Infinity Round Two

Milton Bradley Town; a land of villainous dice and lost games - mezzwargames

Maybe it's my old laptop that is annoying me right now but I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of the new Blogger interface.  I push on nonetheless.

I push on because we played another test round of Infinity this week.  I have to put test round in there because Infinity can be quite fiddly to the newcomer and we were stopping often and looking up rules, writing questions down, and the like.  In the end, however, the game felt more like what I thought an Infinity game would feel like, and we had a lot more models on the table to boot.

Militant knights advance across a side street

For this battle we used the basic Infinity starter boxes, statted out as is.  The were my Combined Army aliens versus Jeff's Pan Oceania Militant Order.  Jeff's models looked great, and were almost finished, which always makes for a nice looking battle.

The terrain on the other hand, ahem, not so much.  Just like in the old minis rulebooks where they show photos of textbooks on the kitchen table to act as hills, we kept it very low budget this go-round.  Yup, we used boardgame boxes.  Let's face it though, Infinity just doesn't look right on blasted, neo-gothic ruins of the 41st millennium.  You need skyscraper-choked neo-Tokyo.  Ironically enough, terrain guru Ironworker Miller, has just posted some effective and low-cost Infinity terrain tips.  I will be checking those out.

Also, I know I just complained about the new Blogger interface, well, I admit I do like the new caption option.
 

A Dāturazi Witch-Soldier skirts a rooftop with the massive Charontid bringing up support not far behind

Infinity, here's their link for posterity, is a great skirmish level sci-fi game.  It does feel quite unique too given all the other samplings out there.  The gorgeous figs instantly set it apart, but the rules help as well.  There's a sort of perpetual over-watch going on that every eligible model can take advantage of when it's not their turn, the ARO (automatic reaction order).  You have a fair number of ARO options as well, depending on what you want to do.  The ARO not only keeps you 100% vested in the game during your opponent's turn but makes those lines of sight all the more important too.

This time around our biggests hurdle was mastering the ARO.  How to use it, when to use it, who could use it, you name it.  For one, we were using the quick start rules, which were understandably skimpy in explanation, and two, it's just a new concept for us in this scale of a game.  Understanding this element is going to be key to how quick you assimilate the rules.

Morat Vanguard Infantry bunch up hoping for safety in numbers

The Dāturazi is taken down by a headshot from two blocks away

This Pan-O sniper had a commanding view of the streets

Another fun component of the Infinity rules is the large role that camouflage plays.  Lots of models have camo, ranging from a simple woodland pattern poncho to sophisticated thermo-optical spectrum based technologies.

The models with active camo use tokens on the tabletop to represent their blip, but that's it.  In order for an enemy to engage them they have to first perform an action to actively 'discover' the model.  Based on the level of camo the model has, this isn't always easy.  Models using active camo also get a surprise attack, allowing them to shoot at a target while 'cloaked'.  If they eliminate said target in one shot they don't have to fear that target using its ARO to shoot back.

With the ARO issue coming up seemingly every time we used it, I wrote down the instances with how we thought it was supposed to work.  I then shamelessly emailed them to Fire Broadside! care of Martin.  If you haven't been to Martin excellent blog, I suggest you do so...as soon as you're done reading here of course.  Anyway, Martin has advised in the Infinity realm before and he came through with all of the clarity I knew we were lacking originally.  Next game will go a lot more smoothly thanks to him!

By the time game began to wind down, the Combined Army had made a rousing comeback.  Once they got their heavy hitter, the Charontid, into the fray the final stone had been cast.  This monster held his own in both ranged and mclose combat, and was heavily armored enough to shrug off many incoming hits as well.  It's also one of the more expensive models to field, points-wise anyway, so once we start policing our army lists more thoroughly he may not be making too many appearances.

All in all it was a good game.  The terrain was a little lacking but it did feel good to get some painted figs on the table and give them a proper go of it.  Infinity round two was a success, here's to the next one.  Until then, enjoy!