One of the things I enjoy most about Malifaux are the
different approaches that people can take to playing the same model. Tying into
that, I love finding particular combinations that make a very unloved model
suddenly the focus of my opponent when they realise what I’m up to!
My most infamous creation is probably still the
Governor’s Proxy / Ama No Zako routine. Yes, it’s cornercase. But it worked.
For those who don’t know because they’ve never seen him,
the Guild generic totem Governor’s Proxy has a front of card ability that
states if he’s killed, the model that killed him has to take a WP duel or be
immediately killed by the Governor-General. So if you Obey an enemy model to
kill the Proxy, then you’re in control of that subsequent WP duel and can
choose to fail it, resulting in the enemy model being killed. Luckily for most
people the Guild are very short on enemy Obeys, meaning the only one I could
actually make use of was Ama No Zako’s 0 action. It was still enough for the
Nekimas, Gracies, Lazarii and Langstons I killed with it before people caught
on and started resisting the Obey when the Governor’s Proxy was standing next
to their key model…
Until fairly recently, when real life forced their sale,
I was playing Arcanists. They gave me so many opportunities to experiment and
dream up strange creations. It was great fun. They’re a faction that has some
ridiculously powerful top tier models, but also a second tier containing models
that most factions would take in a heartbeat. And it was those where I turned
my attention.
Normally I shy away from any kind of podcast, article or
blog that tells you how to play the game. Each player is different. Different
playing styles, different interpretations of strength, different things they’re
trying to get out of the game. Not to mention the fact that between all the
random strategies, schemes and deployments, no two games of Malifaux will ever
be identical, and what works in one game may not work in another.
But I’m going to break my own rule a bit, and share some
of the things I came up with playing Arcanists. They may not work for you. My
goal is to get people thinking and looking at models they wouldn’t normally
look at, and maybe you can come up with a few tricks of your own as a result!
Marcus and Night
Terrors in Interference / Recon
Most people see Arcanists in Interference, they think
Ramos. They think Armour and anti-armour and relic hammers and summoning.
They’re not expecting Marcus.
They’re probably also not expecting just how fast a
Marcus crew is. Marcus himself can go to WK8. Most of his crew can Leap. There
are a lot of WK6 models in there to support. In a nutshell, it’s really not
difficult to get models into different table quarters.
The issue is, it’s easy to run off and starting eating
the opponent’s models. I know, I did this a lot. Enter the humble Night Terror.
A 3SS Resurrectionist Beast that’s Incorporeal, Hard to Kill and 4 Wounds. That
means pretty much regardless of what’s trying to hit it, they’re going to need
2 hits. But a Night Terror’s most annoying characteristic is that it’s a
Minion. That’s right, the WK6 Incorporeal ghost bat can hold table quarters
single-handedly. Ditto Stash markers and Turf War / Extraction. If you need to
make sure you can still hold your own quarters, they’re an excellent choice to
hide out of sight or take in multiples to flood a quarter.
They’re also a dirt cheap activation that you can burn
early, making it that little bit easier to pick your targets with Marcus or a
Sabretooth Cerberus.
Anglica as a
Practiced Production Caddy
Practiced Production is an upgrade I’ve actually asked
the games design team to take a look at. Of all the stunts I’ve pulled,
including Pandora and the 6-model Justice crew of fleshtearing death, Practiced
Production has earned me the most grief from my opponents. And I understand
entirely why.
Place a scheme marker next to a friendly model when you
activate the model carrying the upgrade, then make sure you have a different
marker to pick up at the end of the turn. That’s it. It’s amazingly good.
The restriction is, it can only be taken by Showgirls.
Which limits you to Colette, Cassandra, Carlos Vasquez or Angelica. Personally
I find Colette’s slots are already taken when I play her, and for Cassandra and
Carlos to be at their best they need to be potentially exposed to danger and
using their AP for their own benefit. If it goes wrong and you lose them, then
you find yourself struggling to get those markers down that you need.
Angelica however is a support piece. Her signature action
is amazing – target a friendly non-Leader model within 8”, and push it up to 5”
in any direction. The only restriction is you can’t target the same model with
it twice a turn, but that’s it. No card flips, it just happens. That has so
many potential applications in a game about movement and positioning that I
found myself taking her an awful lot. She really helps in a lot of ways, from
giving Sabretooth Cerberuses and Howard Langston a 5” head start, to pulling
more fragile models like Oxfordian Mages or Brass Arachnids out of danger.
She works from behind the front line and benefits from
Disguised, meaning she’s less likely to get attacked than her more illustrious
companions. It also means she’s less likely to have to use her own AP for
self-preservation, so if there’s no one else to drop that scheme marker to keep
your Practiced Production marker, she’s quite happy to do it.
Ramos and Ice
Golems
This was inspired by Justin Gibbs on Before We Begin,
when he talked about using Ramos to buff Coryphee. Of course me being me and seeing
that Ice Golems have a SMASH attack that does 9/10/12, my mind immediately
turned to making best use of it. And Viktor is your man.
The Under Pressure upgrade gives friendly Constructs in
aura 8 positive flips to melee attacks. If you’re spending 3AP to launch a
mega-attack, positive flips are very nice. Even an Ice Golem’s standard attack
does 3/3/6 with a built-in trigger for Slow. That’s not exactly a pleasant
experience for the opponent either!
I also found a way around the Ice Golems’ main weakness,
that frankly pathetic DF2. Metal Gamin. Protection of Metal will give the Golem
DF6. Golems can Toss the Gamin around to make sure they’re in the right place
to give that protection, and don’t be afraid to Reactivate a Metal Gamin with
the Brass Arachnid to set up a bubble. Once the condition is on the Golem, 1
Metal Gamin can keep it on 2 Ice Golems by standing in the middle of them.
