Through the Breach - Cogs, Gears and Steam...

I've previously spoken about what first attracted me to Malifaux and about the themes it explores that may appeal to you. I suppose I should talk about the actual 'mechanics' of the game system a little...we'll start at the beginning with some of the most basic elements...

These girls are quite obviously mechanics so these pictures are totally relevant...

The big difference between Malifaux and other systems that you may be familiar with is that the game uses a deck of cards rather than a handful of dice. Though Wyrd make appropriate packs of cards with some nice artwork on them you can get away with using a standard deck of cards if you wish. You'll need a deck with Jokers though as they play an important part of the system with the Red and Black Jokers representing Magic at it's most potent and most weak respectively. The card suits are also relevant as certain Abilities and Spells need a specific card suit before they can be used. You'll also need some models...


All the Masters can be purchased in starter boxes that consists of their signature models and each model has their own stat card for you to reference in game. Their own stats and those of their weapons are on the front of the card together with an overview of all their Abilities, Actions, Spells and Triggers with more detailed information on the back...

I tend to laminate mine so I can mark off wounds taken with a whiteboard pen or similar but you can use counters or dice as wound markers if you prefer.

Once you have a crew each, a deck of cards each and some markers all you need is a 3' by 3' area to play on (though I'd recommend 4' by 3' so you have somewhere to put your stat cards, any models that may be summoned later and your inevitable dead pile) and a copy of the rules. The current rule set is 1.5 though you don't need to buy a rulebook if you don't want the background material and pretty diagrams as the cut down version is available for free at this link. I happen to like the background material myself though that might have something to do with the zombie hookers...

Hands up every-one who thought the next picture was going to have zombie hookers in it...

Each game will be played at a specific 'Soulstone' level (equivalent to a points value) decided before a game and your crew selected from one of several available factions. So if your using Resurrectionists you'd be limited to members of that faction, Neverborn can only use Neverborn models, etc. Admittedly there are some exceptions to that rule but it's broadly accurate, lol. From a strictly competitive point of view you select Faction, then mission and then select your Crew but to be honest most people just pick a Master they think is cool and then take complimentary models...fortunately the box-sets usually have themed models in them anyway...

Deployment type, terrain, your own mission and any special features of the mission are selected via card flips at the beginning. You can just pick which ones you want as long as your opponent is happy to do so...a simple tutorial on the set-up of a basic game can be found here...it's one of mine but it's hard to tell because there's no swearing or half naked girls in there...Of course the set-up is always the boring bit...fortunately it's followed by the kicking ass bit...

Each model is activated individually, uses it's available Actions Points and then your opponent gets to do the same with one of theirs. This continues till all models are activated at which point the turn ends and it all starts over again. Each model gets two General Actions (Walk, Strike, Cast a Spell, etc.) and one 0 Action. 0 Actions are things that a model can do without effort such as Seamus turning a Corpse Counter into a Zombie Hooker, Lady Justice getting better at killing shit or SynSinn turning you into Megan Fox while defiling you with Tentacles*. Certain models get extra Specific Actions that can only be used for certain things such as +1 Melee Expert that gives you an extra action that can only be used for kicking the crap out of things...

*I may have made that last one up...

The actual mechanic for getting shit stuff done is fairly simple. In a Melee situation (for example) a model's weapons have a Value (Cb) to which the value of a card flip is added, The defender then flips a card and adds it to their Defence (Df) Stat and if the attacker is equal to or higher than the defender they've hit them and if it's less then they've missed. You can attempt to avoid this result as you do get a hand of cards each turn that you can use to 'Cheat fate' and any Soulstones not used to buy a crew can be used by Masters to add cards to the total (amongst other things). Should you successfully Bitch Slap Strike an enemy then the difference between the two totals decides how many cards you flip for damage and whether you pick the highest or lowest...don't worry...there's a reference card with the modifiers on it.....

Casting Spells is done in a similar manner. The main difference being that you'll have a target number to reach, usually a suit requirement (or more) and you generate your total before the defender generates his or hers. Some spells target the enemies Willpower (Wp) rather than Defence (Df) and several of the more esoteric ones even target other statistics.

The actual rule system is deceptively simple but once you take into account that you can activate your models in any order you wish, use your Action Points in any order and that many models are synergistic in unique ways it's easy to see how the tactical elements soon becomes very sophisticated indeed. Indeed it is this tactical element that is amongst the reasons why I enjoy the system so much...that and zombie hookers, obviously...

Next article we'll either take a look at the various factions or have a more in depth look at the game mechanics depending on how I feel or if you the audience have a particular preference...if by any chance your preference is 'No more zombie hookers' then I'll obviously ignore you completely...

Should you have any questions then feel free to post them in the comments section or you can contact me in the following ways,

My Blog - http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.co.uk/
My E-Mail - gmortschaotica@hotmail.co.uk

Oh...as I forgot to mention them in the themes article a few weeks ago and therefore potentially losing SynSinn as a Malifaux player...here's some tentacles...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.