M2E Beta: Following the Leader

After you've selected your Leader for your Crew, what remains is filling out the rest of the team.  With the exception of Avatars, which will be forthcoming in the next round of the beta (we hope!), the remainder of the models in the game fall into the three lesser stations: Peons, Minions and Enforcers.  While different in power-level and cost, each of these stations fills a much needed role within a Malifaux Crew.

Peons

Peons are the lowest of the low in the game, with point costs generally staying at around four or under. The station trait Peon doesn't itself carry any mechanical weight, although all Peons released so far are also saddled with being Insignificant, meaning that they are not able to take Interact actions. They are also unable to take Upgrades and are often barred from scoring for Scheme and Strategy purposes.

Any discussion of Peons must also touch on Totems because, although the groups do not overlap completely, nearly all Peons are Totems (and conversely nearly all Totems are Peons).  In fact, of the first wave Beta models there are only three Peons that are not also Totems: Electrical Creation, Mindless Zombie and the Pigapult.  The first two are disposable and the third is more a form of equipment than an ally.

Totems on the other hand are infused with a good deal more individuality.  Representing their Leader's will on the battlefield, Totems can be thought of strategically as living (or unliving) Upgrade cards.  They usually emphasize one part of their associated Master's play-style, or help cover up a weakness.  The unassociated Totems do the same thing but may be hired by anyone in faction, following the usual limit of one per Crew.

Getting rid of the Totem is generally doable with the expenditure of a few Action points, but their low Soulstone price-tag makes it a quandary for the enemy - Do you spend the resources to take out such a small part of your opponent's force?

Minions

The majority of the non-leader models in a crew are generally Minions.  A step above Peons, Minions are characterized by their ability to interact with the table and help set up Scheme markers.  Most Minions can be taken in multiples, filling out the Leader's ranks and providing some insurance for when your opponent eventually kills a few of them off.

Within each faction, Minions are generally themed in concert with one of the Masters or Henchmen but can be taken for any crew with ease.  One of the themes of Malifaux 2e is opening up the restrictions on which models can be played when, instead rewarding themed play through synergy bonuses.  This way its still clear which pieces 'go' with which others, but allowing the player to over-ride this system for a specific Scenario, Scheme or for their own personal style.

Enforcers

Last of all are the Enforcers, the game changers of your Crew.  Enforcers tend to be between seven to 11 Soulstones in cost, plus they have the ability to take a single Upgrade, meaning that they are an expensive investment.  A Rail Golem with the Imbued Protection Upgrade will end up costing 13 Soulstones, more than a quarter of your entire Crew in a 50ss game.

Thankfully, you tend to get a lot of game effect for your stones.  Most of the Enforcers have a primary attack stat of 6 or 7, usually with at least one Trigger.  The majority of them also usually have at least one defensive ability, such as Armour or Hard to Kill, or a load of Wounds available.  Perhaps most characteristically, the Enforcer group is where we see the majority of the 40mm and 50mm base-sized models, giving your Crew an option to exert greater control on the table.

The line between low-end Enforcers and high-end Minions can be a little blurry, with models such as the Ten Thunders' Samurai seeming like good candidates for the Minion Station and the Razorspine Rattler being easily confused with an Enforcer.  The big difference is the access to Upgrade cards.  Now at this point in development the number of cards available to each Enforcer is relatively limited, with some having access to only one or two viable options, but this will change as the game continues to roll out.  Presently a handful of lucky Enforcers have custom Upgrades built specifically for them - Lenny has I'll Love It And Pet It, as an example.  This is a glimpse of the potential that Enforcers have for the future as the story continues to develop and the meta game evolves.

Putting It Together

For every rule there is an exception and Malifaux 2e has its fair share.  Lots of models break the rules, and the rules were built with this in mind.  Totems who are Minions, or even Enforcers.  Models which act as Scheme markers or Corpse markers.  Totems that are hired in pairs or even triples.  Non-Leaders with Use Soulstones.  In a future article we will discuss the biggest example of this: the new prevalence of Dual-Faction models and their interactions with the Upgrade system.

Thanks for reading.

M2E Beta: Building a Better Henchman

The original Henchman system from Twisted Fates was Wyrd's attempt to create a hybrid-style model that could act as either a powerful addition to an existing Master's Crew, or as a stand-in Master in its own right.  Each Henchman was the leader of a sub-set of Special Forces miniatures who were thematically and mechanically linked to their boss.  Any Master from the appropriate faction could hire these Special Forces models with or without the associated Henchman, but they were limited to only two models and restricted to only one type of Special Force per Crew.  Crews led by a Henchman were free to hire as many models as they chose from their Special Force but had other, sometimes quite severe, hiring restrictions in place.  This created a limited tool-set that, while mechanically promising, generally felt underwhelming and predictable when placed on the table.