The other bit where Ramos does his thing is Field
Generator. Use 1AP to cast Arcing Screen, giving positive flips to defence to
friendly models in aura 6.
Line it all up right, and even I managed to pull it off
so it’s not as hard as it looks, and those DF2 Ice Golems are suddenly DF6 with
positive flips on defence. That’s a whole different ball game.
If you’re worried about all that tech being expensive,
don’t be. What does Ramos also do? That’s right. He summons spiders off scrap
markers. So take Mobile Toolkit, junk it first turn, and then your spider
engine is off and running meaning that you’re not behind in the activation
stakes either. Your standard Steam Arachnid is a surprisingly good scheme
runner too.
Oiran with Colette
Very few models sell as poorly as the Oiran. But every
Colette player should have one in their arsenal because they are extremely
useful.
For starters, they buff the WP of all friendly living
models within aura 6. WP is a huge problem in a Colette Showgirl crew – other
than Colette herself, pretty much every other model in the crew is WP5. That
makes them very vulnerable to being pulled around the place, and can make
Terrifying models a particularly thorny problem. When the Oiran appears and
nudges that up to WP6 it makes a real difference.
She’s also a Showgirl. That means she can benefit from
Colette’s Showgirl tricks for Interacting and teleporting.
Her attacks are quite useful too. Her Lure is still CA8,
better than a Rotten Belle’s now. Yes, it needs a suit, but if Cassandra is
around to Understudy, well, that’s just a Soulstone away. But the real gold
here is the Unbeknownst trigger that she has, that gives an enemy model a
condition that prevents them from attacking models with the Showgirl
characteristic. Force that through and you can turn off an enemy beater for a
turn, and tell me that’s not worth it just to see your opponent’s face.
Plus, the models look lovely and paint up brilliantly.
Bonus.
Cojo
The big monkey doesn’t get a lot of love at all. He comes
with the Marcus box and if he didn’t, I do wonder how many would be in
circulation. But he’s hilarious with scheme markers.
I’ve used him against Parker, Titania and Colette in
particular, and in situations where I think my opponent will be clustering
scheme markers. It’s pretty simple – Cojo rushes the pile of markers, does his
0 action Mark Territory, then picks them all up and gains Defensive for each
marker removed. Your opponent has probably worked extremely hard to get that
many markers in position for schemes like Set Up, Dig Their Graves and Claim
Jump. Then along comes Cojo who promptly piddles on them, and then flips a load
of cards to protect himself when the counterattack comes.
He’s also great for setting up pounces, Rougarou Pinball
with Marcus being a particular favourite. His built in trigger on melee attacks
pushes the victim 5” in any direction. His other 0 is Rude Sign Language,
pushing all enemy models away with no resist. Is that a dead wolf waiting to
welcome the target with open jaws…? For the same reason he’s great for knocking
models around for strategy purposes.
I like the upgrade Well Rehearsed on him too. Cojo has
Hard to Kill already, which can annoy people. They get downright angry when
they shenanigan to take his last Wound only for him to discard Well Rehearsed
and grin like only a giant gorilla can. Plus the pushes he can get from markers
being dropped nearby can make him even more of a menace, and guarantee some
more Defensive from Mark Territory.
Ice Dancers
I won’t lie, I love these girls.
Their main use is as a ludicrously fast scheme runner.
Double walk 12”, push another 4”, and if you’ve cast Work the Crowd they then
drop a scheme marker 16” away from where they started. Wow.
I found them genuinely capable killers too. As they come
on their card, they’re ML6 with a 2/3/6 damage track and can push away after
making their strikes. Have a strategically placed Ice Gamin with Bite of
Winter, and that track goes to a faintly ludicrous 3/4/7.
Then you have Ice Path markers. Place these down, and if
the enemy tries to finish an action on top of them, you can push them 3”
immediately. OK, it works on you too, but if you want to deny charges or block
off things like Squat markers, the Ice Path is brilliant.
Add in the usual Frozen Heart benefits as well as the
fact that they’re Showgirls, and you get a package that’s worth much more than
6SS, particularly to Rasputina and Colette.
Ironsides and the
Arcane Emissary
Poor old Bullocks gets a lot of grief at the moment.
Despite the fact that he’s far and away the coolest model some players actually
rate him as the weakest of the Emissaries. These people are wrong – it’s
clearly Mysterious, ask Neverborn players – but his Walk of 4 is a bit
pathetic.
Cue Toni. For starters, Ironsides’ conflux is incredibly
useful. If she activates within aura of the Emissary she gains Adrenaline +1.
So that’s a head start if you want to start chaining punches, and a real boon
for Rush ‘Em which is brilliant.
She also has an action called You Lookin’ At Me, which
she can use to force models to push their Charge towards her, and they then
take a melee strike against her if in range. That’s really good with the Arcane
Emissary. Not only is his charge a monstrous 10, but when he gets there he
doesn’t have a melee action to hit her with. His main attack is a Cast, and his
big melee strike only works on the charge. Great all round.
Ironsides and
Johan
This one is probably pretty obvious, but damn it’s
effective.
Ironsides has an aura called Hand Picked Men – if an
M&SU model nearby has taken any damage then they gain positive flips to
attack and damage. Johan has Solidarity, meaning he gains positive flips to
attack if in aura of M&SU. Both Ironsides and Johan are M&SU.
It gets even funnier if Johan’s target is a Tyrant or
Construct. On my way to victory at a tournament, Johan took a wound from a
throwaway attack from a Shadow Effigy, then planted himself next to Shen Long.
Double positive to attack, triple positive to damage, with Flurry. The Monk of
Many Pyjamas did not enjoy that at all.
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