Choosing a Crew

What Master is Right For Me?

= Overview = Getting into Malifaux there is a lot... and I mean a LOT to choose from. There are 7 unique factions with 7 masters in each. I still think the best way to get started is to find the crew you think looks absolutely Boss and just play that one. Masters are all fairly balanced against each other and you can't really shoot yourself in the foot with any selection. But I get that you might want a bit more info than that. Or heck, debating between a Master or three? Well hopefully this helps narrow the field a bit.

= Faction Overview = Before we get going, lets take a look at what each faction offers. Beyond your Master you're going to need a crew and thats going to come to faction. So its a solid plan to know what you're likely to get out of them.

The Guild
The Guild doesn't mess around with subtlety - they favor direct confrontation and physical damage, often at range with many (many) guns. Their straightforward playstyle makes them easy to learn, but with enough depth for veteran players.

The Guild prefer quality to quantity. They tend to lack summoners and are generally the slowest of the factions - compensating for their lack of speed and numbers with a notable abundance of firepower, buffing and strong individual models. Most Guild Masters are equipped to fight certain foes, though this doesn't make them useless when fighting outside their specialties.

The Resurrectionists
The Resurrectionists are about all things undead, and tend to favor summoning new models and raining debilitating effects (particularly Poison) upon their opponents. The summoning, combined with having lots of wounds and a lot of damage-mitigating abilities, make them very resilient (the majority of their minions are either Incorporeal, or have Hard to Wound). However, with some key exceptions, they don't have a lot of options for dealing death from a distance.

The Arcanists
A faction of fragile spellcasters, backed by lots of constructs and beasts. Magical attacks, whether in melee or at range, are a common sight in these crews, with a wide variety of elemental spells (fire, ice, electricity) dealing death from a distance. The huge variety of constructs provide melee power and durability. Beasts are also commonly found in this faction, though they tend to be 'glass cannons' - high speed and damage with low resilience.

The Neverborn
The Neverborn are the monsters of Old Malifaux, having inhuman creatures at their disposal and insidious means of dealing death to the invaders of their world. They are often tricky to learn when compared to some of the simpler crews in the game and take more time to master, but this extra time and effort pays off in the form of skill and tricks.

The Neverborn focus on speed, deception, and a lot of Willpower-based abilities. They have many tricks and a great deal of melee power, having some of the most damaging melee minions in the game. However, this is offset by their relative fragility. Resilience is definitely not their forte and they tend to lack a straightforward style of play.

The Outcasts
The Outcasts are not really defined by anything specific, aside from the fact that they are people who live on the fringes, generally answer to no one but themselves and pursue their own goals and agendas; whether it be money, power, revenge or some combination of the three. . Many Outcasts have the Mercenary trait, which allows them to be hired by other factions at an additional cost.

The Ten Thunders
The Ten Thunders are an asian-influenced faction that have infiltrated every other faction in game, making most of their Masters Dual Faction and allowing them access to a wider breadth of models than normal. They can come at you from a variety of angles with model both slow and powerful or fast and hard to kill. The 10 Thunders are unique in their ability to bring nearly any playstyle to the table when declared, so good luck to your opponents trying to figure out what gameplay style they should be expecting.

The Gremlins
Hardly more intelligent than the hogs they raise, the Gremlins of Malifaux's bayou know one thing, if it ain't Gremlin it's dinner. As dangerous to themselves as as they are to anyone else, they often hurt themselves for temporary buffs to their power. Many gremlins copy the abilities of well known individuals from other factions, others are simply dangerous sneaks on their own. A horde of gremlins can be a serious problem for anyone. Gremlins are good at three things: Drinkin' and Fightin'

Not Math

= Guild =

Lady Justice
Melee. Lady J is the hardest hitting melee model in the game. Her crew is the Guild's answer to Ressers. She has a lot of Wounds, can heal them back and can strike your opponents down in 2s and 3s if they get into combat with her. Or just if they swing and miss her with Riposte. Your weakness is being taken out at range and being a bit of a one trick pony, good as the trick may be.

Perdita Ortega
Perdita is great at range and can use her ranged abilities in melee as well. She's quick on the draw and can shoot her opponent for missing her. She can cycle her hand when she's down to the dregs. She’s fast and she’s impressively hard to hit with 7's in Df AND Wp. And that's before the rest of her Family starts supporting her. The Guild's answer to Neverborn.

