I really don't understand the sadness for Ariadna. Not just because I don't play them but also because i've played against them and they seem fine to me. They are not out of balance. They GOT balanced. It's too bad they no longer have their OP bears and stuff but it happens. IS just came out and it's kinda disappointing we got nothing OP! It's not nearly as exciting as Torchlight, Bakunin, or Morats. Right now the game is pretty fun. I'm enjoying the changes. I wasn't having fun in N4 with YJ because they sucked for me, so I moved to O-12 and had a lot of fun with them. Now N5 has made a lot of YJ fun again. But as said, if you don't like it, don't play it. Hopefully the new rules bring in new people to replace.
As stated many times, Ariadna now have to play with the other rules (15 figures) and never got redesignet to fit that troop cap, aditionally to not having the same tools than the other factions. (No mim -6, no hidden dep, low count of MSV and only Lv 1, suboptimal hacker, no combat jump, mediocre tag, not many multiwounds troops, etc etc). Since day one, Ariadna flavor was, we overcome technology with numbers. Now they are nothing. And the little things that still make Ariadna different, like T2 ammo, now are everywhere in the human sphere, without getting nothing in exchange. We were the orks and now we are forced to play like high elves. (i heard this, never played WH)
You realize your meta can ignore the cap right? Is everyone constantly playing tournaments or something? If you are playing for fun, house rule it. Even tournaments can ignore the cap. It's like no one knows how to fun without someone else telling them how to do it.
yes, we only play ITS, even if casual, but always ITS. And many players dont know the limitless era, so dont want to try. And what's the point of ignoring the limit locally if worldwide is the opposite?
Infinity Dante made a reaction video. Buffs, Nerfs, and Changes for the ISS Update Initial Reaction - Infinity the Game N5
Wish I was in your player group. Would love to try a game of N5. I’m not certain that saltiness in general is responsible for the lack of players in my area as Wales in general has always been relatively thin on the ground and my player group were among the larger groups. It certainly hasn’t helped though. I have no doubt it’d be fun to play. Alas I’m left with no choice but to wait patiently and paint. Because it’d be fun to do? Because it’d add variety to your in house games? If you’re playing casually there’s nothing stopping you from doing pretty much what you like, as long as you all agree to it.
Spain is a small country and i can travel from time to time a weekend to play in Madrid, Zaragoza, Bilbao or Vigo. And all of that comunities have different metas, but also something in common, that only play ITS, because ITS is the way to play Infinity. Also, it will be nice to have opponents willing to play with that rules, but all players here follow the ITS rules like a religion, but only if standard. No spec ops tournaments, no merc tournaments, no free mode. Only vanilla Infinity. In rare ocasions, we manage to play an ITS tournament with house rules, like 0 SWC lists or something like that. It's the curse of having prizes and rankings. People usually dont want to left their houses for a whole day or weekend if they are not getting some rewards. And Infinity tables are usually too big to have space at home to play (shatterpoint or Killteam are much easier to play in your kitchen table), so we usually only play in tournaments. If anyone wants to play randomly a not ranked match, adult live excuses come in (i have GF/child/dog/work, im tired or whatever) (All of this is my experience here since i started playing in 2012, not saying is a universal situation. If you can play twice a week, good for you)
If people liked "free game"(the official ITS term for limitless number of troops game), then tournaments would choose that extra. I've heard some Soldiers of Fortune or Resilience Operations tournament, but not a "free game" tournament. And to be honest, as one who started Infinity in N3 when "tactical window" wasn't there, "free game" time was just painful to play for some factions. My local community looks OK for now. Not as well as late N3-early N4 before Covid hit, but it got a lot better than N4 after the Covid. With the release of N5, people got interested again and we are having a good escalation league right now. N5 have some issues, but the game right now looks pretty fine and balanced, and CB is working to make the game better (like, they changed Nourkias). Ariadna and its sectorials might having a hard time right now. However, as most of you would know, USARF renewal is confirmed. Maybe that's one of the reasons pushing buffs for Ariadna to later update. Sure, we don't know when it is and what that would look like. But I feel it's not too far away, at least within a year (I mean, before Adepticon next year). It could be something like Bakunin, adding bunch of new troops to existing profiles, or something like Kestrel from Aconticento, new profiles inherit and improve previous profiles and getting new stuff. Or, the MO update, which nobody loves.
