Luzbell

Click to make enlargified

Another unit completed and my fifth Church model. I am starting to get near to a point to have more flexible options when thinking about Party-building

Luzbell is a slight change to most of the line in my humble opinion, especially the Navarro Perez sculpts, since she lacks the finer detailing of many other models, having simpler areas to paint etc. Still a  nice change and she fits well with the range. Sticking with my Church palette, since she is clearly intended to protect her Party, I feel she is a shield-maiden type even though she is a Mystic; so I decided that she needed some black to tie into the Church Warrior units.

Luzbell possesses a very good Dodge Action; Holy Reflection which is a useful Action to reflect Ranged Attacks onto other models; a basic Ranged Attack; and an option to re-position a friendly model - this latter Action should be especially useful to help manage any Friendly units that struggle to manage their Action Points, as well as those that do not rely on Charge (I am thinking Azriel for one in that regard). Functionally I think she is a good alternative to Grey, but only if there enough other hard-hitters in the same Party. I still need another Level 50 Church Unit I think.

In terms of Advantage Cards I would be thinking of one of the following: Afterimage (a Power that makes her harder to hit at range preserving her Dodge response); Talisman of Eriol (re-roll one die); Bell of Fortune (discard to add +1 to a roll made by the character; the understanding from the Forum is that this may be after the roll is made - useful for her Holy Reflection and Dodge Actions).

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 128 (added: Limited Edition Celia)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 22
Painted Minis Percentage: 17.2% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)

I have a number of part-painted minis, and one very close to finishing. Of the part-painted and undercoated/assembled minis there are 46 minis ready to be completed! July is set for doing some minis for Freebooter's Fate, so I may be able to manage 1 or 2 Anima Tactics minis next month. I have another project lined up for August, so I suspect my next big run will be in September, with any painted between now and then as 'bonuses'.

Odin Goldsmith

My second Empire unit, and this is a big one.

For those not familiar with the mini, Odin Goldsmith is mounted on a 40 mm base. He is a big beast of a model, even if he does not look it at first sight. Nowhere near Wrath of Nature size, but still 45 mm tall, and his weapon? That is approximately 2 3/4 inches long!

Like I said - he is big!

Odin Goldsmith is the warrior incarnate; his background describes that for over thirty years he has been present in every documented conflict and involved in hundreds of secret special operations, that he is an unstoppable fighting machine.

Colour-scheme wise I wanted to stick with what I laid down with Janus Faith, but having no tunic I substituted the blue onto his cloak. Even though there is an established official colour scheme for Empire which I *think* varies by rank, I want a more uniform look for my Empire so I will be sticking with the combination with some exceptions like Samiel.

I am looking forwards to unleashing Odin Goldsmith in some games as he has a couple of cool Action, but a really cool special ability (Chain of Blows), which can keep going with the right amount of stupendous luck. It could be interesting to see that ability explode as it were.

Stats wise, he has very high armour, a lot of Life points and attack 5/Damage 6, so pretty hard-hitting. Definitely one to sue Gnosis on to maximize the chances of Chain of Blows.

His main drawback is that he has a relatively very low AP regeneration, but this improves as he takes more damage, although for the best 4/4 he will be close to being taken out, so it maybe worth considering Advantage cards that offer synergy with how he is set-up such as Last Stand (+1 Attack and +1 Damage at below half LP); Talisman of Eriol (re-roll one die); Primal (since you are likely to be using Gnosis etc anyway, he should hopefully hit, and Primal stacks that up); and any of the usual suspects like Supernatural Weapon, Elemental Weapon or Supernatural Armor.

Ultimately he looks like he can be a heavy hitter, but one that is fallible. Definitely want to get some games in with him as soon as possible.

Getting this finished was a little surprising as I had started work on Luzbell at the time, then thought I would do 'a bit' on Odin while she was drying at some points, Then I carried on, and on, and eventually finished him. I really have little control over what I finish and when sometimes! Luzbell is nearly done and I have a few more Empire (Vayl; Veronica; Erika; and Female Empire Agent) in the possibly infamous 'queue', so I hope more will be done soon. That said, I have a painting challenge for another game next month, so that may slow things down a little on the Anima Tactics front, same for August, but rest assured I will keep plugging away.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 127 (added: nothing!)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 21
Painted Minis Percentage: 16.5% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)

Woo Hoo!

Whew!

I have got one of the harder to get Anima Tactics minis through the post today. Thus far there have been two Limited Edition minis for the line, both variants of existing minis: Khaine D'Lacreu and Celia.

Khaine proved a little easier to acquire, but LE Celia has been commanding high prices for a while now on eBay, and even looking back 2-3 years some similar prices seem to have been paid.

Well today Celia arrived and I have my opportunity to have a truly complete collection.

I may keep a price watch for other who are interested going forwards, but suffice it to say that based on the limited data available from recent sales and some available information on Forums etc, the price range for Celia is typically £85-90 GBP (I got lucky with the price I paid BTW!). This will only happen as and when more info becomes available, but be warned, if you are looking to buy Celia, if you can get a deal below that range, you are probably doing well.

