dkieft

Glad to see you finally try it. There are really a few ways to build a group in Malifaux. There is the obvious "all in" option where you collect pretty much everything in the faction. I don't have a price tag for this, but it gets pretty expensive... granted probably not as expensive and a WFB army. There is the single master option where you buy one master and the stuff that works well with them. This is the cheapest way and for the most part can be really effective as you really learn the ins and outs of one set of rules. You need to get enough models to change things out for scenarios, but 75-100 SS should be enough to have on hand for at least 90% of games. This also limits your "Oh God what do I take this game" conundrum. There there are the in-between which is where a lot of people land. Two masters, Three masters. Really this stage is where you might eventually go after expanding on the one master method, and where most people are most of the time. Just add what you feel like adding when you feel like adding it. If fact, most people who start with one master end up here because buying the crew boxes are way better deals than buying the stuff from them individually.

Dammit Rcnjack! I came here for some serious AoS bitching and moaning... you sir are the worst sort of tease!

Damn! I have Florence and the Machine tickets that day!

Yeah, that is part of it at least. But I think also I am not generally a fan of fan made things... not because they can't be good, but often over time they begin to warp and twist into some ones vision of what it should be instead of what it started as. Also, how long until the people working on it move on to other things? It is just a lot of stuff up in the air without a solid core (as in people who's job it is to make it happen). Maybe down the road I'll give it a try... but so far I haven't even tried AoS yet.

9th Age fills me with depression. To be fair I know next to nothing about it... but every time I go look I get a sad.

Ahh! Arcanist rules are not my strong suit! In that case with the Ronin vs Hannah, Hannah gives you 1 card, the Ronin gives you two... so a second ronin would be a better choice for your goal. And to be fair, there is no point in knowing what happens if it is not possible to do it in the confines of the game. I do not think you can, so there is no point in having a rule for it. Sure you could do it maybe in an extra huge game, or with some house rules in a scenario, but then you just have to house rule any odd situations you create when altering the game.

Most players prefer a balanced game. That is not to say an unbalanced game is never fun, especially if playing out a scenario or whatever. Really, you can play the game anyway you want as long as your opponent agrees. But playing a Henchmen in larger games is not allowed by the base rules so it pretty much is an "opponents permission" thing. The power difference between Masters and Henchmen are pretty big for the most part. Both models are free with a rebate, and while the rebate does somewhat indicate the base power level of the model the soul stone difference is not equivalent. A weaker master (with a cache of 3) is not 3 SS more powerful than a henchmen with a 6 cache. That 3 SS difference between master and Henchmen is probably more like a 6-10 SS difference in in-game abilities. Masters tend to be a lot more dangerous, way harder to kill, have more and cooler abilities AND an extra AP. This isn't to say it is an auto lose to take a henchmen either, and that will heavily depend on match up, scenario, player skill and FATE! Honestly though, if you are really dead set on playing a henchmen as lead, just play some smaller games... I think you can still take them at 30 or 35 Stones... it puts on a decent game at that level.

Well the Stone there you say discards to draw, so you are actually loosing cards as you gain cards. Those cards end up in the discard and get reshuffled when you run out. Also, if Kaeris can "draw three cards per turn" as you say (I do not have the rules handy to check it) that is "Per turn" not "per activation" so she could not do it again with reactivate. So with your scenario there it is 25, a long ways from 54. You could take a second Ronin to sacrifice to get back up to 27. But that is your max mercs.

Masters are balanced against each other. For the most part, assuming a decent crew build and baring taking the wrong master/crew for a scenario, all masters are about equal. Henchmen are significantly less powerful than masters. So basically, if you pit a henchmen agaisnt a master, the master will pretty much always win (baring some insane luck). Since the leader is free, taking a master for free is far more powerful then taking a henchmen for free. There are two main worries when choosing to under power your list like this. First off, you may not have a very fun game as your opponent just rolls you. Second is that your opponent won't have any fun rolling you. In general, there are probably better ways to spice up your game then giving yourself a handicap right out of the gate. P.S. Shifting Loyalties Campaigns start with Henchmen leaders and you eventually add a master. These games might lead to larger games with no master, but I am not familiar with the rules.

