From Zero to Infinity (N4)

MancInventor · Jan 28, 2023

Hey everyone. I dabbled with infinity N3 a while ago I played 3 games and I have to say I loved it. I painted up the Operation Ice-Storm starter set and then a Haqqislam army. Well, I say army, it wasn’t really a coherent force, more what I picked up off eBay. For my birthday I got the operation Wildfire box and glued together the Shasvasti. Last year I got myself a JSA boxed set and Operation Crimson Stone. Game count: still 3 games of ”starter set” scenarios.

I’m a big fan of Gorilla Miniatures Games, recently Ash & co have started a podcast called tactical awareness. One of the episodes discusses “your first tournament“ and encourages you to go even if you don’t think you’re ready. It kind of kicked me on an infinity drive, so I broke the cellophane off my crimson stone set and began painting with a view to go to a tournament in 6 months. I’m aiming for the Steel City Patriot Games satellite event in June. Now this is a 2 day, 6 game tournament in Sheffield and I am informed that although it’s as beginner friendly as any infinity event, satellite tournaments are pretty intense with more international competitors than normal.

with that in mind I thought I’d start a thread to chart my progress!

First thing I had to decide was which faction. Although I already had some Panoceania, Nomads, JSA and Haqqislam painted up and a Shasvastii Expeditionary force glued together, I decided to go with one of the new factions from Crimson Stone. I settled on Ariadna and Kosmoflot in particular. I really like the bearpode model and also love Equipe Mirage and a list that could have both those units was a big factor in my decision!

As I write, I have already painted 15 models. I’ll post further WiPs and battle reports, hoping to play at least 20 games before June which might be difficult with the limited number of players (infinity is turbo-niche In the UK).

So far then, things that I love:

The minis. They are gorgeous and there is something about metal minis that I just prefer, they feel less toy-ish if that makes sense.

Infinity Army app. Oh my god this app is awesome. All armies available, intuitive system and lets you know if your army is legal or not. All for free from Corvus Belli. I’ve sank hours into this thing having a play and making wish lists!

The Rules. Again, free pdf from Corvus Belli and a handy wiki full of links. The army app links to the wiki too. Don’t know what mimitism (-3) is? Click on the word and it will take you to the rule. Awesome. I also love that they’ve really trimmed down the N4 rules, there’s no rule stacking anymore, essentially this is where special rules have other specual rules baked in and sometimes those have more special rules baked in. It could get really confusing when you’re trying to work out what a skill does. The N4 rulebook is awesome too, clearly laid out with nice 3D examples.

Things that I don’t love:

Availability. Even the big boys like Wayland and Goblin don’t hold huge stocks of infinity minis. It means you’re likely going to have to wait to get your hands on a specific mini which is frustrating.

The minis. Lol. Love metal minis, HATE gluing them together!

The beginner’s learning curve. There is a huge amount to learn in infinity. I stand at the foot of the mountain wondering how I’m going to get to the tournament at the peak. Even CB acknowledge this and developed infinity Code One, which is essentially N4 lite. Restricted lists to stop you going down rabbit holes, more generic points totals to stop you agonising over troop choices and much fewer rules. CB and most normies recommend you start at code 1 and ”graduate” to N4. I’m going to skip this step, if I’m going to a tournamen, I need to be playing the rule set that will be in use there from the get-go.

Meet my Kosmoflot army so far:

Rokots and Volkolak

SAS, Uxia McNiel and Irmandinhos

Varangian Guard and Para-Commando

William Wallace and Spec Op

MancInventor
Jan 28, 2023
ariadna infinity kosmoflot william wallace

Bearpode

Punktaku · Jan 28, 2023

As much as I love the look of their minis, I have to ask how they scale with GW stuff. I still haven’t bought any because I think they look too slender, but it’s sometimes hard to tell.

I was under the impression that Urban Mammoth Sumotori and Hercules class Biomechs were large figures. They’re not….

