Malifaux 2.0 review

Malifaux 2.0

I’ve gotten a few games of Malifaux 2.0 under my belt, mostly as Guild with a little Ressers, and I wanted to talk about it. First, for those of you who don’t know what Malifaux is, this is how I describe it to people. “It’s a tabletop miniatures game set in the late 1800’s it’s a Victorian, western, steam-punk, Lovecraftian, Wushu, fantasy, horror, and it’s amazing.”

Somewhere around the turn of the last century a portal opened to a parallel reality for the second time. Humanity went forth and conquered as we are want to do, and as usual the locals were less than enthusiastic about it. Several factions popped up and now everyone is vying for control through everything from open warfare, subterfuge, and propaganda. All of this to control the land and the flow of soulstones, a mystical rock found in Malifaux that when shipped back to Earthside allows magic to function.

You may note that I am glossing over whole sections of back-story often called fluff as it has little to nothing to do with the game itself. I’m doing this on purpose because the story here is amazing. Every new rulebook that is released I sit down as soon as I’m able and start reading the story right away. I’ve never been certain whether I get more excited about the story or the new characters.

I also would like to point out that I have not been calling it fluff. The reason for this is I feel the story in Malifaux is just as important to the game as the range of the Judge’s charge. Where some games use the story to reinforce the lay style and have been known to change it to suit their newest codex Wyrd uses it to show growth and a continuing evolution of the characters that exist in this world. To me, they feel like natural extensions of one another.

As for the game itself, I will try to avoid the comparisons between 1.5 and 2.0 because they’ve been done to death. I’m going to try and simply give my opinion of 2.0 however; I admit there will probably be some mention of 1.5.

2.0 is smooth, fluid, and simple. The rules are easy to learn with few things that trip up the reader, as a veteran player I was already well versed in the mechanics. I’m not certain how a new player will find the rules, but I feel they are presented in such a way that it’s easy to find your footing quickly. The card based mechanism used for playing the game is elegant and allows for players to adjust their luck through a “cheating” mechanism built into the game where every player draws a hand of cards they can use to replace the random card flips in most instances.

Your forces, called crews, are chosen from one of seven factions, each with a different feel. You have Guild, a western feeling set of lawmen, guards, and demon & witch hunters. Resurrectionists who are the resident necromancer featuring every thing from a Dr. Frankenstein like madman to a traditional zombie master. Neverborn, the original denizens of Malifaux, are demons, myths, and voodoo swamp hags. Arcinists are outlaw magic users of Malifaux, with everything from a beast master to a master with mechanical spiders. The Outcasts are the mercenaries and thugs of the world that include sword wielding “sisters” and their all female band of ronin. The Ten Thunders are a collection of Asian inspired samurai, ninjas, and infiltrators. Finally, there are the more lighthearted, yet equally deadly Gremlins, think backwoods mountain men riding giant pigs into battle.

Your crews consist of a leader, called either a Master or Henchman, based on how many points you’re playing with. You get enforcers, minions, and peons which represent varying levels of power amongst the models in your crew. Each crew currently features between three and four Masters and two to three Henchmen. In the next few months this should jump to seven masters per faction, if all the reports I’ve read are accurate. There are dozens of other models to choose from each with unique looks, abilities, and styles.
In fact one of the things I love about Malifaux is none of the units feel like any of the other units. When you compare my Guilds Witchling Stalkers to the Neverborns Young Nephilim both groups are melee fighter and both play extremely differently. Additionally, you’ll rarely find yourself fielding more than a handful of models; I think the most I’ve ever used is seven.

Of course crew selection depends on what your goals are. The rules include a list of strategies, one of which each team will share as a victory condition. In addition to this, you will generate a list of five schemes that you will get to pick two of. Some are kept a secret, some are revealed, and some are revealed for additional points. Occasionally these are to kill your opponent’s models. Usually they are to control points on the board, push into your opponent’s side of the table, or even deliver a message to the opposing teams Master. Since they are not all played openly you have to be careful because you never know if your opponent is placing markers to claim territory that you can remove if you get close enough or is he planting explosives waiting for your models to get close enough for him to destroy them and gain points.

This is one of the best parts of the game; you start scoring points at the end of the second of five turns so if you’re fast and think you actions through you can get points before your opponent knows what’s going on. One of the things I really like about the game is that it’s possible to score points without killing a single enemy model. In fact I have won games where the majority of my forces were wiped out and I had done little damage to the opposing forces. For new players, the best piece of advice I can give is not to get bogged down killing your opponent’s forces, certainly it’s helpful, but you need to focus on your strategy and schemes for the victory points. Master doesn’t work with every strategy. Certainly you can play just about any of them against any scenario but some will be a better choice than others.

Entry point into the game is very easy, you can purchase the 2.0 rules and a starter set for one of the factions and have more than enough to play with. You’ll need a tape measure, a three foot square playing surface, some terrain, and a deck of cards. The tape measure is easy to pick up at any hardware or sewing store. The playing area was simple as well, you can mark off an area of table; I purchased a square yard of felt. For terrain you can stack book, use cut circles of paper, or purchase some from a model train store. Despite special suits being used any deck of cards can be played with, though I went and bought one of Wyrd’s custom decks, actually I have five.

As for forces it will depend on what faction you like, what you want to paint, and how you like to play. New plastic version with new sculpts are coming out for all of the models over the next year and you may want to wait on one you really like. Though, if you prefer the metal version they should still be available for a little while or in some hobby stores discount and loose figure bins later on.

Here comes that sudden but inevitable comparison I didn’t want to make. Under 1.5 Guild had a very rock/paper/scissors quality, if I played against Neverborn I took the Ortegas, I went up against the Ressers I took Lady Justice. I could mix and match my Masters if I thought one would be better in a particular strategy than the others but they never seemed to do as well. Under 2.0 this is no longer the case. Yes, Perdita still shines against the Neverborn, but Lady Justice is still quite capable when wading in to the numbers. I no longer feel the need to automatically take Master X against faction Y. Talking to some of the other players in my local setting this has continued across the board. Every master feels the same but different, more balanced against one another. Pandora may no longer be the slam dunk she once was, but she’s still incredibly good on the table. Conversely, players who avoided him as if he had some sort of communicable disease are now actively using Marcus.

My final thoughts: the game is fast paced, easy to follow, fun, and engaging. For new players or veterans I feel it’s a must have. I can’t say enough good things about it. Certainly there are some models that haven’t been upgraded to 2.0 yet but there stats should enter a second open beta testing by the end of September or early into October and I believe available by the end of the year in a final form. The only downside is that by getting in at 2.0 you're missing out on four books of story, which I've heard they may publish elsewhere. It’s worth playing, find a Wyrd Henchman in your area from their website and see if you can organize a demo, I think you’ll have a real fine time.


You can find out more information at The Wyrd website which features links to all of their other games. Have you played Malifaux? Are you interested in a game? Do you play any other miniature games? Head on over to my facebook page and let me know, or post something below.