The Great Indecision

So the beta is dead. Long live 4th edition.

Well done everyone, round of applause and back pats to all. Even the people I ended up muting 😂. 

I’m going to write some thoughts and comments on the beta as a whole at some point but mainly at this stage my massive thanks to the folks at Biggerhat, Theoryfaux and the Malifaux Vassal mod team (which is just one guy).  You people fucking rock.  I’m just a loud man on the internet, y’all on the other hand make this community better and we would be poorer off were it not for your efforts.

You’re amazing. We could not have done this without you.

So on to 4th and of course. The great indecision.  What to play?

So. In Alphabetical order:

Arcanists.

Arcanists is probably my least played faction across the 3 editions I have played in. They are not super well represented locally (which is, for good or bad, always a contributing factor to my decision making.)

I don’t own a lot of them as I have Witness and Frontier and only really have Frontier because they used to be Guild.

I have a deep love of the Lore of Witness. I won’t claim to have loved the Puzzle Box since it first came out as I didn’t play the game in 1st but it is my favourite of all the Malifaux stories, so much so I recorded my own version which you can listen to hear if you so wished: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1mUHkpYllwPi7EF0yDHgCo?si=mZyUgqeVT7SO9dOuvJafkA (it would be nice if you did, only 9 people have so far 🤣)

Frontier I played a bunch of games with in Beta and contributed to their nerfs because everything I played on the Beta got nerfed heavily (sorry/not sorry if that hit your favourite keywords.)

Bayou.

Bayou is probably where I contributed the most of my battle reports during the beta exclusively on Sooey, you can even listen to a podcast I recorded on Sooey here: https://open.spotify.com/show/6WyInknstBMfBTuDh1rt2K although there have been changes.  I think Sooey is in a great place but there are two real problems with Bayou and Sooey for me personally.

1) I’m not really interested in anything else in Bayou right now? Maybe that’ll change as the new sculpts come out but as it stands I don’t really want to paint those models for the 2nd or in some cases 3rd time.

2) My local meta is dominated by Dreamer and that is a horrific match up imo. 

Explorers Society

I own most of Teal (don’t have Bygone) and this is a strong contender as to where I end up as they’re all new models to paint and I like a faster and schemey play style which they do well in buuuuuut they are well represented locally and that will eat at me but on a national level they’re not which appeals.

I did spend a bunch of time with Seeker in the beta and wrote a lot on the recent Lamp lighter changes. I’m not super thrilled where they’ve ended up but I’m not a game designer and I’m prepared to give the team the benefit of the doubt. I can see changes that will have been partly made due to my feedback and that’s nice but after a recent tournament where I solo’d Seeker and did the worst I have ever done ever I’m a little down on Jedza et al. Lots of other keywords beyond Jedza of course though and I shouldn't dismiss the faction just for that.

Guild

I own everything in Guild that’s been released. A lot of it is painted. The vast majority of the models I bought from my friends back in the UK so there is a strong emotional and sentimental connection to them. The majority of my m3e games were in Red. I like the often simplicity of their play whilst running tournaments. Lucius remains my most successful Master.

However, strong representation locally is just nails on a chalk board to me, but as they almost exclusively play Augmented and Marshal I could just leave those keywords alone?

Neverborn

No. Too many local and national purple players. I’ve sold out of the faction. Easiest decision here.

Outcast.

I have largely sold out of Yellow having recently sold my Amalgam, Plague, Bandit, Bygone, Infamous and the emissary on to folks. 

But Tara, Von Schill and the Vix are somehow holding on to shelf space and ofc there’s both Ampersand and Asylum on the horizon.  Outcasts maybe a dark horse pick? Not played locally or in my national online tournaments with the notable exception of Azahul.  Rescultps of Plague do peak my interests, but they're not even on the horizon yet.

Rezzers

My M2E home faction.  I am working on a Redchapel painting project at the moment that I am really looking forward to pushing myself on (more on that another day) but outside of Redchapel the only other keyword that appeals to me is Experimental, but that would be fine. I’ve no interest in the versatiles but I don’t think that would be a massive issue for the mid table zone in play in.

Ten Thunders

Lastly weeb town. I own a chunk and they have minimal representation locally, but more virtually nationally. Lynch has been in my maybe pile for 3 editions now but I think that’s true of everyone that plays Malifaux. I spent some time playing Youko in the beta, and Q&G are one of those keywords where I can point at changes based on my feedback which is nice. Red Library are by far the best minis I’ve ever painted but I’m not overly sold on their new cards. So who knows.

Tl;dr I’ve absolutely no idea, but then if you follow my content you knew that already.

I need a better outro.