MancInventor · Jan 28, 2023

Hi @Punktaku , they fit firmly between old GW 28mm and new GW 28mm. The key difference is that they are not heroic scale (or not as heroic as GW anyway) which means the hands, heads and weapons are more slender and to scale. There is variety in size within the range, and certainly some of the older models (pre Operation Wildfire) are smaller than the current range. I picked up an old Uxia McNiel model to be my second SAS trooper and she’s a full head shorter than the rest of the army. I don think infinity minis are good candidates to mix with GW just because of the proportions. They are also cleaner and more cyber-punk aesthetic than the gothic diesel punk look of 40K minis. It just means it’s down to personal taste really. The level of detail is on a par I think. These work really well with contrast paints for the most part.

here’s a size comparison for you:

Size comparison

Punktaku · Jan 28, 2023

He does make that old “normal” Orlock look beefy. He just looks scrawny compared to that new Goliath. Wow.

Edit: probably mix well with other lines, though.

MancInventor · Jan 29, 2023

Fun weekend with @Kixz. this weekend. We played through the Operation Crimson Stone mission packs to refresh on the basics before playing our first 200 point game. For both of us, this was our first ever game of N4!

Unfortunately I got too engrossed and forgot to take any pictures other than the opening set up:

Table layout

MancInventor
Jan 29, 2023

Overhead view

MancInventor
Jan 29, 2023

so pre-game stuff, @Kixz. kept the initiative so I chose deployment, using a command token to drop 2 regular orders from his pool. He’d set up a high risk-v-reward play that did not come off as Yojimbo charged into deploy smoke only to be obliterated by the volkolak in ARO which left his main force really exposed. By the end of his own first turn I had taken out 2 of his kiesotsus, his engineer, his lieutenant (which in infinity is very bad), his warcor and he’d left his Tanko’s huddled together virtually begging for a template. At this point I’d considered offering him a restart. Considered. In my first turn I crept up to a crate with my SAS forward observer, holding on to 2 VPs. I then obliged his begging tankos by dropping my paratrooper in behind them and dishing out two salvos from his boarding shotgun, although he died in the process. Finally Uxia sneaked around to grab a second crate and get into cover. It meant at the end of turn 1 I had 2 out of the 3 crates, Kixz was down to 3 fighters and was in loss of lieutenant. It was looking good for me, not so good for Kixz.

The 2nd turn didn’t start much better for Kixz. His paramedic finally managed to hit Yuriko Oda with a medikit, she unfortunately failed her ph test and died. The camo marker in the centre of the table revealed herself as Shinobu and grabbed the second crate then, despite a hail of return fire, the camo marker on the warehouse revealed himself as ryuken unit 9 and exploded my rokot lieutenant , simultaneously breaking my core fire team. Ouch. My second turn was nowhere near as prolific. The Ryuken with mimitism -6 and in cover was a huge headache. Ideally, I would have sent the bear over to climb up and chomp on him but as I was in loss of lieutenant and my bear was the other side of the board it made for a difficult turn where I achieved nothing other than Uxia placing a mine to defend her position.

The third turn was much more tense than I expected it would be at the end of the first turn. Shinobu made a break with her crate, but having scraped through a round of ARO shooting (also at -9 to hit), she charged up the adjacent building but unfortunately ran out of orders before she could get there. In my turn, I got my SAS forward observer to tag Kixz‘s HVT bagging my classified objective then scoot round and boarding shotgun Shinobu in the face, grabbing her crate leaving me with all 3 crates and my classified for a comfortable 11-0 victory.

Then we realised Shinobu can’t actually carry a crate because she’s not a specialist so I agreed to call it a 7-0 win instead, which Kixz felt was slightly more acceptable.

The game was such good fun, and we picked up a ton of learning points. Neither of us used a command token other than in the first turn (you get 4!), both of us left our lieutenants horribly exposed. If Kixz had of got his smoke off with Yojimbo, I didn’t really have an answer to it and it would have been a very different game. He also didn’t prep for that going wrong and paid the price for an overly aggressive deployment. My army couldn’t deal with mimitism or smoke. Kixz learned that his Ryuken and Shinobu are kick-ass but the rest of his army was taken out before they did anything, so more learning to be had there.

We both also started getting our heads round the rules a lot more. There are some slight differences between the code one campaign rules and full N4, particularly the units’ additional rules and the scenario rules. Really looking forward to playing and learning more.

Game count: 1. W1, D0, L0.

