E-Mail In - Malifaux Rules Queries

E-Mail in,

Me and a pal have started playing Malifaux after a couple of demo's at a local store. We've learnt the basic rules at the shop but unfortunately most of our games have been at home and we haven't bought a rulebook yet. Any chance you could answer a few queries that came up. We'll buy a rulebook soon we promise, lol.

Name withheld.

Reply,

I've edited the questions out of the e-mail rather than print them twice. For your general information you can download a copy of the rulebook (minus the diagrams and pretty artwork) for free from Wyrd Games's website and all the FAQ's are freely available as well...

Rules download page.

...and onto the questions (which by the way are pretty much all in the FAQ if you want to double check after you've downloaded it). I'm also adding the above link into my blogs sidebar along with a few other useful Malifaux links.

Q1 - Can I use Melee Expert or Casting Expert as part of a (2) attack action?
A1 - No. Specific AP can't be combined with general AP. You couldn't use Melee Expert as part of the (2) cost of a charge action for example.

Q2 - Are undead immune to spells that target Wp as they're immune to Morale Duels?
A2 - No. If something's a morale duel it'll say so. Spells that target Wp still effect undead unless it specifically says that the ability or whatever is a morale duel.

Q3 - Can I cheat the 2nd card I flip for damage after the red joker?
A3 - No...for a while I was actually doing that because as far as I was concerned there were no negatives so it could be cheated...however I was recently shown that I was wrong...and now I can't find the hell were it says it, lol...the answers still No, though.

Q4 - In a recent game I killed all the enemy models on turn three but I hadn't completed one of my schemes or the mission. Do I automatically count as having won or not?
A4 - You don't automatically win by destroying your enemy completely. In fact it's entirely possible to get massacred but still win on VP's if you completed the mission and your schemes and your opponent didn't. The surviving player does still get the rest of the available turns to play though if he wants. So in your example you could have spent the next few available turns attempting to complete your remaining mission and schemes if you so desired.

Q5 - If I summon my model into an enemy models terrifying range does it get affected the same is if it entered the terrifying area as normal?

A5 - Yes. you've quite clearly 'entered an enemy models terrifying range' regardless of how you arrived there.

Q6 - Can I break the limit on a Rare model if I have a spell that can summon more?
A6 - No. If you could my Leveticus would have about 15 Hollow Waifs by turn 4 and would be virtually impossible to kill. Saying that there are some models that have special rules allowing you to break those limits but they're clearly worded on the appropriate stat card. The Dreamer for example ignores the Rare 1 limit on taking Teddy...

So that's your specific questions answered. I would personally recommend buying the 1.5 rulebook as the artwork and stories add a lot of flavour to the whole Malifaux experience but if your too tight for that then just use the free one ;-)

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

E-Mail In : Cavalry List.

E-Mail In :

GMort.

As Games Workshop has finally decided to release some Thunderwolf and Fenrisian Wolf models I've decided to do a pure Cavalry Space Wolf List. Any chance of some help?

I'm looking at 2000 points and I want at least 3 units of Thunderwolves and 2 of the ordinary ones (units that is). I'm not looking for the most competitive thing ever I just want to use the models and not get (to use your term) kerb stomped every game.  

Any chance?

Reply :

I've covered this before but I can't find where so I'll give it a fresh look.

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats Wolves.

Thunderwolf Cavalry are fairly resilient to small arms fire but like any middle toughness unit can be torrented to death. They're fast so if you want them in amongst your enemy then they can be there fairly quickly which has the added advantage of avoiding that pesky hail of gunfire I mentioned a moment ago. They're going to be a magnet for heavy weapons which may lead you to the temptation to give them an invulnerable save via Storm Shields but that gets expensive as an 'across the board' upgrade. My advice would be to keep them relatively cheap, add the odd upgrade here and there for 'wound allocation' trickery and just shove them down your enemies throat....

Bullet Shields Fenrisian Wolves.

