Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

ski2060 wrote:
It sure could. Infinity does have an RPG in the works right now, though.

Here's to hoping it's semi-integrated into the tabletop mechanics the way Iron Kingdoms is.

It uses a 2d20 system rolling under or equal to target number,but that's about where similarities end.

You can get in on the Alpha testing of the rules set by checking out the Modiphius web page I believe.

They just sent out the second testing packet like a week ago. Lots of stuff to do, they're just getting feedback on basic mechanics right now.

Modiphius is using the 2d20 system for all their RPGs right now (Mutant Chronicles, Achtung! Cthulu etc.).

 TanKoL wrote:
One of the main issues with rural tables, is that a proper forest needs to be VERY dense with fallen trees, big logs and such to provide any meaningful cover with the LOS rules of Infinity

This is why i bring up environment zones They achieve similar effects but can be done in more abstract ways.
Eg. you could delineate areas that are zones of low visibility, or that are nimbus zones.

I've seen a few desert set ups that are pretty interesting, using mostly carved pink foam and cardstock.

Though some of the examples in this thread are outstanding. Oh to have more room/time/money to build tables...

 Micky wrote:

 TanKoL wrote:
One of the main issues with rural tables, is that a proper forest needs to be VERY dense with fallen trees, big logs and such to provide any meaningful cover with the LOS rules of Infinity

This is why i bring up environment zones They achieve similar effects but can be done in more abstract ways.
Eg. you could delineate areas that are zones of low visibility, or that are nimbus zones.

Yes, using Nimbus and low vis zones it's very easy to mimic high density vegetation on the table while still having maneuverability for your models.

All you need to do is have your tree/vegetation templates that block full LOS or provide cover (replicating areas so dense they either block full LOS or can stop bullets) and designate other clear areas as LowVis or Nimbus to show you can see, but it's hard to get a shot to land.

It's also a good way to do densely packed forest areas without having to have permanent trees.

One of the big issues with forested areas is it's hard to put models between them. Having movable trees but counting the whole area as a low vis zone lets you easily move the trees to fit models but still have the area count as that type of cover.

Mine is probably going to be half city half samurai village. Because I want to reuse the terrain I will buy for ronin.

@Pacific

Do you know what kit that space/aircraft is from, or is it a scratch build?

Daba, it is this kit: A Hasegawa Maschinenkrieger 'Falke'

1:20 scale, but with the covered canopy used it can easily pass for an aircraft at 28mm scale



It's a lovely kit but quite expensive (as Hasegawa tend to be), a lot of the time about £50-60 if you can find it on ebay or occasionally a model shop.

Thanks, the only Hasagawa I saw were the 'eggplanes' but I'll be on the lookout.

Ah yes I know the ones you mean.

The Falke kit is pretty expensive, but it does drop in price from time to time if you are prepared to wait and look about. There was a seller that appeared on ebay selling 5-6 of them for about £30, which was when I bought mine, so if you're not in a rush a similar deal might well appear on there again.

I've done some of Hasegawa's other kits as well as the Falke and they are just such, such nice kits. With this one in particular how you can get these massive, curved plastic pieces and they fit together without even a fraction of a mm out. Beautiful bit of workmanship, they're expensive but you definitely get what you pay for.

I think it also has something to do with city terrain just being easier to manufacture on a small scale. Laser-cut MDF is really popular right now, and you have that 90 degree angle limit when you cut. A little ingenuity can get you really far, but buildings are just easier to make.

I wouldn't go that far. What laser cut MDF is doing is making urban sprawl tables affordable for those without much in the way of DIY skills.

City tables used to be a pipe dream for a lot of people, because they couldn't make buildings out of foamcore that looked halfway decent (DIY nuts like to act as if its easy, it's really not) and building terrain was usually in HIPS and pretty pricey.

MDF/HDF buildings make it very affordable for someone to throw $100 down and have a decently dense urban table. However jungle, desert, snow, field and other types of boards are super cheap to make as well these days.

 Pacific wrote:
I think it's partly because of the setting - special ops teams taking each other on in a future city (think 'Ghost in the Shell' or 'Bladerunner'), that lends itself to the concept. There is a lot of artwork to that effect in the rulebook. Also, that there are some really cool MDF buildings that have come out (at least half a dozen manufacturers make kits for it now)

That being said, Campaign Paradiso is set on a undeveloped, jungle-type world, and there have been some really cool looking tables coming out for that.

Here are a few examples I found looking about the web

I recognise this table. That's the flooring at my club (well, what it used to look like before the carpet was changed). It was built by one of our locals when he had the time to devote to stuff like that (he's now a dad of a toddler, so no gaming time for him). Scarecrow was one of our local meta's players and one of our warcors.

As for why so many infinity tables are urban? Probably because the vast najority of stuff that is currently available in mdf is urban and at the core of things, is that like most people, gamers are lazy (in that they will take the easy option 9 times out of 10), and infinity players often don't even get to the "terrain" section of the rulebook - so they never realise just HOW possible it is to set the game in something that isn't urban.

There's also the part that look at terrain as something designed to slow your forces down and make it harder to achieve objectives (because you have to spend more orders getting through the terrain first).

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Just occurred to me: Tweaked Shadowrun rules (drop the magic) could make for a decent Infinity tabletop RPG.

I find a lot of similarities to the new X-Com games (Enemy Unknown/Within, 2, War of the Chosen) in Infinity.

For terrain, I would think that trying to replicate some of the forest terrain and even some of the city terrain of the latest X-Com games would prove useful for those who are looking for new terrain options. It would be a bit of a challenge, but quite useful to have trees and stumps big enough to provide a modicum of cover.

The main reason forest type terrain is often not used is because the rules make that terrain a little unbalanced. Namely because of MSV2 and how difficult terrain works.

Infinity is a short game relatively speaking. Most lists will only get 30-40 moves total per game. Which means that if your moves are getting cut in half due to difficult terrain its going to make playing it less enjoyable, as well as potentially unbalanced for certain factions that don't have many troops with Terrain ignoring rules. Which would lead to many games on a heavily forested table end up coming down to tie breakers or just killing each other.

Combine this with MSV2 being able to shoot through Forest terrain unimpeded means that on a board with a lot of forests an MSV2 Sniper is going to completely dominate the game. Which again leads to imbalance when you're dealing with factions that don't have access to MSV2 snipers or an effective way to counter one. Like Ariadna. Its kinda dumb that the faction which should thrive on a board with lots of natural terrain features instead gets its butt kicked because everyone else has units which completely ignore the line of sight rules, such that its basically MSV+Smoke every turn.

I always put down a few pieces of forest terrain to spice things up, but until Corvus Belli fixes some of the issues with the various natural terrain features it will be a rarely used feature.

IMO, we could use a rule saying that if there is more than 3" of unbroken forest terrain between two figures they are considered to be in Total Cover from each other. And that a figure or marker which is completely within an area of forest is considered to have the Cover bonus regardless of direction. This would at least keep MSV from totally dominating Forest terrain so we might see it used more often.

I'd just make some thick tree trunks out of Pringles tubes or similar, and use them to provide proper hard cover. Or rock outcrops, etc. Or apply the Nimbus rules to areas of woodland. After all, MSVs don't help you see through solid objects, so a model obscured by a hedge shouldn't be suddenly revealed by an MSV any more than if they were hiding behind a solid wall.