Sho

Another Anima Tactics unit finished, and my 36th mini from the range in 2013.

This was yet another mini I loved from first seeing it, so much so that Sho sneaked up the painting queue from when I acquired him! I have been struggling with two other Empire models for quite some time, one of which may go into the stripping bath, and so it is a good feeling to get at least one more done.

I had thought that my Empire Party would be larger than it is by now, but as I say, a couple of models I have struggled with.

At first examination Sho does not look too hard hitting; his 3 AP Bushu Special Attack is at a basic Attack 5 Damage 5, although it does give him Healing if it hits. Compare that to Celia's Tear of Illusions which is 10/3, or Drake's Dragon Overdrive at 8/8 and it looks lacking, except that Sho adds Damage (and Attack with Bushu) the lower his Life Points total is thanks to his Kurokami rule). That sets up a situation where he benefits from being Damaged, but with Defense 9, Armor 2 and 13 LP, Sho is not particularly durable. Which in turn makes me think he will take a bit of working out and getting used to, if I am to use him effectively.

The mini comes packed with an Advantage Card that buffs his LP (Heart of Gold; adding to the utility of Kurokami). Another synergistic option would be Last Stand, adding to his Attack and Damage at below half LP - functionally that means at 6 LP for example he would add +3/+3. Something else for me to ponder.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: nothing, but still awaiting that recent order)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 41 (40 different models)
Painted Minis Percentage: 27.9% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 148 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 27.0%

Some Upcoming Releases

Gear Mk. Trithemius

These images have been seen on the Cipher Studios FB page, as well as on the FRP Games retail site. Some info has been speculated on on the Cipher Studios Forum.

Gear Mk. Trithemius: Basically a sort-of Agent Gear; this unit does not count as an Agent, but counts against your Party limit of Agents. Currently known rules suggest up to 1 Gear Mk. Trithemius per 150 Levels in a Party. Neutral Faction, Wissenschaft (of course) and unlike most of the larger Gears does not have named Pilots.

FRP Games lists February 2014 as estimated release.

October/Death Glacial

October: Possibly also known as Death Glacier or Death Glacial; Dark Empire. No rules leaked yet as far as I know, but Empire suggests decent Armor, and of course the weapon suggests Ranged Attack. October is believed to be one of a trio of Empire assassins (see below for another), therefore could be a new Team.

FRP Games lists February 2014 as estimated release.

September/Mukui

September: Also known as Mukui; presumably Empire, but other details are unknown. May possibly form a Team with October and a red-headed woman tentatively though to be November (kudos to SageofLodoss from the Forum for linking that information together).

No speculative release date yet, but this was first shown by Cipher Studios around 5-6 months ago, so hopefully not too long.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all readers; I hope you all enjoy a happy festive period.

For your enjoyment, there is a Christmas-themed Pulp City Battle Report over on the Pulp Citizen (click for link).

Damage Resistance

Damage Resistance is a quality that crops up in the rules for a number of units. It is not an 'Innate Ability', therefore is unaffected by the Seal State.

In essence Damage Resistance is a rule to model that slow or cumbersome units will find it hard to evade blows. Thus some Undead units have the rule (especially the more common rank and file types), or big lumbering things like Wrath of Nature.

Damage Resistance offer a mixed bag, with generally more downsides than up, but even then, it is something that can be factored into play-style. Damage Resistance prevents a unit using Dodge, which while at first sounds like a handicap, however could arguably worked with if playing a more attritional and aggressive style. On the plus side, a DR unit never loses Action Points from Falls or Crashes; however those may be less common threats depending on terrain available and usual opponents faced.

The key thing then to me is simply that it in fact eases decision making; you don't have to worry about an Action Point being pulled out for a Dodge, thus scuppering your opportunity to pull off an uber-Action, or worse still worrying about taking the hit and the consequences thereof. Nope; hit happens, you see what the effects are, then move on. Like I say, well-suited to a more aggressive and attritional play style.

The Next 10 (4)

My most recent batch of 10 Anima Tactics minis all together. It has been approximately two months between my third 'Next 10' and this post; I seem to have picked up some recent momentum it would appear!

