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[Raith]

It was like the ringing of some great bell.  

It was felt everywhere by everyone, those closest found them selves completely paralysed as the vibrations rippled through their bodies, man and beast stood still and looked for the source of the noise, even the tides changed as the sound spread outwards.

Five great pillars of black fell from the sky striking across the face of the world, their impact scarred the land as they drove into the soil, each pillar stood taller than the highest trees and glowed with an inner light revealing hundreds of dimly glimmering runes.

Dark whispers claim they are old magic, older than the oldest myths and legends, beyond perhaps the War of God and the ages since, from a time where the world was known by another name and mankind had had worked lost wonders.

Across the world powers both vast and subtle mobilise to control the pillars, to unlock their secrets or to prevent others from doing the same.  In the absence of knowledge can the purpose of these objects still be divined?

And in the shadows others stir, curious for answers of their own.

----------

Its that time again when I get my yearly campaign underway.  This year things will work a little differently, the campaign is bigger a bit more complex and starts off with the highest levels of play.  And there is not just one way to win the Campaign but each player will have a unique goal to obtain.

"Dark is the Fallen Sky" will run once a month on the 4th Saturday and following Sunday from April 24th until the end of November.  To play in the Campaign you will require at least 150 levels worth of Anima characters but to completely participate each player can have up to 400 Levels.

These 400 levels are a “pool” each a player will be able to draw from and field teams in a range of different battle sizes.  Unlike the previous campaign there will be no increase in the number of available characters, though changes to the available pool may occur.

As usual I will be hosting this Campaign through Mind Games (Melbourne City Store) and game days should start around midday, though as the 24th is Anzac Day it will begin later @ 1:30pm.

Mind Games
244 Swanston Street
Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia

To participate in the campaign there is a $5 registration fee which will be put towards the prizes.  Please send an email of your intent to participate in this campaign to FreeAgent005@gmail.com, there is no cut off date for entry into the Campaign and anyone is welcome to start playing at any of the events days.  While there will be an official weekend each Month additional matches can be scheduled

Prizes for the campaign will include...

A Gift Voucher for Mind Games
A copy of the limited advantage card Dragon's Blood
and a copy of the Limited Edition Khaine figure.

Additional prizes may be offered.

As this will be a campaign their are a number of additional rules which will be in effect.  These rules are summarized on a handy pdf which you can download by right-clicking the link and selecting "Save As...": Here (Please note this is version 2 of the rules, this campaign was originally played using version 1 which was significantly different.  Version 2 is included here for anyone wishing to use the updated campaign.)

Once the campaign gets underway I will be posting reports on its progress in this thread so everyone can see how the campaign is developing.

If you have any questions about the event or the rules please post here or send me an email at FreeAgent005@gmail.com and people are welcome to utilize these rules or portion of them for their own campaigns if they wish, though please give me some credit if you do.

The rules presented are still undergoing some evaluation and may change slightly in the next week.

- Raith

[Sallust de la Iglesia]

I'm jealous of how many tournaments you have....

[Raith]

I'm jealous of how many tournaments you have....

I only have one tournament a year and then a Campaign... the campaign seems to be the real ticked around here for getting people to play the game.

- Raith

[Fallecs]

Just read the rules, good work with them, they look awesome, and a lot of fun to play.

I didn't realise it was so soon.  I'm excited.

[Fallecs]

Hi, I was wondering about selecting agents in the pool.  Do their choices have to be determined once they enter the pool, or can they be a lvl 30 agent?  I assume the former, but it would make agents quite interesting otherwise.

[Raith]

Its the former, but you can alter the selection with the first of the Plot rewards.

- Raith

[Fallecs]

Aha, not sure how I missed that one.

Although there are a fair few tables, which I believe to be a good thing.

[Raith]

DARK IS THE FALLEN SKY
CAMPAIGN POST ROLLBACK UPDATE and After Action Report
May 24

*****

Dark is the Fallen Sky has seen a number of Campaign weekends slip by and the campaign has gotten off to a quiet start with only a handful of matches occurring over the weekend of April 24 and 25, a bonus day on May 8 an recently Saturday May 22 which saw no actual campaign matches played but a number of regular battles with 200 and 250 levels.

For all those who came in late...

Across the Saturday and Sunday or April 24 and 25 I started running my latest Anima Tactics campaign which (despite the enthusiasm) got off to a very quiet start.

