Anima Philippines

Slow Momentum

2008-05-27T09:22:00.001+08:00

I apologize for the slow momentum for Anima. I was waiting for the RPG book to really get into the meat of the story background, sonce there's very little on their cards. I'll be posting some pics as soon as Les gets free time to play again.

New Stuff for Anima Tactics

2008-01-22T15:56:00.000+08:00

Vayl
That's supposed to be the Sword of Cronos in his hands. From the illustration, he looks like he has a young version and an old version. We'll know when the mini is released soon.

Morrigan
No, not the succubus from Darkstalkers. Looks like a Boss from a video game. I don't know what she does but she'll definitely be on my list.

Harod

2008-01-20T16:20:00.000+08:00

Harod - Prowler/Azur Alliance - level 40
Attack: 5
Damage: 4
Defense: 8
Armor: 0
Life Points: 12
Resistance: 10
Movement: 12/16
Action Recovery/Max: 3/4

2 - Stealth (Subterfuge, Effect) Harod becomes Hidden. This skill cannot be activated if Harod is inside an enemy Control Zone. Upkeep: 1
2- Murder Attack (Subterfuge, Attack) Special Impact, +5 Attack/+5 Damage. If Murder Attack causes any damage, target unit suffers Level 3 Poison, Effect 16. This skill can only be used if Harod is Hidden.
3 - Snake Blades (Ki, Attack) Special Impact, +2 Attack. If Snake Blades cause any damage, target unit suffer Level 3 Poison, Effect 15.

ANIMAPH Orders

2008-01-17T15:29:00.000+08:00

Any interested parties may order through this blog. Make sure you get them in before January 23 though!

My ANIMA TACTICS loot is NOW HERE!!! It'll be a bit before they hit the table though. Prior commissions come first after all ^_^

Takanosuke

2007-12-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

Info from Hawaiigamers:

Takanosuke - Prowler/Wanderer - level 45
Attack: 5
Damage: 3
Defense: 9
Armor: 0
Life Points: 12
Resistance: 10
Movement: 12/16
Action Recovery/Max: 3/4

2 - Stealth (Subterfuge, Effect) Takanosuke becomes hidden. Upkeep: 1
2 - Kage (Subterfuge, Dodge, Escape) +1 Defense. If Takanosuke successfully defends the attack, he may automatically escape combat and use action points to move as a Reactive Action.
2 - Kage Shuriken (Subterfuge, Ranged Attack) Distance (12 inches). +2 Attack. If Kage Shuriken causes damage, target unit suffers level 1 Paralyze. Effect 15. This skill can be used only if Takanosuke is hidden.
2 - Tenchu (Subterfuge, Attack) +3 Attack / +3 Damage. This skill can only be used only if Takanosuke is Hidden.
3 - Void Eye (Ki, Effect) Takanosuke targets an enemy unit within 12 inches. Target unit and all friendly or enemy units within 3 inches from target suffer level 1 Slow. Effect 14. Takanosuke may not use Void Eye while engaged in Hand-to-Hand combat.

And just because it's so relevant, the accompanying card:

8 Orochi Seal; Awakened State
Type: Power
Category: Unique Character

This card my only be used on Takanosuke. Reveal this card at the beginning of the first turn. It remains in play for the rest of the game. Awakened State may not used if your group includes Kojaku Hime. While in play, Takanosuke gains the following special rules:

* Takanosuke is considered a Dark Unit.
* Takanosuke gains +1 to his Attack Attribute.
* Void Eye causes Level 1 Doom instead of Level 1 Slow.
* At the end of the maintenance phase, throw a die; with a result of 8+ put a Berserker counter on Takanosuke.

