Goose of the Living Dead

 

Alongside Marvel Crisis Protocol, I've spent a lot of this year so far playing Malifaux 4th edition. I am currently in three different online tournaments for it. This is a great way to learn a new game and you should try it. You certainly won't regret signing up to three games per week with a fourth of Marvel Crisis Protocol. That is a sane and managable level of gaming, probably.

I've already talked a little about Malifaux in general terms in other posts but I'd like to reiterate up top that 4th edition has really reinvigorated my love for the game. It plays faster, the way schemes have been reworked is great, and terrain now feels dynamic and interesting. Wyrd has struggled a lot to get product into the world since launch, which is a great shame, but what they have created is fantastic and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I own quite a lot of Malifaux crews and the hard part of starting any new edition is trying to decide where to put focus. I started learning 4th with Amalgam because I'd just gotten those models and that was a lot of fun. Since then I've been playing Resurrectionists and they have been a ton of fun too.

I'm not going to say that they are going to be the only thing I play all edition - I am fascinated by the Woe crew, I want to play more Amalgam and I love the look of the Bayou where I think my first love Ophelia has some really fascinating options - but the problem is that there's only so much time you get to play games and I feel like I'm only just starting to scratch the surface of the Resurrectionists.

For the moment at least I don't see myself moving on from Resurrectionists any time soon. The keywords that caught my initial interest were Forgotten, Redchapel and Transmortis. They have all proven as exciting as I hoped they would be, and I'll give a brief overview of my initial impression of them below. Next up on the list are Urami, which look like quite possibly the premier aggression faction in Ressers, Experimental, which looks like it has a pleasing amount of cool tricks to it, and Tormented - which seem like the denial and resource taxing playstyle I've had so much fun with in other games.

Even when I'm done with them I've heard some really cool stories of what is possible with Ancestor and Revenant. It's refreshing to look at a faction with eight distinct factions, each of which can be played in two different ways, and come away feeling excited for literally all of them. I apparently buck the internet trend on this, where Ressers are generally considered under the curve (and the competitive stats do back this up)... but I'm comfortable with that. They may not be a faction with a ton of raw power, but I think their mechanics come at the game from an angle that is interesting enough to keep my focus regardless.

It is probably worth noting here that where the faction does excel is in its versatile options. Specifically a trio that I am starting to think of as the 'Unholy Trinity'. Asura Roten, Grave Golem and the Carrion Emissary.

I'll probably do a more in-depth look at these at a later date, but in brief: Asura Roten creates zombies and can use them as fuel to create scheme markers, put out injured which softens up the opponent, and hit with high damage attacks. As she does this, they create remains markers, which can be used by both the Grave Golem and the Carrion Emissary for further offensive effects.

This is an expensive package if you take all three - 25 points is half your crew - but it is still important to know that you have the option to do so as, taken together, they pack a high punch, offer good scheming potential, and are difficult to put down. It is also vulnerable to crews that can turn your zombies against you by using them as beacons for area attacks or who can profit off remains markers themselves, like Amalgam which can turn them into soulstones or Big Hat which can use them for additional damage. 

In fact, if the opponent is expecting this and packs marker removal in high quantities it can go from feeling like an incredible investment to an anchor around your neck. But, if it fires on all cylinders, it is a powerful engine that can solve a lot of problems.

It also opens up a flexible playstyle with the faction. You can choose to build to your keyword strengths and maximise those synergies, or you can choose to build around these three models and potentially bring in even more support - Ezekiel provides healing and even more zombies, for instance, and The Forgotten Marshal can copy Asura's attack for an even more impressive damage 6 hit. There's an entire archetype that you can pivot into if your primary gameplan isn't going to work.

But what are those primary gameplans? Here's my initial impression with the three crews I've mentioned - note these are still very early days. I reserve the right to expand on all this later.

Forgotten: Molly Squidpiddge's merry band of misfits are my favourite crew to play so far. They are also the crew I have the fewest wins with, because Molly is an extremely technical master in both playstyles - each offers a huge amount of options and learning when and where to commit is the key to success.

Abandoned Tokens are the crew's unique gimmick - if you can isolate enemies and surround them with more of your models then theirs, they take 2 irreducible damage at the end of the turn and it doesn't drop off. 

This is a cute payoff, but it is also an enabler for other aspects of the crew. In Harbinger of Havoc, all unique Forgotten models gain Lost and Alone - a stat 7 bonus action attack against willpower which moves the opponent 3 inches. But if they are Abandoned, they move 6 inches and they can't cheat their defense, so if you save a high card you are likely to get a solid displacement. Molly herself also gets extra effects from Misfit Press if the target is Abandoned, and she can use enemy models who are Abandoned to double the range of her attack actions.

Chaotic Conductor on the other hand uses them more offensively. She has a lot of ways to generate attack actions, and her totem deals +1 damage to targets who are Abandoned. She combines this with both card cycling and additional movement, if there are remains markers close to your Forgotten models. So you can sculpt your hand to have a large numbers of severes and then translate those into some powerful high damage activations.

Redchapel: Seamus is a more straightforward master than Molly. He kills stuff. The Last Breath kills things all over the board, jumping around with his bonus action and using the Copycat Killer and aura concealment tokens to keep himself safe. Sebastian Baker remains more static, primarily gaining value from dragging opponents into himself which his crew are set up to do nicely, and benefiting from Batsche and Amelie's ability to give positive flips on attacks to Entranced opponents.

The Last Breath has a playstyle which feels very powerful; hard to pin down, very potent melee threat, and with keyword models that have good options for scheming and positioning. Sebastian Baker feels a little more cumbersome, but positive and negative flips are extremely potent in an edition of the game that has such limited card draw and the additional 2 damage per activation that one of your models can keep dragging an opponent into his engagement adds up very fast. I think he's worth keeping an eye on.

Transmortis: By far the most straightforward of the crews I have played and honestly that's fine. Admissions Executive shuts off your opponent's crew card within 6 inches, which can make facing certain crews feel much less daunting. He also hands out stunned to your opponent whilst boosting the rest of your crew with shielded, which on top of the armour most of them has makes them feel very resilient. I haven't found much use for summoning undergraduates yet, but he doesn't need that to feel worthwhile all on his own merits.

Stargazer is the title I have the least experience with but I've really liked what I have seen so far. His crew has a 'star chart' ability that lets him note down the card your opponent used in a duel - either one you won with any unique Transmortis model or one you lost with his totem - and use that to cheat yourself later. This can feel crazy impactful if you are able to snag some high cards, or even a couple of low cards that will reliably hit the target numbers and suits you want on your later actions.

One of those actions being the Study of Anatomy action which can either damage your opponent or heal your own model and, if you have a tome, place them within 6 inches. If his activation goes well, this version of Schtook can completely reshape the board state - it requires some setup, but if all the stars align I think the ability to so radically reposition 4 models and either hurt them or heal them gives him an incredible amount of power.

So that's where I currently am with my Malifaux play experience. It probably says a lot that I'm coming towards the end of a period where I have been playing three to four Malifaux games every week, and not only am I still hungry for more - I want to try out new things in the crews I've been playing the most and see what the rest of the faction has to offer. There are just so many decision points and tools available to you in each game of Malifaux that each game feels like a puzzle you're building with your opponent at the same time as you solve it.

And sometimes you just get eaten by a dinosaur and that's fun too.

HONK!