Playing 2 vs. 2 Malifaux

The first time I ever played Malifaux was in a doubles game at the UK Doubles GT in 2012.  Needless to say we lost (every game) but the whole weekend instilled in me a love of playing Malifaux doubles.

Now interestingly there are two commonly accepted ways of playing a doubles game of Malifaux and they seem to be split on country lines as the US plays one way and here in Europe we tend to play the other.  Both have strengths and weaknesses and both are great fun :)

In general each player will pick a Master and then a crew of between 25 and 35 stones depending on the time allowed for the game.  Personally I like 30ss and 2 hour games.  Most tournaments are mixed master though crews can be picked as normal and the masters have to be compatible with each other, which these days means both must be from the same faction.  If you are feeling brave though you can do what I did at Smogcon and do random doubles where you make up the pairs on the day.  Other general rule that is normally used is that all models in a pair are friendly to each other but may NOT use Companion or Accomplice on models from the other players crew.

The big difference between the two formats is the number of fate decks / control hands used and activation order.

In European Doubles each pair uses a single fate deck and has a single control hand.  Any model on the team can be activated at any time.  This makes the game play far closer to a singles game of Malifaux and can led to some interesting decisions between the two players when to use the big cards (or suits)

Is US doubles each player has a fatedeck and control hand but activation order is fixed.  The team that win the initiative are players 1 and 3 whilst the other team are players 2 and 4.  This order is fixed for the turn and models are activated in strict player order.  This leads to more thinking about activation order but makes fate deck control much easier.

Now I have heard arguments than European format means that a strong player can effectively play the game as if it was singles but in practice I have seen this happen in the US format as well so its not a big concern IMO.

As I said above both versions are really good fun (if I am honest doubles is probably my favourite format) so go ahead and give it a try.

Best Table Competition

One of the problems with running a large event like MCC is that the number of tables required outstrips the number that a couple of people can provide - this is especially true in Malifaux where you need a lot more terrain on the table than pretty much any other comparable wargame.  To solve this problem we tend to ask folks to bring any tables and terrain along to help out.  It seems only fair to the folks that do this could get some sort of prize.  I mean who doesn't love a nice prize.

What this all means is that one of the things we are going to do this year at MCC is a best table competition.  Now this doesn't just mean wacking down a load of terrain from your favourite laser cutting company and going "Ta dah".  Well you can do that but you won't win.  No what we are looking for are those creative tables that fit in the Malifaux universe, are playable and also stand out from the rash of Wild West terrain :)

If you would like to enter you just need to send an email to oldmanmyke@gmail.com describing what the theme of your table will be.  This is so I can work it into the narrative of the campaign and make it one of the special areas that the teams are going to be fighting over this year.
 
Thats it, pretty simple all told.  Any questions then post a comment or ping my twitter.

Hello. Good Evening and Welcome

Welcome to the Malifools blog.  Its very pink isn't it.