Using Nimbus Grenades

Nimbus Grenades.

What they do is fairly straight forward. They create an area which has the properties of both a Low Visibility Zone(or Poor Visibility Zone for Nimbus Plus ammunition) and of a Saturation Zone. This results in a penalty to hit (-3 or -6 respectively) as well as reducing the Burst of all attacks into, out of and through the Zone by 1 to a minimum of 1.

The visibility/Burst penalties cannot be bypassed by Multispectral Visors, apply to both player equally and persist until the end of that player turn.

These esoteric pieces of equipment are scattered about a variety of troops but hardly see any use at all in my experience. In fact neither myself nor my regular group have ever used them or heard of them being used in a meaningful way.

Clearly they must have an intended role though, otherwise they wouldn't be in the game right? So I got to thinking in more detail about when I might make use of these strange explosives.

Infinity Tactics - Presence

Today I'd like to talk to you about Presence.

No, this isn't some new-fangled special rule, but rather a concept. It's something that I've heard talked about a number of times using different ways to refer to it, but it was always a slightly nebulous thing and poorly defined. So let me try and pin down what I mean by it.

Here are some definitions of presence (thanks Google) to get us going:

• "The state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing." 
• "A group of people, especially soldiers or police, stationed in a particular place." 
• "The impressive manner or appearance of a person." 

So a group of solider stationed in a particular place in an impressive manner, which sounds close to what I'm getting at. These soldiers aren't cowering around in total cover; instead they are actively making their existence felt. In Infinity we can take Presence (with a big P) to mean:

The influence of an army on the battlefield and the pressure it places on opposing forces.

Now, what can we do to get more Presence and why would we want to?

The Humble Bounty Hunter (with Sniper Rifle)

Welcome to another article in the 'Humble' series. This time I'll be fan-boying all over the my main squeeze at the moment - the Bounty Hunter with Sniper Rifle.

First up, a quick disclaimer. This article is specifically aimed at PanOcenia, Aleph, Nomads and Yu Jing - i.e. armies that don't typically get access to non-MULTI Sniper Rifles. Haqqislam and Ariadna already get access to cheap Sniper Rifles and therefore don't benefit as much.

So, why do I like her so much? Read on.

ALIVE Anti-Establishment Group Review

Just a couple of days ago there has been a real shake-up to all Infinity armies (except Combined Army and their sectorials, sorry) with the release of the new ALIVE Group!

As part of this group you have three mercenary Hackers - Cypher, BIT & KISS! and Switch whose services you can hire. I'll be going through each in turn to see how they might affect army building and the game in general.

If you haven't already seen the news, then you can find all their profiles on the official ARMY Builder and in the ITS rules PDF.

The Humble Irmandinhos

Today's topic of conversation is the humble Irmandinho. In real life the Irmandinhos were a a group of Galician revolutionaries around the fifteenth century but in Infinity they are Smoke-toting Engineers with a complete disregard for their own well-being.

I've been waging a personal crusade to get some recognition for what I feel is an underused unit (although this may just be because their sculpts are seriously dated) and finally have gotten round to jotting down my thoughts.

So let's take a look at what they can do.

Tactica: Deployment or Initiative

So you've won the Initiative Roll and now have to decide whether you want to Keep Initiative (choosing whether to go first or second) or Keep Deployment (choosing which deployment zone to take and forcing your opponent to deploy first).

What do you do?

At this point in the game I've seen experienced players (including myself) all but melt down into a puddle of indecisive goo. Not only do you have to choose whether to Keep Deployment or Keep Initiative, but you then have to decide which Deployment Zone to take or whether to take the first or second turn respectively.

The entire flow of the game is going to hinge upon these two questions, but how do you decide which options to take?

Tactica: Dodge in, Dodge out, shake it all about.

Good morning class, it's pop quiz time.

Can anyone here tell me exactly what Dodge, Engage, Change Facing, Alert, Warning and Reset do, where they are different and when/why you would use each of them?

