Anyaral Toolbox
A collection of tools for playing Anyaral World of Twilight
Here are brief descriptions of each playable culture and theme.
This is the broadest and most varied of cultures, allowing you to build a force from a combination of the various subcultures and allies that make up the great fubarnii empire. If you choose to raise an Empire force the best approach is to select one of the subcultures and build around that. The core empire is made up of militia, light cavalry and slingers, who can join any of the subcultures and provide a firm foundation. Building around that you could choose to play a range of different options, depending on the aesthetics or playstyle you like the look of.
These have always formed the core of the Empire forces – highly trained forces dedicated to stopping the devanu from growing more powerful. Knights are normally fielded alongside a core of militia, with a relatively small number of well-trained cavalry allowing dangerous coordinated strikes that can take down the most powerful of enemies.
Noble forces are almost invariably pompous and overdressed, but nevertheless the troops are exceptionally well-trained, accompanied by the characterful nobility they protect. Nobleguard forces will typically have a mix of infantry and elite cavalry and can be themed around specific characters, or even their valuable pets.
The Knights of Orel live in the difficult desert lands bordering the Argoran wastes. There has been long-standing antipathy between the Lords of Orel and the Emperors as they refuse to pay for protection from their knightly orders, instead maintaining their own defences. The Knights of Orel are often seen serving as mercenaries for other clans. This is a great choice if you like your fubarnii to be accompanied by small and large lizard creatures!
The Engu are large hulking fubarnii, who tower over their cousins from the more southerly clans. They have lost their homeland to the Delgon invaders, but bands of warriors still fight on. Engu forces are typically smaller in number, but make up for that with tougher warriors and more powerful attacks. You can also take on a more nautical theme, with large harpoons.
These are a more recent addition that allow you to build a very varied crew. They work particularly well in scenarios, but are flexible enough to be used in more standard games. They give a great excuse to build river scenery and make use of fun boats!
This is more of a fledgling force, built around characters and a handful of troops, but with Danakan or NuraTan Obal as a leader you can comfortably ally with Delgon troops and core fubarnii to give a very characterful and distinctive force. We are currently working on a campaign set in the city of Teral, so this is a good time to get involved.
Mike has always loved sculpting different characters and beasts that aren’t directly part of the various military forces. This has resulted in quite a population of non-combatant models… You can of course just collect these as fun additions, but they are also playable and most can be added to your choice of force (although they tend to be cheap and not overly powerful!) or used as a focus for building your force around.
Mike generally recommends that everybody should get a small force of Devanu! The adult devanu are very powerful, so just a handful of models can open up a wealth of game options with minimal investment. The individual devanu models have specific rules, but you can easily repurpose them for different roles.
While you can play with just one or two of the adult devanu and a handful of beasts, it can also be fun to play as a larger force of the younger, but still dangerous jenta outcasts.
Koi’Koi is a bit of a unique character, so gets his own special starter force. He is a crippled devanu who has managed to find a way to survive by building his own tribe of young devanu and casanii ferals. This gives an unusual mix of the two forces, but can also act as a great starting point to build out either the devanu or the casanii ferals.
The Delgon are very much the antagonists of the ongoing developments in Anyaral! The basic aesthetic of the Delgon lends itself to masses of dark-armoured troops trudging through the snow, led by ominous robed priests and accompanied by steampunk style creations. Plus, they can field their gods – the giant Enarii, each of whom is a unique and powerful character. When building a force you can choose to focus on the massed ranks of troops, or lean into the mechanised forces led by NuraSen Plutom or other mechanics, with KalMalog striders (with their ‘upgraded’ mechanical legs) and other mechanical creations.
The Dhogu were originally sculpted as a single unit to accompany the Delgon as allies, but the furry-hooved little mercenaries (and their rat-like skerrat) were fun to sculpt and well-received so keep growing in numbers. They can still be allied with the Delgon, but are often seen in their own forces with various woolly beasts and occasionally some large yartain (aka Chicken Bears) under control of Tak Sirahn. The most recent addition to the force is a small unit of Darseni: new, lighter cavalry to accompany the larger yirnak riders.
The Casanii are notionally part of the Empire, but they consider themselves to be a largely autonomous nation, made up of countless small tribes. The Casanii are some of the best troops in the game, even if their warriors might struggle to quite stand toe-to-toe against a devanu. They are swift and agile, with plenty of interesting creatures to use as mounts.
There is also the option to field a force of Casanii ferals – young Casanii who are left to survive on their own to prove themselves before they can rejoin the adults. They aren’t quite as elite as their older cousins, but they do get some fun beasts to help keep them alive, including the rather imposing dompaku!
The Kedashi are a somewhat unique force, made up of swarms of little bird-like frenu and plenty of scary beasts and monsters. The Kedashi are a slightly more advanced force to play, but once you get the hang of gathering the little frenu into powerful swarms they can be great fun. I got a bit carried away when expanding the force, so the Kedashi ended up being one of the most varied forces we’ve developed – you can focus on the swarms of flying models, or you can play in a more traditional manner by focussing on the trebarnii, the fubarnii-like servants of the Kedashi who can still goad the larger beasts into battle using big pointy sticks… Alternatively, you can ignore most of the little things and just focus on those big beasties and bring a grimblar!