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Hello thar'

I recently Got my self an Ophiel Model, just becuase i liked it, And after finding out he can be used in a game, i've got a few questions to other Anima Players:

How is the game? is it Fast paced? Do you really have to plan your "moves" (casting, moving, etc) And with it being fast pace or not, (even if its not) Does the Game "flow" easyly?

Are the Rules mind boggoling, or just look that way?

How are "battles" Set out? Are we talking "squad based" or large forces, or even single mini's?

Having said that, how "big" a game can you go? also, whats the game duration like?

Well, thats all i have for now, i hope o get a few answeres

EDIT: After the responce from this forum i got myself a rulebook and i have Posted a Pre-game Review later in this thread. click Here to see it.

I *think* this is more of a Skirmish scale game, so I'm moving it over to that Forum...

Thought there would be some feedback on this one
I like the look of the figures and would like to find out a bit about how the game plays

Lack of feedback make's baby rarmah Cry :(

Might be worth looking here

Anima Tactics just isn't that popular, I suppose.

SOME of the models are awesome though.





And some are rather silly, or don't quite match up to the always awesome concept art...

Still, I'd have thought it would be more popular than it is.

Skirmish scale games really should sell better than they do!

Anima Tactics website

Rule book arrived, me like lots. :3

Looks very interesting and promising.

I'll be expecting your review in short order then!

Anima Tactics: Pre-Game Thaught's & hopes.

Greetings, i recently decided to start playing anima tactics as a small scale skirmish game while i work on larger projects.
After getting my hands on a Ohpiel model and the hardcover rulebook, im really, really interested in this gaming system. I will start off by describing the tool's one would need for a game, moving onto the turn sequence, Attackingand then the cool stuff. im going to start with a saying "Less is more!" Anima thrives on this.

Tool's Needed / What you get.

All you need, per model, for an anima tactics match, is: two D10* & a tape mesuare. Thats it. Its *Amazingly* simplistic. No need to have fourty dice hanging about "just in case" one gets charged by a large force. There's also cards & counters. but there all supplied with the model you buy, with my Ohpiel i got 4 counters, his stat-card, plus a wargear card.

*The starter box set supplies these. at £12.30 odd per box set. Its amazing.

The System & Turn Sequance

Anima uses alot of Spell's & abilitys *ALL* of these require Action points (AP) to use (Mana if you wish, or energy, adrenline) All charecter's have a maximum amount of AP but regen AP (a certain amount) at the beginning of the turn. The more AP a ability costs is usually a good sign of how powerfull it is. No charecter restores its maximum AP per turn. so in order to save up for some rather cool & intersting spells, your going to have to plan to use your AP at the right time. Some spells require "Upkeep" (Think of your char Channeling the spell) Others are ranged attacks, most greatly enhance your charecter's mellee skill & Damage.

Turn Sequence:

First phase - Recovery. (the phase where Both players char's regens AP etc)

Second phase - Upkeep ( the Phase where Both players pay for your spells etc)

Third phase - Action phase (when Both players get to do stuff taking it in turns. )

As i said earlyer, Most actions cost AP. I lied. ALL actions (spells, movement, Charging etc) cost AP. Using AP is a vital part of Anima. but using correctly can turn the tides of battle. Lets move onto a few basics, movement firstly, Every charecter hase Two values for movement. the first is the speed that they can walk, Walking is a slower speed but WAY more manuverable. Running (depending on char) can be very fast, but must be in a strait line. Walking costs less AP than running, and charging costs more AP then running. Charging (the way anima handles it is awsome tbh) Charging is a LOS Run headlong into your oppenent. Gaining combat modifiers, or choosing other abilitys to Tie into a sucsessfull charge. For Eg: if your Charge damages an enemy you can choose to Slam him/her (high speed runing throw) Push (shove them outta the way) Wich is cool imo. Throwing players into objects, walls.. other players, gives additonal Damage etc.

Attacking

Animarpg.com wrote:The basic mechanic of combat is surprisingly simple and surprisingly deep. When a character attacks an enemy, he rolls a single ten-sided die and adds his attack score. If the result is equal to or higher than his target's defense score, he has hit his target. If he rolls higher than the target's defense score, he inflicts extra damage on a one-for-one ratio. The damage dealt is reduced by the target's armor value, and the remaining damage is removed from the target's life points.

