July Releases for Infinity!

Well, sometimes Christmas comes early! It feels like just yesterday that I put together June's releases like this. Guess summer vacaction combined with an early reveal from Corvus Belli combines to twist time into some hyperdimensional twizzller! Anyway, this months is interesting since there are only four releases instead of the usual five and one cryptic teaser. Let's have a look!

First out we have a resculpt of McMurrogh Mercenary Dog-Warrior! While he would probably not be very high on my own list of models needing resculpts it's always nice to see Corvus Belli update their older products. And quite an update it is! The old McMurrogh looks quite cartoony with his gigantic sword and he certainly looks more like a dog than a the more modern werewolf style of the later sculpts. In the old pack you got him in his dogface form as well though, something that has changed with the new release. Will we see a change of his unit entry as well, or will dogface McMurrogh be released separately? We'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the dog-warriors of Infinity but I have to admit that this is a really cool model! I love the sense of scale you get from the chainrifle being used as a pistol, and the sword looks much more sensible and usable this time around. In game he's quite a beast (ha!) with martial arts, three wounds and total immunity. Add high movement, super-jump and impetuous to that and you have something that can close in on the enemy very fast and do a lot of damage when there! Being Irregular is a drawback, but seeing as he's a likely candidate for the "Rambo tactic" I don't see it as being much of a problem.

What better way to stop a rampaging dog-warrior than a melee monster of your own? Well, monster is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration but the Knight of the Holy Sepulchre is certainly no slouch with a sword! He looks kind of like a mix between the HMG Aquila Guard and an Order Sergeant, but tougher than both. Besides that big nasty (explosive) sword he comes with a Spitfire as well. I really like the pose as it looks like he's challenging his next victim. Just like the Aquila Guard though, there's something about the flowing coat/robe that I don't quite like. It's certainly not as bad as the Guard (which is one the Infinity minis I like the least) but the way it flows doesn't look entirely right to me. It's a nitpick though and overall I'm impressed! I think my buddy might reconsider playing Acontecimento after seeing this guy! It's a solid model to have in your army with high stats (14 in BS, PH and WIP? Yes please!) with some neat tricks up his sleeve like martial arts and Holoprojector L2. Being Religious also helps keeping your army on the table and is always a welcome skill. I think a lot of PanO players is happy to see the Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.

Alright, let's calm down a bit and go with some cold robotic logic instead of bloodthirsty sword swingers! Yu Jing get their final pair of remotes with the Yáoxiè Rui Shi and Lù Duan Remotes! While the baggage remotes were a welcome sight I think most Yu Jing players were hoping to see these little fellows first. They look quite similar though and stands quite a bit apart from the original Yáokòng remotes. While I like this larger, more menacing looking style I wouldn't have minded some more callbacks to their remote ancestors as I quite like the Yákòng design. They do look very cool though, again quite beetle like and heavily armed. These newer series of remotes come with neat tricks like Multispectral Visor L2 and Holoprojector L2 and combined with heavy firepower like Spitifre, Mk21 and heavy flamethrower I think you can have all kinds of fun with them! They're still remotes though so lack any armour at all and they can't really dodge worth a damn, so be careful how you use them. Personally I'd like to try out the Lù Duan first; it's relatively cheap with no SWC cost and the Holoprojector should help keep it alive as it zooms towards the enemy. Once there the heavy flamethrower should make short work of most opponents. Might work well coupled with the Sù-Jiàn!

With the release of the new book drawing steadily closer we see more and more new unit types and the  ALEPH Ekdromoi is what we get this month. Very nice looking model armed with a combirifle, a close combat weapon and what looks like some kind of hi-tech jump pack. He's definitely part of the new Greece-themed sectorial as an ekdromoi was historically a light hoplite skirmisher who would exit the phalanx and fight on their own. This certainly sounds like what Airborne Deployment troops usually do in Infinity! To me he seems fairly heavily armoured but this might just be ALEPH overcompensating for something. The only AD troops available to ALEPH right now are the Garuda tactbots so I having access to one more (perhaps more flexible) will make the AI fans happy indeed. I really like Achilles and his merry band of murderers and if more releases like this turn up I might just have to start an ALEPH sectorial...


Normally there'd be one more release to talk about here, but not this month! No, instead we just get this cryptic teaser image (and video):

Obviously it's a teaser for the new book, but I'm curious about the symbol. Is it the new Greek sectorial badge? It doesn't look very ALEPH. But what else could it be? Anyway... the new book is coming very soon! Woooo!!


The best news this months is definitely that the new books i just around the corner! Models-wise I think I have to give it to the remotes... I'm biased though as the exploding collar the Crane agent put on me wouldn't allow me to say anything else. Glory to the StateEmpire!

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Board Games I'm Looking Forward To

Well, some of them anyway. This could easily get very, very long so I'll try to shorten it down to the stuff I'm looking forward to the most. There might be a few games in here that have actually already been released in that case they should still be fairly new at least.

The plan is to make similar articles for miniature games, roleplaying games and perhaps even video games. However, I found board games the easiest to get started with so here we are! There are lots of them being released these days and many of them look like a lot of fun. This list (or entire post!) is fairly FFG heavy. Sorry for that, but they just keep churning out stuff that I want to play. Anyway, let's get going...

