Corvus Belli's Infinity Operation: Ice Storm

We got our box of Operation: Icestorm in the mail yesterday.  We were pretty excited to check it out and see what we were in for.  I am very impressed with the quality of the art on the box, and the heavy duty box inside.  Usually we get a heavy duty box, and the art suffers a bit because of it.  This allows both art and security together.  It's just one of the little details that show someone was thinking a great deal about this box set.

Inside the white box we have all of the other contents.  I had one problem with the way they did this unfortunately.

  Most of the minis are secure in the double foam padded boxes.  The exception being the two exclusive minis, the father knight and the reverend healer.  They were wrapped in a baggy and just tossed haphazardy.  My reverend healer had a bent arm.  It isn't a big deal, because metal bends back, but it is worth noticing for the next time Corvus Belli releases a set like this.  Usually I would expect the special miniatures to be more protected then they were.

The miniatures look great.  There is minimal flash, and the poses are fresh and interesting.  The models do need to be washed in soapy water before assembly.  Some of the joints are difficult to line up, and it takes a little ball of green stuff to make a good joint.  The other option is obviously pinning, but some of the arms are just too small to pin.  Compared to 40k plastic they are easy to prep really, and compared to old metal mini's, like my old battletech beasts, these are night and day.  The quality and detail are incomparable to my old minis.

This is the included terrain.  My son dug right into it, and we ended up with a table ready to go in 5 minutes.  Other companies take note: This is how you should do an intro box set.  Able to be played straight out of the box after a bit of assembly.

Here are the tokens for orders, smoke, wounds, and other things.  IF you need more tokens and markers, and it seems like we all will, you can print out what you need at this link here: http://inf-dice.ghostlords.com/markers/        

You can also see a sample of the quality of printing in the book.  The artwork is beautiful.  It really helps to get you into the world, and interested in the game.  I would have loved to see a bit more fluff personally, but that's just the kind of player I am.

The missions and rules are well written for a new player.  They slowly build up by adding new rules, and adding new models.  The missions seem interesting, and are a great way to introduce new players like myself.  Reading through a big, thick rulebook is daunting, and then when you have to turn around and apply that big list of rules. I'm working on getting some paint on some models, and we should get our first game in this weekend.   We're both looking forward to it.

Just a comparison with the size of the models on the box against the actual models.  The detail on these guys is wonderful, and should be a lot of fun to paint.

My preliminary verdict?  If you want to play infinity then this is the way to get into it I think.  The price of the box is cheaper then the starter sets, and a set of moto.tronica.  You also get some extras like the dice, tokens, and the "exclusive models.   The missions seem like a nice value add.  Don't forget that the rules are available free on the infinity website too.

I'll give the first mission a play, and maybe put up a battle report!

Stay tuned for more from both of us.

- Brandon.
as always, email, comments, criticism and cheering are always welcome either through the comments, or through my email. brandon_dot_abbott36_at_gmail_dot_com