Infinity Spring Cleaning

Second to last mission in the core set of Defiance. I shan’t say too much in order to avoid spoilers. What I shall say is A) that it was an excellent mission that played and felt completely epic and B) that we got to do our best Arnold impressions with much “Get to the Stalkaaah!”

I continue to be impressed with what a great job CB did with this game. My only sadness is that I don’t think they’re going to do a second printing of it which would be a nice chance for others to get in on it and for them to clear up errata and typos.

Whew. I tried to keep it simple but it still took a bit. Overall I’m pleased with the outcome.
If I had to do it again I wouldn’t bother filling the gaps. It’s an angular model regardless and the fill actually contrasts more than I’d like.

So I got my first games of base Infinity in finally! And it’s as good as I had hoped it was!

We played the first 3 missions of the “Learn To Play” manual that came in operation Icestorm. “Why Icestorm” you ask? Why start with what is now effectively an old rule set? A few reasons: that box was my first Infinity purchase, those were the minis I had painted up ages ago (so everything was ready to go), that was the terrain I had handy… It wasn’t a carefully thought out thing to do but it was fun!

If I wasn’t hooked on all things already for the aesthetic I would now be hooked for the gameplay. I will say the complexity ramps up quickly—and we’re only three missions in so there are a lot of rules to go! boy am I excited to get stuck in to more of this.

My plan is a narrative campaign. I have the Campaign Paradiso book and my acquisition disorder has led me to collect enough minis to field pretty much any faction (though much painting must be done to achieve that goal) so I have what I need to play through that. I’ve heard that book wasn’t a huge hit with fans—or that it’s in need of significant revision—but I could have imagined that. Anyone have any experience with it—issues, thoughts, recommendations?

So I primed the Stalker and then I decided that there were some gaps (innate to trying to use flat MDF to make angled/curved panels—not complaining) that were a bit more striking than I liked.

So I broke out the Vallejo plastic putty and put that in the gaps between panels. In the past shrinkage was never an issue but  this was the first time I’ve used in gaps this big. Here there was definitely shrinkage, though not away from the walls, just a convex bit in the middle. So I put another coat on, let it dry overnight, and then primed the putty. Overall it looks pretty darn good and I’m excited to start slapping some paint on it to make it come alive.
Only time will tell whether it ever gets used in a game. I suppose it will, if only as terrain in a game of Infinity (which I have yet to play but hope to get to the table later today).

The DHL fairy turned up today with this beauty from Luxumbra. I took the afternoon off to put it together.

it’s a beauty of a kit if a bit lengthy to assemble. They did some really clever things and I’m excited to paint it up and to play with it.

One question for folks: do you seal your MDF before or after you assemble a kit?

I think I worked out the kinks/shortcomings in my understanding of how the game engine/rules work. I will say this could really use some quick reference cards for:

• the AI symbols and targeting priority in case of a tie
• round structure
• keywords
• Attack sequence/timing

Thankfully that’s something that others have taken a lead on and all I need to do is print off and tweak (maybe) some files from BGG and the Corvus Belli forum.

That completes the core set for Defiance—or maybe it’s the deluxe core set. You decide. Now to get playing until the expansions come in.
I hadn’t thought about the fact that painting this up would cause me to paint at least one of almost every faction and every faction once the expansions come and I get a Tohaa under my belt (I’m counting O-12 as being done as I used there color scheme for the containers). It’s a bit whacky to see all the hours and effort on one tray with room to spare.

So these two made clear to me that I have to do more work on my purple. I started with the color on the left and then added white to highlight but wasn’t that pleased so I tried highlighting with the second from the left and then adding Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone to the mix as a highlight and that worked better. In the end I figured out that a pale grey as a final highlight helped things along.
The final color is what I used for her arm hexes/hair with Sunny Skin again added for successive highlights.