The basic framework of this system offers a rich variety of options for maneuvers, modifiers, and cunning tactics, such as dodging, counter-attacks, and sneak attacks.

some over the really deadly spells Allow 2D10 and picking the highest for attacks, with my ophiel, its theroetical to inflict over 20 Points of damage to the Enemy targets life points (before Armor is taken into account)

Ranged attacks are litterally a ranged basic attack. Really simple.

one of my Favourate attack "modes" is "Attack from above". Allow me to explain, if you have a Charecter in a elavated position (ontop of a Balcony..) you can Leap from said place onto a unsupecting enemy below, Gaining considerable bonus's for the distance traveled. however, if the enemy dodges or you fail your attack for any reson. there is a high chance you will be turned into a red smear on the pavement!

Thats all for Now folks. Feel free to ask questions. I've left answers Vage and tryed not to copy right out of the rule book, So if you really want to truely know more, buy the rulebook!

Ill be Assembling and painting a dark starter force ready for my first game during next week. ill review after the game

Thanks for this - looking forward to more, especially after you've played a game or two.

And don't forget to post pictures of your painted force!

Thought the starter sets were more than that Rarmah!
if that is all then it is not bad at all!

some of the figures look good and might get a couple for my daughter to collect even if we don't play
(trouble is keep thinking that for lots of models )

thanks for the summary which was concise and clear. Look forward to seeing the review and more about the system.
FWIW to anyone wishing to know a bit more about the rules, there is a pdf of the basic rules on the website

For all your aninma Needs: http://www.arcaneminiatures.co.uk/anima-tactics-miniatures.asp

£28.95 Updated & FULL rulebook. (the rulebook thats downloadable is really..really minimalistic.)
£12.60 per starter Set. (Two mini's, the downloadable rulebook, Counters, cards, artwork, Dice)
£6.00 to £9.00 per mini. (each mini comes with Cards, counters, Artwork, and a Highly detailed box.)

i will endevor to get my starter set going and my models painted & posted on here asap.

Thanks Rarmah
did a google and found a site but thanks for the linky

yes the pdf is just the basics - is that the one that comes in the starter set please?

IIRC the full rulebook has all the character stats etc as well?

The Pdf *is* The rulebook that comes with the starter sets.

The Rulebook (hardback) Comes with about 70+ Charecters, Full fluff, amazing artwork.

Each charecter you buy comes with his own charecter card. With all its spells, abilitys & stats.

only the Newest Charecters are not in the Rulebook, And there is a couple of charecters that are in the rulebook, but with no model.**

Edit** Even if Said charecter isnt in the rulebook, the Cards it somes with enable you to use him,it,her in games as the cards are almost like "Quick referance" cards.

We have finally assembled a crew at my LGS and will start playing this on a regular basis after the Easter weekend. We are holding off for a bit so we all have some time to paint. For us, this game started more because people loved the models. I will post my impression on this as we progress.

Currently I am playing an almost strictly Samael list. I know we also have the Church and Wissenschaft represented...and one player is more interested in a strictly Light list.

I've been playing anima consistently for about a year and a half. If you want some good discussion, head over to: http://animaforum.edgeent.com/ as there's already a community built up and if you ahve any rules questions you can talk directly to the game designers to get rulings I cannot say enough good things about this game. If you have any questions in particular, post them or shoot them my way.

Edit: I play Church as my main tournament force and would like to add that my very successful tournament team costs 65 bucks retail

When my daughter comes to stay next week think we may be discussing factions. Think I will deffo be making a start (not that I need any new projects right now)
But it sounds too good not to

Am a tad confused about how the factions of Light /Dark/Nuetral work with the different teams.
(sorry not got around to studying this as yet )

a quick synopsis that is idiot proof would be appreciated please.


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ps meant to say will probably get one of the starter sets -or would both be best to begin with?

The starters are fine to start with, but getting the small pdf rulebook and one figure that you each like is a reasonable way to learn the very basic mechanics too.

Teams can be made of:
Light characters with Neutrals too
Dark Characters with Neutrals too
All one Organization (Light/dark/neutral is irrelevant) and one Wanderer (like a mercenary)

If you choose an Organization team you also get to pick from three different advantages based on how many points you're playing (the supernatural faction can save 5 points on Mystic units or keep summons in play longer, the Tech faction gets 5 points off mechs or more points for gear, things of that nature). At 250 points and higher you may use Leader characters as well, which are very powerful or have amazing support abilities. Standard tournaments are 300 points, though 200 is good too as there's lots of tactical flexibility without having to worry about Leaders.