After a late notification he night before to correct an error in my scheduling I rocked on up at Mind Games ready to supervise some heated competition but instead found only one of my core players was in the area and that my friend James had turned up to have another practice match after his re-eduction into the game at the previous demo-day I had run.

Before I could get James into a match others turned up and pretty soon we were all chatting and relaxing, a theme that extended across both days as the players spent more time catching up and slacking than fighting things out on the tabletop.

Both Saturday and Sunday saw a single campaign based conflict.  Mostly due to the relaxed atmosphere and the players still trying to decide exactly which organization/team they were going to field (Indecision was surprisingly global for the players)

The first match on Saturday was fought between Fallecs and Jordan the winner of the 2009 game.   They decided to start the campaign off with a bang throwing 300 levels at each other Church v Azur Alliance.  For once Jordan decided not to field the entirety of Les Jaeger taking The Colonel, Kirsten, Kyler, Arkeid and the Condemned Lovers while Fallecs sent forth the Saint Council, Romeo, Aliss, Damien and Azriel.

Sticking to tradition Fallecs placed a tower in the center of the field of battle and both teams used it as cover until they smashed into each other in a close and hard fought battle.





Despite the significant number of characters barely any true casualties where inflicted and the game was called to an end due to closing time with the score settling at a meagre 50 to 55 Victory points in favour or Fallecs.

While that match was fought others took the time to play in a couple of smaller battles.



Sunday was also a very quiet day especially with the late start caused by the ANZAC day parade and mass.  Eventually Mecha and Fallecs arrived and were able to play a full but small match of 150 levels Church v Wissenscraft.



Fallecs fielded Nero, Azriel and Evangaline while Mecha took Khaine Alessa and Lorenzo.  Even with a full 4’ x 4’ table to play in the game was a direct as a normal small battle with both teams closing quickly and dispatching their oppositions swiftly.  The battle ended with a clear Victory for Mecha 100 versus 25.



Saturday May 8 saw an additional pair of 300 level Campaign battles fought out.  This time the battles occurred between The Azur Alliance and Samael and The Church against Wissenscraft.

Azur (Jordan)
The Colonel, Kirsten, Kyler, Arkeid and the Condemned Lovers

Samael (Isaac)
Fallen Angel Dinah, Bael, Momiji, Nahimana, Shinigami Ayl and Konosuke



Azur v Samael played out in a closely fought match with both sides swaying back and forth between victory and defeat until Samael came out on top with a Clear Victory (320 v 255 VP). 

Chuch (Fallecs)
Romeo, Azriel, Aliss Testarossa, Damien and the Saint Council

Wissenscraft (Mechafox)
Sophia Ilmora, Alessa Raincross, Hiro and the Assault Group

The second match between Church and Wissenscraft had a lot of debating and discussions over the rules and despite plenty of time to gain a complete outcome was cut short due to time with Wissenscraft achieving a Complete Victory 160 VP to 25

*****

Each player in the campaign selects a force of 400 levels, while they do not have to fully select their roster at the beginning of the campaign once a purchase is made it is fixed unless a reward from a match allows a change.  These 400 levels allow for an additional 40points of Advantage Cards, 1 Leader class unit and 2 Organisational advantages.  The following information is the various Teams so far participating in the Campaign.

The Teams:

Mecha – Wissenscraft
Character Pool: XII, Lorenzo, Rayne, Alessa Raincross, Goethia (Pilot: Mauser), Hiro, Sophia Ilmora, Khaine D’Lacreu

Organizational Advantages: The Process, Lost Loggia

Advantage Cards: Nullem Lusec, Ord of Power, Fate Clock, Greater Life Potion, Aura, Raphael’s Gift, After Image, Dragons Blood, Supernatural Traps, Supernatural Weapon.

Team Cards: Assault Team

Accumulated Exploration Points: 210
Spent Exploration Points: 0

Jordan – Azur Alliance
Character Pool: High Arbiter Arkeid, Reinhold, The Colonel, Kyler, Kirsten, Claude Valmore, Drake, Cenette

Organizational Advantages: Shadow Lords, Organization

Advantage Cards: Dragons Blood, Tactical Advantage, Covert Operations, Nue, Piercing Weapon, Clock of Cronos

Team Cards: Les Jaeger, Condemned Lovers

Accumulated Exploration Points: 305
Spent Exploration Points: 0

Fallecs – Church
Character Pool: Romeo, Evangeline, Saint Astreaga, Damien, Aliss Testarossa, Nero (50 points unspent)

