Infinity Game

So, last week I played one game of Infinity with my friend. We both played it for the first time, although my friend watched a cople of games in one of the Prague stores. This one game really bought me to this fast paced game that I was keeping my eye on for some time.

The battle of two 150pts armies (Ariadna vs Aleph) lasted for about an hour - but if we knew the rules better, it would have been much shorter (we had to go through the rulebooks quite a lot to resolve some situations).

What I really like about the whole game is that both players are always playing - there is ACTIVE and REACTIVE player. The reactive player has some real nasty tactical options during his opponents turn which makes this game a real "miniature chess" in my eyes. Othe great thing is the support from the creators (Corvus Beli). Rules are free, there is an official wiki placed on infinity website, there is an online armybuilder (FOR FREE!!!) with up-to-date stats (plus it connected to the wiki, so it really easy to find the explanation of different skills).

(personal note: That something GW should consider for both Warhammer games - it would draw much more people (back) to their games and bring money they lust for)

I decided to start Caledonian force (I just love the idea of Space Scotts!) and went to the local store to buy the stater and some additional figures. Well... There was no starter but I still got my hands on Grey Rifles Higlander. The quaility of the model is really great (practically no moldlines and great detail plus all pieces fit together really well) and compared to GW models it look much more like a HUMAN! The more I look at it, the more I look forward to paint it (and the more I want to buy more of 'em ).

So.. Anyone else has some experience with this game? Or thinking about trying it?

I've not played it (I would consider it though). The models are lovely (Ariadna would be my personal favourite if I did!).

Laney

I like some of the models. Especially the Ariadna Scots models. I really dislike the gundam/anime look of some of the factions though. Just not a fan of that style of miniatures.

I'm thinking about using some of my Sedition Wars humans to play infinity too. I figure they will work well enough to try a few games out before I decide if I like it or not.

So, I have played two games of Infinity so far and I am liking it more and more. No victories so far, but I really need to learn all the things my army offers.
As to the painting, I have two scots so far (Caledonian Volunteers to be precise). Here they are, if you are interested:

Is he a REAL man? You know what they say about men in kilts.



You may adventure and google "what men wear under kilts"... some not safe for work (NSFW).

Could you tell us a bit more about how the reactions stuff works? As a designer I'm always interested in new rules. I did have a look at the Infinity ruleset, but have never played it.

One thing I think GW games lack is interactivity. Maybe Infinity has some cool stuff we can steal for Death Squads.

Arachas wrote:

Could you tell us a bit more about how the reactions stuff works? As a designer I'm always interested in new rules. I did have a look at the Infinity ruleset, but have never played it.

One thing I think GW games lack is interactivity. Maybe Infinity has some cool stuff we can steal for Death Squads.

I will try

So... To begin, there is a thing in Infinity called ORDER POOL. Every model (well almost every model) gives you one ORDER (TOKEN) to the POOL. In your ACTIVE TURN you can use this ORDERS to make ACTIONS with your soldiers (there are "short actions" and "long actions" and for one order you can make one long action or two short actions). After the first action of the order was announced, any model with line of sight on the model making the action can call ARO (automatic reaction order). There are some other rules aroun, that are a little more complex and I think it would be easier to understand them from the rules directly.

I will try to give an example: I have a soldier in rather open ground and need to get him to some cover. I give him an order and call the first action a move. There is one enemy model with line of sight on my soldier. The enemy calls an ARO - Fire (or shoot, not sure about the proper terms right now ). Now I have a choice for second short action: move, dodge, fire. (Note: there are two types of rolls in Infinity normal and face-to-face roll - to succed in normal roll, you just have to roll D20 with the result equal or lower than one of the models stats; face-to-face roll is a little bit harder, because you have to succed the same way as in normal roll and also beat the roll of the enemy). Move action would let the enemy roll the normal roll, which is not really beneficial for me. Dodging calls for face-to-face roll and might be a good choice if my soldier had a really good Physical stat. Shooting is also nice, because I am the ACTIVE player and I have the full burst of my weapon at disposal (for example Rifle has the burst of 3, so I can roll three dice) while the REACTIVE player has the burst reduced to 1. The decision would be pretty much on what is the position of models and on stats.

Well, I hope that my explanation was clear enough. The important thing is that ALL model with the line of sight on model performing action can make the ARO, so you can get in pretty hard crossfire. The reactive turn can become really nasty thing, if the models are in right position, which emphasizes the "strategicality" of the game (at least from my point of view).

