Last time I mentioned Austin and I played our first game of Infinity “in the dark” without any veteran players there to help us. I’m happy to say that we had almost no trouble playing the game and even getting into the finer points, although it seems we may have gotten a few things a little wrong.

Coming from Warhammer 40K I was used to a giant tome of a rule book, codices, and FAQs for everything. Naturally a game of that size and complexity runs a foul of a number of grey areas. If we hadn’t had an experienced player to guide us I’m not sure we could have ever figured it out. However with Infinity we found there to be a plethora of good resources to get us up and running! Both the company and the fan base have a number of resources available. If you’re new to the game here are some great tools to get you started:

Corvus Belli

When I say that Corvus Belli (CB) supports their game I mean it.

Downloads: From their home page you can get a full (and quick start) copy of the rules. These rules include everything you need to play the game. No need for faction specific books; everything is in the main rules they provide at no charge. They also have template and token downloads so if you choose you only need to buy the minis.

Army Builder: CB also provides a web based list builder. It’s run by volunteers so sometimes updates can take a while, but as of now it is up to date. It’s actually a great piece of software and has lots of options for saving, printing, and sharing the lists you build. It has contextual links to the wiki, and will even check to make sure your list is legal.

The Forums: There are a lot of forums out there, but this is the one you want to start with. The player base has done a great job of doing unit summaries for all the factions and sectorials, there is a strong painting group, and everyone is very welcoming of new players and those looking for answers.

Gameplay Videos: No, these aren’t videos of people playing the game, they are videos on HOW to play. The basic rules are set out in some quick and simple videos. They’re extremely informative (and funny to watch the semi-animated models go PEW PEW PEW), and are probably the first, best, place to start if you’re interested in getting into Infinity.

O-12 Podcast

This is the official podcast of Infinity. As such these guys get a lot of good info straight from CB about upcoming releases and get some insightful answers to listener questions. But there is a lot more to this podcast than just news.

They have a segment called “Infinity College” where they take specific parts of the game like using smoke, or hacking, and break it down very simply for new players. They then go on to give examples of how this would play out in the game. Austin and I spent the drive to and from Feast of Blades listening to this and it was a HUGE help in understanding how ARO’s work and how our armies functioned.

I say how our armies function because O-12 also spends a good deal of time focusing on factions and their fluff. Once the background of the faction is laid out they even go on to give “starter lists” that showcase the faction’s strong points and explain how this list is meant to be used.

Understand that O-12 is being put on by Battlefoam so expect a few commercials from them and other sponsors. Also hang-on through the first few episodes because they eventually do ditch the HMG sound bite. I mention this because you really, really do want to start this podcast from the beginning. The news and announcements are dated of course, but the Faction Focus and Infinity College bits are pure gold.

Beasts of War

“Well OF COURSE he’s going to tell me the site he is writing for is the PERFECT resource!”

No, no! Really! Beasts of War (BoW) is an amazing resource for those just beginning Infinity!

Theme Weeks: CB has done a lot of partnering with BoW over the years; go back over the past couple years of theme weeks and you will find some great demo games with the game creators, interviews with CB on all the factions and what makes them unique, and all sorts of other goodies. Obviously the give-aways aren’t valid anymore, but the information is still good.

Videos: Outside of theme weeks CB will drop by now and again to visit with the guys on how to play the game. I humbly suggest the “How to setup terrain”, and “How to deploy” as the two best videos outside of the basic gameplay videos CB has put out to get people started.

Battle Box and Beyond: You’re going to want to expand on your starter box at some point so what’s the best unit to go for next? Wouldn’t it be great to hear straight from the game maker what they think is your next best step? In these videos CB and BoW have done a good job of showing what each starter box’s strong suit is and how to expand on those strong points while keeping your force well rounded.

Beasts of War Infinity Hub!

Aleph Toolbox

An offline army builder. It’s handy to have on a tablet or PC when you’re lacking an internet connection, but I would stay away from putting it on your smart phone. It’s not optimized for small screens in the slightest, even on my huge S4 the text in barely readable. It does have on great feature in that it shows you pictures of the selected unit. In a game where people often say “play whatever you think looks cool” it’s a great way to browse units.

Data Sphere Forum

Another forum dedicated to our favorite game. I’ll be honest, I don’t use this forum much but it’s well constructed and has an active user group. There seems to be a lot of cross over in users between the Infinity forum hosted by CB and this one.

As you can see, CB is in a whole different league when it comes to supporting Infinity and is more than you’re probably used to. They have their rules online for free, a great online tool, they produce numerous videos and collaborate with others to create useful content. What’s more the community has really taken the lead and created their own resources to help new players get started. All of these things taken together make Infinity a great game to start up on your own in your local area even if you have little to no local veterans to support you.

Casey Roberts

If you would like to write for Beasts of War then please get in contact with me at [email protected]!