Low leadership and lack of armour is a bad combination on a unit you want to stay in the fight. I personally see Fenrisian Wolves as a fast moving cover save for the rest of your army that the survival of can be considered a bonus rather than a necessity. Even with Canis they can't hold objectives so you'll still need Grey Hunters which (I'm sure I've mentioned before) makes 'pure' cavalry as good as impossible (If you want to win games at least). As they only become 'Troops' in conjunction with Canis Wolfborn, each unit of Fenrisian Wolves equals one less unit of Thunderwolves. Therefore Canis is going to be essential if you want quantities of both.

Other Riders.
Several standard HQ choices can take Thunderwolf mounts and there's Canis to consider as well in addition to the fact that Iron Priests can take them as well.

Space Wolf HQ's on Thunderwolf mounts get expensive but considering how much damage they can do that's understandable. Chaos players would happily exchange their own crappy HQ choices for the Space Wolves ones in a heartbeat which is probably why the Space Wolf codex is most often the first choice for 'counts-as' with Chaos players.....but I digress.....

Canis is worth considering (and for most builds of this type is essential) if your taking a lot of Fenrisian Wolves as the boosts to their Leadership and Initiative are nice to have and he's fairly handy in a scrap himself. If your going to be taking Iron Priests with Cyber Wolves he'll obviously make those better as well...speaking of Iron Priests.....

An Iron Priest on a Thunderwolf really needs ablative wounds in the form of Cyberwolves as otherwise he's not going to last very long. This also gives you some more scary fast moving targets for your opponent to worry about and it also happens to come with a Thunderhammer and a Servo-Arm ;-)

Lets look at some options then,

HQ's.
If were using three units of Thunderwolves and Fenrisian Wolves then were going to have to take Canis. You can take a 2nd Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount if you wish (and a 3rd and 4th if you like but that might be considered both a points sink and a bit of overkill). Canis's options are limited to a couple of extra wolves, The Wolf Lord is a tad more complicated though.....

As a minimum we need the Wolf Lord (obviously) and his ride (equally obviously) which comes to 145 points. A 'Belt of Russ' for the 4+ invulnerable save is definitely worth 25 points.

Saga's are a debatable point...I like Saga of the Warrior Born for the potential extra attacks as I think that Saga of the Bear (The one that gives you Eternal Warrior) can be done without once you've got the base T5 from the mount but others prefer the piece of mind that comes from having the Eternal Warrior rule. The only other that I'd consider is Saga of the Beastslayer for the useful re-rolls against MC's walkers and other tough bastards you might encounter.

As for your weapon options your (as usual) spoilt for choice. You already have Strength 5 Rending from being on a mount. You lose the Rending if you upgrade to a 'special' weapon of some kind but that's a reasonable sacrifice if you pick the right weapon.

I'm going to use Canis on his own and save the points I would have spent on an additional HQ choice to buy more puppies but I thought I'd list your other options in case you have a different core idea in your head.

Iron Priests.
An Iron Priest on a Thunderwolf Mount with four ablative Cyber Wolves comes to 155 points. A Wolftooth Necklace for the 'always hits on 3's' bonus is worth considering for 10 points.

Fenrisian Wolves.
Fenrisian Wolves cost 8 points each and the only upgrade available isn't worth bothering with. Take as many as you need (5 and 15 are the minimum and maximum). I tend to end up with them in 12's for no particular reason that I can think of currently.....

Thunderwolf Cavalry.
The core of a Thunderwolf Cavalry list, lol. I'd take them in 4's and I'd upgrade three of them so I can be one of those bastards who takes advantage of the 'wound allocation' rules that seem to bother large portions of the internet. I'd go with,

1 Thunderwolf  Cavalry with Mark of the Wulfen,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry with Melta Bombs,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry with Power Fist.

Which comes to 235 points. If you don't approve of such things or just deem them unnecessary then just keep the Power Fist and spend the other 10 points wherever you like.

Troops.
You need scoring units. Take 2 10 man units of Grey Hunters with 2 special weapons. They don't particularly need a transport in a build like this but you can give them  one if you really want.

There now follows a warning for competitive gamers.

Couldn't find an appropriate warning sign....

