Play the Game - A Case for Intent

This topic has long been a bone of contention in the Infinity community and has had people split down the middle with a lot of passion on both sides. It's a heated issue that I've been loath to get involved with until now.

I've been made aware of an article which aggressively refutes the suggestion that intent is a legal (in rules terms) way of playing the game and there was a significant conversation in the UK Infinity communities about it too.

These two things combined have spurred me to throw my hat into the ring and write about the topic as well. My strong belief is that 'intent' is in fact the correct way to play the game and that it is fully supported by the rules.

In this article I'll be trying to clarify my definition of 'intent', my understanding of the rules and will be making some suggestions on how intent-based game-play can work without falling into common pitfalls.

Woo, more USAriadna ready for battle! I intend (ha!) to get a lot of games in with these guys!

Story League: Episode 4!

Welcome to the final episode of our Story League. Thanks again to those of you who submitted results for the previous mission as it resulted in a major victory for the attackers!

I've also now uploaded a PDF of all the missions for easier reading.

In the last episode an unmarked interplanetary transport vessel carrying Amelia Khan and Snowfall's cube suffered a "terrible accident" following a routine stop-and-search by a Yu Jing customs vessel.

They never stood a chance. With the generators destroyed and security forces routed the stricken transport ship was left drifting. A few demolition charges placed in key areas of the hull were sufficient to break the vessel up. There were no survivors. 

The formal report suggests an engineering failure in the starboard engine as the cause of the explosion and the blame has been laid at the feet of the port technicians, many of whom are now facing trials for negligence. 

Whilst the conflict continued in space, the Yu Jing judiciary revoked PanOceania's diplomatic status and demanded that any information pertaining to Snowfall be turned over immediately. Naturally, this request was denied. 

Ariadnan mercenary forces storm the grounds of the PanOceanian embassy.

New Demo Kit - Salute 2016

Another Salute has been and gone.

Once again I used the event as motivation to update my demonstration kit for Infinity. This year I added the USAriadna Ranger Force to my pool of available factions - joining PanO, Nomads, Aleph and Haqq - and also updated my player handouts which can be found in PDF form here.

The new hand-outs were redesigns of what I've used previously, having taken on feedback from those I've played with and from my own observations. Things have been sufficiently tested, updated and tidied up that I now feel comfortable unleashing them on the wider world!

Player handouts - front view.

Aleph in Human Sphere: Top 5(ish) Changes

My Human Sphere book arrived today and I immediately started poring over it to try and spot all the new changes and how they might affect my favourite faction - Aleph. Unfortunately there's just so many of them that it's almost impossible to mention them all.

So I decided to make a list. Everybody likes lists, right?

Human Sphere N3

USA! USA! USA!

Despite having purchased the box set almost a year ago, I've only recently started getting to work on my USAriadna force for Infinity. The motivation for me this time is getting a 5th demo faction ready in time for Salute on the 16th where a group of us will be running games throughout the day.

Apart from sheer laziness the main reason that I hadn't made progress on this army was that I couldn't decide on a scheme. After initially testing a couple of green/brown/khaki combinations I realised that I hated painting those colours and I was really bad at it. My test models quickly got dunked in Fairy Power Spray whilst I contemplated my failings.

Fortunately sometimes all you need is a single colour to act as your inspiration and for me this came in the form of P3's Trollblood Base. This is a wonderful teal colour and it applied well, had excellent saturation, was easy to highlight and looked just on the right side of military. I was sold on it and began painting in earnest.

My USAriadna Ranger Force so far.

Story League: Episode 3!

Welcome back once again to the Infinity Story League! Sorry this is a bit overdue but holidays, exams and tournaments have conspired against me.

Following the events of the last episode Snowfall has been killed by state-sponsored assassins although Amelia managed to survive the vicious combat. A minor victory for the attackers.

It was a brutal, if brief, battle. The close quarters fighting lasted only a couple of minutes until further security forces arrived but by then the damage had been done. Snowfall was dead and many of his security forces were injured or worse. Of their assailants there was no trace, bodies having been spirited away by state-sponsored conspirators.

What was not common knowledge however is that during his time at the embassy Snowfall had been implanted with a cube, a device which can be used to reconstruct someone's personality and memories even after death, and this had been recovered.

Amelia and Snowfall's cube, with all the vital information it contained, were hurriedly evacuated to New Shanghai space-port where they were put on an undocumented cargo ship heading out of system along with a substantial security detail.