Malifaux Untold Tales and November Releases Preview

Malifaux is a skirmish wargame, set in a dark gothic fantasy, alternative 1900s. Last year, a new supplement, Malifaux Burns, brought about a new way to play, adding in new keywords for existing masters, now, the next supplement, Madness of Malifaux, brings 6 new masters and over 50 other new units to Malifaux. In this article we'll take a look at Forward and Back, a masters box from Malifaux Burns, Don't be Zappy, an alternative sculpt for an existing model, and Untold Tales, alternative keyword masters for some upcoming new masters straight out of the new book.

If you want to know more about Malifaux, you can check out our full guide here.

Malifaux Untold Tales

The Madness of Malifaux book introduces a load of new masters and units, and Untold Tales features alternative keywords for 2 of the upcoming new masters. Untold Tales contains a Ten Thunders and an Arcanists master, along with a Ten Thunders Enforcer that shares both of their keywords so they can be used in either crew.

The Malifaux Untold Tales Set contains:

• Linh Ly Storyteller (Red Library/Story)
• Damian Ravencroft Unbound (Witness) (plus The Configuration upgrade)
• Miya Murakami (Red Library / Witness)

Malifaux Untold Tales - Linh Ly Storyteller

We haven't seen the Linh Ly box in full yet and it's expected to release after Damian's Witness box, so we haven't seen the full synergy of the Red Library crew, but we can talk about the two different Linhs. A big difference between the two is that the original doesn't have the Story keyword. She is considered to have it for the benefit of hiring, but won't benefit from any abilities that affect the keyword, whereas Storyteller does. Both Linh's have access to the Well-Versed ability, which lets Linh once per turn, have a look at the top card in their deck before they flip it, and discard it if they wish. This can be great for dropping low cards from the top of your deck. It also combo's well with their Storycraft attack action, which along with giving Adversary (Story) to an enemy, allows them to use the Well-Versed ability again that turn.

Linh Storyteller also has a great melee attack option with Creature of Lore (which is the huge hand of book pages on their miniature), with 3/4/5 damage, and with the right suit can ignore Hard to Kill, give slow, or push the target or Linh. They also have a solid tactical ability with Confiscated Lore, which lets you look at the top 5 cards of your opponent's fate deck and discard any you wish, placing the rest back in any order. This can be very powerful, allowing you to drop high cards and almost dictate the next few card flips.

Malifaux Untold Tales - Damian Ravencroft Unbound

Damian Ravencroft Unbound is an alternative keyword for the upcoming Ravencroft core box, for which all their stat cards are already available to view on the app. The Witness keyword has a focus on the Configuration upgrade, and most of their units have the Repository ability that allows them to add a card from their hand to the upgrade and draw a card. Cards are discarded at the end of each turn, but if three cards in the Configuration share the same suit, Witness units can add that suit to their duel totals. This allows Damian Unbound to unleash a powerful combo with their Absolute Control attack, which can declare all four of its suit triggers, which is possible when combined with Damian's Redirect Magic, which strips suits from your opponent's dual total and adds it to yours. All four of the triggers can also be used at least twice, and any number of rams can be added to heal nearby friendly models by 1 for each ram.

Malifaux Untold Tales - Miya Murakami

Miya Murakami is a Ten Thunders enforcer, with both the Red Library and Witness keywords. This means that if you add her to a Ten Thunders crew, you can still take the Configuration upgrade under the new rules in the Madness of Malifaux book. Miya allows you to add a Tomes card from your discard pile to the Configuration whenever they, or a Story unit in line of sight activates, which then gives them Shielded +1, and is boosted whenever a nearby model discards a card or adds a card to the Configuration. Miya also has the Well-Versed ability to help influence the flips, and also Without a Voice, a passive ability that allows you to look at cards on top of your opponent's fate deck, equal to Tomes in your Configuration, whenever your leader activates. 

