Infinity (wargame)

Infinity is a game with 28mm high metal miniatures that simulates combat and special operations in a science fiction environment with Manga aesthetics.

Fluff

Sci-fi future. Humanity can do FTL travel thru deep space via gates/wormholes, and reached out to about a dozen habitable systems by now. Humanity is still balkanized, not just by nation but by corporate allegiances too. There's also contact with another alien culture who want to annex humanity into their empires. Military action is never overt, as diplomats maintain an appearance of civility while "rogue insurgents" are dealt with "police actions" among the colonies, and "unsanctioned criminals" are eliminated with "unfortunately" too little evidence to identify them.

Factions

The Great Powers in conflict are:

• PanOceania, the Hyperpower: Leadership & Technology.
• Yu Jing, the Asian Power; Modernity & Tradition.
• Haqqislam, the New Islam: Wisdom & Bravery. And Muslamic Ray-Guns.
• Ariadna, the Lost Colony: Fucking Russians, Werewolves, the French, and Drunk Scotsman. This is the best faction in for-fucking-ever!
• Nomads, the Nonconformists: Rebellion & Resourcefulness.
• The Combined Army, the Alien Threat: Power from Deep Space.
• Mercenaries, the Profession of War.
• ALEPH, who Watches over All.
• Tohaa, Aliens, the ally that you cannot trust.

On Infinity Factions by Ansob

PanOceania is the result of an Australian/New Zealander/Filipino/Indonesian economic alliance buying out the US, EU and India's debts which they acquired when the first space colonisation programme failed and the markets went through another huge crash. They're the most high-tech human faction overall and have a lot of remote-control robots and mechs. They're easily the shootiest faction. The setting itself is in the midst of a both a second Cold War between PanOceania and Yu Jing (who are the two hyperpowers), and a more traditional war against the Combined Army. They are ultra-capitalists who've killed off most left-wing ideologies by worshipping the free market as the ultimate arbiter and the 'fairest' redistributor of wealth, with their democratic system now run directly by corporate/special interest Lobbies instead of traditional political parties. Oh, and they're also fanatical Christians who've allowed the Catholic Church (which re-unified all the Christian denominations and is a major Lobby itself) to have power-armoured knights as its own private military.

Sectorial armies are:

- The Neo-Terran Capitaline Army: Basically the uber-elite high-tech security forces of the capital city of the PanOceania nation. They get better access to high-tech units and field Auxilias bonded with Aux-Bots as their line infantry.

- The Military Orders of the Papacy: Basically SPACE KNIGHTS. VERY CATHOLIC SPACE KNIGHTS. Thematically they're all based on the crusader orders of old and then some, except for the Knights Templar who like the real counterparts were wiped out for committing heresy, although in this case its related to breaking the "Don't make AIs" rule, by putting illegal AIs into everything that can hold a microchip. Very small armies, they're not very highly rated in competitive play simply because you have a handful of powerful soldiers that are very close combat oriented and no really way to get them up close.

- The Shock Army of Acontecimento: A provincial force based on the jungle planet of Acontecimento, not as tough as vanilla PanO but fields some interesting units including the yet to be released character TAG that functions like those Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell.

Yu Jing is the result of China, now no longer Communist even in name, buying South Korea's and Japan's post-crash debts. China basically bought the country as a means of vindicating its colonial ambitions and treats the Japanese as second-class citizens. Other Asian countries soon joined the newly-formed "Greater China" and Yu Jing quickly became a hyperpower to match PanOceania. They have slightly less emphasis on remote-control drones and thermoptic camo but are as technologically advanced, just in a different way - they favour elite power-armoured infantry instead (though they also have a piloted mech or two), and have a bit more of an emphasis on close-quarters shooting. They were the first to restart their space programme and as such what little they lack in raw economic technologies versus PanO, they more than make up by having a shitload of land and people.

Sectorial armies are:

- The Japanese Sectorial Army: Pretty much a military division of Japanese Yu Jing citizens who are driven by the blatant stereotype of Japanese culture being obsessed with war and HONRAR. Very high tech and close quarters oriented to the point where they can break shooting stalemates by assaulting and relying on their better CC stats. The tradeoff is that they suck really bad at a distance.

- The Imperial Service: Inquisitors, Police Special units with shady reputations at best, convict soldiers and Security Service Agents. Overall it plays similar to the Vanilla, tends to run lots of Hsien Lts for the added Heavy Weapons.

HaqqIslam are followers of a new branch of Islam that preaches tolerance and scientific enlightenment, based on the Islam of the Golden Age. They're absolute masters of biotechnology and have a monopoly on a substance called Silk which allows for mind uploads/reincarnation, among other purposes. As such, they're financially secure and no one faction can really afford to take them out since they're officially neutral and sell the Silk to everyone who can buy. They have more of a reliance on light infantry than the first two factions, but this is compensated for by their more expensive troops having funky abilities thanks to bio-engineering and a lot of their infantry are religious fanatics which means their army stays on the table longer. They are also a shooty faction, but this is the norm rather than special.