The Next 10 (2)

20 minis down - who would have thought it?

I started this blog in March 2012, yet did not complete an Anima Tactics mini until December 2012, and since then have completed 20 minis (well 21, but that latest one has not been shown yet...).

As planned, and so far so good, with  each 'Next 10' I will gather up each full batch of 10 minis when completed which will give a narrative of sorts to my progress.

By my best guess there are currently 147 available Anima Tactics minis, and that number is set to continue to grow. I think I will be at least able to keep pace, but the real challenge will be sustaining the momentum of the past 7 months (roughly 3 minis per month as of the past few days), or better yet., exceeding that rate of completion. I am also still on course with my target across all lines as a whole for the year which is pleasing.

Anyway, this is second 'Next 10'. And check back in a couple of days for another new addition to the ranks!

Anima Tactics German Championships

Although in a land far, far away from ye Anima Tactician, the German Championships for Anima Tactics are coming up in November 2013.

The annual Anima Tactics championships take place on November 24th 2013, 10:00 a.m. at the Dreieich Convention near Frankfurt intl. airport. Registration opened on June 1st.

Click on this link for details.

Juliette Kaim

Click to embiggen

Juliette Kaim is the Azur Alliance's greatest messenger, passing on the orders of the Arbiters.

Juliette is also my my first completed Azur Alliance, the first of that Organization like Yuki was for Samael - I really am determined to paint all of this line if I can pull it off, so branching out is one of the key things to enable that I think; that way I can get a small foot-hold into each line-up.

This unit is quite atypical in several ways when compared to the rest of the line. Most units weigh in at between 35-60 Levels, with the majority in the 40-50 range. At 25 Levels Juliette Kaim is a very cheap unit, but one that has a particular function. The knock-on effect of the standard costing is that at 200 Levels you expect to have 4 units, possibly 5 cheaper units. At 300 Levels you expect to have 6, possibly 7 units. The point is that Juliette stands outwith the building blocks of Levels, except when you look a little deeper.

One Party I have in mind is to use her with Team Les Jaeger (The Colonel; Kyler; Rheindhold; and Kirsten). Collectively they come to 175 Levels, allowing Juliette to neatly take that up to 200 Levels.

Another factor is that Juliette is all about buff and de-buff. And to maximize her buffing capability she needs to be in a Party with an Arbiter. The Colonel will fulfill that role if used as part of Team Les Jaeger, so another pointer in that direction.

I have read a number of forum comments that Azur Alliance is 'under-powered' compared to other Organizations, but since I plan to paint and hopefully try out everything eventually, that does not deter me. And the idea of a sneaky bunch dressed in black appeals to me a lot!

On the Advantage Card front, well at only 25 levels I wonder whether she would be better left without, allowing another Unit to use those precious few Levels of Advantage Cards. That said, if I was to give her any cards it would be something like: Gnose (meaning no Ranged Attacks or Charges against her from more than 6 inches away); or Nue (adds to the difficulty to detect the unit if it is Hidden, which is important as Juliette needs to be Hidden to use one of her Actions).

On the painting, I am fairly pleased, although the neck frill may get a little more work before varnishing.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 127 (added: Sho; slowed down the acquisition slightly there!)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 20
Painted Minis Percentage: 15.7% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)


As an aside, the current available range stands at 147 minis by my estimate; at my current rate that would around 44-45 months to complete the lot even if they don't release anything else! Time to step up my painting speed methinks! :)

Yuki

Click to en-grow-ify

Yuki is described as one of the last Ice Maidens, and is my first finished Samael unit.

This mini has been in my painting queue for a while now as I started here, over-painted bits I was not pleased with, then stalled and as usual took things slowly. The thing is I thought this was a stunning mini from the moment I saw it, with a really interesting dynamic with her sat on her own tree, and no weapons etc. My problem as ever though is I struggle to maintain focus long enough to finish minis quickly most of the time (with occasional exceptions). Well she is finished now and I am reasonably pleased with the outcome.

I started to photograph here yesterday, but realised I had forgotten to paint the tiny creature at her back! D'oh! Well that was rectified tonight in short order.

Yuki is a Mystic with abilities that make her very good at locking down and limiting enemy units. In addition to eschews the usual movement rules but can be very fast, possibly one of the fastest units in the game, but at a high Action Point cost with a relatively low AP recharge. She also has a basic Ranged Attack, but I see that as very much a secondary or even tertiary ability. In regards to Advantage Cards, if I was to give her a card I would consider Control Bound (Equipment that boosts the difficulty of resisting her Effects) or Afterimage (a Power that makes her harder to hit at range since she should not be anywhere near the front line anyway); both are Level 5.

With Yuki being finished, the only Organization I have yet to finish a mini for is Azur, so I hope to rectify that fact before too long. Also the next mini I finish will mean that my next 'Next 10' is also done, so hopefully that will be sooner than later.

On the minis owned front, well they continue to trickle in...

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 126 (added: Erika; Samiel, the Black Lion; Saint Hazael; Kira; Type-012 Hunter; Shadow; and Maximo Ligori)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 19
Painted Minis Percentage: 15.1% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)