Merchant of Venus (2012 reprint) - Now we know the fate of this reprint that was announced by Stronghold Games and Fantasy Flight Games within a day of eachother. Luckily it seems like they've managed to come up with the perfect compromise; FFG will publish the game but will have input from the guys at Stronghold Games to try and keep the feel of the original game. Good stuff! This is a classic space trading game that I've been considering making my own copy of, so I'm just happy seeing a reprint!

Dark Darker Darkest - An upcoming game from David Ausloos who recently made Panic Station. It's a zombie game... but seems distinctly different from games like Zombies!!! and Last Night on Earth. Apparently this is a much meatier game with some similarities to Mansions of Madness (exploring a house) but with more emphasis on teamwork and tactical gameplay. I'm always interested in semi-RPG experiences and what I've seen of this so far it might very well fit the bill.

CO₂ - A game about stopping pollution and coming up with environmentally friendly technology! It might almost sound too preachy, but there's no denying that this is vitaly important for the humanity as a race. This game caught my eye through its unique theme and its beautiful aquarelle visuals. Basically you're trying to (semi-cooperatively) stop pollution and global warming, and failing that trying to make the best of a deteriorating situation. Apparently the game is considered "controversial" because of its theme of global warming. Urgh... wake up people! Even if the current situation isn't man made it's still a problem that needs to be solved.

Rogue Agent - Cyberpunk is on its way back with videogames like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Syndicate as well as FFG's new board/card game releases. And of course Rogue Agent - another game by David Ausloos (busy man!). There seems to be a lot going on in this game as your agent is moving through Rain City aqcuiring resources, encountering crime bosses and outsmarting the police. There's also a traitor element as some of the agents can be androids, secretly planning a revolt. 

Descent, 2nd Edition - I have never been a great fan of the first edition of Descent. While I like it fine and think it can be a fun romp now and again, there's something about it that prevents it from being the kind of dungeon crawler I want it to be. Just read Frontline Gamer's review of the game as it's similar to my own thoughts. However, reading the previews of the 2nd edition has made me all kinds of giddy as it seems to be a lot closer to my "ideal dungeon crawler"! A lot of things have been streamlined and there's much more emphasis on narrative and campaign play which is something I felt was sorely lacking in the original. Scenarios are connected in a campaign and what happens in one scenario will have ramifications in the next. The new hero archetypes and classes also look more fun and engaging, not to mention the updated artwork. I have high hopes for this!

Edo - Medieval Japan is a fascinating setting so when I came across Edo I was intrigued. In the game you take the role of a daimyo trying to impress the shogun by building markets and castles in the area around Edo (Tokyo). It's based on simultaneous action selection like Shogun (or RoboRally for that matter) and you use your actions to command samurai around the board. The gameplay sounds interesting, the graphic design is appealing and the setting speaks to me. 

Infiltration - As you might already know I really liked the world Kevin Wilson created for Android, although I didn't like the actual game. So I was really happy to see FFG not giving up on it and using it for more games. First up we have Infiltration by Donald X. Vaccarino, the brains behind Dominon. It's a push your luck-kind of card game where you play as operatives trying to infiltrate CyberSolutions Inc. to gather valuable data. The interactions between different rooms, different items and different operators seems to make for a interesting game with many possibilities. Quick playing as well is a plus in my book.

Android: Netrunner - Not satisfied with just releasing a regular card game set in the Android universe FFG also announced their reprint/reboot of the classic Netrunner CCG by Richard Garfield! This time it will be set in the Android universe instead of Shadowrun Cyberpunk (Thanks Tomasz!) and it will (naturally) be a living card game. I actually missed the original game when it was released but have heard so many good things about it that I'm ready to get excited nonetheless! The assymetrical nature of the game intrigues me; one player takes the role of the hacker trying to break into the second player's corporate databanks. I've been looking forward to a sci-fi LCG. Star Wars is on the way, but for some reason it doesn't excite me as much as Netrunner.

Zombicide - Could this be THE zombie board game? A zombie game finally done right? Maybe... it certainly looks the part! From what I can tell it plays a bit like the video game Left 4 Dead; you play as a small group of survivors trying to make their way through an urban zone. There are stores to loot (or barricade!), cars to drive and zombies to kill. Besides the regular walkers there are some special zombies (just like L4D) who are stronger, faster more nasty etc. There's also an experience and hand management system that seems interesting. Also the miniatures, being from Cool Mini or Not, are absolutely gorgeous!

Samurai Battles - More samurai! Weee! I actually don't know very much about this game, apart from it being a part of the Command and Colours series, but recently I've become more interested in painting historical miniatures. I don't want to get into an entire historical miniature wargame, but a board/miniature hybrid like this might be just the right thing. The miniatures look great and... well that's enough for me at this juncture. :)

1969 - I just came across this the other day. It's about the 1960's space race for 2-5 players and I'm over the moon (excuse the pun) about seeing this game! I've been wanting to see exactly this game, and here it is. The Manhattan Project piqued my interest as it has a similar theme but now I'm glad I waited since 1969 suddenly showed up. There's not much known about the gameplay yet. The main mechanism seem to be how to alocate your scientists and how to use your intelligence (slow down your neighbours or speed up your own research). As you play you need to complete a number of missions to prove your research works and it all culminates in the actual mission to the moon. Exciting stuff!

