I thought I would try something different this post. Because I am the kind of person who likes to keep things organized (...sure why not) I've decided that I will organize all my crazy ramblings under the heading Monday Malifaux Musings. I was originally going to go with Madness' Monday Morning Malifaux Musings but I thought someone might charge me with excessive alliteration.
Rather
than focus on anything tactical I want to talk about FUN! Specifically about
which Strategies I find lead to the most fun and least fun games. This was written before the new strategies came out for Gaming Ground 2015, but I will definitely do a part 2 next year including those strategies once I have played them all a few times. Thought I
might as well combine this with my love/obsession with ranking things so
therefore:
1)
Squatters Rights
Man I love Squatters Rights. It’s like all the good parts of
the other strategies put into one. You have the fight in the centre from turf
war (over the 3 middle markers), the need to have models that can function on
their own like Reconnoitre (the outside markers), the need to take lots of
interact actions (Stake a Claim), and the need to kill your opponent to stop
them from doing all of these things (Reckoning I guess…). I also love Squatters
Rights because I think it is the strategy that has the most tactical options
open for it. You can try to win through speed by getting to the markers before
your opponent can (especially the outside ones) through speedy models, From the
Shadows allowing you to start deployed on the markers, or from utilizing pushes.
You can win through manipulation (Doppelganger Don’t Mind Me, Chatty denying
interacts, Obeying models off of markers so you can flip them, Lucius allowing
all minions within 6” interact while in combat to name a few). You can win
through killing power by just wiping your opponent off the markers. Every
Master has a tactical way they can take on this strategy. I do believe it is
the most balanced scheme by Master due to this reason and it is the most fun
for this reason. There are so many ways you can go about the strategy (and
denying your opponent his markers) that it leads to a great tactical chess
match between opponents that I just love to see.
2)
Turf War
Turf war is a ton of fun. Just throwing all your models into
a pot in the centre and seeing what comes out has led to some of my most
memorable moments in Malifaux. It is also a very difficult strategy to stop
your opponent from scoring so I find it generally leads to close games that can
come down to the choice of schemes. I also enjoy Turf War because it is
generally when you see the craziest combos in Malifaux. Since to score you need
to be in a 6” bubble of the centre it often means that the vast majority of
models (excluding scheme runners in some scheme pools) are in area overlaid
with auras, abilities, and other crazy things that combine into all sorts of
craziness. It is also the easiest time to pull off crazy combos like the Widow
Weaver, Coppelius, Alp combo of trying to give everyone in the bubble slow and 3-4
damage. All sorts of things that are usually too difficult to pull off (due to
having to spread your models out) can happen. It places second after Squatters
since I find it is not tactically as interesting. There aren’t as many varied
crews/ways to achieve the strategy as there are in Squatters. Generally you are
either fielding a few tough hard to remove models or lots of summonable models
that swamp the centre. Speed also isn’t as important in turf war and I find
that speed is something I love too much to put Turf War at number 1.
3)
Reconnoitre
When I started playing Malifaux this would have been lower
on this list as I was playing lower SS games and this strategy in particular I
find does not scale down well. Playing at 50ss though I am starting to like
this mission more (although still not enough to crack the top 2). Although
Reconneiter can be a bit too much of an avoidance strategy sometimes, the fact
that you can both score it at the same time means to come ahead you have to be
able to take one of your opponent’s quarters. It also spreads out the game
which can sometimes force people to move away from specific styles
(specifically creating a bubble of death around their master) that make for
interesting tactical decisions. Do you reduce synergy to get better board
coverage, or rely on the synergistic group to move fast enough and do enough
damage that you can still keep most of your models together? I have played two
different types of crews in this strategy and both worked very well. The first
is a summoning crew. This should be obvious why it is good as the more models
you have, the easier it will be to score your quarters and deny your opponents.
The other crew, which I thought was going to be problematic, was the Viktorias.
It turns out that a super-killy crew that can spread out individually (Other
than keeping the 2 viks together) can do a great job of killing anything that
threatens your quarters. Watching Taelor, Bishop, and the Viks run around
killing Ramos’ spiders quickly enough to overcome him in Reconneiter is a
blast. This strategy isn’t higher because it can lead to some un-fun games when
you are faced with a summoner who you can’t overcome or a gunline that keeps
you pinned down. That being said, I generally find reconnoitre a fun, tactical
game that can come down to who can become the aggressor without overextending
themselves.
4)
Stake a Claim
Part of me wanted to rank stake a claim higher than
Reconnoitre because I always enjoy playing it, but I decided it wasn’t really
fair. Winning is fun, and I don’t think I’ve yet lost on Stake a Claim since Dreamer
is very good at it, as is Neverborn in general. I also love games that allow me
to utilize all my movement shenanigans. That being said, it is one the least
interactive strategies and the easiest to break the game with. It is quite
feasible to win Stake a Claim without even attacking your opponent models
(depending on the scheme selection). I once played a game against Perdita with
Plant Evidence and Breakthrough where I just ran 2 Insidious, Coppelius with On
Dreaming Wings, and Dreamer himself across the board and hid behind terrain
jumping all over the board placing markers. Needless to say my opponent did not
have a very enjoyable game. The sheer dominance that certain factions/masters
have in this strategy is much more obvious than in other strategies, further
unbalancing it game-wise. Therefore even though I generally have fun playing
it, it is 4th due to the negative play experience it can create for
others. And let’s be honest, no one wants their opponent to have a crappy time.
5)
Reckoning
The easiest part of these rankings for me was what to put on
the bottom. I hate Reckoning. Not just because I am not particularly good at it
with Dreamer, although that is a factor as I do find it a very frustrating
mission with him, but also because I don’t like the play experience it entails.
The thing with Reckoning is it just isn’t the mission it’s intended to be. It’s
supposed to be the killing strategy, however, due to the fact that crews are
chosen after Strategy and Scheme selection it ends up being more about denial.
I have to admit I don’t play denial factions/armies in any game I play which
probably affects my view on the topic. I just don’t like the idea of a strategy
where the goal is more to stop your opponent from getting points of you than it
is to get points of your opponent. Since everyone will just take a small
selection of very tough models and try to score 1 more strategy point than
their opponents I find Reckoning games, while very tactical, to be very boring.
If crews were picked before strategies were selected this wouldn’t be a problem
as you would have to have a more balanced crew, but in Malifaux this is not the
case. The only mitigating factor for Reckoning in my mind is when it is paired
with Make Them Suffer. This completely changes the game as it forces the
opponent to try and hide 3 points by selection a cheap minion and hiding them
or it forces them to have a larger crew size. Either way I find it opens up the
game a bit. I can understand if other people like the super-elite avoidance
game that is Reckoning, but the non-killing strategies of Malifaux are much
more attractive for me.
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