Hello everyone Frankie here to talk s little bit about Malifaux second edition. I know Im the worlds greatest 40k player but even the best needs to expand their horizons and try out new games. So, I’ve decided to become the second best Malifaux player in the world. At least until I master the game. Anyway, enough about me lets talk about the game. But on a side note who wouldn’t want the whole article to be about me, I mean really?
So today my buddy, Justin Gibs came down to the store to learned me some Malifaux. And wow, was it a fun game! Justin played the Bayou Gremlins and I played the Resurrectionists starter. We were originally going to play 50 points which is a standard game but he unfortunately only brought one army. I’m glad we only played starter sets though since I was just learning and there is a lot of information to go over. A cool mechanic to talk about with Malifaux is that in normal games you do not pick you army until you know what Master (HQ model) your opponent is playing. That is just crazy and makes it very rare to get a bad matchup. Especially if you know what most of the other Masters do.
Once you have your army picked, you pick missions. We didn’t do this because our forces were so small. But I believe some of the missions are random and some you pick. In total you have three at the beginning of the game I believe. And 2 of them you can keep secret which is a fun little mechanic. The missions I am sure bring a lot more balance to the game and bring a lot more strategy into the game as well. It seems like this system would really reward the skilled player. But we just played annihilation since I was still learning the rules. Kill em all!
So, you deploy your forces the same as in most games: I deploy my whole army and then you do the same. Once you deploy you draw your six cards. Then each player flips the top card of his deck to see who is going to be going first, high card wins. The cards are what you use instead of dice and they really make you think because their are only 4 of each card in the deck. So with some quick thinking you can figure out the odds of pulling the card you need (card counting). Not that I know how to card count but if you did you would be able to figure out the odds, haha. I do like the cards though because with them you can only roll that 1 four times or in this case draw that 1. It makes for a very fair spread. After each turn you also shuffle all the cards back together into the deck, besides your hand. This keeps you from getting stuck with a bunch of bad/ or good cards in the end which feels more balanced. Once you re-shuffle you can discard any number of cards from your hand and draw until your hand is 6 cards.
Now, once the game has begun your models each get two action points. These are very similar to Warmachine where you can charge and use both actions to attack, you can shoot 2 times, you can walk 2 times or you can even cast two spells. I’m sure I am missing tons of things you can do with your actions but those are the ones I used in my first game. Your master also has 3 actions which is really fun because they can move, shoot and then move again. This is a really great combo and allows you to do fun things with the extra action point. In order to hit with your attacks/ spells you flip a card off the top of the deck and add the skill of whatever you are doing to that card. Your opponent does the same but with his defense/ or skill needed to defend. If you win the flip you get to flip for damage which is either weak, moderate, or severe. Now, depending on how much you won by on the first flip you have something called a minus. With the minus you have to flip two cards and choose the lowest damage. A double minus for a tie is you flip 3 cards and choose the weakest from those, and there is a straight flip which is just flip one and that is the damage you deal. Pretty fun and just random enough to keep you excited.
Probably the coolest mechanic from this game is the cheating aspect. The cheating aspect comes into play on the flips. Once both players have flipped there cards, the person that lost the flip can cheat in order to actually win the flip. Only downside is that your opponents get to do the same after you cheat. This allows you to rarely get screwed by bad cards and get those combos off that you need. And on a side note; who doesn’t like some legal cheating every once and a while, haha! I think the cheating mechanic is the most fun game mechanic because it’s like a mini game knowing when to throw your large cards or if your opponent is going to be able to beat the 8 in your hand.
The last balancing tool that Malifaux has are the soul stones. These can be used for all sorts of things such as re-flipping the initiative card, and Changing the suit of a card for triggers. Triggers are special abilities that happen when a certain combo of suits pop-up on the flip. Your caster comes with a certain amount of soul stones and you also get some for points you don’t spend. It’s a fun resource management mechanic.
Overall I had a blast playing Malifaux today and cannot wait to get my army built. I really enjoyed the mechanics and had a blast seeing all the different combos each army had. I am still a beginner but thought I picked it up pretty quick. The rules themselves are quite simple. I think the hardest part is remembering what each model does because each one is so unique and has so many different rules. I for sure recommend Malifaux and cannot wait to play another game in the near future. I give Malifaux Two Thumbs Up.
Let me know what you all think of Malifaux or why you havent tried it out. Thank you for reading guys and the battle report will be up soon.