Bubblegum Crisis – When Cannons Fade…

First Infinity Tournament

OK!! so last week I jumped feet first into my first (ever) tournament, which was held at Grognard Games. It was with much trepidation that I went into this, mainly because I’m not really interested in playing tabletop games in a competitive environment, I much prefer to have casual games with no pressure. Couple this with the fact that I’m still really a n00b and not familiar with the rules as much as I’d like to be, well it makes for an intimidating prospect. Had it not been for the fact that my fellow Infinity players had said “ah don’t worry about it, it’ll be a good learning experience for you” and that they are a friendly bunch, then I’d have had no part in it at all.

In my last post I put up the list I intended to use for said event, as I’d been playing it on the Thursday night games and wanted to test it a little further (but mostly to familiarize myself with how things work). It is a fairly straight forward list, nothing too crazy, and in my head I wanted to make sure I had good long range heave hitters (sniper rifle, missile launcher), good mid-range stuff (HMG, Combi-rifles – both of which can suppression fire), and then some good up-close stuff like boarding shotguns.

My first game was against Haqqislam, and held up relatively well, although I achieved no objectives (I took down the most troops though). My 10 orders against about 16 was not fun. Coordinated orders, targeting and other shenanigans kept me from getting to my objectives. My second game was against Tohaa I believe, and while I was quick to get guys down into the streets, securing one objective, I got literally slaughtered by a bunch of stuff that had some obscene ARO nonsense that just steamrollered me. Ouch.

Game three I fared slightly better than game two, but not much, and this time I was actually able to take some enemy guys down. I tried to learn from my previous losses and use my Aquila in a more aggressive way, which kinda paid off a little, but ultimately I was crushed under sheer weight of numbers. First lesson: Keep your cheerleaders (Fusiliers) to hold ground, send your heavy infantry to start putting the hurt on the enemy. Second lesson: TAKE A F*CKING HACKER AND SOME REMOTES!

Anyway. Despite getting my dangly bits served up to me on a plate, I had a bloody good time, and learned a lot about the game, so it was a winning situation for me ultimately. Some of the best games I’ve had are ones that I’ve lost. Your mileage may vary, of course.

October Rust. Couldn’t think of a title…

Mornin’ all! just a super quick post while i’m enjoying some Dark Matter coffee…

Had a really fun game of Flames of War about a week ago against my arch nemesis Colin. Once again his German forces tried to overthrow the British lines, but to no avail. One thing that scares me witless are those bloody tanks that the Jerrys have, and they made short work of my Sherman armored divisions (I really need to try some other tanks!). I responded in kind with some ruthless artillery strikes (which weren’t always that great, but when they hit, they hit hard!). Also, infantry assaults on tanks are a lot of fun…

Infantry that are dug in are great for holding ground, and are a pain in the arse to get rid of. Colin did whittle down some of my rifle platoons, but true to their nickname of the British Bulldogs, they gave the Hun no quarter.

This was our first game in probably almost 2 years, and we were both relearning the game as the new rule set is out. I have to say that the game seems to flow a little better with this new set, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In other news, I painted up Beastman that I received from Quest Miniatures. I went with the FILMation colors and am really pleased with the results. I used a white undercoat as the colors were going to be primarily brighter than I normally paint, and I forgot how much fun it is to be painting in a vibrant palette. Years and years of painting ‘mighty grimdark’ 40K stuff got me undercoating nearly everything in black. Anyway, here he is:

And finally, I finished another ORC Trooper for my PanOceania Infinity force. I was inspired by Priss from Bubblegum Crisis for the colors, and I think I’m going to get 3 more ORC troopers and paint them up in the other Knight Sabers colors. Infinity is basically a Manga skirmish game after all…

Konya Wa Hurricaine!

Cheers for now!

The World Wheel turns… to Infinity

Hello! I return from the caves to bring you another post from the WCF bunker. My world has been somewhat turned on my head in the last few weeks. In early March I received a phone call from my stepmom who was in absolute pieces to tell me that my dad had passed away. It was a complete bolt out of the blue which I was totally unprepared for. Living in a different country has its advantages, but this is definitely one of the times when it does not. Suddenly I very much felt the 3300 miles that separated me and my family as I set about making arrangements to fly home, as well as being skyped in to talk with funeral directors etc. I won’t go into the whole story, but needless to say I am devastated by his passing, but thankful that I have such a supportive wife and family to help me deal with it all. We had been out in England for christmas last year, and I’m so glad that I had some quality time with dad, and that he got to meet his newest grandson. I hadn’t expected for us to be making a trip back there so soon.

