A few words on the end of Anima Tactics

Yesterday, I learned of the unfortunate death of Anima Tactics and felt it warranted a few words.

Long term readers of this blog, or people who just like trawling through the archives, will find quite a few old posts on Anima Tactics. The number of posts had slowed in recent years, but I still thought of it as one of my favourite games, so the news that Cipher Studios is discontinuing the game was sad, if not surprising, given that releases had slowed to a crawl.

Anima Tactics was very much a boutique skirmish game, by which I mean the individual models were very expensive, but the game got away with this because you needed very few to play. The emphasis was on small numbers of high quality models and players expected to collect most, if not all, of the models from a particular faction. Anima Tactics may not have been the first boutique skirmish game, but it was the first I played and was followed by many others including Malifaux, Freeboooter's Fate, Helldorado and Bushido.

Like most games of this type, Anima Tactics traded on a unique aesthetic, in this case Japanese. While a number of games have been based around Japanese history, Anima was the first I know of to be based around Japanese pop-culture. The characters and setting were not particularly Japanese, but were filtered through by a Japanese idea of western culture. Anima was the war game that got closest to recreating the look of Anime, Manga or Japanese video games. Anima's unusual and distinctive art work, mostly produced by Wen Yu-Li set it apart from other games.

In addition, Anima Tactics had an unusually straight-forward and elegant rules set. Its model activation system was based around action points, represented by counters supplied with the miniatures. Points were spent in order to perform basic actions, like walking, running and fighting, but also special actions listed on the cards that came with the models. The characters received less than the full amount of points they could store each turn, so players had to manage their supply from turn to turn.

The combat system involved rolling a dice and adding a characters attack and comparing it to the enemies defence and the same procedure was used for both close combat and ranged attacks. There were no tables and, while, in common with most boutique skirmish games, keywords were added to the characters cards to indicate special rules, the number of these key words was far lower than in most other games.

Unfortunately, Anima Tactics didn't do very well in the UK. The only game shop near me that stocked it game up on the game in 2011 and it has all but vanished from UK online stores. In order to get any more models I had to order them from the US and accept customs charges and the, far more irritating and inevitably greater, processing fees that came with them.

Anima started life as a Roleplaying game, Anima: Beyond Fantasy, still produced by Spanish company Edge Entertainment, but Anima Tactics was produced and distributed by Cipher Studios in the US, although the background and rules still came from Edge. The arrangement did not always appear to work smoothly and, apparently, lead to the slow rate of release of both models and rule books. It is hardly surprising that once Cipher acquired Helldorado out right they shifted much of their attention to the new game.

I feel somewhat ambivalent about all of this. On the one hand, I have almost all the models released for three factions and, once the range is moved to Ninja Division I will probably order the last half dozen or so I still don't have. There is something quite appealing about having a complete set of models. My little brother has a pretty good range from two more factions and between us to keep us busy for the foreseeable future. I can focus on actually getting the models painted without worrying about keeping up with new releases. And this may not be the end, according to a post on the Cipher Studios forum, developers of the spin off video game, Gate of Memories, are interested in keeping the game going:

Hi everyone.

Regarding the announcement of Cipher Studios about Anima Tactics, I want to coment some points to make everything clear.

1°) Will it have an impact on the videogame?
Of course not! Gate of Memories development will go on in the same way as it was planed. The game is going to be finished and all the pledges will be given as promised, regardless if you are a backer of the first or extended campaign.
Anima Tactics was not directly related to Gate of Memories development.

2°) Will the minis of the Bearer and the Nameless be released?
Of course. Including AT rules for them. ^^

3°) Will another company takes over and continue AT instead of Cipher?
Right now, we are working with Edge Entertainment in a new branch of Anima Tactics sequel game. Give us time to prepare everything. ^^

4°) Will the Saga 3 rulebook be released one day?
Yes, but in a different way than the original plan. Right now, we are working in Anima Tactics Saga, which is equivalent to Anima Tactics sequel / 2nd edition.

Time will tell if this turns out to be a pipe dream or if it has any substance.

On the other hand, this still feels like the end of something. There is an undeniable psychological impact when a game goes from being formally supported, however lightly, to formally discontinued. The height of Anima Tactics came at a point where my painting skills were really developing and I was trying out lots of new techniques. My first serious attempts at blending and my first use of a wet pallet were both on Anima Tactics models. It prompted me to assemble an entire cardboard town. It also came along at a time in my life when lots of other things weren't going great and so I will always associate it with making me feel slightly better.

With all that mind, the passing of Anima Tactics is a sad event.

Bushido - All Dead in Shimoda

For a little while I have been wanting to try adding more of a narrative element to Bushido. My attention turned to the mini-campaiagns that used to be very popular for Warhammer games in which you would play two or three small games and then one big game. The winners of the earlier games would get bonuses in the last game, like extra points.