Thunderwolf Cavalry lists are a gimmick army. You'll steam-roll over some armies, die hideously to others and calling your army balanced will make people laugh their arses off.....but.....you'll probably have a lot of fun and sometimes that's the point ;-)

If you want to run them competitively take a Rune Priest HQ, 5 Wolf Guard with Combi-Melta's, 5 Units of Grey Hunters with a Meltagun in a Rhino (attach Wolf Guard to these), support with 3 units of Missile Launcher Long Fangs and spend the rest of the points on two tooled-up units of Thunderwolf Cavalry to fist-fuck the enemy with.

Where were we...Oh yes...
Now I've got that off my chest here's the lot from the themed bit of this post put into a list.

'Themed' ThunderCav List.

HQ.
Canis Wolfborn (185), Fenrisian Wolves x2 (+20)   (205)

ELITES.
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)

TROOPS.
Grey Hunters x10 (150), Meltaguns x2 (+20)   (170)
Grey Hunters x10 (150), Meltaguns x2 (+20)   (170)
Fenrisian Wolves x15 (120)
Fenrisian Wolves x10 (80)
Fenrisian Wolves x10 (80)

FAST ATTACK.
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)

TOTAL - 1995


It will be fun enough but if you really want to beat face then I'd use a version of the 'competitive' bit I mention just before the list. It is.....what it is.....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome

E-Mail In : Shrike Marines Help

E-Mail In :

Hey,
this is a list im working on for GT, i just wanted to run it past you for any improvements or comment.
I have inculded a pair of extra land speeders but i dont think they would be best for the list.

Reply :

The problem with Shrike is that he's not really very good considering his massive price tag unless your taking advantage of his abilities in some way. As you haven't asked me to write you a list but merely to comment on the existing one and suggest improvements then that's what I'll do though the temptation to write you a new list may be too much for me ;-)

1750 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster - Louis's Marines

HQ: Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike (1#, 195 pts)
   1 Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike @ 195 pts

I don't like Shrike but if your basing a list around using Shrike then he's essential I suppose. I presume he's going with the unit of Assault Marines and that your planning on a first turn assault by virtue of the 'Infiltrate, Jump, Fleet then charge' combo. This is fine I suppose unless your opponent knows how to bubble-wrap, goes first or seizes the initiative. 

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)
   1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)
   1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Presumably you'll be dropping these as your first wave and hoping for a triple threat when combined with Shrikes (presumably) Assault Squad. As you have no choice but to drop two of the three 'Drop Pod' units in your army, any force that is capable of utilising full reserve against you (combined with some armies reserve manipulation abilities) could leave you sitting on the battlefield with nothing to do till the opposing army turns up next turn and blows you to fucking pieces. Heavy Flamers are fine on a 'Drop Dread' but are a bit of a waste otherwise.

Troops: Scout Squad (10#, 190 pts)
   9 Scout Squad @ 190 pts (Sergeant Telion)
      1 Sergeant Telion

Troops: Scout Squad (10#, 165 pts)
   9 Scout Squad @ 165 pts
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1)

You didn't tell me what these were armed with but I'm guessing you'll be using them to assault with as (other than Telion) they have no effective ranged weapons at all which usually means they'll be given Combat Blades. If your using Telions unit for objective holding then you might as well give them Sniper Rifles and a Missile Launcher and if your planning on assaulting with them then Telion is a waste of points. Of course you could arm Telions unit as two separately equipped halves but I wouldn't recommend it as a combat squad of scouts will die to a strong breeze (or even a weak one come to that).

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 245 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Multi-melta; Drop Pod)
      1 Sergeant (Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

They'll land, kill a tank (probably) then die to all the units not killing the two Dreadnoughts or Shrikes unit though there are enough other priority targets so they might be safe. Also I'd prefer to see five Drop Pods across the army so you can support Shrike with a three Pod first wave rather than a two pod one. Doing that might be tricky without rewriting your whole army however.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)
   2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 140 pts (Multi-melta x2; Heavy Flamer x2)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)
   2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 140 pts (Multi-melta x2; Heavy Flamer x2)

These are fine in the right list. I'm not sure that this is the right list for them however. If deployed then they're a soft target, if reserved then they might not turn up in time to be really helpful, additionally two Landspeeders have quite a big footprint if your dropping them onto a crowded board.

