After Action Report: Resistance Training

 I'm working on a project that's taking longer than expected -- partly because I ran out of mud after procrastinating for four days and then hit the weekend, partly because Arthur has been sick, and then my partner and I were sick, and then Arthur was sick and look parenthood is fun but it never ends.

Bakunin Sectorial (c) Corvus Belli

I have a handful of Infinity models because I've been toying with getting into it for a few years now. My friend Musterkrux is a big Infinity-head, one of Goonhammer's subject matter experts on the game, and he offered to give me an intro game back in early April...

The board. Note that the interactive elements of the terrain are red.

Given my interests in religion, anarchism, and opposition to so-called 'AI', the Nomad ship Bakunin seems like a very natural fit. Musterkrux conveniently has some of the exact models I've wound up accumulating, so he set up an intro game featuring some of those models against his Yu Jing.

The objective marker being on my side of the wall sure was convenient.

Unfortunately, because I've been so busy and six weeks have passed, I don't remember a lot of the details of the game. Infinity also doesn't have the downtime of IGOUGO gaming, as activations are quick and reactions constant, so it's harder to take good photos of exciting moments as reminders - you're too busy actually gaming them!

You will also have to forgive the lack of in-universe vignettes - I'm not too familiar with Infinity's setting... as yet...

This definitely isn't going to be choked with bodies in a minute.

This is a really strong feature of the game. I loved that I could constantly react to everything Musterkrux was doing. It has to be noted that he set up a very gentle board for me, and he played in ways to show me how things worked rather than to his actual strengths.

This meant that my hackers could do some fun hacking; I could plant some... thingies... that allowed for remote hacking; I had the Riot Grrls do some murder; I remotely hacked some heavy armour to shut it down. Great, great fun.

Cyberware: Deployed

Covering the alley

Infinity also has very friendly rules for cover, without the ridiculous photos on 'true Line of Sight' that plagues a lot of games. Having a dense board is essential, of course, but there was almost no discussion of 'can I see you', as the rules tell you exactly how to determine that.

Smoke grenade!

Similarly, while the density of fancy weirdo rules in the book is intimidating as hell, on the actual day it all runs fairly simple. Uh. At least, it does if Musterkrux mostly just tells you to 'roll for this number' and then explains it to you. I, um, might need a few more practice games.

This was a high-tension moment that I have completely forgotten...

Constant reaction to one another makes for a very tense game, even when I quickly secured an apparent lead. At no point did the game feel like it was already over. This is a testament to Musterkrux's skill at leading an introductory game as much as anything, but it really felt like Infinity was a mature and balanced game.

Just showing off Musterkrux's paintwork

We didn't play with TAGs or some of the more complex elements of the game, with only a few robot drone... things, but there were medics, engineers, and hackers (Bakunin would have been weird without them). At no point did it feel overwhelming, but each team also felt different from the other - and that was with the lists designed to be roughly mirror-matchy to demonstrate core concepts on both sides.

This little robot ruled

So I'm definitely keen on more Infinity. Musterkrux straight-up gave me some spare Bakunin models that he had, so I think that it's going to be a project very soon. I've decided to do some more Battletech for my next project once the current one (that I've been working on since March!) finishes, but probably after that.

I do need some more anarchist nuns first, though...