A Beginners Thoughts On Infinity #1: Terrain

From our humble beginnings using lumps of 15mm Italian village buildings as simple LoF-blocking objects, to a more typical looking infiNity table; terrain has been my main preoccupation in order to enjoy a genuinely good game of infiNity. You can't escape the constant reminders that terrain is everything in this game, with the comfy world of Gothic ruins and gaping fire-lanes you're used to in another sci-fi wargame considered anathema in this game of reactive shooting and tactical model placement.

What you quickly learn is that what looks like a formidable set of buildings and scatter terrain, can turn out to be barely enough to clutter the middle third of a table without the judicious use of trees and hedges borrowed from a warzone 250yrs earlier.

 

What you also learn very quickly is that a pretty table to look at, doesn't always make a good table to play on.

The above photograph was taken of our first ever game of infiNity. 200pts played on a 4x4 board, between my Ariadnan force and James' Nomads. Although the table looked lovely, with a chocolate box layout of roads, trees and a careful approach to townplanning; it was horribly easy to move from one DZ to the other within a couple of orders, and thereby wreck absolute havoc within a first turn.

Similarly, advancing over the table led into long corridors of ARO friendly space that in James' case allowed for four or five cheerleader Nomad models to comfortably shoot sideways at any threat that advanced beyond their line of deployment. Equally for my camo-reliant Ariadnans, it also resulted in camo markers being caught out on completely open ground when starved of orders - easy meat for a rampaging Prowler and Co.

Now bare in mind the monetary value represented by just the building based terrain in that photograph and you can understand why so many people construct DIY scenery and papercraft filler for their tables!

After a first game that was nothing short of a massacre in a couple of very bloody turns, a quick shuffle of the scenery was in order and the results are much better if you can compromise on the looks:

 

Again there are some sizeable firelanes and zones of no-mans land, but the main core of the board proved much harder to dominate with a strong model. However the outer reaches of the board (left and right) were left largely empty as a result, compressing the action into the centre section between the two road sections. 

A week later, lessons learned and some additional board filler purchased, and the table looked a little more crowded and we're starting to put together a layout that will draw out the game into a longer match with more cautious maneuvering.

 

It wasn't a perfect layout - the DZ's still represent dangerous areas without large LoF blocking objects, but even so it forced the two forces to think much more carefully about use of cover and routes through it. For a number of turns, the Ariadnans were able to control the midfield of the board though the deterrent of a Zouave sniper and the overwatch offered by a Loup Garou and Mormaer. 

However what I learned is that whilst good cover can be a massive force multiplier when you enemy tries to plot a route towards you; it can also be a massive hindrance when you're over reliant on deploying in advantageous positions that become difficult to vacate later. However on the flip-side, the key role the terrain played in the outcome of this game was emphasised with a rampaging Moira unlocking a route through to my DZ with the dispatching of one key model, with a domino effect of deaths following rapidly afterwards.

As a beginner this showed me first hand the harsh lesson that if terrain is blocking my opponents LoF to me, he can equally use that to his advantage with careful movement to pick off my units one at a time with good use of corners and fire angles by ignoring obscured supporting units until he needs to deal with them, and isolate them.

I feel we are probably a couple of decent sized building or terrain pieces from a really good infiNity table. What you can initially and rightly celebrate as a cheap game system to get a foothold in, soon becomes a game system that requires investment beyond your models, to fully enjoy.