About the Miniatures Game

Anima: Tactics is a miniatures game of heroic fantasy combat, with powerful magic, combat styles, and martial arts unleashed in a fusion of Eastern and Western art, myth, and style.

Parties

Each player brings a party of heroes to the field of battle, choosing characters, equipment, and other advantages with total levels no more than the fixed value selected for the game (250 levels for a standard game). No party may contain characters from both the Light and Darkness factions, unless all characters in the party are drawn from the same affiliation (there are eight affiliations in the game, such as the Church, the Empire, or the Black Sun trading cartel).

Most parties will be between two and eight characters.

Characters

Each character has a unique character card which determines his traits and abilities. In addition to a name and faction affiliation (found at the top of the card), characters also have an attack value, a damage value, a defense value, an armor value, a life total, a resist value, and a speed. They also have an action total, an action refresh rate, and possibly a variety of special actions.

Kronen, for example, is a Light-aligned character affiliated with the Empire. He has a good attack value, a very high Damage value, as well as good defense, strong armor, many life points, and a good resistance value. He is not especially fast, and may take up to four actions per turn (but only refreshes two actions per turn). Finally, he has a powerful special ability called "Scarlet Heartbeat," which costs Kronen 3 actions to use. Kronen costs 40 levels.

Actions

The fundamental unit of Anima: Tactics is the action — each character has a maximum action score (represented by spheres) and an action refresh rate (represented by the illuminated spheres). Players will take it in turns to activate their characters, and when activated their characters will refresh their value of actions and then may act. A character with a high action total may be able to run, attack, and use a special ability, whereas a character with a low action score will have fewer options.

Some basic options include:

Walk (1 action): the character may move a number of inches equal to the first number in her speed attribute.
Run (2 actions): the character may move a number of inches equal to the second number in her speed attribute but must move in a straight line. A character may only take a single movement-type action in a turn, so she may not both walk and run.
Attack (2 actions): the character makes a single attack against an adjacent enemy. Some characters have ranged attacks, and may make a single attack against an enemy who is in range and in line of sight.
Dodge (1 action, reactive): the character may add the result of a single die roll to his defense score when an enemy character attacks him — he may only do this if he has an available action on his opponent's turn.
Free Movement (0 actions, reactive): a character who has not otherwise moved this turn can move two inches without spending any actions.

A character with five available actions, for example, might walk around a corner and then attack an enemy twice, reducing him to zero actions. If his action refresh rate is only two, then on his next turn he would have only two actions available — so he might choose to walk back around the corner and keep his second action available for the following turn.

Combat

The basic mechanic of combat is surprisingly simple and surprisingly deep. When a character attacks an enemy, he rolls a single ten-sided die and adds his attack score. If the result is equal to or higher than his target's defense score, he has hit his target. If he rolls higher than the target's defense score, he inflicts extra damage on a one-for-one ratio. The damage dealt is reduced by the target's armor value, and the remaining damage is removed from the target's life points.

The basic framework of this system offers a rich variety of options for maneuvers, modifiers, and cunning tactics, such as dodging, counter-attacks, and sneak attacks.

For example: Kronen, a powerful warrior, is standing near Evangeline, a beautiful and mysterious priestess who, despite her mystical skill, is rather fragile. Dark Cheshire, a warrior of the Darkness faction, charges Evangeline in an effort to cut down the priestess before her magic can cause any more trouble.

Kronen uses his Free Movement action as a reaction and moves into the path of Cheshire's charge, thereby intercepting the attack! He then spends three actions to use the Scarlet Heartbeat, a martial arts discipline taught only to elite soldiers of the Empire, and rolls a ten-sided die to add to his defense. Between the die roll and Evangeline's Blessing (a magical boost she has applied in an earlier turn), Kronen's defense is now a mighty 13! Cheshire only adds five to his roll, so he will need to roll an 8 on a ten-sided die to hit. If he misses, Kronen's counterattack will have a +4 to its attack value and a +2 to its damage value, according to his Scarlet Heartbeat ability — that will teach Cheshire to try to prey on the weak!

Victory

In the standard scenario, the winner is the player with the most levels of characters still on the battlefield at the end of ten turns. Other scenarios may have different victory conditions — for example, Armageddon gives victory to the last faction with characters still alive, regardless of any turn limit.