Malifaux on a Budget - Plastic Crews Part II

So last time we looked at two of the new plastic gangs and they came out as the cheapest crews I’ve looked at so far. Today we’re seeing if the final two Plastic crews can match the challenge.

We begin with the Guild’s new addition; The Relic Hunters.

The Box
Price - £24.50
SS - 23

Lucas McCabe is a very interesting master. He is not only Malifaux’s first mounted master (there are the horsemen and avatar Leviticus too) but his gang can and must choose some unique items before the game begins, but we’ll come to those shortly.

As with the other plastic crews, the box contains;

·         A master (McCabe mounted and un-mounted),

·         His totem (Luna, the faithful hound),

·         A based support model (Sidir Alchibal)

·         Three in theme minions (The wastrels).

The crew is primarily a mid-range crew, focusing on paralysing and slowing opponents to allow you to out-manoeuvre them. The crew suffers from relatively low defence, so will rely on these tricks to keep them safe as well as taking objectives. The unique point about McCabe and his fellow is the relics they find. McCabe himself has a choice of six artefacts he can purchase with his soulstone cache before the game begins. He must choose at least two of the items (which range from giving him paired weapons to armour 2) the cheapest pairing costs two soulstones out of the six available to him but you are free to buy more.  The wastrels also have access to four lesser artefacts McCabe has allowed them, and must choose a different one each before the encounter begins.

There are a couple of nice options for expanding McCabe’s crew, as this is Malifaux on a Budget I’m going with the cheapest as this box set takes the crew up to the 35SS we’re looking for.

Price - £12.50
SS- 4 each

Guild Riflemen are the cheapest way of adding some serious range to any guild crew but with McCabe able to stop opponents in their tracks it allows the rifles more turns to whittle down those wounds. With hunter (able to ignore cover) , a (0) action range increase, a (0) action charge reaction and the ability to the fire 9 shots when activated together they really will ruin your opponents day should they be foolish enough to get within 12 inches.

Total crew cost - £ 37

The 35SS crew has a fast moving element as McCabe takes a few wastrels to the front with him leaving a solid block of range to offer some covering fire, choose your equipment to match your opponent: if you see Taelor’s hammer, don’t take the armour. See Lucius? Take the paired sabre. This crew will work for you in pretty much any mission with just a little forethought. 

The final box set of Wyrd's new plastic range is The Master's of the Path.

The Box
Price - £21.50
SS - 19

Yan Lo is another unique master, but this is all part of the fun. Unlike the other Ressurectionists Yan Lo deals in relics not the mindless creations of the other masters. Instead Yan Lo works with ancestor models, boosting them and using their abilities once they die to improve his damage and increase his abilities. In addition to this he can collect “Chi” points to spend on oaths of magic that change how he and his crew work, one path makes him faster, one tougher and one a bit of a combat monster. You can choose to follow one, some or all of these paths as long as you gain enough “chi”.

Not really a front line master his crew box allows him to step back from the front line. Yan Lo’s totem is a great model for making ancestor models faster and can collect relics dropped by ancestors for Yan Lo.  Chiaki is the utility model included the box and is Yan Lo’s presence at the front of the battle, allowing him to leach “chi” points through her as she debuffs and pushes the enemy just where you want them.

Yan Lo’s minions are three of my favourite models, the Ashigaru look stunning and make a great defensive line. Able to form a phalanx of spears that attacks an model foolish enough to get close they are a reliable and survivable way of protecting Yan Lo and any ancestor you need to keep intact. The box is a little soul stone light compared to many of the plastic boxes but they are full of character and certainly pack a punch. 

 Our first addition is a BIG one, literally...

 Price - £10.50
SS - 10

A combat monster Izamu deal master level damage with every strike. I call him Justice light as he has many of the same abilities as Lady Justice, he can riposte enemy attacks, cancel enemies triggers, get a positive flip to damage and tops it off with melee expert. He is a bit of a point sink at 10SS but if he dies Yan Lo can summon him back.   