Sectorial armies are:

- The Hassassin Brahim: Remember those Hassassins from the first Assassin's Creed? Them, but in SPACE! With genetically engineered supersoldiers backing them up, and shitty tribal guys. Very interesting force to play, one of the easiest sectorial lists for newcomers, capable of very nasty alpha-strikes but you can build them around a number of playstyles, they just excel at alpha-strike better than any other list at the moment.

- Qapu Khalqi (The Men At The Gate): Essentially an alliance between PMCs, large Haqq based corporations involved in the Silk trade, Pirates willing to go Privateer for the Haqqislam government and Security & Counter Terrorism Services of the Haqqislam Nation. Very competitive and somewhat demanding, QK can run 2 Linked Fireteams instead of 1 like other factions as well as field tons of Hafzas who let the Haqq player run a shell-game with their Lts making the assassination option difficult to play against a QK player.

The Nomads are the inhabitants of three huge spaceships that declared their independence from Earth in the early years of the relaunched space programme. They bunched together because it was that or be easy pickings for ALEPH and its PanO/YJ puppets (so they say). They're a collection of misfits, criminals and people with weird fetishes, and generally the last refuge of all the kooky stuff you could think of - basically, the Internet as a nation. They do bio-modification for fun, have all the best drugs and throw the best parties, and you can even buy sections of Bakunin where you can have the laws be anything you fancy (as long as they don't jeopardise the ship itself), so if you're really interested about making your army fit into the fluff you can do all sorts of fun stuff (I imagine there are communists and Nazis and every other extinct(?) ideology you can think of with a semi-autonomous module on Bakunin). They even have Anarcho-Feminists. In terms of the actual game, they focus on being a pain in the ass to the opponent, with a good mix of TO, drones/mechs and elite medium/heavy infantry plus among the best hackers in the game.

Sectorial Armies:

- Jurisdictional Force of Corregidor: Somewhat of a generic version of Nomads

- Jurisdictional Force of Bakunin: Similar to the Corregidor sectorial there isn't too much of a big deal to Nomad sectorial lists except maybe less access to the elite toys like TO or Hacking Device Plus.

Ariadna is a nation formed by the descendants of the Russian (Cossack), French, UK (Scottish) and American colonists who were on the aforementioned space colonisation programme. When they were sent through the wormhole to the planet Dawn (the discovery of which prompted the second space race and the first colonisation programme) they set up a base on Ariadna (an alternative name of the planet, named after their ship, and after which the faction is named). Unfortunately, when Earth tried to send a second ship through the wormhole the wormhole collapsed, causing the market crash on Earth and stranding the Ariadne on an inhospitable planet. They quickly antagonised the sentient, dog-like native Antipodes and ended up at war with them for the better part of a century while intermittently going to war with each other, since each nationality had decided to set up its own base to maximise survival chances. Eventually, with the whole colony on the brink of collapse the Russians/Cossacks (who are ultra-capitalists and other oligarchs which Putin likes to try to kill every now and again), who had about twice the population of every other colony, just declared themselves the planetary government and started flexing their military muscles to make sure everyone focused on fighting the natives instead of each other.

Eventually, the planet was rediscovered first by PanO then by YJ at which point everyone discovered that this odd metal the Ariadne had been using since they got there was actually something called Teseum, which is harder than diamond yet easier to shape and is also the primary component in advanced building materials, so both of the hyperpowers rushed to exploit a technicality in interplanetary law by claiming that Ariadna only owned part of the planet and that the other 75% that didn't have any settlements on it belonged to the original nations that had financed the colonial mission (by now absorbed into PanO/YJ) and was up for grabs by anyone. They started paying corporations to land on Ariadna and claim ownership of the bits of the planet, which obviously pissed the Ariadne off (who had been abandoned and left to die by Earth, from their point of view); the ensuing Commercial Wars were fought by Ariadna on one side with training and weapons provided on the cheap by the Nomads (acting to protect their interests as a minor power by making sure the hyperpowers didn't establish a precedent of violating sovereignty) against the PanO- and YJ-backed and -equipped corporations on the other. Eventually, the Nomads/Haqq managed to ram a bill through the O-12 (the "Organisation of 12 Planets", basically the Space UN) that established Ariadna's sovereignty over the whole planet and recognised them as an independent nation.

Needless to say, this didn't exactly sit well with the Ariadne who now have a major grudge against PanO/YJ (though fabulously rich from the sale of teseum to them), but are bros for life with the Nomads and Haqqislam.

Oh, er, yeah, gameplay-wise, Ariadna has cheap light infantry, no heavy infantry at all (the closest they get are the dogfaces/dog-warriors who are pretty much the only things with multiple wounds in the Ariadna list; consequently their elite dudes are really cheap, though more fragile, by the standards of the other factions), a shitload of troops with Camouflage (but no TO) and Infiltration (meaning they start in your table half disguised as counters that your models can't see without wasting orders detecting them). They (with one exception) also cannot be hacked because they're using early 21st century equipment in the 23rd century and generally work best as a guerrilla army, setting up traps before the game begins and dropping out of camo to take shots before hiding to go back into camo. :fidel: Sectorial Lists:

- Merovingian Rapid Response Force: Pretty much the French colonists have tactical doctrine that enables police, military and paramilitary units to operate in an integrated fashion in the event of an emergency. Quite a mobile force, it doesn't run as much camo as normal but brings some good elite light infantry with the Loup Garou link team. One of the most competitive Sectorials at the moment as short of hacking and Smoke+MSV2 it can do everything.

