The DiRT – Stepping into 3rd Edition Infinity
The N3 (Infinity 3rd edition) Rule Book. What to Expect and how to begin Infinity.
Truth be told, I have not had an extensive game in Infinity 3rd edition just yet. But this is at least partially intentional. My approach to Infinity has always been to look at the game from a new player perspective. It gives me a chance to anticipate questions as I run through a demo. The goal is to understand where the boundaries should lie from a demo perspective to ensure you’re maximizing how much a person can absorb without dragging the demo or causing a bad first experience. Due to the layout of 2nd edition rules, it was not always easy to comprehend how a new player should begin. With 3rd edition following closely in the footsteps of Operation:Icestorm, Corvus Bell has provided new players with a concise layout for an introductory game. I want to provide to you those side notes you should use to when playing that first mission… but first, some news.
The NEWS – Profile PDF Is Released Today
In an earlier issue of the DiRT (Specifically Issue #3) , I explained that the N3 rule book would only replace the 2nd edition CORE rule book. That it would not replace Human Sphere or Campaign:Paradiso. All three books had unit (model) profiles. Human sphere added new units to the existing factions in the Core rule book and introduced Aleph. Campaign:Paradiso added new units to the existing factions in Core and Human Sphere as well as introducing the Tohaa.
With the release of the N3 Core Rule Book, we were left waiting for the release of Infinity Army (the free Corvus Belli Infinity Army List Creation software) for the remaining units. While that software may be a few more days/weeks out before release, Corvus Belli has released the PDF of the profiles today. You can find the English version here.
This is huge as other free infinity army list generators exist out there, and they will now have access to potentially provide that software before “Infinity Army” is ready. Please remember though, Corvus Belli has stated that they intend for “Infinity Army” to allow them to change profiles should something be deemed unbalanced in the game. So even the PDF released today could (albeit unlikely) be revised the moment that Infinity Army is available.
The SKINNY – Preparing for You First Game
This discussion is going to assume that you are not with someone who has previously read all the rules, that you are venturing into Infinity on your own.
Pages 10 through 15 of the Infinity N3 rule book (pages 6 through 11 in the Rules PDF), are similar in structure to the Operation:Icestorm’s first mission. This is where brand new players of Infinity should begin their journey. Since the N3 rule book does not come with the wide selection of models, terrain, dice, etc, that you find in Operation:Icestorm, the rules cannot make the assumption of which miniatures you will be bringing to the table. Because of this ambiguity the rules for this introduction are stated intentionally vague. I would suggest that you consider using the same factions described in Operation:Icestorm PanOceania Fusiliers and Nomad Algaciles, three of each. Don’t worry about what you actually have, just use those profiles. I have posted their profiles below, but you can find them in the N3 rule book on pages 199 and 225 (the page numbers for the profiles are identical in the PDF).
Because it’s such a small game, let me encourage you to take the books advice and shrink the gaming board from the typical 4 feet by 4 feet to something smaller. For my gaming group, we often use 4 feet by 2 feet for demos. This doubles the number of simultaneous games we can run on a single board, and still allows players to start to become acquainted with the board depth from a deployment perspective.
The DiRT – Pieces Needed to Play the Game
To play your intro game, enjoy it, without breaking the bank gather the following:
- A 2 foot by 4 foot space (as discussed above).
- Handful of 20 sided dice (3 for each player is the recommendation, but preparing for future games by grabbing 6 a piece is not a bad idea).
- 3 miniatures (often if you choose a starter box you can find three line troops inside, use those with the profiles above.
- Markers/Templates (Downloaded, printed, cut out from Corvus Belli), or even more simply, use pennies as orders and move on. For this first game, neither side will have weapons that necessitate the use of templates. Silhouettes may be interesting to add to use, but I would argue unnecessary for your first game.
- Various terrain pieces. For just starting out, I like to recommend tissue boxes you might have around the house. When laying out the terrain, turn the tissue boxes at a diagonal to the board edge and space them out a few inches apart.
- Two measuring tapes (one for each player). This is more of an enjoyment factor of keeping the game moving, only one tape measure is “needed”.
So that’s the News, the Skinny, and the Dirt on how to approach the rule book from a new player perspective. If you’ve played an Infinity 3rd edition game, what tricks have you learned that a new player getting into the game might be able to use. What can a new player do to minimize time from bare model to getting their game on? As always you can drop me a line here or at my YouTube Channel. Next week we will start diving into the non-starter rules and maybe add a video that shows game play for the intro game that we talked about in this article. Special thanks to Ross S for use of his photo at the top of this article!
