EIC 2018 - Sea, Sand and Suppressive fire.

Here begins a report on a rather unique Infinity experience : The European Infinity Challenge.

Unique in its genre it is (as far as I know) the only Infinity event to mix a major competitive event (a Satellite tournament) with a 4 star Resort and Spa. I think everyone here has played in their fair share of back store gaming areas or stayed in hastily arranged accommodation for an out of town event. Going from that to an event where the gaming hall is one flight up from the bar and two flights up from the spa, well, it's an altogether different experience.


But let's start from the Beginning. Majorca is the largest of a series of Spanish islands that reside just off the country's west coast.

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Travel wise it has quite a spacious and modern airport that seems to connect to most European hubs through a variety of airlines including budget ones. I used a standard airline and got a return ticket for €150 which is pretty decent for a 2hr flight. Upon arriving in Majorca the event staff were on hand to pick myself and a friend up and off to the resort we went!

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The event took place on the northern part of the island, a vey picturesque sea side area called Pollença and the resort; Playa Mar, certainly came as a shock. None of us were used to dealing with such places when attending wargaming events! The Rooms are bright, spacious and well furnished with comfortable beds, blankets and pillows and I believe a good night's sleep was had by all. The grounds boast an outdoor pool area which, despite looking incredibly tempting, is slightly too cold in this season. If you were looking for those kinds of activities however you could always head to the spa below the main bar which boasts an Olympic length pool, Jacuzzi, Saunas and everything else you'd expect.

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Above the Spa was the main bar area where you could get drinks at almost any hour of the day and the restaurant across the outdoor area served a high quality and plentiful buffet morning, noon and night. The price for all this came to...270€ All food, drink and facilities included. Now I stayed an extra 3 nights so as to make the most of all this but if you just wanted to stay for the event that figure drops down to a paltry €150, an absolute steal if you ask me.

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Now why do I make a big deal about this? Because trust me, you're never going to feel more ready to face a tournament than this one. You can walk from your bed to the gaming hall in about a minute, you can get a meal quickly and easily with your friends and, of course, instead of mulling over your games on your way home, you can jump in the sauna and debrief with your fellow commanders. Trust me guys, THIS is how you want to be playing Infinity ;)


Outside the confines of the resort the island has a LOT to offer too. If you're a cyclist or a hiker then you're going to be in heaven. There's also a huge range of things to do from Caving to water sports and everything in between. As you may have guessed, the island is a big tourist destination in the summer and in the off season it seems like you can get some very good deals if you're interested. As I mentioned we stayed a day extra either side of the event or spent a lot of it Hiking and exploring the area around the hotel and we were certainly not disappointed. Another place to visit, which I did so before scooting off to the airport to return home, is Palma which is a beautiful place with museums, cathedrals and all manner of shops and restaurants to discover in its serpentine alleys.

(Also I'm pretty sure Ariadna is inspired by the Majorcan countryside and antipodes by the goats)​

You'll notice you've already read quite a lot of this now and I haven't even started to talk about the event itself. Once again, half the draw of coming to this event is the unique atmosphere it places you in. If you're looking for a pseudo holiday/gaming getaway, look no further. If you're looking for a gaming getaway where you can take the wife and kids, look no further. If you're looking for an Infinity experience unlike any you've had before, once again, look no further.


So the stage is set, and it's a pretty good stage if I haven't insisted enough upon that already, let's talk about the event itself:


The event was about 80 players, the majority Spanish of course yet even with a knowledge of the language on par with the average British tourist (ie speaking English to people but louder) I still almost never had an issue communicating with my opponents as luckily the majority are rather good at English (or at least better than I am at Spanish, which isn't hard).


The crew behind putting all this together ran a tight ship, despite having to not only organise the event but everything that went around it. The gaming hall was above the main bar area in a cool yet bright room that had plenty of space for all the tables and some to spare. The rounds ran on time despite the larger format (400 points) and there was always a judge to hand when we needed one.


The format itself was interesting with a variety of missions requiring your two lists to cover a wide range of requirements: speed for supplies, tough LTs for hunting party, not too many specialists for Fire Fight but enough to cover the other missions. 400 points was definitely an experience too. There's a LOT you can do with those 100 points and I personally found list creation a bit more challenging than just “tack 100 more points onto my standard 300 point list”. There are new synergies you can put into place and more shenanigans you can indulge in. It does require you to be able to manage big combat groups though (so Ariadna players will feel right at home) if you want to stay within the time limits. Even as a Pano player with all my toys I was still running 17 orders.




The tables were...special. They looked great and there were some fantastic pieces of terrain but some were a bit too much. To be honest I think this is the only gripe I have about the event. If you consider that a good table is a balance between theme and practicality, then some of these tables were far too slanted towards the theme. Now this is coming from someone who was running 9 remotes (6x 40mm bases and 3x50mm base) so my view is perhaps a bit bias but frankly some of the tables bordered on the frustrating with one being of them making it nigh on impossible for me to break out of my deployment zone with my medium bases. Another had a high wall across a deployment zone that just allowed you to pour fire down onto the rest of the board whereas another basically forced you to deploy on one flank if you didn’t want to run a coverless sniper’s gauntlet.


I do get the want to create interesting boards, I really do but I think that that it needs to be toned back slightly for future events. Once again though, that’s just my personal take on it. We discussed it a lot and some agreed with me, others may not, but such is the nature of a conversation ;)


Both days ran smoothly and when the final ceremony rolled round we were greeted with a treasure trove of prize support. I placed 27th and walked away with 2 blisters and some other swag. This was after having gotten a welcome pack loaded with markers, tape measures and patches! Those that won awards got cool stone plaques for their trouble too, a very nice little touch!


All in all guys, it was a great event, as most Infinity tournaments have the fortune of being. As I said before, the thing that makes the EIC so good is it’s unique setting that just makes it so exciting and relaxing at the same time.


Needless to say I will be going back, I will be playing more infinity there and I will be visiting more of the island. If this modest write-up has peaked your curiosity, then I encourage you to do the same come next March.


J.

However there is one thing I cannot explain out of all this:



This. I just don't know what this is.