Our last addition helps with "chi" and even in death can assist you.

 Price - £10
SS - 5 each

Onryo are usually seen with Kirai but fit with Yan Lo well, their ability to slow an opponent (for the game) when they die is a great bonus and their death can fuel your “chi”. In addition to this they damage models that strike them, and have a pretty high damage output. Unfortunately we’re only using one in the list but it does allow you to push the crew to 40SS by adding the other.

Total - £41

The crew does its job well, allowing Yan Lo to advance protected and sends in the hard hitters to finish off the enemy until Yan Lo is ready to be unleashed, I'd like to have included more of the ancestors models but they aren't out yet and come at a very high soulstone cost. If able you should look into Toshiro the Daimyo and more Ashigaru. I will reassess this list once they're released. 

Next time we'll be re examining a few crews I've looked at before to include newer models and advancing some of the earlier crews i worked out to take them up to 35SS.

Malifaux on a Budget - Plastic Crews

 So my apologies that it’s been such a long time since I did one of these, or blogged at all for that matter but setting up the Hobbynomicon has eaten into a lot of my time. If you do ever miss me, we have some great articles over there, focusing on introductions to systems at the minute and other “on a budget” articles for Warmachine and Hordes, if you're that way inclined.

Many of you may notice I've looked at one of the new plastic Malifaux crews before. When they were first released I looked at "Dark Debts" and found it one of my easier crews to write for; because of how new the "Ten Thunders" faction is there aren't many models out for them yet. Also Wyrd seem to have made a very concerted effort to give each master a selection of in theme models that have great synergy with each other. Of course the masters are free to hire from any where within their own faction or the Ten Thunders faction depending of which of their guises your taking the invaders in.

In this article I'll cover two of the Ten Thunders masters starting with their Mistress Misaki in her new incarnation, and move on to the new Arcanist muscle crew led by Mei Feng. Next time I'll cover Yan Lo and Lucas McCabe while you can find Dark Debts here.

So "The Thunder".

 

The Box

Price - £22.50/$35

Soul Stone amount -29
The crew like all the new plastic box sets (except Dark Debts) contains, the master (Misaki), their totem (Shang), a heavy hitting minion (Ototo) and three of their themed lesser minions (Torakage). This is a pretty solid crew already, with some pretty brutal combat prowess and a few tricks in the form of the Torakage's smoke bombs and "Mistaken Identity" which allows them to switch places with a friendly model (allowing you to teleport you two heavy hitters across the board into a fresh combat). The soul stone cost included in the box is amazing and each model earns its points (in my opinion). But how do we fill the last 6 points to get us to the magic 35?

Price - £6.80/$11

Soul Stone amount - 6
Misaki's mentor looks a little frail at first glance but her rules are a different matter. The first thing to mention is that Yamaziko is one of the few minions with the use soulstone ability, combined with Misaki's ability to steal soul stones and you have a powerful combo indeed. She is a consummate utility character, able to give Mikaski fast (she already has reckless but you don't want her taking a wound a turn), she's able to negate a charge bonus, she can force your opponent to reveal one of their schemes, dish out a high rate of damage, let you draw cards when an opponent does, and finally heal friendly models. That's right shes a Swiss army knife in a long robe and you'd be insane to buy the Thunder box set without her. 

N.B. - The Thunder box set will play perfectly well like this for the very reasonable sum of £29.30, however there is another way.

Price - £12.50/$21

Soul Stone amount - 6 each

There is a divide in Ten Thunders players. Those that archer, and those that Torakage. The archers are one of the best range units in the game; able to focus for a single action, make their bows blast, do high damage or give slow (with the aid of a spell) and for a (0) action they can give them selves a positive to hit.
Many players take a mix or archers and Torakage. Malifaux on a Budget says go with the Torakage, but for only £12.50 extra I had to give you guys the option. £41.80 gets you the lot and a 53 SS pool to pick from.


Leaving the pure Ten Thunders behind we'll look at the first of their dual faction counterparts. The Rail Crew.

