As I walk into INFINITY

For those who many not have heard of the game, Infinity is a tabletop miniature wargame from Spain that started almost 10 years. I had seen the models back then (even picked up a couple to paint), but I never really went anywhere with it. Mostly because I knew of no one else who played. Advance to 2014, and now I know several people playing the game, and it has quite the following around the world. 

One of the two buildings for the apartment complex.

It has an intriguing setting too, especially to those who like high technology run amok, AIs that seem bent on control of the human population, dirty politicking from a future version of the UN, evil corporations, outcasts on the edge of society, cyberpunk hackers, colonial rebels, aliens and starships. Infinity is a curious blend of tropes ranging from movies like Bladerunner and Minority Report all the way to video games like Mass Effect and Titanfall, to anime like Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell (and many others). And it pulls it off pretty well. The art through out the books is manga in style, but the miniatures are much more realistically proportioned, albeit keeping some of the esthetics (like cat-girls... I'm looking at you Bakunin). 

Backside of Police Precinct.

Gaming-wise it has the sense to do it differently. Casting off the shackles of the six sided dice, the game is played, rather simply I might add, with a 20-sided dice. To determine if an action is a success, simply roll a D20, add/subtract modifiers and compare to the ability. If you are less than or equal to it, you succeed. If you roll higher than it, you fail. Each turn is completed by issuing "orders" to models, which generally is a movement and an action (but there are a few more complex orders). The number of orders a player gets is equal to the number of models in the force. These orders are then expended one by one, however, you don't have to use one order on each model. If you want, you can not issue orders to some of your models to give other models additional orders. Once you reach zero orders, the turn goes to your opponent.

Front of Police Precinct.
With Parking below.

What I really like about the system, is that it requires a lot of varied scenery. Dense tables are good in this game. This is due to weapons having ranges more realisitic to what one would expect a ballistic round or blast of energy to travel. Long firing lanes make for difficult movement, as your model runs from cover to cover (the game actually recommends "scatter terrain," ie. cars, sidewalk benches, street planters, etc), much like a soldier would do in real life. A well placed sniper can make for a bad day for an opposing force if there is little to no cover for your models.

As a fan of mecha, I also like the inclusion of battlesuits and fight robots in the setting. Most factions have access to their own variant of the mecha, with Ariadna being the most obvious exception, but they get giant werewolves in return. Sounds like a fair trade off, in my opinion. The two alien races, the Combined Army and the Tohaa, also have their own flavour of big armoured model, with the Ralcho and Gorgos, respectively.

The factions themselves are also quite unique. Each has its place in the universe and, again, has a unique feel each stemming from how they left Earth. The main human factions are PanOceania, Yu Jing, Ariadna, Haqqislam, Nomads and Mercenaries, with ALEPH being part of the Human Sphere, but separate. There are also two alien factions, mentioned earlier, the Combined Army and the Tohaa. 

Titanfall's Angel City - for inspiration

I'm currently working on a Nomad force, centered around Corregidor. The faction plays well with me attaching to the underdog. But where I'm really having fun is building scenery. Since this game like gobs of scenery, I've been building up futuristic buildings, taking inspiration from the cities in Titanfall. The WIP buildings you see through out this article are the buildings I've been working on with various thickness' and styles of plasticard.

More inspiration

I have a couple plans for how to do holographic banners and ad-boards, like much of the art depicts and various companies making terrain for Infinity include, using clear polystyrene and clear paint with stencils. We'll see how that pans out. I've got a few other plans for table pieces, such as markets, a large warehouse and even roof-top gardens! 

I hope to have considerably more pics for this project in my next Infinity post (not sure when...). But in the mean time:

Design sketches

More design sketches

Apartment complex on left, precinct on right

Still kicking... and screaming

The Long Night

Or more accurately, the long two months.

I know it's been a bit since I last posted, but I have a good reason. On Sunday, March 9, my second child, a boy, was born. It's been a frantic time around my house as we adjust to having an infant in the house once more, this time alongside a toddler. Free time, for both myself and my wife, has also been hampered by the fact that our boy has colic. Any parents out there who've experienced this reading this are probably having flashbacks like a Vietnam vet right now, so if you've yet to experience this phenomena, here's hope you don't have to.

Now, I've had a few opportunities to sit and paint, but I've had lots of time to plan several projects. Of course, my main one right now is getting my Imperial Knight finished. I hoping to get it completed for a painting competition that was being held at my local GW, however, while I was able to get it “finished” by most tournament standards (3 colours, based, etc), it is nowhere complete to my satisfaction.

The Night Watchman

I've written up a bit of back story for him, but I’ll save that for when I get him finished. He's so close... I am still coming up with designs for his shoulders and shins. And I'm still not sold on the heraldry on the shield.

