Malifaux - A Very Wyrd Review

Game: Malifaux
Producer: Wyrd Miniatures
Style: Story Based Skirmish Game
Minimum Startup Cost: $35
Appropriate Startup Cost: $80

Preface:

As I mentioned in an earlier post.  I have a deep seeded hatred for Miniatures games.  Which makes my love for this game surprising indeed.

Take what you know about miniatures games and defenestrate it.  You're in for a wild ride!

Overview:

I'm going to start with what is hands down the most important part of this game.  The setting.  The rulebook for this game is half fantasy novel, and half rules text.  It reads painlessly as either one alternating chapters between a section of rules, and a chapter of the story which includes a variety of colorful characters.

Lets get a little more specific.  I have heard the setting for this game described in many ways.  None of which have been the same.  I've heard testimony that the game's creator describes it as, "Victorio-Horror-Wester-Punk," (This quote may be a little inaccurate, but you get the basic idea.) The only stable thing that I've heard agreed upon is that Malifaux (the setting) is a mash-up of many different commonly exploited game and fantasy settings and genres.  In my own opinion, it is exactly the right balance of all of these things and creates something incredibly beautiful.

"I really wanted to hate the Resurrectionists," said a friend of mine on the subject of one of the setting's factions, "Because I'd played undead in so many other miniatures games.  But I just couldn't.  They did so many different and original things with them that I can't help but love them."

Delving further leads us to Malifaux's Factions.  An element to this game that is functional in both game mechanics and setting fluff.  There are five Factions in Malifaux: The Guild, The Resurrectionists, The Arcanists, The Neverborn, and The Outcasts.  In the story, they are the five warring pseudo-political Factions that create the tension and conflict through their interactions.  In the game, players pick one of the Factions to recruit models from and assemble their Crew for the Scrap or Brawl they are about to face another player in. Every Crew has a Master, which is essentially your leader, and often a main character from the story line.

The Guild - They are the lawmakers in the setting.  At first, I was thinking paladins, but as I read further, I discovered that this was the first in a long list of tropes that the setting decided to invert.  The Guild does not make laws because they feel it's right, they make laws because it is much easier to turn a profit when all of the citizens in your city are ground into depression and subservience by your jackboot.  Pure genius. Guild masters include Lady Justice (with eyes as blind as justice should be), Sonia Criid (the mage hunter), and Perdita Ortega (with gunslinging skills that would put Annie Oakley to shame).

The Resurectionists - You guessed it: Necromancers.  Once again, forget what you know.  These guys aren't your typical hang-around-the-graveyard-talking-to-corpses-shut-ins that so many fantasy settings make them out to be.  Well, most of them aren't.  Of the main Resurectionists in the story, one is a Dr. Frankenstein knock-off, and the other is a bat-sh*t crazy Irishman with a very fine hat, and a very large gun.  These guys traipse around the setting on a quest for knowledge that can only spell the end of the world if left unchecked.  That trope was signed sealed and delivered to fantastic effect because they weren't even aware they were doing it.

The Arcanists - Mages, Inventors, Scientists, and sometimes even Cultists.  These guys are into just about everything, especially if it chafes against what the Guild is after.  Of all the factions, I know the least about the Arcanists, having never played against them.  Their part in the story is mostly a back seat role, however that doesn't make it any less important, it just means you don't see most of them most of the time.  For as much as they branch out, The Arcanists are colorful and imaginatively put together.

The Neverborn - The native peoples of Malifaux are the things of nightmares.  Twisted bastardizations of their formers selves.  They are the ones that are really in charge, and have been running things from behind the scenes for years by manipulating all of the other Factions without their knowledge.  The Neverborn are my chosen Faction.  I love their play style and fluff.  Objectively, each one of the Masters for the Neverborn have their own play style and unique ability set.  Lilith is an enchanting beauty that rules over demonic hordes charging into battle for little more than the taste of the blood of her enemies. Pandora (yes, the one with the box) is a manipulative nightmare using a truly painful amount of willpower effects to manipulate the entire enemy crew.  Zorida is an old swamp hag specializing in practicing tarot cards and voodoo, and shame on you if you attack an old woman, because she will punish you for it.  Diverse and powerful, this Faction gets a very subjective A+.

The Outcasts - Every miniatures games needs a group of mercenaries that can be used to fill out other lists.  Malifaux has the Outcasts.  Possibly the most diverse and comical of all the Factions, the Outcasts have next to no unity, which makes them so beautiful.  Their masters range from a Katana wielding, trentch coat wearing, femme fatale with an no-longer-evil twin sister (The Vicktorias), to a redneck goblin with a musket (So'mer Teeth Jones).  In the story, the Outcasts fill in the gaps, working for anyone who will pay them the proper going rate.  In the game, they do exactly the same thing.  They are able to be hired by any other Faction for an additional cost above their normal unit price.