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (10#, 225 pts)
   9 Assault Squad @ 225 pts (Flamer)
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1)

Shrike needs a unit to go with so I suppose it might as well be these guys though a unit that can have two special weapons should really have two special weapons.

Heavy Support: Devastator Squad (5#, 150 pts)
   4 Devastator Squad @ 150 pts (Missile Launcher x4)
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Bolter)

Reasonably priced light anti-tank unit in the right army. Do they compliment this list though? You sometimes need some ranged anti-tank and these are fine for that purpose as long as you have enough other threats to stop them being torrented away.

Total Roster Cost: 1750

I'm guessing your plan is to sit Telions unit on an objective, then Assault with Shrikes unit, two Drop Pod units and then charge in with everything else as a 2nd wave or via outflanking with your minimal fire support popping tanks. This is fine in theory as long as,

a) your opponent doesn't 'bubble-wrap' or
b) is actually on the table ;-) or
c) your three units are enough to do the job.....

So as long as your going first then you should do just fine, however if your not I can see you having a few problems with the list in it's current incarnation. It's worth remembering though that you don't have to put anything in the Drop Pods as you can drop them empty if you like and deploy the units that were in them as normal  (should you so wish).

without throwing your theme out all together then you might consider this,

1750 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster - Louis Snazle's Marines ver 2.0

HQ: Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike (1#, 195 pts)
   1 Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike @ 195 pts

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)
   1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)
   1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Elite: Dreadnought (2#, 150 pts)
   1 Dreadnought @ 150 pts (Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Scout Squad (10#, 200 pts)
   9 Scout Squad @ 200 pts (Sniper Rifle x8; Missile Launcher; Sergeant Telion)
      1 Sergeant Telion

Troops: Scout Squad (10#, 180 pts)
   9 Scout Squad @ 180 pts (Combat Blade x9)
      1 Sergeant (Melta Bombs; Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 245 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Multi-melta; Drop Pod)
      1 Sergeant (Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 245 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad @ 245 pts (Meltagun; Multi-melta; Drop Pod)
      1 Sergeant (Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Fist x1)
      1 Drop Pod (Drop Pod Assault)

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (10#, 235 pts)
   9 Assault Squad @ 235 pts (Flamer; Flamer)
      1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1)

Total Roster Cost: 1750

Your first wave threat is now three drop units and Shrikes unit and you have a greater variety of tactical options (imo) should you be going 2nd.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

E-Mail In : Space Marines Question.

E-Mail-In :

Hi Gmort,
I've noticed you mention quite a few times that the 'Vanilla' Space Marine Codex is still competitive, does some builds better than the other 'flavoured' codices and that you can kick the newer codices arses with it (or words to that effect anyway). yet it doesn't look like you've used the normal Marine book in ages, so how come?

Reply :

The simple answer is that I did the Marine book pretty much to death and fancied a change. Because a Marine with a Bolter works perfectly as a different coloured Marine with a Bolter it meant I could try different builds with other codices with a minimal or zero financial investment.

Though the above answers the question at it's most basic level, it also got me thinking ;-)

Recently I've been asked by several people to write them balanced lists using the Marine codex but to be honest the best Space Marine lists are available to anybody with Internet access. My own blog has plenty if you look through the Space Marine and/or Army List Labels and there are plenty of decent ones on both YTTH and 3++ as well. So rather than reinvent the wheel I'm going to approach the issue in a slightly different way while simultaneously killing two birds with one stone...

As the next part of my 'List Design for Beginners' series I'm going to take what is in my humble opinion still one of the best 'balanced' Marine lists out there and go through it unit by unit and explain exactly how it ticks all the appropriate boxes like Duality, Redundancy and all the other internet buzzwords that we hear but that not everybody necessarily fully understands.

With any luck this will both provide the people in question with a decent Marine list as well as nicely kick-start the next stage of the aforementioned list building articles.....clever, huh?

Watch this space ;-)