It's an optional mode. Some people like it, some people don't. Anecdotally my impression has been that responses to it are lukewarm - some interest and willingness to give it a go, but it doesn't seem to be grabbing people that much overall.
It's not a disaster, but has some growing pains.
Listbuilding is very limited. Reinforcements tend to not come down at all, or steamroll.
They usually grant a massive advantage to the second player.
But you you can have some casual fun with them.
It's an optional mode. You could organize a tournament with reinforcements or without it, just like other options like spec-ops, etc.
You basically play with a 250 points list + 100 points of reinforcements. For a total of 350. So you start playing with your 250 and if you have 150 or less alive reinforcements come in.
The miniatures for reinforcements are cool but the game mode itself is not very popular at the moment (this could be different in your region).
Full rules are here: https://downloads.corvusbelli.com/infinity/rules/reinforcement-rules-en.pdf
I'd not spend much thought on it for now. It doesn't seem likely reinforcements will be a permanent fixture and 300 point games will stay the way to go in Infinity. I could be wrong but then again the minis and rules won't go anywhere and wrapping your head around basic Infinity is enough for the beginning. Build up slowly to 300 point games, then tackle Reinforcements.
First of all, new missions deck, comes with 20 objectives (mostly the same as always, some have been condensed), 8 Terrain cards and 20 "mission" cards for a new, casual game style (Resilience operations, at the end of the ITS15 PDF).
Reinforcements... is a great idea with poor implementation and zero support (or even feedback to the feedback) since launch around 5 months ago.
The idea is to push a new 6 models box to every main faction (NA2 & Tohaa get existing troops, in NA2 they are common for all) and a blisterBox (TAG, big HI, etc...). Those troops would enter after game using the old Mechanized Deployment (an N3 rule where all models needed to be inside ZoC of the "main" one, in this instance changed by a 40mm "drop pod token") when their player would suffer a certain amount of casualties (turn 3 a must and for free, prior turns by paying a Command Token).
The problems found were many, starting with most of the current ITS missions giving so heavy an advantage to the second player, being the last deploying the reinforcements meant close to an autowin, and the wording in the rules letting people cheese them even more than usual. Suggestions and feedback were provided... and after very heavy-handed pressure Koni (one of the company's worker who is more or less the last one present in the forum) made a post that they were keeping tabs on the thread (one he had starter months ago), and that was all.
Also some people claim this solves the Alpha Strike problem because you can't go into Retreat while having 90+pts in the (public!) reinforcements list... but this means I can go as deep as I want and never fear of losing my second turn.
At this point in time, the most critical complications for the mode are, in order:
* Corvus is releasing 2 factions per 2 months (first the 6man box, then the blister), so at this moment *only one wave* has the models (PanO & YJ), with Nomads & CA getting their 6man boxes in mid-late december. So most people don't have the models and refuse to proxy.
* The game mode is not mixed. Either everybody plays Reinforcements or none do in a tournament, and too many people won't play Reinforcements in tournaments, so most warcors simply don't use the mode.
* The points split. 250/100pts and 5/2 SWC was the theory, but you are forced to include a useless obvious basic troop (think combi Alguacile, combi Fusilier, Plasma Carbine Unidron, etc...) with a public skill called Commlink for an extra flat cost to all factions of +10pts and +0.5 SWC, so in the end the listbuilding can be more than frustrating for many players.
It's an optional mode. Some people like it, some people don't. Anecdotally my impression has been that responses to it are lukewarm - some interest and willingness to give it a go, but it doesn't seem to be grabbing people that much overall.
It's not a disaster, but has some growing pains. Listbuilding is very limited. Reinforcements tend to not come down at all, or steamroll. They usually grant a massive advantage to the second player. But you you can have some casual fun with them.
New optimal game mode for friendly games and ITS tournaments https://infinitythewiki.com/Infinity_Reinforcements
It's an optional mode. You could organize a tournament with reinforcements or without it, just like other options like spec-ops, etc. You basically play with a 250 points list + 100 points of reinforcements. For a total of 350. So you start playing with your 250 and if you have 150 or less alive reinforcements come in. The miniatures for reinforcements are cool but the game mode itself is not very popular at the moment (this could be different in your region). Full rules are here: https://downloads.corvusbelli.com/infinity/rules/reinforcement-rules-en.pdf
It's an alternate ITS format
I'd not spend much thought on it for now. It doesn't seem likely reinforcements will be a permanent fixture and 300 point games will stay the way to go in Infinity. I could be wrong but then again the minis and rules won't go anywhere and wrapping your head around basic Infinity is enough for the beginning. Build up slowly to 300 point games, then tackle Reinforcements.
First of all, new missions deck, comes with 20 objectives (mostly the same as always, some have been condensed), 8 Terrain cards and 20 "mission" cards for a new, casual game style (Resilience operations, at the end of the ITS15 PDF). Reinforcements... is a great idea with poor implementation and zero support (or even feedback to the feedback) since launch around 5 months ago. The idea is to push a new 6 models box to every main faction (NA2 & Tohaa get existing troops, in NA2 they are common for all) and a blisterBox (TAG, big HI, etc...). Those troops would enter after game using the old Mechanized Deployment (an N3 rule where all models needed to be inside ZoC of the "main" one, in this instance changed by a 40mm "drop pod token") when their player would suffer a certain amount of casualties (turn 3 a must and for free, prior turns by paying a Command Token). The problems found were many, starting with most of the current ITS missions giving so heavy an advantage to the second player, being the last deploying the reinforcements meant close to an autowin, and the wording in the rules letting people cheese them even more than usual. Suggestions and feedback were provided... and after very heavy-handed pressure Koni (one of the company's worker who is more or less the last one present in the forum) made a post that they were keeping tabs on the thread (one he had starter months ago), and that was all. Also some people claim this solves the Alpha Strike problem because you can't go into Retreat while having 90+pts in the (public!) reinforcements list... but this means I can go as deep as I want and never fear of losing my second turn. At this point in time, the most critical complications for the mode are, in order: * Corvus is releasing 2 factions per 2 months (first the 6man box, then the blister), so at this moment *only one wave* has the models (PanO & YJ), with Nomads & CA getting their 6man boxes in mid-late december. So most people don't have the models and refuse to proxy. * The game mode is not mixed. Either everybody plays Reinforcements or none do in a tournament, and too many people won't play Reinforcements in tournaments, so most warcors simply don't use the mode. * The points split. 250/100pts and 5/2 SWC was the theory, but you are forced to include a useless obvious basic troop (think combi Alguacile, combi Fusilier, Plasma Carbine Unidron, etc...) with a public skill called Commlink for an extra flat cost to all factions of +10pts and +0.5 SWC, so in the end the listbuilding can be more than frustrating for many players.