Infinity April 2012 releases

This months releases.

So once again Corvus Belli have dropped their monthly Infinity releases on us. They actually did so on Wednesday via their Facebook Page, this being a new tactic they seem to be employing to stop the weight of rabid fanbois crashing their own servers every time they post something up on their own website. So I'm a couple of days late to the party so to speak, however, it's a bit of a tradition on this here Blog to talk about such things on a Friday, plus I really wanted to pour over the changes to a certain units profile! More on that later though. This months Angel Giraldez 'leak' was the lovely looking Hospitaller Knight Father-Officer Gabriele De Fersen... try saying that after a night out on the lash!!! So he seems as good a place as any to start.

Gabriele De Fersen (or Gabby for short)

OK when this was Angel's 'leak' this month I got all excited. It's actually quite rare you see for Angel's official unofficial leak to be the best miniature that month... but Gabby is utterly splendid. I can't empahsise enough just how cool it is to see one of the Pan-O knights sans helmet. There is a level of badassery in his pose, standing there helmet off surveying the battlefield looking for the next target. There's a lot of highly dynamic poses in the Infinity range and then there are the ultra static kickass I'm standing here deal with it poses too. Gabby is sitting somewhere nicely between these two extremes. He's not leaping over a barricade or standing there motionless and nonchalant, there's minor movement in his sword and rifle arms and that's mirrored by the ripples in his tabard. So I like the look of yet another Pan-O miniature... curse my eyes!!! What's he like on the tabletop then? Well he's a bit of a beast with his CC 17 and BS 14, he's a spitfire totting, AP + Shock CCW wielding meanie!!! It doesn't get any nicer if you're not a Pan-O player either, he has both PH and WIP 14, ARM 4, BTS -6 (that's good) and to top it off the git has 2 wounds. He's also unsurprisingly a religious trooper and has Martial Arts L3... all this for 65pts and 2 SWC? Yes please.


Yu Jing Support Pack

First things first, I've always liked the Yáozăo Remotes and I've always like the Zhanshi Gōngchéng or mech-engineer or the one with pink hair for those of you not into Infinity... but I've always felt that the Zhanshi Yisheng or Doctor was always a little bit average for my tastes. Not a bad miniature, just not the sort of miniature I'd want to go out and buy. Then there's the fact that I already own all of these miniatures and have done for a few years now. So on the one hand I could see this release as a bit of a bitter disappointment, even though the miniatures are quite nice, and I would except for the following exert from the Corvus Belli press-release:

"...Thinking ahead to the upcoming Campaign rules and missions in which they will be very useful..."

Now as far as I'm concerned I sort of blanked out after reading that line with what the rest of the stuff they were saying. Simply put the missions and campaign book must be close, and that arguably makes this boxed set the most exciting news this month. No seriously!!! Any way, what are they like once they're on the table? THey're pretty bog standard sorts of Doctors and Engineers the two of them really. CC 14 and BS 11 means they're not totally helpless. PIH 10 is painfully average but the WIP 13 means they're not totally useless at their chosen professions of either medic or engineer. The rest of their stats are as you'd expect, poor. The engineer comes with D-Charges and both cost a measly 15 points. They're worth that in my opinion. It's the Yáozăo Remotes that are the stars, with G: Servant meaning they can be linked to the other two and can use their skills elsewhere on the battlefield, and Mimetism means they're not totally helpless when they're trying to get their. For 3pts each they're a must.

Hellcats

Ah yes the infamous Nomad Hellcats... I'm a fan of these bad boys when I'm using them... not so much when it's others in control of them it has to be said. Then they're just mean! The other thing I like about the Hellcats and the Tomcats for that matter is the aesthetic style of them. They just look cool. Boarding Shotguns are also pretty cool too, and they tend to look pretty sweet on the mini's that carry them, so the question is has all this cool being crammed into one miniature paid off? Oh HELL(cat) yes it has. So far this is my standout favourite single miniature this month, just pipping Gabby. While totally in keeping with the previous Hellcat sculpts I'm a sworn fan of there are just so many nice little extra touches on the armour and back pack of this particular Hellcat. I also love the pose as it looks like they're actually swooping in to land, which is just awesome. Brilliant sculpt. So why do I like Hellcats so much in game terms? Firstly the Hellcats have AD: Comabt Jump, which means you can drop them down onto your opponents when they least expect it... that's always fun. As they have Courage they also don't need to take guts rolls after passing ARM tests. Here's the statline though, MOV 4-2, CC 14, BS 12, PH 12, WIP 13, ARM 2, BTS 0 and 1 Wound. Now with all those nice looking stats, skills and with a Boarding Shotgun and a 20pts and 0 SWC why wouldn't you? Their standard availability is 4 but in a Corregidor Sectorial you can have 5. I like them!

Dasyus Sniper

I like the look of the Aleph aesthetic, but I've often wondered whether what I actually like is the clean crisp white and neon purple glow of the studio paint jobs. I've started to question it a little bit as I try to imagine painting my Aleph in any other colour scheme. Maybe it's just that Angel has done such a great job capturing the studio artwork that's it's difficult to see past their iconic look. Then along comes the Dasyus Sniper. My instant reaction was hmm, he's standing on a piece of scenery... when will they learn? Second was, is he planning on firing that sniper rifle while he looks so off balance and awkward? Who knows? But as awesome as all the detailing and little touches are, I'm not totally sold on what should be another kickass option for the Aleph force. Obviously I'm annoyed about the bloody lump of scenery he's going to be carrying around with him the most... but the stance, I don't know. Any who I'll be taking one of these in certain Aleph builds and here's why. They are Infiltrators with TO Camouflage, No Wound Incapacitation, which means they're a tricky sniper to deal with. The BS of 12 isn't too bad and with that Multi-Sniper Rifle he should be popping heads easy enough. They don't come cheap though at 48pts and 1.5 SWC.

