly become
immersed into the world. Furthermore, not all companies have the infrastructure
to have an in-house publishing division providing this side of things. It comes
down to, personally, a matter of weighting, and my position not being overly helped
by my not being that interested in the subject of the stories published in the
main book or the follow up book Crossroads (I haven't bought the third book yet).
Overall through, I enjoy the
sense of a wider, complete, world that this game inhabits. I like the fluff of
my chosen faction, the Guild – coming across as a very grimdark mixture of the
law in a lawless land, riddled throughout with corruption and competing
interests – it feels somehow ‘real’. As for the perceived ‘raciness’, I am not
sure if it has been toned down since the first edition, but it’s not something
that really comes across in the fluff. Some (or perhaps quite a few) of the
models are overly sexualised but, despite understanding why some people do not
like that, I personally have no issue with it.
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| Blind lady with a big sword. My favorite model in the game (pity I can't paint worth a damn) |
One thing became apparent when it
came to assembling models… the guys over at Wyrd are sadistic. There is no
acceptable reason for the models being *this* fiddly to assemble! It is
madness. Small models with heads that are made of 3 parts just shouldn’t be a
thing…
Malifaux is an interesting beast.
There is a large and passionate
community out there for this game, as can be seen by the large number of
podcasts on offer. Interestingly, however, the unique nature of the game makes
it a tough subject to podcast about in a coherent way… not saying the podcasts
aren’t fun or good (and am sure they get even more so the more you know about
the game), but the options are so varied, and people seem agree with each other
so rarely, that one can easily feel like a oarless dingy in the wilds of the
Southern Ocean.
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| Cowboys with big birds are a thing, right? |
All this makes entering this
particular shark tank very confusing. There is no concrete source of
information you can get to build on as a foundation, given the way in which the
opposition, the strategies, the schemes, the deployment, the terrain and your
available collection will all drastically affect the way you go about list
construction, never mind further details of how to approach an actual game when
you factor in the specifics of what your opponent has taken.
Add to this the main issue I have
noticed with going into a new game and it gets confusing.
This issue I raise is what I
shall, very imaginatively, call the “Numbers on a Page Conundrum”. Some people
love this, the challenge of making the maths work to the best of our ability.
Hearthstone seems to be the ultimate version of this. I, however, have less
than any interest in this state of affairs. I like being restricted by other
factors such as fluff etc.
Add to this the lack of some
quartermaster-type app to easily design lists (whilst offline) and things were
just getting hard.
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| Carrying your own coffin to battle saves a lot of time (especially if your head is on fire) |
Then I decided to make things
happen and just arrange some games. I ground my teeth, assembled some models
and trusted that the madness would take care of itself.
I’ll go into details at a later
date, but I shall summarise my initial thoughts as follows:
This is a brilliant game.
All my issues with it fade away
when put against the fun of playing this game.
- The tables look good
- The pre-game list building is a great additional
challenge
- The thought process of selecting schemes to
complement (or make up for) strategies is brilliant
- The multiple ways of scoring points adds
flexibility
- The card management mechanic allows various
approaches
- The sheer diversity in how various models and
crews operate explains the endless ramblings that create the online fan
presence for this game
- The fact a crew easily fits into my work bag
On paper a lot of the above annoy
(or perhaps just confuse) me, but when it comes to the table, it’s fun. It helps,
of course, having literally no idea what my opponent can do, so I get to just
worry about myself!
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| Insert comment on typical imperialistic oppression of native races here |
Right now I can honestly say that
if I could play this game two or three times a week I would take it up and feel
like I wanted more – something I haven’t been able to say about a game in
years.
My enjoyment is enhanced by the
fact I know I will not fall into the endless pit this game could easily become.
I do not like most of the models in the range, so won’t be buying them. I have
always also enjoyed imposing restrictions on myself in all games I play, so the
challenge of trying to complete the various mad strategies against the legion
of even madder possible opponents utilising a small pool of models fits seamlessly
into that.
It also has had me doing some
terrible painting, which twitter tells me is a good thing.
So there is that.
I shall report back on games and
further thoughts in future posts.
But for now, I have to say, this
crazy world of cards, gothic horror clichés, murky options and, of course, fauxs is very impressive.
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| Have hat, will travel |
Until next time
Raf
