To INFINITY and beyond

 So, where have my updates gone? Well, to be honest the last month I've spent wholey immersed in INFINITY, this has lead to basically no progress on anything fantasy or 40k related. Instead get ready for an update on what i think might be one of the best tabletop games I've ever played (including gorkamorka!).
  Infinity is a game produced by a Spanish company called Corvus Belli. Its a skirmish game set 175 years in the future, in a manga (cyberpunk?) style setting, using between 6-16(ish) models in a game. And I've gota say, clean vistas, cool tech, and no space marines in sight is SO refreshing. The game also has some of the best miniatures I've ever seen (in 14 odd years of wargaming that's saying something), which was the major factor that sold me. Seriously, go check out the range at http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/facciones/ ... I'll wait..

  The game itself plays a little like necromunda, in fact the first description I heard of the game was "its necromunda done right" which is fairly accurate. The major difference to any other game is that rather than the traditional "i go , you go" there's an "active phase" and a "reactive phase" in the active phase your troops are able to move, shoot, engage in close combat etc, as you would expect, however when one player is active the other is reactive, and every model that can draw line of sight to an active model is able to react, be it with a shoot, dodge, or any other short action. It's a bit like overwatch, only not quite. The reason it differs is down to "head to head" dice rolling, this is where models on each side trying to act against each other effectively roll off, with modifiers, but in a simple example, active model A shoots at reactive model B, the active model gets to fire 3 shots, the reactive model only fires 1, the model that rolls closest to or under the value needed wins the roll off, so long as he hasn't been outrolled by the oponent. This is a very simplified example, but basically it leads to players being really tactical with the use of cover, lines of fire, and supression or smoke to try and advance downfield. Any way enough rambling, check out the infinity-game videos on youtube for a quick run down. (the dood narrating has the weirdest accent, at first I thought he was Japanese, but it turns out hes Spanish?) http://www.youtube.com/user/CorvusBelliSLL#g/u
  Any way, after checking out all the background, I decided to start collecting the "Yu - Jing" faction, basically they're most of Asia in the future, comprising china, japan and their neighbors. They have access to alot of heavy infantry, some akira style bikers, and space ninjas! (seriously! space ninjas!). Along with my first models, I also purchased both rulebooks. Maybe its because I came from a GW background, but 40 bucks for a 250 page hardback full colour rulebook that incorporates all the rules for the game and all the rules for factions seemed like a steal, considering an 80 page single army hardback GW rulebook comes in at a solid 65 bucks...
   The models themselves clock in around 8-12 bucks per blister, so a bit cheaper than GW . I picked up a Yu Jing- Imperial Service starter pack, and an assortment of blisters, they showed up looking a bit like this.

  It might seem like I'm frothing at the hips over infinity (and I basically am), but these models had basically no flash at all on them and no moulding problems at all, which again was so refreshing coming from a GW background.
  Heres a few of them built and based.

3 light infantry called Celestial Guard

2 heavy infantry, Hsein and Wu-Ming, flanking a pheasant light infantry

  The first thing that struck me when i got the minis together was their scale, they are 28mm figures, some are as tall as 32mm but they aren't exagerated "heroic" scale. At first this was really weird for me, but i actually much prefer these models now than the hyper exagerated "heroic" models, wich feel a little bit.. crude to me now. (I'm sure this will fade and I'll be fine with them again in a month or 2)
  Heres a pic just to show the size difference, keep in mind these models are exactly the same height.

 

  Both these guys are actually light infantry, so the least armoured or bulky of the guys i have, wich exaggerates the contrast here, but even the most heavily armoured guys are still.. within the realms of believability.
   Heres a few pictures of my finished guys.

Female Celestial guard, armed with boarding shotgun, please note the space ponytails

Second celestial guard, armed with combi rifle, this is one of the most basic grunts available to the Yu-jing

Third Celestial guard, also armed with combi-rifle

  These guys are pretty close to being complete, just need some lettering/numbering on the armour, once I work out what i want.

Heres a Shang-Ji invincible, and Wu-ming, some of the  heavy infantry available to the Yu-Jing, These guys are about 50% finished, needing a lot more blue OSL all over them and then unit designations.

 Slow progress so far, but these models are alot finer than any GW product I've painted, so I've been taking my time ( not that i was a prodigiously fast painter to start with)
  I've been lucky enough to play a dozen or so games in the past month, and we've basically appropriated our clubs necromunda terrain. The game itself needs a lot of terrain on the table, since weapons are lethal, and the game is unforgiving, if you run a guy out of cover infront of 3 enemy, he will die, simple as that really. So using cover, working out lanes of approach, or combined moves to give the enemy very little chance to react are the fundamentals of this game. Heres a look at the terrain set ups we've been using. Most of wich is made by our mate Owen over at http://terrainforhippos.blogspot.com/

The buildings all link together with the walkways, which plug into sockets on the walls, This makes them reposition-able in whatever design you want, which is pretty damn awesome.

  To anyone looking for something new and interesting to play. I can't recommend Infinity enough, seriously check it out. For me the timing couldn't have been better, between the GW, price hike, coupled with the ban on importing their product to Australia (effectively trying to corner the marker here and forcing us to pay their exorbitant prices) and then the "finecast" fiasco, I was more than ready to branch out and try something new. So i guess thanks is in order? thanks GW for pushing me into finding one of the most fun, strategic and challenging games I've ever played.

Also don't worry, I'll still be updating with fantasy and 40k, I managed to amass a pretty ridiculous backlog of models while GW product was still "reasonably" priced.