Sonnia Criid
Burn the Witch. Sonnia creates a lot of fire and punishes Magic users. She is one of the few Guild Masters who can summon minions as well as pillars of flame. Can do obscene amounts of damage by catching enemy models under her blast templates. Arcanists: Tremble.

Hoffman
Ultra-high synergy with Constructs. He works with Guild constructs and you really won’t take anything that isn’t one with him. He buffs them and more importantly they buff him right back. Asupport master, but can still dish it out as well.

Lucius
Make those Guardsman into terrors. Lucius manipulates the weaker Guild models to complete two-fold actions; lay a scheme marker and shoot an enemy, take a walk action and make a friendly model do anything you want... there are many options on how to support your units with Lucius. He is probably the least straight-forward of the Guild Masters, as befits the two-faced bureaucrat. Dual Faction with Neverborn.

McCabe
He's not Indiana Jones for legal reasons. He's on a horse. He’s faster than almost everyone because of it, and he definitely plays a control game utilizing Slow and Paralyze. His totem helps him synergize well with Hounds and his ability to toss his Upgrades onto friendly models can result in being able to attack from some very unexpected vectors. Again, call him a Treasure Hunter or he'll rip your lungs out. Dual Faction with 10 Thunders.

McMourning
Works in The Guild's morgue. He can dice enemies with his scalpel and infect survivors with Poison. Douggie is a surgical strike, hard-hitting and deadly either from the initial attack or the plethora of follow ups he can make once you're poisoned. Not as straight up powerful as Lady J, but can edge an advantage out over her with layered damage sources and just being mad as hell. Dual Faction with Ressers.

= Resurrectionists =

Nicodem
The summoner in Malifaux. Nobody does it better than Nicodem. If you like winning through attrition, this is your guy. Nicodem can simply summon more and more as more things die. He can summon like crazy and then he buffs the crew to keep them going.

Seamus
Seamus loves Terrifying models and heals as opponents fail Wp duels. He is one of the most resilient Resser Masters and can step out from the shadows of Back-Alleys around the board to shooting one of the most devastating guns in the game at unsuspecting foes. Seamus is a serial killer mixing Jack the Ripper with Mr Hyde, summoning more Zombie Ladies of the Night as he hacks them down.

McMourning
Works in The Guild's morgue. He can dice enemies with his scalpel and infect survivors with Poison. Douggie is a surgical strike, hard-hitting and deadly either from the initial attack or the plethora of follow ups he can make once you're poisoned. Not as straight up powerful as Lady J, but can edge an advantage out over her with layered damage sources and just being mad as hell. Dual Faction with Guild. Unique to his Resser incarnation is the ability to summon Canine Remains from enemies killed by Poison and Flesh Constructs from those killed by Expunge.

Kirai
Kirai has a great affinity for spirits. She doesnt care about corpses like many of the Ressers do, she's about revenge. She's summons the impressive Ikiryo when her or her friends are damaged and uses her and other spirits to achieve victory. She shuffles them around, she can summon them, and she buffs them. With the Incorporeal's natural resistance to non-magical damage, it can be very hard to take down all of Kirai's crew.

Molly Squidpidge
Formerly one of Seamus' Belles, Molly has come into her own. Molly is really good at debuffing while at the same time making her own crew better. Combined with the movement powers she possesses she can bring the forgotten of Malifaux right into your face. Summons Spirits and Horrors with a unique mechanic using the wounds of your enemies instead of their bodies.

Yan Lo
Yan Lo revolves around powerful models called Ancestors, bringing them back and making them fight for him. Due to the cost of ancestors his crew tends to be rather elite, but he buffs himself through the power of Chi as the game continues and can become a true nightmare to deal with by game's end. Dual Faction with 10 Thunders.

Tara
Tara is a Master of time. If she activates first she can reactivate as your last model as well. She'll be throwing out fast and slow and then taking advantage of those conditions further. Opponents may not be seeing Fast as such a benefit after playing against Tara. She can remove opponent’s models from play and use their abilities or just leave them buried underground until the break free. Can hire Death Marshals to further this kind of gameplay too. Being in Ressers grants her access to Bete Noir, who fits in with her Bury mechanics quite well. Dual Faction with Outcasts.

= Arcanists =

Rasputina
Rasputina does Ice. 'Tina can devastate entire crews with her AoE ice magic. She works with "Frozen Heart" models and can draw LoS from them, not needing to risk herself in combat, instead forcing opponents to choose between getting blasted and engaging something like the Ice Golem in melee.