As for other projects, I've been planning out my Dindrenzi fleet and how I want to paint it exactly. I’m still leaning towards Halo's UNSC ships, as they both have the same basic shape (an engine or two around a massive mass-accelerator canon). I recently picked up the newest boxes that arrived at my local gaming store for my fleet: The Carrier Battlegroup and the Heavy Cruiser Battlegroup, along with a blister of escorts.

My collection of ships has grown significantly and I think I'm at a point where the collection is pretty much complete. Here's everything I've got for the Dindrenzi. What do you guys think? Think this is an appropriate size? Are there any ships I should have?

The Fleet

On the Malifaux front, this has been one of the best parts of my limited hobby time. These models are fantastic! They are very dynamic and are amazingly detailed. I originally had picked up a few boxes to start (mostly from the Guild, as I already had picked up the old metal Ortega Family set at a swap meet) and went to town. After doing up the "Guild's Judgement" box with simply some sand and cork, I felt like I should go further with the bases.

The Guild's Judgement
Simple basing. Mostly sand, with the odd bit of cork to add some variation in height. It was while working on this box that I came across my only real issue with the kits: The "fiddly-ness" of some of the models. Lady Justice's sword snapped in my fingers with but the slightest pressure and the Scales had a brazier snap off while I was trying to remove it from the sprue. All in all a fantastic kit.

The Torch and Blade
I started to have fun with the bases here. I had spare balsa wood kicking around in various thicknesses, so I started cutting them to lengths that would fit onto the base to create a wood floor and wood walkway look. I did pull out my plasticard tile sheets part way through doing up this boxes bases, but it saw more use in the next box.


Hired Swords
These were my favourite box so far to put together and base, but also the fiddliest. I feel that my basing was the best with these models, and a good combination all my material. The models themselves also have a fantastic level of detail. The swords, however, drove me insane, especially on Viktoria of the Blood. You have to line up several pieces just right, so that her one arm drawing the katana from her back lines up with the other arm holding the scabbard.

The Thunder (and Company)
I just picked these up yesterday, by happenstance really. I was in my FLGS, Thunderground Comics and Games (you can find the address on the Alberta Community page), and he had just finished pricing out all the boxes he had brought in, of which these were a part of. Needless to say, I snatched them up quick, as I had planned to order them anyway.


On the Warmachine front, while I've been only able to paint a bit, I have been reading. In March, the newest book, Vengeance, was released. I've enjoying the progression of the story so far, and new models presented are looking like they will be fun on the table. In particular, I really want a reliant warjack for my Cygnar. With  both a P+S 17 hammer and POW 13 AOE, for only 8 points, I will probably be fielding at least one of these a lot. In particular with the newest iteration of Coleman Stryker. Speaking of the new Lord General...

Mine arrived this past Wednesday, and he is a very nice model. I'm looking forward to painting him up. He comes with two heads; one with his goggles up and one with his goggles over his eyes. I'm not quite sure which I plan to use yet. As for the Stormclad also in the photo, I have a plan to run the Lord General with two. I realize there is supposedly a plastic version coming out with the parts to also build the Reliant and a third, but... meh.



These also arrived two weeks ago. Boy, have I been waiting a long time for these! I wish I had picked up at least the Retribution journeyman caster as well, and maybe also the Protectorate one as well, but I am extremely happy with these models. A very nice level of detail and fairly easy to assemble. I'll have some more pictures of these in a future post, as I work on them. (Also, anyone else think they might use the coins as feat tokens?)

I also managed to pick up the new Privateer Press Tournament Bag. It holds a decent amount of models, all thinks considered. It comes with four small infantry trays, a medium infantry tray/light warjack/warbeast tray, a large warjack/warbeast tray and a think tray of pluck foam. I picked up a couple extra trays for some flexibility, though I do need to pick up at least one more small infantry tray, as I found I was lacking space for infantry and such. I found this out since I actually got to attend a local tournament this past weekend! I will post on it more in my next post, but suffice to say, not having played in two months, and using a list I theory-crafted in my head, I did reasonably well. This bad, however, worked perfectly as intended. I didn't feel I was hauling around my whole army, just this fairly light bag (compared to my full army bag anyway) and my display tray. I would highly recommend it to any competitive tournament goer. And if you play with colossals and such, the half trays do fit with some room to spare, as I did test it with my Stormwall and Storm Strider trays.

I think that's enough for now.
Next post: My experience at Edmonton Onslaught's Warmahordes tournament this past weekend.
Coming soon: Infinity and my look at the new Militarum Tempestus book and models, as well as the upcoming new edition of Warhammer 40,000.

Let me know what you think below!