Janiel

2007-12-18T12:39:00.000+08:00

Info from Hawaiigamers:

Janiel - Warrior/Mystic - Samael - level 40
Attack: 5
Damage: 2
Defense: 9
Armor: 0
Life Points: 12
Resistance: 11
Movement: 8/12
Action Recovery/Max: 3/4

1 - Einjeil Eyes (Magic, Seek) This ability gives +8 to Janiel's control zone and +1 to the success roll of the Seek Control.
1 - The Mark of Einjeil (Magic, Effect) Choose an enemy unit within 20 inches. Until the end of the turn, all Ranged Attacks of any friendly unit against that enemy gain +2 Attack. Effect 16. Limit: 1 per turn.
3 - Feathers Storm (Magic, Ranged Attack) Distance (20 inches). +2 Damage.
3 - Healing Breath (Magic, Effect) A friendly unit inside Janiel's control zone gains level 2 Healing.

Kairos

2007-12-18T12:16:00.000+08:00

Info from Hawaiigamers:

Kairos - Warrior/Samael Level 45

Attack: 5
Damage: 4
Defense: 9
Armor: 1
HP: 15
Resistance: 11
Movement: 8/12
Action Recovery/Max: 3/4

3 - Dark Valestis (Ki, Charge) +4 Damage. Kairos may charge up to 16 inches.
3 - Soul Spiral (Ki, Ranged Attack) Distance Attack (16 inch), +2 Damage.
3+ Final Burst (Ki, Attack) Final Burst affects all enemy units within 3 inches from Kairos. Kairos may spend an additional action point to gain +2 Attack.

Alis Testarossa

2007-12-18T12:12:00.000+08:00

Info from Hawaiigamers:

Alis Testarossa - Warrior /Church Level 40
Attack: 4
Damage: 4
Defense: 9
Armor: 0
HP: 14
Resistance: 11
Movement: 8/12
Action Recovery/Max: 3/5

Wings of Light: If Alis sacrifices 3 LP during the Maintenance Phase, she obtains the Flying skill during the rest of the turn.

3 - Valkyrie (Ki, Charge) +2 Attack / +2 Damage, Alis must be Flying.
1 - Aegis' Wind (Ki, Movement, Escape) Alis automatically escapes Hand-to-Hand combat and may move up to 12 inches. This does not count as movement for the current turn. She may not engage in Hand-to-Hand combat using this movement action. Alis must be Flying.
3 - Aegis (Ki, Attack) +2 Attack / +2 Damage. If the attack causes damage, retire all Positive States from the enemy unit.
5 - Beyond the Winds (Ki, Charge) Retire Alis from the board. During her activation, in the following turn, place her in contact with any enemy unit in game and complete the Charge. Alis returns to the board with 0 action points. Alis must be Flying in the moment she uses this skill.

Slowly Building The Momentum

2007-12-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

I got a good friend, Les (Lesther Calina), to start ANIMA Tactics with me. He will be playing a pure Light warband, while I veered off the hoarding mix and decided to stick with Dark and some Neutrals. I'll be ordering some and painting them up so that I can demo it properly later on.

Larkin Vain has also been discussing a lot about the ANIMA card game. He says it's very, very good. Looks like I'll be investing on it, too. Here's his review of ANIMA Shadow of Omega.

I've decided on getting the following for the meantime: the Dark Starter set, Bael, Alessa Raincross, Dereck Shezard, Sophia Ilmora, Celia, Tsubasa Kurokami, Faust Orbatos, Jiang Pao, Takanosuke

Playtest Results

2007-12-03T15:55:00.001+08:00

I playtested a 300-point game last night at home using several proxy miniatures.

Setup

The Light was represented by Evangeline, Kronen, Tsubasa Kurokami, Janus Faith, Khaine D'Lacreu and Faust Orbatos. The Dark was represented by Dark Cheshire, Shinigami Ayl, Alessa Raincross, Bael, Dereck Shezard and Sophia Ilmora. Light was at 300 points while Dark was at 290 points. It would have been nice if I shifted out Sophia Ilmora for a Jiang Pao, but I wanted to see how Sophia's buffs would work in-game.

It was hard moving from table side to table side. I tried using Chessex glass beads like the ones I use for WARMACHINE to represent action points on the cards. I found it more convenient to just mark the cards with dry erase markers (again like WMH).