MancInventor · Feb 6, 2023

No playing this week but I did get a few more minis painted:

Controller, monstucker, Zenit 7

Cadin “First Stike” Donn, Kosmosoldat HMG

Scots Guard, HVT

The gang is coming together quite nicely, but that is me nearly all out of Ariadna figures to paint. I’ve just got a Scots Guard with missile launcher (nasty cammo ARO piece). I need one more HVT (think I might paint an Ariadna dragon lady!) and I’ve been tinkering with the infinity army app and there’s a few more I’d like to get. A warcor, an FTO 112 emergency medic and Knauf the mercenary sniper. I also have the kosmoflot booster pack on order with Margot and Duroc (equipe mirage 5). After that it’ll be traktor mules and finally the chernobog Tag. So that’s 22 down, 13 more to go. Not bad for a game you can have a max of 15 minis in you list lol.

Punktaku · Feb 6, 2023

Lots of abbreviations in there I don’t understand. But those are some nice models with some sweet paint jobs.

MancInventor · Feb 6, 2023

Punktaku said:
Lots of abbreviations in there I don’t understand. But those are some nice models with some sweet paint jobs.

Sorry!

Here we go then:
HMG - Heavy Machine Gun
ARO - Automatic Reaction Order (in infinity everyone is on overwatch automatically, that’s why the facing is so important, hence the base markings)
HVT - High Value Target. You get classified missions that often involve scouting or kidnapping your opponent’s HVT - also, they are non combatants so you/your opponent can’t use a weapon that can harm them (e.g. template weapons).
FTO - Fire Team Operative. There are a few versions of most units, the FTO version is normally the one that’s allowed to join a fire team. In the 112’s case, the other version rides a motorbike.

MancInventor · Mar 15, 2023

So this is going well lol. No more games in but I have painted 3 more Kosmoflot

3 More kosmoflot

Scots Guard with Missile Launcher, the unknown ranger with spitfire and McMurrough (aka McMurder).

I’ve got the Unknown Ranger because he is a top quality gunfighter with a visor that makes it easier to hit targets with mimitism and allows him to shoot through smoke, of which the ‘flot has access to plenty of. He also has tac aware which means he generates a free order for his fire team. I’m planning on running him with the varangians in the gunfighter role, with their double-tapping chain rifles and his spitfire there’s no good reaction to them hitting you.

scots guard has cammo and surprise attack (-3) which means he deploys as a marker and when he reveals himself to be a missile launching berserker the target will have a -3 to their reaction roll which is kind of cool. Just makes me think of team America “surprise c*** face!” just before eating missile lol. It’s a lot of points though, so probably won’t bring him every game - just enough to make peeps think he might be there. Love infinity mind games lol.

McMurrough - what’s not to like about a chainrifle and claymore wielding werewolf? Love this mini with the added bonus that he’s a merc so I will be able to use him in other armies.

The army is looking good so far. Got a few more minis to add then I’m going to call them done. Might add some traktor mules and a chernobog in future as I love the models, but that’ll be post tournament.

in other news I’ll be running my own mini tournament in May with @Kixz. , @Resmire and @Edelweiss . Corvus Belli do these cool tournament packs that come with a host of scenarios and additional rules, a load of prizes and a code to register the tournament on their tournament manager which means that we play for world ranking points which is kind of cool. You also submit your army lists to allow them to monitor the meta. Unlike GW Corvus Belli has a kind of eclectic release schedule. That’s because they make it clear in the rules they are proxy friendly - if they see units in lists getting used a lot that there’s no/old minis for they release a new one. If there are units that aren’t getting used they look at the rules and profiles and tweak them. And because the rules are online based and the army lists are through their incredible army app - it costs you nothing when they do this, your rules just update!

I’ve got to say, I’m loving infinity and getting in to the background. I’ve watched a ton of YouTubes and I’m really looking forward to our little practice event in May, hopefully I will get a few games in before that.……

MancInventor · Mar 28, 2023

3 more Kosmoflot:

Volkolak, Kosmosoldat & HVT

Volkolak with missile launcher, he’s going to be a nasty ARO piece, with +3 BS and +1 burst on the missile launcher means he’ll be hitting targets in the open outside of 16” on 19s with exp ammo. The Kosmosoldat is packing a portable autocannon, he’s a potential Lt option for a kill list and I did a secondary HVT (High Value Target) as some of the ITS missions need you to have 2.

Next on the paint table I have Margot and Duroc (aka Equipe Mirage 5) who in all honesty are a big part of the reason I ran with Ariadna from the crimson stone box. Basically, red riding hood and the big bad wolf. That’s if red riding hood carried an automatic rifle with underslung grenade launcher and the big bad wolf parachuted down to granny’s cottage with a couple of massive chain rifles! Looking forward to painting them.

