A beginner's tale - my first try at a Malifaux game

[Forgotmytea]

Good morning,

Having collected the models for a while now I managed to get in my first game of Malifaux last night - a very simple affair with a couple of basic models per side, as unfortunately there's no-one I know of around here who plays Malifaux, so I'm trying to learn it to entice others in. I've written up a report with some badly/quickly snapped photos, and would really appreciate your help. I've tried to outline the bits that arose in the game that caused confusion

Anyway, it's all here: http://forgotmytea.blogspot.co.uk/20...-malifaux.html I can copy it into a post or two if that's easier?

Hopefully this will be the first of many to come, as I really do like the models and background of Malifaux - just need to get the rules down and get some others playing! I'll definitely have to get some actual pictures of the two gangs I have painted so far up at some point as well.

Many thanks for any comments, they're all greatly appreciated.

Ben

[LordZombie]

Good day! Welcome to the world of Malifaux. I read your battle report and figured I would help you out on a few points.
1. When you cast the spell with Sybelle, you use Ca not Wp.
2. You can (and will later on) cheat down a flip, but you would not want to do this against an opponent.
3. In the Duel with Samuel, you just count the card flips before flipping. In that case, you would have flipped one card. That would be -1 for winning at 0 and +1 for the charge.
4. Charges cost 2 ap so you would get the charge attack, but no other attacks.
5. The hard to wound is another ablility that affects the flips for damage. In your case, Samuel would have just flipped one card.
Overall a good report, I liked it. I am a fellow Resurrectionist, so welcome to the faction!

[Forgotmytea]

Hi LordZombie, thank you very much for your reply That's great thanks, really helped to clear up the problems I had, especially in a duel. I'm hoping to get another game in soon with Masters this time, maybe even a Strategy as well. Thank you for the welcome!

Ben

[SpiralngCadavr]

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you cheated fate on a negative flip (samael in turn 3): you can't cheat on negative flips (regardless of where they are, and not positive or negative). This is why focus/channel, high differences in duels, and charges are valuable: once you're to a neutral number of cards (no "-"s), you can cheat damage.

Generally, though, I think you were way closer to playing correctly than when I first tried!

[Dustcrusher]

2. You can (and will later on) cheat down a flip, but you would not want to do this against an opponent.

To give you an example of why cheating down sometimes makes sense, let's look at Sybelle and Samael from your game.

Let's say Sybelle attacks Samael with her Riding Crop. Samael is at 4 Wd. His Df is 4, and he flips a 7 for a total of 11. Sybelle is Cb 5 and let's say you flip a 9 for a total of 14. We're going to assume Samael can't cheat up for this example due to a bad draw this turn.

Normally a difference of 3 means on the Damage flip. If Samael has passed and you have a 7 in your hand, you can cheat with it, taking your total down to 12. Since Sybelle has one and the 7 provides a second, you will still hit and can use the Rot trigger, which gives you a on the Damage flip. Since that cancels the from only winning by 2, you get a straight flip which is more likely to hit Severe for 4 Damage, and it can be cheated if Sam really needs to be taken out.

Alternately, you could choose the Rough Trade trigger, which would force Samael to skip his activation until he can win a Wp 13 static duel. This could prevent him from activating this turn and possibly even the next. Sam's Wp is 5 so he'd need an 8 or better- at worst he wastes a decent card on shaking off Rough Trade.

Don't sweat it too much for now- before you know it you'll start seeing the opportunities (just try to hide your sinister grin when a particularly juicy one comes up ). They are often situational, but as you play you'll learn to maximize your trigger opportunities when they show up.

Remember two things above all else:

1. As the defender, you need to beat an attacker's total by one to successfully defend or resist.
2. Resist the urge to cheat whenever possible. Save your cards for the crucial stuff. In your test game 6 cards is plenty, but in the standard tournament sized game (35 stones) or even a 25 stone game 6 cards will run out quickly if you are reckless with them.

[Forgotmytea]

Thank you very much for both your posts, that's made the whole Cheating Fate thing a lot clearer in my mind! I think I did accidentally cheat fate when I shouldn't have been able to after a negative flip - will definitely watch out for that in the future There's just one thing I'm still not sure on with the triggers, and that's the significance of both the colour of the symbol (light grey vs solid black), and the number of them - to continue your above example, Rot only has one , whereas Rough Trade has (one in light grey followed by one in black). I seem to remember reading about that in the rules manual, but I've just looked through at the triggers again now and it seems to be evading me!

Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, and thank you again for all the responses

Ben

[DeusInnomen]

There's just one thing I'm still not sure on with the triggers, and that's the significance of both the colour of the symbol (light grey vs solid black), and the number of them - to continue your above example, Rot only has one , whereas Rough Trade has (one in light grey followed by one in black). I seem to remember reading about that in the rules manual, but I've just looked through at the triggers again now and it seems to be evading me!

We were all new once.

The light grey means that you have that suit in the casting stat already. Let me use an example, since I have neither the models in my possession nor the books in front of me. Let's say your Cb stat is "6 ". Since Rough Trade requires , you will need to have your flipped card be the suit (either by actually flipping one or cheating from your hand or via Use Soulstone to add another card).

The reason for the light grey suit is that there could be an effect caused by your foe which would take away the suit from your casting stat. That means you'd need to make up for that via your flips and cheats, since it's not automatically there for the Duel. This is the exception, not the norm. Also, it means that for effects like Critical Strike which frequently already have the suit in the weapon's stat, if you flip a card that also has that suit, you will have two of that suit and therefore your Critical Strike gives you +2 Dg.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions that come to mind, that's what we're all here for!

[Forgotmytea]

We were all new once.

The light grey means that you have that suit in the casting stat already. Let me use an example, since I have neither the models in my possession nor the books in front of me. Let's say your Cb stat is "6 ". Since Rough Trade requires , you will need to have your flipped card be the suit (either by actually flipping one or cheating from your hand or via Use Soulstone to add another card).

The reason for the light grey suit is that there could be an effect caused by your foe which would take away the suit from your casting stat. That means you'd need to make up for that via your flips and cheats, since it's not automatically there for the Duel. This is the exception, not the norm. Also, it means that for effects like Critical Strike which frequently already have the suit in the weapon's stat, if you flip a card that also has that suit, you will have two of that suit and therefore your Critical Strike gives you +2 Dg.

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions that come to mind, that's what we're all here for!

Aah, I see. Thank you

Ben

[Vmag]

I like this a lot. It's like being given a demo game flip-by-flip without actually having a demo game. When I first started Malifaux I hadn't played a demo game and I was the one in our group to first read through the rules and try to explain and demo it to the others. I did a lot of searching for video reports and how-to-play's but didn't find much of use so I turned to the Forums for a lot of my questions (i.e. lurked). So, given my beginnings, what you've written here is exactly what players in my situation often look for. Granted, there are errors here and there and that's expected. But if you were to clean those up in future reports I think you'd have a pretty good intro or teaching tool. There are a couple of things in your write-up that really made me think this, for example the 2nd paragraph of Turn 2 where you are writing out your thought process of wanting to charge but then realizing it is a 2AP action so you can't because you've already spent 1AP, THAT'S exactly the kind of thing that new players all go through and it is nice to see that written out in this kind of 'demo' write-up. Again, kudos.

[Forgotmytea]

I like this a lot. It's like being given a demo game flip-by-flip without actually having a demo game. When I first started Malifaux I hadn't played a demo game and I was the one in our group to first read through the rules and try to explain and demo it to the others. I did a lot of searching for video reports and how-to-play's but didn't find much of use so I turned to the Forums for a lot of my questions (i.e. lurked). So, given my beginnings, what you've written here is exactly what players in my situation often look for. Granted, there are errors here and there and that's expected. But if you were to clean those up in future reports I think you'd have a pretty good intro or teaching tool. There are a couple of things in your write-up that really made me think this, for example the 2nd paragraph of Turn 2 where you are writing out your thought process of wanting to charge but then realizing it is a 2AP action so you can't because you've already spent 1AP, THAT'S exactly the kind of thing that new players all go through and it is nice to see that written out in this kind of 'demo' write-up. Again, kudos.

Thank you very much I'm definitely looking forward to doing another report, and while I'd like to write them in a narrative style I'll certainly do another one like this (though, hopefully, with fewer mistakes ). I have to admit, before I did this I did spend quite a while as you did, looking for some kind of demo game online with little success.

Ben