Infinity: Operation Red Veil Review

Corvus Belli’s Infinity has emerged over the past half-decade as one of the leading non-Games Workshop miniatures brands on the market. Featuring a visual design style informed by the sleek manga-infused futurism of Masamune Shirow and the practical militarism of the hardware seen in James Cameron films, it cuts a striking figure quite literally. The miniatures (all metal) look great and offer some fresh concepts around the usual bodysuits and mechs concepts, featuring a diverse range of nationalities and affiliations. I’m particularly fond of the Haqq’Islam group- when was the last time a science fiction gaming property had a Middle Eastern faction? Yeah, never. The game is terrain-heavy, intended to be played in urban environments, and features a cool system of inter-threaded action that gives players a real sense of an actual shootout in contrast to the usual IGOUGO exchange of fire.

So the new Operation: Red Veil Starter looked like a good way to check out Infinity and I was very keen on seeing first what this system offers that other miniatures systems do not and second on what kind of value this set offers as an entry point and also as a standalone purchase. It comes with 14 miniatures split between the aforementioned Haqq’Islam and the pan-Asiatic Yu Jing, some cute little cardboard buildings, a handful of tokens, some custom dice for each side, and a starter rulebook. Off the bat, I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed that the set, which retails at $110 ($82 here at Miniature Market), does not come with the full rulebook. Granted, it is available as a free download, but there is something about getting a nice rulebook with a starter set that encourages you to really dig in and get into the setting and gameplay.

Not quite the Grimdark, is it?

Aside from a little fluff (which is kind of generic and not particularly compelling), the rulebook operates like a staged tutorial, gradually introducing the included units along with their special abilities. By the time you work through each of the tutorial scenarios, I think you’ll have a good idea of how Infinity plays. I found some of the rules writing to be a little shaky, and for the first game or so there were some timing issues that I didn’t quite understand. I actually watched a YouTube video produced by Corvus Belli to sort of decipher it all, and that helped. With that said, anyone fearing that they are diving headfirst into a 40k morass of rules will find comfort in the fact that the core process is pretty simple and easy to grasp. There is a small modelling section and a helpful guide for those looking to move on up to a regulation 300 point force using the miniatures in the starter as a basis.

The miniatures are extremely nice. The sculpts are characterful and unique. But the included bases are total trash so I’d advise anyone picking this up to look into alternatives. I thought the days of cut-your-own slotta bases were long gone. No instructions are provided and the models do require a little prep work, so also be advised that you’re probably not going to get this from shrinkwrap to table the day you get it. Another minor disappointment is that the set doesn’t really feature a “wow” figure- none of the larger mechs or anything like that is included. But I’m sure that doing so would have escalated the retail price considerably.

As for the rest of the package, I really like the cardboard buildings, but they were sort of tricky to put together and I’m not sure how well they will hold up. The playmat is a bust, just a basic paper fold-out that I think that players who decide to stick with the game will pretty quickly recycle. The counters are also junk, and of course you can buy “the nice ones” separately.

Now, for how it plays. Infinity is really good. The core mechanics are rock solid, fast-paced, and deadly. Much of it will be familiar to any miniatures gamer in terms of stat lines, loadouts, keyword abilities and so forth. But a few elements distinguish it. One is how the order system works. You get one order per model you have on the table and you alternate spending these with the other player. You can spend all of them to move and shoot with one figure, one on each, however you want to do it. But the catch is that all models have a default “overwatch” type action called an ARO (Automatic Reaction Order) so that if you move into cover- or shoot at someone- they can automatically fire on you. So shooting at someone isn’t the usual business where the shooter isn’t at immediate risk, the shooter might get shot first.

Die rolls are D20s, and weapons have modifiers based on the range. The goal is to roll under your skill rating, and if the roll is contested (for example, if an enemy is shooting at you while you are shooting at them), whoever rolls the highest without going over their skill is the winner. If you hit your skill rating on the nose, it’s a critical hit. It’s a pretty fun dice system that isn’t quite as great as the classic “exploding sixes”, but I really enjoyed the Blackjack-y tension of trying to not bust on the rolls.

There are other considerations and complications. Armor, camouflage, a wide variety of skills, objective-based missions and other bespoke elements combine to create a pretty interesting skirmish game. I’ve really enjoyed playing through the starter set, but I also found that I wasn’t exactly rushing out to buy into the system more. It isn’t because of a lack of quality, it’s because that right now I am spoilt for choice as far as miniatures games go and I’m not close to anyone interested in getting into the game for one thing, and for another my needs in this area are pretty well served by Mantic’s Deadzone.

Haqq’Islam fighters- love these guys.

Another thing that has kept me from investing is that Infinity feels very much beholden to the quality of the table you play it on. The little playmat and cardboard buildings look neat and give you a decent play space for the 14 models in the set. But if you want to play a real game on a 4’x4’ table, that is a lot of terrain and it needs to be dense in order for the game’s systems to work correctly. So that may be an issue for gamers with limited space, resources or modelling ability.

In all, I like Infinity and it is definitely a game I would look into more under different circumstances. As for Operation Red Veil, I think it’s a fine starter although I feel like the Warmachine one I reviewed here recently offers much more bang for the buck and I feel like the starters offered by other competitors are more “complete”. I also get a sense that players who know that they want to get into Infinity would be better off spending the money they would spend on Operation Red Veil on units of their desired faction, especially since the rules (including army lists) are free to download.