I'll try and get a synopsis of each organization up to help out

Many thanks Cannerus

The other thing is, how easy would the rules be for kids to pick up. Would be aged 11-16

was thinking a skirmish would be ideal for the study group I help out with, for those that aren't so interested in 40K due to time constraints. Reckon the girls especially may be more interested in Anima Tactics


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just seen a 12+ recommendation so that should be okay.

Just a couple observations from reading over the rules now, though I honestly haven’t had a chance to play yet.

This game seems like it will be very strategy heavy. This may be a ‘No Duh’ statement, but let me clarify why I say this. (Someone please correct me if I get this wrong!) The game is basically run by action points, which govern everything you do. Most everything requires you to use between 1 – 4 action points to accomplish, however your action points don’t fully regenerate every turn.

Let me use my main man Konosuke as an example here: He has 4 action points (AP), but only regenerates 3 per turn. So if I want to charge an opponent (3 AP) and then use my Ki attack Thousand Broken Bones ( 1 AP), I have used my entire pool of AP. Next turn I will get 3 AP back, so my options are limited.
So resource management is crucial in this game. I love that!

I would also highly recommend getting a starter set. I honestly don’t care for the two figures offered in the Dark Faction pack (even though I play Dark/Samael), so I bought the Light. The miniature rulebook and quick reference cards are going to be invaluable. The tokens seem too flimsy, so I will probably look for an alternative.

Well was scooting around the internet last night and saw a dark starter with the Shinigami. Like the look of them myself and they can also be in the same party. The Light set are Church and Empire, so went for the Dark - in any case suspect my daughter will like the Samael team.

So have one due in the post

Also found some reviews on Youtube, and one of them mentioned that the tokens are fiddly. He seemed to stick them on something. Also he suggested keeping a D20 to keep tally of hitpoints.

btw I quite liked the look of Bael which I believe has replaced the Shinigami, so it was as well I didn't order one. Thing to do now is figure out an oppo team. Problem is I keep getting suckered by what the models look like it's sooo hard to choose!

That appeals to me also Korcheski, as the attributes you described will get the kids brains working! (Mine too- but I don't hold too much hope! )

It is ridiculously strategy-heavy. The rules are very simple but once you start decide who goes wear and when, then your opponent activates his next guy, it totally changes who should go wear and when again. Quick breakdown:

Samael - Magical creatures, lots of mystics. A few big, slow monstrous creature types.
Pros: Every character has a shooting attack. Fairly well-rounded.
Cons: Even with their few big guys, the squishiest faction.

Wissenchaft - Technology and sci-fi. Very fast, fair amount of shooting including the two "snipers" (with some of the best shooting in the game) and three different kinds of mechs to boot.
Pros: Wissen has no disadvantage in any of the scenarios. They're quick, powerful and versatile.
Cons: A bit more squishy than Samael, but if played properly (taking mechs or using The Process to give people a ridiculous 4 armor for free), they can be quite defensive as well.

Empire - Knights. Lumbering and armored.
Pros: Slightly lower attack, but lots of Critical Mastery so it doesn't matter sometimes. Very heavily armored (minimum of 2 even on their mystics). A few shooting units, including one awesome archer.
Cons: Slow, and many characters have a low resistance (vulnerable to spells, one might say).

Azur Alliance - Arbiters (big armored darth vader types) psychically command swarms of stealthy assassins.
Pros: Often outnumber opponent. Leaders are expensive but very resilient. Lots of "free" actions from Arbiter commands. Fair amount of shooting.
Cons: The assassin-types tend to reveal themselves with a massive sneak attack then get clobbered right after. The hardest faction to play right (very finesse-oriented).

Church - Saints, a few angel-types and really nasty inquisitors. Characters tend to be decent but really good against one thing (double damage to dark, light, mystic, or guys with armor) so very meta-oriented.
Pros: Lots of good melee units, lots of good buffing characters. Healing and lots of ways to not die (almost at Necron level when done right). Their two leaders are considered one of the best supporting characters, and the other is frequently called the best melee-oriented leader.
Cons: Only two shooting attacks. Inquisitors tend to go down first from being the biggest threats, which means you often won't get to do their cool big attacks out of need to Dodge.

Hopefully that's unbiased. I wrote more about some than others because I have more experience with them. Feel free to shoot any more questions my way

That is very helpful Cannerus- thank you!

There is also the Black Sun and Tol Raulo Templars.
Are these new groups ?

Also might it be possible to shore up a group's weaknesses with Wanderers?

Black Sun will be Resident Evil mixed with a bit more classic black magic. It's pretty much a Metal fan's wet dream. Spoilers for several of the characters are up now on the main forum! They're the closest Anima has to a swarm faction.

