Infinity 101 Episode 2: Deployment

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This is the second episode in a series covering concepts that will help you progress form a developing to a more advanced Infinity player. In this episode, we cover deployment.
As always, the slides are available for those who do not wish to attend the lecture: docs.google.com/presentation/...
0:00 - introduction
1:33 - Step zero: assessing threats and opportunities
12:06 - Deploying to defend (playing to attack)
13:54 - Good practices for deployment
15:39 - If in doubt, deploy prone
17:03 - Don't make template bait
19:57 - Deploy to guts
25:15 - Who to reserve drop
30:52 - A quick discussion on 'null deployment' ahead of episode 3

[@Rarrrgh]

Unit roles! It took me way too long to figure out what most trooper/profiles generally want to do in a game. While some profiles are pretty obvious (TR, HMG, Sniper, Doc/Eng,...) it's already becoming a bit more complicated with stuff like SK or regular WB. Where do non-SWC weapons like MULTI/Viral Rifles fit in? You touched on it a bit in the "Most Powerful Unit Types" Video but it fell flat in the "101 List Building" one. And with the ARO video coming up I feel it will be pretty important to know which kind of profiles have which jobs. But this really is less of a complaint than a simple video idea. I already really liked your videos but since we reached the PPP era it just keeps on getting better. :)

[@ayurgal]

Boy, at the end, you mention once every week or two. That's turned into once a year. Waiting for the next episode. I've watched this one a few times and ready for step two.

[@R0bertShepherd]

It's turned out they're much harder to make than I originally expected. I don't want to say I'll never finish the series, but I also don't have the time to script and record them at the moment.

[@Ravanstrike2009]

Thank you for all your content. As a newer player it's always really helpful to get a different perspective. And you break it down in ways that are easy to understand. So thank you, your work is greatly appreciated.

[@Zir0w...]

We need moar episodes!!! =) Very great work!

[@jacobcdenton8524]

Really helpful series, even after playing the game for 1.5yrs. Although as someone who has recently bought into Morats and hasnt played with Kornak yet I feel called out by the opening 😂

[@brianjones5136]

Excellent presentation. I’m forwarding all of these to the newer players in my community and they’ve also appreciated them. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

[@Grithertime]

This is great to listen to while painting. But the more I listen to N4 stuff it is a basic Small Unit Tactics review. Or some basic Infantry tactics and compounded by Urban Operations. Don't bunch up, Don't stand up in a gun fight use terrain to your advantage, look for Avenues of approach, Fire lanes etc. This is an interesting game.

[@jynxbmd851]

Great stuff 🙂 An idea for a future episode: Do you think you might cover best practises/considerations when setting up the terrain? E.g. how to make sure a table set-up is interesting to play, fair and allows a flexible range of tactics to be feasible. I'm thinking ways to make sure the table set-up isn't significantly boosting or hampering particular model types like snipers, TAGs, bikers, warbands etc? I feel like if you learn at home on tables that inadvertently favour or hinder specific unit types, that bad data can only be a recipe for poor threat assessment and in-flexible lists when you start to play a wider range of factions/opponents on game shop tables or tournament tables? Edit: Doh, literally just stumbled on the 'How to Set Up a Table' video as soon as I posted this 🤣

[@TylerProvick]

14:48 I had a game where I deployed some models prone (a s2 and s3 model) behind a building. Being prone didn't improve my cover, but it did mean when the Fiday came around the corner after throwing smoke my camo Intruder had a nice clear shot at the Fiday - except at the time I forgot that they were prone and after carefully measuring the angles determined that LOS was blocked, also forgetting that S3 is shorter than S2, so only the other S2 could have blocked LOS. I only noticed this while looking at pictures of my deployment later. But the theory is sound - deploying prone will prevent your enemy, should they hit your back lines, from using your models against each other for LOS.

[@guillaumeg8561]

Only one thing to be carreful, if you're opponent is ariadna heads up some miniatures to avoid bear assault ;)

[@LXAsx457]

These videos are the deep game analysis the game deserves and the players love. Keep them up!

[@Sumanye]

Is an episode 3 coming? These are incredibly useful, thanks for taking the time to make them!

[@R0bertShepherd]

Firm 'maybe', I'm afraid - of all my vids, these are the toughest to make and record. But I would like to do more.

[@RatWithaTool]

Awesome as always, really enjoying this series! The section about assessing the threat during deployment is so good, definitely shows that it is a whole separate mini game between more experienced players. A few things that I would like to see from your content would be something like an ITS mission breakdown/tactics, since it would be great to see how you approach specific missions/objectives. Either way, keep it up, you're definitely my favorite Infinity content creator at the moment!

[@Komaru.89]

As someone trying to get back into Infinity, this was an amazing breakdown not only of the WHAT, but of the HOW. I love stuff like this.

[@R0bertShepherd]

I'm super glad it was useful to you mate :)

[@zooscientist1]

Hi Mate. New player here. Love your channel and series!

