Infinity Session Report

The Guilang sat perfectly still, his combi rifle trained on the small group of soldiers advancing towards his position. He wasn't worried. The camouflage he had prepared earlier rendered him all but invisible to the naked eye and there was a mine planted in his blindspot. Just to be safe.

For two days the Guilang had tracked the Pan Oceanian troops as they made their way through the wilderness of Svalarheima. It had taken some time to get reinforcements to this sector but now there was a squad further to the south and the Empire had even promised jump troop support in the form of the feared Tiger Soldiers.

The four enemy soldiers were coming closer now, almost there... "Four?! Shiòng mâo niao! Where's the sniper?". The Guilang rolled back into cover and made his way around the other side of the small building while he called in the updated situation to the Celestial Guard team leader. As he stuck his head around the corner he saw the sniper who had taken up position in a rocky area to the north east. There was a sudden roar coming from above, the unmistakable sound of a dropship on approach...

So, a few days ago I played my second game of Infinity. While we're still very much in the inital trying-things-out phase I was feeling a bit more adventurous, so I wanted to try out some of the more interesting stuff like camo, infiltration, smoke and AD troops. I was playing against Alex and his PanO Military Orders and we had decided to do proper 150 point armies, so here's what I came up with:


 YU JING

  CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (13)
 
  CELESTIAL GUARD  Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife (13 | 0.5)

  KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife (5)
 
  2x ZANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (11)
 
  TIGER SOLDIER HMG / Pistol, Knife (35 | 1.5)
 
  DOMARU Boarding Shotgun, E/M Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW (36)

  GŬILÁNG  Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (26 | 0.5)

Besides wanting to try out some new stuff my plan was to use the Guilang who both has Infiltration and Camouflage as an advance detterant. Basically he'd spit out a few mines in strategic positions and use his camouflage to make life difficult for Alex. Hopefully forcing him to funnel his forces into the other half of the table where I was planning to land the heavy machine gun equipped Tiger Soldier. At the same time the Domaru and the (impetuous) Kuang Shi would advance backed up by the Celestial Guard with the smoke grenade launcher while the other light infantry provided fire support.

This plan worked, in a way of speaking, but it was mostly due to us both being new at the game in general, and this being the first game ever for Alex in particular. Also, none of us had really appreciated the damage a HMG in the right hands can do...

Setup. Actually just at the start of my first turn as my Tiger has landed...

Alex had decided to choose table edge and deploy his units last while I got to choose who took the first turn. Not being used to how Infinity works the PanO were mostly out in the open at the start of the game. Sure I couldn't see any of them from my deployment zone (terrain extravaganza!) but I had a Tiger Soldier incoming!

So the first thing that happened was that I dropped the him and he took up a firing position where he could see most of the enemy squad. A couple of bursts later and the Knight Santiago (and almost a third of Alex's entire army) was lying dead and the Tiger Soldier set up a deadly suppression fire corridor, halting the PanO advance. The Domaru and Kuang Shi advanced on the right flank while the Guilang made his way towards the enemy sniper further north west.

Boom!

In his turn Alex avoided the HMG fire by going through some nearby trees and the sniper took aim at my Domaru that was juuust visible to him. Luckily for me she managed to dodge and went prone behind a stone wall.

At the start of the second turn the Celestial Guard fired some smoke, obscuring the the view and letting the Domaru advance unmolested by sniper fire. The Guilang peaked his head around the corner and fired off a burst against the sniper. As he was camouflaged this was a normal roll and not a face to face roll, but even so he couldn't get a clean shot in. A short firefight ensued, but the Guilang was victorious in the end. He advanced further around the building, trying to outflank the rest of the PanO soldiers to the west.

The Tiger Soldier didn't have a clear line of fire anymore so I decided to pull him back a bit, putting him in the doorway of a nearby factory building.

One of the PanO Order Sergeants put up some suppresion fire towards the corner where the Guilang might emerge, covering his brethren as they advanced towards the Tiger Soldier and the Domaru. A few shots were exchanged, but to no effect.

The Guilang re-applied his camouflage and made a dash across the suppression fire corridor into cover on the other side. Thanks to his camouflage the only reaction the order sergeant could take was Discover, letting him avoid the hail of fire. He was discovered (loosing his camo status) but by then he was in cover on the other side and could pop up to put fire on the order sergeant. This resulted in another dead PanO soldier.

There were a few more exchanges of fire, but with only two models left we decided to end the game.

My Domary and Kuang Shi up ahead at the end of the game, supported by a Zhanshi and a Celestial Guard. The two camo markers that can be seen are mines left by the Guilang.

Now, this might sound a bit one-sided, and it was. I think there were two reasons for this: 1. this was Alex's very first game and although I'd only tried it once before that small experience gave me a bit of a head start. 2. even though 150 points makes for a fairly small game, even at this scale only having five models is cutting it close, some more support to get your big tough heavy infantry into place would have been good.

But in any case, this really cemented my faith in Infinity. The system is very smooth and even though it might seem complex when reading it, it actually often plays much faster than similar skirmish games like Necromunda. The order system is absolutely awesome and really allows you to do that cool action movie-esque stuff that you rarely see in other wargames. I'll make a more indepth analysis/review of Infinity in a few days, so keep your eyes peeled.

Oh, and painting these figures is a blast! I mean, I've always enjoyed painting but it can at times be a bit of a chore and it's rare that I feel this level of enthusiasm when painting. It might sound silly, but I really can't wait to get home after work because then I can start on the next figure! Hehe!