Into Infinity & Beyond!: Choosing The Factions
November 13, 2013 by crew
I mentioned in a previous article that Austin (my teammate for the Warhammer 40,000 Doubles) and I played a demo game of Infinity and had a blast with it. It’s fast, tactical, and brutal. With all the events that happened at Feast of Blades it’s hard to believe Infinity can be considered a smaller game! The miniatures look amazing, the company has incredible amounts of interaction with the community, and it’s been experiencing nearly 75% growth every year for the last few years! But chances are you aren’t playing it.
Up until Feast of Blades, neither was I. But the amazing models, the terrain, and the overall enthusiasm of the community has pushed us over the edge and Austin and I each picked out a starter box. With any luck others in our gaming group will pick up boxes of their own and we will grow into a small Infinity community.
A lot of people are in similar situations. They love the game but there isn’t anyone, or maybe just a few, who play nearby. These won’t be articles teaching you HOW to play; there are a lot of great resources for that already. So I’m going to cover our experiences trying to get Infinity going in our group. Hopefully these will be of use to others out there and be a little interesting too.
We’ll take a look at:
- Resources
- Painting
- Terrain
- Of course some Battle Reports!
- Hopefully cap it off with a small local tournament
I’m also starting a painting log in the painting section of the forums for a bit more of a day-to-day type of update. But before we go any further let’s see which boxes Austin and I picked out, why we picked those boxes, and what those boxes come with.
Austin: Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor “The Strong Men”
The Models:
- Three Wildcats with Combi Rifles
- Intruder with Combi Rifle
- Hellcat with Combi Rifle
- Alguacil Hacker
The Logic:
My decision on which faction to play was primarily based on the look and contents of the starter boxes. When I found a starter box that had interesting models and unit types I would compare it to the brief faction synopsis on the website to see if their theme and philosophy agreed with me. The streamlined efficient looking Wildcats of the Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor starter box jumped out to me. Looking at the Nomads I liked that they were fighting to stay independent of the A.I. which controlled the human sphere but were also still very technology savvy. They weren't rejecting the A.I. because they were back water simpletons who wanted to live organically on farms, but because they were free spirits and advanced enough to not need an A.I. to run their lives. Not knowing anything about the rules, the brief mentions of hacking expertise intrigued me. I liked the idea of interfering with an opponent's systems, maybe neutralizing them without having to fire a shot. If it did come to shooting the Wildcats looked more than capable.
Casey: Tohaa Trident “The Fighting Artichokes”
The Models:
- 3 Kamael Light Infantry with Combi Rifles
- Sakiel Regiment with Viral Combi Rifle
- Ectros Regiment with Viral Combi Rifle
- Clipsos Infiltrator with Combi Rifle
The Logic:
Everything I’ve read told me just to pick the models I think looked best, but I still had a hard time choosing a faction. A VERY hard time. Haqqislam, ALEPH, and Nomads were all in the running for me. They looked great and seem to have solid online player bases, but each starter box invariably had one model that rubbed me wrong. Conversely the first Tohaa miniature I saw was the Diplomat, and I wasn’t terribly impressed. Why is a diplomat on the battlefield?! Why is she wearing a poncho into battle??!! But when I took a look at the starter pack I couldn’t find a model I didn’t love. Plus their rules sound like they have a ton of flexibility and I can take a lot viral weapons, which are pretty awesome I’ve been told. I’m not so interested in one or two nasty tricks, those can always be countered, I want an army I can adapt on the fly to address whatever obstacles I come up against and I think Tohaa will let me do that. I worry a bit because a few people have said Tohaa are tricky to learn for the new player, but they said that about 5th edition Tau so I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.
With a general outline in place and a quick look at the factions and why we chose them we’re ready to get stuck in with the actual game! Next time we’re going to jump right into a battle using nothing but the online rules to see how well two people can pick up and play the game in a vacuum.
Check out Casey's Painting Plog HERE.
Casey Roberts
If you would like to write articles for Beasts of War then please contact me at [email protected].
To be honest, Infinity is one of those games that I am intrigued by, but I know that I won’t be trying it. The game looks interesting, the minis look fantastic but … and this is just a matter of personal preference … I really don’t want to go back to working with metal minis. Having spent my youth working with metal minis, I’ve recently come back to gaming and am collecting minis made from plastic and resin. Plastic is so much easier to work with and buying anything in metal feels like a backward step. If I was going… Read more »
Pewter is the best route for a small company, like CB, to go with. Plastics require a lot of demand to make a profit. If there is a bad cast with pewter it can be recycled easily which is not something you can do with plastics and resins.
You’ll find the CB’s metal range has a lot more detail on the minis than what you see in plastic.
I’m with you. When I see metal figures, I just lose interest.
Metal figures feel old-fashioned. I find they chip even after two coats of dullcote and I hate having limited poses and having to pin larger models.
The new Malifaux plastics are especially awesome. Dynamic figures like Mei Feng would be nigh impossible to do in metal.
I can see where you are coming from and i’d totally agree with you if Infinity was a large scale war game but as you tend to have a sort of model count of 6-10 models (slightly more if you are Ariadna etc) the limited poses (and there a good variety of poses available) don’t cause too much of a problem, but I wouldn’t have the guts to try and do metal conversions myself but I wouldn’t discount an entire gorgeous model range because they are cast in metal.
