Infinity (sci-fi miniatures game)

Does anyone else here play Infinity? For those of you who don't know, Infinity is a tabletop miniatures game by Corvus Belli. It uses a sci-fi setting (200 years into the future) and typically less than 10 models per player. The official site is here.

The rules are available for free on the site, although the paper rulebooks do contain a lot of fluff. Miniatures cost about as much as those of many other manufacturers, but you don't need many, making Infinity a cheap game to play. You do need a decent amount of terrain, though.

The core of the game is formed by the Order and Automatic Reaction Order (ARO) system. When a model controlled by the active player does something that is seen by one or more of the reactive player's models each of those models gets a reaction, which includes options like shooting at the active model. This keeps both players busy during both turns. Ranged combat is king in Infinity and melee is only really viable for dedicated specialists. Most games are decided by making it so that the enemy engages you on your terms and not theirs.

Each of the seven factions currently available have their own style and points of attraction. From the low-tech but firepower-heavy Ariadnans to the robots and artificial humand created by the supercomputer ALEPH, they are all viable and fun to play.The miniatures themselves are also gorgeous.

I myself play Yu Jing, which is basically the People's Republic of China after assimilating many of the surrounding countries after a massive economical crisis which also removed the USA and the EU as major powers. Most of my forces are from the Japanese Sectorial Army (they were assimilated by China as well) and focus on a close-range, attack-oriented style of play.

If you play this game as well, what faction(s) do you play and why do you like them? If you don't play this game but have any questions, feel free to ask them! I (or any other Infinity players around) will try to answer them to the best of our ability.

I've played a demo game, and it seemed pretty interesting. Good thing compared to, say, 40k is thta you don't need all that many figures to make an army. I've heard the order system is pretty clunky, tho, and leads to silly stuff like taking loads of cheap mooks that do nothing but stand in the backfield so that the one big nasty guy can act 10 times a turn.

That can happen, but a smart player will probably play around the big guy to take out the rest of the force. No model can cover all lanes of approach by itself, so you need a way to protect your order donors as well. Otherwise, troops with high movement, Airborne Deployment or Infiltration (especially in combination with camo) will just avoid the big guy and kill everything else. With only 2 orders left, that point sink will just get taken apart systematically, you his player will lose the scenario. Generally, skilled players will use most of their orders each turn on the three or four models that happen to be in the best positions to hurt the opponent's forces. Cheaper forces can be used to cover your flanks and possible landing zones. That way, they still contribute to the army without actively spending orders. When something drops in in sight of your grunts, a few unopposed Rifle or Combi Rifle shots can often take it out before it can do anything.

Scenarios are actually reccommended quite a bit. There are no real official ones yet, but there are plenty fan-made scenarios on the official forums.

I'll give an example of army composition and the thoughts behind it. This is the force I used ealier this week in a 200-point game.

Domaru Lieutenant with Chain Rifle, E/M Grenades. Heavy Infantry specializing in close-range combat. Not incredible for Heavy Infantry, but cheap.

Kempei with Boarding Shotgun, Chain of Command. This guy hides in the back. If my Lt is killed (which is a bad thing, and likely if I use the Domaru aggessively) he will automatically take over command, preventing loss of Lieutenant status.

3 Keisotsu with Combi Rifles. Basic grunts there to add orders and cover lanes. Can be effective on the frontline late in the game in case of heavy losses.

Keisotsu with Heavy Machine Gun. The Keisotsu statline is not too impressive, but heavy weapons are very cheap on them. Quite effective for mid-range firefights or to close off something with Surpression Fire.

Keisotsu with Missile Launcher. Also pretty cheap, and potentially very dangerous in the reactive turn. Most things don't survive getting hit with a missile.

Aragoto with Spitfire. A biker with a pretty big gun. He's pretty squisy, but extremely fast and packs a solid punch. He's there to take advantage of exposed weaker models, especially if there's a hole in the opponent's defenses. My favourite unit in the game.

Oniwaban with Boarding Shotgun, Monofilament CCW. This improved Ninja is pretty expensive and quite squishy, but very very sneaky. His Monofilament weapon also has a 60% chance to instantly kill whatever gets hit with it. He starts the game hidden (you note where he is as precisely as possible) and pretty far up the table. His job is to sneak around shooting weaker models when they don't see him coming or backstabbing high-value targets. If an opponent would try to rambo, this guy has a good shot at taking that overextended model out.

edited 4th Aug '12 1:08:17 PM by MarqoD

I've only ever played Infinity once using Haqqislam. I would love to get my hands on some Pan O and ALEPH stuff (even created the tropes page On This Very Wiki) but my experience is limited. Models look great. Poses are silly.

edited 5th Aug '12 7:12:11 AM by HouraiRabbit

Some poses are indeed a little silly. Some others are pretty cool, though.

We've got a pretty varied group of players at the store I go to, although most of us are still pretty inexperienced. There are people playing every faction, with a few more for Ariadna and now Haqqislam.

I'm looking through the quick start rules now and am a bit confused why anyone would still make it so that sometimes a high roll is good and sometimes a low roll is good.

