Malifaux List Size - Think Smaller!

I have to admit I was disappointed when I saw that the Masters of Malifaux tournament at GenCon was going to be 40 soulstones. It did not directly impact me since I wasn’t going to be there, but the fact that the tournament was pushing to that level made me a little sad.

I was introduced to miniatures gaming, more or less, at the beginning of Warmachine. Games were small then, but over time they grew from 500 points to 750 points. With Mark 2, the size of the game increased even more, though it was harder to see because the points changed so drastically. I do not play Warmachine anymore. I think it’s a great game and don’t regret any of my time playing, but it’s not the same game I started. I liked the small skirmishes and when the game moved away from that, I moved away from the game. There are a bunch of reasons why I left Warmachine, but the ever-increasing size of the game was one of them.

I know one tournament does not a trend make, but I’m keeping a careful eye open to see if other tournaments are going to start following suit to match GenCon’s 40 stone games. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m worried it will happen sooner or later. I’m already on record with my group in saying that there will eventually be a time I move on from Malifaux to the next game, and one of the things that could trigger that move is an increasing game size.

When I started Malifaux, our group grew eventually and were playing 30 stone games all the time. It wasn’t until a few of us went to tournaments outside our group before we came back and encouraged the 35 stone games as the standard since that seems to be what people used elsewhere. But honestly, I still prefer 30 stone games over the standard 35. One of the reasons for changing the game size to 40 in the tournaments was that it would be a more challenging atmosphere. I feel an even more challenging game is to push the points down to 30 or even 25 stones than to push the limit higher.

So much of Malifaux is taking the right tool for the right missions. If you can take a dozen tools, it doesn’t matter if you get a couple of them wrong. When you play with fewer stones, every model you take must contribute. You can’t afford any dead weight.

Additionally, there’s been a lot of talk about the FILTH list Bill brought to the Masters. While it didn’t win the tournament overall, it did win every game he played it, and win handily. His only loss and tie were when he strayed from that list. At 40 stones, that list is brutal. But cut out 10 stones and all of the sudden it’s a bit less frightening. Either it’s very slim with Nekima and two Lilitu’s, all of which become necessary, or it loses out on its redundancy with the second Lilitu and some of its ability to replace its own models with as many Terror Tots. Other powerful lists take a hit too. Colette has to choose between the Duet and Cassandra. The Dreamer’s not getting the twins and Copellius. The player must make hard choices and make the tightest list he can for the mission he’s playing.

Just random musings, but in my opinion, the perfect game size is 30 stones with a wide-open field of models to choose from. I can bring 100 models to a game, but I need to really focus and pick my best team for the mission ahead of me, and I’ve got no room for fat on the list.