 

The Box

Price - £22.50/$35

Soul Stone amount -25

Mei Feng is a butt kicking machine thanks to some very interesting mechanics she moves across the board juggling opponents like a character from Street Fighter. Able to hop between the rail workers with a (1) action spell (one that casting expert makes an easy choice to cast) she will teleport 5" at a time and strike at any opponent she reaches, (not too bad I hear you say) combine this with the fact that most of her triggers allow her to punch you again (or punch you without even using an action) and you'll begin to get it. She can also hide in a cloud of smoke, draw a card when she kills someone and give her self armour 2, Mei Feng is not one to mess with in combat. 
The rail workers themselves are pretty tough, slow to die and able to give their replacement limbs some nice abilities they'll hold their own against most minions, but their main purpose it to help their mistress. Kang (the big guy, you can see in the picture) is a front line buffer. While not to shabby in a fight himself, his real powers lie in buffing allies when they're near him or once he's killed an enemy. He'll also keep your rail workers in the fight longer by forcing them to rally and himself in the fight longer as he has regeneration of the same number as the turn!

But I hear you cry what can we add to these close combat monsters to improve them? Feast your eyes on these...

Price - £12.70/$21

Soul Stone amount -5 (each)

These recent releases from Wyrd are the best body guards in Malifaux. Able to activate with the model they're protecting (nominated at the start of the game, for this crew Mei Feng), they have high armour can rush into to save their target, heal themselves and take wounds for their targeted model. Importantly for a Mei Feng crew they can be used as way points for rail walker, meaning more butt kicking fun. 
With one to spare you can choose you two favourite or take your games up to 40 SS.

Adding the Metal Gamin takes us to £35.20 which makes for another very cheap crew, that's hard hitting and survivable, they also have a great personal scheme where you build a railway across the board. This is not only great fun but means your models will be spread out ... which is where Mei Feng wants them.

That's it for this time, please feel free to leave feedback as usual, and please, please, please check out the Hobbynomicon if you haven't already. Our web editors been working really hard to make the place look amazing. 

Malifaux on a Budget - Horde Crews

So we know by now I'm sure that I love Malifaux, one of the things I love most is how accessible it is to all new players because of its relatively low cost compared to most miniatures games. However I know not everyone has a huge budget which is why I began these articles, not as a way of telling people what to buy because it will win, but because its a good option for the price.

There are some crews (as a few have pointed out in emails) I have left suspiciously alone. This is because some crews are going to be more expensive to start. Many of the ressurectionist crews and a few others summon new models mid game or change a model within the game (such as Lilith). I have devoted a lot of time to working out how to choose cheaper models to make these crews work or work out the minimal models required to make it at least feasible for a new player to start the crew (such as my Kirai suggestions).
In the end I have come to the conclusion that some crews just need a lot of models to work in the way they're intended so the next few MOAB will be looking at alternate models to use in horde crews to lessen the cost.

Now I must mention before I begin that I still believe the official wyrd miniatures look better than most of the alternatives and obviously come with the rules cards but with so many resources for fan made cards (see Ratty's page in the side link) it is possible to make cards for alternate models.

This week we'll be looking at one of my favourite masters, Nicodem, and how I made my horde of undead for less money but still in the style of Malifaux.

Add caption

The Box

Price - £17.50

Soul Stone amount -22

Nicodem's box is one of the cheapest crew boxes and comes with a great back bone for a crew. Mortimer allows Nicodem to gain more corpse counters and it not to shabby in a fight. It also contains 3 Samurai punk zombies, which with paired weapons and cb7 all for 5ss are for my money the best combat troops in the game.
Nicodem's main ability however (like many ressurectionists) is the summoning of more undead, which he does better than any other master as for a (0) action he can summon as many mindless undead as you have corpse counters within 10". Now you may notice no mindless undead come in the box.

 Now it'll cost you £9 for three of these, which isn't too expensive, but when you consider that in a standard game I usually end up with 8 or so running around the costs mount up very quickly.

