In a surprise mid-season update, Corvus Belli have dropped a nice little update to the ITS17 rules - essentially the mission pack for organised games of Infinity. Read about it in their own words here and download the updated rules (ITS17.02) here. We aim to give you a concise but complete summary, and then some analysis of the new mission.

Minor Changes

The first 300 physical tournament packs ordered (from today) will contain extra exclusive prizes. Not to sound too negative here, but this is a bit of non-news. Tournament packs contain 1 or 2 exclusive sculpts per season, which are sometimes highly sought after. This isn't CB re-releasing old tournament-winner miniatures or including back stock of those, this is just extra tat - fancy dice, tokens, keychains and such. Welcome minor prize support for TOs we suppose.

The ITS rules PDF has been updated to a mobile-friendly format. This will be a relief to those scrolling through it during in-person games on their phone. But to point out the obvious flip side, in reviewing it on a computer to write this article, I found it much slower to parse than the classic layout. Bigger text and smaller margins are easier on a phone, but of course they're worse on a large screen. In a perfect world, CB could maintain two versions, but of course that would introduce a nightmare of editing and version control.

The army builder app received a small bug-fix. Just to reassure everyone, this is not a balance change - a few units are called out as receiving changes, but those are just removing typos and errors (which were all recognised by the community already, no one is revising their previous opinion of a unit). So don't worry, and unlike the massive October 2025 update, there's no need to go trawling through your faction roster trying to find if anything has changed.

New Mission: Outbreak

We were huge fans of the initial ITS17 release, which removed most of the ~20 longstanding Infinity missions and cut down to a lean 10 (plus 5 'Direct Action' missions which are less common picks for tournaments), most of which were brand new. CB keeps the pace up here with a new addition that uses some more of the characteristic ITS17 concepts for deployment zones and placement of objectives.

What Is the Mission?

This is a radial-deployment mission, so the same layout as Provisioning or Area of Interest. There are five Infected - civilian models, like HVTs - on the board, one in the centre (the Alpha Infected) and two placed by each player in their opponent's table half. Players also deploy a Stabilization Zone in their own deployment zone.

Players have 4 separate tasks to do to the Infected, although there is some overlap. Some of these are restricted to Doctors/Paramedics/Specialist Operatives, with the latter two getting a powerful reliability boost. That's a major twist on the normal specialist set-ups and will really complicate tournament list building, as well as affecting some units and factions more than others. We'll discuss that more at the end.

Scan the Infected. This is worth 1OP per Infected scanned, up to a max of 3OP for the mission. It needs a Doctor/Paramedic/Spec Op, in Line of Fire (LoF) and Zone of Control (ZoC). A simple WIP roll makes that Infected Scanned, and this status can't be 'flipped'. Once Player A has scanned a given Infected, Player B can still scan them, and both players have scored the point.
Stabilize the Infected. This is worth 1OP for Stabilizing the Alpha Infected, and 2OP for Stabilizing more Infected than your opponent (our reading is that the Alpha counts as one of the total number for this purpose). This also needs a Doctor/Paramedic/Spec Op, and Silhouette contact with the Infected, or a friendly trooper that has the Infected in CivEvac state. Like Scanning, this can't be reversed, but it is exclusive - once Player A has stabilized a given Infected, Player B cannot stabilize them!
CivEvac Stabilized Infected. This is worth 1OP for the Alpha Infected, and 2OP for CivEvacing more than your opponent. Two big wrinkles here. First, no trooper can CivEvac more than 1 Infected at a time (normally, Specialists can grab two civilians at once). Second, if a Player Turn ends with an Infected in CivEvac state, and both it and the trooper are inside a Stabilization Zone, that Infected becomes Stabilized.
Secure Infected. Worth just 1OP for Securing at least 1 Infected, this can be scored at the end of the game. Infected which are Stabilized or in CivEvac state qualify, as long as their ZoC is free of enemy troopers.

The issue here is that while Scanning can be used to lock in OP for either player, Stabilizing can lock in 'swing points'. As we read it, if Player A can Stabilize the Alpha Infected and two others, then not only have they guaranteed 3OP, but Player B is limited to 7OP as their maximum score.

