Hey guys, Maybe it is my imagination, but I kinda remember that a few years back during GenCon event Carlos mentioned it would be cool to have a Fantasy Infinity. Anyone ever heard anythign similar? or I was just day dreaming :-)
"War Crow" was in fact an Hystorical based Wargame by Corvus Belli, maybe even BEFORE than the very first miniature of Infinity was ever conceived; had not seen them in any capacity, but honestly never cared much for. . . But even considering JUST the N4 Rules it could not be too much of a stretch on imagining something with MANY CC Specialists, Ranged Weapons limited to "Sniper Rifles" and "Marksman Rifles" with REDUCED "Burst Value" (reimagining them as "Magic Longbows" and "Relic Heavy Crossbows") and reskinning Hacking as some sort of "Battle Magic" (immobilizing a HI could be considering "Using Ice Magic to Snap-Froze the Plates of a Knight Full Suit" ???) and basing "Fantasy Racial Stats" on Biotech (Haqqislamite Runihura, Nomads Animal Implants, Shaasvastii "Visceras" and Tohaa Technorganics). . . They have redone ALMOST all Aristeia Characters with a "High Fantasy Skin" so there will be even SOME yet extant minis to tryout something. . .
War Crow was actually their 28mm fantasy line that came after the original small scale Ancients CB cut their teeth on. I regret not getting the goblin monk. They did mention a Fantasy game during a Gen Con seminar a number of years ago, they showed a number of ideas on post it notes that they'd like to do someday. They included (in no particular order): Aristeia! Dungeon Crawler TAG Deathmatch Dogbowl REM Racing Space Combat 15mm Mass Battles Fantasy Plus maybe one or two I've forgotten about. The good news is that they're already 3 games down with Aristeia!, Defiance, and TAG RAID. The Dog Bowl fan game that was played at Interplanetarios became Takkure, which just had a successful Kickstarter.
It was during the 2016 Gencon seminar. Photos start here, courtesy of @Cervantes3773 https://flic.kr/p/JYnRq3 10. Red veil expansion box 9. Remote racing game 8. Infinity deathmatch 7. Dogbowl 6. Aristeia 5. Infinity dungeon crawler game 4. Acheron Falls rulebook 3. O-12 army pack 2. Operation Whatever: Combined vs Aleph 1. New Corvus Belli fantasy wargame Quite a few of those exist now!
If I'm seeing correctly, then *almost all* of these have been done. I have no idea what "Dogbowl" should be, but you guys already said it morphed into "Takkure" (whatever it is...). I don't know anything about a REM racing game - but that seems like a bad idea anyway :P Aside from that? Beyond Red Veil - done. Infinity Deathmatch = TAG Raid, I think? Aristeia - done. Infinity dungeon crawler = Defiance. Acheron Falls = Daedalus Falls (?). O-12 is up and running. CA vs ALEPH pack could be in the works soon. So... the countdown is finished. Now it's time for... drumroll!... Eternity: the Game! (seriously, I'll lease this name to CB, if only they promise to actually make this game) Oh, and they should also make Insanity: Horror Skirmish Game. Please!
Eternity the game already exists. Twilight imperium. Unless you meant something that doesn't take an eternity to get through the game?
I would love it if they did fantasy game. I'd like it if they still used the d20 and face to face and ARO mechanics. They could almost "invert" the burst of weapons. Shooting weapons have a burst 1 and CC have attacks 1-5. Smaller weapons being faster but causing less damage, bigger are slower and cause more damage. There's a lot they could do with this by just starting with some core mechanics. Face to face rolls ARO d20
Armor stay the same BTS become armor against magic. Magic would work in a way like Hacking. Instead of different hacking device you have Magic school. Every school has particular spells (program).
I like that. There's a lot that can be done with that. Some spells would need to have rolls, some automatic. Then other enemy spell casters can make a face to face roll to "Dispell" the attacking spell, or put up a magic shield, etc.
The problem is, the ARO mechanics are specifically geared toward a game with lot of shooting and other ranged attacks. In a game with a bigger focus on melee combat (which a fantasy game would quite probably be), they would be much less useful...
Maybe. I think it could be good against shooting of Arrow, bolt, magic, etc. Definitely needs testing though.
I'm thinking hand weapons (opposed by ballistic weapons) could go like this. Light hand Weapons: Burst 3 Club, Dmg PH, Stun Knife/Dagger, Dmg PH+1, Bleed Medium hand weapon: Burst 2 Staff, Dmg PH+2 Sword, Dmg PH+2, Bleed Mace/hand Hammer, Dmg PH+2, Stun Short spear, Dmg PH+3 Large hand weapon: Burst 1 Large Sword, Dmg PH+3, Bleed Spear, Dmg PH+4 Bleed would be sort of like fire. Must keep making ARM save or PH, or take another wound. Stun would do something like make the next attack at -3. Magic weapons could add to DMG, to CC, or other special abilities. I'll admit though I'd be more enthusiastic for the figures. To me Frostgrave is closest to Infinity: Fantasy.
Stat shuffle weapons aren't all that interesting, always leads to the same sort of paper/scissors/rock mechanic. I reckon fantasy infinity is pushing a square peg into a round hole - its doable but its probably gonna break on the way in and end up with a mediocre product. If doing it, I would highly recommend two changes; firstly, give a limited range to CC weapons, like 0-3" depending on the reach of the weapon. This would lead to a lot more decision making and room for abilities than a fixed B2B system. Secondly, by god, make dodge automatic if it is not opposed. I'd argue you probably need tactical awareness or impetuous or something on everyone as well. Melee games are about threat ranges and having multiple models in position for support etc more so than Infinity is with it's action movie rambo approach. I don't think the order system as is is a great fit at least until the two forces close in. And if the order system and the ARO system are both mismatches for a genre.... is it going to lead to a good final product?
The main things I care about is d20s, face to face, and ARO. Everything else can be totally different.
Interesting. I'm all in on the order pool idea. Orders, ARO and F2F are the defining features of the game imo
It’d have to be single figure based, not formation vs formation. Just the mêlée, or in air combat terms the “post merge battle”. Fireteams out, but g:sync would work if more broadly applied. Combined orders would be a good fit and a powerful resource. Should probably remain limited as in N4.