Organizational Advantages: Unshakable Faith, Exterminators

Advantage Cards: Raphael’s Gift, Supernatural Weapon, Combined Combat, Tempus Fugit (10 points unspent)

Team Cards: Saint Council

Accumulated Exploration Points: 105
Spent Exploration Points: 0

Isaac - Samael
Character Pool: Fallen Angel Dinah, Bael, Momiji, Nahimana, Shinigami Ayl, Konosuke (90 points unspent)

Organizational Advantages: Unassigned

Advantage Cards: Protective Shield, Supernatural Weapon, Control Bound, Combined Combat (10 points unspent)

Team Cards: None

Accumulated Exploration Points: 320
Spent Exploration Points: 0

*****

This latest weekend went by without any Campaign matches and was extremely quiet for the first couple of hours at the store.  I had planned to record a full battle report of some of the random matches that occured but just when I was thinking things where going to be relaxing I was approached by a group of people from out of town who wanted to know all about the Game including a lot of background information on the various factions and characters... it was a lot of talking.

Anyway here are some pictures of the games, first Andrew and Isaac played a small 200 level match Samael v Light.



The fight ended pretty quickly with the heavy hitters of Samael leaving only Astreaga and Daniella alive and surrounded on top of some ruins after a brutal central table clash.



The following match was played between Isaac and James this time a 250 level match again Samael v Light... though perhaps Neutral would be a better description given the number of grey units used.



The central battle for the match took place around a ruin atop a hill.



Isaac surrounded the location and swept through most of James defenses which suffered from a bout of severe luck with the battle being called a loss with only Goethia left standing an almost untouched Samael side.



Following those matches I commandeered a portion of the table and ran through a very quick briefing on the basic rules for a couple of players and the day ended with a flurry of activity.

- Raith

[Raith]

CAMPAIGN WEEKEND #3
Saturday and Sunday June 26 and 27

This coming Saturday and Sunday, June 26th and 27th, Mind Games (City Store) will be hosting the next Campaign Weekend for Dark is the Fallen Sky.

The campaign is still in the early stages so there is plenty of chance to come along and join in.  If you don't feel like campaigning then this weekend is also available to play friendly games or participate in Demonstrations to get some experience or learn the system better..

Location: Mind Games, Melbourne,. 244 Swanston Street in the heart of the CBD, Victoria, Australia.

Time: 12:00noon till 5:30pm

For specific information on the campaign feel free to email FreeAgent005@gmail.com or post questions here.

- Raith

[Auroth]

Sounds fun

Be sure to post up pics

Or it didn't happen 

[Fallecs]

Had my last exam today.

I'll be there this weekend. 
[dream]I have a full four days to paint everything.[/dream]

[Raith]

DARK IS THE FALLEN SKY
After Action Report
June 26 & 27

*****

For all those who came in late...

Once more the battle for Gaia raged across a weekend, with not only a couple of campaign related confrontations but a number of other conflicts as well.  Saturday was the busiest day with a pair of campaign matches and a couple of friendlies.

The first campaign match took place between Fallecs and Jordan, Church versus Azur Alliance respectively.  The match took place amidst several cursed ruins which sucked the life from those nearby.

Fallecs set out with a plan in mind, for the first couple of rounds both teams carefully maneuvered about and into well protected positions.  Romeo under the protection of some ruins and his team-mates sat and prayed for divine intervention filling his form with holy energy to Summon an Elhaim and Alius to aid him in striking at the enemies of God.



The plan was perfect the summons drew a lot of fire and managed to fly up to the ruins atop which Arkied has formed a firing line, unfortunately Fallecs luck betrayed him and he failed to land a single hit for the first half of the match as well as loosing the only Doom roll for the match removing Evangaline from his team right at the outset, it was such a complete route that it was quickly obvious Azur had won... with a single exception.



With the sudden losses Romeo was able to perform another miracle battering away at the Azur forces and turning much of the conflict around though even he was force to retreat from the field with little true credit.

A search through the ruins turned up little information about the Dark Pillars but the effort was enough to assure that the Azur Alliance would have a Command Presence (An Influence special reward) in the area for the future.

The following day saw its usual Sunday Start, very quiet and relaxing.  A single match took place followed by a very strange challenge.

Still flush with the success against the Church a day earlier Arkied took to the field of battle leading a much smaller unit than she would normally command (Thanks to the Command Presence reward).  Accompanied by Drake and Cennette the High Arbiter sort to explore a small wooded area.  Unfortunately their path crossed that of a Samael seeker team forcing them to battle against Chesire, Janiel and Konnosuke with Momiji keeping out of sight to continue their examinations.



