A Rising Dragon: a Return to Infinity N4!

It’s been an interesting few weeks. While I’m still struggling at managing my condition, there are a few things I do prioritize. Firstly, obviously, I’d work; I can’t afford to live, let alone enjoy my hobbies, if I skive off!

Secondly, is volunteering my time for the military base club I help run. It’s a very modest turn-out for now, as understandably military men can often find themselves very busy at short notice. As the base I work on is a training base, and my playing group mostly instructors or adjacent to that role, they can often get distracted with work.

But, it’s been good. But the once “Warhammer” club, as it was unofficially known, has suddenly become an Infinity club! This happened for two reasons.

Firstly, a player had been asking to bring his rather extensive CodeOne collection to play, as he had sussed out that I played N4 and has been wanting to try that. N4 being the full game, this meant a lot of complexity vs the current simplicity of 40K.

When we sat down to play, a few of the other players wanted to observe. They got a shock; 40K, in one of their words, had been Checkers. Simple, fun, but not overly tactical. Infinity was Chess, complex, with a great degree of depth that rewarded tactical decisions, as opposed to simply rewarding money spent on expensive units.

The club was fascinated, and the scramble for armies has begun. I sold one fellow my Morat Combined Army collection, as it was already built and ready to go. This however left me with just my Ariadna.

Ariadna is a great faction, but one that doesn’t interact with much of the game mechanics. Limited and practically no hacking/infowar game, limited advanced weaponry, and a reliance on camouflage. I had gotten the Combined Army in order to learn those things. Without them, I wouldn’t learn.

Yu Jing, another faction, offered a solution to that problem. They have far less in the way of camouflaged, sneaky units by default, and focus on a more “well rounded” unit roster with a slight emphasis on cheap Heavy Infantry.

Yu Jing was also vastly underplayed in my area. There is a not so subtle bias against the Communist Chinese in my area(not entirely unfounded…) and so many players had avoided the faction entirely. I always had found them interesting, however. I didn’t need my actual politics to necessarily be in line with my fictional choices in a sci fi game!

Yu Jing is also, in a word, completely underrated in terms of lore!

The faction is an antagonistic faction. It’s more nuanced then most, but Yu Jing is an evolutionary step from the PRC to a very odd, synergistic Imperial Monarchy with Communist elements. The Party remains a formidable power in Yu Jingese society….but shares such power with descendants of the Qing and Ming dynasties, who in two distinct royal houses, are the source of new elected Emperors from among their ranks.

Politicking is high, as Party remains a power behind the throne, but the Emperor and royal households vie for more power, both against the Party and each other.

But why is it called “Yu Jing”, not “China in space?” In a word; Nostalgia. In another: Multiculturalism.

Yu Jing not only contains Han Chinese, although they dominate the leadership. Yu Jing began as a more dominant China stretched its legs in a post-US world, and absorbed much of Asia. South Korea and Japan, unable to stand on their own without US support and too far(and too close to China…)from the new PanOceania to survive, were also absorbed. However, none of these former Asian states were content to be ruled by “China”, and Chinese attempts at cultural homogenization fell flat on its face.

China decided to rebrand itself. The pan-Asian giant would be reborn as Yu Jing, and instead of suppressing local culture’s in its sphere of influence, instead began to celebrate them. Each culture would make up the one, harmonious whole. All would play a part. Well, almost all…

Japan came kicking and screaming into Yu Jing, and even then, it was not a happy participant. Elements from its own population were trying to break free from day one, seeing its annexation as a total surrender. These elements were loud, destructive, and every good faith effort from both Yu Jing and Japanese sources would fall on deaf ears. It did not help that the other members of Yu Jing had historical grievances with Japan as well…and therefore help for Japanese rights would not come from Korea, Vietnam, or Chinese parts of the Yu Jing collective.

Yu Jing would grow over the 22nd Century into the “eternal rival” to Panoceania, eager to supplant it. Wars were infrequent but skirmishes common….and it would be the “Japanese Sectorial Army” that would suffer the worst casualties among Yu Jing forces, used as cannon fodder. Yu Jing as a whole learned much from the NeoColonial Wars: they couldn’t fight a war as China had, with numerical superiority. PanOceania, simply, was larger. The numbers were no longer on Yu Jings side.

Yu Jing instead began a program to rapidly modernize and revolutionize their infantry, going from waves of Zhanshi to a new kind of army.

An Invincible Army…

So, my Yu Jing journey started here: with a batch painted application of Xpress Colour Martian Orange on a host of heavy infantry, with most being Shang Ji or Zuyong Invincible’s. These are premier, but affordable heavy infantry at a serious points discount. The new face of Yu Jings infantry core wears orange powered armour, and I was keen to give Xpress Colour a try.

Similar to contrast, but a bit more matte, Xpress Colour is a Vallejo alternative to that GW painting revolution. Personally, I mix both ranges pretty indiscriminately, but as I lacked a contrast orange, and hearing that Martian Orange was pretty good, I decided to try it on one….then another….then anything in powered armour!

Leaving it to dry overnight, I woke up and decided to try and finish two models to completion. These are no prize winning show-pieces. These are quick and dirty schemes to get a painted force on the table as quickly as possible.

Now, a happy accident happened. As Bob Ross says, these are not to be feared.

I had gotten “Tamiya Varnish” from a store in nearby Hanover, Ontario. But I had failed to check the label properly. Instead of being “Clear Matte”, it was instead TS-80…. “Clear Gloss!”

On any other model, this could have been an annoying disaster. Mind you, a good adage is always to gloss coat first. But that was added time…and given my condition, added time is precious!

But on these models, it looks amazing! Bear in mind these aren’t fully done; I need to matte down some parts and finish the base. And perhaps add some dust effects…

But they turned out pretty swell.

All in all, a great weekend project and one I’m keen on completing more models for!

Once, people could come to this blog and see batch painting done at pretty good speeds, or even great painting(by my modest skills worth, anyways), but I had lost the hobby mojo for a long time. The energy it took to build, paint, and play was getting too difficult to do.

But, as it turned out, I just needed to adjust to my new normal. I’ve mourned the hobby progress I could once attain, the skills I had, and the energy to do it all. Now I have acceptance of what I can do.

Infinity, with its smaller model counts, great gameplay, and fascinating lore(when you can find it) has me hooked again. I’m hoping I can keep it up…

For now, Happy Wargaming wherever you are! And may the Jade Capital bless your efforts, and your social credit balance increase! Have a good day, everyone!