Multiple times I have heard about Infinity complexity getting in the way, ranging from veterans getting tired of "yet another new rule" (you know who you are) to recruiters having issues to teach new players or keeping the local group engaged (ditto, and I hope we could revive some groups). So what about a reduced set? Think of plain soldiers against plain soldiers, or classic Double-Zero scenes, with a bunch of mocks and only a handful important and capable super-agents per side. Thus a core of basic principles of such games: * Focus in AVA Total units. * Reduce points, 100-200. (And remember to have fun.) That could be not enough, or not spicy enough, (or more probably, not defined enough for some,) thus extra conditions could be needed, some examples: * Hard limit to AVA Total only. Plain war. * Limit to 1-5 (pick a small number) of other soldiers by some condition (anything but TAGs, or only LI-MI, or only WB, or only Characters, or only Spec. Trained Troops and Elite, or only HQ, etc), all the rest must be from AVA-T. Yeah, use Troop Classification. * Impose a % of points (75-50% must be AVA-T, or AVA-T and WB, etc). Similar but less prone to "TAG and cheerleaders". Yet that could be nice, "tank (and hanful support infantry for orders) vs heroic full platoon". * Remove Fireteams. No coordination between green troops. * Remove Hacking and Pheroware. Keep shooting. * Remove Skills, or subset of what they do (eg: Camo only gives the MODs, no marker tricks). * Disallow CC. Pistols at dawn. Shoot more. * Remove Weapons. Be glad everyone still has Rifles. * Remove Ammo types. Supply lines are tight. (To be clear, it's not about all of the above, but some of them... or maybe just the none of these extras and go with the core ones. Some of my proposals can be totally absurd, but get the ball rolling.) Profiles/skills/items removed (eg: hackers without hacking) don't get a discount (don't pick them or just enjoy the fun with a handicap of some points... if you are so good at winning and that is what matters, you can do it wasting ten points). You may need a lot of proxies unless you collected all basics with repeats; so get a stack of stickynotes and use them to mark miniatures (extra kudos for using the transparent ones that look like computer overlays in RTS videogames). Yes, it could change balance. Probably will do. That is not the point. Repeat with me: finding a subset of the rules to make a faster yet enjoyable game, for when you need or want just that. For once you may have time to try terrain rules, as you don't have to care about the others. To be clear, again, if you don't have any problem, keep on playing full Infinity. This thread should stick to figuring a Minus-Infinity that stays as balanced as possible, but makes some sacrifices in the name of having a quick and still fun game. Extra ideas? Missions to play with this? What combinations do you think that could keep the games both balanced and enjoyable?
It is quite fun to play the game with just line troops and 1-3 Heavy Infantry or Skirmishers per side. Very simple, I have done some intro games like this.
