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The Infinity June 2021 FAQ Hot Take – UPDATED

By Thanqol Decadion

A new FAQ for Infinity just dropped today – you can find it here. Overall there’s a lot to cover here. In particular there’s one big change, and a lot of quality of life fixes.

 

Update: A secondary update was dropped several hours later which changed a critical part of my discussion. The section below has been fundamentally rewritten to adjust

Speculative AROs are DIFFERENT

So after yesterday’s FAQ, I felt kind of bummed. Speculative AROs were one of my favourite gameplay concepts from the new edition and now they were gone. But then, a matter of hours after I finished my FAQ hot take, that ruling was reversed in a new FAQ update. Great, except for the part where I needed to rewrite my entire article to be literally the opposite of what I just wrote.

The *new* new FAQ has confirmed that Speculative AROs are the valid way to play. Specifically, LOF and ZOC requirements are no longer required when declaring skills. But there is some nuance to this

When do you get an ARO? You get an ARO the first time you have a skill you can legally declare in ARO. This is always in the skill descriptions but in short, your first opportunity during an enemy order will always be one of the following: 1. when the enemy enters your ZOC (which you can measure at the end of each of their skill declarations) 2. when the enemy enters your LOF 3. any other circumstance where a skill says you can declare it in ARO, for example Reset which can be declared whenever you’re the target of a comms attack. The important thing to note is that you have to declare your ARO whenever you first get an ARO, but unless there’s a rule saying you can’t declare a skill, you check requirements at resolution. The most notable example of a skill not being able to be declared is that you can’t declare skills that require LOF against targets in total cover (i.e. completely obscured by physical terrain)
Almost all of the time the skills you’ll want to declare will be clear and obvious. You’ll want to be dodging, hacking or shooting things that can be dodged, hacked or shot. But sometimes the rules can also be used in creative ways. For example, an enemy might be moving within your ZOC but obscured by smoke. Since they’re in your ZOC, you need to declare your ARO, but if they have an MSV you suspect they might shoot you. You can declare BS attack (they don’t have total cover, you just can’t draw line of sight to them) and if they do shoot you then per the rules for BS attacks through zero vis zones, your shot will be legal. This also works if you have sixth sense and an enemy is walking behind you, and you suspect they’ll be about to chain rifle your link. I doesn’t work against an enemy moving around behind terrain but near you, because they’re in total cover.

 

Here are some worked examples:

A Shaolin Monk begins turn in Hector’s rear arc.
The Shaolin Monk moves with their first skill, but not into base to base contact.
Hector declares Close Combat attack as ARO. It is not a valid ARO now, but if the monk keeps walking and hits base to base contact then it will be.
The Shaolin Monk uses the second half of their order to declare Shoot, firing their chain rifle.
During the Resolution step, skill requirements are checked. As the base to base contact requirement is not met Hector instead performs an Idle.

A Tiger Soldier comes up behind a five-woman Fusilier Fireteam.
Only one Fusilier has a facing that permits an ARO against the Tiger Soldier, the rest are showing their rear arcs. All four fusiliers are inside the Tiger Soldier’s ZOC
All the Fusiliers declare Shoot as their ARO
If the Tiger Soldier fires his combi rifle, only targeting the correct-facing Fusilier, then at Resolution the AROs of all other Fusiliers are invalid and they perform Idle
If the Tiger Soldier instead fires his flamethrower, catching all five Fusiliers under the template, then their Shoot AROs become valid. Because they are being targeted by a BS attack, and have sixth sense allowing them to shoot when being shot from behind, they may return fire.

Musashi begins turn around a corner from a Hsien
Musashi moves up to the edge of the corner with his first movement skill
The Hsien can declare an ARO because Musashi is in ZOC. However, a model may not declare the Shoot ARO against a model in Total Cover. The only valid ARO the Hsien has is Dodge
Musashi moves again, coming around the corner and into base to base contact with the Hsien
The Hsien has already committed to the Dodge and does not have an opportunity to change it. However, because Mushashi has entered LOF during order, the Hsien takes no penalty to his dodge. If he succeeds, he can leave CC by moving away at resolution. (note: this one is awaiting further confirmation and may change)

A Hsien begins turn inside of smoke, within zone of control of Musashi and in front of him.
The Hsien moves within the smoke with their first movement skill Musashi declares BS Attack as ARO with his flash pulse.
ZOC is checked, confirming the Hsien’s presence.
The Hsien uses the second half to Shoot Musashi.
At resolution, Musashi’s order is valid because he has a valid BS attack against the Hsien, albeit one at a -6 penalty due to smoke

An Asura is in the Avatar’s rear arc and within Zone of Control
The Asura declares Idle as her first skill.
The Avatar declares BS attack as its ARO
The Asura declares BS attack as her second skill
The Avatar does not get a BS attack in response because it is being shot in the rear and has no special skill (sixth sense, 360 degree visor) that would let it ignore the facing requirement.

A Zhanshi across the table takes a move action
A Varuna player wishes to reveal their Cutter lieutenant from hidden deployment.
They measure the Zanshi’s ZOC to see if the Cutter is within it, and check LOF to see if the Cutter can see the Zanshi.
Neither condition is met, so the Cutter has no ARO that it can declare and remains in hidden deployment.

 

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Impetuous Clarification

Impetuous Clarification Impetuous was clarified. Previously there wasn’t clarity as to what you should prioritise if you had to choose between impetuous requirements, like moving your maximum move value and getting closer to the enemy deployment zone.

Now, you prioritise them in the following order:

1. Use your full MOV value

2. End your movement as far as possible from the movement’s starting point.

3. End your movement as close as possible to the enemy Deployment Zone This will let you resolve situations where you might have to move a little further from the enemy deployment zone in order to use your full impetuous movement.

 

Miscellaneous stuff

Some additional odds and ends from the new FAQ to cover:

  • The Spotlight hacking program does not trigger Tohaa Symbiomates
  • You can Flash Pulse total immunity models and it’ll still be a face to face roll, even if there’s non effect for succeeding
  • Tactical Awareness orders don’t generate if a model is in hidden deployment, e.g. a Cutter
  • Protheon restores a wound in the event of a coup de grace/monofiliament weapon attack
  • If you don’t have Surprise Attack you don’t get the ability by way of entering a marker state, e.g. Cybermask doesn’t give you Surprise Attack.
  • Each Burst uses a charge of a Disposable Weapon, so if you’re firing B2 Panzerfausts both shots will be spent in one round of fire.
  • Deployables don’t go unconscious, they are removed when they hit Structure 0
  • If a TAG’s pilot opens a Panoply or supply box, when it re-mounts the TAG then any items or supply boxes are now carried by the TAG.

 

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