Ramos
Spidermancer is not a real term, but if it was: Ramos would have it. Ramos summons spiders and bombs, does electrical damage through his spells, is dangerous in melee... He's really a total package only offset by his mediocre defense, which is itself offset by his armor and defensive triggers.

Marcus
Marcus, a former Professor now living in the forests outside Malifaux, is known as the Beastmaster, although taking all beast models is NOT a requirement for his crew to run well. Marcus 'board presence can be wildly different depending on which upgrades you equip him with, being able to take a back seat and buff his crew or go front line; hitting hard and fast. One of his more unique abilities will allow you to get an activation of an opponent's model or even master, which can be brutal when properly timed.

Colette du Bois
Colette leads the Performers and Showgirls of The Star Theater. She focuses on misdirection and stage magic. Her activation will let you swap cards for SS, dance models halfway across the board or have her girls and assorted minions perform well-rehearsed acts of destruction. Playing Colette requires a bit more finesse than simpler beater crews, but may allow you to get a lot more out of the models you take than your opponent might expect. ONE L TWO Ts!

Kaeris
Kaeris plays with Fire. Specifically she plays with the Burning condition, over lets say Criid's damage with a flame flavoring. She gains attack bonuses to the things she lights on fire but at the same time, gives her crew bonuses TO being on fire, giving them either flight or healing from the flames. She's quite speedy with flight and has the ability to grab and drop models from great heights. At least it would probably put the fire out? (Note: it does not. Everything on fire forever)

Mei Feng
Ramos may lead the Miners and Steamfitters Union but Mei is someone who actually cares about the disenfranchised who are forced to work building the rails to support it She takes advantage of construct minions (or those with enough steel in their bodies like the railworkers themselves) to move quickly between them, chaining her own attacks together with a variety of triggers. In exchange, she can shroud her crew in protective steam while she quickly takes apart the enemy. A favorite for people who want the potential to make a half dozen attacks or actions off a single AP. Dual faction with Ten Thunders

Toni Ironsides
The Arcanist Enforcer. Ironsides is less a fine dodging and riposting type and more a taking your best shot to her chin and grinning right before you get knocked out. She gets into melee and chains attacks, moving up from (1) attacks to brutal (2) attack action using a resource she generated called Adrenaline. More attacks: More Adrenaline. Get attacked? More adrenaline. Friends get attacked? More adrenaline. Not getting attacked? She can make her opponents charge at her at severe penalties. Oh and she hits back when you hit her. Vicious.

= Neverborn =

Lilith
Neverborn's bruisiest bruiser. Massive sword and massive defense, she can also generate terrain to damage your foes and slide them around. Defacto leader of the Nephilim, so will have a crew of small demons she can grow into larger, more dangerous ones. She seems simple on first approach but there's a lot of tactical depth to her gameplay.

Pandora
your opponent beat themselves. Literally. You'll be beating people to death with their own arms and watching them suffer the death of a thousand cuts, also self inflicted. Pandora does attract a certain kind of player...

Zoraida
Who do Voodoo? You do Voodoo. Puppet your models or enemy ones, stab your voodoo doll with detrimental conditions to give them to your opponent or play a trickier game and make a doll of your own models to fling long range buffs at them... Zoraida also plays the card cycling game and is a Master Controller. Zoraida is Dual Faction with the Gremlins.

Dreamer
A young boy who dreams of Malifaux. He bends reality around himself without realizing is, flying around the city in his pajamas creating Nightmares in his wake. Including the fearsome Lord Chompy Bits. Like many summoners, Dreamer is also a buffer/debuffer. Dreamer has a choice of being one of the few models capable of summoning Enforcers or he can super-charge LCB to make him a true Nightmare to deal with.

Collodi
The puppet master. All of Collodi's abilities will make you feel like you're pulling the strings. Collodi has two gameplay styles: Crew Buffs Him or He Buffs Crew. With his crew buffing him, Collodi can constantly benefit from Focus and high value Defensive Stances while using his attacks to Slow his opponents and steal their AP and use it against their crews. Buffing his Crew, Collodi can spread powerful Effigy bonuses to everyone around him, as well as any condition he can give himself. Combined with his ability to shunt damage onto his puppets Collodi is one dangerous toy.

