Infinity: Essentials - START HERE - Aleph / Nomads

If you have been told Infinity is hard to get into, this is the box that argues otherwise. It sets two of the setting's most distinctive forces against each other, ALEPH and the Nomads, and gives two people everything they need to start playing on opposite sides of the same table.

The pairing is a good one for teaching. ALEPH fields a small number of excellent troops built by an artificial intelligence, while the Nomads answer with hacking, improvisation and a refusal to fight fairly, so the two armies demonstrate very different lessons about how the game rewards you.

• Factions: ALEPH on one side, Nomads on the other.
• Role: a starting point for two players, or one player wanting both.
• Who it suits: newcomers to Infinity, and anybody bringing a friend into it.

Models are metal and resin, unpainted and unassembled. This is the box we point new players at rather than a sectorial army pack, because it introduces the order system and the reactive turn at a scale that will not overwhelm you. Once the fundamentals land, either half of it becomes the core of a full faction collection.