06/05/2024

My first try at Infinity

 After quite some time and endless delays, I finally got to play Infinity! Wohoo!

We used the minis I painted for my friend, who generously offered to learn the rules -something I was terrified about!

I guess there's no point in making a full review of the game and the rules by now, but I'm happy to share a few brief impressions from a newcomer :)

First of all, we played the Code:One stuff, form the Operation Kaldstrom box. I had been told that the rules here were slightly lighter than previous versions of the game, so I came a little bit encouraged. We played the introductory game, just to get acquainted with the basic rules.

We used my old frosty mat instead of the one provided with the Kaldstrom box

The first introductory game uses three minis per side, and is just an easy going pew-pew thing to get familiar with how things work in here. So perfect for me!

There are some other three people out there somewhere...

The objective here is just to get the enemy killed and keep the own troops alive by the end of the third round. So my first endeavour was to get familiar with activations, how orders work, and specially reactions. This system is new to me, and I have to say I find it quite appealing, as it makes each round really cinematic, with tons of things happening at the same time, and forcing you to cautiously plan each movement you want to play, as an unadverted enemy can really turn the tables if they catch you on the open!

On my first round, my fusiliers simply moved forward, taking care of lines of sight

When I moved, an enemy Zanshi saw one of my troopers, and shot at her:

The enemy is that blurry thing on the corner of the building!

I chose to dodge the enemy fire and, being sucessful, managed to get cover next to the building.

The Zanshi moved to open ground...

...and got one of my fusiliers killed with a skillful shot!!

Well, that was an incredibly against the probabilities shot! Of course that put me in a tight situation, having lost a third of my force without having really made any shot against the enemy! However, a thing about this game is that you can never surrender and must really give a try to your options. 

The fusilier moved upstairs and killed the Zanshi as he tried to reach cover again

Once on the top of the floor he received enemy fire, but cover served him well

He shot back and killed the enemy Zanshi (behind that short wall in the background!!)

Getting the high ground doesn't really have an impact on the game, but in psychological terms I felt things were making much sense :P

It was the third (and last) round and the blurry Zanshi in the background shot the fusilier

With this sucessful kill, both sides had two casualties and one survivor

End of the game! Draw!

I could say it was a little bit dense for a simple tutorial game with just three minis per side, but it was just me getting used to reactions and modifiers. To be honest, once you are into the game, things so smoother.

 

Let's see a second game, this time with a command unit on each side. This time we'll see how Lieutenants work game wise.

Lateral view will provide a better and more neutral comprehension of what's happening

OK, let's go. We have three infantry troopers per side plus a Lieutenant each one. The Lieutenants have their own special orders, so they can essentially do more (and better) stuff than regular troopers.

Yu Jing troops move forward, no encounter during the first round

But oh, the Orc moves upstairs and things change in a second

We considered that there was line of fire, but the Orc Lieutenant is under cover, while the Zanshi and the Jujak Lieutenant below aren't. I'm not sure if we acted according to the rules, but we didn't find that specific situation (I take for granted it is in the rulebook, we simply weren't able to find it and decided to move on). For us it made sense that the one holding the upper floor had better view and cover, getting the poor guys on the ground pinned down.

The use of additional ordinary orders on the Orc Lieutenant ended in him killing the Jujak Lieutenant:

The poor guy hadn't even had the chance to do anything!

The Lieutenant shot the Zanshi on the ground, who reacted and shot back, inflicting one wound

The other Zanshi climbed up...

...and killed the enemy Lieutenant, who flipped over the wall to the ground (in the better 80's tv show style)

So this is the general situation now

A fusilier advances

And the Zanshi climbs up the wall to the upper floor. Surprise, húndàn!

Quite a symmetrical situation!

The Zanshi kills the Fusilier

And moves next to the wall

Where she gets killed by the Fusilier on the ground

This bold firefight ends without casualties

And again! A new draw!!

Both sides had a Lieutenant and a trooper down, and two surviving troopers at the end of the third round. As short as it was, it had been another intense battle!

At this point we discussed some stuff; for example, it looked like there was little incentive to expose self troops, or the benefits of dodging vs reacting opening fire. I guess these things don't unfold so well in such a limited scenario with just three of four models per side. Besides, these scenarios being just focused on killing each other are not as interesting as any other in which you have to get objectives and that kind of stuff.

So my very brief conclusions from a newbie to anyone who hasn't played Infinity yet: The game is cool. Even more; the game is awesome. It's really cinematic, you get to feel that there's a lot of stuff happening at the same time, which makes the rythm of the action quite quick. You are into an action movie. I wouldn't necessarily say a Michael Bay movie, but at least one in which you get the impression of things going on. I don't see this like a typical WH40K game of long-ranged weapons crossfire and little or no movement. Infinity is quite the opposite, enormously tactical, a game in which you have to seriously consider your movements and the line of sight, and where you don't get to roll hundreds of dice each turn.

The curve of learning can be harsh for a newcomer, but by no means it's a difficult game neither you should feel disencouraged for that perspective. The basics are easy to grasp, the more challenging maybe the mere concept that your opponent can actually do stuff (relevant stuff!) during your turn. I still haven't faced complex special rules nor exceptions, but I don't believe they can be a no-go at all.

Whenever I get a true game of this you'll be the first to know!

19 comments:

  1. Looking great! Have to try someday!

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    1. I have been terrified all my life of what I had heard about the game, and it's not that terrible at all! Give it a try!

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  2. Looks like you both had fun, which is always the main thing, and if you're planning to play more, I would say it's a win all round. Look forward to reading your thoughts as you progress through the rest of the rules.

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    1. That's the key, wanting to play again! I think there's room for quite movie-like scenarios, so I guess we'll have to investigate that!

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  3. Thanks for the good time, Suber! Next time, now that we understood the basic rules, I'll prepare to armies of the same points total and a scenario with objectives and interesting things to do.

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    1. Thank you! For sure we'll be able to think about some weird, stupid scenarios, that's where all the fun is! XD

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  4. Looks like you had a great time! Thanks for sharing it with us!

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    1. It was just the first contact with the game, and I was quite pleased, I'm recommending it to everyone out there!

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  5. It looks like a really cool game, with lots for each player to do. Definitely something I'd be interested in. Is there a downloadable starter version of the rules (they used to do a booklet, I think)?

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    1. Yes, there is! Have a look at it. Right from the Corvus Belli web:
      https://downloads.corvusbelli.com/codeone/rules/codeone-rules-en.pdf
      (Is there a way to simply put the hyperlink and not the whole address? Glups!)

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    2. Thanks! It looks incredibly complicated, but interesting.

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  6. There's an ongoing debate in Infinity about what sort of reaction pieces to leave out - from people who think it's best to leave nothing out, to those who put out multiple defensive pieces to try and lock down the opponent.
    In practice, it can depend a lot on the mission, the forces both sides are playing, and so on!

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    1. Hmm, interesting. Even if I haven't reached myself the point to have an opinion about that, I think I can see what you say. I'll have to experience the game to see what happens!

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  7. Splendid looking games which sounded like lots of fun, a great result!
    Best Iain caveadsum1471

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    1. It was funnier than I anticipated, I was terrified on the things I had read, but in the end all went much smoothier than I feared!

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  8. Good to see some other systems being played. And the minis look great as well.

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    1. It was a nice change! The warhammerer in me was a little bit dazzled at the beginning, but it was a cool experience!

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  9. I've always been a fan on Infinity minis ... and I must say the photos here look great ... creates an immersive factor for those us who are not physically there :)

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    1. The minis are top notch, really delightful, and I think it helps to create a certain atmosphere towards the game, I enjoy that a lot!

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