It then occurred to me that both my Bushido factions of choice largely divide into two type of model The Temple are largely split into Monks and Peasants (with a few extras) and the Savage Wave into Oni and Bakemono (with a few extras). From there it seemed obvious to devise scenarios that only allowed one of each type. This is why I suddenly bought and painted Hisao, to bulk up my supply of peasants.

In Scenario 1 - All Dead in Shimoda, a group of Monks investigate strange goings-on at a small peasant village, only to find the villagers gone and the village overrun with Oni.

There are three injured peasant left in the village, and both sides have to capture them. The Monks to find out what's going on, the Oni to silence them.

This was a small scenario of only 35 rice per side. The Temple faction cannot use peasants and the Savage Wave cannot use Bakemono. The full scenario rules are here.

And so to the battle.

Initial table layout before the two sides had deployed. The buildings are from 4Ground, the rice paddy and other accessories from Oshiro model terrain and the bamboo forest is home made from cork tiling, cocktail sticks and modelling putty. The peasant models are objective models representing the wounded peasants.

Both sides advanced through the centre of the village. Riku, defended by the Gorilla, headed for the peasant in the centre, throwing up a wall of water to protect himself. But the wall proved unable to stop the mighty Bobata the bell-ringer. On the left, Kenko and Hotaru fight with Waka and the Oni Slave over the left peasant.

In the background, the Nian advances across the rice paddy.

Disaster for the Savage Wave as Riku pushed back Bobata and a devastating charge from Gori-san finished him off. Meanwhile, Hotaru finished off the Slave and joined Kenko in attacking Waka. But they would both have to survive his giant stone Buddha head.

Sadly for Waka, Kenko survived the stone Buddha head with only minor injuries. No match for two monks, Waka was knocked down and then finished off.

Meanwhile, the Nian sneaked around the back of the village.

If the Nian had been lucky and had managed to finish off Kenko or Riku who were carrying the other wounded peasants, the Savage Wave still had a chance at a draw. He got off to a got start, hurling Gori-san to one side, but he wasn't strong enough to take out Kenko.

Scenario 1 went to the Temple.

It was an enjoyable, and pretty quick game, but it all went wrong for the Savage Wave when Bobata went down. While he would have had a hard time taking on both Gori-san and Kenko, he had a good chance of lasting long enough for the Nian to give him support from the other side. Gori-san rolled really well.

Hopefully, I'll update soon with details of Scenario 2.

Painting Update

My weekend has pretty much been divided between playing Tales of Xillia 2, watching Tabletop and painting this guy:

He's Hisao, crusty old man villager from Bushido.

And I had a bit of time to try out a Cinnamon crumble cake recipe.

There is a reason behind my sudden, frantic rush of fantasy far east painting and terrain building. More information soon, time permitting.

The Temple of mild annoyance

And here is the finished temple in all it's glory. I have to admit, I didn't expect to get it finished quite so quickly.

I had a nightmare of a time with the vertical struts. There are four pieces, one for each side, each of which consists of four vertical struts, attached to a horizontal piece which holds the central shrine building off the ground. You have to slide the four struts through four holes in the decking.

I made the foolish mistake of painting the struts before pushing them through the holes. When I pushed them through, I scraped half the paint off, one strut snapped clean in half and another half snapped and ended up at an angle. I was able to fix them so the casual observer won't notice, but I will never be able to look at anything else.

The end result is two nice pieces that add a bit of variety to my Bushido scenery collection, but which were more difficult to assemble than the 4Ground buildings and, thanks to the limits of my painting skills, don't look quite as good.

But, if you want a nice Japanese-style shrine, I don't think you can find a better one for the price.

Scenery in progress

A  quick update of what's going on at my painting table.

And a slightly more obvious item, a Torii arch.

These are both from Sarissa Precision's range of 28mm Japanese buildings and both were Christmas presents (thanks Mum).

I have previously bought Japanese buildings from 4Ground but they only do village buildings. Sarissa do a Shrine and the arch which fit well with my Bushido Temple of Rokan models. Unfortunately, unlike 4Ground, Sarissa's buildings have to be painted, so I have been hard at work this weekend.

Hopefully, I'll have some finished pictures soon.

Works in Progress - Gargants

A few pictures here of my latest project. When Games Workshop finally killed off Epic and the other specialist games, I took the opportunity to buy up a last few bits and bobs. But, nevertheless, there were still a few bits and bobs I didn't pick up. One of which was the Super Stompa, the second smallest of the Ork Titans/walker-based war engines.

I've thought for a while that it would be possible to build Gargants and/or Stompas using the current Warhammer 40,000 Killer-kans boxed set. And last weekend, at Warfare Reading, I finally picked up a box.

This was my first attempt at a Super Stompa

This is pretty much all Killer-Kan bits. The legs were cut down shorter and the head comes from the top of a Black Ork banner pole. The shoulder mounted buzz-saw was inspired by the old Mekboy Gargant model.

The shoulder mount came from my bits box, I honestly have no idea where it came from.

Unfortunately, this model turned out to be slightly bigger than a standard Gargant.