No? Well frankly neither could I. So I did a whole load of research, picked through all the rules, FAQs and forum threads I could find and wrote it all up whilst dispensing tips and suggestions as I went. Hopefully it'll be an interesting read.

Warning: Thar be many words ahead!

Of Math and Medikits

The MediKit is an unusual piece of equipment that is found on all Paramedics and many Doctors across all the factions in Infinity. As the Paramedic skill can be commonly found as a profile option for basic infantry units you may well have come across it before.

I've recently been finding myself using MediKits more often, likely due to the lack of competent Doctors and Servant Remotes in Ariadna, but I've encountered only limited success with them. I'm not sure that I should even bother trying to make use of them.

It's always difficult to work out odds on the fly, so I thought it'd be interesting to spend some time calculating some different probabilities so I can be better informed for future games.

Warning: There be charts ahead!

Questions from Google II

Welcome back to another Questions from Google where once again I'll be trying to answer the questions that have brought people to my little corner of the Internet.

As before, all of the questions below are search terms that individuals have used to land on this blog but likely haven't been answered. Some of these I have had to interpret a little as the question was somewhat unclear or vague.

Hopefully these will again be useful for you lot!

List Building for the Interplanetary 2016

Can you believe that it's been a year already? Yep, it's almost time for the Interplanetary tournament in Vigo, Spain again.

For those not in the know, the Interplanetary is a 100-man tournament held in the home-town of Corvus Belli and it marks the end of the ITS season. Last year I took my Steel Phalanx and came a fairly respectable 33rd. My goal this time is to not do worse. Given my lack of tournament practice over the last year this is going to be a challenge!

My initial plan was to take a freshly painted USAriadna army with me, but after discovering that the tournament was not a Spec Ops event this year (at some point it was changed and the players weren't advised until near the deadline) my list prep was in tatters. In particular I was concerned about the faction's ability to complete Highly Classified reliably.

So I went crying back to all-knowing Aleph and once again took control of the Steel Phalanx.

Infinity - Dealing with Impersonation

The use of Impersonators in Infinity can be quite a divisive subject. Complaints of unfairness are frequently levelled against them because their unique rules seem to break so many fundamental aspects of the game and they bypass many conventional defences.

At first they may come across as unstoppable monsters who can go where they please with impunity, picking off valuable targets (such as an all-important Lieutenant) with complete disregard for their own safety, much like human-shaped guided missiles. However, in practice they are far from unreasonable - they might even be fair!

Learning how to deal with them effectively only comes with practice and experience, some of which I hope to share with you in this article.

Have a nice day!

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!

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

The Humble FO Remote

Following on from the Humble Thorakitai FO and War Correspondent articles, I'll be turning my sights (and affections) towards another unit that I think is undervalued by many players.

You may know them by many different names - Pathfinder, Guardian, Rafiq, Stempler, M-Drone or Daleth - but these Remotes have most of their properties in common. They are fast, cheap specialists that have a vast amount of unusual equipment at their disposal and come at a very reasonable price. I even named one as the star unit of my Interplanetary trip!

Their singular flaw is that they have too many rules so if you don't do research into what they are capable of then they can seem outright confusing and easy to overlook. So I'm aiming to cover all the information needed to use them effectively and I hope you fall in love with them as much as I have!

The Yu Jing equivalent is the Yaokong Weibing (Guardian). All images property of Corvus Belli.

Infinity - Making an ITS List

Welcome to (a long overdue) part three about unit roles and list building for Infinity. If you haven't already then you may wish to check out parts one and two before reading on.

This final article in the series is going to be about putting together a capable list to take to an ITS event. It will include some general rules of thumb, strategies to look out for and common mistakes to avoid.

Once again there is a disclaimer: These aren't hard and fast rules and the suggestions below aren't set in stone - but they are a good place to start. They are just the musings of one person, so if you think I'm wrong about something (and I may well be)

All examples are assuming a 300 point army built for ITS missions and with no Spec Ops.

