Today a look at three games I tired at Adepticon, and my thoughts about them.
First was
Aetherium
Description from developers….
“Enter the Aetherium - a world between worlds, a place capable of containing the human mind, a place of infinite possibility, a place that is no place at all.
Aetherium is a miniatures board game by Anvil Eight Games for 2 or more players.
Control the tyrannical and neo-fascist government of the Axiom, or fight for your freedom alongside the anarchist Nanomei.
Aetherium requires roughly one hour for a full game. Assemble your collective of hackers, agents, activists, or anarchists and lead them on a hyper-fast run through a dangerous virtual reality. Aetherium is a contest of mental skill, as players try to outthink their opponent using programs, resources, and the world itself in order to carve a space inside this fluid reality. Fight for control of the greatest discovery of human existence.”
So…….a table top mini game where combat is done within computer programs. Alright it is pretty standard table top flair. Your programs have an Omni program “HQ” Functions “Elites” and Subroutines “Troops.” These are what go about doing cyber battle on tiles setup inside the not matrix matrix.
The combat is melee and ranged. The combat damage is dice based with a damage track like Malifaux i.e. you have low, moderate and heavy damage totals. The programs have damage boxes to fill. The units all have special abilities that are offensive, defensive, passive, movement based etc. It is move, capture, control, destroy etc. You play through five turns with alternating player activation. It is a one hour- two hour game from start to finish.
It all sounds pretty standard until you get to the game mechanic where you can spend RAM “game resources/ money” to alter the location and facing of the tiles you fight upon. This was where the game got a bit more tactical than usual mini games. The fact you can alter terrain to your advantage or to mess with you r opponent is very interesting. This allowed for rear arc shots that allowed for more dice to be rolled. There was the chance to move tiles an strand enemies on little islands. You could move tiles to force the enemy to spend resources on moving them back or forcing them to move farther from a target. It is a very interesting mechanic to be able to alter the playing field during the game.
I played two games during the weekend. They were running a narrative campaign and the results of the games would influence their little game world fluff and potential rules. That is a fun little bit to do while pimping your game.
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| THE SLOW GAME....... |
I played the Rhommox, what felt like the Tyranids of this computer world, much smaller in size and numbers, but they are little bugs and such. The first game I did win but just barely. The second game ended on turn two….after two fraking hours! I did lose by one point after only playing two turns…in two hours! It was a frustratingly slow game. I have one game under my belt and barely know the intricate rules. The second game opponent plays this game and calling him slow is an insult to the word slow! It was painful to play as he had to read every unit card he had before thinking of moving and then repeat that again before maybe activating and then a third look before actually activating. It was just awful! I get he didn’t know the army he was using, but neither did I! He plays this game? It was just so frustrating to move and sit for 7-10 minutes before he would activate a unit. Then he was upset at ending on turn two for a game only slated for a two hour demo. Dude must take four hours to play this game! It was beyond frustrating to play this guy!
Game one was played against a guy who plays all the time and he was great at helping me learn the rules and give tips on game play. It made for an enjoyable game. Game two was a dumpster fire and made me want to just walk away between turns to get a snack, pee or whatever.
Aetherium thoughts?
A fun game play terrain altering mechanic.
The basic rules are easy to grasp if you have played tabletop stuff before. A bit much if you are completely new.
The fluff and game world seems a mix of whacked out Tron and Shadowrun hacking.
The models and units are unique. The sculpts aren’t terrible and what I would expect from a small start-up company/ kickstarter backed group.
Aetherium. It plays well. I has a fun mechanic for moving the game board. The models could be better. The rules fell like a mash of a few other games I have played.
Would I recommend it?
If you like skirmish level games inside a computer program then yes. This is probably the only game for you!
If you want super pretty models for your skirmish games then no.
So…..it is a maybe with a definite look and play before buying.
Next was.......
Dropfleet
A game of giant space ship combat on a tiny scale. I know this has some traction and popularity in some areas. I had never played before and with the chance to I took it!
I played the boxy space ships and my buddy played the organic tentacle ships. The mission was to get our little transport ships to the drop zones and unload troops, tanks, supplies, turkey sammies, etc.
I like the X-Wing game because it is fast, easy and fun. How would I like playing miniature big space ship battles?
I really didn’t.
Ugh. Too many rules and chats in this game for me.
It was way too much a stripped down combat simulator than fun table top mini ship battle game. It moved too slow for me. There is upper ,mid and lower atmosphere to worry about. There is speed and scans. There are possibly a lot of other potential niggly little rules in this game. Maybe not, but it sure sounded like it from the guy running it for us. Then when we got to actually shoot each other it felt pretty anti-climactic. Well until I got bored and flew as close as possible and went guns free. Now that was enjoyable!
The game is just felt too big and a sort of unwieldy.
Plus, there were too many charts and tables to reference.
Now I can see why people like this game. It is not a bad game if you like a more combat simulator attempt at a mini combat game.
The ships look alright, but there are a lot of similarities between the big ships it makes play ( at first I get it would be easier later ) annoying to constantly have to look at a sheet to tell my three big ships apart since they look fundamentally the same.
There is some fun sounding campaign options between Dropfleet and Dropzone. That narrative style play is always more interesting for me.
Dropfleet is not for me at all. However, I can see the draw of it for those fans who miss Battlefleet Gothic and/or want a big space ship game with a more combat simulator feel.
Then I tried..........Dust 1947 ( twice )
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| Ladies with flamethrowers and grenade launchers against "not Nazi" zombies! |
I remember back when this came out and went away as Dust Tactics. I remember when it resurfaced and disappeared almost as quickly. Now it is back as Dust 1947, Dust or Dust Tactics 1947 or Dust Tactics. Whatever the name it is still a wyrd World War II skirmish game.
I played two games of this and really enjoyed it!
The armies are Allies and Axis with factions within: zombies, jetpacks, gun mounted walkers, walking tanks, planes, armed gorillas, girls with flamethrowers, a Cthulhu-ish cult, battle suit troopers and gods know what else?!
The game is played on grid mat. I was skeptical at first until you realize that it makes movement simple. It takes away for any issue of measurement that could come up during game play ( regular or tournament ). The rules are simple. You have units. They can move, move-move, shoot, move-shoot, or not move and re-roll missed shooting. There is really not much else there. Well there are some unit rules, but they are listed on the little unit stat cards.
Seriously a very easy rules set! We even watched the regular game and there was not a lot extra rules added from the demo games. It is stupid easy to learn.
Plus it is a game where most every unit can attack and possibly injure every other unit. That means that it might mean….there is no uber list that everyone will take and just roll face. A game where almost any list is fun and competitive? How is that possible?
Aside…..
Now a close combat themed force isn’t going to shoot down planes. A light infantry force can shoot at tanks, but might not get a lot of damage on them, but if they roll hot….then good bye tank. Now, while every unit has the potential to effect/injure/ hurt every other unit there are some limitations but they are easy to see.
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| Now a chance to try the "not Nazi" zombies against the USMC |
I played as the “smart” zombies once and as the ladies with grenade launchers and flamethrowers once. I really dug playing this game and grabbed a starter for the ladies and the zombies. I can of course run the ladies with the zombies as well, since they are filthy unaffiliated mercs, thus giving me a larger single army to play with as well.
Even better is that you can buy the models assemble and primed or….all that plus fully painted. Sure that costs more, but if you want you can get a fully painted and assembled army on the table instantly. A choice of expense vs. time available ( and drive ) to paint an army.
Dust 1947, I am a fan and highly recommend trying it out.
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