Tips for Starting Infinity

 Penemue has written on the subject of teaching Infinity, advice starting the game, setting up the board and all sorts of spot on advice.  Sometimes you need another opinion and I found one on the Infinity forums. Manit0u wrote some advice that veterans might find controversial. It is an alternative perspective that I can agree with and I think it is important to show more than one perspective:

Choosing a faction is one of the hardest first steps since most of the stuff is awesome. There's also a lot of variety in the models and their possible utilisation on the table. All of that might be quite overwhelming in the beginning so here are a couple of tips from me.

1. Go for the looks - it might sound trivial but it will be some time before any new player will understand the rules, all the gimmicks and interactions before he or she can properly gauge model's worth in terms of gameplay. Also, some of the units are rather bad for entry-level games but shine in the hands of experienced players (Hafza for example). With all that in mind simply pick the faction that looks most aesthetically pleasant to you because you'll be looking at it a lot. If you're a GITS fan, like your babes & bots then pick Aleph, if you're more of a dark and gritty but still futuristic Appleseed fan then go with PanOceania. Stuff like that.


2. Start with a sectorial - I can already hear the voices of outrage from the crowd, yelling how that's not a good place for the beginner to start since there are so many new rules he or she we'll have to learn so on and so forth. Bear with me for a moment here. The reason to pick a sectorial in the first place is that you'll have a more limited range of models to work with, which is a good thing in the beginning as it'll stem some of the "there's so much" feel. This all translates into easier time collecting the models you need, learning their rules etc. After that you can always pick another sectorial from the same faction, learn it and when you're done with that too you can hop into vanilla with a wider range of models to choose from that you'll most likely have in your collection by that time.


3. Don't get disheartened - Infinity is a complex game with a lot of gimmicks. Games can be swung completely the other way with just a single play. It all might seem very random and frustrating in the beginning but as you gain more experience you'll start to see patterns in the chaos and learn to control it to a degree. That's the point when you start to "get it" and you're on the path to enlightment and lots of fun. Also, don't get discouraged if you lose a lot in the beginning, you must take lessons from that and you'll see that as you keep playing your results will improve. The bottom line here is that Infinity is a game of skill and experience, there are no "I win!" buttons in it, no uber lists or units (some units might be considered a bit overpowered but they're not "be all, end all" stuff by any means).

4. Learn the rules - you should learn the rules by heart. In the beginning keep checking and double-checking them, make a habit of reading the wiki, FAQs and forums to expand your knowledge and understanding of the rules. If you get confused just ask, there's plenty of people around here who can and will help you out.


5. Take it slow - many people have fallen into the tarpit of trying to go for a 300 point ITS list right from the get go. Don't. Tailoring a tournament-legal and competitive list takes a lot of knowledge and experience which in the beginning none of us had. Start small, with games of up to 100-150 pts with just a couple of units that have difficult special rules (like stealth). When you feel comfortable playing like that bump up the limit to 200 pts, start introducing more complex units and scenarios. Then go up to 250 and 300 points as you get the grasp of things. In more lively areas teeming with Infinity players you'll probably be able to join a progression league, do that.

6. Make some friends - get to know your local players, they'll be able to help you out in the beginning with rules clarification, borrowing minis you'd like to try out and all the other things. A note of warning though: please refrain from asking experienced players questions like "Which unit is the best" and similar things. You probably won't like the answer you'll get and annoy them