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%

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%

Damaris

I am glad this one is finally done; it has been 'hanging around' the painting queue part-done for quite some time, and so needed completing (even if there are some bits I think could be better, it will do). I have quite a few others in the 'mostly done' phase (which is all too common for me!), so I need to finish some more sooner than later.

Damaris is (yet another!) Church Mystic, but to add variety a male - yep it is a dude! He is also a Summoner (Light and Dark, but not Void), so immediately I am thinking the only unit he is competing with in a Church Party is Sarah Reindhold. Damaris is 5 levels more, but can take Dark Summons which Sarah cannot; he is also *slightly* more durable (12 LP vs. 10 LP); he can also buff and respond to the destruction of Friendly units with a few differing options. Basically he looks to be a more aggressive option than Sarah, and could be the means I have been looking for to get the most out of Lostaroth Marchosias who always seems to die pretty swiftly.

In terms of Advantage Cards, the Container card he comes with buffs his Summoner Level, but I may be more tempted to use Familiar to keep his Summon around longer - I guess it depends on the Summons I would want to use; if say a Hellhound, then Damaris with Container and 2 Hellhounds only costs 65 Levels which sounds okay since they are intentionally pretty disposable. If something like Hamadria, Wrath of Nature or Elhaym, Maiden of Light, then Familiar is the choice I would make.

The pack comes with the spirit 'thing' included. There is no obvious use for it from the Damaris character card or the Advantage Card he comes with, so I have wondered if there may be some new Team coming up in the future, but who knows. I painted the spirit thing ages ago, and I am not counting it against my painting totals.

Anyway, it is another mini done, and I am closing in on my third 'Next 10' post, so that is positive, even if the rate of Anima Tactics painting has dropped over the last couple of months.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 142 (added: Raziel Nk-X)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 29
Painted Minis Percentage: 20.3% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted)

Valis Ul Del Vilfain

Okay, another one down! And this time around another Optional Leader, meaning that my Organization Party opportunities rare starting to become more rounded. With a Summon and a Wanderer I can make a 300 Level Wissenschaft Party.

I have again carried over the usual black purple colour motif that I use for Wissenschaft onto Valis Ul Del Vilfain, and with this I enjoyed how the scales on her coat came out, even if the photographs do not show them off that well.

With plans to paint up some Gears soon (Theurgia arrived today!), I accept that the big robot-suit things will have a different scheme to the Crows and Arias of Wissenschaft, so ultimately there may be two primary schemes for the Organization.

Valis Ul Del Vilfain is a Sylvain princess employed by Wissenschaft, and is both a capable fighter as well as being a very effective Summoner; her Summons are brought into play for no Action Point cost if engaged with an enemy model. That will typically leave a couple of Action Points to use for something else like movement, Dodges or even an Attack.

We got our first games in today. All were pitched battle type games, and Valis Ul Del Vilfain only featured in the final game (as we stepped up through Levels for each game); and I have to say she was pretty devastating, dropping her Summon into the battle-zone while adding her own formidable attacks.

Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 102 (added: Morrigan; Jiang Pao; Lin Pao; Nero; Feng Yi; Damien; Theurgia; and (female) Empire Agent)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 16
Painted Minis Percentage: 15.7% (percentage of AT minis owned that are painted; this has dropped but i am happy because my next mini is almost finished, just needing some tidying up over the weekend)

Sarah Reindhold

Another one down - number twelve ('gotta collect them all' - I may very well take that literally!).

I understand that Sarah Reindhold is related to the Azur character Reindhold (also known as Alfred Reindhold Webber), but cannot confirm until Saga III and/or IV book is out. Whenever that may be.

In the meantime this is my third Church mini, but has not really been painted towards putting into a Church Party at this time, more simply to keep up my painting momentum. That said, she is my first Summoner, so maybe she will get some use sooner or later. I did mention that I wanted to get some Summoners and Summons painted up, but I have more in mind Samael characters for that aspect of game-play.

Sarah's Actions are all around buffs and de-buffs, and one o the most interesting looking to my eye is her Upkeep Action Nathaniel's Incense which provides a Turn on Turn Life Point recovery. The only way to tell if it is as workable and useful as it appears is to get some games in of course! The down side is her de-buff ability appears to possibly switch off Nathaniel's Incense too.

My colour scheme for the various Saints in the Church will be the white clothing or robes with red shawl so their should be some uniformity as they start to appear.

I am not too happy with the face on this mini; the eyes have been done twice, and I am not doing them a third time - they stay as they are. Also the shininess around the red should be taken care of when I can eventually hit my minis with the Purity Seal.


Running Totals
Anima Tactics Minis: 80 (added: Azriel; Alastor; Saint Aestrega; Vayl)
Anima Tactics Minis Painted: 12
Painted Minis Percentage: 15% (that percentage growth has slowed down with recent purchases; I have another 9 minis on the way - so I need to get 2 done just to get ahead again when they have arrived)