I also have a para-commando with spitfire that I’ll probably never use but I’ll paint it anyway.

I have on order from Wayland a warcor and Major Lunah and thanks to @Kixz. I also have a Bashi-Bazouk to by my ITS Corsair. With those 6 models I think I’ll call the army complete and start looking at the Nomads of Corregidor which is the other half of the crimson stone box.

Hoping to get a few games in before May’s mini tournament.

Biggle_Bear · Mar 28, 2023

These sculpts and paint jobs look really good. How much do these minis set one back?

I haven't seen much of the gaming system, but you sound so enthusiastic that I feel like investigating.

MancInventor · Mar 29, 2023

Here’s the thing. You can totally do infinity on a budget. You can. But nobody does lol. In theory you only need a maximum of 15 models in an army, the models average out at around £8 each. they’ve started doing action packs of 9 models for around £65 depending where you get them from, the 2 player starter box has 2 seven model starter armies and some excellent terrain, all the tokens and dice you need to play on really good quality card stock for £84 from goblin. The value it not as good as it used to because the vast majority of the minis are metal and the prices have gone up material cost has skyrocketed.

MancInventor · Mar 29, 2023

Equipe Mirage 5:

Equipe Mirage 5

So this is Margot and Duroc, AKA Equipe Mirage 5. They’re a hefty chunk of points at 66 but these guys have the parachutist (deployment zone) skill which means the opponent (who will probably have guessed you have them in your list because a 5th of your army isn’t on the table!) has to deal with Durock and his chainrifles and CC abilities and Margot with her grenade launcher appearing in their deployment zone at some point!

I love these minis, they are amongst the most characterful in the game in my opinion and if they were not part of the Kosmoflot faction, I would be presenting you with images of painted nomads at this point lol.

I’m still waiting on my Warcor and Major Lunah to arrive, I’ve got Knauf (legendary sniper with burst 3 sniper rifle and a visor that sees through smoke and ignores 3 points of mimitism) and a spitfire armed para commando on the paint table.

I can use a lot of this in a vanilla Ariadna list, and I’ve got a couple of pretty nasty Ariadna midfielders to paint up to go towards that so I might paint them up if the other minis don’t arrive soon.

Punktaku · Mar 30, 2023

So is the basic premise that small elite forces fight it out instead of massed armies? Isn’t this all televised for the viewing pleasure of a global audience? Or am I thinking of a different system…?

MancInventor · Mar 30, 2023

Punktaku said:
So is the basic premise that small elite forces fight it out instead of massed armies? Isn’t this all televised for the viewing pleasure of a global audience? Or am I thinking of a different system…?

Not quite, I’m not sure what system that is lol.

There are televised arena battles as part of the entertainment network and that is Aristea! An infinity spin-off side game.

I will try to explain briefly without going on a mega info dump:

The world as we know it changes with the emergence of two hyperpowers, Panoceania based kind of around Australia and and a few other countries and the YuJing based around China. These mega corporations become so powerful they effectively replace government and there’s a space & technology race between them. PanOceania is the top of the tree, they created the Aleph which is an AI that leads humanity out of servitude into a bright future - ie poverty is non existent and people don’t need to work anymore. As the race to colonise nearby space continues, there’s a conglomerate of American, European and Russian Cosmonauts that set out on their own mission on board the USSS Ariadna which gets lost in a wormhole and then lands on a planet full of antipodes (werewolves like creatures) and fighting bears - this is Ariadna, the faction I collect. Their technology is nowhere near as advanced as the other races but the antipode wars have made their guerrilla tactics strong and their fighters tougher than the ones gone soft after centuries of luxury under the superpowers and Alephs influence.

Nomads essentially bought out of the crap that Yu Jing And and PanO was selling and set up their on their own in gigantic spaceships and have nothing to do with the Aleph. They are now mainly mercenaries and black market traders. Haqqislam - or New Islam are a religious sect founded in science and developed some of the best doctors in the human sphere. They discover ‘silk’ the element required to make cubes which basically make immortality possible. The use of these cubes means they have been able to bring significant historical people of the past back to life such a as Joan of Arc for PanO, SunTzu for Yu Jing and William Wallace for Ariadna. The battle for immortality and who is eligible is a fierce one as you could probably imagine! Aleph as the AI administering the Human Sphere are a faction in their own right, having looked at how to ‘solve’ humanity developed their own Guerrilla forces naming their units after famous warriors from Greek mythology such as hector, Achilles and Pandora. Alongside all of this are the Non aligned armies or NA2 which are mercenaries from different planets and groups such as the JSA - Japanese Secsessionist Army who broke away from Yu Jing in a bid to preserve Japanese culture and formed their own splinter group. There are legendary fighters amongst them such as Knauf the sniper I mentioned in a previous post who also appears in the outrage graphic novel.