- Caledonian Highlander Army: Fucking Psychotic Scotsman. Practically a 40k army with most of their units having an unhealthy obsession with beating shit to death with claymores in a setting where guns are more than just practical. Runs a fair number of camo units, Cameronians (Werewolves that only fight in their fuck huge angry form), Wulvers (children of normal humans and Cameronians--arguably the better of the two as they can play as melee or elite shock troopers), infiltrators and some interesting regular units. Move forward, throw smoke, charge and shoot if you have LoS/survivors, this is a very simple army and splits between whether you want to charge forward really fast with berserker units that can smoke for cover or whether you infiltrate forward with semi-elite infantry, get the drop on them for easy kills and then charge forward like the berserker units do while using smoke for cover. Also home to the loathed 4X SASCRAP cheese, SAS elites that can just popup next to your opponent's units and rape anything that isn't a TAG, except times by 4. They can field the mercenary Tearlagh McCulloch as in-faction when they want a Cameronian that can takedown TAGs or Achilles.

Then there's the Combined Army, an alien faction. What recently arrived in human-controlled space ("the Human Sphere" as it's called) is the very tip of the Combined Army's scouting forces and yet humanity is already losing badly against them, barely holding them back. They actually have one of the cooler backgrounds in a sci-fi setting I've seen: some aliens figured out the heat death of the universe was eventually going to shit all over life so they built an AI that could figure out how they could be elevated to beings of pure energy and leave the material world behind. Unfortunately for them, that AI found the solution, promptly concluded that its creators weren't fit to receive that knowledge, then ascended itself.

The creators then decided to built a new AI, but this time, make it think like them so that it would obligatorily give them the secret to ascending to a higher plane. Unfortunately, the fact that it thinks like them is exactly what prevents the second AI from ever finding that secret, but the creators don't know that, and the irony inherent in the fact that they're on a total fool's quest is pretty hilarious - or would be if humanity weren't about to be flattened like pancakes unless they can close off the Human Sphere. Unable to find this secret, the AI concluded that what it needed was more computational power, and the easiest way to get that was to conquer new systems and turn them into computronium. Thus, the Evolved Intelligence began conquering the universe. Those species that would be good fighters (aggressive, loyal, survivalists) were included in the Combined Army; the species with mastery of science were told to build AIs of their own to work in parallel with the EI to increase the number of thought patterns that were working on solving the ascension problem; and the species that had absolutely nothing of worth to offer to the EI just had their solar systems deconstructed and turned into thinking matter to increase the EI's capacity.

Game-wise, the Combined Army is one of the most elite factions - high point cost per unit but good stats and equipment. Don't expect to field more than 6-8 models in your average 250pt game, but what they lack in numbers they make up in being very good. Their technology is alien and does funky stuff like allow them to not die, or transfer their mind from one body to another if the original host dies, or shapeshift into enemy units, and their weapons include plasma guns that disable equipment and damage enemy units in a blast area as well as nanoviruses that can target cyberbrains and overwrite/destroy them. Sectorials:

- Morat Aggression Force: Pretty much all the SPESS MONKEES in the CA operating as an autonomous division. Close-quarters and very aggressive, not as melee based as the Caledonians but able to challenge them for the title. MAF is similar to the Steel Phalanx but with more of the CA's brand of trickery than ALEPH's.

- Shasvastii Expeditionary Force: The Shasvastii are basically creepy lurkers with some stealth and trickery. Now you can field a whole list of the pricks. Loses in straight up battles with the aggressive lists (Hassassins, MAF, JSA, Caledonians and Steel Phalanx) but if you play these guys in straight up battles, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. Also by taking this list you can build a whole list of the Seed Soldiers which is something that Corvus Belli wants to happen, in the same way movies studios keep trying to make Jayden Smith happen.

Also there's ALEPH. These are the very-much-GitS-inspired dudes who work for the Human Sphere's super-AI, which regulates the minute details of life in the entire Sphere. ALEPH runs the banks, the stock-markets, the Internet, the Circulars (special ships fitted with technology that allows them to pass through wormholes without causing them to collapse) and the infrastructure for pretty much everything, and basically controls the Human Sphere - the only thing is that it operates under mandate of the O-12 and there are safety protocols in place to (supposedly) prevent it from doing anything except run things efficiently. To get around this, ALEPH has its own special force made up entirely of post-human field agents supported by the most advanced drones you can make with human technology. I've not really looked at their army list, but from what I've heard they use a fair bit of retro-engineered alien tech and They are a very points-heavy faction like the CA, relying on expensive but well trained and high tech soldiers and with a heavy emphasis on drones, they also have blood-frenzied Greeks and excellent Hackers as well. Like most factions, the ALEPH fluff is deliberately ambivalent, the AI could either be our new overlord in the making or a true caring ally, time will tell. They were released with the first expansion book "Human Sphere"