There are no Classified Objectives, regular HVTs, or Treasure Tokens in this mission, nor does it use the Tactical Support rule - only the mission-specific rules are in play. It does end in Retreat as normal.

For rolls to Scan, Stablize, or CivEvac, Doctors and Paramedics receive a very powerful +1 Special Dice bonus. This will make them very much the units of choice for factions which can fold them into aggressive Fireteams, or take those skills on units with superior or airborne deployment abilities.

How Will It Play?

Our first thought is it's nice to see more experimentation with missions where players have some agency over set-up. Placement of the Infected seems to have obvious drivers. They need to be more than 4" from the enemy DZ, and more than 8" from each other. But why would anyone put them closer to the enemy DZ than necessary? Our initial thought would be to put them right on the halfway line, in most cases, but we note that Scanning requires LoF as well as ZoC, while Stabilization and CivEvac require Silhouette contact. Finding places that are hidden from view, or especially hard to move to, from the enemy DZ will be important. Placement of the Stabilization Zones is also more complex than it first appears, because players can use either zone to Stabilize an Infected in CivEvac at the end of their turn. So placing your zone right at the forward edge of your DZ, a short hop from the Infected, could be a double edged sword.

The order of these placements is also important. Infected are placed first, starting with the player who kept deployment - so almost always the second player. Remember that the Alpha Infected is by far the most valuable and their position is fixed. The Stabilization Zones are placed next, again with the kept-deployment player deciding first. This seems like it gives a lot of agency to the first player to execute a smooth first turn smash-and-grab.

As with Provisioning, a very strong play in this mission seems to be locking in the objectives (the Infected) ASAP when playing first. We mentioned above the strength of Stabilizing multiple Infected including the Alpha, because it guarantees a score. That can also be done via CivEvacing those Infected to your Stabilization Zone, which means the opponent has to attack you there to prevent even more OP being scored at the end of the game. Potentially, mobile objective-completing models, access to the Infected, and defensible Stabilization Zones will be the most important elements.

Speaking of Specialists, at first glance, this is a major step back in design to Missions tailored to a specific type of Specialist. +1 Special Dice is a big deal and I'm certainly filtering for Doctor and Paramedic on my Army app. If the Hackers and Forward Observers which are so common, especially as forward-deployed units, in other missions can't Scan or Stabilize, that's a big deal. The get-out clause here is CivEvac to the zone. That can be done by any model that can normally declare CivEvac (so not needing a Specialist, but can't be Irregular, Impetuous or a REM). Obviously this will require more Orders than Stabilizing on the spot, but it is also working towards the OP available for having Stabilized Infected in CivEvac at the end of the game - it will be necessary to score 8+ OP. We predict it might be the preferred method.

What Do We Think of Outbreak?

This is certainly interesting, and could be very popular. Initially it seems to favour the first player. The only real advantage for the second player is the chance to shoot enemies out of their CivEvac opportunities in Round 3. But that can be harder than it sounds, if you're on the back foot already and the first player has been able to pick an inaccessible, sheltered, or defensible Stabilization Zone. On the other hand, we mustn't underestimate the Order pressure of getting into the enemy table half, interacting with an objective, and returning to your own DZ - potentially 3 times to achieve a high score.

This mission will stretch players' list building capacity as they try and find mobile models that can swiftly get to and interact with the Infected, then survive in the Stabilization Zone. This doesn't need to be heroic Paramedics like the mighty Morat Rindak, which can potentially put the whole game on their broad shoulders. Any fast, fighty model could grab an Infected, get it back to your Stabilization Zone, and then a friendly backline Doctor could come and scan multiple Infected in future Rounds.

Finally, as with all Radial deployment missions, we have to acknowledge the role of the table. The availability of positions for Infected and Stabilization Zones for each player side will be quite hard for TOs to envision, at least until we've had some practice. Having a zone that can't be directly attacked from range, particularly, will be a major factor. That almost reverses the normal criteria for a safe DZ. We all like dense cover, but players should also look for a DZ that has enough space to fit a Stabilization Zone behind something solid.

We can't wait to get out and practice some Outbreak, and it will surely be experimented with in your local events, so get out there and play some games!

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Tags: Hot Take | Infinity | infinity N5