A year and a half after painting up a half squad, I finally got in my first game of Infinity. Our PAGE Infinity Get Started Day seemed successful, with a bunch of newcomers showing up alongside the Sunday regulars at Redcap’s for over 16 people playing or watching. A few more photos are in the gallery.

To Infinity… and beyond! (that will never get old)

I’ve been sick and had told Caitlin I’d be home early so I only got in one game, but it was a solid learning experience. Colin’s Ariadna Highlanders partnered up with my PanOceania Military Orders to fight Steve’s… Haqqislam? Nomads? I have no idea. They were painted in typical Nomads colors but my impression is he’s only ever talked about playing Haqqislam. It… feels a little weird to me to be so new to a miniatures game as to not even be able to definitively recognize an opposing faction’s models. Also, I actually saw very little of his army because they all hid behind buildings and then popped out just enough to shoot from cover.

Why are we fighting over this shanty town again?!?!

One small note is I should paint the front arc on the base of my models. Steve seems to have done that on his. Most of the models are pretty clear about which way they’re facing so it’s not a huge thing, but it’s a nice touch. Facing is important for critical game mechanics like taking opportunistic shots at troops moving around, so it’s nice to make the front arc completely unambiguous.

The enemy!

The game I think is pretty good. I’m not sure what to make of the rulebook. Previous editions I didn’t think were written very well, though some of that could be the translation. So far this edition is hard to gauge. It seems like many things are left unsaid or a bit ambiguous. But that could just be me not having a grasp of both the core mechanics and presentation style. The book does seem to have somewhat formal and systematic language around models being in particular states and so on, which is promising. Clearly though the game encompasses a million little fiddly abilities and a good number of stats, many of which seem like they may not come up all that often. There’s a lot going on, and a lot of interactions.

Overall though, the core mechanics are obviously fun and very tactical. They play out quite different from many miniatures games, and especially 40k. Infinity is hyper-focused on line of sight and sniping. I knew to expect that, but it was interesting to fool around and start to actually get a feel for how it plays out. For example, a bunch of regular troopers caught in the open really should not engage in a firefight with a sniper at long range in cover. That’s… actually pretty realistic? Similarly, charging with your sword against a guy pointing a shotgun your way is probably not going to work out well. That’s… even more realistic?

Holding down the right flank.

In the end Steve rolled us off the table in a straightforward annihilation mission. Knights on the right flank got wiped out moving forward aggressively toward close combat. Order sergeants made a serious thrust up the center but all got put away by a sniper camped out in the backfield. On the left the Highlanders got a bunch of kills with their machine guns as enemy troops parachuted in all around them, but were eventually themselves tagged. The final moments came down to a lone sergeant in high tech camouflage sniping from the rooftops, but an enemy doctor was able to creep around a building out of sight and save the downed troops, who then overwhelmed the sniper and eliminated Colin and I from the game.

So, in the end, I’m pretty excited about playing more Infinity. Definitely a substantial learning curve just to pick up all the core rules, let alone all the common abilities and weapons. But it’s a fun game and the skirmish style right up my alley.

Pop, pop!