Jakob Lynch
A gambler and a pusher. Can cycle his cards around while addicting the enemy crew to the dangerous magical drug: Brilliance. Although it causes no negative effects on its own, Lynch's crew gains massive benefits against addicts, including extra damage, extra defenses against addicts and special attacks only available against those who've tried Brilliance. Finally, Lynch also gains his totem and henchman for free, the dangerous and powerful source of Brilliance: Hungering Darkness. Dual Faction with Ten Thunders.

Lucius
Can take and make Guardsman into terrors. Same benefits apply to the Neverborn Mimics. Lucius manipulates the weaker Guild/NB models to complete two-fold actions; lay a scheme marker and shoot an enemy, take a walk action and make a friendly model do anything you want... there are many options on how to support your units with Lucius. His trickery and two-faced actions find a home with the Neverborn. Dual Faction with Guild.

= Outcasts =

Viktoria of Ash
Why have one Master when you could have two? Viktoria comes along with her sister Viktoria, one's good at swords and guns, one's good at just swords. Viktorias buff other "sisters", which is normally each other but there are a couple models like Ronin that have the characteristic as well. Picture some twins leaping across a crowded bar, jumping from target to target. There. That's Viks.

Von Schill
For he is the mustache. Von Schill leads his mercenary group; the Freikorps. Their main strength as a whole is they really don't have a weakness. There's no hard counter to Freikorps, they are good at melee, good at shooting, decent Df, good Wp, hardy amount of wounds. And then you have VS tossing out a buff here and there, or just straight up murdering some tough targets and you have a truly fearsome crew. Don't underestimate the power of your opponent not having an easy way to deal with you.

Leveticus
Leveticus likes undead and he likes constructs. He likes making things decay. As things decay they become undead constructs. When he has enough undead constructs he makes BIG undead constructs. When your opponent kills that big undead construct, it makes little undead constructs. Planning on killing Leveticus? Better make a good plan because he'll come back at full health if you've left his Waifs alive.

Hamelin
Plague. Hamelin spreads blight and disease as he plays his pipes, luring children and the weak-willed to his cause. His plague spreads through rats. Lots of rats. If you want to win through attrition, Hamelin is one of the most summon-happy models in the game. They're all weak as hell, but just the pure NUMBERS will wear your opponent down.

Misaki
If you wanted a ninja Master, here she is. Misaki is a melee assassin that moves around by attacking. And I do mean assassin, her damage is a bit low, but she has easy triggers that will simply remove models. And then she'll push away. You can't lock Misaki down, she is the wind and fire. Or some other vaguely wise-sounding saying. Come on: NINJAS! Dual Faction with Ten Thunders.

Jack Daw
Would you rather your opponent be weak than you being strong? Jack is your kind of Master. Daw curses his opponents, cause massive damage or death when they try to play. As your opponent loses their cards trying to keep your curses at bay, you'll have a much easier time beating them with the rest of your crew. Attack and damage flips against Daw suffer penalties so your opponents arent going to have a choice but to hang.

Tara
Tara is a Master of time. If she activates first she can reactivate as your last model as well. She'll be throwing out fast and slow and then taking advantage of those conditions further. Opponents may not be seeing Fast as such a benefit after playing against Tara. She can remove opponent’s models from play and use their abilities or just leave them buried underground until the break free. Can hire Death Marshals to further this kind of gameplay too. Being in Outcasts grants her a cheaper Killjoy and innate access to her little buddies the Void Wretches and the Void Beast. Dual Faction with Ressers.

= Ten Thunders =

McCabe
He's not Indiana Jones for legal reasons. He's on a horse. He’s faster than almost everyone because of it, and he definitely plays a control game utilizing Slow and Paralyze. His totem helps him synergize well with Hounds and his ability to toss his Upgrades onto friendly models can result in being able to attack from some very unexpected vectors. Again, call him a Treasure Hunter or he'll rip your lungs out. Dual Faction with Guild.

Yan Lo
Yan Lo revolves around powerful models called Ancestors, bringing them back and making them fight for him. Due to the cost of ancestors his crew tends to be rather elite, but he buffs himself through the power of Chi as the game continues and can become a true nightmare to deal with by game's end. Dual Faction with Ressers.