The problems with this entire setup were twofold.  First of all, to ensure that Henchmen were not unbalancing to the game when taken as part of a Master's Crew, they had to have a reduced power profile as compared to their full Master brethren. Second, not enough Special Forces models were ever released to carry the Henchman's Crew through every scenario.  These two factors combined to give the old system Henchmen a very restricted feel that often felt over-matched by their Master opponents.

Malifaux 2e took a good, hard look at these problems and provided three solutions: Advance the current group of Henchmen to Masters, dismantle the Special Forces and start from scratch with a new look at the Henchman role.

The Graduating Class of 2013

Each and every one of the original Henchmen have now graduated to full Master status.  They have also acquired all the rights and responsibilities that go along with that title. They are reportedly each getting their own Totem, their own Avatar and of course, that juicy third AP.  Just as importantly though, they are also getting an advance in their story, bringing them in from the fringes and placing them front and centre of the action.  This week's release of Wyrd Chronicles #7 updates Molly's story, while the short from Wyrd Chronicles #5 gave us what might be a glimpse of Lucius' future.

One of the big changes for this outgoing class is that they are losing their ability to team up with their old Masters. No longer can Molly support Seamus in the field, nor can Lucius teleport Lady Justice from the Deployment Zone into the thick of combat.  Von Schill is no longer invited to mercenary for each and every Faction.  Instead, each of these recent graduates is going to need to forge a new path, with new allies and a host of new rules.  This is quite likely the juiciest area of the edition change - existing characters getting new toys.  It's going to be a lot of fun!

Not-So-Special Forces

The Special Forces were a really cool idea, and if they had been fully fleshed-out over time they might well have become interesting alternate crews for each Faction while still providing a source of variation for the Masters.  When Storm of Shadows came out however, and the Ten Thunders dual-faction mechanic was ascendant, it became clear that Special Forces were not going to be the major focus many players expected.  Now in Malifaux 2e, Special Forces are dead.

This is a good thing.  All of the models that the Special Forces consisted of will transition nicely to the new system, in all likelihood they will retain all of their flavour and utility and simply lose the hiring restrictions.  Wyrd's stated reason behind this change is to let people play with models they want to play with, but the underlying philosophy of M2E is that complexity of rules does not equate to depth of game.

Running the Crew (Like A Boss)

Now that the graduating class has safely moved on to their new roles, Malifaux 2e has room to introduce the new and improved Henchmen curriculum.  Under the new system, the role of Leader in an Encounter can be filled by either Masters or Henchmen, each of who bring their own Soulstone cache to the table.  Either station can lead a Crew of between 26 to 40 Soulstones, with Masters being the exclusive choice for Encounters larger than that and Henchmen having the monopoly on games 25 Soulstones and under.  Henchmen can be included as members of a different Leader's Crew as well, usually costing between seven and ten Soulstones to hire.  Henchmen all have access to up to two Upgrades per game, which ones are available being defined in part by their role in the Encounter.  Most importantly, Henchmen always have access to the game-defining ability Use Soulstones.  That means that no matter their role in a particular game, they can buy suits, prevent damage and add positive twists just like the Masters can.

Sounds great, So who is taking up this remodeled station?  Malifaux 1.5 had given us a wealth of interesting characters to choose from, and in most cases the new Henchmen are individuals who felt just a little too large for the tag of 'minion' in the previous edition. The Judge, Sebastian, Myranda, Yamaziko.  There are a few new faces in there too with Hannah and Fingers fleshing out the Outcast and Gremlin factions.  All told there are 19 Henchmen in the first round beta, each with their own play-style and flavour.

Let's make sure we're being perfectly clear about what we're talking about here - Malifaux 1.5 had 22 Masters and 6 Henchmen across all four books - 28 Leaders.  Round one of the Malifaux 2e beta has 21 Masters and 19 Henchmen, that's 41 Leaders, in the first book alone (this figure includes the late removal of Leviticus and Rusty Alyce and the inclusion of Tara).

Balance of Power

Not everything is roses for the new Henchmen however.  Wyrd has explicitly stated that they will generally be lower on the power spectrum than their Master allies.  This is to balance against their ability to be included in Crews where they are not the Leader.  After all, it is now possible to run a Crew that is composed exclusively of Henchmen!  The target for Henchmen is to be well-suited to running smaller games, not to be on par with Masters in every Encounter.  Still, since each model tends to have its own niche in the structure of their associated Master's plan, there is potentially room to bring a Henchman led Crew to a mid-sized game and catch your opponent off guard.


