Designers: Alberto Abal (Aristeia!), Jesus Fuster (Aristeia!)

Artists: Igor Heras (HeroQuest: 25th Anniversary Edition, Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature), Bagus Hutomo (Kingdom Death: Monster – Gorm Expansion, Sankokushin: Five Sacrifices), Francisco Rico Torres (Nothing Personal, Smash Up, Star Wars: Outer Rim)

Publisher: Corvus Belli (Aristeia!, Infinity, Infinity: Operation Icestorm)

Genre/Mechanisms: campaign/battle card driven, cooperative game, dice rolling, miniatures

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Infinity Defiance is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total more than 8.5x the initial funding goal, with 3 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: high

What It’s About:  A cooperative dungeon crawler with metal miniatures (requiring assembly) compatible with the Infinity Tabletop Skrimish Game. “Embarked in the Defiance, the heroes of the Human Sphere must fight against an alien invader in a suicide mission with the sole objective of saving humanity.”

How It Works:  Infinity Defiance has multiple missions that can be played; all missions are played across a variable number of rounds, with each round consisting of three phases: Start, Activations, and End. During the Start Phase, all players simply activate any Effects labelled as “At the Beginning of the Round.”

During the Activations Phase, each player chooses 2 Actions from among the following: Move, Attack, Hack, Equip, and Interact. Characters can repeat an Action, taking the same Action twice in one turn. Combat is dice based, and both Attack Rolls and subsequent Defense Rolls can be modified with Equipment Cards, Specialty Cards, and other in-game Effects. Hacking allows characters to perform one of the Actions described on the Software cards installed on their device. Hacking involves a Hacking Roll that can also be modified by Software Cards, Specialty Cards, and other skills and in-game Effects. Equipping allows characters to distribute Equipment between their various gear slots, as well as exchanging Equipment with any number of adjacent characters, including unconscious characters. Interacting simply allows players to interact with different elements of the Mission or neutral Characters. Finally, during the End Phase, players simply activate any Effects labelled “At the End of the Round.”

The core game of Infinity Defiance features 12 missions, all part of a longer campaign. Individual Missions end when various missions-specific goals or objectives are met. At the end of a given Mission, players will Receive Loot, Redistribute the Crew, apply the Consequences from the Sick Bay and Workshop, Acquire Specialities, Spend Intel Packs, Check Equipment, and Upgrade Specialities. “The Campaign ends with the mission 12 in which the fate of the Characters and the entire Human Sphere will be decided.”

Comparisons:   Any dungeon crawler or action point-based game with combat makes a pretty good comparison, from Batman: Gotham City Chronicles to Star Wars: Imperial Assault.

What Should I Pledge?:
$111 Core Pledge: the Infinity Defiance core box, New Hero: Rahman Rouhani, and all applicable stretch goals.
$177 Collector’s Pledge: everything in the Core Pledge, plus the Collector’s Box and Billie (Jazz’s Remote).
$199 Deluxe Pledge: everything in the Collector’s Pledge, plus the Scenery Pack.
$276 Platinum Pledge: everything in the Deluxe Pledge, plus the Outcast Expansion and 4 Alternative Heroes: Fat Yuan Yuan, Kitsune, Uxia, and Lei Gong.

Add-Ons:
$50 Defiance Revenant: includes 4 metal miniatures, 6 double-sided tiles, 200+ cards, and 6 new missions.
$77 Defiance Outcast: includes 8 metal miniatures, 6 double-sided tiles, 200+ cards, and 6 new missions.
$50 JSA Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Ariadna Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Nomads Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Yu Jing Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Aleph Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Panoceania Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Morat Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$50 Onyx Reinforcement Pack: include 8 metal miniatures.
$22 Core Card Sleeves: include 50 Magnum Sleeves & 360 Mini USA Sleeves.
$11 Transluscent Dice
$11 Dice Tray
$33 Scenery Pack: include 25 pieces of scenery, including Doors, Wide Doors, Corpses, Crates, Breaches, and Turrets.

KS Exclusives:
None listed.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $276 for the Platinum Pledge, $50 for Defiance Revenant, and $400 for the 8 Reinforcement Packs. Shipping for the Collector’s Pledge is estimated at $33. It’s difficult to know how much to estimate for the entire package plus add-ons without the weight of the various Expansions and Reinforcement Packs, but if we estimate shipping as a direct relation of cost, it would be $135 for everything, putting the total at $861.

Infinity Defiance completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, November 19th and tentatively ships in July 2020.