Ork Brain & Space Marine Brain theory

So a lot of is made of the near infamous “who is the beatdown?” article over at Starcity games, and rightly so. It is one of the best articles written on strategic thinking in minis gaming despite not even being written about a mini game. It’s also a lot of folks first steps into strategic analysis of their gaming, mine included.  It was also the subject of a recent podcast by Breachburnt. 

So in an exceedingly rare occurrence I thought I’d write an article about strategic approach to Malifaux. Now I feel it is important to note that this is not intended as “top table advice” but more aimed at if you’re looking to lift from bottom half towards more mid table placing.

Firstly:

Ork Brain theory.

Waaaaaaaaagh! Ultimately a lot of us get into mini war gaming to push minis into the middle of the board, throw fistfuls of dice at each other and remove your opponents models. And this is absolutely valid and also fun.

However in a game like Malifaux, it is very rare where purely on-the-table-player-skill is the lone determining factor. I appreciate this statement has the potential to be hideously misinterpreted so allow me to clarify. Yes, absolutely player skill is the single most determining factor in any match up, resource management plays a highly significant factor as does decision quality, game state appraisal and of course luck (black joker gonna black joker) but it is also important to consider everyone’s models and their rules.  When all is said and done, some crews are better ant certain things than others. Specifically some crews are better at brawling in the middle than others, but a lot of players want to brawl in the middle because Ork Brain. I have Ork Brain, I absolutely freely admit it. I am talking about myself here, there is no subtext in Ork Brain. As a result of my Ork Brain and my absolute desire to just fight in the middle I make damn sure to choose keywords and Masters that support this. (Hence in part my current love of Reva). However there comes a time in every Warbosses life when he looks across the table and realises he’s up against a bigger boy. The recognition of this is key (this is essentially what the Who is the beatdown blog is all about) there will absolutely come a time when I play Reva purely to Through the Embers myself and body guard round the corners of the board and use Lampads as triple move models to drop schemes where my opponent can’t get to. I don’t really want to, I want to stand in the middle and set everything on fire. Recognise your Ork Brain, know when it’s time to avoid the brawl in the middle.  Alternatively recognise Ork brain in others and take advantage wherever possible *insert Forest Gump waving gif here*.

Related to this:

Space Marine brain theory.

I appreciate I’m being slightly unkind to 40k players with these titles, but….they’ll get over it.

What do I mean by SMB theory? This is the hard and fast belief that the thing you’ve done 100 times before and been successful with will continue to be successful with no changes on your part despite external forces. Metas shift constantly, new things are discovered, players change skill or try new things, new models are released or a different gaining grounds come out.

Things change. And so must you. 

I’m not talking about reps here, reps are very important but so is the recognition that there are a myriad of external forces that have impacted your game before the first round of initiative is flipped. 

I’ll give you a made up example. Let’s take two friends who play each other loads. One plays Cooper the other plays Nekima. The Nephilim player loves mature Nephilim, absolutely windmill slams two matures into every list. The Apex player  absolutely adores this and happily shoots them off the board every single time. Pew pew pop pop.  Now, post Ashes, Nephilim have access to Cavern Nephilim who with their stealth will present a potential counter to being shot off the board by Cooper. Be prepare to change. Try new things. Don’t just hide I metal boxes.  Also don’t be this guy.

These have been some rambling thoughts of a commute, but there we are.

Tl;Dr Recognise your Ork Brain, recognise your Space Marine Brain. Things change, try new things in response. You might not be the biggest dog in the yard.

[insert better outro]