Next week I'll be heading to GenCon 2013 in Indianapolis to get my copy of the game.  When I return we can take a deep dive into specific models and how there finalized versions have changed since the beta.

Thanks for reading.

M2E Beta: Perdita Ortega Has A Dozen Ways To Shoot You

Malifaux second edition brings a handful of change to how Masters function and to what their role is on the tabletop.  The changes to Soulstones have rounded off the extremes of their game play, both offensively and defensively, moving them slightly towards the middle of the power curve.  That having been said, they are still very much the centerpiece of your Crew, a unique tool to apply exceptional pressure to your schemes and strategies.  Has the streamlining of M2E resulted in the oversimplification of Masters?

Let's Do The Math

To get a handle on the changes that Masters have faced we will continue to use Perdita as an example, taking a look here at her total utility.  In Malifaux 1.5, Perdita had 15 different functions, each identified by its own boldface title.  In M2E, that list has been shortened to eight.  At first glance then, it seems that she has indeed been downgraded.

As you dig deeper though, New Perdita's comparative depth begins to reveal itself.  Some of her 1.5 functions we counted earlier were actually Triggers.  Her M2E version also has Triggers, but these are now listed as sub-headings under the associated Action and not as discrete entries in their own right.  Perdita has two different Triggers on her main attack, Witched Bullet and Critical Strike.  Adding these to our total, New Perdita's utility count is up to ten.

Perdita 1.5 had a useful ability called Gunslinger which allowed her to use her pistol as a melee weapon, an ability absent from her M2E incarnation.  Her card also shows no sign of her powerful (+1) Fast.  In both of these cases, the abilities aren't missing as much as they have been cleverly integrated into the new rules set to give a more seamless experience.  The Perdita's Peacebringer Attack Action now lists its range as both Ranged 14 and Melee 2, encompassing the Gunslinger functionality.  Her absent Fast got taken care of with an even broader brush.  In 1.5, every Master in the game had access to an additional (generally specific) AP through such abilities as Melee Expert or Casting Expert.  Now, as a standard rule, all Masters are allocated 3 general AP at the start of their activation.  This perfectly replaces Perdita's Fast, so she is now up to 12 in the utility count.

New Perdita is also missing See the Unseen and Bullet Bending, both of which have received major changes in how they work but are now available on her Upgrade cards.  See the Unseen is not quite as powerful as it once was, but Bullet Bending became a lot more useful, no longer requiring a successful cast or imposing a penalty on Perdita when she uses it. Adding them to our total brings us up to 14 options versus the 15 on her older self.  So really, what has she lost?

Out With The Old

A brief comparison shows that she has lost Immune to Influence, Evasive 2, Anticipation, Spellbreaker and Execute.  Arguably one of Perdita's most broken ability in first edition, Immune to Influence seems to have gone by the wayside for everybody in the new edition, not appearing on any Beta profile.  Instead, Perdita now has access to Stubborn, giving her opponents a negative flip when they target her willpower. The loss of Evasive 2 is compensated with access to Bulletproof +2, which to me signals a thematic change in the character more towards being a gunfighter (more on that later).

In the end, Perdita has lost only three abilities that have not been replaced with a similar function: Anticipate, Spellbreaker and Execute.  In the context of a new rule set, I consider these the only true losses as they are areas of the game she no longer has access to.  Perdita no longer has an offensive deck-shaping attack, a team condition-removal spell or a low-accuracy, high damage flip attack.

In With The New

In exchange for her three lost abilities we discussed above, Perdita has picked up access to over a dozen new functions, a veritable arsenal of ways to affect the game. There is a theme here - New Perdita cares a lot less about spell casting, both her own and her opponents', and a lot more about shooting.  She has six new abilities all about putting lead into her enemies: Point Blank, Witched Bullet, Geometric,  True Mark, Leadstorm and Vengeance Bullet.  As the head of her household, she has a renewed focus on teamwork, emphasized by her open-ended Companion ability, Relocate, Cover Me, Circular and Ortega Presence.  If her survivability is an issue, she can pick up Thalarian Doctrine or Badge of Office to help keep her on the table, and if there is a strategy or scheme that simply must be completed, she can grab Plant Evidence and Finish the Job.

This total base of functions, between her new card abilities and her available Upgrades, means that Perdita now has access to a total of 26 Abilities, Actions and Triggers, an increase of 11 over her original incarnation.  Future editions may very well increase this number even higher.  The chief difference here is that you now have to make significant choices when you choose Perdita, choosing and paying for the ones you want to bring.

Wait, I Have To Pay For Them?