The Game:

I'd like to spend some short time giving a quick overview of the rules, some of their caveats, and my opinions of them.

Unlike many war/skirmish game, Malifaux does not use dice.  It uses playing cards with the serial numbers shaved off instead.  Grab a deck of 52 playing cards, two jokers (label one black and one red) and you're set (you just have to remember that Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, and Clubs translate to Masks, Rams, Crows, and Tomes respectively).  Current competitive play requires players to have the models that they use in their games, but does not require them to be painted (to my knowledge).  My above statistics listed a minimum startup cost of $35.  For that price, you buy the core rulebook and you're ready to go.  The core book has stats for all of the models that were available at the time the book was released.  So use some quarters or something, and get going.  I've also listed an appropriate startup cost.  For $80 you can grab the book, a starter set full of models, and the neat looking Malifaux deck which has the required number of cards with the properly labeled Malifaux specific suits.

Malifaux also breaks the trend of normal miniature/skirmish games by changing what it means to win.  In other games, you win by eradicating the enemy, or killing their leader, or some other arbitrary goal that involves a lot of fighting. In Malifaux it is possible to win a match without actually attacking your opponent.  It's not about killing the other person's models (though that does help), it's about accomplishing your strategy and schemes.  This is why Malifaux is a story driven skirmish game.  You win by completing the story, not by killing your opponent.  This is my favorite part about Malifaux! It is such a revolutionary idea to me that I immediately fell in love with it.  To my knowledge, none of the other mainstream miniatures games employs this. Fun and original! Wyrd Miniatures gets a tip of my hat for that.

I won't delve too much into the specific rules, but know that the general mechanic works like this:

Declare an action, measure distance to check range.  If out of range, action fails.  If within range, begin a "Duel". Once the winner of the Duel is determined, activate any triggers and resolve the action.

Duels in Malifaux are essentially a giant game of War (that game you played with cards when you were three because you didn't know how to play anything else).  Each player flips a card from their deck, adds the appropriate modifier from the acting or defending model's stats.  Decide who is currently the winner.  Then starting with the loser, players may "Cheat Fate".  Cheating involves playing a card from your hand to replace the one you flipped from your deck.  Then the winner gets to decide whether or not to Cheat Fate.  Redetermine the totals, Decide who is the final winner, and proceed from there.

Obviously, there is a lot more to these rules, but those are the basics.

Some interesting caveats I ran across while reading the book are as follows:  Like other miniatures games, you're required to declare and action BEFORE you check distance with a ruler.  If you're then out of range, the action fails and you lose that action.  Measuring distance in order to determine whether or not you can attack is in fact, cheating.  I'm non-plussed about this rule.  I understand that it helps balance the game, restricting players so that they can't "just barely move into range," etc.  However, it adds a level of difficulty to the game if players don't have a good eye for distance.

Another interesting rule is the part about summoning.  If you cast a spell or use an ability that summons a model to the field, you must actually own that model or request to borrow one from your opponent. If you do not own the model, then the action fails.  This applies to the Resurrectionist's abilities to summon zombies and the like.  It also applies to their ability to revive the fallen models of their opponents.  Interestingly enough, in competition if you try to revive a opposing unit, the owner can elect to deny you permission to use their model.  If that occurs, the action/spell fails.  To me, this sounds like, "If your opponent is a jerk, you had better own all of the models that they're running so you can use your own if he tells you you can't use his." Unlike the earlier rule, I have strong opinions about this one.  It is a turd!  Wyrd Miniatures gets a wag of my finger for that.

One other observation that I've made about this game is that no one really actually knows how to play it.  I say this jokingly, of course.  But the fact remains is that the online errata for the book and models is about as long as my forearm, and at least as long as the original rulebook itself.  I'm totally fine with sticking by new games while they hammer out their issues, but I've heard tales of players in tournaments asking referee's questions that required them to huddle up, talk in hushed whispers, and flip through books for five minutes and still have no answer.  A lot of the errata is posted on their online forums, but I would still like to see a downloadable compiled list of some sort.

Bottom Line:

The bottom line is, that while this game has some issues with rules and semantics, and while I have a deep seeded hatred for miniatures games, somehow, I love it.  It's incredibly fun to play, and cheap to get into.  I highly recommend grabbing your friends and press ganging them into hiring some crews and hitting the table.

Rating: 4 soul stones out of 5.