Sectorials:

- The Steel Phalanx or Assault SubSection, also the Homeridae: The great AI has basically creating artificial vat grown humans and conditioned them to be inspired by the Odyssey and Iliad. Led by Achilles who is basically a TAG that is human sized, this is a very aggressive list with some seriously nasty units. Losing units is quite painful but the Homeric units are pretty hard to kill and bring some seriously nasty pain when they get to hit back. The biggest, most obvious, eye-catching point is pretty much Achilles who is mandated by Corvus Belli to be the nasty motherfucker on the table. If you see an Achilles on the other team you need to have a plan for him with your list as he is basically a TAG that can take cover and can't be hacked.

Finally, there are the Tohaa which is the newest faction. They are aliens with an obsession for the number 3, they have recently allied with humanity against the Combined Army, but can they be trusted? Humans aren't exactly a priority to them. We know that they use advanced bio-tech, viral weapons etc. They rely on units deployed in teams of 3, like the fire-teams of the other factions sectorials. Many of their units get symbiotic armor that protects AND enhances them but is vulnerable to fire. They were released with the second expansion book "Campaign Paradiso".

Somewhat overlooked and frequently forgotten about are the Mercenaries: a mixed up faction. Ordinarily Merc units are available to certain human factions, like say Tearlach McMurrough or Scarface & Cordelia being available to PanO and Ariadna. Mercenary lists are built by picking 3 factions and being able to use a small number of units from said faction, usually the meh ones. Also certain faction units are listed as mercenary which means that PanO can field Highlander Caterans (Irregular Ariadna bandit snipers), Kaplan Tactical Services (Haqqislam Combat Engineer PMCs) or Yuan Yuans (Yu-Jing affiliated drop trooper bandits). There is also a handful of pure mercenaries like Scarface & Cordelia and the Druze Shock Teams who can work in any mercenary company. All of this is to be treated as barely above theoretical because no one actually plays Mercenaries unless they happen to own a lot of models from multiple factions.

There you go. That more or less sums up the setting, and I ordered the factions in a way that gives you the history of the setting as well as each faction. The only things left to add are that Infinity armies usually represent black ops teams advancing their country's interests over that of other countries that they're officially at peace or even allied with. Also, a second rulebook came out recently that includes new fluff and new army lists for what they call the "sectorials," which are basically sub-factions of all the factions - so Ariadna has a French and a Scottish list, Yu-Jing has an Imperial Service one and a Japanese State one, etc. Half of the sub-factions have been covered in this book, and we're expecting a third one covering the other half of the sectorials at some point in the future, but it's not even been announced yet. Sectorials change how many and what type of units you can deploy and allows certain troops to link with each other for more/better dakka.

Hobby stuff

Cost($$$)

Like most tabletop miniature games, Infinity is not "cheap". Some of the large snazzy models such as the Tactical Armor Gear (TAG), (think Dreadnoughts in 40K or WM jacks) can get quite pricey $ wise (around $40), but the good news is that TAGs are around ~90-110+ points each or 1/3 of your army in a large 300-point game! Each infantry model ranges around $9-15, but some infantry models can be worth 40+ points depending on the model’s stats, weaponry and equipment. All factions and many sectorials have starter packs for ~$50 that have the models to play 150 point games (a good amount for beginner's to learn the rules).

So really, in the end it's far far less $$$ for Infinity than for most other things out there. Individual models are expensive, but you only need around 10 in a 300 point game. All rules are free to download from the Infinity website.

Scale

Infinity is a skirmish game, so each side consists of approximately 6-15 models. Game size is determined by point values, 150 for small point games up to 300 points for “large” games. Battlefield is fairly terrain dense (terrain should be no more than 10” apart across the entire (4x4 or 4x6) battlefield. Since this is a sci-fi game, there are no unit coherency rules (radio is a marvelous invention). Models can freely climb buildings (if there is a second/third floor), snipe out of windows, flank the opponent, etc. The game follows a fairly strict, "if you can see me, I can see you" rule.

Models & Sculpts

The models in Infinity are top-notch, highly detailed and heavily stylized. Everything has a sleek futuristic rounded edge feel to them. Infantry is broken down into three classifications, light, medium, and heavy infantry. There are two other minor categories for infantry, Warband and Skirmisher, but Warbands are basically medium/heavy infantry that like melee combat and assault tactics. While Skirmishers are various kinds of light infantry scouts with some extra options (mines, hacking or sniping etc) that make them good specialists but not something to form the core of a list or the less commonly stealthy medium infantry which are good all-rounders but rare due to the premium for their stealth. Unlike the familiar 40K and PP miniatures, infantry are sleek and slender, and fit nicely on to the base (extremities, swords, guns, etc. do not stick too far off its bases). Heavy infantry are armored with “Power Armor”, but they are nowhere as bulky as Space Marines in 40K.