[@R0bertShepherd]

Glad you're enjoying it - I am slowly working on episode 3 in the background, but it's proving a challenge. Will get there eventually! :)

[@marcolai9735]

Looking forward to seeing your next episode! Not sure if it’s out yet

[@altk1ll3r]

great serie!! this is what the game community need

[@guillemfernandezgil9409]

Thank you very much for this series of videos, they're very useful! I'm going to a tournament next saturday and I'm sure it's going to be much better with only a few of those ideas in mind 😃

[@R0bertShepherd]

Good luck mate :)

[@TexasFriedCriminal]

So, I've only been playing for about two weeks. When thinking about deployement, I do tend towards null deployment but my general reasoning is about ease of access to firing lanes for my opponent. The more orders they have to spend to get to the FtF with my ARO piece, the less often they can engage it, the more impact a successful ARO shot will have. If I try to cover a long firing lane that reaches almost to their deployment zone in the beginning, taking out the ARO piece will be very cheap in terms of orders for them. But if they can advance for 3 orders unopposed and then have to engage it, this tactical goal will be much more expensive for them to achieve. Cedeing ground like this is probably somewhat counterintuitive at first, but given the way limited orders only actives single pieces my reasoning looks sound to me. Fireteams should counteract this approach somewhat, but I don't have the experience to evaluate it yet.

[@apeofjustice7109]

This is a great video. I'm currently only 1 game of N4 in, so don't quit3 have the meta knowledge which some of the discussions associate to, but this was fantastic for knowing what to be thinking of when setting up. Any follow ups along this series would be amazing.

[@MG-ix6cq]

Great series ! Looking forward to next one !

[@lorduxus]

Fantastic video!!!

[@bledsoebaneminis2487]

Thank you for the video!

[@RadkaRavinoff]

Great video Rob! I am a little surprised you didn't call out spending a command token for an extra reserve when going first. I almost always take that option for the extra information advantage.

[@R0bertShepherd]

That's a good point. It's something that I do only *very* rarely, but that's a consequence of how I play (often with a high focus on irregulars, or a risky lieutenant choice, or both) which puts command tokens in high demands for other reasons.

[@Charlie_Echo]

This is great stuff! Did episode 3 ever get made? You refer to it a few times here but I can't see it in your videos list.

[@R0bertShepherd]

It got overtaken by events unfortunately - but perhaps one day!

[@kevinvanravenswaaij4060]

This was very insightful to listen to mate, thanks a lot. Couldn't help but notice you never uploaded episode 3. Is it in the cards at all? Would love to hear your thoughts on setting up a proper defence.

[@R0bertShepherd]

I won't rule it out, but writing and presenting to the slides this way ended up being a lot more work than regular battle reports, and I only have so much time.

[@krendal]

Great and useful video as usual, i'll link to my group

[@dampfhammerexe3602]

When will episode 3 drop? Iam absolutely new and love your strategy guides

[@R0bertShepherd]

I can't promise anything, I'm afraid - these are the most difficult videos to make in terms of preparation and recording and I'm actually a bit out of practice for Infinity at the moment. But I haven't forgotten the series! :)

[@zephyrrrr4813]

hey there is a case for the suryat lt, morat tags have the annoying tendency for having nco on the profiles you often want to take in morats. but kornak is a best in class lieutenant lol. follow up would you follow this same rule with disposable attack pieces like mbh, roaming hungries or peacemakers deploy them defensively then move to attack

[@R0bertShepherd]

I'm not going to aggressively disparage taking an NCO TAG in Morats but only because the first episode of this series said to experiment even if other people say a thing is bad.

[@zephyrrrr4813]

@@R0bertShepherd hahahahah lol

[@burlesford]

Svalarheima has 7 Lt options, all expect two of which have WIP13 (Uma, Nisse, KoJ, Hospitaller, Jotum). I haven't played against them enough to know if maybe none of the non-Jotum ones are ever taken, but I just wanted to point that out.

[@hamsternchips]

Thanks great video as always. As a new player needing to memorize every army list in the game to be able to play well is the most ridiculous and elitist aspect of the game.

[@jesseholder9795]

Can you please please teach a lesson that focused mainly on Hacking. Myself and 3 new players are stull strugglng with entire concept. Your videos are fantastic btw

[@TheMinidow]

the existance of guts seems like it's really the opposite of what it's supposed to be, like, succeeding on the roll gives nothing, failing is a benefit.

[@R0bertShepherd]

Remember you can always choose to 'fail', so failure is something that only actually happens if you wanted to hold position to start with - or, more commonly, with religious troops.

[@Ninjat126]

Occasionally you want a piece to hold their ground. Maybe it loses a F2F on pure bad luck and you don't think the opponent will roll that 5% again. Maybe the opponent's almost out of orders & you just need to stall them. Etc.