Aside from that, this reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles meets Frozen Synapse.

Typically, you want a roll that's just high enough for your target number. Lower rolls work but can get cancelled if it's a Face To Face roll. Only Armour rolls always have higher being better. This rewards having good odds of success when to opponent gets to roll more dice. As a slight bonus, it also helps in the case of unbalanced dice.

Also, plenty of companies want you to roll high in some cases and low in others. 40k, Wahammer Fantasy, Warmachine and Hordes all want you to roll high typically, but low for leadership/command. There's more game systems I'm forgetting right now.

Valkyria Chronicles is something a lot of people are reminded of. One guy on the official forums even has an Ariadna army painted and converted to look like Gallian forces.

Link me this PLEASE.

Here's the thread. His painting is decent but not amazing. Still, quite a nice army to look at.

As for why this game gets compared to Valkyria Chronicles - the order system is identical, the acting and reacting is pretty much identical, and the relative army sizes are pretty much identical. The main difference is that Valkyria Chronicles moves you in real time, but when it's time to shoot, it goes back to being paused. None of this is bad.

edited 5th Aug '12 6:33:20 PM by KyleJacobs

I've wanted to get into this, but lack of players in my area (and my friends aren't interested) is a bit of a damper.

As you say, fewer models required makes this much cheaper than a tabletop wargame (does that make this a tabletop skirmish game?).

Which faction is mewb-friendly? I might try and find the rules online and see if I can grok them.

Yeah, I really need to complete that game myself.

All of the factions can be pretty newb-friendly. Combined Army and ALEPH would probably give the most problems, simply because they're more elite forces and ALEPH in particular has some unusual basic troops compared to the other factions. They're still not that difficult to learn, just a bit more tricky when building lists at lower points values. I'd base what army you want to play on a combination of the minis and the general flavour of the faction.

If you want to try the game out, it might be a good idea to download the quickstart rules and proxy a few games using them or a watered-down version of them with some other minis you have lying around. If you like it, download the rulebooks from the official site. The full rules are available there, for free. The official wiki is very useful as well, as it includes all the errata and Frequently Asked Questions. The official army builder is also amazing.

Another good way to get to know the gameplay mechanics and some basic background info is through the links on this page. The gameplay videos are a lot clearer about how the game works than just reading stuff.

Edit: Looks like the official site still has an older version of the quickstart rules. Beasts of War have a newer one to download on their site. My local store got even newer quickstart booklets, but I can't seem to find those online.

edited 6th Aug '12 2:33:16 AM by MarqoD

Have any of you guys heard of a wargame being run over Maptool? Because I don't have the money to spend on minis, I have nobody to play against IRL, and none of the (few, tiny) game stores in my area carry it, but I would really like to try this game somehow.

I've taken a look at the Mapttols module for Infinity, Infinitools. Looks pretty decent, but not quite as nice as playing on a real board. Especially the lack of proper height treatment might be a problem. Still, it might be a decent option. If you want to try it, I'd suggest asking someone on the IRC channel, which should be findable if you google for it.

The ALEPH Myrmidon Commander model looking like, and painted up to look like, Motoko Kusanagi has instantly guaranteed that I'd play ALEPH if I got into the game. Yu Jing comes a close second though.

Free rules also means I'm that much more likely to pick up random models and paint them up on the off chance of getting a game in one day.

If you like the look of the Myrmidons and want to start Aleph, a box of them plus an Officer blister should be a pretty decent starting force. It's also an easier way to start Aleph since having remotes as grunts can be a bit tricky.

Downloading the rules right now. Will give a quick read when I get home, to supplement the reading of the Wiki I'm doing at work. I like how robust the system feels once you get past the initial moments.

EDIT: Awww, you can't have a Myrmidon Officer who is also a hacker and your Lieutenant. Myrmidons in general seem pretty good though, between Optical Disruptors, First Attack, and BS 15 at the right ranges with their Combi Rifles.

edited 6th Aug '12 8:02:31 PM by disruptorfe404

See if there's an Infinity mod for Vassal. That's what all the cool wargamers use anyway :p

EDIT: Oh wait, there is.

edited 7th Aug '12 7:46:10 AM by HouraiRabbit

Looks like I missed that one. Seems pretty cool at first glance. Not as expansive as the Warmachine/Hordes module (which has custom sprites for pretty much all models) but pretty solid.

Edit: looked some more, and it seems plenty useful for playing games. Line of sight would have to be volume-based instead of model-based from what I can see, but that's something one can work with.

edited 7th Aug '12 9:55:13 AM by MarqoD

Would any of you guys be up for a game at some point so I can see if I actually like this?

Sure. I'd like to try the Vassal module myself, so I wouldn't mind giving you a demo using it.

Awesome. I'll try to figure out how to get it set up.

EDIT: OK, I'm in. Just pop in whenever.

edited 7th Aug '12 2:43:02 PM by KyleJacobs

Ooh, forgot that Vassal exists.

Tempting, mighty tempting. Does Vassal allow spectating?

I'm sorry, but it looks like I won't have enough time to give a demo this night. It's just past midnight in my timezone.