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[ImmortalOne]

Hello,

After spending all night viewing mini's with my wife we have decided to start AT.
She has fallen in love with the mini's more than any other system. So I'm going to ride that and finally get her into miniatures gaming.

We have a few questions before we do. Keep inmind we have only read the quick start rules and don't own the book yet.

#1 would dark vs dark be less enjoyable to play (she choose some light mini's that she likes, but we both gravitated to dark)

#2 when choosing a side/faction whats the average set up, leader+Agent+warrior+ summon?

#3 Is this a viable way to start. We figure we can round up counters (blue glass beads - from craft store), dice from our LGS , so we picked 5 mini's each:

Me:
Iosara
Kerberos
Ophiel
Kirsten
Genma


Her:

Elhaym, maiden of light
arias
claire
celia
valis

We have no idea if were spinning our wheels and if these work together.we just choose 3 light/dark and 2 neutral. Please help Us before we make our 1st purchase!

THanks,
we look forward to seeing more of you all

[Usagi]

While they aren't exactly the most competitive teams, they both fall into the 250 level range (which i presume you were going for). However there's something to consider, that you may not be aware of without the main rulebook. You aren't limited t building teams based on light/dark. In fact, most teams are not built using that method these days. The other option is building organizational teams. E.G. Empire teams, Azur Alliance teams, etc.. The advantages of these teams are twofold, you can use both light and dark characters in the same team, so long as they are all part of the same organization (with rules for using wanderers as well). You also gain access to organizational advantages. Most organizations have 3 special advantages you can pick from for your team (explain in the main rulebook). But they are things like being able to add prowler characters for 5 levels less each to an Azur team to gaining a re-roll each turn for a church team or giving everyone on an empire team the critical mastery ability. The drawback to these is that you are, obviously, limited to the one organization, so you lose some of the synergy you may gain from an alignment based team. However, the synergy available within an organization, coupled with the advantages you can choose from, usually puts people in the organizational team camp, over the factional one.

All that being said...one big advantage of Anima Tactics in general is that it's not very costly to experiment, as buying one or two different minis can drastically change your teams. But, ultimately, it's about enjoying your game. There are plenty of people out there who enjoy a game full of the figures they like looking at a lot more then one built to grind an opponent into dust.

As a small side note, the light faction team is a little on the complicated side, using two summons like that, but defiantly is viable. Though Genma is a much better pure summoner then Valis is...but that's where that experimentation I talked about comes into play. Also, summon alignments aren't bound to the alignment of the team...only the summoner. So, Genma could summon light summons into a dark team. At least I'm like 90% sure of that, from memory.

[ImmortalOne]

Thanks for the reply. We talked a bit more and decided to break down into organizations. I'm thinking of empire and she's thinking Azur.

So how do these fair to start with?


Empire:
Duncan
Iosara
Samiel , the black lion
erika
janus faith

Azur:
jerome
kirsten
frey
freya
dead moon

were going to try and pick up the rule book this week.

[Ape2020]

So how do these fair to start with?

Empire:
Duncan
Iosara
Samiel , the black lion
erika
janus faith

Azur:
jerome
kirsten
frey
freya
dead moon

were going to try and pick up the rule book this week.

If you like the look of the models then its fine.  But you've made some interesting choices.  Duncan is rated very low by most and even though I like him, his model isn't really nice looking to most.  Plus Duncan has some big upgrades from his card version to what is listed in the book. 

Another thing is the Empire group levels out at 230, while the Azur group clocks in at 215.  A rather big difference, especially since Azur is a little hard to run good.  Now if your thinking of play wise as well then I suggest.

Empire

Lilith (leader)
Iosara
Samiel , the black lion
Erika
Claire

Total 260

Azur

Arbiter Akied (leader summoner)
Elhaym, maiden of light
Deadmoon
Jerome
Hel

Total 260 or 270 depending on your Elhaym.

Now it has a summoner but you can get the rule for that free in a Web Addendium at the Anima Oracle.

Now you can stay at this or get one more figure for a standard 300 game.  If you do you might want either Empire Agent, Shinobi, or Azur Agent since they can customizable both look and function.  Check out both male and female version of the agents as they might appeal to different tastes.  I personally like the female Empire Agent while its a toss up between the male and female Azur Agent. 

Or you could get the Wanderer box set.  This give you 6 of the older wanderers that are still nice Sophia, Tsubasa, Akio, Dereck, Faust and Khaine, at a nice discount, It cost 39.99 to 31.99 depending where you buy it.  This allow you to experiment by switching in and out different wanderers.  Being a friendly game you at this point you don't need to worry about point difference.

-ape2020

[ImmortalOne]

Thanks ape that helped a ton. We will start there and see how it goes!

[Sallust de la Iglesia]

Ape's Azur list is pretty close to mine which performs pretty well with a little bit of luck. Adding Claude at 300 point levels works awesome with it.

[Ape2020]

Ape's Azur list is pretty close to mine which performs pretty well with a little bit of luck. Adding Claude at 300 point levels works awesome with it.

I wondered why it felt familiar, but I was just trying to use models they shown an interest in.  But yeah this is likely the only list that Claude work in since Akied can overcome his shortcomings.  Another unit to consider is Kristen since she has some serious poison skill and range.  Another is of course Maximo as it would give the group a serious beatstick but the model doesn't seem to fall into the look your wife is showing.

-ape2020

[Sallust de la Iglesia]

Having Elhaym also helps with Claude's Shortcomings and enhances his strengths. Furthermore the list then has two tanks who can attract attention for your prowlers to come up to and murder.

It is a fun list even if my favorites are still Church and Samael.