Mei Feng
Ramos may lead the Miners and Steamfitters Union but Mei is someone who actually cares about the disenfranchised who are forced to work building the rails to support it She takes advantage of construct minions (or those with enough steel in their bodies like the railworkers themselves) to move quickly between them, chaining her own attacks together with a variety of triggers. In exchange, she can shroud her crew in protective steam while she quickly takes apart the enemy. A favorite for people who want the potential to make a half dozen attacks or actions off a single AP. Dual faction with Arcanists

Jakob Lynch
A gambler and a pusher. Can cycle his cards around while addicting the enemy crew to the dangerous magical drug: Brilliance. Although it causes no negative effects on its own, Lynch's crew gains massive benefits against addicts, including extra damage, extra defenses against addicts and special attacks only available against those who've tried Brilliance. Finally, Lynch also gains his totem and henchman for free, the dangerous and powerful source of Brilliance: Hungering Darkness. Dual Faction with Neverborn.

Misaki
If you wanted a ninja Master, here she is. Misaki is a melee assassin that moves around by attacking. And I do mean assassin, her damage is a bit low, but she has easy triggers that will simply remove models. And then she'll push away. You can't lock Misaki down, she is the wind and fire. Or some other vaguely wise-sounding saying. Come on: NINJAS! Dual Faction with Outcasts.

Brewmaster
The Brewmaster, as his name might suggest is all about getting everyone drunk. Yourself, Friendly models, Enemy Models, everyone gets drunk. Now Gremlin brews tend to be a little bit like poison, and Brewmaster reduces the Wp of models with Poison (they ARE drunk after all) and he may, just MAY, suggest that they do some things they might not normally do, such as attack their friends. Brewmaster doesn't do the heavy lifting himself, but can buff and heal his crew while disrupting the enemy. Dual Faction with Gremlins.

Shenlong
We haven't seen Shenlong officially yet, we don't know a lot about him. We do know he has the Tyrant trait and a mastery over generic conditions. He doesn't take damage from Burning or Poison and he can steal fast, focus, defensive or reactivate off enemy models. Further, he can swap out his Limited upgrades to use different Martial styles based around the conditions Focus, Burning, Poison and Defensive

= Gremlins =

Zoraida
Who do Voodoo? You do Voodoo. Puppet your models or enemy ones, stab your voodoo doll with detrimental conditions to give them to your opponent or play a trickier game and make a doll of your own models to fling long range buffs at them... Zoraida also plays the card cycling game and is a Master Controller. Zoraida is Dual Faction with the Neverborn.

Som'er Teeth Jones
Somer bring the boys to the yard. Except the yard is a swamp. And the boys are rowdy Gremlins. He walks loudly and still carries a big (boom)stick. He's a bit of everything, he can summon, he can shoot and he can buff. His ability to out activate his opponents with hordes of pigs and expendable gremlins is legendary.

Ophelia
Ophelia saw what Perdita was doing and thought to herself "I can do that". She took the ranged capabilities of the Ortegas and swapped in bigger and louder guns (if not necessarily as safe). As is a running theme with Gremlins, you take damage to do it better, Ophelia's crew takes damage to hit harder. But who cares if your kin get a little banged up if you get to do double damage?

Mah Tucket
Mah is the melee fighter of the Gremlins. She can get up to a +3Ml bump to her already impressive 6Ml, and can sacrifice her minions to get positive twists for everyone else in her crew. I mean, yes she does buff her crew a little, but really if you're playing Mah you're playing to have a Master who is going to bounce around like a fat green pinball killing enemies left and right.

Brewmaster
The Brewmaster, as his name might suggest is all about getting everyone drunk. Yourself, Friendly models, Enemy Models, everyone gets drunk. Now Gremlin brews tend to be a little bit like poison, and Brewmaster reduces the Wp of models with Poison (they ARE drunk after all) and he may, just MAY, suggest that they do some things they might not normally do, such as attack their friends. Brewmaster doesn't do the heavy lifting himself, but can buff and heal his crew while disrupting the enemy. Dual Faction with Ten Thunders.

Wong
Wong is Magical. Don't even question it. You pick one model at the start of the game and they get to be magical too. And glowy magical things hit harder and live longer. Spend the rest of your time arcing lightning around and exploding scheme markers to explode other things too. Wanna see me pull a pig out of my hat?

Ulix
Did you like Hoffman? Did you not like Hoffman because Machines arent Pigs? You are in luck good sir or madam. Ulix doesn't care about the rest of the gremlin faction, Ulix likes Pigs. Unlike other Masters who buff minions and their model of choice, Ulix only buffs Pigs. In exchange, he buffs them really, really well. Worried about Marcus? Don't be, Ulix is better at Pigs than Marcus and has the upgrade to prove it. Seriously, if you like the pig models, get yourself Ulix.

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