There are more games out there that I want to play of course, but these are some of the ones I'm most excited about! I'm always looking for more stuff though so please, if you know of some awesome new board game being released in the near(ish) future let me know in the comments! As you probably know I'm partial to anything cyberpunk or space related...

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Painting Plans!

With the preview of the new Yu Jing remotes over at Beasts of War and Angel Giráldez' blog I thought it might be wise to plan ahead what to paint. I was thinking mainly of Infinity, but naturally other games will pop up as well. Let's have a look at what we've got ahead of us!

First off, I've actually finished the Yu Jing doctor and engineer. They haven't been featured on the blog yet  because I want to finish their two servant bots as well first, but you should see them on Saturday or Sunday for sure. I wanted to get these out of the way mainly because they're good models to have available to your force, but also since the upcoming campaign/scenario book (damnit CB! Give us a title already!) seems to have scenarios where they are needed.

Same goes for the baggage remotes that were released a few months ago, the Pangguling. I'm all kinds of excited about playing proper scenarios in Infinity so really want to prepare for them! Also, remotes in general is someting very unique to Infinity and I simply want to bring some into my gaming force. I started on a Yáokòng last year, but it's been pushed to the back of the line by some of the new releases.

I usually get tired of painting large(ish) models like the remotes so after that I think some regular infantry is needed. The Kuang Shi are definitely the unsung heroes of my Yu Jing force as they're cheap enough to throw away recklessly but also have enough tricks up their sleeves to play havok with my opponent. So naturally I would like to try the Shaolin monks as well. They're similar but have different abilities like smoke grenades and martial arts training. I've held off because I wasn't too fond of the sculpts but with the new box released things have certainly changed! For starters I'll probably just do two of them as I don't think I'd be comfortable with more two Irregular models in my force. The chainrifle and one of the staff wielders are likely candidates.

Ok, I've got some specialists, some remotes and some smoke tossing skirmishers... what would work well with that? Well, a Hsien with a Heavy Machine Gun of course! The two Hsien models were among the first I got for Infinity since I both liked the look of them and they seemed brutal in game as well, but I still haven't played played with or painted one. This needs to change! I know just what they're going to look like and everything. Having a model with Multispectral Visor and a HMG coupled with models capable of laying down smoke is a nasty combination that I thought would be fun to try.

Finally I want to get some fightier remotes on the table and the new Rui Shi and Lù Duan (up top!) fit the bill perfectly! While they are just as big as the baggage remotes (meaning harder to hide) they look really cool and I simply want to have them scamper across the table confusing enemies with holo-echoes and gunning down camouflage troops thanks to their Multispectral Visor! Hmm... with all these new remotes I should get another hacker or two painted, for variety's sake if nothing else.

So that's my Infinity sorted for a while I think. I really want to get my Guija painted as well, but I won't try to squeeze it into the schedule quite yet. Now, what else do we have that I'm eager to get started on? To be honest there's simply way too much! But trying to focus on the games I play mostly at the moment there's Dust Warfare and Judge Dredd.

The infantry in Dust Warfare lends themselves well to fairly basic painting techniques and I hope I can get an entire squad done in one sitting. Not quite sure about what kind of colour scheme and camouflage I'd like to go with yet. Likely someting similar to the studio paint jobs, but with some variations. I'll probably start with the Fakyeli close combat squad as I really like the look of them. Next up will be the Medvedi command squad and after that I would really like to try my hand on either a walker or a helicopter. However, for that I would need to use one of my friends airbrushes for the first couple of steps. We'll see how it turns out.

I must admit that I'm more focused on painting Infinity at the moment, partly because my friend has finally started working on his Acontecimento force but I think mainly because the Zverograd campaign book still isn't available. It's currently listed as "On the Boat" at FFG's site so hopefully it'll be here in time for Gencon and I imagine my motivation level will rise considerably when that happens. Then again, we might (please, CB!) see the Infinity campaing book then as well. Hmm...

Finally we have the Ape gang for the Judge Dredd skirmish game. I love these models! Perhaps not as technically accomplished as the stuff CB puts out, but competent enough and, more importantly, they are full of character! I think they can be a good middle-ground between painting Infinity and painting Dust Warfare. Being able to take a break from the serious business and get cracking on some monkey business seems like great fun!

First off will be this little fellow, since it's a basic "trooper" and since the scratching my head pose is simply awesome! I've been listening to old episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show lately so monkeys keep popping into my head all the time, this might be a nice outlet for it...


So, that's my plan right now anyway. I'm sure it'll change as we go along, but I will at least try to stick to it. Especially the Infinity bit. You guys have a general idea of what might turn up here in the next few months or so. Actually my vacation starts on Monday so I'll likely have more time for painting and stuff for a couple of weeks at least. Hopefully this will result in some more models getting finished.

Anway, expect some specialists in a couple of days.

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