There are some really nice tutorial videos for the rules and basic mechanics on YouTube: LINK, so check it out if you are interested

@Lazi - cool looking tartan - nice job.

The infinity rules sound very interesting - how much does a starter box/game run to. Ariadna look the most conventional (but all the models are pretty impressive).

Laney:D

Laney wrote:

@Lazi - cool looking tartan - nice job.

The infinity rules sound very interesting - how much does a starter box/game run to. Ariadna look the most conventional (but all the models are pretty impressive).

Laney:D

The models are really cool indeed and well detailed. The fluff is interesting too. Less grim than 40k, but that's definitely not for worse.
The Ariadna looks most conventional probably because it's quite technologicaly undeveloped (they were the first colony of the mankind outside the solar system, but the connection with them was lost for quite some time and they had to survive on a planet that was not entirely friendly to them...).

Starter box with 6 minis costs 35,95 EUR at Corvus Belli online store, I have no idea about the prices worldwide. You can play a smaller skirmish with this starter plus one or two models (counting some 150 pts). But you really need loads of terrain (you can substitute it with books and boxes as my friend and myself did for our games but you know... it's not right ). Great thing is the rules for free as well as an armybuilder. There is also specialized wiki for Infinity covering pretty much everything ruleswise, which I find really cool. And the armybuilder is connected with this wiki which is even cooler. If you want the fluff, you would need to buy the book(s), though.

Very cool tartan on the models. The kilted models are by far my favorites too.

Thanks for trying to explain, Lazi!

What I like about this ARO system is that it's interactive. Everyone is thinking and moving in EACH turn, not just your own turn. That's something I'd want more for DS (without turning it into Infinity).

What do you think, Lazi? Do you think we could transplant some of the mechanics? Would it fit?

Corintus wrote:

Thanks for trying to explain, Lazi!

What I like about this ARO system is that it's interactive. Everyone is thinking and moving in EACH turn, not just your own turn. That's something I'd want more for DS (without turning it into Infinity).

What do you think, Lazi? Do you think we could transplant some of the mechanics? Would it fit?

I really don't know. I actually played only one game of DS, unfortunately, because I was unable to persuade my friend to give it a try and ended with Infinity because of that (because they were more interested in it). The mechanics of reactive turns are really interesting and offer real challenge sometimes. I am not sure it would fit DS, though. What I mean is, you guys are making a game based on W40k which is based on quite a lot of its mechanics, so it would be (among other things) easy for 40k player to play it as an alternative game to their regular battles without learning different mechanics - and W40k is not working with reactive turs (as far as I know)... So from my poit of view, it looks like you would have to change the philosophy of the game(development)... But I really don't know what your exact intentions are and how much you want to have DS similar wit 40k...

OK, the die is cast. I'm getting into Infinity myself. I really want to see and check out what I can learn from it. Plus, the models are amazing and the background is inspiring.

I've got two guys in my group of friends who are interested as well. So it's going to happen. I'll let you guys know, once we find out something cool. Heck, we may even post battle-reports, so we can all take something away from what we learn.

Cool! I am really curious if you will find some things implementable into DS! Because I like the 40k setting (well, I like the Infinity setting just as much, but thats not the point) and I really thing DS offers a great possibility to dive into it a little bit more then the original game (even the creation of squad I've never played with, and its fluff was lots of fun ). And in Infinity there are some great ideas that can make the game really challenging and hard for both players.

My game of DS today was another great (well, not so great) example of how one-sided this game can be.

If your opponent takes time to think (and he should be allowed to), the enemy movement phase can take aaaaages. There's nothing you can do to counter his moves, until your turn. Which also means you can be kind of relaxed about where you move your models: if they end up in cover, it's cool.

Not so with Infinity. Any move crossing open ground is risky (as it should be). You can respond to what's happening RIGHT AWAY.

Also, I'm fed up with D6's. A critical chance of 1/6 is FAAAAR too good. 1/20 sounds much, much fairer and more realistic.

What I haven't seen for Infinity is a cool campaign system and XP earning ways, but I hear that's around in the Paradise add-on. I'll have to check that out. The Post-Battle Sequence is one of my favorite parts of DS: without your models growing and the ability to string games together, playing the game seems less important.