Gameplay

Infinity is probably the most “different” of all the tabletop games I’ve played thus far. (WHFB, WH40K, Necromunda, WM/Hordes). Units have their standard stats, such as movement (MOV), ballistic skill (BS), close combat (CC), wounds (W), armor (ARM), biotechnology shield (BTS) – aka armor against biological attacks, hacks, etc., will power (WIP), physique (PH)

Gameplay Basics

When a unit activates, you are able to either give your model two “short” orders (either two short-move, or one short-move + one short-action) or one “long” order. Short-move actions are things like, move, climb, prone, etc., and short-actions can be things like “shoot, dodge, hack, etc”. Long orders are actions like: suppression fire, cautious movement, speculative (indirect) fire, etc. Upon activation, you can give a model two short-move orders or a short-move + short-action like “move/move”, “move/shoot”, “move/dodge”, (shoot/shoot is not allowed because you may only have "one" short-action during a single activation), or one long order, such as “suppression fire”, “speculative (indirect) fire” etc.

Movement

Movement stat is broken down into two sets of numbers such as: 4-4, 4-2, 8-6, etc. First number means the distance in inches a model may move on its first move, and the second number is how far the model may move on its second “short” move. So a heavy infantry with a MOV stat of 4-2 is give an order of “move/move” may effectively move 4” then move again for another 2”, or “move/shoot” by moving 4” and firing their weapon at a target. Motorcycles are fast and can move 14” (8-6) a turn with a basic “move/move” order.

Shooting

Nothing really new here. Roll D20, if your result is less than your BS including modifiers (range, cover, etc.), then you hit your target, and the target must make an armor save. Target’s D20 roll + ARM stat is greater than your weapon strength then the armor stopped/deflected the bullet. Although getting hit by bullet(s) will sometime cause a solder to recoil and duck behind cover.

Close Combat (CC)

Most miniature games seem to have a heavy emphasis on close combat. Infinity is one of the few games that do not glorify CC. In fact you do not get any bonuses for “charging” an opponent. Charging a Yu-Jing (Asian faction) “Ninja” or “Shaolin Monk” with your basic grunt can mean a quick boot to the unsuspecting guy’s face. Of course dice will always play a factor, but know that he has no bonuses for charging. Anyways, I think you get the idea.

GAMEPLAY – Differences

Actions & Activations probably most greatly differentiates Infinity from all other tabletop miniature games. In most games, each unit or model gets one-activation per phase or turn. One move, one shooting phase, and one charge/CC attack per unit/model. In infinity, each model contributes to your army’s activation pool. If you have 7 models in your army, you will have 7 activations, if your opponent runs 10 models, he/she will have 10 activations in his army, and models can be activated multiple times per turn.

So you can effectively activate one model 10 times in one turn and rampage around the entire table! Sounds completely broken, but it isn’t as bad as you think. Because...

For every action there is a reaction. Alright, so it’s not exactly equal reaction, but there are draw backs to sending in Rambo with 11 activations to single-handedly take out an opposing army. Here is why:

Whenever an action is declared, any model within Line of Sight (LoS) of the activated model may declare a response to or against him. For example: if you activate a model with a “move/shoot” command, the instant your model peeks around the corner to draw LoS to my model, then I may declare an Automatic Reaction Order (ARO). ARO is a short order response to enemy model(s). If someone walks around the corner with guns blazing, are you going to stand there and watch? I wouldn’t either.

So when an opposing model shows up, you may fire back, dodge their fire, go prone, etc. Rambo is good, but he may not be good enough to withstand 10 shots fired back from my ambushing squad's ARO action!

Of course there are counters to every strategy. Like bring in the speculative (indirect) fire weapons and rain grenades (templates), etc. onto my pile of infantry, or simply use Suppression Fire from the flank to suppress my gang. While you’re busy handling my pile, perhaps, I will simply “deep strike” some models in and try to take down your inferior infantry on the backlines and reduce your army’s total number of activations. As the remainder of his squad is KO’ed, Rambo will have fewer and fewer actions. This is the tactical beauty of Infinity.

Units with stealth/camouflage can effectively sneak through areas with suppression fire undetected, while deep striking units opens up the board for different flanking possibilities. Bring in too many heavy weapons teams and TAGs, and it will open your solders up for possible hacking attempts which may immobilize or even take over your most powerful fighters.

The automatic reaction order system REQUIRES that that the board has PLENTY of line of sight blocking terrain, if you try to play infinity on a typical 40K board, whomever gets first turn will receive [Enemy number of models here] reaction shots whenever he gives an order to one of his minis. It works for an alleyway with 3 or so participants, or a street with six people in cover, but not for an open field. This is why snipers in a good position are so darn powerful!

Misc

Metagame and Meta Builds

So like all aspects of human interaction, people have found that certain strategies work better than others, as I don't want to go through the effort of making individualised tactica pages for each faction, I'll list common builds from the meta game here.

Metagame advice

• Specialists: Love the FO: So one particular thing is that only specialists can interact with generic objectives and only specific specialists with specific objectives. This is important because its possible to table a player in the final turn and lose because they scored objectives and you just wasted time killing shit. This means playing the scenario takes priority over just killing shit and because of this you need to have a few specialiats in your list.