You obviously have not looked at the Infinity range, and probably don’t know about production and casting techniques.
Everything can be made in metal miniatures. Any pose can be made in metal when you are casting different pieces, anything.
i suggest you take a look at miniatures like BrandoCastro, the Anathematic, The Imperial Agent Crane Rank…
As someone who grew up on the GW metal dragons, land speeders and the like I should have more reason than anyone to really dislike metal. But having said that, I really think you should try and get your hands on a few Infinity miniatures, and then base your judgement on that, – The level of detail on these miniatures is absolutely incredible. While possible in resin, I would say at least 50% of the range (if not more) of the range would be impossible in plastic. One of the Corvus Belli sculptors has said this himself. – The very… Read more »
I have enjoyed Infinity immensely over the last year. It is a game that is constantly testing your skills as a war gamer. The biggest difference between infinity and other games I’ve played is the need to adapt your strategy to what just happened on the battle field. In WH40K it is easy to build a list and see the other players list and have an idea how it/s going to go and who is going to win. In infinity 90% of the lists you take will have a good chance of defeating any other list. The 10% that wont… Read more »
Like probably 90% of wargamers until recently I had been almost solely concerned with Games Workshop figures, until a couple of years ago when desperate for a game that was smaller in collectable scale (I have like one of every 40k army and 2k+ of em eats up so much room) had a cool aesthetic and appealed to my Blade Runner/Ghost in the Shell fan-boyism. Infinity was perfect for all of these reasons but I didn’t jump straight in, it took me a good year and a half to sit down and finally decide on a faction (cus they are… Read more »
…Also concerning the actual post, its great to see more coverage for Infinity, I love you beasts of war guys! Nomads and Tohaa were both on my list of potential cool looking starter boxes too! Look forward to seeing you build em up and get them painted, especially looking forward to hearing how they play out against each other too! (my regular gaming buddy went Nomads too Correidigor starter w/Iguana and a reverend custodiers so far) been thinking about starting a forum post on our stuff too but not the best painters out there haha.
I’d just like to say I played my first game last Wednesday and I’m now hooked. We only played a small game but you have be thinking about every move and the ARO adds a whole new level to the game. This is a game that I would strongly recommend.
@erastus I’ve very much been in the same boat of trying to avoid metal minis. That being said it hasn’t been too bad since there are just a few minis, not squads of them. @grotlobba Glad to know you’re having a great time getting into it! @all OK feedback time; what do you guys want to see? What will be most helpful for you all? The plan was to go straight to a battle report and our experience with it, but I was told terrain might be a more useful second step? This is your chance to make a impact… Read more »
Definitely think terrain might be an idea, but a battle report would be cool also. Always thought the biggest selling point of this game, aside from the miniatures, is the mechanics – having a BR that shows off a few of the cooler elements of that, why people should give Infinity a chance, would definitely be worthwhile I think!
I am in the same boat as grotlobba, I just started playing very recently as wow, its great. Nomads are on my list of factions to get (its my next one with Ariadna and Tohaa not far behind!) Infinity is my start into war gaming but I did my research before. I realize metal is more cumbersome for many reasons but when it comes to the detail that CB brings out of their figures, I really dont think I would want it any other way. If producing the best minis out there means they are made by metal then I… Read more »
To be honest I read almost anything to do with Infinity when I see it, I love it THAT much. Battle Reports are one of my favourites things to read/watch just because there are so many different factions and equipment (with special rules i’m still not entirely clear on–thank the maker for the infinity wiki!) a painting log or terrain crafting log would be cool personally I’ve gone with ordering a bunch of those Bandua for Infinity Q-buildings as they look cool, easy to store and really affordable (best place I’ve found for terrain is Wayland Games). I’ve been giving… Read more »
Ask and ye shall receive! I haven’t gotten far, but expect frequent updates on painting my Tohaa:
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/painting/forum/topic/tohaa-painting-log/
It’s a little hard to stay with just one Army; I have the two current Nomad Factions, as well as decent Haqqislam and Combined army groups…..
We did do some micro-scenario objectives for multi-player games: such as killing an opponent in close combat; rescuing/capturing civilians or preventing this; conducting a successful hack; destroying an enemy with a D-charge; …. etc… We would have a list of twenty and randomly roll for two or three for each army… keeping them secret from other players….. this adds a little more zest to a “kill everybody else” manner of play…
@Frizzenspark, that’s the sort of thing i’d be interested in having a look at, i’m thinking of adding in like attack helicopter’s with advanced A.I that can be hacked etc. Would like to see the list sometime if you wanted to share!
@Rocketyeti, will definitely be keeping an eye on this post, look forward to what comes next!
My only complaint about Infinity , is I cant get enough..
That and you can pump all your orders into one model , be it a Tag , Furry or whatever your ace in the hole is (if it doesnt get ARO’d) can act several times without penalty , which leaves your other models just to ARO , only pumping orders into your big bad , not acting as anything but order contributors.
All I will say about choosing your first faction in Infinity is that within the first few months you’ll choose your second then third…! They’re all unique, the minis are gorgeous and you just want them all. 🙂
Haha no lie. You can ask wildchevy, I have a new army in mind every week it seems!