One thing that Ben and I have been agonising over is our gaming board. We started with a motley mish-mash of TTCombat's city terrain, the Red Veil cardboard buildings and a series of mismatched boards that resulted in an unintentional two-tier board. Our intention was always to have a full 'proper' Infinity board, just as we do for Malifaux, with enough terrain that we could sub items out and move it around enough so that it didn't feel like we were playing on the same board every game. The beauty of Infinity is that there are many companies that support it, scenery-wise, and Corvus Belli are good at promoting these companies. Budget was a big factor, which ruled out Warsenal and Bandua instantly. We wanted a UK-based company if possible too, as we wanted it to arrive quickly without the potentially hidden costs of customs. We also wanted to use a range that could cover our entire table, rather than making a collection of lots of obviously different pieces that did not quite match up. This isn't as much of an issue for scatter terrain but we really were not keen on having 5 markedly different buildings. We also wanted them all to look the same when painted so we would either have to pick an unpainted range that we felt we could paint up or an entirely painted range. It also had to be hard-wearing enough. We contemplated Microart Studios but Ben had a fairly miserable experience assembling their Steampunk walkways so they were somewhat discounted. We were set on either TTCombat (http://ttcombat.com) or Zen Terrain (http://www.zenterrain.com) with their durable yet affordable MDF buildings, scatter terrain and supporting range. In theory we could even combine them as they were similar enough. One of the new GW Mars game mats would give us the 'table' and we were sorted. All we had to do was order it.
Then we hit snags. £50 for the mat is steep to start with. Then I tried to paint an MDF building. Well over an hour later and deep dissatisfaction was the result. It would need at least one more coat of Basecoat White, then probably 2-3 layers on top of that. The wood absorbed enough of the paint to make it really slow going, and that was a very small fast food stand. A bunker or heaven-forbid a multi-storey build would be undo-able without an airbrush, which realistically neither Ben or I had the facilities to use. Sean does but he lives far enough away that transporting the scenery out to his would be a chore. So, back to the drawing board. Then I saw Battlesystems kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-ii-terrain). It looked perfect, even if I was wary of cardboard terrain. They have a couple of bits in ABZ which I've been impressed by. Then Ben found the flaw (of course!). August 2017. REALLY???? But there was a link to their website. We checked it out (Ben assures me that we'd done it before) and we were impressed. Originally we were looking at their sci-fi range; possibly thinking about fighting inside a space ship or station (PanO righteously invading one of the Nomads scummy ships...) but naturally this could prevent my heroic Akali from airdropping in (and my new Yuan Yuan, complete with the Ltd Ed one I stole off Ben) so we needed outdoor stuff. The urban stuff wasn't as appealing, we'd wanted a more futuristic look than that, didn't want to be fighting over Gotham City so it was looking dicey again. Then we saw the shanty town, It would allow us to make the Mars outpost that I'd been dreaming of, a sort of wild-west town in space/first temporary colony on a place; a bit like the scenery in the John Carpenter classic Ghosts of Mars, a piece of cinematic genius boasting such acting heavyweights as Jason Statham, Ice Cube, Clea DuVall and everyone's favourite alien Natasha Henstridge... Scandalously IMDb only gives it 4.9/10 but we know that those digits are simply the wrong way round. Seriously, stop reading and go watch it. Now.
Then we found that for $6.95 we could print out a gaming mat (http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?keywords=battle+board&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=) and attach it to wooden tiles. We priced it all up and were impressed. £6 for the 'mat', £20 for the boards (with plenty left over) and £70 for the terrain. We ordered it before we could change our minds again!
A week later it was all here and we began to build. The board was time consuming but not difficult, simply a case of cutting the paper very carefully and making sure it was attached properly. The terrain is tricky however. Battlesystems have a VERY clever way that combines slots cut in the cardboard and plastic clips to hold it together, and it requires very few clips. However, the instructions are online videos and don't show you how to assemble the sets to resemble the 'front of box' images, rather they talk you through the theory of building them and give ideas for games. It's great if you want to go crazy with your imagination, but not so grand if you end up using 3/4 of the clips to build 2 out of a potential 5 buildings. The £70 box will assemble 5 buildings, 6 at a push. You may need more clips though. We ordered a second pack of clips and another building (it all works on sheets, a building is between 1 and 3 sheets depending on size). It is pre-coloured and looks amazing on our board. We ordered the extra building (£18) as we wanted a dedicated Objective Room for ITS missions. We do not intend to take apart our buildings between games as we don't have the time to rebuild it all before we play. However we do have the option to if we feel that games are getting stale. The scatter terrain is awesome, we will likely use our TTCombat vending machines and crates to add a little more terrain to the board as we felt that we needed more scatter and less blocky buildings on our boards. We were finding that we had up to 12 buildings on our boards at times which just felt excessive and meant that models could spend the whole game achieving very little due to slightly off placement. I hope to finish the scatter terrain by the end of the week and then play a game on it soon. Here are some pictures showing it off (keep reading as there's more after):
So, earlier I mentioned my dilemma. Where to go from here? Well, I ordered the Yuan Yuan blister to add mercs to my force. I intend to pick up Scarface and Cordelia too as I like them and he's cheap as anything. I'd like to add Avicenna too as her back story is awesome. Now i will paint everything up, fear not, but I fancy a small second faction. Nothing big, not a whole range (yet...) but just a change. You know, it'll allow me to get more of a feel for the game... that's the one, yes, experience more of the game! There are two options: 1. Haqqislam with the Kum (heheh) Chieftain, Kum Bikers (heheheh) and the female Kum Twins (heheheheh... and I'm spent), backed up by the Odalisques and some other stuff as they are awesome models. 2. ALEPH Steel Phalanx based on the Trojans, so Hector (my favourite character in literature) and Penthesilea with Myrmidons and some others. The Haqq would be VERY pricey whilst the ALEPH would not, which may well swing it. Plus, as previously stated, Hector has always been my favourite character (and my grandfather's name)so it is likely to be them. I've always loved the ALEPH range, and the Steel Phalanx does focus on what I feel are the best ones. It is a very small, elite force and will not play in my usual style, whereas I found that the Haqq had enough points for me to build the 'gun line with medics' and then add bikes. this could be good as I feel that it is easy to get caught playing in one style that can make you blind to key aspects of the game, which whilst it may not be an issue in one's Meta, can be very disadvantageous in a tournament. The new Mayacast podcast (check it out) focuses on them and is fascinating listening, and really inspired me. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, go watch Ghosts of Mars...
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