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Like the question says, I don't know anything at all really when it comes to Infinity. I was thinking of maybe starting.
How does the game play? Any similarities to 40k?
Thanks.

Much lower model count. What you have on the table is the equivalent in model count as an average squad in 40k. 10-15 models. However, they are all very different with very detailed abilities and weaponry.

The game itself is played like any other turn based game. Each player takes a turn moving and shooting and whatever with his models, then the other does. With Infinity, most models can share their activation with others, so you might have 10 models, but can choose to move/shoot 3 models with those 10 activations. This offers a lot of tactical flexibility, but can also be a pitfall.

An example is a game I had tonight - my opponent spent 5 activations getting a powercul CC model into combat with a powerful shooting unit I had and killed it. Because of this, he had a powerful shooting unit he didn't get to put in 'suppressive fire mode', and it died easily the next turn.

What makes Infinity different is the ARO, or Automatic Reaction Order mechanic. Any model that can draw line of sight to an activating model can shoot at it or perform some other actions. This makes cover and careful movement very important. The game is also very objective driven - you win by completing objectives, not wiping your opponent off the table.

 -Loki- wrote:
Much lower model count. What you have on the table is the equivalent in model count as an average squad in 40k. 10-15 models. However, they are all very different with very detailed abilities and weaponry.

The game itself is played like any other turn based game. Each player takes a turn moving and shooting and whatever with his models, then the other does. With Infinity, most models can share their activation with others, so you might have 10 models, but can choose to move/shoot 3 models with those 10 activations. This offers a lot of tactical flexibility, but can also be a pitfall.

An example is a game I had tonight - my opponent spent 5 activations getting a powercul CC model into combat with a powerful shooting unit I had and killed it. Because of this, he had a powerful shooting unit he didn't get to put in 'suppressive fire mode', and it died easily the next turn.

What makes Infinity different is the ARO, or Automatic Reaction Order mechanic. Any model that can draw line of sight to an activating model can shoot at it or perform some other actions. This makes cover and careful movement very important. The game is also very objective driven - you win by completing objectives, not wiping your opponent off the table.

Cool. Thanks for that.
Might look into it more.

To add what I forgot - the other thing that makes it different is the face to face roll.

When you shoot something, if they have line of sight to you, they can shoot back. So if someone moves, and you see it, you can shoot them inn reaction. They can shoot right back, initiating a face to face roll. Very simplified, you both roll to hit against each other, and whoever hits and rolls the highest cancels the others shots. The active model gets the guns full 'burst' (how many dice you roll to hit) and the reacting model gets one shot.

This can throw a spanner in the works when your elite guy steps ou and unloads a heavy machine gun, only for a grunt to cap him in the face in reaction by getting a higher to hit roll with his one shot.

There's better internal balance, so there is greater freedom to take whatever you want in your army and still be 'competitive'. There are of course some better units than others still, but its not as pronounced. There is still a lot of synergy between units needed which depends on the mission primarily, and to a lesser extent board and opponent. So as far as army building goes, once you get the general idea of how things go, what's needed for this and that etc, it becomes difficult to say whether list A is better than list B and so forth. How you use yours, your opponents there's and luck will have a greater effect. That's not to trivialise list building however, there's certainly still some benefit to discussion.

The order pool mechanic can be good and bad, depends on your view and how you use it. It allows you to make interesting plays and exploit small weaknesses and also shift a large part of your army from one place to another quickly possibly changing to flow of the game. At the same time, you may feel that you could just take a bunch of cheap fodder that simply provides orders to fuel a couple of very powerful models. It's a viable tactical option, but some see it rather strange and lacklustre to have a bunch of cheerleading models that will never be activated whilst one or two do all the work. Others see it as support staff, so you TAG or HI can go and wreck anything that challenges them.

Ultimately, you are trying to kill/incapacitate the opponents units and there are a lot of ways to do this. A significant amount of time in infinity is lent to getting favourable modifiers to do this. In warhammer there aren't so many modifiers that are gained on the table, whereas in infinity the majority are; weapon ranges, cover modifiers, low visibility zones, model facings. And of course there are unit attributes the contribute modifiers like basic skill, camoflague, visors and a bunch of others. At least all the rules and unit profiles are free so its easy to pick those up for reference material.

Cool. Thanks guys.

Most important difference between 40k and Infinity (I came from 40k to Infinity), that you don't lose the game the time you choose your army. In 40k if you are not buying the box for 2-3 specific armies, you are either lost already, or gonna suffer for your wins. In Infinity no matter what faction you choose, you can have a good and competitive army.

Infinity is well balanced, there are rarely useless units, even weak units can be really useful in certain situation, while in 40k in a low/mid tier codex 80% of the codex is pure garbage, and you can work with what remains to build a mediocre army.

In Infinity if you buy a box of something, you are set for that kind of units for life, maybe, if you want to use them a lot, you buy a second one. In 40k two boxes barely gets you a decent unit, and you still need proper special and heavy weapons.

Easiest way to find out, read the rules, the free rules, for yourself here http://www.infinitythegame.com/archive.php

I would start with the quick starter rules, and if you like that, move on to the main rules and everything else.

Thanks.
I've read the rules and I like it. Just have to convince some of my friends to maybe play.

Well you can pretty much make a 150pt army from any of the starter sets + maybe 1-2 blisterpacks. IF you order from online vendors, you can have a 150pt army for about $50, or ~30 gbp. Which right now is the cost of 1-2 squad box(es) for 40k.

Depending on the 40k models, you can also just use them as proxies for infinity if your friends do not want to spend that.

The average 150pt game takes 45min, a 300pt game takes about an hour and a half tops, hour average. So timewise you can get more games in than a game of 40k

Infinity has much more Z axis movement than 40k, and building rules are more steamlined, and existant.

It is more of a skirmish game than 40k, so no hordes of giant monstrous creatures, or large vehicles, or flying things.

I would say it plays more like a first person shooter, with miniatures, where your models are your side. Facing matters a lot. 40k your models can pretty much all be facing forward the whole time, and its fine, here if you aren't facing in a direction and someone comes up that way you may not be able to stop them.

as said before, infinity actually has no useless units. There are units that are more powerful, but even the less powerful units have a place and can kill things.

Another big mechanic not mentioned yet is the crit mechanic, because of critting almost everything has at least a small chance to kill anything.

If you can find a copy of the quick start rules from the 2-Player PanO vs. Nomads Starter Set, the 5 starter mission will help any new player understand the game better. As they break it down and teaches the core mechanics in a easier way to understand. If you can "find" a copy of the missions you can use models you own for a cheap waay to get your friends to try it.

Thanks guys.