Malifaux - First Impressions

Yesterday was a pretty wonder-faux day. A day faux-ed with new experienced and faux-filled wishes. I faux-nally got to play Malifaux after a year of waiting, and it was Mali-velous.

Okay, I'm done with the puns. But they were fun!

Seriously though, I'm really happy with the game. Last week I was asking around my LGS about anyone who plays Malifaux, and it turned out that a worker had a casual group that played on occasion. I was told to call him when he came in later that day, we exchanged contact info, and finally set a time to meet up and play my first official game.

After chatting a bit, we set up our board. I know Malifaux is a terrain-heavy game, but I had no idea how much that was true until he told me to imagine a tic-tac-toe board, and we'd each be putting some terrain in each "square" of the board. He grabbed a few huge pieces, and the Warmachine player in me started cringing at just how much terrain he was expecting us to bring. How on earth was I supposed to maneuver around a board with so little open areas?!

Brent brought Ressurectionists. After I told him how Seamus, The Mad Hatter is my favorite master in terms of fluff, we went about randomly choosing our goals for the game. I had briefly read over each of these during my rulebook marathon, I assumed they were fairly mindless and didn't require too much thought. Boy was I wrong.

First we picked a strategy, which was a shared goal for each of us. At the end of each turn we scored a point if we controlled two 18"x18" quarters of the board, meaning we needed to have 1 or 2 models in an area. Further complicating things, we had 5 random schemes (mini objectives) that we could secretly choose from with the option of revealing them to gain extra points if we fulfilled them. I don't remember all the options, but I chose a scheme that required me to place markers on the center line of the table, and another that required me to keep one of my models alive until the very end.

After choosing those, we built our crews. Much to my enjoyment, Brent brought Seamus against me, while I of course brought my Lady Justice crew, with several upgrades made to beat Resurrectionists. I took photos for a possible battle report so I won't spoil the ending, but let me say that the game is much more strategic than I imagined. We traded blows for a bit, but Brent was slowly building his way towards setting up a strong goal-oriented presence on the board. My Warmachine history told me that I could worry about the objectives once I had crushed him enough, but that was definitely a mistake.

When the game ended, I was on top of the world. I remembered my rules fairly well, and by the end of the game I almost felt competent as a player. Despite each of us trying to win, the entire game was light-hearted and enjoyable.

Later that night, I also got to play my buddy Josh for his first game of Malifaux. More Ressurectionists for the Guild to put down! Things went pretty slow at first since we were both new, but by the end I feel like we both had a good grasp on the rules. He shredded my Lady J with his vicious Punk Zombies, and I put down a never-ending tide of Mindless Zombies on the other half of the board. We had a lot of fun, and despite having to drive through a baby blizzard and having my windshield-wiper motor die after 10 minutes, I was so glad I finally got to play the game at my group.

I'm reserving full judgment until I play a few games, but so far I love the game. The rules are straightforward, with the complexities being left up to the individual models' rules instead of a dense book. I love the emphasis on terrain, especially since it actually served a strong purpose in both games that I played. I thought I wouldn't like premeasuring, but it removed so much frustration and disappointment that can instantly an otherwise enjoyable game. The battles felt thematic, with each crew bringing a unique flavor that required me to play strategically against my opponent, rather than just trying to work around my opponent so that I could make my list do what it's supposed to do.

The game was definitely worth the wait, and I can't wait to dig deeper in to the game. And now that I've officially played a game, I think it's about time to get my crew painted up!


See you tomorrow!

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