ANIMA: Tactics will be making an appearance at the 28th ARCANACON . For all those who don't know Arcanacon is, it is one of Melbourne's largest RP and Wargaming conventions and is held over 4 days in January from Saturday the 23rd until tuesday the 26th at the Collingwoord Education Center . Each year the Con has a specific theme and this time around its "For Science!" so the Wissencraft Gears will be out in the field.

If you would like to see some information on the con visit http://www.arcanacon.org/

From when the doors open until late I will be running demonstrations and hosting games any of those attending the Con are welcome to come on over and have a go at the game either during on of the scheduled gaming breaks or during any time you might not have other events scheduled.

Last year the Conventions doors opened around11am with events starting at Noon and we were located in the main registration hall along with a couple of traders and various event staff and are likely to be in the same location again.

So if your in Melbourne around Australia Day take this chance to come and play a game or two and have some fun.

- Raith
Free Agent 005

Day 1: After Action Report

For my first Demonstration Events for 2010 Arcanacon was both a blessing and a curse. I rocked on up to the Convention at 11am and got to setting up in a similar position to the previous year, right next to Dice by Nasm and the entrance into the main registration/ events scheduling hall.

Already the Warhammer games were in operation but the roleplaying and general con events didn’t kick off till just after Noon.

Shortly after Midday I saw a welcome sight as Fallecs appeared eager to check out Grimorium and get in a game after 6 or so weeks without. After a bit of a chat and working around the people coming on over to check out my figures and ask about the game we got in a quick fight of Wissenscraft v Samael 150 levels.

Grimorium was a tough nut to crack withstanding three Summun’s from Cheshire who fell to fire from Goethia but the dark warrior had done enough for Genma to Spiritual Beam Grimorium into oblivion. Unfortunately despite the loss of the Gear the game quickly ended with Wissenscraft the winner.

More questioners and visitors rolled out through the day, and despite some nibbles and hints of interest it didn’t progress beyond talking.

In the early evening as the final round of Warhammer matches started Jordan (one of my campaigners) and Fallecs got down to having a 300point match, Azur Alliance v Wissenscraft. The battle was a bloody affair with characters charging, slaying and dying in retaliation but the end of the match saw Reinhold dancing with Cordelia with Kujaku-hime and Rayne moving up to finish things.

Day 1 of Arcanacon 28 concluded at 9pm.

Photos:

Here is Nicoli who runs Dice by Nasm doing his convention work again (Dark Picture due to Camera malfunction ><)

This is the ending of the match between me and Fallecs, despite the loss of a Fire Demon and Cheshire I kept fighting trying to Dark/Spiritual Beam Goethia but it wasn’t enough.

With Fallecs watching over my gear I went for a brief walk to see what was what and I ran across the 40k crowd receive their “orders” for the final days scenarios.

Here’s a shot of the opening moves of the 300 point match

And then a little while later all the characters decided just to play stacks on. In the background is the neighbouring table and next to them is the front door to the Con.

- Raith

Day 2: After Action Report

Day 2 started off much earlier than Day 1, I got a lift to the convention and things got going (officially) around 9am with the Warhammer guys already starting their day, but it took a few more hours for the roleplayers to get over their late nights and rock up.

For a while I was stuck answering questions and listening to peope promise to return if they got knocked out of the tournament for a Demo but it wasn’t until around half past ten until I had my first demoers… 3 of them… all at once.

I quickly put together an extra demo team so the trio faced off Church v Wissenscraft v Samael. Unfortunately the demo had to be rushed so only a handful of turns were played before my Demoers ran off to their next pre-booked event.

Following that trio, I got the chance to teach a father/son combo. Connor (Age 7) did a good job using his Gears to hammer at Chesire and Bael but the Demon-Witch manage to break out a couple of spells while Chesire Summuned his way through Grimorium enough for Bael to kill it with a weak Dark Beam.

The day wore on with another couple of demoers and still more onlookers and promisers, in the afternoon I had a 250 level match with Jordan who stopped by again and the day wrapped up at 9:30pm with a final, very late Demo while the Arcanacon Trivia ran in the background.

All up I demoed for 10 people across the day.

Battle Report
Samael v Azur Alliance
(250 lvl)

Samael:
Dinah, Konnosuke, Kairos, Shinigami Ayl, Genma (With Ahriman [50] and Fire Demon [20]) plus the Cheap Mystics advantage.

Azur:
Arkeid, Colonel, Harod, Dereck Shezard plus the extra orders advantage

Jordan and I lined up our forces and got into the game very very quickly. I opened by moving konnosuke to the for and soon followed with the other figures grouping them together while Arkeid and HArod moved out towards my flank.

Spotting both Dereck and the Colonel moving up the middle I descided they would be a dangerous combination, especially as Dereck already had his Seal of the Dragon going so I figured I would try something different.

My plan was to originally send Umbra and Lucera in to detonate in my opponents cluster but after a brief read of Dinah’s card (And wanting to try something different) I figured I could teleport in most of my major hitters and if I positioned it corretly I would bind up the Colonel and Dereck into hand to hand with Konnosuke.

My plan worked… sorta.

Konnosuke appeared in base to base with Colonel and Dereck, Kairos also appeared on Dereck with Dinah and the Shinigami nearby. At this point things got a little tricky. Kairos used a Gnosis Final Burst and damage Dereck and Colonel a little. In return Konnosuke was hit twice by Dereck and then the wanderer was ordered to strike again by Arkied.

Things went south… way south.

Konnosuke exploded with 3 tokens, the blast decimated both line, the Colonel… Gone, Kairos? Gone. Ayl left on 1 LP, and Dinah still hanging in.

