Hello Mr. Yakamoto and welcome back to the GAP!
Wrapping up this short series on how to get the rules for Infinity: Operation Icestorm pretty well wrong.
These three Infinity: Operation Icestorm have been an education for me – an education in how not to make battle reports for a new game. You see, since the boxed set is supposedly an introductory series of games for beginners, I thought I’d go into the game completely cold and learn as we filmed. Big mistake citizen!
We would have all been far better served if I’d first watched a tutorial video such as this one from Beasts of War. Because, frankly, the rules in the Icestorm box are confusing, and the full downloadable rules aren’t much better. And from the feedback I’ve been getting, a lot of other people agree.
However, once you get past hammering the basic concepts into your head, Infinity is definitely an excellent, fast-paced and fun game. Despite the fact that we got the action-reaction system wrong in all of our three games and were frustrated by the poor rules writing – we were starting to get the hang of it by this third game, but we’re still making some fundamental errors – we had a lot of fun, and I hope that comes through in these videos.
But next time we film an Infinity battle report, we’ll get it right!
Hmm… Was the mistake in that episode posting the part 2 video instead of part 3?
If it makes you feel any better, I have my first Warmachine game on Tuesday and have much experience with getting rules wrong… however, I don’t post video evidence for all the world to see!
Whoops, sorry about that – fixed.
I have no shame anymore when it comes to gaming. 🙂
“frankly, the rules in the Icestorm box are confusing, and the full downloadable rules aren’t much better.”
Oh dear. In that case, I’ll wait for the inevitable EoG Rules Summary. It’ll be so much better than the original rules set.
Having said that (and much as I love the Infinity minis) I don’t think I’ll get into Infinity. No time, no money. I’ll play vicariously via the EoG Battle Reports 😀
Plus, I already have Dust Tactics, Deadzone, MERCS, Nemesis (that’s a long story) and Wrath of Kings… oy. 99% of them aren’t even painted yet! So… moratorium on new miniatures skirmish games until I get them all painted up and my terrain pieces made.
If I do a rules summary, it would only be for the basic rules. There’s just way too much detail in the full rules. But perhaps I can summarise the basic mechanics a lot better.
I think I’ll just be sticking with the basic set and a few extra figures for a while at this stage.
Wow. There’s more to the rules than what’s available online?
I think there’s too many new skirmish level games out there, and too many different game mechanics. It’s probably best if I stick to what I have… for now.
(Of course, there’s nothing to stop me from proxying the minis for Infinity in the future… it looks like the MERCS minis are the closest in terms of looks, even though they don’t have the dash of the actual Infinity minis… but that’s for the future.)
I mean the downloadable free rules as opposed to the Icestorm set rules. The former is 258 pages! Yep, you could certainly proxy and enjoy the game system, which is very interactive.
Another entertaining report. Those dice are so cruel and fickle when it comes to armour saves.
Are you and Will playing through the remaining missions ?
CK Lai – don’t forget to download an army list or two as well as the rules themselves.
And some of the marker templates too.
We’ll probably play it again when Will returns in October.
@ Razide: I’ve already done so and glanced at them. That’s why I’m waiting for EOG’s summary and my MERCS minis 😀
Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! Thank you for the batrep. The confusion you had with the system is what turns me off about the game. That and the complexity of the models… They look amazing, but some of them, like the Aleph robots, have fiddly bits that I know would drive me nuts when assembling. IMHO, Infinity is more like a mix of an RPG and TTWG and tries to create some verisimilitude of a real futuristic gunfight… But a little too much (you haven’t even got into hacking and medics and remotes yet). It looks fun, but I haven’t the patience for it.
Are you going to get Privateers new boardgame, The Undercity for an unboxing? Just wondering…
As usual, love the view and your place… Those sweaters… Strange to see that in August! I’m in Canada currently in a heatwave! 🙂
I think once you understand the action/reaction system and the timing, it would be all plain sailing from then on (though a lot of complexity is added with weaponry and equipment). The miniatures are fiddly, but well made, so I didn’t have to pin anything. The game is probably for more ‘serious’, hobbyist tabletop gamers though.
I must admit The Undercity doesn’t really ring any bells for me, at this stage it just seems like yet another dungeoncrawler, and I definitely don’t need another one.
As for the view, wait until you see the place we’re moving to next week! Yep, our fourth move in three and a bit years… if the weather’s good for Will’s next visit we’re going to try something a little bit different location-wise…
Mike Derspieler, yes some of the early models were not fun at all to assemble.
The later models have been designed with better attachment points and lugs an generally easier to put together but some still have fine or slender components. Sometimes I wish CB would use plastic instead of metal.
Undercity looked interesting until I saw the price in Australia – $150+. Granted you get a lot of figures but …….
Ouch! Pricey.
Game does look interesting and although you said the rules were confusing, it wasn’t that which put me off, it was the Infinity downloads page. So much stuff there and it looks (skimmed obviously, not read it all), complex enough to produce an epic headache.
And comments about the miniatures being tricky to build (Warmachine has given me enough grief on that one) is enough to make me walk slowly away from the purchase.
Miniatures look good though. Love that ‘machine gun girl’ in the picture below who seems to so nonchalantly be checking her nail varnish isn’t chipped…