Welcome to Malifaux - Prim's Breachside Blog

[The Other Dave]

OK, dang, I've been idly looking over Pull My Finger and thinking about a crew I might pick to try and get back into the game and man oh man is it daunting. Lots and lots of choices, each of which seems to have its own different twists and tricks on how the game is played. Which is a strength of the game, I get that! So in the end I think I'd want to go with look / fun-to-painty-ness as a main driving factor, but also don't want something that would be way too tricky for a new player to get a handle on.

Looking over things, it looks like my options are:

-Repaint Sonia (my poo paint job is frankly one of the reasons I'm not keen to play with her, heh) and add a few models and see how that would go. Actually this isn't my first choice as I don't like the sculpt on Sonia all that much, and with lots of plastics available I'd like to get a plastic crew if possible for the ease of transport that provides.

-Get a crew I like the look of (and my dislike of Wyrd's particular brand of cheesecake is a *big* limiter here), which means:

-Tara and her pet Cthulhu from the Resurrectionists
-Ironsides or Mei Feng from the Arcanists
-Zoraida and some tree and frog dudes from the Neverborn
-Leveticus and his gribblies from the Outcasts (his half-naked women are wearing sensible Victorian unmentionables and so pass my cheesecake test )

Of those 5 crews, which would be the more newbie-friendly (and why)?

[Primarch]

Easiest? Probably Tori Ironsides. She is fairly independent from her crew and capable of laying a beat down on most things by herself. Mei Feng is similar, both of them are close in melee types. Tori gets powered up by fighting, the adrenaline condition builds up the more enemies she engages and then can be discharged for bonus beating power. Mei relies on having constructs in her crew so that she can use them to maneuver around the board quickly. Both ladies are part of the same Miners and Steamfitters Union, so theme well with the same models, but Mei is a little more restrictive if you want to get the most out of her. However Mei can also take some Ten Thunders models if you fancy any of those.
Zoraida seems to be also fairly independent of her crew. Her actions are all about buffing her guys and debuffing the enemy. You can run her as Neverborn or Gremlin, with a selection of models from both factions always available to her. She isn't the toughest master, but so long as you are cautious with her she looks pretty good.
Leviticus and Tara both look pretty complex, though that translates into a lot of versatility once you master them. Leviticus' thing is to get killed as often as possible. When he dies he comes back at full health and kills stuff. His crew is probably going to be the same core models again and again as he needs certain things on the table to function. He looks pretty mobile and has some powerful attacks. Tara focuses more on board control. She speeds up her own crew and slows down the enemy, or simply removes them from existence for a while. Again, the core of her crew will be what comes in her starter box, though she can probably get away without those models if you need to.

So, Tori looks fairly straghtforward, though obviously aesthetics are a thing you should consider. I think Leviticus is probably the most difficult to begin with, simply because you need to be thinking a few steps ahead.

[The Other Dave]

Cool, thanks for the thoughts! My first choice of those is probably actually Zoraida, mostly because the Neverborn have a cool variety of different kinds of models to keep painting fresh (and who doesn't like frog dudes and tree dudes). Am I right in reading that dual-faction leaders like her would be running a given game as Neverborn OR Gremlin, and so couldn't take models from both factions at the same time?

[Primarch]

Cool, thanks for the thoughts! My first choice of those is probably actually Zoraida, mostly because the Neverborn have a cool variety of different kinds of models to keep painting fresh (and who doesn't like frog dudes and tree dudes). Am I right in reading that dual-faction leaders like her would be running a given game as Neverborn OR Gremlin, and so couldn't take models from both factions at the same time?

Taking a Dual Faction master works like this:
Choose which faction you are using. You may freely hire models from that faction.
If you buy certain upgrade cards (masters may attach up to 3 cards) or you have a rule on the master's card, you may hire specific types of models from outside your faction.
You can also hire up to 2 mercenaries (at an additional cost of 1 Soulstone per model).

In Zoraida's case, she can hire freely from Neverborn or Gremlins.
Her upgrade allows her to hire Swampfiend models freely.
She can hire up go 2 mercenaries (+1 Soulstone each)
She can hire any living model with willpower of 4 or less as a mercenary (her own ability).

So she actually has quite a broad hiring base.

[The Other Dave]

So she can always hire freely from Gremlins, Neverborn and Swampfiends of any faction (and up to 2 weak-willed models of any faction), regardless of which faction she declares? Neat. Though just tree dudes and frog dudes (and, OK, maybe gremlins riding roosters, and maybe Insidious Madnesses...) would probably keep me busy for a while.

Do upgrade cards work the same way? The upgrade choice rules say "A Crew may only purchase Upgrades for its models that are the same Faction declared by the Crew." - the way I read it that would mean that, since Zoraida is dual faction, she can purchase any upgrades that are legal for her, regardless of what faction the crew declared, but (say) Bad Juju, as a Neverborn model, couldn't get any upgrades if she took it along in a Gremlin-declared crew.

My head hurts...

[Primarch]

So she can always hire freely from Gremlins, Neverborn and Swampfiends of any faction (and up to 2 weak-willed models of any faction), regardless of which faction she declares? Neat.

She can hire freely from Neverborn OR Gremlins, not both at the same time.

Do upgrade cards work the same way? The upgrade choice rules say "A Crew may only purchase Upgrades for its models that are the same Faction declared by the Crew." - the way I read it that would mean that, since Zoraida is dual faction, she can purchase any upgrades that are legal for her, regardless of what faction the crew declared, but (say) Bad Juju, as a Neverborn model, couldn't get any upgrades if she took it along in a Gremlin-declared crew.

Most of Zoraida's upgrades are also dual faction, so she can usually take any of them. But her crew are restricted to only taking upgrades from the declared faction, so Bad Juju wouldn't be able to take Neverborn upgrades in a Gremlin crew.

[The Other Dave]

OK, cool - looks like the answer is basically "get her cards and read them carefully," heh.

One more question: does the local meta have a preferred game size that I'd want to collect towards?

[Primarch]

OK, cool - looks like the answer is basically "get her cards and read them carefully," heh.

One more question: does the local meta have a preferred game size that I'd want to collect towards?

Most games I have played have been between 35 and 45 points. I think 50 is the recommended level on the Wyrd forums, but I don't recall ever playing that many points before.

[me_in_japan]

In my experience we tend to wing it. 35-45 seems about right. A few more/less won't cause you major issues, though.

[Primarch]

I think my Cult of December comes up to about 70 stones before upgrades, but that's mainly so I don't run the same crew every game. 40 stones, give or take, seems like a good level for having enough models on the table to deal with schemes and fight your opponent while forcing you to be careful with your control hand.