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Thinkin' Luck (A guide to Malifaux Decision points)

 Introduction

Today's article is gonna delve back into general Malifaux tactics again so should be applicable for most everyone, not just Bayou Dwellers. This is a pretty indepth discussion but hopefully I can condense ideas to the point where they help you in the process.

So one of the things Malifaux gets touted for is being a game that offers some of the best tactical decisions in a miniatures game. Every step of the game has some sort of space where decisions you as a player make effect the game in a large way. Often you hear players say "I lost because my deck hated me" or "I would have won if they hadn't included model X". The truth is, very often the mistake that cost the game happened at one of these key decision points in the game. These spots aren't always easy to recognize in the moment and when we get back to tourney play it can be a strain playing 3 or 4 games in a day to be aware of it all. Tournaments are the equivalent of a boxing match for your brain. Having a working knowledge on the large decision points will help you start to see the smaller points as well. 

Keyword Selection


So some people would say that Faction selection would be the first big key point but honestly each faction has competitive options so the first major decision point comes down to the keyword you select to go into the pool, deployment and your opponent's faction. 

Let's touch on your opponent's faction real quick because this is sort of a rabbit hole that sometimes good players can even get caught up in. Certain keywords have very bad match ups, most of the time its not enough to straight up lose you the game but along with all the other decision points in the game it could end up being an uphill battle. 

For instance, Rasputina. With her main mechanics relying on Ice Pillars, any faction heavy on Marker removal or Blow It to Hell might make things a struggle for declaring her. This isn't to say that you will lose with Raspy going into Bayou or Explorer's but its more stress on you as a Raspy player.  

In Bayou I hesitate to take Zipp into Ten Thunders because the Masked Agent upgrade exists. Its a nightmare for him. Same with bringing Ulix into Neverborn. His crew has a lot of 4 WP and NB is full of WP attacks. Dora or Dreamer love to snack on piggies. 

The Scheme and Strat pool are the bigger part of this decision point. Certain keywords can just do specific pools better than others and having the knowledge to know who in your arsenal is up for what pool makes a big difference. For instance, Kin is a solid pick into any pool that is very killy and also doesn't require a lot of movement tricks to get to the action. Whereas Sooey and Zipp crews tend to be very good at getting in to the mix quickly. 

Familiarity can't be understated at this decision point either by the way. Grabbing a keyword you've never played just because its best at the pool might lead you to a loss simply because you don't know the intricacies of playing that keyword vs one you are more familiar with. If winning is the goal of your game, its almost always better to stick with what you know. Very few keywords in the game are completely incapable of doing each pool and deployment combo if you know how to make it work. 

List Building and Scheme Selection

I'm going to combo these two together because more often then not you are building your list so that you can accomplish schemes you've already decided on. 

List Building requires you to consider a few things, what can you do to get points, what can you do to deny your opponent points, does the state of the board hinder you any? 

Its actually pretty easy for the most part to get this right. If its a very kill hungry pool then bringing soft, squishy models that give up points might not be the right models for the job. Conversely, if the pool is very scheme heavy, you want find models that have the actions you need to both drop and deny points. 

The board state is a big part of this too, as models that can't leap, fly, push, ride with me, etc might get bogged down on terrain heavy boards and melee models might get shot to death depending on opponent's crew with wide open boards. More on this when we get to deployment. 

Building to counter your opponent is a bit of a next level playstyle and its a place you have to be very careful of. Too much tech can keep you from scoring your own points and leave your crew inflexible and not optimal. Too little and a very powerful ability can get the best of you. This also requires you to have a pretty extensive meta knowledge to do correctly. Best advice is to ask your opponent what the keyword they've chosen does in a quick overview sense if you don't know. 

Scheme selection is the place that I feel like myself and most other Malifaux players struggle the most. This is the place where people can make the wrong decisions and not be able to realize that it cost them the game. Its a very unique part of the game that you don't see in the other big miniature games and it takes some time and knowledge to get good at. You need to be aware of what schemes are gonna be easy or tough to do. Going up against an enemy Infamous crew or enemy Forgotten crew? Marker schemes are probably a bad idea. Facing down Nephilim, assassinate isn't a bad idea cause Nekima is gonna be in your face anyway. Its probably sounding like a broken record but practice is where you get good at this decision point. Learn which models you can bring to make certain strategies easier. 


Deployment

Another big decision point in Malifaux is deployment on the board. Sometimes you can lose the game right there. In the aforementioned Nekima game lets pretend you are in Wedge deployment. If you deploy at the top of the Wedge, Nekima is going to take down a lot of your crew on turn 1. 



The schemes you choose are important to deployment as well. Multiple podcasts have pointed it out, but the least amount of walks you make in a game, the better. You should consider how far away the spots you need models to be are and deploy in kind. Remember again how terrain can effect you getting to where you need to be. A big forest or building can slow you down long enough to miss the chance to score if you don't have the tech to get around them. 


Gameplay

Alright so we got through all of that, the actual decisions you make inside the game are really important too right? Well yes and no, if you have a good plan to start the game itself should be pretty easy overall to play. Once you get a handle on it, the correct pre game decisions can make the rest of the game run smoother. 

That's it for now. I'll be back after the New Year with more content. Hit me up if there's other things you'd like to see from us here in the Bayou. 

If you'd like to hear me and Jesse prattle on about Ulix check out the Boring Conversations podcast on Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-TFr8V2v84&t=887s

and you can hear me chat with Cody about how to expand your playbook vs the new Explorer's on Swampfiends podcast https://anchor.fm/swampfiends


Until next time Bayou fans!

*all images are copyright of Wyrd Games

 

 

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