Rules Changes

   The Wait is (Almost) Over!!

The long wait is over and the first copies of Operation: Icestorm are starting to circulate, along with their much-anticipated Quick Start Rules (although, as  already pointed out: the rules that come with the starter set are NOT the Quick Start Rules, but specific starter box rules – even though they do overlap).

In this article we’ll take a closer look at the starter set rules. What do they bode for Infinity’s 3rd Edition?

The starter set rules are specifically designed for the starter box contents and serve to teach the game without going into too many details such as MULTI weapons – hence, everything is extremely basic. No pistols and everybody is wielding a “Knife” – including the Reverend Healer and Father Knight.

The rules are broken up into mini scenarios with objectives like “Kill The Spektr” and each successive scenario adds a few more rules as those minis are introduced. Great for beginners, and probably fun to run through for veterans as well!

Most of the big rules changes were already leaked by our popular Infinity retailer and user IJW. Additional rules changes are being released via Beasts of War. Let’s take a look at these gathered tidbits, shall we?

1. Shiny, Cap’n!

The Lieutenant and Loss of Lieutenant rules have completely changed. Spending the Lieutenant Special Order now immediately reveals the Lieutenant, and at the same time Loss of Lieutenant only results in your units being Irregular for a turn, with a new Lieutenant automatically being chosen at the end of the turn.

Interestingly, armies featuring Irregular warbands and the like will be a lot less susceptible to Loss of Lieutenant. Certain rules such as Religious will almost certainly have to change; it’s entirely possible an all-Religious army could totally ignore Loss of Lieutenant!

Bostria has confirmed that the Lieutenant Order is only spent as a normal activation Order, i.e., move, shoot etc. He has hinted that a lot of the old functions of the Lt. Order – Link formation, Guts Roll passes – will be taken up by something new… perhaps “command” tokens. Again, he stressed that everything must be taken in full context of the revamped rules.

2. I don’t believe it… thermo-optic camouflage!

The rules for Combat Camo have changed from being an attack with a Normal roll  and the defender getting to shoot back only if they survive to being a Face to Face roll with a -3 modifier for the defender. Now, this makes combat camo a bit less lethal on both sides, and it allows camo units to take on tough, multi-wound targets without getting squished after failing to penetrate their armour.

In certain situations, e.g. versus Multi-Spectral Visor troops with their own camo such as Nisses and Intruders, it’s a bit less effective and a bit more dangerous.

It also allows the possibility of a Dodge roll for situations where a unit cannot possibly contest the shot due to high modifiers (say against a TO Camo model firing from long range), or where the controlling player just wants them safely out of the way. This rule change will make camo much easier to play – there are endless threads where complex Combat Camo interactions are discussed. Now, no longer. It is possible that Parabolic Fire attacks and GML attacks may be modified to use this rule, as well as attacks through smoke. Thermoptic (TO) Camo doesn’t seem to have Hidden Deployment anymore – possibly a rules simplification for the starter or a way of reducing the mental bookkeeping and playing with a unit that “isn’t there.”

3. I SEEEEE YOOUUUUU

Multi-Spectral Visor Level 1 now reduces all camo modifiers by 3. So, CH:Mimetism and CH:Camo skills confer no bonuses as before and TO drops from a -6 modifier to a -3 modifier.

Bostria has also confirmed that this will work against ODD – watch out, Myrmidons and Reverend Moiras!

Instantly, MSVL1 has now become vastly more effective, and given the poor Ariadnans a much-needed leg up against their high-tech foes. MSV L2 remains the same, whilst MSV L3 receives a slight downgrade, now needing to Discover just like the other visors but rolling on a 20, essentially an automatic success. Despite what the English rules say, the +0 range for Discover is 8-32” – the Spanish version has the correct range in cm.

4. We’ll need guns… lots of guns…

Several weapons have been seriously revamped. Gone are the confusing 4 inch range increments. Grenades got a LOT more useful with a 0-8” range of +3, instead of 0-4”. Now speculative lobs over common types of terrain (such as Micro Art Studio’s iconic District 5 apartments) will be possible.

The Pistol now becomes the default ARO weapon for many factions – bumped up to 8” with +3 it now slots into a nice close range option. The new “Breaker Pistols” should have a huge damage potential according to their description.

Whilst the Combi Rifle has retained its 16” +3 range, everything else has pretty much taken a knock in the 0-8” range, with HMGs and Sniper Rifles knocked down to -3. Even the Spitfire now has a 0 bonus at short range. Finally it makes sense for those models to have their pistols drawn!

The shotguns have an amazing +6 to hit at 0-8” – giving them a brand new life as assault weapons, camo hunters and bodyguard units to protect vital areas from close assault. Everything is in multiples of 8” (including Discover), making it much easier to remember each weapon’s characteristics.

5. The net is vast and infinite…

BTS is now a positive number. Not only that, but several units have had their BTS bumped up – the Interventor now has a whopping 9, the Spektr has been bumped from 0 to 3 and the Grenzer has a very comfortable 6. The new Father-Knight has a whopping BTS 9 as well. It is not yet known how these will affect hacking rules but they will simplify the learning process for new players.

Bostria let slip that Hacking will have many more uses in 3rd Ed, than it had in 2nd.