Chain of Command, Hacker, Doctor, Engineer are fine except they often cost a premium in points or charge ypu precious SWC, the Forward Observer on the other hand frequently comes as a variant of the base version of a unit with no cost or a very minor increase which means you should have at least 1 in a list with one other type of specialist. Also take note of things like the PanO Auxilary FO gives FO to their attached AuxBot which means having two specialists for the price of one.

• TAGs define their matchups: This one is simple; if you don't have anti-TAG options built into your list you won't beat TAGs. TAGs are a tradeoff, they cost a lot and draw lots of fire, but are tough and can take out whole teams if they positioned poorly. TAGs can be beaten by other TAGs, but infantry need Adhesive launchers, hacking, panzerfausts, heavy rocket launchers or really high strength AP+EXP weapons to break TAGs. Because you can't guarantee that you won't bump into a Cutter or Scarface, anticipate a TAG list or be prepared to concede.

• Orders equal actions: Basically its important to have order monkeys or cheerleaders; units that are cheap and provide orders for good units to use for multiple activations. Losing cheerleaders means reducing the amount of actions you can use in a turn, which leads to your units doing all the work being less effective. So always have a nice blob of orders on the table in the form of a few cheap regular units. Don't take many Irregulars unless they have Impetuous or other ways to be action efficient. By the same token if you get the opportunity to wipe your opponent's cheerleaders early, take it because its a very difficult position to play from. This is doubly important for Rambo builds with TAGs because hitting the order pool before going after the TAG restricts its ability to back out of crossfire traps. A good recommendation is to have 8+ Regular Orders in your order pool when starting out. Some factions get good filler units, like 4 point Netrods for Aleph, which are an excellent way to squeeze more orders into a list.

• Hacking with a purpose: Don't just throw hackers into a list if you aren't Nomads or Aleph. Hackers are versatile, but having a hacker should be for a reason, the most common reason is for running Remotes without a TAG, the second is to screw with enemy TAGs. But the best reason is to protect your own TAG or other hackable assets from hacking. Hacking is a good way to disrupt an opponent's game plan, so be prepared to face it, especially when playing Nomads as they have some of the most powerful hackers. Also keep an eye for units with high BTS values, eg -6. Having a few hardened units can make a difference against someone with multiple hackers.

• Sectorials are a tradeoff: After the release of Sectorial lists the meta has been abuzz with sectorials with a lot of players neglecting vanilla lists for sectorials to use the Link Team rules. Link teams are very good, this isn't in doubt, but what is overlooked is that vanilla lists have a huge amount of diversity while sectorials run from being just a trimmed down selection with link teams (Neoterran, Qapu Kalqhi) to being tightly restricted and unable to cover some key factors (Military Orders, Hassassins and JSA).

• Recreations are targets: A number of factions have basically artificially vat grown cyborg/androids modelled on famous historical figures, called Recreations. These are pretty powerful units and are also common choices for Lieutenants, with some being pretty much mandatory for Lt. When your opponent sees you have Saladin in your foam box, they're going to start planning to make a beeline for him, even if its just a Hazfa you deploy as Saladin, players who have had their ass handed to them by a recreation are going to make killing it ASAP a priority.

• Have 2 plans: Build a list so that you have a rock solid Plan A and a Plan B that can work if it fails. Have a strong Link team of 5 elite units, but have linkable order monkeys with HMGs who can form their own link and brandish Sixth Sense boosted HMGs should your main link get cutdown. Hackers are a decent Plan B because you only need 1 with decent willpower and BTS to start crippling vulnerable HI or Remotes.

• Remotes are an option: A lot of players ignore remotes because they mandate hackers or TAGs and are vulnerable to E/M and Hacking. However, for some players Remotes are really good. Vanilla Aleph for example can get around their premium pricing by using Dakini TactBots as their cheap Order Monkeys and can use Garuda TactBots for cheap disposable Airborne Deployment units instead of paying for the elite & expensive Ekdromoi. Remotes still produce orders and can shoot things, though they may not count for much in terms of objectives, they can fill holes and let you use them as disposable units compared to more precious models.

• Loss of Lieutenant is Loss of Game: Very simple, if you lose your lieutenant your whole force goes into LoL mode which means everyone freezes where they are until you can nominate another legitimate lieutenant. That is unless you took Chain of Command, Impetuous or Religious Troop. However for some factions, like the Hassassin Brahim, LoL is not game over or even an issue; having 2 Hassassin Farzans and most of your models as Hassassins means your opponent needs to kill 3 guys to force LoL on the 2-3 models out of the 12 or so survivors you have left. Religious Troops means they keep functioning in LoL, they just don't share their order, having a whole team of Religious Troops means you just have to adapt to playing with only 1 activation per model until you can successfully nominate a new Lt. Chain of Command is a great ability and makes it so JSA and HB can pretty much shrug off LoL because a model with CoC becomes the Lt automatically and both of those get access to reasonably priced CoC and HB gets lots of Religious Troops. Lastly Impetuous is interesting, it doesn't fix LoL but Impetuous orders are not affected, only the Regular Orders from that unit. As most things with Impetuous want to get up and close, not much really changes with these guys, if only that they slow down and can't spend their regular/irregular order to cancel their impetuous order.

