Sunday 19 November 2017

Skink High-Priest and Lobotomised Slaves

I've finished up a slightly esoteric unit for my lizardmen army today - a unit of lobotomised slaves and their skink high-priest!

It did feel a bit sacrilegious to remove the original slann inhabitants of the panalquin, but the fan waver at least will likely make an appearance as a standard bearer at some point in the future. I'd love to have had enough slave models for a couple more files of troops, so maybe I'll get a chance to add to this unit in the future.


Sunday 12 November 2017

Skink Culchan Riders

With the release of Total War: Warhammer 2, I've found myself wanting to pick up on an old project - my Lizardman army.

I'd originally started planning to use it as a pure 5th edition army, as that's when I first started playing them, but I'm far more fond of the magic system from 6th onwards and of the rules/flavour from 7th edition. As it is, it's probably going to be a fudged mess of everything from 3rd-8th, with an aim to play it using a post-5th rule set. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Over the years I've collected a wide array of bits and bobs to supplement the scaly horde including a variety of jungle beasties - scorpions, spiders, cotatls, snake/lizard swarms, leeches, snails and even a capybara! The first thing I felt compelled to paint though were some rather esoteric creatures - the Culchans.


Thursday 17 August 2017

Aristeia - Meet the Aristos

Previously I went through and summarised the rules for Aristeia, so now it's time to talk about the Aristos themselves! I highly recommend reading through the rules article first as I'll be using much of the same terminology.

I'll go through the characters one by one, show their cards and talk about their abilities and what sort of uses they might have or who they might be paired up with. I've also tried to math out some of the possible results of rolls, but apologise in advance if I've made any mistakes in my calculations!

If you are interested, you can see the concept art and models for the characters in my Aristeia Seminar write-up. Oh, and for the record my ideal team is currently Gata, Parvati, Wild Bill (or Mushasi) and Hexx3r!

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Aristeia Rules Summary

Aristeia is a competitive, two player game where players build their perfect teams of fighters in order to duke it out in the HexaDome. It's very much a standalone board game rather than a port or hybrid of Infinity and generally it is best to look at it with any preconceptions.

As the release date is not so far away (before the end of the year I think!) it's time to start looking at the rules and mechanics behind the game. A lot of the information has been revealed at the Interplanetary, but as reporting has been pretty sporadic so far I'm going to take the chance to explain many of the rules, mechanics and concepts.

I'm going to try and cover as much as is practical of the basics without going into the nitty-gritty. Apologies if I have some of the terminology/timing down wrong, some of it has been glossed over for the sake of simplicity but also I'm still pretty new to the game of course and may have a made a couple of odd, unintentional mistakes.

There are some things that I can't show yet but I hope this will be interesting to those looking forward to the game or even just sitting on the fence.

Images have been taken from the upcoming Reference Guide and How to Play booklets, are property of Corvus Belli and are used with permission.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Interplanetary 2017 After Action Report

Well, I've just about recovered from another Interplanetary. As always it was a fun event with too much food and drink, but too little sleep! For those seeking a bit of background, you can read about the lists I took here and my exploits from last year here.

This time the event had expanded to 116 people playing 5 games each over three days and featured players from all over the globe. Last year I took my Steel Phalanx with me, with a suspiciously similar army list, and came 4th. How do you reckon I did? Better or worse? Well, read on...

Quick note on army lists: Phoenix's link consisted of Phoenix, Machaon, my Chain of Command Officer (with Shotgun) and a Myrmidon with Chain Rifle. Eudaros' link consisted of Eudaros, my Lieutenant Officer (with Combi) and two Myrmidons with a Combi Rifle and with a Chain Rifle.

Got to say a quick prayer to Toni before the games!

Thursday 3 August 2017

Gutier's Q&A at the Interplanetary 2017

I was fortunate enough this year to have Jan over at Infolux invite me to a Q&A session with Gutier “Interruptor” Lusquiños, Infinity's lore master. I believe Jan will be doing his own write-up, either for his blog or for Data Sphere, but he has given me permission to write and publish my own notes too.

We'll be talking about the Black Labs, mercenaries, the RPG, Outrage and even a bit of a game balance - so hopefully there will be some interesting titbits for everyone.

These comments shouldn't be taken as a transcript, instead I have edited and paraphrased both the questions and answers to be more easily readable as we did have a tendency to jump between topics or ramble back and forth on certain subjects!