Thematically, this month saw a big push on Black Sun, and a lot of 'not-black' colour schemes, and so it hopefully looks like a big contrast to the last batch. Please forgive the picture; I struggled to get all of them in focus, due to depth and height - this was the best of around ten or so attempts.

As I mentioned in the Celia post, hitting a total of 40 minis feels significant to me, so that has been pleasing. I am now filled with belief that within three years I will have painted them all! Maybe...

Anyway, onward and upward, and here is looking forward to the fifth 'Next 10'.

Celia

Gotta paint 'em all! Yet another Anima Tactics mini painted by me, hot on the heels of Genma, and this one feels like more of a milestone than any of the preceding 39 did. I know that sounds obvious, but 40 minis painted seems like a nice, substantial number (heck, it is more minis by far than my last WH40K Grand Tournament army which was a meager 27 models; all Terminators mind you...). There is a sense of satisfaction having hit 40 minis painted for the range where just over a year ago I had been stuck at painting none of these.

So this is Celia; there is also a limited edition version, but that will be purely for painting and is never likely to be a gaming piece (except maybe at home). Celia is a Wissenschaft Warrior and is, I think, one of the older models in the line. That said, despite having quite a simple selection of abilities and Actions, and being an older unit, she still looks pretty useful to me.

In line with many non-Gear Wissenschaft units, Celia looks potentially quite fragile (no Armor, fairly low Life points), but this is made up by a decent Defense value and an excellent enhanced Dodge. Her special Attack looks a very good option too. She suffers from low Damage value, but using her main Attack she is likely to hit most targets, and using a Gnosis roll will have a good chance even against many Dodging targets. So using her against against targets with decent Armor or Life Points is less than ideal, but against more vulnerable options she looks like she could shine. I am also rubbing my hands at the thought of eventually trying her out with Dereck Shezard and Rayne as masters of Neokinesis; a true speed team with great Action Point recovery potential in the right circumstances. And compounded that both Celia and Dereck saw cost breaks in the recent update from Anima Studios Project/Cipher Studios/Edge Entertainment.

Speaking of 'circumstances', a Party featuring heavy use of Neokinesis demands that the Neokinesis Magnus Plot Card is used to maximize returns; I really need to think about the game-based timing issues required for that!

This year I have painted quite a few Anima Tactics minis (by my standards that is!), and if I can get another one done before 2013 concludes, that would make 36 for the year, or an average of 3 per month which would be a nice achievement I think.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: nothing, but still awaiting that recent order)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 40 (39 different models)
Painted Minis Percentage: 27.2% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 148 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 26.4%

Genma

And another Anima Tactics mini is completed! More importantly, this is one of the nine minis I included in my first batch of prepped minis (click for link). That was twenty months or so ago, and of those I have only painted five so far, so I am clearly not the most disciplined of painters!

So at last Genma is finished. As much as I like the mini, I have struggled for motivation to get this finished, obviously, and I don't know if I can put my finger on why. I like the mini; I like the Anima Tactics range; I like Samael characters; I like Summons and Genma is a master Summoner. Yet still it stayed stuck in the queue.

So onto the mini. Well colour-wise I plan to eschew any uniformity for Samael. This risk is they may end up as a mish-mash, and are not differentiated from my Wanderers, but I am okay with that. Genma's primary focus is in bringing Summons to the table; she has a token ranged Attack, but I am never going to be taking her because of that! She is able to Summon Light, Dark and Void, so pretty much anything, and considering there are no Void Summons yet, I am very curious to see what they would be like! Definitely an area I want to see more of for the game. I would really like to do a Summoner duo (pick two of Genma, Belith or Covel) with a horde of otherworldly creatures flung onto the battlefield, meaning I really do need to paint some more minis to do that with!

In terms of Advantage Cards Familiar is an obvious choice. Assuming the Samael Organizational Advantage allowing an automatic extra Bind Point on each Summon, then Familiar could be redundant, similarly Seal of Bones. Thus, something like Container looks interesting, allowing Genma to Summon as many as four units. Or something like Protective Shield; it is expensive (but the Summons won't be using any individual Advantage Cards of course), but could add to her survivability with free Dodges.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: nothing, but awaiting an order)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 39
Painted Minis Percentage: 26.5% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 148 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 25.7%

Summons

I love the concept of Summons for Anima Tactics, I really do. They draw from elements seen in a lot of turn-based Japanese console rpgs, and so perfectly evoke a particular aspect of the material that clearly inspired  Anima Tactics.