Builds

MSV2+SMOKE: This is a particularly strong build in the meta, the idea is to stack your list with units that have Smoke grenades and/or the level 2 Multi-Spectral Visor. The plan is to have your list work forward with Smoke grenades keeping a cluttered LoS to your team and using the MSV2 units to shoot through it. Units with MSV2 that can take Spitfires or HMGs are a must. This build doesn't require a lot of cheerleading as you will usually go for cheap Smokw Grenade units and expensive MSV2. PanO currently have one of the best units for this build with their Aquila Guard who have MSV3 and can take a HMG so they can also hose Camo, ODD and Thermo Optic Camo from behind a wall of smoke. No they really can't as they only have one unit with smoke and that is zero vision smoke. This is also a hose against Ariadna as they have no MSV2 so they can't shoot through your clouds of smoke and can't use their own for cover.

Drop Shock: This is very nasty alpha strike build, often using Akali Drop Troopers, Tiger Soldiers or Hassassin Ragiks. The plan is to spam HMG airborne troopers and effectively drop these HMGs behind enemy units to create crossfire traps. The idea is to take a decent number of high threat non-SWC costing infantry to act as an anvil while proving a good sized order pool and have the HMGs drop in and provide a lot of threat from behind, using the orders to wipe out Cheerleaders quickly and cripple their opponent's action economy in one turn. This is doable with everyone, but Ariadna will need to sub-in some Camo units like SASCRAPs to make up for their unrelaible airborne units. This is good against Rambo builds like Super TAG but against action efficient factions like Tohaa you need to work on breaking triads to deal with their link advantage.

Super TAG: Not quite a defined build, this works by taking a TAG with some serious threat like the Cutters and Drago. The idea is to have an engineer on-hand to keep the TAG running hard and a fistful of infantry that can anchor flanks and provide orders for the TAG to run forward and kill stuff, then fallback and get fixed up by the engineer(s) supporting it. Its a Rambo list but is safer than most as TAGs can shrug off smaller weapons and not many lists are going to have an espxcess of anti-TAG weapons that work in reactive, especially when hackers can cripple TAGs and also count as specialists for scenarios. For Aleph/Steel Phalanx you can use Archilles instead of the Maruts with multiple doctors for the unlikely event of Archilles not raping your opponent into submission with his sword.

AKIRA: So far only JSA and Haqqislam can do this; take as many units on bikes as you can fit and abuse the mobility granted by them to hit-and-run. Its named for the opening chase scene of the anime AKIRA. JSA will nearly always run Asuka with this as she is an extra body over the limit. The rest of your army should be cheerleaders, maybe some with SWC weapons and an FO to bulk out your damage and provide specialists for objective control. If you go Haqqislam with Kum riders you can play a horde with their AVA-T, but you will need Beg and have to deal with being a full Irregular list with few mobile SWC. JSA is limited to 4 Aragato bikers, Yojimbo and Asuka, but has the advantage of being Regular and packing Spitfires with 8-6 movement.

Doom Link: This is only available in sectorials, the plan is to build around a strong link team of elite tier units and have order monkeys with support gear backing the spear thrust of the link team. For example Caledonian Highlanders use 4 Wulvers with William Wallace and a bunch of volunteers with some HMGs and specialist skills to cover them while they murder anything they can reach. Another example is MRRF with Loup Garous packing Viral gear to do all the killing and have Metros for specialists and HMG support.

One description of Infinity by Anonymous to a namefag

First of all, yes; Infinity does have manga influences (it's stated both on the website and in the book in the first few sentences of each, and the creators openly acknowledge Shirow as one of the influences in the game). However, that's about where the similarities end. If you use your Spazz Marines instead of the regular units, you won't be able to tell manga influences were used.

I can go in detail about how Infinity is very different than Warhammer(and even 40K), but unless you're seriously curious, I don't see the point in blowing my own horn. However, given the two systems, I'd pick Infinity every time because it's a lot more balanced, has more fluid play, and is a lot more tactical.

In regards to the background, Infinity is set a little less than 200 years in the future. A lot has happened, but I will try to be brief. Humanity has reached out to the stars, and by wormholes have been able to colonize 11 star systems. Infinity's future is full of subtle, small-scale wars between intelligence agencies, spec-ops, and corporations trying to gain power while at the same time trying to appear as friendly on the surface. At the moment, there are two main divisions between the factions. The first is the Human Sphere, which encompasses PanOceania, Yu Jing, Haqqislam, Ariadna, and the Nomads. The second is the Combined Army which is an alien force from outside the Human Sphere which has been making attempts to forcibly recruit humanity into its ranks. More information can be found in the Wikipedia page.