I think the trick here is just like any game. If you said to your opponent (in a non-event game) "Hey I'd like to try this...". They can say yes or no. For the most part, people I know are fine with trying stuff in any one off game, just talk to them first.

I fear that you misunderstood the question. Pax is talking about holding 54 cards in your hand... not burning your deck in a turn... and with Gremlins I often burn the deck, but then you just reshuffle. In 1st edition Gremlins started short a card and has no way to gain any beyond a gremlin dying and you run out of gremlins before cards by a long shot.

Yeah, I just got some replacement parts from Wyrd, they sent both wrong parts... I know they'll fix it, but it still depresses me.

On the plus side you just saved Fluger $90! Have you tried contacting them about it? Maybe they have a decent return/replacement policy?

I don't think it would be at all possible within the confines of the published rules. There are not a lot of draw abilities in the game and I think you'd you have a hard time stuffing enough into a single crew to get anywhere near all your cards.

Nope. There is a chart in the scenario section. Sorry I don't have my book on me to give you a page number.

Yeah, first off, I doubt that you have looked through their tax documents to see what they can or cannot afford. I'd agree that they probably could self fund, but what they are doing is not out of the scope of kickstarter and it is not like they are doing anything unethical. But one thing that kickstarter does for them (and others) is allow them to avoid getting loans to cover production costs, and that will be a huge savings in the long run. Also, with the amount of stuff you get, it is a good deal. I agree that their add-ons are often too expensive, but people aren't getting "dinged" with add ons. They are completely optional and the price is public info. Anyone paying for them chose to to so. I think something else you are missing here is that Kickstarter gives them a clear view of how big the game will be based on actual interest. When their KS doesn't make it as big, they don't produce as many. Lowering the risk of over production is a huge boon to their business. I get that it is a bit annoying, and it is certainly your choice to opt out (and mine too) but they are being smart about how they run their business and as long as it keeps working they'll keep doing it. KS has no rule about disallowing established companies from using it.

Oh and you can always change out expansions for a variety of game play each time.

I think there are two things to consider with the expansions: 1) Time. Each tile added adds basically a player turn to the game length. 10 tiles doesn't add much but 100 tiles adds quite a while (especially if you have some slower players). If you pile in a bunch of expansions at once you'll have a much longer game. 2) Some expansions are better than others... and exactly which ones those are varies between players. I for instance really dislike the princess and the dragon, but like Inns and Cathedrals quite a bit. I have heard that the catapult and tower are kinda terrible, but some one in this thread said they liked the tower. So anyway, you might want to read up on what the different expansions do and pick and choose your style before just going hog wild on purchases.

Yup, I am tempted here, but just don't feel I should afford it right now. Plus I still do not get enough use out of Zombicide!

I think if Mark didn't quite answer your question pax it would be this: Cross Roads and Shifting Loyalties do "expand" the game and while not needed to play the game, you should expect that your opponents may have models/upgrades from those books and if you wanted to play a campaign game, someone in your group of players will need that book. Also, Crossroads has a ton of additional scenarios that might be fun to play with, but not required to play the game.

I assume they are crap, but just wondering if they might be usable.

It has not been out very long. There is also a winter edition main boxed set.

I hope you got the second edition version... just came out a month or three ago. Dont know how different it is but I expect they changed up a few tiles if nothing else.

Yes. Some abilities may restrict you to "target friendly" or "target enemy" however.

The exact height of the model doesn't matter that much, but it should be in approximate scale with the game. any 28-32mm human sized miniature should be about right for a standard human in Malifaux. The height stat on for the model allows the miniatures to be a bit more abstract than a game using a model based size/LoS system.