Bite Size Nerd IV: The New Future
A while back I mentioned that Infinity was going to have a new version of their game come out this year, and over the last few weeks, their has been a flurry of activity around what these changes will bring.
Infinity is sticking to the time tested version of edition change, and has already done all the work. Unlike Warmachine, Malifaux, D&D and numerous Kickstarters, there will be no public beta test of this edition. I think this is a bold move, in the modern age of minis games, but not one without its perks. The game is built buy a Spanish language company, but a large portion of its community are decidedly not. While this includes the USA, it has a broad appeal across Europe. This has created problems with translation to other languages, including English, obscuring the original intent of rules. The decision not to let the community test the product signals confidence in the product that they have, it also signals that they don’t feel they need the community input to make a balanced, enjoyable game. It also shows that they feel they have achieved a very solid translation, and I hope that they have achieved that goal. I think one of the defining traits of a good minis game is the tightness of the rules set, and Infinity, while good, has a ton of growing room in the clarity department. I don’t like arguing over obscure or strangely interpreted rules in any system. I have high hopes for N3, something I try to keep myself from doing.
These are the changes I have found and/or been exposed to:
- Combat Camo – What used to be an unopposed shot will now be an opposed shot, but the target suffers a -3 penalty on their return fire. Almost all the math shows that this is a nearly lateral change. Before, you could only shoot back, with no penalty, if the sniper completely missed, you now get a chance to defend yourself, but with a penalty. While it is a lateral change, it does make the game easier to explain and more enjoyable to the defender due to rolling v. not rolling.
- Capped Modifiers: Supposedly, all modifiers are being capped at +12 and -12. I don’t think this is incredibly common, but in a game that can stock mods, making shots impossible is something to try and avoid.
- Ranges are being changed, and though I don’t get the particulars and nuances of the numbers, many people smarter than me are extremely enthused. Changes of note
- Double effective range of grenades, from 0-4″ to 0-8″
- Double the bonus of the shotgun at short range (+6) which is the only gun to achieve the +6
- HMG’s have reduced good ranges, making other guns stronger chouces.
- Sniper Rifles are stronger at long range than they are now, and also the penatly maxes at -3, which X-Visors ignore.
- Climbing: Climbing is now a long skill that does not require a roll, no longer being betrayed by the dice and plummeting to your death.
- Discover gets a minor range buff, now being +0 at 8-36″
- Measurement: Ranges are now measured from Edge to Edge, instead of Center to Edge.
- Silhouette LOS – When determining LOS from/to a model, you may use a pre-determined silhouette instead of true LOS.
- Inaction: A rule that allows you to activate a trooper/model but they don’t do anything. It just forces an opponent to declare ARO’s
- MSV1: reduces combat camo and TO camo by -3
- Kinematika is a new skill, that adds 1 inch further with every ARO Dodge, and has levels
- BTS: is now a positive stat, like all the rest.
- Smoke: A model touching smoke is considered part of the smoke cloud its touching. I assume that it simply means that he is completely concealed, not that his base can conceal others.
- And, my favorite change:
- Loss of Lieutenant – The loss of your LT will no longer cripple your order pool and loose you a turn. Instead, each model becomes Irregular, only able to spend orders on themselves. Using the LT order will now also reveal the LT. You also get an auto-promote of a new LT
- The dispersion template has been changed in N3 too, it now has ten scatter directions instead of eight – the 9/10 and 2/3 results have been ungrouped.
- Finally, there are some significant changes to models points and stats here, but they are of factions that I don’t really understand the significance.
One Comment
Jonathan Polley
You know I’m super excited about the new Infinity edition. So far almost all of the changes have addressed items from the list of fundamental issues I compiled a while back.