It wasn’t the Nuke I was looking for but it did its job, especially as I quickly followed by sending in Umbra to be Devastated as Harod leapt from hiding and slaughtered Ayl.

While a crater was carved into the field of battle Genma had moved up into range and quickly summoned both the Fire Demon and Ahriman. The Lord of Darkness raced forward and smashed into a badly injured Dereck who was bereft of AP and soon fell while the Fire Demon swarmed up on Harod.

At this point the game slowed a little, Ahriman charged Arkeid who was out of people to order but the Fire Demon was destroyed by Harod but was soon shot by Dinah and killed while Lucera moved up on Arkeid ready to explode if Ahriman died in the following round if Arkeid got initative.

Lucky for me I won initiative and started with two ranged attacks from Dinah but wasn’t able to finish the job, Arkeid struck at Ahriman but failed to connect leaving her without any AP and in a perfect position for Genma to finish her off.

I like to think of this battle as "The one I in no way should have won"

- Raith

I hope you liked the report Sallust, sorry I didn’t take more pictures but I’m usually to busy talking, playing, keeping an eye on my stuff to remember to take as many shots as I can ^^

Photos:

My table setup for Day 2, mini’s organised by Organization.

This is Connor and his Dad, its always fun to demo for combo’s like this, its like corrupting the Future ^^

Here’s a couple of guys playing a Demo match.

And this is the Aftermath of the 250 Azur v Samael Battle.

Finally here is the guy that rocked up and had a Demo just as I was thinking of packing it up for the Day. He thrashed my Samael team, killed Genma the moment after summoning the fire demon, slaughtered Cheshire with Lorenzo and chased of Bael, who managed to down a badly injured Goethia but had no chance against Grim and Lorenzo

Day 3: After Action Report

The third day of Arcanacon was like the final day the previous year. Though tomorrow (Tuesday) is a public holiday the attendance of the convention was much lower than the previous day and much quieter.

Although Gamers attended roleplaying sessions and various wargames occurred the majority of the day was very relaxing. Most of the day I got a chance to chat at length with people who stopped off to look at the Anima figures I had on display, that and the rulebook art seemed to do a lot to sell the figures and get people to try the “Pretty” game.

I ran a couple of demonstrations and talked about Anima in general with people throughout the morning so much it was almost 2pm before I realised why I was so hungry and stopped for lunch. Follow a sandwich and a introductory game of Descent which was set up in the same registration as my table I got back to chatting with players of Anima and passerby but didn’t run a full demonstration for the rest of the evening though again I had people promise to by the table the following day when they weren’t on their way to a gaming session.

Photo’s:

Unfortunately I was a bit slack with taking pictures today and I only took two of my first Demonstration.

This is “Sparks” she decided that the figures were so pretty she was sold on buying some before I even got to say Hi. Sparks had been wanting a demo for a few days and finally had some time.

After a couple of turns Sparks had grasped the fundamentals and proceeded to beat me solidly. This pic was taken just before Lorenzo was killed by Cheshire who was killed by Grimorium who was killed by Bael. Ignis was slain by Goethia but Genma survived to kill him in return. Prior to the round of death the previous round rolled all 1’s until Bael who fired of two Dark Beams at Grimorium with a 9 and a 10 and severely weakening him.

- Raith

Day 4: After Action Report

Arcanacon day 4 got off to a slow and quiet strat that continued to build momentum throughout the day. Initially the con was very quiet, the 3 previous days and the sudden public holiday (which messes with Public Transport schedules) kept things simple a couple of people visited the Anima desk to perv at the rulebook and mini’s but for the most part I participated in a spontaneous game of “Werewolf - The Lyching” I played a Farrier who was hung as a potential werewolf for blaming the Baker as the source of the attacks and then posed as a Lady of Negotiable Affections and was eaten by the wolves just before they were hunted down.

As the third Werewolf game got going things picked up with my first demo game of the day. By this time more people where filling in, the wargamers arrived at their first competition break and I started to get busy answering questions, though I managed to squeeze in a quick game of Shadow of Omega with a friend.

When lunch hit it was all ago. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, instructing, catching a short break before more talk and instructions. I ran several more demonstrations, including a 3 player Demo that turned into a full battle between the participants, I wish their had been two of me so I could have demoed and talked with onlookers without making anyone feel left out.

The convention wound to an official close just before 7pm and I oacked up my gear and left while the attendees award ceremony continued on.

All up, for this year I was much better prepared for the event in general, I took plenty of food and drink, got things set up nice but I could have used some help on occasion… over the 4 days I ran 30 people through demonstrations and talked with over twice that number at length.

Photo’s:

The busiest Demo of the day involved a three way battle between Wissencraft, The Church and Samael. For the most part the Church and Samael put aside their differences to fight against the giant robots but the match was very even.

A turn or two into the game saw Lorenzo charge a defenceless Cheshire using his robot arm, the strike flung Cheshire all the way back to his deployment zone and straight into Genma who ducked under the flying fighter but was suddenly struck down as Lorenzo followed up with a second power charge. Genma’s demise was so sudden she didn’t even get a chance to summon a creature to help.

Following the sudden obliteration of have the Samael force the trio got very dedicated to the Demo turning into a full length battle of attrition.

In the end Grimorium stood with only 4 life points left and an angry Evangaline and Bael charging it from both sides following the demise of Goethia and Nero in the previous turn.

The weekend’s event finished with a very hurried demo completed in 10 minutes.

Hopefully many of those who participated in the events will go on to play Anima and maybe even join my regualr crew for this years Campaign.

- Raith