March 22 was the day that I helped carry my dad to his resting place, ready for his next adventure. I miss him terribly but know one day I shall see him again. Love you dad xxx

Don’t take anything for granted, friends.

Painting has given me something to focus on, and to take me out of things a little so I can distract myself. Thank the gods for hobbies!

Anyway, as I had mentioned in a previous post, I had discovered the wondrous world of Infinity. I had heard that it was a pretty intense game, and quite complex, something that normally would put me off investigating, but after checking out the figures and the art/fluff, I got reeled in, and I’m glad I did! I hadn’t seriously taken a plunge, but a week or two ago I bit my lip, held my breath for a moment and bought the N3 edition of the Infinity rules. While I had a bit of sticker shock with the price, a swift glance through the 2 books quickly dissolved any anxiety about dropping that kind of cash (although its probably in the range of a 40K rulebook cost wise, I’m just a tight-arse). You get a rulebook and a core book with fluff and army lists. I like the fact that they split it into two volumes, as I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a lot nicer to have to carry a lighter weight book around than attempting to navigate through war and peace to find the rules you need. Anyhoo, the art is great (taking me back to my days of going to Anime conventions, which I’ll be going to next weekend too, and reading lots of Manga), and the fluff is really engaging.

PanOceania is my faction of choice for now (until I get fully acquainted, and fully painted). They seem to be the most ‘vanilla’ faction, which is fine for me to get my feet wet. Lots of long range shooty goodness, and some really great troops types available. Also, I have a thing for the Bubblegum Crisis style helmets a lot of them seem to wear, so double win!

I’ve been up to a new FLGS near me over the last few weeks to start learning the ropes (I’m more of a visual learner) and have enjoyed dropping in on a couple of games here and there. Last week and last night, however, I had my own first actual games, me vs. an opponent, under the watchful eye of Chris who has taken me under his wing to teach me the rules. Of the four games I have played so far, I have won three of them. Probably beginners luck, or the new PanO dice I bought, who knows! Last night I was playing the first three missions in the Operation: Red Veil set, and I had a blast! I really got to grips with movement and basic combat, and discovered just how much fun Auxilas with bots can be! Mechanized deployment can be a lot of fun with Dronebots, I just need to be more aggressive in using them.

Some shots from last nights game:

It’s been a long time that I’ve actually had this much fun with a game (as well as Flames of War), and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I look forward to bringing you battle reports and whatnot soon. In the meantime I will continue my tutelage and work on my troops. Speaking of which, I just finished this gal:

Well, that’s it for now, thanks for tuning in! Now I’ve got my game back on, i’ll actually have something to post about! Until next time, my friends…

ORC Trooper finished!

Super quick post today, just to tell you my first ever Infinity miniature is done! Very pleased with how she turned out. See what you think:

I just picked up the Fusiliers set that is currently under construction, more pictures coming soon, as well as some actual articles lol!

Cheers!

Appleseed? Bubblegum Crisis? Dominion Tank Police, or just…

I know nothing at all about Infinity. I heard it was a complex game to master, but once you had it down, it could be quite a riot. I never really paid it much attention, that is, until this year’s Adepticon. Totally blown away by some of the display pieces I was eyeballing there, as well as the fantastic miniatures, I came away feeling kinda how I did when I first discovered the hobby – quite giddy!

I joined up with the official forums to cruise and see what the deal is with this game and the universe that it is set in, and seeing the very anime-inspired touches throughout the whole thing got me well and truly fired up. Bubblegum Crisis is one of my favorite Japanese animations, and for those of you who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, educate yourself for a moment:

What more do you need than five gals kicking cybernetic ass in powered armor against the soundtrack of 80’s Japanese rock music? not much. It’s very obvious that Infinity borrows very heavily from this genre, and I’m totally OK with that. It certainly makes for a refreshing change.

Recently I scored some Bubblegum Crisis miniatures on Ebay from the now defunct company Animail who for a short period of time in the early 90’s was releasing licensed metal miniatures from various properties. Here are the gals in all their unpainted glory:

…and one of them painted up:

You can see that there are some similarities between the Knight Sabres and the ORC Troopers from Infinity:

So anyway, These are my first tentative steps on the road to Infinity (there is a song in there somewhere I’m sure). I picked up the 2nd edition rulebook to get a handle on the world and the fluff. I’m hoping to pick up the new starter box set in the next few weeks. Looks like for now my army is going to be PanOceania. Now I just have to figure out putting the army lists together… Anyone out there have anything they can tell me about the game that a n00b should know in the early days?

Thanks for checking out my post about nothing lol!