I’ve had some bad luck with Performer.
Here’s the deal with Performer — Colette’s stage crew that puts on shows on the stage while making smuggling stuff backstage. Soulstones, souls, if it needs to go from Earth to Malifaux without the Guild taking its cut, it comes through Colette’s crew.
Mobility is her key, and she can always drop a flashy decoy to keep the coppers distracted while she pops up where they aren’t looking.
This is why I chose Performer — a crew that can score points no matter what else is happening.
So why don’t I win?
For one, Performer is not an easy crew to put together. There are a lot of models in the crew, and each time I play, I try a different mix. Against Kirai, I went with Envy for damage, Carlos for secondary, the three Showgirls to score points, Angelica and Cassandra to keep the enemy from the gates, and Dorian to help people get where they needed to go.
Against me was Kirai, Envoy, a summoner who also packs a lot of mobility. The strategy was Breakthrough — hockey, Malifaux-style. Each of us has three pucks to kick onto the enemy side of the battlefield, and the winner of each round is the one who has the most on the other side.
This would seem to be a natural for Colette — most of her models can interact to kick an object even if they are engaged in combat with an enemy model. And so it was, for the first turn — I easily got my scheme and strategy. And then Kirai summoned her helpers; zombies and a huge ghoul and something else. They formed a wall along the center line and gave so many extra moves to the enemy that even with liberal passing, Kirai would have free reign at the end of a turn to do whatever they wanted.
I don’t really have an answer to summoning masters. Back in third edition, Mei Feng could “toss scrap” that would cause a small explosion that could clear out annoying peons like those zombies, but Mei Feng is back in Ten Thunders.
Rasputina’s December is great against foes that can soak up a lot of damage; she has plenty of beaters and “spooky action at a distance”. But against a lot of low health mobs, I need something different.
Enter Toni Ironsides, leader of the Miners & Steamfitters Union (M&SU) and, since she betrayed her mentor and previous faction leader Ramos to the Guild, the leader of the Arcanist faction as a whole. Toni becomes the center of any fight. Her fellow M&SU grant extra powers and abilities to those members in Toni’s vicinity, and she becomes more powerful as a result, doling out extra attacks at advantage.
Toni would not do well against Performer; Colette’s crew could just dance circles around Toni’s clump of models. Flying and ranged crews also face little danger from Toni. But against summoners with a large number of low health peons, very powerful indeed.
That’s why Malifaux players eventually have so many crews. They see what their opponent is bringing and what the strategy is, and they play the perfect counter. I only have Performer and December so far, but Kasul has Kaeris (Wildfire) available in-faction. When Toni and her M&SU crew join up, I should have plenty of options. I might even win a game.
I just noticed that all my Arcanist masters are women. There are three men in the Arcanist faction — Sandeep (Academic), Damien (Witness) and Basse (Frontier). Damien or Basse was going to be my next crew, but after this last game, I’m changing things up a little. Sandeep is a summoner, though, so I might join the dark side at some point and put him together as well.
