Indicium: Review of Tech Deck's Street Tour Set

Someone over on the Infinity forums pointed out that Tech Deck skateboard park pieces would make good Infinity terrain. Seeing as how I had to hit Target today for kitteh supplies, I dropped by their toy section. Lo and behold a bunch of their Tech Deck stuff is on clearance! I am not surprised given how expensive this stuff is MSRP and I really can't see kids getting too much into this. However, as Infinity terrain its perfect.

I picked up this set for $15 on clearance. It consists of two sections that connect underneath with plastic pins. The construction is solid, befitting a toy designed for use, and the paint job is subtle but sufficient for gaming purposes. It is nicely weathered and has two graffiti graphics that look cool and suit the nature of the terrain. Honestly, there is little I would do in the way of additional painting except perhaps to add some additional detritus in the corners.

I found the curves of this specific piece to mirror my vision of the Infinity architecture. Moreover, the piece looks good setup next to the Topo Solitario IKUBE series of containers. In fact the back of the Tech Deck piece is exactly the height of the IKUBE containers, so you line some containers up and use them to climb over the back of it. Overall dimensions are 22" long by about 8" wide and its about 2" tall at its tallest point.

Exemplum: Hospitaller Knight

A Knight Hostpitaller from the Infinity PanOceania line. He was a test miniature used to help me figure out how I wanted to paint the knights' armor. I am not 100% happy with the way he came out, specifically the interstitial joints on the arms. I will probably go back over the arms with a Vallejo light grey and some watered down black washes.

Exemplum: Order Sergeant

The picture is a little dark, but here is the first Infinity mini that I have painted. She is an Order Sergeant and comes strapped with a combi-rifle.

This model exemplifies the Infinity line viz female models. She is clearly a "she" but does not have the overly-endowed fan service that many other lines seem dedicated to, at least for their female miniatures.

Indicium: Head Asplode - You, Me and Kuang Shi

Lo Pan's Yu Jing list includes a bunch of re-educated political prisoners known collectively as the Kuang Shi. These are the poor bastards that the great and benevolent Yu Jing empire has taken a slight disliking to and decided that they have a better use within the greater good - namely as that of living explosives.

Leave it to Infinity to have a mechanic worked out for how models involuntarily Explode should they fall into an unconscious state. Furthermore, this model can voluntarily choose to Explode by making a Willpower test - you would think he'd need a Willpower test just so that he wouldn't explode. Really?! You want to explode... is life really that bad off? Apparently, prisoners of the Yu Jing seem to think so.

In Infinity, if you have a Doctor or medic on the board and one of your miniatures loses its last Wound, the mini is left on the board and your Doctor can use his Willpower to possibly revive his fallen comrade. However, for a model with the Explode characteristic, unconsciousness turns out to be the final solution - no chance to recover someone whose limbs are littering the battlefield.

But of course, the Yu Jing have to take it one step further and equip all the Kuang Shi with a remote detonator. So Lo Pan is required to field another model with a Kuang Shi Control Device to keep these mindless zombies in check - oh and to be able to explode them at a moment's notice. Using a Long Order, with no dice roll required, the controller can choose to immediately detonate all Kuang Shi on the field of battle. That's, like, just really mean, man!

So there you have it... how to explode your mindless, re-educated, wrongfully imprisoned minis in the brave new world that is the Human Sphere - enjoy!

Exemplum: Lo Pan's Yu Jing Imperial Service Army

As a way to inspire myself to get painting (and a way to keep the pressure on Lo Pan), I have posted some WIP images sent to be by Lo Pan of his burgeoning Yu Jing army.

So far he has all the makings of a strong Imperial Service sectorial army. The Imperial Service lets him field Celestial Guard and Kuang Shi to his little heart's content. The latter of course being the enemies of the state who come strapped with explosives and ready to rumble (literally) the battlefield.

Here is the complete set, based and primered. The models in the initial image have been basecoated and built up to some highlighting and are now just waiting for a wash. To get started, LP picked up the Infinity box sets for the Yu Jing Imperial Sevice and the Kuang Shi.(4 kuang shi in the set). This is a good way to start a small, strong list and keep costs down until he gets a better feel for what he wants to play in Yu Jing.

If you want to see more of Lo Pan's stuff check out his webzone Cinema Fictions.

Annuntio: New Order Sergeant with Spitfire

Beasts of War managed to snag some sneak peek images of the Corvus Belli release of a PanOceania Order Sergeant with spitfire. The model looks absolutely amazing and even seems to push the limits of what CB is capable in terms of dynamic posing and sculpting.