You'll be able to take one Wanderer per Organization team, so you can get that extra tank you need or maybe just take a quick, cheap character to fill up a point gap and give you someone good at objectives. They can help out, and obviously some wanderers in some teams give a much bigger advantage than in other teams. I'll do a quick run-down of my tourney team jsut to give you an idea what a min/maxed list might look like:

Church - 300 points
Organization Advantage: Unshakable Faith (Every character starts the game with a token. When they would die, they make an effect 17 check and remove the token. If they pass, they stay alive with 1 Life Point.)

Azriel - Inquisitor with really high accuracy
Damien - Inquisitor with "Intangible" movement abilities (can move through walls and what not) that ignores the opponent's armor and in some cases adds their armor as bonus damage
Nero - Inquisitor that does double-base damage to dark units and has an AoE
Church Agent - Equipped to have a very strong attack and is very cheap at only 40 points
High Saint Elienai - My leader, she's kind of expensive point-wise but she flies and is intangible so she ignores terrain, is practically immune to all but magic or ki attacks, can revive units in her control zone (12" for her), allow players to roll extra dice on every attack and dodge, automatically reveal hidden characters, cancel some opponent's dice and possess mine or the opponent's characters. She has no special attacks and very, very low damage and life.

Wanderer: Khaine - She can reactively absorb damage other players take, has a very tough 4 armor, allows other character's to re-roll dice and has a special attack that does double damage to dark units.

My team basically makes a death star with Elienai at the center. I give my Inquisitors a card that lets them re-roll one die a game (to keep them alive or do extra damage), my leader has a card set-up to heal 4 damage every turn (the amount it usually costs to keep a character from dying) and Khaine has a Life Potion because she eats most of my damage. My characters get two shots to stay alive when they die, with re-rolls in tow. When I lose it's because the opponent has forced me to spend so many points dodging that I didn't get to hit back very much, or because one of Elienais powers fails and I roll 3 9s or 10s in a row and she automatically dies (rare, but has happened on a few occasions). This time also has trouble with missions that use objectives as they can only spread with a 24" +/- diameter, and that gives me bad screening coverage.

My toughest match-ups are Empire becuase it's ahrd to deal enough damage to them with my leader having no real attacks, and Azur Allliance because there are so many weak character activations that I have to position myself awkwardly to protect my Leader.

That's just an example of what you can do in this game.


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Also, this website has spoilers for the stats for every existing model and a few unreleased. Proxy heaven

http://atoracle.wikidot.com/

Well thanks to you guys making me spend more cash DOH!

It was hard to choose but in the end I got XII (Dark/Wissenchaft) and a new chap Arhriman, Lord of Darkness (Dark/Samael)

will get a couple more Wissenchaft characters later. But we can at least get to grips with the basics with these and build up a couple of teams. Then can get a third.

Couple of observations. Online not all sellers state both Faction and Party which is a tad annoying.
Secondly a lot of the female minis look great but are next to nakee and so am restricted to what to get to take for the kids to use Just have to get those for my own collection Ahem!

only just noticed your addendum Cannerus
Thought XII was Dark but is neutral wish I had noticed this earlier when I was ordering DOH!
thanks again for the info

I find myself adding clothes to the models with GS much of the time Every once in a while we get a good, modest mini like Luzbell.



I don't mind boobs everywhere necessarily, it just seems a bit cliche after having an entire teams-worth.

A couple of figures arrived this morning, XII and Arhriman, Lord of Darkness.

The former arrived in a nice but badly damaged box and cost £13 - the same amount I paid for the starter

Am bit disappoined as there is a lot of flash and seam line to clear up and first look shows that the face may be miscast. It is hard to tell with the pewter, so will have closer inspection with the head loupe.
Not sure why this figure costs nearly twice as much as the standard figures, apart from his swanky box. (oo-er missus)

The other figure cost a tenner and looks quite good.

Still waiting for the starter set - hurry up pleeeeease!


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The seam line goes down the centre of the face which doesn't help but is not a big problem. But the right half is concave.
Looks like half the face is gone!




Am I correct in thinking it ought not look like this please?

That's the first time I've ever seen something like that :/ Contact Cipher Dave on the Anima forum and he'll likely be able to help you out. That looks like a miscast or something. XII is $15 normally, and the starters are $20.

Thanks Cannerus
I sent a message to the supplier but received no reply as yet
will get in touch as suggested with Cipher Dave.