The whole thing is balanced and at peace on the surface but in reality these factions launch small elite clandestine military actions against each other all the time. These conflicts are propagandised and/or covered up by the media outlets under the control of the Aleph. This is essentially the human sphere. O12 is a conglomorate of all factions and act as a kind of police force that ensure stability in the human sphere and on the outside there is an invading force of aliens called the combined army. They operate under the control of the evolved intelligence - think of that as a kind of biological AI. They aim to consume the human sphere. All the factions now have one eye on the EI and one eye on each other.

That in a nutshell is infinity. Small elite guerilla fighters from galaxy spanning Hyperpower corporations hitting strategic targets to improve their own influence, to gain control of the resources required to make cubes and become immortal on one hand, on the other fighting off the insidious evolved intelligence for the survival of humanity.

Hope that whets your appetite!

Tiktaalik · Apr 8, 2023

Excellent painting and summary of the fluff. It seems almost like the jumping off point for the Dark Age of Technology…

If the scales and proportions didn’t clash in the ways they do I would have already scooped up a few infinity figures for myself.

MancInventor · Apr 24, 2023

Another game played, this time took on superiorityfrom the direct action section of the ITS Season 14 rule pack. This was the table layout:

Game 2

MancInventor
Apr 24, 2023

essentially the mission is to dominate the area between the deployment zones (split into quadrants) and hack into 3 of the 4 consoles.

@Kixz. was using my nomads which he wasn’t entirely familiar with to be fair and we kept it to a 200 point single combat group game.

It was a lot of good fun ending in a 10-1 victory for me. Highlights were my Kosmosoldat hitting the Vostok remote in the first turn with a crit and a hit, explosive rounds meaning 9 saving throws were required, I lost my unknown ranger by completely misinterpreting the smoke rules and my SAS taking 3 rounds of combat to finally put down the warcor (essentially a news reporter). Also my irmandinhos waltzing past consoles because I forgot they were engineers and could have hacked them earlier than I did. The game was a lot closer than the score line suggests.

here was my 200 point army:

Kosmo team

MancInventor
Apr 24, 2023

apartfrom that I’ve been getting ready for the mini tournament in May in Manchester by 3D printing and painting some objectives:

Antennae and tech coffin

MancInventor
Apr 24, 2023

Consoles

MancInventor
Apr 24, 2023

hopefully get a game in before that but if not, I’ll have a whole lot to tell you about afterwards!

Thanks for reading.

Tiktaalik · Apr 25, 2023

Looking good… I’d be grateful if you described something about the larger, bear/wolf figures. How many pieces? Are heads attached to the torsoes? Ease of assembly? Have you done any of the other “big robot” type models for infinity?

MancInventor · Apr 26, 2023

Tiktaalik said:
Looking good… I’d be grateful if you described something about the larger, bear/wolf figures. How many pieces? Are heads attached to the torsoes? Ease of assembly? Have you done any of the other “big robot” type models for infinity?

Of the 3 big guys, only Duroc was metal, the bear and McMurrough are in CB’s new plastic. Probably 6 or 7 pieces - legs, torso, head, left arm, right arm, backpack & tail - I don’t really recall. For me the metal mini went together easier, the plastics needed a bit of manipulation in places - the bear’s chest plate was a nightmare for that, it almost needed bending round and holding in place extremely tightly to allow the glue to dry.

I have glued 2 of the TAGs together so far, they are beautiful minis in general. One is the JSA O-Yoroi and the other is the Shasvastii Sphinx. These tend to follow the CB pattern - the older minis are less detailed with lots of unnecessary fiddly bits while the newer ones are really well designed and fit so snugly together they don’t need pins.

Hope this helps.

Punktaku · Apr 26, 2023

How do the CB plastics compare to GW plastics?

From Zero to Infinity (N4)

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