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Hi,

I've never played infinity, and know very little about it, but I thought I might give it a try. I came across the operation red veil box and thought it looked a good buy, with the low model count balanced against a colourful scenery pack. Is it a good place to start playing the game, or is there a better route in?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

It's a good way to buy in. There's also the Ice Storm box which might still be floating out there that has Pan Oceana and Nomads instead of Haqqislam and Yu Jing. So just depends on what factions you want.

Also, the starting faction boxes these days all tend to be pretty good setups to start too, so don't feel too constrained by the big two player boxes.

If there's two of you who want to split the contents of Operation: Icestorm or Red Veil, then go for it. Otherwise, just buy a starter box of whatever faction and a scenery pack each.

Operation: Icestorm isn't a limited release, so no need to worry about it "still floating out there"; it's easily available if you want one.

The Haqqislam and Yu Jing starter boxes will be available separately from the Red Veil box soon enough, as will the scenery pack.

 JamesY wrote:
Hi,

I've never played infinity, and know very little about it, but I thought I might give it a try. I came across the operation red veil box and thought it looked a good buy, with the low model count balanced against a colourful scenery pack. Is it a good place to start playing the game, or is there a better route in?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Along with Operation Ice Storm, there's no better way to get into Infinity. There are 5 missions in each box, each one adding a few new rules (in some cases, simplifying or omitting more complicated rules from the full rulebook, and even from the units themselves). So the first mission just has you playing a couple grunts with no special abilities. Then they add some deployment rules and heavy units. Then camouflage rules and advanced deployment. Then snipers. Red Veil is a little more complicated than Ice Storm, having a little bit more variety in weapon and unit types. By the end of the last mission, you will be playing close to the full rules, but you'll need to download the free rulebook from the website to get the full experience. You'll also need a few more units to get up to the standard 300 pt size, but you'll be more than halfway there.

The cardboard scenery is also excellent, though I like Ice Storm's a little better. Red Veil's buildings are a bit more fiddly to assemble. You can use the cardboard boxes that Infinity units come in to support the buildings, but Red Veil doesn't include any while Ice Storm includes two. Red Veil also required the box's interior foam on top, as the buildings are just a little bit taller. You can also stack the Ice Storm scenery to create two (or more) story buildings, using one of the cardboard boxes as a sturdy connecting piece. But Red Veil's scenery does include catwalks. The cardboard scenery can be purchased separately (for about $10), and it takes about 3 additional packs to fill a 4x4 table.

So yeah, if you are interested in Infinity, the Operation boxes are absolutely the way to go it. I recommend picking which box you get based on the factions you find interesting, but as I like both PanO and Nomands and like the scenery just a little bit better, I think Ice Storm is my preferred choice.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
If there's two of you who want to split the contents of Operation: Icestorm or Red Veil, then go for it. Otherwise, just buy a starter box of whatever faction and a scenery pack each.

Operation: Icestorm isn't a limited release, so no need to worry about it "still floating out there"; it's easily available if you want one.

The Haqqislam and Yu Jing starter boxes will be available separately from the Red Veil box soon enough, as will the scenery pack.

It's important to note that while Icestorm and Red Veil are not "limited releases", there is a model within each(the Corporate Security Unit[CSU] from Icestorm and the Yuan Yuan from Red Veil) which is exclusive to the earliest printings of the boxes.

Additionally, it will not be that soon for the starters from Red Veil to be available by themselves.

Cheers for the input all. I'm more than happy to buy one so that I have a second faction for others to use, no one in my gaming circle plays, but a couple are interested. I'll have another look at the contents and choose once I've settled on a faction I like the look of.

Thanks again

Edit ordered red veil

 Kanluwen wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
If there's two of you who want to split the contents of Operation: Icestorm or Red Veil, then go for it. Otherwise, just buy a starter box of whatever faction and a scenery pack each.

Operation: Icestorm isn't a limited release, so no need to worry about it "still floating out there"; it's easily available if you want one.

The Haqqislam and Yu Jing starter boxes will be available separately from the Red Veil box soon enough, as will the scenery pack.

It's important to note that while Icestorm and Red Veil are not "limited releases", there is a model within each(the Corporate Security Unit[CSU] from Icestorm and the Yuan Yuan from Red Veil) which is exclusive to the earliest printings of the boxes.

Additionally, it will not be that soon for the starters from Red Veil to be available by themselves.

You missed out the fact that there's models still in the sets that will only ever be available in those sets. Pan Oceania Father Knight, Nomad Reverend Healer, Yu Jing Ninja and Haqqislam Al Fasid.

Those units will get models released (and in the Ninjas case, already have models released), but not the specific models in the box. So even if you decide to wait and only grab, say, the Yu Jing starter, if you liked the Ninja in Red Veil, you'll need to either find someone who wants to sell theirs or grab Red Veil anyway.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 JamesY wrote:
Cheers for the input all. I'm more than happy to buy one so that I have a second faction for others to use, no one in my gaming circle plays, but a couple are interested. I'll have another look at the contents and choose once I've settled on a faction I like the look of.

Thanks again

Edit ordered red veil

Good choice. An important part of Red Veil is it's actually balanced in regards to points. Both sides are 180pts and 2.5 SWC (Support Weapon Cost, a secondary points value that limits the amount of big guns you can take). Ice Storm is not balanced in this way. So Red Veil out of the box is a little better for demonstrating the game.

If you want a little extra, either next month or the month after, there will be a 'Dire Foes' set released that has a Haqqislam and Yu Jing character in it. These are both 20pts and are intended as an expansion to Red Veil, bringing the game to 200pts. They each play a little differently and add something new to their faction. There's also a civilian model in it and a new scenario for using that civilian as an objective, and you can also use it as a HVT (High Value Target, essentially an objective marker in any game).

The Pan Oceania and Nomad starters were available in January-February 2015, after Icestorm was "released" in September- Otober 2014. I suspect that the Yu Jing and Haqquislam starters will be available this coming January-February 2017.

Nonetheless, Red Veil is a fine way to start. And while you are waiting for your order to arrive, have a look at some of the resources available to Infinity players. All sorts of downloads here: http://infinitythegame.com/archive.php -- including the complete rules (You'll want the rulebook and the Human Sphere N3 rules) the tournament scenarios, markers (so that you can print out your own) et cetera.

But the best thing is the Army Builder here https://army.infinitythegame.com/ So convenient. If you look under the options tab, and close the printing options, you will see an option to download a version of the Army Builder for off-line use.

Thanks Loki and Red Harvest for that, I'll definitely pick up the expansion and check out those links. Appreciated

Well it arrived today and I have to say I'm impressed with the contents. Very impressed actually with the thought that has gone into it. Thanks again for the input, and I'll be sure to post some pics on my p&m blog when I get some paint on them

And if you're really happy with Red Veil, you've got the "Zanshi" box coming out in October to add on to your Yu Jing side and the Djanbazan box available now for your Haqqislam side.