FicZone Seminar Recap

The FicZone Seminar delivered great news: Infinity 3rd Edition will come out later this year! Now that Beasts of War has finally uploaded their English seminar with Carlos Llauger (Bostria) we know more about the changes in-store for us later this year.

Corvus Belli

In the seminar, Bostria told us about Corvus Belli’s successful year, and discussed how the switch to digital sculpting affects design and release schedules. It’s much easier to design models now. Once they design a sculpt they can alter position and some little bits in the computer quite easily. This way they can release more sculpts than before since the creation is cut back from a few months to a few weeks.

Long story short: Why so many Bolts in two months? Because they can!

3rd Edition

The announcement of 3rd Edtion, or N3 as some already call it, is one of the biggest of the seminar. But what will N3 bring us? There are already a lot of rumours and people wishlisting and criticising the current edition. But we knew nothing for sure. Will N3 be a total redesign of the game, or merely a rewrite of the sometimes poorly translated 2nd  edition? Will it encompass the entire trilogy, containing Human Sphere and Campaign Paradiso along with the core rules, or just the first book? Will it announce new sectorials, new units? And what will happen to Acheron Falls, the already announced book containing the new sectorials?

Well don’t fret any longer! Bostria has finally answered all the questions in the English seminar!

What will N3 bring us?

First of all, N3 will NOT be a complete redesign of the game! Infinity will continue to be skirmish level; no vehicle rules will be introduced and there won’t be a major overhaul of the system.

N3 will be a total rewrite of the the current edition, including storylines. N3 will still be compatible with Human Sphere and Campaign Paradiso, which were both better translated and had a clearer rule-system than 2nd Edition.

The previously announced book, Acheron Falls, will be delayed because of N3. Bostria said that Corvus Belli decided to give the core system, the DNA of Infinity, an update first. They have become more experienced over the years, took feedback from the community and kept in mind that the rules could be better translated. And now, as one trilogy comes to an end, it might be the best moment to take a second look at the DNA of Infinity, the core system, and to make it better.

Bostria told us that Corvus Belli is looking to create a tighter rule system with no grey areas, just black and white. Taking out all the unclear wording and making sure the translations are better than the previous core-rules.

N3 will only replace 2nd Edition, and will leave Human Sphere and Campaign Paradiso untouched. There is no way that N3 will make the other two books obsolete and they are still a valuable buy especially since Human Sphere and Campaign Paradiso contain all the storylines from the ALEPH and Tohaa armies. Those armies won’t be featured in N3 since it copies the narrative of 2nd Edtion and both armies were not there in the timeline of the story.

For all the people who are anticipating new sectorials, the news of Acheron Falls’s delay might disappoint you. Luckily N3 will feature some new units to still the hunger. The new units from Tohaa and ALEPH armies will be added in a separate PDF available for download on the Official website. The profiles as well as new sectorials will be added to the upcoming Acheron Falls. The rest, like the NeoTerran Bolts, will make their appearance in N3.

Updating Line of Fire rules

N3 will feature a less grey system of Line of Fire (LoF). N3 will add new stats to units: base size and silhouette, and a template-system to determine LoF. Apparently the current LoF rulesleft room for too much debate. With the use of templates and a determined base size, N3 will solve those problems. It will also allow Corvus Belli to create more dynamic sculpts without becoming unusable in the game. We hope to hear and see more about this new system during GenCon 2014!

ETA?

We don’t know much about the release of N3 yet. Later this year could mean a lot of things. Today, but it might also be December 31, 2014. Right now, people are anticipating this year’s GenCon. It might be released there, but if not they will definitely deliver us more details and news!

Artwork! What we ALL want to see!

After that, Bostria talked about some hot and new artwork of new and resculpted units. And what will we see this year?

Yu Jing will get new HI models. The Terracotta Soldiers and the Yan Huo, a heavy fire unit with the rumoured shoulder mounted HMC and dual Missile launcher. Bostria also revealed that the Starter Set of the sectorial will become an all HI one! Sun Tze was also shown, while Bostria talked about how the model would become the template for other models of the new Sectorial. Apparently Sun Tze’s new profile will become a lot more valuable in N3. We’re not sure what he meant by that.

Ariadna will see the introduction of the new Kazak Spetznatz unit, a paratrooper or ambusher releasing in May! They will also get a resculpt of their Assault Pack. And Bostria showed us some 3D renders already! That gets everyone excited!

The Tohaa will get their aforementioned Nikaul—an ambusher as well, carrying a Viral Sniper Rifle and mines, with Symbiont Armour and a Sapper option. Looks like it’s going to be one tough as nails soldier!

Squalo resculpt was shown again. I hope it will hit the shelves in a few months now since it was already teased during GenCon 2013. PanOceania will also get the Bolts. They’ve already been released but N3 will give us their new profiles, and Bostria said the new rules would make them immune to retreat… Well, hello!

HaqqIslam will get Tarik Mansuri, as we already saw a couple of months ago. The Islamic Ajax. Bostria talked about how it would make a good diorama with those two models facing each other. Also more Kum bikers in a couple of months! Their bikes are designed in such a way that you can switch the back and front parts for more bike variation. Now that’s nice! Also the somewhat old and deformed Mutthawi’ah will see a resculpt very soon!

The EI sectorial is announced! The artwork of the Unidron showed the line infantry of that sectorial in three different colour schemes. Well, you can colour me excited about them! The artwork shows a good mix of technology and biology and the design follows the Skiavoros and Batroids we’ve already seen! They will be featured in the coming EI Starter Set.

ALEPH will see the last remaining model of the Assault Sub Section getting released! Thamrydis, the Aoidos. A hacker-journalist and the silver white hair strikes me as a reference to Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. I like these kind of references!

Nomads will get an Interventor update and they have announced the Tunguska sectorial. The current models are pretty old and their design doesn’t fit within the rest of the Nomads. They will be released in May as well, in a boxed set that comes with two Fast Pandas. Fast Pandas will be some Crazy Koala type that functions as a repeater. That’ll come in handy with the Hacking shenanigans of Tunguska!

A new Bootleg model was shown. An O-12 High Commissioner. He makes a great civilian model to use in some narrative campaign; kill the high official, anyone?

Next stop, GenCon 2014!

Well, that’s all we could recap about the FicZone seminar. I personally hope we’ll see more about N3 during GenCon 2014. Whether it will be more info on N3 or maybe, but unlikely a release of N3, we’re hungry for more!

Little heads-up for the Spanish speaking readers! A Spanish Magazine called Ravage will show the Quick Start Rules for N3 in July (Thanks, Yasbir for giving us this news!). Let’s hope it can be translated quickly for the non-Spanish speakers.

What do you think about the news? Are you as excited as we are? Looking forward to one of the announced sectorials? Tell us in the comment section below!

If you still want to watch the Beasts of War video, you can do so here!