Malifaux Escalation League

Nope I don't have time to run something until November. Wasn't trying to step on toes. Was just sharing an idea. Malifaux league is your baby. Use my idea if you like it..... Or don't. It won't hurt my feelings

Rules look good to me.

Sounds like there are two votes for your rules already, so...yeah.

Just a reminder, i'll try and get this started up Nov 1.

I managed to grab your rules before you hid them Capn, and I've got to say that while I like the variety of Jester's territories, I really like the interaction between the territories and games in your system. Instead of just, for lack of a better analogy, betting territories and then fighting elsewhere, these scraps are fought in the bog for the bog, or at the mine for the mine while using the mine .

The one thing I'm not sure with in your system is how controlling those territories work when potentially 8 different games could happen and all players pick the Ruins, just for example. would the winners of all 8 games then count as controlling the ruins? That being the case, how would later rounds work with them both controlling the same area?

If Jester's rules are to be finalized though, I do have to state a bit of worry about the assassin. With a severe damage of 6, it's entirely possible for that to permanently cripple a crew. One example is with the Viktorias, both models are Master but only have 7 Wds a piece, that 6 hit would drop one of them to near uselessness. In this example in order for 1 Vik to be effective you really need both Viks.

Well you could always use soulstones to heal, but still worse comes to worse it could kill Colette.

Off the top of my head:

At the start of the league, each player makes 3 card flips to generate their starting territories. A player must always have a minimum of 3 territories and can have a maximum of up to 8.

-lowered the cap to represent the smaller scale of Malifaux

Before each game the players must stake a territory they wish to put on the line. The players then generate a third. The winner of the game retains his staked territory and make then pick either his opponent's territory or the generated territory. The loser may pick one of the remaining territories for his own.

Ante: If one or either player wishes, he may search through his fate deck and put up the card he wishes to generate. Set this card aside as the ante. It may not be used during the course of the game. If a player with an ante wins then he chooses that card as his territory he generated.

-again, I changed it to represent a crew operating instead of an army.

Consult the territory chart below:

Black Joker: The Wastes
Wastes provide no benefit.

A-2: Downtown district
Your control hand is increased by one.

3-4: Hag's Lair
You may re-flip for initiative once per game without spending a soulstone

5-6: Mine
Generate d3 soulstone prior each scrap. These are added directly to your master's cache and may not be spent on crews.

7-8: Soulstone field*
You receive +2 soulstone allowance for your forces

9-10: Soulstone Mine*
You receive +4 soulstone allowance for your forces
*you may gain each of these once, however, you can never have duplicates of either. If you lose one as staked territory you may gain it again.

11-12: Ancient Ruins
Pick one model in your army at the start of each game. Once per game that model receives +1 positive flip to an attack roll of your choice.

13: Guild Aresnal
You may increase one statistic of your choice on your master.

Red Joke:
If the Red Joker is flipped for terrain, the winner of the scrap is allowed to pick through any of the loser's territory (not only the staked territory) or discard it at the end of the game to re-flip for the territory gained.


@Phantom Thanks, I pulled it down to work on them some more. I think they need to be playtested just a bit more. Hopefully if this league takes off then I'll be able to try those rules out in the future as more of a map based league system. I think Jester's on the right track with these modified 'hammer rules as they are a bit easier to get moving with.
Off the top of my head, i'd probably just state that if multiple players are tied for League Points on a single territory it's still considered contested and provides no benefit the following week. There's too much shooting to grab the big shiny artifact!

I like the cards instead of d6's but there's not much variety left. The fun of the third edition league was that everyone had very different holdings.

I would add some more territories with lesser effects. You want some that are of lesser value to give away and stake......

If it was me I would keep the soulstone gain territories a smaller value but allow a crew to hold several pf the same type. Not only does it make it a valuable territory to steal, even if you already had one, but if you keep it as is you'll have crews at max points at the league start. That leads to massively lopsided games immediately.

There needs to be a terrain to affect a crew with more soulstone than you.... Valuable to weak crews but worthless to bigger ones.

Downtown needs to be max 1 .

Fletch wrote:

Well you could always use soulstones to heal, but still worse comes to worse it could kill Colette.

Yeah as it was first the opponent had to have the terrain. 1 in 36. They had to roll assassinate. 1 in 6. You could use a soulstone to flip and add a second card. Highly unlikely a master would be killed.

Thatsnfine to drop it though

I was trying to represent a small holding that a crew could actually hold on to. Not a fully mobilized army. Since i'm really planning on about six weeks worth actual league and counting a game a week then it prevents player X from jumping too far ahead just because he gets 4 games in one week. The flipside of that is the ante system as it allows you to go for certain territory pieces.

The reason it's all fairly basic is that none of us really know the system, so we don't really know where it breaks.

If you don't allow multiple SS gains then you don't need a balancing side for crews that grow too large. The 'denial' option could be hard to execute as well as you actually build your crews after generating the mission. You could wait for your opponent to generate a crew, drop a two point unit, and then penalize him 4 additional points just by giving up a totem (assuming you put together two 30 point forces).

/brainstorming

Wildeyedjester wrote:

Fletch wrote:

Well you could always use soulstones to heal, but still worse comes to worse it could kill Colette.

Yeah as it was first the opponent had to have the terrain. 1 in 36. They had to roll assassinate. 1 in 6. You could use a soulstone to flip and add a second card. Highly unlikely a master would be killed.

Thatsnfine to drop it though

Yeah but I know my luck with me pulling the black joker and totally failing though.

I understand the fluff concern, but there is potentially much more to hold in malifaux than an army would have to hold in the countryside. I could see lowering the holdings #, but there should be just as many if not more options. Not to mention the crews whole slew of non combatants, informants, and hirelings to keep eyes on things.....

I also think 6 weeks is great, and only one game a week is fine. I wouldn't worry about things being 'balanced' too much. You and I both have several games under our belts and I think you'd have a better idea of what would break things than you are giving yourself credit for. Just don't go beyond any established ability, trigger or power and your fine. I think you want the league to be for building crews, and learning right?

Also, I don't think you are charging an entry fee? So it's all just for fun anyway! For example - they onlyngive +1 control card at higher games so giving out 2 or 3 is probably a bad idea.