So I promoted him to a full scale Gargant, with two Soopa-guns and a Mega-choppa. He doesn't have the standard Gargant belly gun, but he was made by Orks so there's no requirement for consistency.

Having used up one Killer-Kan body, two guns and one close combat arm, I decided to take a different approach. Even cut down the legs were too long and the guns were too big. But I still thought I could use the bodies and the feet. So I improvised with other pieces from my bits box.

The heads are left over boss heads from fantasy Orks. The arms are made from parts of Killer-Kan legs. The guns were improvised from Killer-Kan bits, a plastic battle wagon and the gun from an old Mega-Gargant. The Axe from the right Super Stompa also comes from the Black Ork boxed set, which has been pretty useful.

My final plan was to upgrade my old Mega Gargant. I never liked the Mega Gargant model. The body and head were fine, but I thought the arms and additional weapons were too spindly.

I had long since cannibalised my Mega Gargant for parts, but I managed to dig out the frame of one of them.

I added two Killer-Kan close combat arms and shoulder mounted two of the Killer-Kan weapons.

The ram is from an old Imperial Guard tank accessory sprue.

I added two of the exhaust boxes from the Killer-Kans to the back in order to bulk it up. I couldn't find all of the original guns from the stomach, so I will either have to find them or replace them some how.

No I just have to paint them along with the several hundred other Epic Orks I have lying around.

Fleeting Pleasures

My birthday has come and gone for another year and I seem to have been caught up in a wave, or maybe just a puddle of nostalgia.

With the Amazon Voucher generously provided by my sister I acquired this.

A history of the Fighting Fantasy game books. And, shortly after my birthday I went along to see Knightmare Live, a comedy stage show based on the old children's series Knightmare.

 It was more exciting on TV

For anyone unfamiliar with either of those, the Fighting Fantasy game books were created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the founders of Games Workshop. They were essentially a variant of the 'choose your own adventure' genre of books in which the book is divided into numbered sections. The reader reads the first section, they are then given a choice and continue reading from the numbered section corresponding to the choice. In that sense, they control the flow of the story.

The Fighting Fantasy books added a basic role-playing element. The reader or player first randomly generates a simple character using 6 sided dice and periodically, throughout the book, they encounter monsters they must fight using a simple combat system. This adds a game element to the books, hence the name game book. The books were originally published from 1982 to 1995 and the re-published from 2002.

Knightmare, was a TV series broadcast by ITV as part of it's Children's ITV strand between 1987 and 1994. It was essentially a hybrid game show in which a team of four, usually children or teenagers, would attempt to beat the 'dungeon'. One member of the team would don the 'Helmet of Justice' which would almost entirely obscure their vision (because Justice is blind, see what they did there?). They would then be pushed into a green screen environment, with the remaining three acting as advisers, watching on a monitor and telling them what to do.

Both of these had a big impact on my childhood and early teenage years and the audience for Knightmare Live was made up almost entirely of people my age.

Both arose at around the time that Roleplaying in the UK peaked, but their development also parallelled the rise of home computer games in the UK, with them dying out as the Playstation era began (Fighting Fantasy returned in 2002, but was never as successful and the audience for the 20th anniversary book 'Blood of the Zombie' was made up of nostalgic adults more than children).

Looking at the Fighting Fantasy books with their, often, multiple pages of background, illustrated maps and elaborate fantasy illustrations (one of the key draws of the series was it use of serious fantasy artwork) I'm reminded of the manuals for 8 bit Spectrum computer games. These often compensated for the limitations of the on-screen visuals with elaborate art work and full colour printed maps. Story information that would now be conveyed in a video sequence was then packed into near novel length text (or in some cases actual novels).

 The map from the Spectrum game Tir Na Nog could have come straight from a Fighting Fantasy book

...and looks a bit more impressive the screen shots

The point is that the computer game players of this era were used to doing some imaginative work. They were used to somewhat abstract visuals and that games wouldn't exactly represent reality. Translating these ideas to book form was not much of a stretch.

Knightmare, in contrast, revelled in the fact that, with a television budget, it could offer what computer games could only aspire to provide, an interactive fantasy world. It's early computer graphics and green-screen effects, though primitive by modern standards, were well beyond anything that computers could provide.

It's hardly surprising that as computer and video games developed the appeal of both declined. By the Playstation era, games could create interactive 3D environments, albeit ones that look crude compared to the capabilities of current consoles. The effect was still to create a game world far more immersive than anything that had gone before.

The window of opportunity for both Fighting Fantasy and Knightmare to be successful was really quite narrow. Both were raised up and brought low by video gaming technology. They were dependent on a world where video games expanded the idea of what a game could be, but became redundant as video games truly achieved their potential.

I was fortunate in that that window fell straight across my childhood, a little younger or a little older and I might have missed them entirely. And yet they were hugely important to me, and, I suspect to my generation of gamers, influencing my taste in wargaming and video gaming years later.

And so I feel enormously privileged to have been born at exactly the right time for both of them.