So I can't be the only nerd who has named some of his infinity figures. Thanks to ingame fluff of cubes, our dudes can get offed everygame, get loaded into a new Lhost and come back next time. When my Aleph troops go through Lhost bodies like some people change clothes, it seems natural, and doesn't concern me. (Ajax in particular seems to burn through them at an alarming rate, at least the way I play him) However when Fusilier Merpati's Lhost count reaches double digit territory, it starts to feel a little silly. So do you have nameless mooks everygame? Or do you have personalities that show up often? And if so, how much of your spec-ops unit budget is spent on replacement Lhosts?
I keep only a roster of nameless mooks. One of our meta's most (if not the most) talented terrain builders has started writing names on all of his dudesmen, including keeping a small list of failures and accomplishments.
Nameless mooks don't get LHosts, you just get issued a new one volunteer from the endless pools of regular forces. Also, consider that "killed" during Infinity mission doesn't necessarily mean actually killed, just "mission killed". Many of them will have wounds that could be healed in matter of hours; they're just no longer useful on battlefield.
None of my mooks have names, mostly because I never considered naming them, but also because I would feel obliged to write a backstory to every one of my ~200 models if I did, and I don’t have that kind of free time.
Indeed, or even just not useful for the remainder of this very short firefight, rather than for the battlefield as a whole. A game of Infinity would only be a few minutes.
True, 'dead' doesn't necessarily mean dead, but when that 1 wound trooper just took a crit from a rocket launcher, I think we can count him as really dead, and in need of a new Lhost.
Appart from the named characters, the only one whom i've given a name in my nameless Aleph army is my posthuman. And since she's a digitalised soul switching l-hosts at will, it's not really a problem :) I may consider naming my asuras too, but i won't name any of the others. They don't need names :)
I have names for some. Sometimes. In short term narratives. As for official named characters, I actually don't see them as such, but rather as membemembers of small elite unit trained and eequipped just like that one person.
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the units in an Infinity list would likely never see the face of many of the other members after the mission. Especially with line infantry, a lot of the members of an Infinity team are just the closest available units/agents and aren't necessarily part of some kind of cohesive operational team that goes out on multiple missions. Some may never even see combat again, returning to their post after debrief (especially the cheerleaders folks providing OpSec in the back).
I like to think that my Sierra Dronbot is always the same one, painstakingly rebuilt by José the Machinist after every battle.
So far I have for Ikari because they just beg to be individual like that. Fat Yuan Yuan: The Red Baron Female YY: Bad Candy Brawler (Ayyar with pistols): Death Gun Bounty Hunter/Desperado: High Hand Wu Ming HMG (the leader of the WM): Lu Kang Clipper dronebot: Boomer
I've always had 1 converted up vet kazak if only because my first game of infinity involved a lot of vet kazak rip and tear with an APHMG. Once the new mini came out I wanted one to stand out as an LT or at least a special snowflake, because that mini is a nightmare to simply repose. So this is the 3rd generation of Alexi, my main named mini. As for how he survives untimely ends from everything from viral to explosives, without a cube. No idea...
Well, the only models I regularly name are the ones I'm using for my Ghost in the Shell theme army. The Major, Batou, Pazu, and Boma are all high% or full body prosthetics, so as long as their Cube didn't get trashed, they're good to go. Togusa and Saito don't have a lot of prosthetics, so they might end up in trouble if they get shot (but we have seen both get taken out before in the series). Tachikomas just go back for structural analysis, they're unkillable in any permanent sense. Though I do have a model for my Nomad Hellcat POV character for the Wotan campaign still lurking on my desk for assembly and painting. That one is really mostly for fun (and figuring out how to paint combat damage), Hellcats tend to die really quickly. I may name some troops for my planned Invincible Army force, and will likely do that for MO. Kazak Vodka!
Wait, you managed to get José The Machinist on your squad? I heard that more than once, a remote pilot has been bribed to deliberately trash their ride just so the rest of the crew can watch José fix them again - is that true do you suppose, or just another part of his legend?
That's actually a nod to the fact that the Machinist is a self portrait by staff sculptor Jose Luis Roig. I believe Jose not only won a Golden Daemon with a converted A'Bad'Un the Despoiler, but it was featured in the 3.5 edition Chaos Codex! I can't find my copy to check though so I could just be going mad.
My troopers all have names and I even know some of them... They do not have elaborate backstories, but they have very elaborate personalities. And they have opinions about each other...
This is what I assume. Infinity engagements are typically extremely fast, and forces (in my mind) are typically backed up by a substantial amount of ‘off table’ support. Combined with advanced medical science, I figure most “kills” are actually just “mission kills” as Nemo puts it.
Yea, a few of my models are named characters in my mind (see Specula Killa, my Interventor LT). I figure my LTs have a few assets that they like to use if circumstances permit, and I name those models.
Over the Christmas break, I met my cousin’s 5 year old for the first time, and thought she was just about as delightful as a five year old girl could be. The gift she was most excited about was an Equestria Girls expansion set. I soon learned that the set was kind of like Beyond Ice Storm, for Operation: Ice Storm in the Infinity univers, but for the My Little Pony universe, wherein Equestria Girls are at once your traditional pretty girl dollies, BUT who are also kinda horses; as in, with cute ears and tails... Now, I didnt want to judge her because A) Ariadnan Dog Warriors, the Su-Jian, and Transformers generally, natch; and B) I liked the cute horsey ears on the girls (what can we do; we’re only men), but Why i memtion this is that within a few minutes her dolls also had names, elaborate personalities and opinions about each other. In fact, to the extent that she seemed to know more about her dollies than I did about her. All of which which might say something about the lure of the internal fantasy world over the complexities of real actual people, but I’m not judging you either, Daniel; believe me I’m not judging. I’m just saying.
A number of my dudes got names during the Beasts of War campaign. I needed some names to make the battle reports more interesting. A few others have earned names by going above and beyound, and performing memorably on the table top. (If a lowly line infantry takes out an enemy TAG single-handedly, that might earn a name. If a Swiss Guard takes out an enemy TAG, and half the enemy team, no name for him, that his job!)
