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| Part of the awesome aesthetic that is, Aetherium. |
Over the past several months, I've had the unique privilege of alpha/beta testing Aetherium for Anvil Eight Games. Having met Brian of A Gentleman's Ones during testing for 40k Killzone, I was one of several chosen to test out a new game that he and a few others had been working on for the last two years. And, having played it for the last several months, it's been a blast. It's a really rewarding experience to be trusted with something that people have worked so hard on, and seeing your ideas, thoughts and opinions change it.
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| Picketers of the Nanomei faction |
What the heck is Aetherium, though? Well, it's a skirmish sized miniatures game that shares some features with board games. It can be difficult to describe at first because it's at once unique and familiar. There are hints of well established concepts in modern skirmish gaming as well as some really fun and revolutionary ideas as well. Even at a skirmish level, there's no chance of two games ever being the same.
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| A server awaiting combatants. |
Each game takes place inside the server space of the Aetherium with programs of vying factions representative of the wills of their owners. Having these battles inside a virtual space allows for some unusual abilities, the most potent of which is the ability to directly manipulate the battlefield. Each battlefield is represented by tiles called schema. By using your Avatar's (leader program) RAM, you can move, and even spin various schema in order to achieve your goals.
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| The Puppeteer: One of the Avatars available to the Nanomei faction |
Each of the programs also has abilities that are unique to them in terms of attacking and even defending from attacks. The attacks themselves are carried out with a very fast and simple matching dice system that doesn't rob you of focus from doing mental math the whole game.
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| A selection of the dice available through the KickStarter |
This is all well and good, however, what I'd really like to share is that Aetherium is in the last couple days of it's KickStarter. The guys at Anvil Eight Games have worked really hard on this for almost three years, and they need your help to get it fully off the ground and into game stores. This is a brand new company, and you'll be helping them get their big start in the industry. And at this point in the KickStarter, many of their stretch goals have been unlocked as well. Get on in and support them before the campaign ends!
If you're at all curious about the mechanics of the game, they've been gone over at length in this video.
They've also done plenty of demo play at Adepticon and have conducted several interviews as well.
- Interview with Brent of BoLS
- In depth coverage of art/mechanics by The Dark Templar
- A podcast interview with Through the Breach
- A review of the demo at Adepticon by Eclectic Gamer
- An interview with The Gamer's Lounge
- An interview on Adepticon Talks
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| Demo tables at Adepticon |
I can't say enough great things about all the hard work the guys at Anvil Eight, and even their lucky testers (like myself) have done on this. Please support Anvil Eight and check out their website and Facebook, and kick in on Aetherium before its campaign is complete.
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