Painting the Enemy

This is embarrassingly overdue, but I've finally started painting up my Nomads from Icestorm. I want to get the entire force completed for the Excelsior Infinity Day I'll be running on 7th February where it will be one of the available demo armies - along with my Aleph, Haqq and PanO. If you are in the Bristol area on that day then please do come down and say hi!

I started work on the female alguacile first because she has a more 'open' pose, with her arms outstretched. The two male models have their guns held in both hands across the front of their bodies which makes painting trickier.

Sorry that the gun is a little out of focus though - it was a bit of a photography fail and I used terrible lighting. I'm going to get a lightbox of some kind sorted out soon. Also, I managed to leave a horrible mould line on the front of her right boot which I hate myself for a bit...

She needs a name, any ideas?

Medic!

Vanguard's Escalation League is kicking off on Monday which means I've got to get some painting done on the Haqqislam that I'll be using. I want to make a commitment to having a fully painted force at each stage of the Escalation League.

That's a fairly gently pace of painting that will hopefully give me enough time to also paint more stuff for the demo games I'll be running at Excelsior Bristol on the 7th of Feb. I've got a bit of a head start as I have a few troops already painted, but there is no time for complacency.

Haqqislamite doctors are known to be the best in the Human Sphere and so I really wanted her, and her little robot buddy, in my starting force. Hopefully being able to patch up my troops fairly reliably will make up for my lack of Heavy Infantry.

A fireteam of Ghulams on patrol.

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!

List of the Week - No SWC Aleph

Well, it seems like the N3 profiles are a little way off yet so rather than delay this series any further I thought it might be interesting to push some list creation boundaries.

A while back myself and some friends had a discussion about whether lists without any SWC (special weapons cost) were viable. It would have to be a list without any minelayers, hackers, HMGs, Spitfires, Sniper Rifles, Chain of Command, Rocket/Missile launchers and other neat toys that we would otherwise take for granted.

On the other hand you have things like Fidays, Multi Rifle HI, monofilament mines, link teams and most specialists still to work with.

This list has been on the back-burner for a little while, but with the N3 buffs to shotguns and combi rifles I think now might be the time to bust it out...

Artwork from Infinity: Human Sphere

Infinity Escalation League - Round 1

In a couple of weeks time I'll be kicking off an escalation league at Bristol Vanguard. It's a really exciting time for Infinity in the area as the release of N3 has caused an explosion in the player base with communities rapidly expanding in clubs across Bristol and Bath.

We've got around ten people, including myself, at Vanguard who will be participating in the league and using it as a way of learning the game, getting armies painted or acquainting themselves with all the rule changes.

Personally I'm going to take this opportunity to really get to grips with my Haqqislam troops. They've been completely sidelined by Aleph for the last couple of years, but a new edition and tournament season is a great opportunity to try something fresh.

Our mascot - the Vanguard bear

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....

DecemberMunda

This is going to be a super quick post about the outcome of the campaign hosted by Geoff just prior to New Years. You can find loads of pics and a bit of a write-up on his blog. Seriously, go take a look, the gangs and terrain look great.

The Emperor's Reeves performed marvelously and you can find the updated gang roster on Yaktribe. I rolled up a fine smattering of advances and skills throughout the half dozen games played and managed to avoid taking any casualties, mostly by being a sneaky git and letting other people do the fighting.

Of particular note is Constantine becoming hard as nails (yay), the Heavy only getting a Strength and Weapon Skill advance (boo) and my Ratskin being a complete and utter badass. I even managed to convert my Old Ruins into a Settlement using an isotropic fuel rod. Happy days!

But my most important success was capturing an Escher Juve from Geoff and, in roleplay terms at least, converting her to my side. So without further ado, let me introduce you to Jett, the newest member of the Reeves.

Jett, the Wonder Juve