Summons are beings from elsewhere invoked to aid a Party. Immediately, most can be seen to reflect a particular elemental idea; not only in the sense of the classical four elements only, or even Eastern traditions, but also in a basic primal type of force such as light, darkness etc. Not a new idea in gaming by any stretch, but one I feel is handled fairly well in this game. So far there are nine Summons (five Light Summons and four Dark Summons), so I still have four to paint, but I hope that the game's creators do get around to adding more.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that the Ignis, Fire Demon looks slightly different to the version in the last blog post; I did a touch more work on the top-most flames to finish it off after taking this photo.

Each Summon has a distinct role, and with the 2013 Update many have undergone a price reduction (with a couple of notable exceptions). So with the array of Summons available, a wide range of options are opened up.

Left to right those Summons are (text in green are Summons made cheaper with the recent update; you can click on names for links):
Hellhound: Level 15, Atman 20, Dark
Wrath of Nature: Level 35/50, Atman 60, Light
Hamadria: Level 15/25, Atman 35, Light
Ignis, Fire Demon: Level 15/25, Atman 40, Dark
Elhaym, Maiden of Light: Level Level 35/40, Atman 60, Light

Atman is a reference value in the game to give an equivalent Level value when a Summon may be affected by a Level dependent ability; for example abilities that do not affect Level 50 and above would not affect Atman 50 and above and so on.

What I really look forwards too are the Aeons. There are various mentions in the rules for the units, but we have yet to see any. They occupy two Summon Levels so the inference is that they are powerful. I have a gut feeling they will be big and mighty avatars of power; I am guessing Morrigan size possibly. I hope we do get to see these ultimate Summons eventually, and preferably sooner rather than later.

Kagemaru

Woo-hoo; another one down, and with the last couple of painted minis I am past 25% of the entire available range for Anima Tactics (technically I think that was the last mini, I miscounted and thought there were 150 when I posted Ignis, Fire Demon, but looking again, it looks like there are currently 148 discrete minis). I am also drifting ever-closer to my fourth 'Next 10' post which is cool. So in the past 12 months I have made a bit of a dent into my Anima Tactics collection, and much more so than I thought I would in November 2012.

So on to Kagemaru. In keeping with my random approach to painting this range (except that recent Black Sun run!), here is a unit out of left field. I decided to go for a dark palette livened up with some dark red, dark blue and purple; that way he should hopefully stand out a little against Azur units who I plan to go mostly 'black' for, with a white accent on their neck frills.

Kagemaru is the legendary master of the Asakura ninja clan. So a super-ninja, with mystical powers and a bit of Summoning to boot! As an Optional Leader, he excels in spamming Shinobi into a Party list (with a cost break and raises the number limit), and allows for some unusual builds that still count as Organization Parties, even if lacking many actual Organization units.

Kagemaru has a lot of Actions built around his Stealth; in the games we have played so far Stealth has yet to feature at all, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. On the looks of things though, he looks like he could be devastating with options of a 11/8 Attack from Hidden/Stealth, or a 16 inch range Charge that is 13/4 for which he does not have to be Hidden. Ouch! Essentially even without buffing Kagemaru, target models are going to have to consider Dodging or take a big hit.

On the Advantage Card side of things, Primal seems ideal for adding to deadliness of his first attack (his first Charge as 13/7 then stacked by a support unit to become more decisive), but I think I would more likely take Clock of Cronos (to ensure he has enough Action Points), or Familiar if he takes a Summon.

In addition, if rumours prove to be true, Kagemaru will form half of Team Twin Shadow with Zenobius which will allow a very ninja-heavy Party if a player chooses!

As for what next in my Anima Tactics painting? I am giving up making any kind of promise or prediction for a while, so let's just see what comes up!

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 147 (added: nothing, but a couple are on order)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 38
Painted Minis Percentage: 25.9% (percentage of AT minis owned and painted)
Anima Tactics Range: 148 (including 2 LE minis)
Percentage of Whole Range Painted: 25.0%