Well yes, you do.  This seems to be a sticking point for a number of people in the community, the feeling that we are being forced to pay for something that was previously free strikes a deep blow to the human psyche.  I think it's important to remember though that we always paid for our Master; We paid for them with our Master slot, our most valuable Crew creation resource we had.  In addition, games of Malifaux are played with larger stone totals now, without being larger in terms of number of models fielded, so we are paying the higher prices from a larger pool of stones.

This might sound like I'm splitting hairs, but let's do the math here.  In Malifaux 1.5, Perdita's crew box cost 25ss leaving Perdita with a cache of 2.  In M2E, the same selection of models costs 29ss with the same cache of 2.  But Malifaux 1.5 recommended the game be played between 30ss and 35ss for a standard game while M2E recommends playing with 50ss, all of which means that you have an additional 15 to 20 Soulstones to cover the cost of your more expensive models and the upgrades they need.

Here's an example of what you can do with the additional Soulstones using Perdita's first edition starter:

Malifaux 1.5 (35ss Game):

• Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, Nino, Papa Loco. Cache of 7.
• 5 Soulstones Remaining.

M2E (50ss Game):

• Perdita (Aura Ancestral, Os Veo, Trick Shooting), Francisco (Wade In, Diestro), Santiago (Tormenta De Plumo), Nino (Hair Trigger), Papa Loco. Cache of 7. 
• 5 Soulstones Remaining.

In this particular build, Perdita is able to catch her entire 1.5 edition essence along with some added general utility while still keeping her Crew together.  She even has the budget to upgrade the rest of her crew with a few choice abilities.

With the Beta for book one closed and the books themselves off to the printer, the time for player input is over.  What we do know is that there was also a final round of closed-door play-testing done by Wyrd prior to shipping off the rules, so we may still see some changes in the finished book.  When I finally get my hands on Malifaux M2E Book One we will revisit Perdita and get more specific on her options.

Thanks for reading.

M2E Beta: Now With More Perditas!

Perdita has a special place in my heart as she was my first Malifaux model, the first I bought, the first I painted and the first Master I fielded. She was also the first I had to have replaced, since she came with a pretty severe casting error and was missing most of her right arm.  As a result, I actually had my first interaction with Wyrd's customer service before I flipped my first card.  It seems fitting then that my primera señorita be the first model I write up for Malifaux 2e.

Masters in M2E

A lot of noise has been made about the changes coming to Malifaux in the upcoming edition with strong opinions both for and against the changes.  Setting aside the general mechanical differences and focusing instead on the individual models, it seems that the M2E Masters have borne the brunt of the change.  Gone are the crowded walls of text that made up their stat cards, replaced instead with a boiled-down essence of the character.  Many of the Masters' abilities have been shifted off of their main cards and have moved over to a series of Upgrade cards that can be purchased at option during Crew selection prior to an encounter.  Again, like seemingly every issue that has arisen during the Beta, this is viewed as either a fantastic idea that is broadening the scope of the game and future-proofing Malifaux or it is a major fumble that is sapping the spirit and character out of the game.

The largest complaint seems to be that a lot of Masters are less powerful than they were before.  Between the changes to Soulstones, the general standardizing of Master abilities and the retemplating of powers in general Masters can do a lot fewer different things now than they could in the past.  In 1.5 Perdita had 15 different abilities, actions, triggers and spells including four different zero actions.  In M2E she has been reduced to eight.  So the question is, have the Masters traded their souls for a more accessible and less tactical game?

Awesome or Option?

For me, the answer is relatively simple.  In the first edition of the game, there was one amazing Perdita Ortega, in M2E there are 120 distinct Perditas at you disposal.  Some combinations of Upgrades are better than others, some are downright silly, but it doesn't change the fact that I now have considerably more options available to me than I did before.  Added to this, as the game continues to roll out, and as more Upgrades are created in the future, the number of ways I can field my Master jumps.

Under the previous edition I played Perdita exclusively for the first dozen or so games until I got my other Masters completed and then I got bored.  She was great, but she was the same, each and every time.  Her Companion chain all but demanded that I take her with her Family and I quickly grew tired of the looks I would get when I explained the benefits of Immune to Influence to my opponent.  Perdita went onto a shelf, then into a box, along with the rest of la familia.  

Now she's back, and I couldn't be happier.  She has been revitalized with a new rules set and a new purpose.  Like her fellow Masters she now has the ability to choose Upgrades that give her abilities and actions specific to the flipped strategy, your schemes or your personal play-style.  Her added flexibility makes non-family models a much stronger option than they ever have been before.  The number of choices that you need to make when you decide to field her has gone through the roof.    Less tactical indeed.

Next time I'll discuss what she's gained, what she's lost and how she'll play in M2E.

Thanks for reading.