Infinitely Casual

Since getting back into miniature gaming nearly 10 years ago Infinity has occupied a strange place in my gaming setup. The rich story, great artwork and different gameplay from the moment I first came across Infinity was always a major pull. On the other hand the insanely complex rules, as seen from the outside, coupled with metal models and paint jobs I could never compete with were a major obstacle. Took me years to understand the face-to-face roll.

There was no way I would make this my only game and no way I would persuade my wife to play. Doing completely with out it was appealing either so once when an Operation Icestorm ready built set was available on ebay I picked it up. And every year or so we would play through the basic missions and that satisfied curiosity.

Infinity models aren’t that difficult to paint, at least to a basic level. Funnily enough though despite the amazing artwork we were quite content to play with largely unpainted models and proxy anything we needed. Rather refreshing really.

The arrival of Codeone changed things. The rules are streamlined enough and basic army selection limited not to have to worry about the endless permutations and combinations. Codeone doubled the amount we play and I am perfectly happy with it with no aspirations to graduate to N4 proper.

Being immersed in 40k I was also not going to invest in more scifi terrain and always was happy with the cardboard CB offered. The upgraded terrain since Operation Wildfire I find great.

Cardboard is still cardboard. So my intention was to always give it a bit more protection and just get rid of the cardboard look as far as possible. The most unspectacular picture you are seeing above is the first lot of treated terrain – superglued the edges, painted them in more neutral colours and added a slight bit of weathering. Most important step is numerous coats of matt varnish. Takes off the shine, gives it protection and doesn’t look any different to pdf equivalents. Still takes a while to do, but not nearly as much as building from scratch.