This is my Nicodem crew, and at the side (left) you can see my mindless zombies. I have the three wyrd zombies but when I found I needed more I used Mantic games ghouls box. Now its about £12 for twenty of these and they look suitably Malifuax-y anyway but I added Wyrd's hats and guns sprue to tie them in a little better. There are of course hundreds of plastic undead kits for a similar price so choose the one appropriate for you.

Now this together will give you a pretty solid 25 SS crew with mindless undead to summon, they joy of Nicodem is that once you have your Mindless undead you can add ANY undead models and Nicodem can buff them and as long as their not spirits re summon them!

Malifaux on a Budget: Effigies

Not too long ago once I had become a Henchman, my FLGS owner saw me eyeing up which Neverborn gang to buy as I wanted a crew for every faction. My eyes settled on Collodi and the conversation turned to how you never see him used, and in that moment a challenge was laid down. I had to take Collodi and make him work. Its a few months down the line and I had a pretty decent Collodi crew but it hinges entirely on the fact I take all five of the Effigies.

The Effigies are 5 puppets created by the hag Zorida to infiltrate the factions of Malifaux, as such there are five unique Effigies with their own unique flavour that tries to personify the faction it is affiliated to. Each of them works well with Zorida and Collodi, so I won't be touching on this in the rest of the article. Also non Neverborn crews hiring the effigies cannot take a totem for their master, which for most is not an issue but I'll cover this rule more a little later on.

 

Price:  £6.35

SS Cost: 4

Masters: Rasoutina, Ramos, Marcus. (While Colette can also take the effigy I believe she benefits from her doves more which is why she is not included.)

The arcane effigy is a casters best friend. With arcane reservoir giving you and extra card, and his attacks targeting opponents Ca value he's definitely one of the arcanists, but his true power lies in being able to give a friendly master an additional Ap for casting or channelling. One of the slower effigies Marcus may find himself separated from his helpful doll friend but the two slower masters will benefit from him no end.

Price:  £6.35

SS Cost: 4

Masters: Lilith, Pandora.

Harmless, can add to its defence, and its charge  at first glance you may think the Mysterious effigy is a combat character, an idea reinforced by its high defence and hidden blade weapon, but true to its name this is not where it power lies. The ME can shut down one models ability entirely but more interestingly allows you to flip a card and give slow to any model with Wp lower than the card value, very powerful to a combat heavy Lilith crew.

 

Price:  £6.35

SS Cost: 4

Masters: McMmourning, Nicodem, Seamus

The Carrion effigy has a very unassuming card compared to his fellows, its very concise and compact but still just as good. He is less powerful to Neverborn players but really benefits ressurectonists. He allows nearby grave robbers to heal for a corpse counter, has a poisoned beak and a blast radius ranged weapon. He can also remove immunities from opponents models especially good for taking away bullet proof or magic resistance to get the important kill in.

Price:  £6.35

SS Cost: 4

Masters: Viktoria, Som'er Teeth Jones

A lot of the Outcast masters need their totems for very specific things, so hodgepodge is over looked more than the other effigies. The reason for this is his abilities are a little complex but in essence his role is to keep the balance of fate and he does this by returning your jokers to your deck and allowing you to draw a card when you pull the black joker. He's not bad in combat and his auto trigger has a fair few options of what he can ignore when he hits. I would say Hodgepodge is the more specialist effigy but also the most fun.

 

Price:  £6.35

SS Cost: 4

Masters: Justice, Criid, Perdita

Now usually I begin with a guild choice but this time I've held this little guy back for a very good reason. Brutal effigy is a steal at 4SS, with melee expert, critical strike (ram included in his close combat attack) and a magical weapon. Already this guy can hold his own against  tougher enemies and is great for finishing a high cost minion with a coup de gras. The final and best thing about brutal effigy is however his ability to heal a friendly model as a (0) action. Combined with any of these masters and used to refill the few scratches they take will keep them alive longer with the effigy wading in as needed.