The game will be slow with two guys who are just new into the game, but I forecast a 300-point game on 10 turns to be done in less than an hour if both are already familiar with everything.

Being a low model count game, it would definitely be better to have a lot of terrain pieces on the table. As per the rules, there will be a minimum of two terrain pieces and a maximum of six terrain pieces in a game. The book fails to mention specific dimensions for said terrain pieces though. A safe assumption would be nothing larger than 12"x12" for a 4'x4' table.

Preliminary Tactics

As I was gunning (pardon the pun) for a fast and shooty Dark party, I tried to see how Light's approach to that would be. Looking back, Light has a healer via Evangeline. They also have a lot of high Armor models that can survive withering ranged attacks from Dark.

But what really screwed Light during my playtest was when Bael managed to snag Kronen with Paralysis. It was definitely annoying, it felt like being Icy Gaze'd for two turns.

At first blush, Dark would definitely seem to be a shooting force, while Light would have a tanking footslog. Well, it's still early in releases with a few models. I'm sure it'll have more variety by next year when more ANIMA models come out.

What I Heard

I was already attracted to the whole thing when I saw the Shinigami Ayl character design. Even more so when I got to surfing for them (along with the other miniatures games I planned on playing).

Larkin Vain (Joel) is already playing this with another player there at Hawaii Gamers. Evidently he enjoyed it so much he already purchased the currently released models. For sure I'll be following down that same path as well. I have chatted with him on several occasions and I have never heard a bad word about ANIMA from him.

Aggranal (Alger Lim) from Singapore says the game did not pick up in that country. He says that around the early part of 2007, they got some stock of the game there. Apparently, the models they got were of poor quality production (in his words, he said they looked like "their faces were hit by a truck").

I'll still be ordering a sizable amount of the miniatures which will hopefully arrive early January next year.

I have already pimped the idea to several close friends. Whether or not the local miniatures gaming community will come to support it, expect that I will continue to support it from my end myself ^_^

Da Cunning Plan!

2007-11-29T19:35:00.000+08:00

I penned up two lists that are around 300 points (340 to be exact), one for Light and another for Darkness. Hopefully the match-up will be fair as I am merely ballparking composition via character levels only.

DARKNESS

Level 45 - Alessa Raincross
Level 45 - Bael
Level 50 - Shinigami Ayl
Level 65 - Dereck Shezard
Level 35 - Sophia Ilmora
Level 50 - Dark Cheshire
Level 50 - Celia

LIGHT

Level 50 - Evangeline
Level 40 - Kronen
Level 50 - Khaine D'Lacreu
Level 45 - Janus Faith
Level 55 - Tsubasa Kurokami
Level 60 - Faust Orbatos
Level 40 - Jiang Pao

As I am more inclined to tabletop miniature wargames, ANIMA Tactics will come first. ANIMA Beyond Fantasy and ANIMA Shadow of Omega will come right after. Although I think I need the RPG core book for some in-depth reference though. We'll see ^_^

Welcome to Anima Philippines

2007-11-29T15:45:00.000+08:00

What is ANIMA?

ANIMA is a narrative role-playing game developed by ANIMA Project Studios, conceived as a combination of Japanese and western systems of play, which offers innovative rules and a background that incorporates the most striking elements of both styles.

ANIMA's style is Manga, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have all the elements every diehard role-playing, card game, or miniatures fan expects in a game.

Several great illustrators whose work has appeared in well-known video games and animated series, have collaborated in the project together with European authors. The result is a refreshing visual blend we are sure will please even the most discerning reader.

ANIMA PHILIPPINES will be the first to bring the ANIMA experience to the shores of our humble country and serve as the foundation for a growing gaming community.

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ANIMA has traditional tabletop pen-and-paper roleplaying, a non-collectible card game and tabletop wargame miniatures! I've already taken steps to ordering these and will be demo'ing as soon as I'm ready ^_^