Hi. A long time ago I used to run a blog called Infinity Review, where I reviewed Infinity miniatures. I've loved Infinity's miniature line for over 10 years as a collector, painter and gamer, and my goal was to both share my praise, thoughts (and sometimes my frustrations) about these miniatures as well as encourage discussion. I had a lot of fun with the blog, but I've just been too busy the last few years to keep up with it. The new Morat Aggression Forces has made me want to jump back into reviews, mostly as a way to express my thoughts and engage with the model side of this community more. I've posted two new reviews, one of the new MAF Action Pack, Dire Foes and Tyrok and another of the Raveneye Officer. I have more reviews planned, and hope to return to reviewing infinity models on a regular basis! I hope you check them out, and I hope they spark discussion! - Jake (as a side note, I guess its time to update my blog logo)
New posts looking at the recent model previews from Adepticon and Roberto Zoreda's Anyat concept art, which includes the first visible female Morat face!
I enjoyed your writeups of the new MAF stuff and appreciated that you tried to judge fairly even when a model wasn’t to your tastes. After thinking about it a bit more, your comments about the “hunter” type units resonated with me, and the addition of the Tyrok’s skulls and pelts makes me feel much less negatively about the giant pelt on the new Raicho. Before it felt very out of context in the faction, but having it tied in better with other models makes me see it differently.
Marut is on fire and the Zeta is such a miss for me that I would consider proxy the two. As for the Morats the last iteration had some of my attention but that's all gone now with the new look. Hope MAF fans are happy. O-12 with the Raveneye is top notch. Thanks Jake for the write-up
Its hard to tell with any accuracy, but Morat fans seems split on the new look. Maybe that will change once more of the new range is out and the new aesthetic begins to cement itself? I really feel like the old designs were better than the new ones, but one or two killer models could really change my mind. Maybe the new Daturazi will do it. But it looks like those are a year away, and its hard to imagine they'll top the old ones. OTOH, I am seeing a lot of non-Morat players who dig the new models. I guess its not surprising that a range that left being the old Morat aesthetic would appeal to people who never liked that aesthetic anyway.
I feel you see this a lot with AOS; a lot of mixed feelings on new design directions for armies. I myself was really put off with what CB did with Military Orders and now look at my old models with despair. It's less of a problem because of how proxy friendly Infinity is but it still stings.
I feel you. Its interesting that Combined Army always sees the biggest changes. All armies have gone through visual shifts, but with the human armies you can still see a coherent design philosophy and aesthetic that goes back to the very first releases. For example, Military Orders changed a LOT of their designs, replacing (well, supplementing) the classic helmet and tabard wearing Order Sergeants with the new Croseirs and Trinitarians that both had fairly different looks. There were other big changes too. But you can still look at each of these models and tell at a glance that they are PanO and MO affiliated. There's no model in the entire Pan) line that doesn't look like a PanO model. In the case of Morats, Shasvastii and EI aspects each army has now received such a massive make over than they are barely recognizable. Shasvastii was completely reimagined, with only the vaguest connections to previous designs. The EI aspects kept their unique legs, but otherwise look totally different. Morat's physiology is still recognizable. Red skin, muscles and white hair. But put them in armor that conceals this and they no longer look like Morats. That Kyosat that everyone loves could fit in just fine in a Nomad, Druze, Yujing or O12 army with a new paintjob. I know people have had mixed feelings about each of these major overhauls. In each case I think the sectorial needed a modernization and visual update as well as new models, but I also think some of the unique character of those models was lost. The weird things with Morats is that they already got this major overhaul in N3, and it was really successful and well received. So successful that it launched MAF from the least popular army to one of the most popular. Of the three sectorial, Morats made it through their overhaul retaining the most of their previous flavor. In fact, I think its easy to argue that the N3 overhaul enhanced the Morat aesthetic instead of reimagining it. Morats continued to look like Morats, only more so. That's a big part of why this new overhaul seems so strange to me. They took something really well received and well liked and removed most of the recognizable parts to make something that, whether you like it or not, doesn't really bear much resemblance to what came before. I don't think we've ever seen that with any of the human factions, but its happened again and again with Combined Army.
Yeah, the current ei aspect design is a big turnoff for me, and those were faction-defining units for me.
I actually like the new EI units a lot, but I look back at the N2 Charontid, Skiaveros and Anathematic and can't help thinking that was the height of the EI look. Certainly some elements of that survived in the current models, but a lot of it went away. I lost my N2 Charontid a few years ago and haven't gotten a replacement just because I dislike the new ones so much.
I like the Batroid units just fine - it's mostly those three I was talking about. I actually like the new Avatar ok, but already have a painted old one (and I love how just bizarrely alien it looks) and don't anticipate running dual-Avatar lists any time soon. I have a painted N1 starter box Charontid from when I first picked up the game, but made sure to pick up the HMG Charontid when I saw it was being discontinued.
I'm sure that's true for a lot of people, and I can understand why. The truth is its hard to please everyone, and there's always a group that won't like whatever new changes come to an existing design.
I agree with you on the new Morat design. I haven't seen a new model yet that looks better than the old ones. And you're right on the fact that they just don't look discernibly like Morats anymore. Could be any species. To me, on top of it, they all just look too bulky, blocky, and comic-like. The paint job adds to it, with its very bright and colorful range compared to the old darker, more muted colors. Yellow is not a color that suits Morats imo.
I agree. The paint jobs are of course very well done, but the color choice is... not great. The yellow really a really uncomfortable combination with the red Morat skin tone. I do think Morats CAN look good in yellow though. over the years I've seen some really nice yellow armored Morats. But this color scheme is personally really unappealing to me.
Minor comment, I believe the stuff on the back of the Zeta is a winch to represent Climbing Plus, like on the old Nomad support REMs.
I never noticed that detail on the old REMs. Do you mean the Lunokhod? It never occurred to me that's what those circular things are, but now that I look at it its very obvious. Very cool detail. Thanks for pointing it out.
