Infinity Battle Report: Part 2

The dead don’t die. They look on and help.

A master class in how not to play Infinity: Operation Icestorm.

I debated with myself whether to post this video, but in the end decided that there were some relatively amusing moments and it was worth sharing. Not to mention that the EOG is a ravenous maw that requires endless feeding! But really, this is not how you play Infinity. Blinkered by our long experience with similar miniatures games, we didn’t get the hang of the unique way Infinity handles the concepts of action and reaction. So please, don’t come to this video for rules instruction – only idle amusement!

The question is – did we get it right in the third battle report? I’m not sure myself, as I haven’t viewed it yet. If it’s another rules debacle like this one, it will have to be bloody amusing for me to want to share it, that’s for sure!

Just to be clear, here’s how actions and reactions work in Infinity – and I still maintain this is terribly explained in the rulebook. When an active figure is assigned an order, it usually makes two short actions. After making its first action, any of the opponent’s figures that have an opportunity to react may declare an ARO (Automatic Reaction Order). Then the active figure declares its second short action. Any of the opponent’s figures that now have an opportunity to declare an ARO may then do so. Then all the dice rolls are made: if figures are reacting against each other (eg, the active figure is firing at an opponent’s figure that is making a reaction shot, or dodging) they make a face-to-face roll; if the action is uncontested (eg, the active figure is firing at an opponent’s figure that can’t see it) the active figure makes an uncontested roll. Face-to-face rolls are interesting in that both players roll dice and the reacting player has a chance to cancel out some of the active player’s rolls (or even roll better if he’s lucky); but with the weapons used in our game, an active player usually gets a burst of 3 dice, whereas a reaction shot or dodge is always just 1 die.

Get it? It’s a bit hard to get your head around at first, but it’s an ingenious system when you do. One day I may even film a battle report where we do!