All image in this article are property of Corvus Belli.

List Building for Vigo

I've been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks because I've been busy painting and preparing for the Infinity Interplanetary tournament in Vigo later this month. Also I've been playing Path of Exile and it's stupidly addictive....

Vigo is a really substantial event. At one hundred participants it's by far the biggest wargaming tournament I'll have attended and at five rounds it is the longest too. Not only that but, judging by last year, the standard of competition is likely to be very high. I'm pretty awful at deciding on lists at the best of times and none of these factors were helping.

So, today I'm going to talk about what I'm taking with me and why.

Spoiler: There may be missile launchers...

The Humble(r) War Correspondant

Following on from my article about the Thorakitai Forward Observer I thought it would be a good time to shine the spotlight on another underrated unit that I try to field often and tend to get asked about a lot.

Infinity has a lot of units that are excellent without being overtly strong and therefore are overlooked in favour of more obvious options. This is especially true when these units have been improved in N3 in some way or are new units outright so people don't have experience with them.

So I'd like to present to you the cheapest trooper in the game. The-equally-humble-if-not-humbler War Correspondent, or Warcor for short.

The normal and limited release Warcor minis. Picture from Corvus Belli.

The Humble Thorakitai FO

The Thorakitai Forward Observer (FO, for short) is probably the best unit in Steel Phalanx - possibly even in Aleph as a whole.

Yes, in a faction with ODD-equipped Heavy Rocket Launcher wielding lunatics, Ballistic Skill 20 Snipers, four-armed murder TAGs and even Achilles himself, this simple 13 point model is unrivalled in value and stands out as a pinnacle of efficiency.

This is a bold claim I know, but one that I think I can back up. So let's take a detailed look at the profile and see if I can really justify this bold claim.

Thorakitai - the real heroes of the Human Sphere!

Infinity - Secondary Unit Roles

Welcome to the second part of my series about list building in Infinity.

In part one I wrote about the primary roles that I tend to build lists around. If you haven't read it then I recommend that you go take a look now as I'll be referencing it quite a bit.

There are clearly many units that don't fit into the roles I've previously described, so this time I'll be talking about secondary roles which should cover most of the outstanding units. Understanding these roles and knowing why you are taking a particular unit can be very helpful for making a cohesive and competent force. Not only that but it can help you determine weaknesses in your opponent's armies too.

Once again there is a disclaimer: These aren't hard and fast rules and many units can fit into multiple roles or may not appear to fit any - but this is good place to start. All examples are assuming a 300 point army built for ITS missions.

Please enjoy some pictures of March's releases from Corvus Belli: Does anyone else find the cactus weirdly cute?

Infinity - Primary Unit Roles

List building in Infinity is hard. The mantra of "it's not your list, it's you" has gone up in smoke and, given the new 2015 scenarios, it's unlikely to make a comeback. For ITS (Infinity Tournament System) events especially, list building is an important part of playing the game.

A solid list won't win the game by itself, but it helps to have a solid foundation to build on.

The good internal balance of Infinity and lack of combo-based gameplay means that it's hard to just make an army by discounting 'underpowered' units, spamming the best thing or building around obvious/deliberate combinations of profiles. There aren't really any archetypal lists for most factions and the idea of net-listing hasn't made its way into the game yet.

On the forums we've seen a lot of new players who are confused about what makes a cohesive force and tend to make (understandable) mistakes when shaping their armies. So I'm planning for this to be the first of a three part series, aimed at newer players, about list building for competitive games of Infinity.

The inspiration for these articles came from these posts on CritsKillPeople - so go have a read about Unit Roles & Misunderstood Roles.

You can find part two of the guide here.

Please enjoy some pics of new releases from Corvus Belli. Nazarova Twins: Don't the old mono-bikes seem so quaint now?