On Losing Troops Early

This is an article I wrote for my second LGS.  There are a lot of new players there, and some of them have become dismayed at the rapid loss of units that - they feel - seems unique to Infinity.  Maybe you'll get something out of this for people you know who might feel the same way!




Infinity is a fast-paced game where troops can die every turn.  Unlike in other games, where you can predict when your models will die, Infinity’s order system offers the possibility that any of your models can be killed at any time.  This, of course, lets you make daring manoeuvres that sway the way the battle is going, but it also means that you are going to have to deal with losing troops when you least expect it.

A loss of troops means a loss of orders, which may seem daunting at first.  After all, orders are what make Infinity units go.  The fewer orders you have, the fewer actions you can take – this often means your opponent has more actions than you, if you start the game by losing a few troops.  In fact, orders are so important that sometimes you don’t losing the unit: it’s actually the loss of the order that you don’t want to happen.

(Image borrowed from Lyons, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!)

Here are some tricks you can use to help deal with the loss of orders:

Make sure your models aren’t easy to kill.  Position them so that your opponent will be in a bad position (and easy to counter-attack) on your turn, even with your reduced order count.  This includes deployment (have models looking in every direction!) and when you get further into the game.

Make sure your losses count.  Make your opponent waste a lot of orders getting to you, so that he doesn’t have orders for anything else.  If you lose a 20 point model (and 1 order), and your opponent spends his whole turn killing that model, then you’ve just paid 20 points to make your opponent waste a turn.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

AROs are not (always) for killing enemy models.  The role of a model in ARO is to take up as much of the opponent’s time (as many of the target’s orders) as it can.  You may lose a model, but if you take up your opponent’s entire turn, it’s probably worth it.  If your opponent can kill your models in one or two orders, then your deployment is probably too open.

Don’t risk your important models in ARO.  They might seem like the best choice because they have powerful weapons, but you’ll want to use those weapons on your turn and under your own conditions, not those of your opponent.  Even though you might be down a few orders, the power of your important models might make up for it.

Position your models carefully.  Always have a way to strike back, even if it means using Infiltrators or AD models.  Punish your opponent for getting too close by using mines and short firing angles.