Command Tokens 101

If you played N2 at all then you may know that, back in the day, Lieutenant Orders had a variety of extra uses (forming link teams, auto-passing Guts rolls etc.) beyond just moving your LT and getting him or her shot. However these functions and many others are instead now covered by the new resource in the game - the Command Token.

Each army, regardless of points level, starts the game with 4 Command Tokens, although some characters like Sun Tze provide a 5th using the Advanced Command skill. These are a non-replenishing resource - once used they are gone - so be careful with them. On the other hand you don't want to be left with a pile unspent at the end of the game either.

In every game of N3 I've played so far these have been very important, so I think it's worth talking about them a little bit. I'm going to try and give a description of what their different uses are and how to make the most of them.

Again this is a 'game theory' article so enjoy some pretty concept artwork by Corvus Belli rather than my usual photos.

Sun Tze - 25% more commanding than everyone else

N3 Aleph at a glance

The long awaited N3 PDFs have finally been released. Of course the first thing I had to do was check out how Aleph were shaping up in the new edition. I've listed all the profile changes I've spotted below the jump and then I've done a write up of the biggest winners and losers of N3.

Where I don't mention a profile, it is unchanged.

Infinity N3 is here - everyone crash the servers!

My Infinity Christmas Parcel

Now that the fortnight of food, drink and merry-making has come to an end, and very pleasant it was too, it's time to get back to some blogging.

The enjoyableness of my festive period was increased greatly by the fact that my copy of Infinity N3 arrived on Christmas Eve, which meant that I had plenty of time to start reading through it and getting to grips with the changes.

I'm not going to go into the rules changes now, I need to have some more practical experience with it first, but I just want to take the opportunity to show off my new toys. :)

My preciousss....

Infinity - Loss of Lieutenant and Retreat changes.

Over at Bell of Lost Souls there is an article about some of the recent N3 announcements that I feel it's worth talking about a bit more.

Two of the harshest parts of Infinity currently are the Loss of Lieutenant rules and the Retreat rules. Both of them are effectively crippling for an army, but that's all changing now. Just take a look at the chart below.

A game changer

Infinity - All the News that's Fit to Print

Last weekend (27th-28th September) was the Infinity event at Tabletop Nation hosted by Wayland Games and attended by Carlos (Bostria to some of you) from Corvus Belli.

They were two fun filled days and included a couple of Seminars where lots of juicy information was revealed, an ITS tournament (report coming soon to a blog near you) and lots of demo games. Of these I'm sure you are all most interested in the gossip. Some of this might commonly be known by now, especially by those following the news closely, but hopefully there will be a few gems in here.

Tabitha Lyons in a Bolt cosplay

Infinity - How to win games and influence outcomes

There was an interesting article written by Kris Sherriff over at Bell of Lost Souls about not doing stuff "just because you can". The gist of it, as far as Infinity is concerned, was that "opposed rolls are bad" and that spending orders to give your opponent a chance to kill your own models seems like something you should avoid.

Kris stated that "One of the keys to Infinity is maximizing your Normal Rolls whilst forcing your opponent in to as many Opposed Rolls as possible."

I left an initial comment on the article and then spent a lot of time really pondering his statements. Why are Normal rolls good and can we extrapolate that to other areas of Infinity? Can there be such a thing as a 'key' to playing Infinity well? After a lot of thought (and several re-writes of this article) I've come to believe that you can boil down good Infinity play to three factors (or keys) - order efficiency/effectiveness, reducing variance and mitigating failure.

Whilst the old adage of "it's not your list, it's you" is still banded about, the current tournament missions mean that it's simply not true any more - suitable army composition is an important factor. As such, some of the things discussed below are about list building and unit selection as well as in-game tactics.

Note: This article has now been subtly amended to take the changes from N3 into account. Please do let me know if I've missed anything.

I don't have anything in the way of relevant pics, so enjoy some pretty concept art - all rights belong to Corvus Belli

Operation: Icestorm - PanOceania finished!

I've been feeling burnt out on painting for the last couple of weels. I'm sure you are all familiar with what this is like. It's a sudden switch between boundless enthusiasm - painting in the morning, evening and night, to not even wanting to pick up a brush. Every basecoat, wash, highlight and layer seems somehow more difficult than it ought to be.

I'm not sure what causes it, maybe it's just a case of losing your flow. Something interrupts your painting schedule and suddenly the rhythm you had gotten yourself into is gone. Perhaps it's the realisation that you don't seem to be making any meaningful progress into your pile of lead? The worst part is the projects that get stuck in limbo. Half pained models that sit on a shelf because you lost the motivation half way through.

Well, I'm happy to announce that I've managed to break my streak of painting apathy and I've (finally) finished the PanOceania starter forces from Operation Icestorm.

Ready to smash some Nomad scum!

Operation: Icestorm - Rules Roundup

Welcome to part two of things I've been dying to discuss. I've been scouring through Icestorm in order to get a glimpse of what is to come from Infinity N3 and have some pretty juicy things to share.

Please take everything here with a pinch of salt however; a lot of the rules in N3 appear to be slightly simplified for the purposes of a new player experience and only reference abilities and interactions that the models in the box can have with each other. As such, there may be further tweaks, clarifications and expansions on these rules with the release of N3 later this year.

Note that all images are taken from material published by Corvus Belli, they are not my own work.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let's dig in and see what we can learn!

Icestorm rulebook cover art

Unboxing Operation: Icestorm

I've been absolutely dying to tell people about this, but Corvus Belli requested that we don't disclose any pictures or contents of Operation: Icestorm until 1st August (fair enough, really). But that day has finally come!

This package arrived for me at work (and was freaking huge) so it raised a lot of questions that went somewhat like this:

Colleagues: Whatcha got there?
Me: Toy soldiers.
Colleagues: There's got to be a lot in there?!
Me: Mistakes may have been made...

Turns out, it was a copy of Operation: Icestorm that Corvus Belli generously let me buy early for the purpose of running demo events.

What's this? A Package? For me?

Infinity Starter Packs - PanO & Nomads

Update: This post has now been bought into line with the 3rd edition of Infinity.

So, you've had a demo game, seen the pretty models and want to get playing, but which starter pack should you buy? My aim is to rate each of the currently available starter packs on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the following criteria and provide some sample army lists to get you going.

• Immediate Usability: How well can you use the starter box to build a 120 and 150 point list for the first two rounds of an Escalation League. Top marks are for being able to use all six figures effectively and being able to play the first two rounds with minimal extra purchases.

• Long Term Value: Are the models that come in the Starter Pack going to be useful in the long run, will you end up using them all consistently as your army grows and are they likely to replaced by newer sculpts in the foreseeable future.
     Two ratings are given, the first when playing the 'vanilla' army with no limitations, and the second when playing the Sectorial that the box specifically belongs to (if available).

• Model Quality: Are the models good quality, recent sculpts. Some starter packs show more age than others or have outdated models in them.

I'm making the assumption that it is the player's intention to play the 'vanilla' faction, which means that they are interested in the full range of models for that faction. If a player is interested in just a particular Sectorial (a sub-section of a faction) then they should always just get the relevant starter box for that Sectorial as it invariably provides the best value.

All images in this article are the property of Corvus Belli.