Ideally you would want a veteran to explain the rules to you and help you through your first few games of Infinity, but not everyone has that opportunity. The sad fact is that Infinity is still a smaller (but vibrant) community and there’s a decent chance that outside of you and your mates no one in your area is around to teach you how to play. I just finished my first game of Infinity “in a vacuum” and it went surprisingly well! I’m going to take you through a quick battle report and include some tips to help your first game of Infinity go smoother too.

The Setup

The Players: Tohaa versus Corregidor
Point value: One Hundred-Fifty Points, Three SW Points
Mission: Annihilation
Turns: Five

Casey’s Tip #1: Give yourself two-three objectives to fight/hack/retrieve.

Annihilation was perhaps the easiest game we could play but it was the wrong way to go. Without objectives to play for the game quickly necked down to just a small area of the board. We didn’t have much motivation to spread ourselves out. We also ignored specialist for the most part. The game we played was fun, but objectives would have made it more varied and required us to plan more. If you aren’t feeling creative try using a pared down version of one of the ITS missions which can be found here.

The Lists

TOHAA

GROUP 1 (Regular: 6/Irregular: 0):

CLIPSOS Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (24)
ECTROS HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 53)
KAMAEL Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 19)
KAMAEL Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (12)
KAMAEL Paramedic (Medikit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (16)
SAKIEL Viral Combi Rifle, Swarm Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (26)

3 SWC | 150 Points

ARMY CODE:
eNqzMFRVNTQ1UDVWNVczVDOsMVUzApKGUNICTAJlaozUTNQMVctMAPI4Clk=
JURISDICTIONAL COMMAND OF CORREGIDOR

GROUP 1 (Regular: 2/Irregular: 0):

WILDCAT Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (19)
WILDCAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (19)
WILDCAT Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (19)
INTRUDER HMG, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 44)
HELLCAT Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (28)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 15)

2.5 SWC | 144 Points

ARMY CODE:

eNozNVJVNTQxUTXSM1U1MlKzUDOsAVKGCMpEDUjXGKuZA0lDNWM1Q9UyEwAjUQtN

Casey’s Tip #2: Keep the game small.

Keeping our forces to 150 points was a good call. Infinity plays very differently from games like Warhammer 40K or Warmachine and too many points on the board would have been overwhelming. Keeping our lists limited to just the starter boxes might have excluded a lot of interesting stuff, but it made keeping track of things much simpler.

Deployment/First Turn

I won the roll off and elected to go first. Austin decided he would deploy second to mitigate my first turn. I deployed the Ectros on a roof top to let him get the best use of his HMG and hopefully avoid any nasty flame throwers. My Lt, the Spitfire, and the Sakiel all deployed as a link team out in the open. Meanwhile my lone paramedic took up a flank all by himself. At least that’s what I would have my opponent believe! I had secretly placed my Clipsos infiltrator with TO camo nearby, waiting for an unlucky model to fall into my trap.

Austin for his part held his Hellcat in reserve waiting to combat drop her onto the board while his forces spread out. The Intruder with the HMG set himself up on my right flank with good line of sight to cover his troops advance.

Both of our first turns were spent running models into cover and getting our selves set up. I thought I had Austin pinned into a corner, however his Intruder was able to fire from camo with his HMG and managed to kill my paramedic. First blood for Austin!

Casey’s Tip #3: Cut templates and tokens the night before.

Infinity uses a lot (A LOT) of status tokens and templates. These can all be found online for free but you need to cut them out yourself. Procrastinating till game time to have your mate help you cut them out might seem like a good idea, but it sucks up tons of time. Take a few minutes the night (or nights) before and cut them out. If you’re using a pair of scissors this can take quite a while.

Bonus Tip: Try using a one inch circle cutter that you can find in most craft stores to save yourself a lot of time and hand cramps.

Turn Two

Without bait for my Calipsos I figured it was time to get her into the action. I put a token on the board and moved her around to try and flank an unsuspecting Alguacil. It was successful, but after knocking over his mini Austin realized he had an ARO on my Calipsos from his Intruder. I had TO camo and was a ways away so I said sure, go ahead and take the shot he had forgotten to call! He passed every check and killed my Clipsos. *Facepalm*

In his turn Austin smelling blood pressed his Intruder and Wildcats forward while simultaneously dropping his Hellcat in behind me. Lucky for me I had a HMG of mine not far away…

Casey’s Tip #4: Gather terrain in advance.

You’ve heard it before; Infinity uses a ton of terrain. Chances are you won’t have as much terrain as you need on hand. It’s also possible the terrain you have isn’t suitable. The easiest/best way to go is to grab a bunch of boxes and things around the house to use. It’s fast and free. But you also need the right type and size of terrain. Take a bit of time to gather six to nine shoe box sized pieces, two to three slightly smaller pieces, and five to six pieces that will only partially obscure a miniature hiding behind it. That’s a minimum of thirteen pieces of terrain you’re going to need. It’s better to carefully select what you’re using and have it standing by ready to go instead of rushing around while your mates are cutting templates out.

Turn Three

First things first, that Hellcat needs to die. My Ectros dropped off the roof and unloaded his HMG into the Hellcat before she could even turn around. Ducking in and out of terrain the Ectros moved over to get a shot off at the Intruder. But this time I was going to be smart about it. I used a coordinated order for the Ectros AND the link team. The Sakiel poked his viral rifle around the corner while the Ectros dove out from cover firing his HMG at the same time. The results were spectacular and the Intruder went down in a hail of gun fire! With my final order the Ectros sent one last burst at a Wildcat and amazingly enough he connected!

At this point Austin was down to just a pair of Wildcats. Seeing how well my coordinated order went he decided to try one himself. Using a coordinated order the two Wildcats simultaneously came around the corner at my Kamael. Unfortunately this Kamael had a Spitfire and snap fired at both wild cats. One shot went wild while the second caught its target square in the chest killing him. The Wildcats were so surprised at the burst of fire that their shots went wild and the Kamael ducked back around the corner uninjured.

Wildcats are good, in fact they are very good, but they aren’t THAT good, so Austin called the game at the end of turn three with only one model left on the board.

Casey’s Tip #5: Talk the game out.

There are a lot of secrets you get to keep from your opponent but your first game shouldn’t be this way. It’s a learning process and not helping each other only slows this process down. Before we ever looked at a list or rolled a dice we agreed that egos were checked at the door. Who was our Lieutenant? What were we keeping in reserve? What tactics and unique rules did we plan to use? By talking out the game and explaining what we were trying to do we both were able to help each other and answer questions. Had we played competitively there would have been a lot of looking things up and slowing the game down. It also helped us from feeling cheated or sucker-punched when we talked out what was happening and why.

The Final Analysis

My first game was a win! Taking the loss like a man, Austin vowed to get revenge next time. Using only the online resources available we were able to put together a game that was fast, fun, and fair. Trying to play a new game in a vacuum can be a bit tough. But with a bit of reading and youtube watching it’s entirely possible. Beyond reading the rules and watching the intro videos I recommend Beast of War’s videos on setting up a table, and how to deploy your troops; both were immensely helpful. Also if you are new to Infinity here are a couple of tips I recommend you follow for your first game:

1. Give yourself two-three objectives to fight/hack/retrieve.
2. Keep the game small.
3. Cut templates and tokens the night before.
4. Gather terrain in advance.
5. Talk the game out.

Now these are tips from a beginner to beginners. I’m curious if any of our Infinity veterans have any tips on how to make a beginners game go easier if they don’t have other veterans to show them the ropes?

Casey Roberts

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