A Look into the Operation Wildfire Box

Operation Wildfire is the newest Infinity 2-Player Starter Box which takes players to a far future where humans fight against Aliens in small Skirmish battles. This Scifi game convinces with superb rules, deep tactical possibilities and amazing miniatures. Join Pain All the Minis Author Hendrik Morkel as he takes a look into the Box!

The Infinity Ruleset is now 15 years old and in it’s third iteration, and continues to be loved by its Fans across the Globe. And for a good reason: There’s few Skirmish games on the market which have such solid Rules and which give players deep strategic choices and tactical possibilities. Want to use a sniper from a roof to keep a road free of enemies? No problem! Use a Hacker to stall enemy targets? All possible!

But back to the Operation: Wildfire Box, which Corvus Belli was kind enough to send us for this Review. In this Box you find 14 Miniatures from two factions - the Alien Shasvastii and the Human O-12 troopers - as well as an introductory Rule booklet with missions, background, assembly and painting advice, six 20-sided dice, a battlefield and an amazing set of easy to assemble cardboard buildings which transform your kitchen table in no time into a battlefield where these two factions can go to war.

Lets start with the Miniatures, the main reason the most of us are in this Hobby. Corvus Belli produces some of the best metal miniatures available today, with splendid details and a lot of character. The Box Art often comes from Angel Giraldez, a painting genius whose style is easy to identify and simply beautiful. The metal Minis, which are all produced in-house by Corvus Belli in Spain, are easy to assemble and come with minimal flash and cleaning needed. The joints are good, though as many Minis are thin and prone to come lose during transport we recommend to pin them together. It’s an easy and fast process and ensures that your Minis survive transport to the battlefield if you are not playing at home! I started to assemble the Minis right away and it is a joy to work with such great sculpts. A detail which I liked were the marking on the bases, which indicate the front arc of the Minis. These are modelled on the bases, which is something so simple that we are surprised that we haven’t seen this from other companies yet!

If you’re completely new to the Infinity Rules and worry that they might be too complicated - don’t worry. While the complete Rulebook is available as a free download you only need the Rulebook from this box to get started. With the five tutorial missions you get familiar with the Rules and the different abilities of your Minis, and once you have finished the five missions you will have a solid understanding of the core mechanics of the game. If you have ordered the box and already want to get started on the Rules, we recommend you download the Quick Start Rules and read these, as this 16 page booklet gives you a good introduction to the different factions and mechanics of the game. If you’re more a visual type, have a look at the different introductory videos on Youtube =)

Well, besides the Minis and Rulebook there’s also a big, fat stack of cardboard in the Box. This is a step up from past Infinity Starter Boxes (like Operations: Coldfront for example) where the buildings and tokens where from thin cardboard, and while these were good for the starter games they weren’t super-durable. These Operation: Wildfire buildings are different, made from 3 mm thick cardboard these buildings will last you a long time, and are very pretty on top. There are four buildings, two big ones and two smaller ones, and the latter can be stacked on the former, creating larger buildings for interesting gaming tables. There are also four Holo-Ads, two Public Consoles and nine Blast Barriers, so right out of the Box you can create an interesting battlefield for your games. Also the Tokens and Templates are made from the 3 mm thick cardboard, and which should last you a long time.

Sidenote: A smart touch were the two Infinity: Defiance Cards in the Box, as Corvus Belli is currently with their first Dungeon Crawler, set in the Infinity Universe, on Kickstarter. The game is already fully funded and has many Stretch Goals unlocked, and runs till the 18th of November. Defiance is fully compatible with the Infinity game, and many Minis from this Box also can be used in this cooperative dungeon crawler.

All in all I found the Operation: Wildfire Box an very good introduction to the Infinity Universe. Amazing Minis, which I am looking forward to painting, a fun and rewarding ruleset which is challenging and consists of more than just rolling fists full of dice, great terrain and an atmospheric background to their Universe makes this a great box for hobbyists who want to tip their toes into a Scifi Skirmish game. If our look into the Box convinced you, then you can buy Operation: Wildfire straight from Corvus Belli or from Amazon.com.

And by the way, if you want to expand your games, get the Operation: Wildfire - Advance Pack at the same time, as it gives you three more amazing Minis - one Shasvastii and two O-12 troopers, with whom you gain new possibilities to field your Armies.

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