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In my painting thread, I mentioned that I don't really have a wargaming community my area. About all we have around here is 40k and maybe Warmahordes if you're lucky. So, bascially if I'm interested in playing anything else, I have to rope my friends or family into playing them. I've been curious to try out Infinity, but nobody wants to play me. I've been thinking that if I pick up some starters, I might be able to talk them into trying it out. Are there any faction starters that would be good for demoing the game?

 Barzam wrote:
In my painting thread, I mentioned that I don't really have a wargaming community my area. About all we have around here is 40k and maybe Warmahordes if you're lucky. So, bascially if I'm interested in playing anything else, I have to rope my friends or family into playing them. I've been curious to try out Infinity, but nobody wants to play me. I've been thinking that if I pick up some starters, I might be able to talk them into trying it out. Are there any faction starters that would be good for demoing the game?

I would say pick two factions that you think would interest you the most. I only have experience with the PanO one, so I might be biased if I just say that.

Alternate thing as well is is try the quickstart rules and proxy some 40k models (you will only need about 3-4 to start with to get the rules down) before buying any of the starter sets. And the good thing is that it is relatively easy to buy into once you are interested.

Quick start rules: http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/uploads/Infinity-QuickStartRules-V1.pdf

Edit: Changed the link since it was a different one than what I was looking for.

For demoing i'd say most of the generic faction starter boxes are a pretty good place to start, except combined army and aleph. I would usually avoid most of the sectorial starters as they have a different mix of units and tend to have more troops with special rules etc so aren't as well balanced for running intro games. Hopefully you'll be able to get some more people interested!

Greeting

Using the same statistics for all models could also be worthy to consider. You focus on the basics, orders, movement, ARO and the importance of cover. You exhibit the other models as showcase and if potential player is interested to know more, you start to explain to him about finer details and what faction is about.

Older starter sets aren't really thought out, the miniatures they contain offer a solid start but aren't planned to fight against each other out of the box and the rules are rather complex. Myself started with three Fusiliers and Auxilia, it was more than enough.

It will be hard to build a community, especially with dominant scene of other games. I wish you good luck.

Could go say Ariadna and Pan o to pick the two kind of extremes in Infinity. Id just get some basic line troops of each with a couple of extra guys to showcase and throw one in to show the difference of the more advanced units.

 bantha_beast wrote:
For demoing i'd say most of the generic faction starter boxes are a pretty good place to start, except combined army and aleph. I would usually avoid most of the sectorial starters as they have a different mix of units and tend to have more troops with special rules etc so aren't as well balanced for running intro games. Hopefully you'll be able to get some more people interested!

The combined army box is a bit underwhelming I gotta admit. I use it less and less as I grab new models.

This may not be the best answer, but I'd recommend picking up any of the starter boxes for the main human factions, e.g. Pan Oceania, Yu Jing, Haqqislam (although this one is a bit of a toss up), or Ariadna. Not to discount Combined Army, Aleph, Nomads, or Tohaa but these four factions seem (to my eyes anyway) have many more units with special rules. Of course, each faction has plenty of models with special rules but based on the few demo games I've been running in my area it's easier for people to get it if you use models that are relatively similar stats wise and don't have a ton of special rules to them.

I'm a PanO player through and through, but I've gone a small group of Haqq models (only five or so) that I use to help with demos.

It's tricky trying to get 40k people interested in Infinity, believe me I'm dealing with it all the time. You may not be able to do this, but I'd strongly recommend getting the Infinity Art Book that released. I feel that it helps convey the feel of some of the factions better than showing people the rule books.

Best of luck!

Nothing wrong with Nomads as a starter force either. They don't have any more special rules really than the other human factions.

I sympathise with the OP - I had to really twist my groups arms to get them to give it a try, and only got two into it, and nother as 'feet first' as me. I've got by far the biggest collection, I'm the one making terrain, I'm the one learning the rules.

The others in the group I'm hoping will come around once they see the game in action on a good board, and I can readily recommend several factions to each of them if they show interest knowing what they like in 40k. The trick is getting them interested - they've always been the holdouts sticking to just 40k when the rest try other games, mostly because other games never stuck around before. I need to show them Infinity is not only fun, but established, growing and sticking around.

As has been said, go for any of the starter sets, coolest looking models for you to take priority! I think even the sets with a more special-rules orientated character included (the hassassin the bahram box, Onibiwan in the Jap sectorial etc.) are viable, and indeed I started out with the former when not knowing what the hell I was doing!

I was in the same situation of trying to get new people to play the game, and I won't lie in some cases it was difficult. Depending on the size of your gaming group, personalities etc. you will probably get a few people jump straight in and others who wouldn't play if Rick Priestly visited them personally and told them to at gun point!

They key is to start things small, make it fun, have enough terrain. You can even use proxies (and actually.. some have said this is a great way of sneaking in 40k die-hards to the concept of a new game) - the mechanics of this game will sell it to them no problem, the moment one of the guys gets gunned down when running between 2 buildings or a you keep a guy pinned down behind some terrain.

 -Loki- wrote:
Nothing wrong with Nomads as a starter force either. They don't have any more special rules really than the other human factions.

Nope, there's nothing wrong with Nomads. In fact, one of the guys who I managed to get interested might even start with them. I've just discovered that it's easier using PanO, or Haqq, or Yu Jing, or Ariadna. Mostly because I've been able to compare them to more 40k equivalents. But I certainly haven't shied away from the others. In fact, one guy who is definitely into the game is buying the Aleph starter box. So he's going with them.

 -Loki- wrote:
The others in the group I'm hoping will come around once they see the game in action on a good board, and I can readily recommend several factions to each of them if they show interest knowing what they like in 40k. The trick is getting them interested - they've always been the holdouts sticking to just 40k when the rest try other games, mostly because other games never stuck around before. I need to show them Infinity is not only fun, but established, growing and sticking around.

And that's exactly the problem I'm facing out here. There are no Infinity players. Zero. Big fat Goose Egg. Except for yours truly. I know one guy who is definitely into Infinity, but he's also big on nearly every game. Maulifaux (sp) has recently taken up a couple of people and WarmaHordes is nearly non-existent. The biggest out here is 40k by far. It even outstrips fantasy.

But with all that being said, once you can actually run some demo games and show people how it works....then I think you'll have more interest. Just make sure you have enough terrain. I may have to start investing in some for the FLGS as they don't have nearly enough.