Now the comparisons. My primary experience is in playing 40K(4e), but I have dabbled in Fantasy(6e), so please forgive me if my knowledge is a little out of date. The biggest comparison is that you will have 6-15 troops on the battlefield per side (though more often than not, I field about 10 at the most), whereas with 40K/Fantasy, you will have armies often times with 50 to hundreds of models. In Infinity, each model has similar statlines, which range from roughly 2-8 points depending which attribute you choose to compare. How you gain advantages though is by special abilities, equipment, and by being in cover/out of sight, with each of them having an emphasis. In 40k and Fantasy, you gain advantages through the first two, and to an extent the third, but it is rather limited(i.e. in 40k, you get a 5+ cover save OR your armor save in a forest), in infinity you add cover as a bonus to your armor, but before anyone panics, armor in infinity is not as reliable as the omnipresent 3+ from 40K.

Another large difference between Infinity and 40K and Fantasy is that with those games, you move each unit once, shoot with each unit once, use a magic power once, and fight once in CC, and that is your turn. In Infinity, there is something called the Orders Reserve. Each model within your army contributes 1 order to the Orders Reserve, from which you can (usually) use that order on any model in your army. So if you have 10 regular models in your army, you can use those 10 orders however you like. You can use 10 orders on a single model, or use 1 order on each model, or split them however you like. Each order is like an action within DnD; you can move + move, move + shoot, fight in CC, move + climb or climb + climb, or several other things. When you use up all of your orders, the turn is then passed.

What I disliked personally about most wargames is that you were only using your miniatures half the time. When it was your turn, you did what you wanted to do, while the other person sat idle looking at what was happening, and makes an armor roll here and there. Infinity turns this on its head with the Automatic Reaction Order (ARO). In short, whenever an enemy model performs an order, anyone in your army who can see the bastard gets to react (generally by shooting at him, moving so he can't see you, or trying to dodge his shots). In this way, gameplay is much more fluid, and interactive. You almost always have an opportunity to do something, and it is not uncommon to remove units on both your turn and your opponent's. Another thing I disliked is that once you are in combat, you stay in combat until either yourself or your enemy is destroyed. With the Dodge order, you can attempt to get out of close combat in lieu of trying to make an attack (though the opposing model does get to respond; generally by making an attack on you).

Regarding something other than rules, Infinity draws its influences from quite a few different sources. It draws heavily from cyberpunk and post cyberpunk ideologies, transhumanism, biopunk, and other ideologies. If I had to describe Infinity in a word, I would say pragmatic. Contrast with 40k, where everything is grim, depressing and over the top, Infinity seems to be how society and political institutions of today would be if they were bigger. There is war, but they are small-scale conflicts involving only few people, and often times they are arranged in dark rooms where the heads of the factions can be given "plausible deniablity".

The rules are available for free online, and they are quite different in their strengths. You can find it under the downloads section of the main site.

Counter-counter arguments to play Infinity by Anonymous

Counter argument 1: It's rules heavy!

It's not... The rules themselves makes sense, they are less arbitrary than 40K but stay around the same complexity (some major differences covered above).

To put things in perspective, consider this. Infinity is just one book... that's it. Warhammer 40K 6th edition is a 2" bible, more than half of which is rules, on top of that it's not complete... You need twice that amount of paper worth of codexes to get the COMPLETE game, and in some cases you need expansion books. Infinity has no codexes and all the units, wargear and advanced rules are in the main rulebook, most factions use the same wargear and what faction you play just determines accessibility to the toys. Also, did I mention that all the rules and armylists are free to download?

Of course Infinity is getting expansion books too now, but it's still not even near the amount of paper used in the 40K rulebook!

Counter argument 2: Ramboing

This is what it's called when you abuse the order mechanic of the game to perform most orders with just your strongest model. This is a typical noob tactic that will only really work against inexperienced players, it's fairly easily countered (in theory) by surrounding and combine-order pummel Rambo until he's dead, also, you get a single dude to attack him from outside his line of sight and he cannot react, even small weapons in this game kill, and we have already established that Mr.Rambo was an expensive model.

Counter argument 3: The order pool

Yes, I can quite see how some think it makes no sense that some models in your squad get more actions just because some others are waiting around in the back, the short answer is to deal with it, but a better answer is to think of the game as an action movie, hacking takes hours IRL, but in movies it's done in seconds. Also consider, in movies NOTHING happens during a fire-fight if the camera isn't there. So simply when you spend an order you are giving "camera-time" to that piece of the battlefield, goons die, heroes get shot and hackers pull of their shit.

If you didn't like that idea, how about you think of your inactive rear models as giving support info to the front-line, allowing the people in the front to get more shit done!

If you are the kind of guy that insists on each model to do HIS action each turn, nothing is stopping you as even the weakest mook (IG equivalent) can damage a TAG (Dreadnought equivalent), it's just odds. There are also models labeled "irregular"; these don't provide their order to the pool, only they can use their own order.

Bottom line is: Try this game, proxy it, most likely you'll find out it's made of awesome.

Oh yeah, and the amount of fidelity on the models is incredible, but I can understand that the amount of cheesecake on some models can put some people off.

Gallery

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  The only comparison you need

• A show of the upcoming Two-player box, Operation Icestorm. Also, a perfectly normal small game.

  A show of the upcoming Two-player box, Operation Icestorm. Also, a perfectly normal small game.

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  A Nomad Iguana TAG, made of win.