Odalisques

So onto the final release this month, and it's a second boxed set, this time the Odalisques. This release will no doubt open up the debate yet again that Corvus Belli and indeed Infinity are an affront to our Muslim brothers and most importantly sisters. They're showing a bit of midriff and aren't exactly wearing ḥijāb or more precisely any form of head scarf or khimār. What's my take on it? Well actually there is a historical precedent within the Muslim world or perhaps more accurately Turkey for the appearance of Odalisques, or to give them their Turkish name Odalık. They were the servants to the Sultans concubines and are actually quite a deviation from their historical roots... although they would have been taught in the art of seduction. However, there's a far greater there's for showing a bit of flesh from this part of the world and North Africa, it's called belly dancing and seen as part of that tradition these mini's fit in fine thank you very much. Besides, not all Muslims believe the same things, just like not all Christians believe the same things... so... lighten up people it's an anime themed bloody wargame played with toy soldiers!!!

Now after that little 'discussion' has hopefully been headed off at the pass what do I think of the sculpts? Well only one of them, the Odalisque with Boarding shotgun has been seen before, and as a sculpt I quite like what they did with her as opposed to the bizarre crouching spitfire version that I just don't like. Thankfully the other three new sculpts are more along the lines of the boarding shotgun sculpt. In particular I absolutely love Odalisque Contender the way she's standing, hand on the top of the gun sliding a new cartridge into the chamber, awesome looking. The Rifle and Light-Shotgun version striding forward purposefully looking down her sites is also pretty cool looking too and there's a certain sense of sass to the way she's walking. But it's the slightly bonkers looking, John Woo-esque, Submachine-Gun (more on that later) wielding Odalisque that wins the contest just for me. She looks brilliant gun thrust out before gansta stylie. I love the pigtails and the fact that the hair sweeping back like it does makes it look like she's moving purposefully forward as does the cloth around her waist, they're all really nice sculpts for me. Corvus Belli had another surprise for these miniatures though, they've changed their profile...

So lets take a look changes to that profile list more closely! Now for the Boarding Shotgun and Spitfire variants there has literally been no change. However, the Rifle + Light-Shotgun variant now has a nanopulser too for no extra, which is pretty sweet! But here's where things get really interesting, there are now two more variants. Now I have to be honest when I first saw these two new options I made my confused face. I'd never heard of a Submachine Gun weapon option before and wasn't aware it existed, and I had no bloody idea what Fireteam: Haris L1 meant... and if Corvus Belli had their way I still probably wouldn't. So what is it? Well Haris L1 means that in a sectorial army I can take a further Link Team in addition to my normal Link Team, as long as the extra Link Team has a trooper with this skill. L1 allows me to take a link team of upto 3 Odalisques, I'll be talking about that tomorrow!!! The Submachine Gun too stumped me a little at first. At first the Submachine Gun had me stumped too, I mean my Devil Team Army Builder has been refusing to update now for weeks, and I couldn't find a Submachine Gun in either rulebooks, but hey you can find it in the updated downloads section of the Infinity website. So what is it? Well it's a Burst 3 Damage 13 weapon with shock ammunition that isn't E/M Vulnerable. Sweet. Its short range is 0 - 8"(where it gains a +3 BS modifier), its medium range is 8 - 16" (where it gains a +3 modifier) and its long range is 16 - 24" (where it recieve a -6 BS modifier). In short it's not a bad weapon at all.

So what about the Odalisques usual skills and talents then, you know the ones I actually know about and understand? Lets look at their profiles first shall we? MOV 4-4 is a pretty standard movement for light troops, and CC 14 is none too shabby (and even better when linked with a skill I'll talk about later). BS 12 is around the average mark for Infinity troopers but on the slightly high side of that bell curve. PH 10 is not so grand, but WIP 14 is pretty darn good as is ARM 2, the BTS 0 is what you'd expect from lightly armoured troops... it's pants. They have a single wound and a normal Haqqislam force can take 2 of them, meanwhile a Qapu Khalqi sectorial force can take 5 of them. The skills that are worth mentioning include the very handy No Wound Incapacitation, which means on receiving a wound they don't go into an unconscious state, but instead carry on until they receive a further wound that kills them. They get a choice between Sixth Sense L2, which basically mean sod all is surprising them and they don't apply -6 modifiers to such rolls, or they can take a 360º Visor. This means the miniature has a 360º LOF and can shoot all round it and see things all around it, unlike the 180º vision normally afforded to Infinity troopers. The choice is yours. My favourite skill though has to be I-Kohl L3, this confers a -9 CC modifier to all opponents in base-to-base contact with an Odalisques. That CC 14 isn't looking too bad now is it? I liked the Odalisques before hand, but those two new options and the Link team thing makes them a must for Qapu Khalqi players.

So what do I think of this months releases? Well they're not bad. I'm sure Aleph and Nomad players will be happy with the extra sniper and boarding shotgun options respectively. I'm pretty sure many Pan-O players will be pleased to see Gabby as well, I know I am... even if my bank balance won't be. Then there's the Odalisques, which I'm sure plenty of Haqqislam players will be as pleased as punch to see, not just Qapu Khalqi players. The most disappointing yet exciting release this month though just has to be the Yu Jing Support Pack, yeah the miniatures have been out for ages and most of us will already own them no doubt... but it's the promise that the mission / campaign book isn't that far off... high pitched girlish squeal. Can't wait. Peace out!