Is it for me? Infinity Operation: Icestorm
On July 25th Beasts of War released an unboxing preview of Corvus Belli‘s upcoming Infinity starter set called Operation: Icestorm. I’ve embedded the video at the end.
I don’t think the game is referencing the 1998 North American Ice Storm which shut down my high school for days. This is also not a picture of that ice storm. Ice Storm by David Lombardo. Released as public domain.
When this set was initially announced I was really excited. I love starter and boxed sets and am always tempted by them even when I am already invested in the game. I almost picked up both the Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition boxed sets even when I didn’t need them and I hope the upcoming Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition will have a boxed set with enough new or interesting things to give me an excuse to buy it. The first was chock full of goodness.
After watching the unboxing video from Beasts of War I was a little disappointed. I think I’m spoiled by Deadzone because the poster map in the Infinity starter left me cold. I was expecting a fabric mat and some must-have cool accessories and that’s just not what this starter is.
What’s In the Box
The box contains 14 metal miniatures (15 if you pre-order), some starter rules, templates, poster map, and enough terrain to play in easy to assemble cardboard box form. It does all this for $100 USD which makes it a really inexpensive way to start Infinity, especially if you are getting into this with a friend. It’s also good for clubs or stores who want a demo set.
The miniatures are new sculpts for the main game, not low-detail “starter” or “introductory” miniatures so they look awesome. I’m very happy about the new Alguacils as the old ones were one of the first sculpts for the game and looked their age compared to the rest of the line.
Original Sculpt Alguacil. They did the job but the new ones are much nicer. Infinity Nomad Alguacil by Corvus Belli, painted by Tyler Provick
The nice thing about this set is that Corvus Belli has announced they’ll be selling the scenery packs separately which means you can inexpensively fill a table if you’d like. Start with that for the bulk of your terrain and then start swapping out some with the amazing, but somewhat expensive, stuff that Corvus Belli’s partners produce.
To give an idea of how much of a bargain this set is let’s just figure out the price per miniature of the non-pre-order version. $7.15 per miniature. That’s a great price for any single non-historical or non-Mantic miniature. If buying this set didn’t put me further away from fielding a 300 point Infinity army I would still probably pick it up.
How about you, are you tempted by Operation: Icestorm either as a new or existing Infinity player? Let me know in the comments or the usual places. After I finish painting my Deadzone set and some other non-gaming projects I’ll be returning to Infinity so Subscribe for more.
Operation: Icestorm unboxing video is ©Beasts of War and embedded without permission.
Operation: Icestorm cover art featured image ©Corvus Belli and used without permission.
