Earlier this week, our Wyrd
overlords deigned to inform us that June 28th is the date upon which
we shall be receiving our M3E goodness. The message included a number of
interesting details for store owners, including their intention to put together
packets of the new stat cards which can be inserted into the boxes along with a
sticker on the outside to indicate that the box has been updated. This should
cut down on the need for retailers to clear out old stock and replace it with
new cards, and hopefully cut down on the recent Wyrd product firesales that
most stores have been employing. Additionally, Wyrd is intending to start
lumping some of the individual model boxed sets together to try and cut down on
the number of SKUs that stores have to stock for Malifaux product, which is
also a good thing. One of the concerning things going into the relaunch was
going to be the situation with boxed sets that are having new models added to
them. As a way of addressing this, Wyrd will be offering the ability to special
order individual models through store owners for the first year after M3E’s
release. This way, if you already own the whole Marcus boxed set but need one
model that has been added to it (just a random example, I don’t actually know
if there will be anything new in Marcus’ boxed set) you can get it special
without having to fork over cash for a whole new box. I think these are good
steps taken by the company, as their reputation, particularly in terms of customer
service and relationships with retailers, has taken a bit of a ding over the
last year. Hopefully this is a sign of them pulling out of that tailspin.
But what about the new stuff! Well,
ok, calm down. Obviously, I’m going to talk about that too. For those of you
like me (and, let’s be honest, everybody reading this blog probably falls into
the same category) that won’t necessarily be in a huge rush to go replace all
their models with new stuff come launch day, all of the rules and stat cards
for M3E will be available for free on Wyrd’s website day one. If you have
access to a printer or a tablet, you can play M3E when the game launches June
28th without spending a dime (other than printer ink, of course,
which I think is made from soulstone dust gauging by the price. /oldmanrant.)
Most folks will want physical cards, of course, and the stat cards and upgrades
for each M2E model will be available for purchase in Faction Packs that will be
sold essentially as long as demand lasts. Gauging how M1E to M2E went that’ll be about
a year so you won't want to wait too long. It’s a good way to get shiny new cards for all of your old models all in
one go, barring dual-faction complications. Interestingly, Wyrd has also decided to create Faction books that will
be released over the months following release that will include new stories, lore,
and information on the factions themselves. I assume stat blocks will be in
there also, but at first blush these fall into the category of “luxury item”
for people who want to just play some Malifaux. I’m curious to see what’s in
them, and as a lore nerd I’ll probably need to pick them up at some point to
get all the current juicy fluff content, but I don’t feel like I’ll need to buy
all of them on day one necessarily.
As for the models themselves, as
mentioned above the plan is to lump some boxed sets together. This helps store
owners out for the above reasons as well as by helping the sales staff to guide
new players (“Oh, you like Seamus? Cool, to get all of the models from his
keyword, you just have to pick up these three boxes that say they include the
Redchapel keyword on the outside.”) and potentially make it less of a wallet
hit for new people to join the game as well. Ok, probably not that last one,
but at least it’ll keep new players from getting overwhelmed by letting them
focusing on the keyword models rather than having the daunting task of buying
the whole faction in front of them. I included some preview art of the new
boxed sets above. I preferred M2E’s green and black boxes to this new scheme,
and this new sculpt of Lady Justice isn’t my favorite, but the new judge looks
rad and I really like the idea of lumping some models in theme together in the same
box. As for the new release schedule itself, why don’t I just go ahead and
throw it into the post here so you can check it out.
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It looks like there’s roughly one
master’s boxed set per faction getting a resculpt, except for the Ten Thunders.
That’s a little disappointing, as I would argue they are the most in need of
new plastics, since they were first after Wyrd switched away from pewter and
their quality is well behind the others. I thought that all of the alternate
art for them in Broken Promises might have indicated the future, but for now I’m a little confused. I assume a
new Sonnia will be coming at some point as well, since she doesn’t wear the
mask anymore.
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| I'm sure she's hard at work "motivating" the sculptors as we speak. |
Lastly, Wyrd mentions that they’ll
be releasing a Gaining Grounds Season One document at some point within the
first year of the game’s life to reignite the competitive scene (some of which has already started to come back, based on the M3E beta tournaments I’ve
seen recently.) I hope they’re working with Craig at Third Floor Wars so they
can tie this in with his Third Floor Wars’ attempt to get a national
Masters tournament put together. And, of course, they bring up the mysterious
new faction coming (likely) in the next wave of M3E. For those not in the know,
McCabe and the new Guild master Basse are dual-faction with them, and some
overheard rumor and scuttlebutt has it that 1) there will be a model in the faction
for which you can use the former Mounted Guard alternate sculpts from the
Nightmare McCabe boxed set and 2) the name of this new faction has been
mentioned somewhere in the already existing fluff. More details will
doubtless come from the upcoming M3E fluff, but I’d say that the themes of
frontier, wild west-type models will probably be involved. Maybe an Explorer’s
Society pushing out into the boundaries of settled Malifaux to explore the
wider world? I don’t know, but I’m in love with them already. I wish Perdita
was going with them as well so I could just quit the Guild entirely and play
these new people, but c’est la vi. I’m told by unnamed sources that Perdita and
Basse don’t really get along, as Perdita will happily burn down a village to
get the Neverborn she thinks is hiding inside while Basse is much more law and
order focused. The obvious rebuttal, of course, is “yeah, but McCabe is a
lawless scoundrel who is literally responsible for breaking the Earth,” but nobody asked for my opinion on the matter. I like ‘em. ‘Nuff
said.
All things considered I’m looking
forward to the coming M3E goodness. I think this community post by Wyrd was a
good step in the right direction, and they seems to be conscious of the need to
make the transition between editions as painless as possible, which is a good
thing. Every day I get more hyped for M3E, which hopefully will translate into
more regular Malifaux Musings. If you’re in the mid-west United States,
I’ll be attending my first M3E tournament in Des Moines May 25th and
26th at Museon Con. If you make the trip, hopefully we’ll see each
other there! I’ll be the one who looks befuddled while trying to remember how
all these newfangled models work.
