Coming up on my first year in on this game and I have to say its been a blast. I started with the Neverborn faction because I am always attracted to playing bad guys for some reason and really liked the different characters of the faction from the onset. My first master to be completed was Dreamer. A summoning powerhouse and according to the internet, at the time, one of the better masters in the tournament/competitive play. Although fragile he offers a lot of in game flexibility with summoning being his main focus as a master, its just imperative that you keep him safe and away from hard hitting enemies. The tricky thing about Dreamer is that he can turn into Lord Chompy Bits (LCB) in game and his mechanic for doing so is an interesting challenge to play around. LCB is a melee powerhouse that can be brought in 6" from Dreamer when he reaches Waking +4. Dreamer then buries, or removes himself from play and danger, while LCB is on the board killing things with melee attacks. With a new Wave 5 upgrade, he will be able to chain activate LCB for a plethora of attacks with no break in between. Pretty tough to pull this off, but can be a game winning move when its executed properly. I play him most, more than half the time I play Malifaux, I'd say and I'm not even close to being bored with him.
I also have Lilith, Zoraida, and I just got Titania for my NB. As I play more and learn the different schemes and strategies I am starting to realize the importance of picking the correct master from the faction given the different mix of objectives that could come up. When learning the game initially, I think its important to stick with one master at first and expand within the faction after realizing the different strengths and weaknesses of each master VS Scheme pools. Dreamer is better at interference or guard the stash while Lilith would prove better in a head hunter or collect the bounty game. Zoraida or Titania for Informant. With 4 schemes randomly generated (1 scheme is an Always scheme) this could mean I might change masters out based on the combination of these options. Maybe Lilith would be better in Informant because "eliminate the LD" or "a quick murder" is in the pool.
This aspect of the game, the list building after the schemes and strategies are produced, is one of the more compelling parts of the game. The decision making before the game even starts can make or break your performance on the table. This design for game set up alleviates the "net listing" that generally occurs in tabletop games. Yes there are better models than other in any situation, but being clever and finding uses for models or even BLUFFING with a certain model makes the game interesting and dynamic outside of stat lines, probabilities, and power creep that will generally occur in any game this vast. You play the other player in Malifaux more than the design team for whatever faction or model you are facing. Meaning that good models need to be used properly to gain full advantage, A great model/crew can be squandered by poor play. I love it.
We have GG2018 being open play tested by the community and it looks to be a nice change up to the scheme pool and strategies which I think will keep the game fresh for me. GG2017 had its issues and favored certain types of masters in the game, discouraged smaller, elite crews, and had 2 suited schemes, meaning you saw them more often than all the others. Just the fact that new scheme pools are released every year is awesome for Malifaux.
I am going to start focusing more on playing Gremlins for 2018. I almost have 3 masters and crews fully painted at this point and would really just need to commit my mind to their play style. Looking at Ulix, Zipp, and Mah Tucket. Of course, Zoraida can be played as a Gremlin as well. With wave 5 upgrades for all masters, Mah Tucket seems like she is playable again and I assume I'll use her quite a bit. Zipps new upgrade made him play similarly to Leviticus with bury/unbury mechanics. And, of course, Ulix, my favorite gremlin has some sweet pig synergy that I cant get enough of.
So yeah, Ranting out on almost a year in... Hope to see more people show interest in the coming months Id be happy to help in any way I can to get more folks playing. A lot of competition in the skirmish game market though...
Rant out!!!