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Aristeia! Seminar at Interplanetary 2017

One of the seminars this past weekend was a look at Corvus Belli's new game - Aristeia!

The rules themselves were covered at the demo tables and at a subsequent talk, but this one talked about the overall game concept and character designs.

As per the Bostria Seminar, the images in particular have been cleaned up a bit and brightened so the colours may not be completely true. This was done due to the lighting conditions in the venue causing them to otherwise appear quite washed out. All the new concept art will also eventually end up on the Human Sphere wiki.


Interplanetary 2017 Table Dump

This year's Interplanetary was the biggest to date, with a whopping 116 players playing across 58 tables!

Many tables returned from last year, albeit in different configurations and many were completely new too. Notably absent were any tables that used the card scenery from Icestorm, Red Veil or so on, of which there were still a couple last year.

It should be noted that some tables also had table-wide scenery special rules including poor visibility (sandstorm or blizzard), saturation (forest) and apparently even mountainous! Unfortunately I don't have notes on which terrain special rules applied to each table.

Below are two pictures of each table used at the event presented in numerical order. Mobile users beware!

Bostria's Seminar at Interplanetary 2017

As is traditional for the Interplanetary, Bostria presented a seminar talking about recent releases and events, and then some news regarding upcoming miniatures.

I was fortunate enough to be sat near the front with my camera and notepad in hand. I know much of this info has appeared online, but hope that this collated collection proves useful.

The concept art images in particular have been cleaned up a bit and brightened so the colours may not be completely true. This was done due to the lighting conditions in the venue causing them to otherwise appear quite washed out. All the new concept art will also eventually end up on the Human Sphere wiki.

Images are broadly presented in the order they were shown, so scroll down about half way to just skip to the new stuff.

Enjoy!

Saturday 29 July 2017

Interplanetary Round Table 2017

Another year, another series of Interplanetary seminars! This year we started with the 'round table' - actually three people sitting in a row - which was a mini Q&A session.

There were a few prepared questions plus a number from the audience. I've tried to write them up as accurately as possible, but beware that there might be some embellishment or paraphrasing and any inaccuracies are very likely to be my own! Although Bostria does like misleading people...

Our hosts were Gutier, Alberto and Bostria.


Thursday 13 July 2017

List Building for the Interplanetary 2017

Another year, another Interplanetary tournament!

This is going to be my third excursion to Vigo and, whilst I pulled out a good result last year, my goal, as always, is to end up somewhere in the top third. Remarkably I've actually had much less practice this year than last - and I thought I was under-prepared then!

Once again I was really hoping to take some USAriadna with me, but when the missions were announced I knew I had to be taking my Steel Phalanx once more. This army is the Sledgehammer of Infinity and I had a feeling there would be some tough nuts to crack!

Sunday 2 July 2017

Ragnarok Escort Services

I'm still gradually adding ships to my Battlefleet and for this update I wanted to inject a bit of variety into my fleet. It turns out that thirteen of the same escort is probably overkill and I probably want some more options in the future.

I'm also finally kicking off a campaign this week so want to have plenty of ships to appeal for after my games!

A lunar class cruiser surrounded by two squadrons of escorts

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Rounding out the Ragnarok

It's been a sweltering few days lately, but on the upside it means there has been lots of sunshine and little else to do but paint!

As such, I've been working on the third instalment of my Armageddon fleet, Battlefleet Ragnarok. This time I've taken the opportunity to further boost my carrier capacity, fill out my light cruiser options and escort squadrons, and add in a half dozen transports.

Wave three of Battlefleet Ragnarok

Saturday 10 June 2017

Apocalypse Now

I've been continuously working on my new Voss-row fleet for Gothic - Battlefleet Ragnarok.

This latest batch has seen me expand the fleet to around 2,500 points by adding in a battleship, four cruisers, two light cruisers and a pair of escorts.



UK Games Expo 2017

Another year, another Infinity tournament at the UK Games Expo!

On Saturday 3rd June in hall 3A of the NEC we had 22 players competing to be the 2017 Expo champion - a title so far held by Robin Sealey (2014), Chris Penfold (2015) and Daniel Barber (2016).

There were a wide range of players attending this year, some long-term veterans and some who were just starting out. There weren't too many rules queries though so it was all smooth sailing really.

