Magical Training

In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading to Salute 2025, and as is tradition this is when I stop and reconsider what my hobby goals for the year are going to be.

At the start of the year I said to myself that I was going to commit to Bayou and finish up the crews I don’t yet own. But! Malifaux is a game with more variety between factions (and even crews within factions) than any other game I’ve played. On a long enough timeline, I suspect I’m going to wind up with everything sooner or later. That is, unfortunately, how my brain works.

Way back in August 2024, before I had started in the MWS at all, I noted that I thought it was weird there was so little Arcanist representation, because every time I hear people talk about Arcanists they talk about how solid they are.

That has remained true ever since, both in the MWS and according to the Bag of Tools data across the UK as well. People just aren’t playing Arcanists and I don’t get it! Witness has had a few nerfs, but I still think that they are both a very fun faction in terms of theme and have access to some powerful mechanics. They also don’t feel like they would have to reach out of keyword very often – which I appreciate. I don’t mind playing with cross-keyword models, but I do like crews that have a lot of internal synergies.

Plus, most importantly, the theme of almost all the crews appeals to me. Though as mentioned above… that’s true for every faction in Malifaux.

Running down the list, then:

Charles Hoffman: You Must Construct Additional Pylons. Chuck isn’t at the top of my list but Arcanists have a lot of very cool constructs, and the title version’s ability to bulldoze and zap people with a giant laser sounds like fun – easy access to positives on key attacks is potent and he can build his crews in a lot of ways.

In term of theme I love the Hoffman/Raymos stories, and the idea that he is holding true to the positive ideals of both Guild and Arcanists. He’s a genius who is also a naïve boy scout in a world set up to torture those. That’s great.

Colette du Bois: Stage magic that is actually real magic! The conceit here is a lot of fun, and Colette seems built for GG4 (which admittedly is probably coming to an end soon). The positional tricks look incredible, and the new(ish, I’m late to the party) showgirl actually being quite cool means you can play with those core box models without feeling bad about it which is always appreciated.

Colette’s role in the story is a lot of fun too; smuggling and moving people and goods around Malifaux under the nose of the Guild. There’s not many wargames where you can play a bunch of dancers who win without violence.

… then again she also gets the Coryphee Duet which is a lot of violence.

Damian Ravencroft: Witness has been hit by nerf after nerf since release. Which was, by my understanding, very needed. But now that the dust has settled I think mechanically this is still a very potent crew. The ability to build in suits for a crew that can bring a lot of forced discard and two execute models just seems nasty, and the title version being able to act as a node for his entire crew also seems strong.

Thematically, the Puzzlebox story is one of my favourites in the Malifaux lore. Bellaventine Thorpe is also a fantastic character. I appreciated Damian’s role in Ashes of Malifaux, too. Plus, he’s not as smart as he thinks he is – so we have that in common.

Kaeris: You have the ability to force people to always care about your pyre markers in one version, and in the other you have the ability to drop unresisted damage onto an enemy model at the end of each round whilst being a 7 movement flying model. There is a floor to how bad Kaeris can be, and I think that floor is pretty high.

I also adore this character in the story. Her background is fantastic, one of the best, and I’d highly recommend listening to the breachside broadcast episode on it. Someone needs to be the Arcanists’ muscle, and she fills that role well.

Marcus: My favourite Bayou master is Ophelia, so obviously I like the Arcanist Upgrade master too. The flexibility there, offering a lot more abilities than just different flavours of gun to a much wider range of models, seems great.

I will admit that the theme here is probably the one that appeals to me the least. Beasts are fun, but they aren’t as cool as robots, and there’s a lot of robots in this faction. Not one goose, either. Where’s the rep Marcus? Call me when you know what the best bird looks like.

Mei Feng: I already own a good chunk of this crew because I bought the foundry models that Mah can use. The title version of Mei in particular has a ton of cool stuff going on; chip damage from scrap markers, immunity to hazardous terrain, shielded and buffing for her crew. There’s a lot of possibilities there.

The Railroad is also such a cool piece of Malifaux lore. I love the parallel to the expansion West in our world, building a giant railway that extends into a whole other reality is extremely cool – and Mei plays into that extremely well. Her conflicted loyalties are also great, and I’d love to see her get her own back on Misaki one of these days.

Rasputina: I used to be a Mei main in Overwatch, so driving my opponent nuts by freezing them and building annoying walls of ice everywhere is absolutely a recipe for a fun time. Do I need to say anything else on this? I’ll also just note that whilst Damian’s title acting as a single node is sweet, Rasputina being able to put out as many nodes as she likes and ricochet shots from angles all over the place is awesome.

She’s also one of the most horrifying characters in Malifaux, which is a high bar to set! A cult of cannibal witches is just an awesome conceit to work with, and the fact that nobody has ever been happy to work with Rasputina in the lore makes me laugh. That she’s wrestling with a Tyrant and seems to be winning more than she’s losing is very cool. Plus, I have a lot of fun with snow bases, and she’s the justification I can use to give them to all my Arcanist models. Thanks, Raspy! One of the ones at the top of my list.

Sandeep Desai: Mechanically, this is the crew that appeals to me the least right now. It’s not that I don’t think it is good (I have seen how good it can be) but the amount of possibilities with each activation offered by the title version is nuts. If you get it wrong, the whole Rube Goldberg machine falls apart. If you get it right, you are rewarded by dropping a thousand markers all over the table. It’s good. It just isn’t for me.

Which is a shame because in the lore, Sandeep plays into a lot of themes I love. The struggle between being a calm and wise guru for his students, and the deep rage he feels at the Guild (read: British) makes him an extremely compelling character. Maybe one day they’ll release a version of him that won’t give me a migraine to contemplate.

Toni Ironsides: Possibly considered the hardest Malifaux model to kill? She’s certainly in contention. The original Toni can put out a lot of hurt, and the title version has shades of Ophelia2 to her, where you can spend Adrenaline tokens for effects on your keyword models. I really like the keyword mechanic too; grit and unionized synergise together to make a very resilient crew from an unorthodox direction.

Most importantly, though, she’s my favourite character in the lore. Toni having to figure out how to be a politician when she’s always been a simple bruiser is fantastic; choosing to sell out Ramos to save the Union was a delightful twist that makes complete sense for her character. And the whole crew pivots around that point: They are stronger united and together. A bunch of miners and workers banding together to take on the bizarre horrors of Malifaux is just a beautiful mental image.

So there we go. Arcanists. And I didn’t even talk about some of their powerful generic mechanics. Arcanist upgrades rock, they’ve got some incredible versatile picks, there’s just a lot to love I think!

I look forward to seeing how my expectations match up to the reality of the crews on the table.