Code Infinity: An Impression of Infinity by Corvus Belli!

For once, this game is not my fault!

While shopping at the Giddy Goblin in Hanover, Ontario, a friend of mine looked at a painting guide for a Corvus Bellis game, Infinity. The game apparently was something dabbled in before in the past, before my time there, and that book was the last remnant of that time.

However, the manga inspired aesthetic and the quality of the model on the cover, convinced him to look deeper into the game and miniature line. He came back from the city with a decent size collection of models, and at that point I decided to jump in with a small collection.

What hooked me was, surprisingly, was the lore. I do love good backstory, but for Infinity its quite difficult to actually find! Luckily my chosen faction, Ariadna, has a really good series about it on Youtube, detailing their history.

The Infinity Universe is vast, but the quick summary is that: 180 years in the future, Humanity has settled on a few planets, under the careful guidance of Aleph, the only legal AI in the Human Sphere. The Hyperpower’s of Panoceania(Australia and New Zealand, having absorbed much of the “western” world) and Yu Jing(Asia unified under a new Chinese regime based on a mix of their current system and the old Imperial Chinese rule), have supplanted the old powers of the 21st century. Nomads, those who reject Aleph, live on three starships in the void, an anarchic society where freedom is the ideal they strive for….and the freedom to do what others consider criminal. Ariadnans, the descendants of Humanity’s first attempt at a colony, were abandoned to their fate but instead have survived, and with notably dated technology have reintegrated with the Human Sphere but remain free of Aleph, and defend their interests and holdings on their home planet, Dawn, doggedly. And the alien Combined Army have begun their conquest, under the watchful eye of their malevolent “Evolved Intelligence”, a dark mirror of the Human Sphere.

We played a quick demo game, using the Code One rules, an introductory ruleset, we were hooked! My “Kosmoflot”(proxied heavily with Tartary Army Corps, both Ariadnan Sectorial subfactions) versus his Nomads!

After that, we both decided to buy terrain. While we certainly had enough terrain in the clubhouse, we really wanted to nail the “Post-Cyberpunk” aesthetic that runs through the setting. We went a little overboard, as you are about to see!

A quick note about the game itself. A long time ago, I had tried it out, and while fun it seemed overly complicated. A mix of both being more experienced as a player and a tightening up of the rules by Corvus Belli, and the release of Code One as an introductory experience, has made a world of difference.

It flows well, and its never dull. Reacting to your opponents every move keeps you very engaged in the game, and the use of “gotcha moments” is actually very well utilized, as such systems as camouflage tokens that you don’t have to tell your opponents what they actually represent, even in an army list, is a huge thing that could be a deal-breaker….if the game didn’t seem so tightly balanced to compensate for it. Nothing has been overpowered(so far!) in our limited experience.

The ability to dump most of your Order Pool on one model to make them do pretty crazy things is really fun and cinematic, and the fact that the rest of your army is still able to conduct ARO(Automatic Reactions) despite that in your opponents turn makes it not feel like an outrageous risk. In fact, playing some pieces conservatively and using them mostly in your opponents turn seems very, very viable.

Interestingly, it turns out many people in the Clubhouse were already interested but waiting for someone to pull the trigger. And when it became apparent that myself and a couple people by this point were playing, more “bought in” to the game. A surprisingly large amount of us are now interested in playing fairly regularly!

Before this weekend, my Acid House Terrain order arrived!

I had gotten this 6×4 “Super-Sized” set from their webstore, but they do print runs and when they run out, do a Kickstarter to produce more. I got lucky enough to get one from the last print-run.

It came with a crazy amount of tiles, enough to cover the 6×4 board, and many buildings of various sizes and accessories to boot to place on them.

We played our next game at the Giddy Goblin, as a sort of impromptu demo to draw interest. While we got no further bites, we did get another great game in!

You’ll notice I’m not doing Battle Reports for this. Simply put, the game is so dynamic and quick that I’m finding it hard to remember to document what happens!

At the Giddy, we went with the Acid House tiles but used their buildings from the last time they played Infinity. They looked great, especially the old Plast-Craft Terrain, sadly now out of production. I particularly like the Sushi place!

The game was a real nail biter, and a clutch play by Uxia Macneil(a crazy SAS lady with a shotgun) who managed to swing the game almost by herself in a glory run that was a blast to see.

We got back to the Clubhouse, and decided to play with the Acid House stuff specifically, to get an idea of what it looks like.

The 6×4 set covers the table beautifully, but it does feel quite clinical. The tiles are gorgeous, and double sided.

We then decided to add a bit of that “cyberpunk” feeling by adding a bunch of scatter, and as a last minute idea, tossed in some feudal Japanese terrain we have for Test of Honour.

This. Worked. So. Well.

Suitably hyped, we then decided to play a game, for the second time that day!

Again, I didn’t document it very well at all. But the pictures were a blast to take, and the game itself was again a close-run thing, and ended in a perfect tie. Down to .5 of a victory point!

The fact all of this is pre-“painted” and ready to go means the usual trouble of making terrain is instead replaced with just needing to paint up figures, and a small amount of them at that.

The visual treat of this game is hard to ignore, and the wealth of suitable terrain we can use for it is fantastic. We intend to further “tart up” the board with more flavour, perhaps some cyberpunk cars, streetlamps, and civilians.

Getting these models painted is now going to be the only thing I need to do to properly sell the effect of these tables. And I’m extremely motivated now.

The fact the game itself is so good, the terrain amazing, and the models being the best metals I’ve worked with…it’s no surprise its probably going to be my “go to” pick up game for a while.

For now however, I must start another blog post. I had a simply brilliant Spectre Operations game this weekend as well! And that must be the subject of another post. For now, Happy Wargaming wherever you are, and remember…Aleph is watching!