So, how did they get on?

The prize haul for this year's event

Thursday 1 June 2017

BFG: Battlefleet Ragnarok

It's been just over two years since I first started work on Battlefleet Valkyrie - my Imperial Navy fleet for BFG. In about six months I'd rounded it out to around 4,000 points of various ships and I'd largely considered the project to be done and dusted. After all, there wasn't a great deal more that I could add.

Hahaha... yeah, right.

Battlefleet Ragnarok

Thursday 18 May 2017

A Month in the Human Sphere

A month ago I announced the launch of the Human Sphere Wiki. In that time I've had a lot of helpful feedback, suggestions and some very kind comments from people who are using the new site.

I thought it would be interesting to take stock of the site a month on from its public release date, see how it is doing and talk about plans for the future.
Stats for the first calendar month of operation

Friday 5 May 2017

A Foray into DM-ing

Back in October I started playing Pathfinder again, taking part in a campaign called The Thin Man run by my friend Seb (of Miniature Strategy fame). It was sent on a fantasy version of Earth (Alterra) with a firm rooting in the 'real world' in terms of timelines, global events and geography. The campaign went swimmingly - featuring heroic battles, great sacrifices and a lot of childish giggling.

With that story now wound up, it raised the question of what we were going to play next. I'd been wanting to DM a full campaign for quite some time but never quite settled on a story that I felt able to tell nor had the experience to improvise. Apart from a handful of one shots a decade ago I'd always been a player, not a storyteller. No doubt many of my friends were already sick of me saying that I would run something 'soon' though.

I started to think over all the settings and stories that I'd like to have seen expanded and one jumped out at me - Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. I busily set to work converting the setting back into something compatible with Pathfinder.

A map of the Zone

Saturday 15 April 2017

Human Sphere - a new Infinity Wiki.

I've been a little quiet on my blog of late and that's because all my free time over the last few weeks has been sucked up by an exciting, new project.

I'd like to present to you the Human-Sphere.com Wiki.

Human-Sphere aims to create a full catalogue of all the miniatures produced by Corvus Belli for Infinity, including those that are limited edition, unreleased or just long out of production. Each page brings together a lot of information that was otherwise very distributed, including:
  • Fluff text
  • A full listing of miniatures for each troop.
  • Faction and unit logos
  • Concept art
In addition I've also tried to document other accessories that might be of interest, such as books, dice, ITS packs and patches. Collectively this weighs in at over 400 individual pages and 1,800 images so I'm sure there will be at least something of interest for all players.

Let's just say I've been busy...

Monday 3 April 2017

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.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

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?

Sunday 12 March 2017

Operation Cowboy Part 3

My current project has been converting the USAriadna motorbike troops into proper cavalry units and I'm pleased to say that I'm now finished!

It's been a bit of a slog getting here, but I'm really happy with the end result. My thanks go out once again to Philip Hynes for the sculpting, Hysterical Games for the casting and everyone else who gave me the courage to think that this wasn't a completely stupid idea!

Below are WIP as well as finished pics of all the models, as well as a little bonus surprise at the end.



Thursday 23 February 2017

Operation Cowboy Part 2

My horses have been sculpted and their being cast up as we speak so I'll hopefully have them in my grubby mitts within a couple of weeks!

Needless to say I'm pretty damned excited about them, so to tide me over whilst I wait for them to arrive I asked the sculptor to send me some more pics!



Wednesday 1 February 2017

Operation Cowboy

I find the motorbikes in USAriadna deeply disappointing. Not physically, but conceptually so.

They might be great miniatures and the bikes definitely fit the anime asthetic but they just don't gel with the riders for me. When I think American wilderness and frontier towns I don't think of bikers, I think of cowboys. Do cowboys ride bikes? Not a chance. Bikes run of petrol (or gas, in USAriadna), can't easily traverse difficult terrain and can break down. What you want is a horse.

I man come on, just look at the concept art. Sure, fluff-wise the Ariadnans probably wouldn't initially have had horses, but I'll be damned if that will stop me. Plus given all the other 'American' tropes they've tried to fit into I can bet they'd have imported some as soon as they had a chance!

Wide brimmed hat, poncho, holstered pistol. Check, check and check.

Sunday 29 January 2017

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.

Friday 20 January 2017

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.