Jordan and Isaac deployed their teams after reviewing the Exploration rules then got to work.  Konnosuke moved up the center with Janiel and Cheshire as backup.  Arkied called upon her light powers to destory the ancient Nija but the creature avoided the damage though Janiel was not so lucky caught up in the blast.

When Cennette and Drake closed to hand to hand, Momiji struck from the trees but the defense was too much and the Kitsune was soon forced to break off and make her way across the board scoring some bonus points for Isaac and ending the match as the last Samael standing.

*****

Each player in the campaign selects a force of 400 levels, while they do not have to fully select their roster at the beginning of the campaign once a purchase is made it is fixed unless a reward from a match allows a change.  These 400 levels allow for an additional 40points of Advantage Cards, 1 Leader class unit and 2 Organizational advantages.  The following information is the various Teams so far participating in the Campaign.

The Teams:

Mecha – Wissenscraft
Character Pool: XII, Lorenzo, Rayne, Alessa Raincross, Goethia (Pilot: Mauser), Hiro, Sophia Ilmora, Khaine D’Lacreu

Organizational Advantages: The Process, Lost Loggia

Advantage Cards: Nullem Lusec, Ord of Power, Fate Clock, Greater Life Potion, Aura, Raphael’s Gift, After Image, Dragons Blood, Supernatural Traps, Supernatural Weapon.

Team Cards: Assault Team

Accumulated Exploration Points: 210
Spent Exploration Points: 0

Jordan – Azur Alliance
Character Pool: High Arbiter Arkeid, Reinhold, The Colonel, Kyler, Kirsten, Claude Valmore, Drake, Cenette

Organizational Advantages: Shadow Lords, Organization

Advantage Cards: Dragons Blood, Tactical Advantage, Covert Operations, Nue, Piercing Weapon, Clock of Cronos

Team Cards: Les Jaeger, Condemned Lovers

Accumulated Exploration Points: 675
Spent Exploration Points: 0
Influence Rewards: Command Presence (Used)

Fallecs – Church
Character Pool: Romeo, Evangeline, Saint Astreaga, Damien, Aliss Testarossa, Nero (50 points unspent)

Organizational Advantages: Unshakable Faith, Exterminators

Advantage Cards: Raphael’s Gift, Supernatural Weapon, Combined Combat, Tempus Fugit (10 points unspent)

Team Cards: Saint Council

Accumulated Exploration Points: 105
Spent Exploration Points: 0

Isaac - Samael
Character Pool: Fallen Angel Dinah, Bael, Momiji, Nahimana, Shinigami Ayl, Konosuke, Janiel, Cheshire (5 points unspent)

Organizational Advantages: Mystic

Advantage Cards: Protective Shield, Supernatural Weapon, Control Bound, Combined Combat, Nephiros (15points unspent)

Team Cards: None

Accumulated Exploration Points: 420
Spent Exploration Points: 0

*****

In addition to the Campaign matches and friendlies a special match occurred in the closing hours of Sunday.  Wanting to test a theory Isaac decided to build an all summons group to face against Jordan.  we had spent a lot of the afternoon discussing the use of summons and how we all felt they were a bit underpowered (Fire Demon we're looking at you) especially seeing you could only summon them once rather than over and over once they died.  And yes, we are aware they are mostly used in a Missile like way, we all just figured it would be interesting to test their effectiveness on a Macro scale.

Team 1: Colonel, Drake, Reinhold, Claude Valmore

Team 2: Genma with Elhaim (Advanced), Alius (Basic), (Ahriman (Basic), Bellith with Fire Demon (Basic), Fire Demon (Advanced)

The Setup was simple, really simple for Isaac and his 2 characters.



Reinhold and Drake took the High ground with the Colonel and Claude sept forward.  Bellith and Genma wandered from behind cover and began to unleash thier summons.  Starting with Genma sending out Alius and a Fire Demon from Bellith who headed up onto the top of the ruins to attack Reinhold.



Genma then summoned Elhaim to face the Colonel before he could charge Bellith and also Ahriman to intercept Claude.



With the fighters locked down Alius swept aside Reinhold as Bellith summoned her stronger Fire Demon to gang up on the Colonel.  These two summons where also joined by the Alius who fled from Drake.



