Xmas comes Early for AKI

I'd been sniffing around for something new, to give me more of a skirmish game, and to provide me with a more detailed painting project - one on which I could endeavour to improve my painting skills. A trip to the FLGS* put this system before me and one impulse buy later, I was the proud owner of Anima Tactics:

So what and why? Well Anima Tactics is a game I probably should have heard more about and shown more interest in a long time ago. It's set in a world that is quite clearly influenced by, and best described as 'Anime/Manga-esque'. Its a sort of quasi scifi, fantasy setting mixing western and eastern mythology with heavy religious and fantasy overtones in a way that the Japanese are masterful at. Though the game itself is a largely American creation.

As a long time fan of Anime and a reader of Manga since the early 90's this game should have been on my hit list for the art work alone; the models are quite something:

As to the game, well, I won't give a full review until I've had a chance to play, but it seems to be an activation system, with characters having varying numbers of activation points to use per turn. There seems to be the ability to interrupt an opponents action, and a selection of specific rules to each model.

Long time readers will know this is something I've had reservations with in the past. But on the plus side, the lavish rulebook does include the full rules for all the core models (some 70+) so you can at least check your opponent isn't spinning you a line.

We shall see; but as a painting project at least I'm really looking forward to giving these a go.

Merry Xmas one and all!

*Friendly Local Gaming Store