Today I’m continuing my series on the Anima Tactics scenarios with a look at Scenario #2: Ambush.

Do I even need to say it?

Ambush is the least conventional of all the Anima Tactics Scenarios in that it has a very uneven deployment set up. Rather than deploying your models one at a time as in normal Anima Tactics games, Ambush has a defender/attacker set up that allows for the players to deploy most of their forces all at once.

First a die is rolled to decide attacker and defender. If you are going into one of these games, you always want to be prepared to do either, as loading your list to favor one or the other can go really sour really fast if the roll doesn’t go your way. Once the defender is decided they will choose one character in their party to be the Protected Character, a character whose goal is to make it across the board to the other side and finally, beyond the opposite board edge. The defender then deploys all of their forces minus the Protected Character inside an 8” strip at the back of their board edge. Then the attacker deploys all of their forces, after which the defender will finally place the Protected Character. Which character you choose as your Protected Character may be the most important decision you make in this game, so we will focus the majority of this article on this decision.

The reason this decision is so important lies in the set up for the attacker and a few key restrictions placed upon the Protected Character. Your opponent gets a massive deployment field extending in a U shape 12” from each board edge and 12” from the front of your deployment. This essentially gives the attackers forces all a limited version of advanced deployment (Which by the way still works, enabling AD heavy attackers to deploy anywhere outside of 12” of your deployment zone!)

If this disadvantage wasn’t enough, the Protected Character is subject to some special rules. Because this character merely has to walk from one side of the board to the other, they are subjected to some restrictions on their movement and Deployment. A Protected character can’t advance deploy or infiltrate, nor can he or she become Hidden for any reason. This can put a real cramp in the style of Organizations like Azure Alliance or Wissenschaft. Furthermore, the Protected Character can only move by using the walk or free movement actions, and can’t use any special movement abilities or teleport.

So now that the playing field has been set, we should talk about strategy. When selecting the Protected Character as the defender, it is important to pay attention to not only the Character’s stats and abilities, but those of your whole list. As your Protected Character will have a giant target painted on their head, it is important that you be able to intercept incoming ranged attacks and charges from enemy models. Don’t select a super speedy character to be the PC unless you have lots of other speedy characters to keep up with them and defend them. On the other hand, a slow character can be a dangerous choice since it will take more turns to get across the board.

I generally don’t recommend using a character with damage resistance. Although these models may be the most durable in your list and most able to take concentrated enemy fire, their inability to dodge just begs your opponent to use slams and abilities with throw to ensure that you never make it across the board.

My pick for Empire as an ideal PC is Janus Faith. Janus’ perfect defense ability makes him as durable as a Damage Resistance character without the loss of the dodge ability. He’s slow, but so are most of Empire’s characters. The trick is to use your faster attackers to skirmish with the enemy’s more powerful melee attackers (especially anyone with a throw special ability) while you defend the plodding Janus with some of Empire’s more heavily armored troops.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I’d pick Celia as my favorite PC for Wisenschaft. Her Mirror stance, Neokenisis, and high native defense and speed make her a great candidate for getting across the board quickly while frustrating all of your opponent’s concentrated attacking efforts.

Next time we’ll talk about some attacking tactics!

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