What's to come for Infinity after GenCon?

I would argue that for each unit one player thinks its garbage another player will value it highly, I did a look for the units mentioned in the infinity statistics and they are in roughly 25% of the lists submitted, and to be fair there are units I find myself surprised they are popular so clearly some people see something I do not.

I will agree that the curation of the Generic (or Vanilla) to something else and not the current "you can bring everything you have in your collection" would be a nice and interesting change in the dynamics.

 

There's a lot that's garbage. But when all you have is garbage to choose from, it's gold.

At first I was thinking they could just do lower AVA for some troops in Vanilla, but now I agree it should just be gone. Some mercenaries too. I think the Cube Jagger is one of those garbage troops for example. They better not get rid of Beasthunters though!

Right now, I can see ISS being discontinued. They have not added anything new for years and other than Fireteam changes not much else as far as rules. They had the opportunity to do it with REF but decided that was not the direction they wanted to go. Now it’s more likely they are going to make a Korean sectoral, who in a few years will be taken away to join some other faction.

 

It would be really hard to sell a military police force as a rapid reinforcements segment of the Yu Jing, they do not have the numbers or the structure to be something like that.

It would be either Invincibles or something else, I am glad it was something else and Korean units got expanded, not particularly sure why a Korean sectorial though, White banner exists.

 

That's not a quote, that's a paraphrase. Saltiness of certain YJ players nonwithstanding.


Still, CB will have to address the problem - or, I guess, they have it addressed already, we don't yet know how.

At 43 playable armies (7 of them being officially out of catalog - but still formally playable) Infinity has a lot of armies IMO. A lot of bricks that need to fit together to keep the game playable.
Bah, with 43 armies, that's - trivia! - well over 1800 variations possible of the mere "what two armies can meet on the table" (43 times 43). And that's even before we get to possible list variety.

A lot of complexity to keep track of. Any new army will add to that complexity.
Sure, people wannt new stuff, they want it all, and they want it now But - mind the complexity. All the complexities...

...oh, and try not to piss off any and all the segments of your player base. Not just the ones who are very vocal on the forum - the quiet ones who will vote with their metaphotic legs (and very non-metaphoric wallets!) if they decide the company stepped on their toes, or they got bored.

There's one more thing I think I've been observing for the last few years: CB orienting itself more towards expanding its player base by making the game and miniature sets attractive to new players, rather than concentrating on the long-standing players. And while I might be a salty old grognard of Infinity myself, and this approach irking me at times, I must say - sad as it is - this approach makes economic sense, apparently.

 

Already retired?? Both boxes were fantastic sculpts!

 

welcome to Corvus Belli

 

(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)

...although, as I've mentioned previously, one that continues to evade us.

 

It has been a hard couple of years as a Haqqislam player. The number of new releases has been a trickle. If we are right that N5 is next year, we might have a whole edition without having one of our most used profiles (Mukhtar Red Fury).

With the wormhole expansion, this is the perfect time to bring back QK. A new Odaliques Box would be great. They are iconic Haqqislam miniatures and we definitely need new ones. Also potentially rebalance the Iguana and/or add the Gecko. That would be neat.

As for rules, there is definitely a need for some revisions. I don't think Haqqislam need new units, just tweaking of current ones. Like Korsans. Korsan, at this moment, add very little to Haqqislam and QK. In QK, they can only link to Kaplans and make the link unpure. They are at a weird price point for their abilities and are some type of regular warband. I cannot make sense of the light shotgun profile, (which is frustrating as it is the only model). I think that CB wants them to be the professional and trained pirates, so no impetuous or frenzy. Giving them smoke grenades and allowing greater linkability would go a long way to giving them a purpose.

For Khawarijs, after RAMAH, the solution seems clear: give them NWI. Right now they are the only Haqqislam super soldier program that doesn't provide NWI or a second wound. CB seemed to realize when they designed the new super soldiers (Mukhtar, Nahab, and the revised Namur), that players want their super soldiers to have resilience. That would remove their fragility and make people more willing to play them.

With the bulky models they made for Naffatuns, lean into that. Differentiate them from Ghulams, give them more armor, lean into as battlefield engineers with an Engineer profile, or default d-charges or grenades (Continuous).

And finally add some leadership skill profiles (+lt order, +command token, counterintelligence, etc) to Hazfa. At least to match the fluff as officers.

I hope that changes like those above would allow Haqqislam to shine. Looking at the Infinity Statistics page, ITS 15 has been real rough for Vanilla Haqqislam. I hope we fair better in the next season.

 

Well, I wouldn't be opposed to a new edition next year (or this year, either, to be honest).
Though I'd hope for a set of changes as fundamental as N2 to N3 change was.

Yes, some stuff that turned up in late N2 made totally no sense at that given moment - and started making sense once N3 dropped (eg. it was N3 that introduced measuring from the edge of the base to the edge of the base - before, it was from the center of the base to the edge of the base. And then suddenly 2gen Kum Bikers drop in, first models to have 55mm bases...).

Regarding the missing Mukhtar loadouts, I no longer care: I made my own :P

 

I agree that Haqq has maybe had it rough over the last few years in terms of rules support and mini releases, but I honestly think it's internal balance issues aren't especially unique. I think it's the biggest issue with the game as a whole right now, and something I'd love to see be the focus of the next update.

 

The Warcrow-themed week was during the launch of the preorder.

 

A studio update has just been advertised.
Auguste the third so Saturday which is a bit unusual and the time schedule looks more us based than Spain.

 

That Mukhtar in the video thumbnail is such a tease!

 

Finally.

 

Nice list, thx for the effort.

But: If you not glue the barrel of the AC Tankhunter you have a ML ;) so no mini needed

 

I agree.

Sectorials should be discontinued for the health of the game.

 

Things CB could (and might) do that would drive sales and keep interest in the game fresh, and which we might hear about at Gen Con:

- Create and publish a TAG-centric play mode, and release a lot of plastic TAGs over a short period of time.

I'd say this would be self-serving except their "something big for Gen Con" announcement with TAG silhouettes makes it seem a lot more likely.

- Fix Reinforcements and make a legit extra for ITS, mixed with normal armies as it was likely first intended.

See the BAMS fixes for Reinforcements, which are simple and workable. It's an easy path, and would help sell those Reinforcements packs even more. Reinf got the shaft for testing and promotion because of studio investment in WarCrow, it really seems like. Fixing that would not be very difficult, and would perhaps increase sales of several recent midsized-box releases across many factions.

- Redo Tohaa

Low-hanging fruit, seems like an obvious path.

 

The N5 is confirmed for October 2024.
The gencon seminar is underway, at the moment there are only blurry photos but the JSA reinforcement pack trail is confirmed with new troops arriving.