6. We are just too pretty to die

All units now have a Silhouette (S) value, which basically is used for when there’s a discrepancy over Line of Fire situations – a simple template stuck behind the model. It makes much more sense as units are constantly moving around and there’s no reason why a crouching Spektr should enjoy better cover than the sword-swinging Galwegian: it’s already reflected in their stats. This should make those inevitable disagreements about “I can see you, can you see me” a little easier. It’s still not clear yet in the starter rules whether you still need to see the model or a head-sized chunk of the Silhouette. I suspect this will be clarified and it will be the Silhouette you need to check.

7. How do I take the safety off?

Heavy Infantry have probably see the most drastic revamp so far. The humble ORC and Mobile Brigada now have a turbo-charged 4-4 MOV and a price drop! MULTI weapons have been drastically reduced in price, making previously unaffordable units much more attractive.

Other small changes have rippled through units; the Akali now sports an E/M CCW, some stats swapped around and the Nisse has gone to plain old Multiterrain. Alguaciles now sport Cubes but that puts them in danger of being Sepsitorised… or does it?

8. Drive me closer so I can hit them with my sword!

Knives are more pointy. Doing PH-1 damage now, by itself it doesn’t indicate much. But one can speculate as to the increased emphasis on CC in 3rd Edition.

As in, making Ninjas Not Suck.

The Father-Knight profile gives us a clue: an ARM 5, BTS 9 powerhouse, he packs a nearly unheard-of CC value of 23, a Double Action Close Combat Weapon, a Boarding Shotgun, a mysterious weapon called a Breaker Pistol, possibly a nasty B1 weapon for AROs and CC. All for 49 points, and yet it seems that he’s not Impetuous nor does he have the ever-popular Frenzy trait. Throw in the new skill, Kinematica, which adds +1 to Dodge values (seemingly now constrained to 2” for everybody) and you have a very, very different beast to the kind of units we’ve seen up until now.

9. Express elevator to hell… going down!

Combat Jump is still pretty much the same, but the scattering mechanism is much simpler.

In the starter set rules, if you fail your PH roll, the model is place in your deployment zone, at one of the board edges. This is likely a simplified rule, keeping the reduced playing area of Operation: Icestorm in mind.

Bostria has revealed what the “real” Combat Jump rule will be like: roll PH to see if you deploy successfully, roll another D20 and use the new scattering template to see which direction you go in. Scattering is always 16” for Combat Jump.

Infiltration, in the starter rules, similarly requires a PH roll but now a failure sees your Infiltration unit wind up back in your own Deployment Zone. In the “real” rules, it remains to be seen if this is the case.

These new rules make wild “fail well” outcomes (in a tournament I ran, a Tiger Soldier fluffed his AD roll spectacularly, wound up in the enemy DZ in a prime spot and shotgun-templated half the unfortunate PanO army to death) less likely whilst similarly punishing aggressive infiltration or combat drops: a failure is pretty much going to land you somewhere where you don’t want to be, be it in your own DZ or else in the middle of nowhere!

Assessment & Speculations on Gameplay:

These rules so far have all seemingly made the game much, much simpler, particularly for new players learning it. This is a good thing, as Infinity has become a very complex game and it’s quite easy to sneak in with a TO Camo Ninja, kill the obvious Lieutenant with a Combat Camo attack whilst MSV L1 units fire blindly in panic. There will probably still be issues like the “throw a smoke grenade to protect my buddy” problem of multiple Face to Face rolls.

The new weapon ranges now mean certain weapon loadouts are going to need support: the days of an HMG-wielding Heavy Infantry wading into the enemy’s DZ and killing everything whilst “cheerleaders” look on are all but gone. You will now want a Combi Rifle along for the ride to cover the medium ranges and personally, I’m going to be keeping a shotgun around for close encounters.

We know that Multi weapons will be cheaper, but not how they will work, nor even how ammo will work (Bostria hinted at substantial changes to the ammo rules – hopefully they will be SIMPLER!). I expect that gameplay is going to be a lot more tightly balanced, with that trademark tension every time you agonise over your move. Send the sniper into a better firing position, but risk getting assaulted at close range? Deploy the shotgun troops close to your sensitive assets, or send them in to hunt camo?

Given the profiles we’ve seen and the new units released so far such as the Spetsnaz, with its anomalously high CC score and new Ambusher and Marksmanship skills, we can expect some pretty big changes. Pointless weapon loadouts are no doubt going to be dropped and interesting options substituted in.

The Akali’s E/M CCW is extremely interesting, giving the Akali a whole new opportunity for use. Now it can disable TAGs and take on Heavy Infantry in CC, giving it a reason to get into CC. Hacking also will no doubt take on new, quite possibly unexpected roles – perhaps something to do with those “command tokens” hinted at, plus other possibilities.

With points reductions for a lot of units, but basic troops staying unchanged it will likely mean that low points games will be a lot more interesting. You can get more options straight out of the starter box, and work more tricks into your games whilst still having a reasonable number of Orders.

Close Combat will now finally be “A Thing”. It will probably mean that it will be more effective to a Ninja to swing her CCW and slice a sucker in half than fumble around with a Combi Rifle.

All the confusing Martial Arts skills will probably just fall away in favour of raw CC scores and specialised skills, like Berserk and the interesting Assault rule. You won’t be able to simply charge in with hordes of models in the face of fully automatic entrenched weapons fire, like certain other games – but you should at least have a good chance at chopping up that Fusilier should you get the chance.

You can also afford to be a lot bolder with your Lieutenant – how bold still remains to be seen.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the proposed rule changes. Let me know in the comments below!