The Colonel fell pretty quickly especially when bellith got in on the action which freed up Elhaim to try and take Drake.

Unfortunately there was a mass fail of Bind checks on the following round leaving Genma badly injured, the Alius the only summon on the table and Bellith in combat with Claude after a failed charge.



The Summoners promptly surrendered to Drake and Claude who were still uninjured.

In conclusion: Summons are great in large numbers where they can play stacks on but the viciousness of Bind points and the damage their banishment grants just really makes them ineffective.

- Raith

[Ape2020]

Was Genma hurt do to her summons being killed?  I don't get why Genma should be hurt if she just failed Stability checks.  Shock test only happen when summoned creatures are killed or removed by an enemy power like Hel's Gates of Hell, not for naturally running out of bind points or failed Stability checks.  Or did she get attacked once all her summons disappeared?  Plus I see Genma as pure support and thus tends to need a bodyguard like any other support character and while Belith is great she not a bodyguard type.

-ape2020

[Raith]

Was Genma hurt do to her summons being killed?  I don't get why Genma should be hurt if she just failed Stability checks.  Shock test only happen when summoned creatures are killed or removed by an enemy power like Hel's Gates of Hell, not for naturally running out of bind points or failed Stability checks.  Or did she get attacked once all her summons disappeared?  Plus I see Genma as pure support and thus tends to need a bodyguard like any other support character and while Belith is great she not a bodyguard type.

-ape2020

I was in a bit of a rush writing the end of that summary, Genma took shock damage through the death of either Elhaim or Ahriman I forget which, then the following round entire team de-summoned except the Alius who Genma kept about with extra bind tokens but ended up being out of line of sight the following round and disappearing.

As for a Bodyguard, part of the testing was about how in a normal team up you really need to have other figures to protect your summoners (Thus once the summons vanished Bellith and Genma immediately gave up) but doing so takes levels, and spending those levels on others reduces the number of Summons you can buy which in turn reduces the effectiveness of the Summoner.  The match was us examining if a Summon force is actually worthwhile, Summons have only seen play thanks to Romeo's praying and when I occasionally take them for fun, but no one seriously uses them especially in tourney or campaign forces.

I tend to run Summons as a Bullet, I take Genma and usually one summon so i can just stack on the Bind points, bring the summon into play 2" from an enemy and free move it in to go nuts and get killed, this is however a very expensive exercise with paying 30/35 points for Genma and from 20 to 50 points for a summon... for the duration they last and some of the ability combination they have such as the Fire Demon having a very low AP regen, paltry attack lower than an agent AND Damage Resistance I don't feel they are a bit useless even if I think its one of the cool variations of Anima.

Compared to how Summoning works in the RPG as you can just summon so long as you have the zeon to do so, the limits of the tabletop bug me.  But that just my opinion.

- Raith

[Ape2020]

I run summons very effectively in my Empire team.  Belith with two major Fire Demons to be exact.  I helps that Belith is worth 45 lvls on her own and can easily protect herself so she doesn't need to summon the demons until the time is right.  Plus Belith even with her The Devil upkeep can summon both if needed (a dangerous gambit I know).  Then both Ignises benefit from the Org Adv Combat Mastery hitting on rolls of 10, 9, and 8 and maybe lower depending if I catch units AP depleted.  Speed means nothing since most of my force operates at the same speed and if up against faster forces I just see it as my demons have a one turn speed of 18 or 20 (if I use Presence on Belith).  That first turn they might not have an attack by they can lock up units and possibly burn them for a few LP.  Not much of a determent to the rest of the force since they are all rather hard targets and for at least 3 turn, usually in the middle or late rounds I out number my opponent.   If they target my Fire Demons that just means they are letting loose my more dangerous warriors to attack or close the distance on range fighters.

Genma is really the only summoner that is really weak without summons and I really wouldn't use her in a heavy summon creature force.  Try it out in a Azur group with Akeid and Belith so you can summon three units but still be viable if they go away.  Or if your really brave Ophiel with Genma and maybe around just 150 levels of summoners so you can have at least one other warrior to help out.  Right now everyone is pointing to a Genma and Belith pairing to test if a summon creature force is viable, when that isn't really a good pairing in the first place. 

Still I understand your distaste for summoning and Ignis as I do think he should have been better, especially his major form.  When compared to other summons that 10 lvl bump in cost for just Critical Master seems a little weak.  I thouht he should have gotten a bump in damage (both stat and Fire Aura) or a bump in attack or AP regen.

-ape2020