At at guess, I would say the model consists of a leg/torso piece, a separate leg/tabard piece and a single piece for the spitfire arm. Should be great for anyone just looking for a single spitfire arm to convert with.

Also, the head looks a little different because it is a multispectral L2 visor. In game terms, this means that the sergeant suffers no negative modifiers to shooting at models in any form of camouflage. This is a huge boon to a line troop that already has a decent BS of 12.

Thanks again to the BoW guys for this awesome sneak peek.

Exemplum: Painting Infinity Knights

This post is more just a reminder to myself where to find the color palette that was used to paint the knights in Corvus Belli's Military Order starter set.

Studio Giraldez has done some amazing work for CB (and other miniature companies). The direct link to the knights color palette is here.

A big Thanks to Angel Giraldez for making this valuable information available through his blog!

By the way, this is what he considers to be fast painting... I can only hope to get as good as his "fast" painting.

Indicium: The Path to Infinity - Getting Started

Are you tired of supporting a game company that makes you pay a premium for an insanely protected, poorly supported, infrequently updated ruleset all the while claiming to just be interested in selling toy soldiers? Do you have fully painted models gathering dust because you can't "make them work" in a newly competitive environment? Are you tired of painting endless squads of the same miniature over and over again only to be forced to keep them protected in metal boxes until they are ready to pop out and die?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, have I got a miniature, table-top, war game for you!

I present for your reading pleasure a brief introduction and a set of links designed to get you and your gaming group up and running on Infinity. Infinity is a 28mm, skirmish level game set in the near-future where high-tech is the norm and humanity has only recently spread itself across the stars.

The appeal that Infinity has for me is the science fiction setting, the 28mm scale, and the ability to use miniatures from other companies almost seamlessly. Specifically, miniatures from the 40k universe work very nicely in Infinity and have allowed me to enjoy my painted soldiers in a different venue.

Getting started with Infinity is as simple as grabbing their quick start rules and setting up a small table:
http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/2011/access/quick-start-rules/

Of course, as an experienced war gamer, you are ready to dig into the main rules which can be found here:
http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/downloads/rules/[en]Rules.pdf

Corvus Belli (CB - the maker of Infinity) has also released an expansion called the Human sphere:
http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/downloads/rules/[en]RulesHS.pdf

CB provides some basic video tutorials that give you a good sense of how the basic game mechanics work:
http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/category/wiki-beginning/

Now that you have the essentials of the game down, it's time to choose an army. CB makes this incredibly simple by providing an online army generator here (be patient, it loads a little slowly):
http://infinitythegame.com/dt_army/

Selecting one of the factions' icons launches the army generator for that specific faction. Each faction has its own units, with respective abilities and points values. Click a model from the list selection and it is automatically added to the army list. Infinity games are typically played between 200 - 300 points, but can be readily played at the 150 point left.

Another amazing facet of Infinity is the searchable wiki available with the complete set of rules. In fact, clicking one of the attributes at the header level of the unit entry in the army generator launches a new window with the wiki entry for the selected attribute.

The Infinity wiki is found here:
http://infinitythegame.wikispot.org/Home

On a final note for getting started you will need terrain... and lots of it! Fortunately, there is another awesome resource out there for getting quality terrain set up very quickly. The IKUBE series from Topo Solitario offers beautifully crafted, printable, foldable terrain that doesn't even require glue - and it's all free! Of course Topo provides more complex terrain elements but for getting started with Infinity the IKUBE series is second to none.

I hope I have provided you some insight into getting started quickly with Infinity. Stay tuned as I will continue to post Infinity articles related to army selection, gameplay, and tactics within this very cool universe.

Indicium: Color Palate for Infinity's Military Orders

I snagged this off the Infinity website and figured I post as a reminder to myself. I am putting together a PanOceana Military Order list comprised of Knights from each order.

Any suggestions as to color choices (Vallejo for preference) would be most appreciated in the comments.

Exemplum: Journey to Infinity

After demoing Infinity at Adepticon, I knew I was hooked.  Shatter Hands and I started playing a couple of weeks ago and he is pimping the game over here. First off, you need terrain and a fair amount of it. So to start things off, here is a link to Toposolitario for some amazing printable terrain. Seen above is his Industrial Complex battlemat and his series of IKUBE containers. The latter require no glue and can be assembled in only a few minutes.

It looks like the Ash Waste nomads have invaded the universe of Infinity. I should be getting some of the Teutonic knights from Infinity soon, but until then some Necromunda minis will have to do.

Here is another shot of Topo's amazing terrain. A few more containers and I will be able to set up corridors and fire lanes cross the entire board.

For more information on Infinity click here.