Posted in: Games, Miniatures, Review, Tabletop, Wyrd Games | Tagged: book, book review, M3E, Malifaux, Malifaux Burns, wargame, Wyrd, Wyrd Miniatures
Wyrd Games' "Malifaux Burns", The Story Malifaux Deserves – Review
Malifaux, Wyrd Games' flagship tabletop skirmisher, has been rife with conflict in its story. From vignettes surrounding individual characters to major cataclysmic happenings such as "The Event" (wherein each Master in the game manifested into an "avatar", a nigh-godlike being with massive powers), the world of Malifaux is never one to be spared from major catastrophe. The latest book by Wyrd Games, entitled Malifaux Burns, is no exception to this rule, for just when things may have been getting a little bit stale in the world beyond the Breach, Wyrd proves once again that they are easily able to pull us back in. We got ahold of a review copy of Malifaux Burns, and here's what we think of it!
The book begins by telling a 44-page series of interconnected stories from a third-person perspective revolving around a few select Masters from the game as well as a couple of major players in the storyline. The story begins with Euripides, a half-blind Neverborn seer, being plagued with visions of great flames and billowing smoke which clouds his view of the future. The future he is trying to see is obstructed, it seems, by the events of this book. Titania, the Autumn Queen of the Neverborn Fae, is greatly concerned about this.
Meanwhile, the Governor-General of the Guild, Franco Marlow, is concerned with capturing Analsalea Kaeris, Reva Cortinas is being driven to some degree of madness by spirits from a place far beyond, and Parker Barrows, a bandit, is condemned to die by hanging upon the Hanging Tree. All of these plotlines are greatly impeded upon by the sudden arrival of the Burning Man, an enigmatic and highly dangerous being who had previously been seen Earthside and is now immolating everything he comes into contact with.
The story is high-quality, even as far as Wyrd's storyline is concerned. There are some moments of strangely fitting lightness even amid the overall bleakness of the Malifaux setting. And while not all of the major characters of the story get a chance to shine in this story, the book makes up for this by adding storyline blurbs along with the new stat cards of the miniatures involved. Speaking of which, if you are a fan of the game and currently play it, the models' stats as mentioned in this book are pretty cool. This is especially true for the Master models, which all have new titles to them and with them, new play styles.
All in all, this is a fantastic supplement to the Malifaux skirmish game by Wyrd. But beyond this, Malifaux Burns is a wonderful piece of literature for the world, which is already quite rich, as it were. If you wish to pick this book up, you can find it on Wyrd Games' web store or at your local game store. If you've already gotten your hands on it thanks to GenCon 2021 or other means, let us know what you think about it in the comments below!