Miya is protected by the passive Manipliulative, which means that all duels against them are negatively modified if they haven't been activated yet. As a fast action, they can draw 2 cards and place two cards from your hand on top of your deck. On the offensive, their 1/2/3 melee attack can kill summoned targets outright with Crows and they also have a 10-inch ranged Jinx attack that can injure the target and draw a card with Tomes.

Forward and Back

The Malifaux Burns sets all contain two alternative keyword Masters and a linked Enforcer. Forward and Back contains a Guild and an Outcasts master, along with an Outcasts Enforcer that shares both of their keywords so they can be used in either crew.

The Forward and Back Set contains:

• Lady Justice Death-Touched (Marshal)
• Tara Timeless (Obliteration)
• Thirty-Three (Marshal/Obliteration)

Lady Justice Death-Touched really plays into the pine-box action that some of her crew have access to, which allows them to remove a unit from the game, buried in a box, which they can try to escape from, or come back when the unit that buried them is removed. Thanks to Kytheran Sight, Lady Justice Death-Touched's actions don't require line of sight and can target buried units. Marshal's Coffin also lets any Marshal take one damage when taking the Pine Box action to place a coffin marker within an inch, and then target an enemy within an inch of the marker, giving them a little more range on the action.

Lady Justice is protected with Hard to Wound, which means all damage flips suffer a negative flip, and Regeneration 2, healing her two wounds a turn. Death-Touched also has an extra inch of movement over the original. Her attacks let her throw a Coffin Marker out to 6 inches, and her other attacks can target buried units, most ignoring hard-to-kill.

Tara Timeless is an interesting control master. Tara can suffer one damage to make your opponent pass, rather than activate a nearby model, making them activate out of sequence, or allowing you to set up some complex actions before they can activate. Tara also heals 2 wounds a turn and can move 3 inches after an attack that targets her to protect her if enemies get too close. 

Tara's shenanigans start when they use their Rewind attack, which drops an echo marker in contact with the target, and after any activation, if the target isn't buried, they can be placed back in base contact with the marker. This means you can use it on your own units to run forward, attack an enemy and rewind back into base contact with the marker, or use it on enemies to move them away from mission objectives or engagement rage or your units. Tara can also use a Stutter Time attack to bury an enemy. They unbury within 1 inch of an enemy when they activate, but that can be used to place them well out of position.

Thirty-Three is an Outcast enforcer that shares both the Marshal and Obliteration keywords. A move of 6 and Incorporeal, which reduces all damage by 1 and lets Thirty-Three ignore terrain and other models, makes them quite mobile. They have access to Pine Box, which benefits both Tara Timeless and Lady Justice Death-Touched with buried enemies and their A Year In a Minute tactical action gives all enemies within 6 inches slow unless they discard a card when buried, and if using Crows as suits, can deal 1 damage to all enemy undead within the aura, which combines very well with Domador De Cadaveres, who counts all living models with 5-inches as undead.

Don't Worry Be Zappy

Don't Worry Be Zappy is an alternative sculpt for Captain Zipp, the Outcast/Bayou master. Rather than being a jetpack, zapper wielding gremlin, Dr Lovebomb is a rocket rider clearly inspired by the final scene of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Zipp/Lovebomb are disruption masters. Extremely mobile with an 8 inch flight move, they make nearby enemies discard a card to take the interact action, and offer concealment to all models within 2 inches. They also come with a "Drop the Pianos!" tactical action, where they can drop 40mm blocking tokens from their airship, 1 or up to 3 by discarding cards and pass tokens, which can give enemies within 2 inches distracted and deal 2 damage if Masks are used as the suit. They can also take a Boring Conversation fast action, to make enemies within 6 inches pass a TN10 willpower duel or fail any action that isn't a walk.

The Don't Worry Be Zappy box comes with a single piece miniature, so no assembly required beyond sticking to the base, and a unit card with the same stats as Captain Zipp, but Dr Lovebomb artwork.

The copy of the Malifaux Untold Tales, Forward and Back and Don't Worry Be Zappy used to produce this preview were provided by Wyrd Games.