June Releases for Infinity!

As you might have noticed the official Infinity site is/was down and by now you all know what that means, the new releases have been announced! Actually they were announced on Facebook first which is par for the course now so remember to like Corvus Belli there if you want the news as soon as possible. This months releases are especially interesting as they contain a lot of stuff that we don't really know anything about; stuff that we will see in the upcoming scenario/campaign book. Speaking of which, we've still not had any word on when we can expect to see it released. Sure, it can't be long now with all these fancy new models hitting the streets but still... even a rough release window would be welcome.

Anyway, let's have a look at the miniatures...

Let's dive in at the deep end and have a look at the completely new Cadmus-Naish Sheeskiin for the Combined Army. It's a really cool looking model, obviously a female Cadmus of some kind. She's got a neat glaive style close combat weapon and a nanopulser and she has a quite impossing "I dare you" kind of pose going on. The skirt looking thing attached to her butt looks a bit weird simply because it's attached to her butt. I think it would feel more natural if it was part of some coat she was wearing. She's quite a looker as well which actually bothers me. The Shaasvasti generally look like sinister, nasty bug aliens with almost no human features, yet this alien babe could probably make good money in a Las Vegas strip club. Weird! I can buy that the Zerat is a bit more human looking seeing as the Morat are ape-ish in appearance in general, and the Speculo works as well because she has her Impersonation going on. Hopefully her fluff will explain it in someway. As for rules we don't know much except her armament and that she has a Nanoscreen (which is cool!).

EDIT: Just minutes after posting this it occured to me that she's a Cadmus and naturally has the Striga skill. So the reason she's looking human is because she's just morpho-scanned some poor sucker. Blork!


Next up is another newbie: a Nomad Riot Grrl! The unit got a bit of a teaser in CB's recent patch vote/contest where the unit's name popped up. I can't make up my mind about this miniature. Parts of it I love parts of it I... don't love as much. The hard armour parts are great looking and the open helmet is awesome! It kind of looks like she's simply opened her visor. The bionic eye effect that Angel has given her is spot on as well. I'm not so sure abou the body glove she's wearing though. First off it feels weird having all this hard armour everywhere except where it's most important - the torso! There is also the sculpted nipples that just look silly and, even worse, the white little "landing strip" at her crotch. Hmm. Still I like the model overall and I think it has a lot of things going for it (and the Nomad Spitfire helps)! What I'd really like to see is some more Riot Grrls before I pass my judgement on them as a whole. While we don't know the rules for her yet, just having another heavy infantry added to your Nomad forces is enough to get excited about! This actually doubles their available HI's. Haha!

Alright, by now you're proper excited about the new stuff and thoughts are spinning around in your head about their prospective stats and everythings. So let's dial it down a notch and have a look at a good old Ariadnan Métros. We saw the Merovingian starter released a few months ago (which tempted me sorely!) and the Métros are the backbone of that sectorial army. Here we have the HMG toting version in all its brooding glory! The Métros are probably my favourite line infantry as they have so much character in their sculpts and this guy adds even more. The hood is an inspired choice as it's evoactive and menacing at the same time. This model has certainly pushed me a little closer to getting a Merovingian sectorial force. In game he's just a regular line infantry guy, so nothing to write home about really. I probably wouldn't take him in a regular Ariadna force (although he is cheap!) but as part of a link team it's another matter entirely!

Ready for a bit of new stuff again? Ok, this one is only half new so you can stop tensing up. It's a Haqqislam Hassassin Muyib armed with a... Heavy Rocket Launcher! The Muyib are some of my favourite Haqqislam models, I think it's something about their insect looking helmets that does it for me. This guy comes in a nice natural looking pose, not too static (which we've seen a lot of for Haqqislam recently) which is good. I quite like the new rocket launcher, it's a little bit busy but looks intimidating enough. Rumours say that it comes with Fire ammunition which just sounds plain nasty! I thought I'd compare it to the regular Haqqislam Missile Launcher until I realized there isn't a model for it yet. There are only two troop types who can take Missile Launchers and they're both cheap line infantry so perhaps this is a way of remedying that. I'm interested to see how the Rocket Launcher will be different from the Missile Launcher...

Last but certainly not least we have the new and improved Shaolin Monks for Yu Jing! Wooo! These have been rumoured for a while now and I've been holding off on getting any of the old monks even though I was anxious to try them out in game. While the old sculpts weren't bad per se (I quite like the kicking guy) that kind of extreme dynamic poses rarely work well in models, even when made by the talended people at Corvus Belli. These resculpts are a bit more restrained but damn, they're certainly a lot more beautiful! There's been a bit of a debate over at the official forums about whether these kinds of multi-part boxed sets are good or not (here and here). Since there's basically only two different bodies shared among the four miniatures some of the poses won't be as natural or dynamic looking if they were all unique, says the detractors. And while I agree in principal, the difference is most of the time negligible, so I think it's well worth it. I really like the staffs that has been added as they look absolutely spectacular and brings an entire new level of dynamics to the models. The Shaolin open hands are really cool as well. Then we have the Combi Rifle and the Chain Rifle armed monks (the latter who can also either wield a sword or a Smoke Grenade) who don't have the same dramatic trappings as their staff wielding friends but still look great simply thanks to the contrast of the hi-tech guns and the traditional monk's robe!

In game they're similar to my beloved Kuang Shi, that is to say cheap and Impetuous. They are also Irregular which means they don't share their order with the rest of the force. They are great melee fighters and also have sense enough to bring their own Smoke Grenades with them! This should help to get them close to the enemy as their low BS of 9 means they won't hit much with any long ranged weapon they choose to bring. Another interesting tidbit was mentioned in the Beasts of War preview, namely that they're part of a Yu Jing sectorial... except they aren't. Not yet anyway. We know that ALEPH is getting a new sectorial in the new book, but so far nothing about the other factions. Have CB been sneaky and meant to include more all along? I hope so. Either way I'm really eager to get my hands on these guys!


And that's it! My Best Model(s) of the Month award goes to the awesome looking Monks! With honourable mentions going to the Riot Grrl (see! I can't make up my mind about her!). All good releases though, even though the alien babe bothers me a bit. I still won't be entirely happy with any Infinity releases until we see the book though. While I'm still having fun playing regular old pitched battles and some YAMS now and then I really, reeeeeally want to see that book released!

Perhaps next month... eh, CB?