I’m sorry but I must completely disagree with almost the entirety of this statement. For a start… Spain is small? Really? From what I can recall it’s pretty large. Certainly larger than the UK. About twice the size if my memory serves. More power to you for being able to travel its length and breath at will. I’m pretty certain the travel time between some of the cities you’ve mentioned is at least 3 hours each way. I certainly wish I had enough money to city hop like that. ITS is THE way to play Infinity? Hmm. I’m sure that the majority of us have played ITS and continue to do so (assuming your player group haven’t abandoned it like mine) but I would strongly disagree it is the definitive way to play. I will stipulate that it is certainly for tournament gamers but for others not so much. Some of us come up with insane scenarios (or at least we did). If people didn’t leave their houses unless they were getting a reward it’d be a very strange world. I frequent my games club not for prizes, not for fame nor for glory but generally to see the look on my friends face when he loses a coveted miniature to the fickle whims of the dice gods. Also to socialise with like minded individuals and generally to have a good time. Which I suppose is its own reward but it’s hardly going to pay the bills or put food on the table. As for tables… what houses have you played in that don’t have space to put an infinity table out? I mean you can play small games easily enough with the mats and cardboard scenery. With standard and larger takes a 6x4 may be required but it’s not likely to be. The whole point of a tabletop game is that it’s meant to be played “on the table”. Even tables that are created with bespoke scenery can be played at home. As for playing a random, non ranked match? That’s all I used to do. I got complained at in early N3 when on my old account (password long forgotten and email unused for aeons) for doing otherwise by some in this community who have since moved on. I will begrudgingly agree that adult excuses not to play come up. But that’s both tournament based and general matches. That’s because we’re adults and we all have lives. We can’t spend our waking moments doing nothing but wargaming. If I was able to play Infinity currently (I am able but no one in my area wants to) then we’d likely be playing a 300 point random, no prize, unranked game on a table in my kitchen or my friends house. If more of us wanted to we’d go out and game at our FLGS.
On trips of more than 300km, I can't even find the motivation to go beyond 10km with my metro. Last show for Wisekensai & The Dice Abide. Late Night Wargames - Episode 166: That's All Folks For consolation, La nuit étoilé by van gogh in style diorama infinity and cosplay cyberpunk : Spoiler: La Nuit Etoilée by Van Gogh Post: https://x.com/Sepia317/status/1901324214378053789 Post: https://www.bureau-aegis.org/forum/index.php?msg=220875
1: Yeah, from where i live, i can get into the car and be in Madrid in 2 hours, Bilbao and Zaragoza maybe 3. I love to drive, so no problem. 2: That could be a reason. We dont have here Infinity Clubs. All existing clubs (and stores) are GW centric, to the point that even if we pay for a table at our FLGS, it could be canceled at any moment if some GW players want to play. We even cut relationship with another shop because, even asking him 6 weeks earlier about organizing a tournament, the owner didnt bought the prizes
No way. Even from the start of N5, the clear lack of tools in Ariadna is painfully patent. But having gone from playing Ariadna exclusively from the start of the edition as prep for a satellite, and then branching out after, I have never felt so empowered in this game after switching off from them. If anything, my opinion on the faction has worsened considerably in that context. Ariadna is trash right now. Their kits are woefully outpaced, their profiles are overcosted and unoptimized, and their listbuilding is absolutely scuffed. I don't believe that it's an issue with the 15-man cap (the cap is fine, and it's better for the game than its absence by miles). It's a deeper issue that's rooted in CB both not having an interest in the faction, but also CB not knowing what to do with Ariadna ludonarratively in a game where the toolkits are increasing in potency as a representation of developing technology in a faction that has an identity built in how behind that curve they are. They've been left behind in getting what everyone else got, and then they also had a lot of their unique kit given to and done better by those competitors, too.
Distance is relative, the distances I hear from the US community they casually do to go play a game is going half the country or indeed all the way to the other side of the country for me...
Some of us want to play Infinity the game, not a strange variation with a mishmash of other rules... Tabletop Simulator (Steam) is on sale atm, I think. 10 bucks (half price until tomorrow, in fact), cheaper than most of the new CB models. Year of tohaa! Not pointing to USArf dissapearance, just pointing that the Year of Tohaa was "officially called" several times... So yeah, CB's concept of time may differ. You may remember the old meme "(c) soontm" I live in Madrid (central Spain) and the real limit is that speed is capped at 120km/h, with no margin (so they can use certain type of radars...), otherwise I can reach almost anywhere in the mainland in less than 5-6hrs. Also, most of the important tournaments are played in Madrid, cities on the Mediterranean Coast, Zaragoza, and some northern cities. Then there's the high speed trains, and the plains, so you can get to Galicia in 2 hours or so (less than half of that is with the plain in the air). The problem with comparing Spain with the UK is, first, that most of Spain is empty; second, that most of the primary cities are quite well connected, third, that the country is roughly "regular" (a square/circle) Vs UK's elongated shape, so it can take time. Also, it's a matter of commitment... You can cross France from South to North in a day with ease nowadays, and it's quite larger than Spain or UK, I think. TLDR, it's not the size, but the distance/time/connectivity what matters here, I think. No, it's the most popular and standarized way to play the game, which means people want to play that way to practice for competitive games. Even "campaigns" and "leagues" are played with official ITS rules over the core rulebook here. I agree other options would be great, but it is what it is, and at least in Spain most people are after the miniatures, not other games (I mean, Defiance is still being sold on secondhand markets for a pittance... but it's just the cardboard, all models are gone). Not in Spain, unless you live away from the city, in which case taking the car tends to be needed to reach you and play... Madrid measurement: half an hour in the tube/bus is "very near", one hour is "standard". If there's no traffic and you have no circulation limitations (due to the car not being allowed etc...) it's about 1min/Km on average when driving outside the city. CB tends to leave behind any and all not-currenty hot themes, yes. The problem with Ariadna was that Kosmoflot was a megamix of condolences of sorts, and everything else had been left to rot. I mean, I started more than 10 years ago, and the USARiadna big box was the starter of the faction... somehow they never really grow them like the other factions. US is... another beast entirely, I dont' think any of us non-US have received driving classes in highschool, or that the car is kinda like a total need to move at all.
