Tafel

Data Sphere painting campaign entry

WIP O:I

Creating a Tutorial Campaign

I have been pretty busy these past weeks and I haven't got around to a lot of painting/assembling or playing Infinity unfortunately!

On the other hand, I've become involved in a really cool project!
Together with Melvin McSnatch from the Official Infinity Forum I started writing on a fan-made Tutorial Campaign which new players can use to learn the basic rules and mechanics of Infinity. We received a lot of feedback from other people on the Official Forum already and while the project is FAR from finished, it starts to get a nice shape already. Thanks to everyone who gave us feedback in this early stage! ;)

You can find the thread here.

I really enjoy working on this project since it is an opportunity to do something in return for the community and all those gamers who haven't got around to play Infinity yet. They'll enjoy playing our Tutorial since it's a great start to get to know the rules.

Since I'm pretty busy at the moment with school, painting Infinity miniatures and this Tutorial Campaign I won't have much time to update this blog regularly. I won't have much new finished miniatures to show for, so there's not much reason to drop a new blog. ;)

 Fortunately the Christmas holiday is around the corner, so I'll have a lot of time to get by with painting. In the mean time I'll put some more energy, thoughts and work in the Tutorial Campaign.
Feel free to join the feedback-thread

Reinforcements Arrived

My first big order arrived yesterday evening! Being winter and all, I didn't really had good light to start painting right away so I focused my attention on the MAS holo-ads that I ordered at well.
**note: the pictures aren't really state-of-the-art. I came back from school at half past seven in the evening, my girlfriend and I started cooking a seriously delicious pasta (if you want I'll put the recipe in the comments) and I opened up my package. Being hungry and curious at the contents of my package at the same time, taking the pictures became a pretty chaotic business! ;) Also, I share a 49m square apartment with my girlfriend, so the pictures might seem a little bit crowded which is, in fact, just like it is in real life! :D** 

My thoughts on the MAS product; 
First thought; Damn, beautiful!
Those holo-ads (I bought the three-pack) are a pure quality-product. The acrylic ads are really thick transparent plastic and the printed stickers are a great design!
The assembly was difficult though. Since these were the first MDF-terrain pieces ever that I got my hands on I really had to reinvent the wheel. The lack of a IKEA-manual made it worse. I only had 3 photo's on the back of a paper, and these weren't enough to guide me. I had a few pieces left at the end which caused me to really struggle with the finishing touch. Luckily a friend came by our place and we talked, laughed and drank tea while I tried to fit all the pieces together.

Unfortunately a part of the board wasn't entirely cut through so I had to come up with a solution. My solution was to break the board around it. Luckily, this went well. ;)
Only two pieces broke when I tried to pull them out, but with a little PVA glue this was fixed in no time!
While this may sound like a negative review, it's not my intention. The product is great. It is just me!;) Like any man does, I choose to ignore the manual, neglect to make preparations before I start assembling like a headless chicken and with much enthusiasm I stumbled a lot!

So, after a evening of trail and error, and without further a due!!! Here is the result!

After assembling the MAS terrain, I decided to start with cleaning up some models. I had to decide where to start, but this wasn't a really difficult choice since I've been eyeing the ISS units for quite some time. I had two ISS-boxes; the Bao Troops and the ISS starter, so I decided to start with those.

Painting
And this morning I started painting! ^^ After a day of a lot of homework and some (hour-long) painting breaks, I got my first model done; the Imperial Agent. I choose this model to start with because I really love the model. His pose is dynamic and bad-ass, and the golden and jade-colored trenchcoat (or is it a cape?) gives the model a really nice, characteristic touch!
Painting the gold was easier said than done! I'm not really satisfied with how the model turned out, but that could be the yellow-ish light that I used to take the picture. It looked way better in the afternoon autumn-light.

Introduction 2 - Infinity Gameplay: ARO and Orders

Welcome to the second Introduction to Infinity.

While my first Introduction was focussed on the factions and the story, this post will cover the basic gameplay of Infinity, which is really different from a lot of other turn-based strategy games. These mechanics are one of the main reasons that I really fell in love with Infinity; it creates a realistic simulation of a skirmish combat enviroment.

It is always your turn!

Active/Reactive Turn and ARO

While Infinity is turn-based both players are constantly playing. It is always your turn! In many turn-based games, there is a Player 1 turn and a Player 2 turn. While Player 1 is playing, Player 2 has nothing to do. In some turn-based games, you can even go to the kitchen to grab a bite, make some tea, read the newspaper and come back to resolve all the events with the dice before it's your turn again. 

Infinity however, gives us the Automatic Reaction Order (ARO). With the ARO Player 2 can react during his Reactive Turn to Player 1's Active Turn.

This way the game is really dynamic and realistic and it is taken to a whole new level of tactical warfare. 

So how does the ARO work?

Orders

To understand the ARO, we first have to take a look at the Orders. In an Infinity army, every unit generates one Order. Orders are a valuable resource in Infinity. The Order allows a player to move his units. Since a standard 300 point Infinity army is usually somewhere between the 10 to 15 units, this means that a player can generate somewhere between 10 to 15 Orders. With every model you loose, you loose orders as well.

With an Order a player can do many things. It is what powers your unit to take actions. 

An order is often broken up in two parts (two Short Skills or one Long Skill). While Player 1 is taking his actions; moving, hacking, taking objectives, shooting, Player 2 can react to these actions by hacking or shooting back at the opponent. Player 2 can react to every action his opponent takes, as long as those actions are preformed in Line of Fire (LoF) or Zone of Control (ZoC) of one of his units.

Let it sink for a moment... 

Yes indeed, you can shoot your opponents strategy entirely to pieces during his turn. It's this mechanic in the game that really makes Infinity a totally new way of tactical gaming.

The ARO is resolved by another core mechanic of Infinity; the Face-to-Face Roll, which I'll cover in future posts. 

Terrain

At this stage, I think everybody who read this gets an idea of the importance of cover and terrain within Infinty. If you're out of cover and out in the open, you're a sitting duck and the opponent can kill you off pretty easily. A player really needs to take a risk when crossing a street, square or passing an ally. He will also have to cover the backs of his own units with his other units. 

To play Infinity, you'll need a lot of LoF-blockers. I can't stress this enough! A lot of tabletops use few terrain-pieces. When you start Infinity with this kind of table in mind, the game is over in one or two turns and it will look like weird game. 

Luckily you can make terrain with everything; cereal boxes, books, cups, cans, etc. You can even make your own terrain with paper or foamboard, which is a pretty cheap option. 

One of the great Infinity tables, this one made by Antenocitis Workshop. You can see a lot of sight-blockers.

Well, that raps it up for tonight. :) Remember, the rules are downloadable free-of-charge from the Infinity website.  

                                                                                                                                           

The pictures are from Tom Shadle's Miniatures and Certs Tabletop