I just received my copy of Aristeia! and thought I would post up my initial thoughts. As I wrote the title of this post, I found my self conflicted about just labeling it a "Rules" review. I want to say I feel it is more of a "Game" review but what does that mean? Why the distinction? Is it the old "it's played on a board, so it's not a miniature game" mentality? Is it because it is self contained? Is it because it is more "structured" than a regular miniatures game? I'm not completely sure. Maybe it is because I plan, at least as I am currently typing, to talk more than just the rules (specifically to comment on the components and miniatures). Yeah, that must be it.
Enough rambling, back on topic. For any not aware, Aristeia is a new game from Corvus Belli set in their Infinity universe. Aristeia is new sport sweeping through the Human Sphere, an arena combat blood sport. I have been a big fan of Infinity's fluff and miniatures since the very beginning but the rules have never been to my liking. With the release of Aristeia I hoped to find a way to enjoy the Infinity universe and miniatures without dealing with the rules of Infinity. Ideally Areisteia also checks some of my other favorite boxes: arena/gladiatorial combat and/or "blood sport."
Scale/List Building:
Scale of the game and list building are about as simple as you can get: any 4 characters per side, although the rules do offer that you can (if the players want) draft characters from a pool before the start of the game. After selecting your characters, you assemble your Tactics deck out of a set of 10 fixed standard cards and 2 selected character specific cards (out of 4 possible cards, currently) for each character on your team, giving you a total deck of 18 cards to draw from.
Rules:
The game begins by determining which player is the underdog, accomplished by adding up total initiative values among your characters. The player with the lower number is declared the underdog for Round 1 and will get to determine how tied initiative values or simultaneous effects are resolved. After Round 1 the under dog designation belongs to the player with the lowest number of Victory Points. Once characters are deployed, each player secretly places each of their characters in the initiative track positions, which are numbered 1-4. Then starting at position 1 on the initiative track, each player reveals their character and compare its initiative value (the higher value getting to decide if they or their opponent will go first). The active character then gets a number of actions equal to their action value, which can then be spent moving, attacking and using character skills. Then the un-activated character in the 1 initiative position activates. This process proceeds through position 4, after which the game proceeds to the objective phase and then the recovery phase,
The core resolution mechanic of the game uses the character card to specify the number and types of dice to roll for each skill/action. These are d6 dice of different colors and with special symbols, ala X-Wing, Armada and many other games that have recently come on the market. Two type of rolls exist in the game. The first being an unopposed roll or simple roll, usually a character skill check like using a medkit. The second is an opposed roll, usually for combat, where both players roll, cancel results, and compare totals. Additionally, special triggers (called switches) can occur based on the results. It should be noted that this resolution mechanic also allows the defender to potentially injure the attacker, as well as both characters being injured. Reducing an enemy to zero wounds provides the attacker with a frag counter (used to resolved tied victory points) and also allows them to draw a card.
If a character is reduced to zero wounds, it is moved to the infirmary and if that character has not activated yet, it basically looses it's activation that turn. During the recovery phase, all characters in the infirmary are moved to the bench and receive a -2 action token. At the beginning of the next round benched characters can move onto the field when activated but they will enter play again albeit a slightly reduced capacity with less action points.
Objectives are scored at the end of each round and totaled at the end of Round 5 to determine the winner. You also draw a tactics card at the end of each round and an additional card if you scored any VPs that round. The rest of the game and mechanics are fairly typical and straight forward.
Scenarios:
There are 4 basic scenarios provided, with a promise of more to come, with each scenario providing different objectives for scoring points. I think the inclusion of only 4 scenarios is a bit light, hopefully the community/Corvus Belli will be quick to develope/release new ones.
Components:
I found the components of the game to be of very good quality. Nice thick playing board, punch out tokens, nice quality cards and excellent box control. The one, possible, exception to this is the plastic miniatures. The detail in the miniatures is a little suspect but I wont really know till I start to paint them. They are certainly decent quality "board" game miniatures but honestly, I had slightly higher hopes with this coming from Corvus Belli. In fact, I was really excited to see what Corvus Belli would do with plastics.
Additionally, while the miniatures come assembled, they are cast as multi-part models and assembled in the factory. The "quality" of this assembly process is likely to vary greatly but several of my minis have significant gaps that will have to be filled before painting. And maybe that was not the assembly, maybe that is the miniature itself but either way it is a slight disappointment. The miniatures are also pre-attached to bases which is not a big deal except they are completely blank bases. That just seems like they missed an opportunity to put them on some nice flight deck type bases that Infinity miniatures typically shine on. And it is going to make it a pain in my ass to re-base these miniatures. Also, why are these not the typical 25mm sized bases found in Infinity, not that it matters game play wise, just wondering.
The entire plastic miniature thing also raises another question, did I make the right choice? Should I have bought the collectors edition which game with a metal set of miniatures (in addition to the plastic ones)? I assumed the future expansions would be in plastic, so I opted for just the regular version with plastic minis for "consistency" and to satisfy a bit of OCD-ness. As it happens, during writing this up, I found confirmation that the expansions will be plastic.
I can also understand that hitting the right price point for the game is one of the most important things a company can do. That being said, a simultaneously release of plastic obstacles/terrain (rather than the 2d punch outs in the core box) would have been very appropriate in my opinion without raising the box price with their inclusion. Or at least an announcement that it was in the pipe.
Standouts:
There are a couple of very clear standouts in this game to me. The first is the getting started booklet is fantastic. I really appreciate the industry trend in this direction but I believe Corvus Belli really nailed it. It does the typical good job of introducing the concepts in a clear, logical order and provides examples at every turn. It also provides a suggested build for your first game, again somewhat typical. It then walks you through a complete example first round with these builds, which is a lot less typical. Maybe this is not "necessary" but I appreciated it. I will also note the booklet sized rules reference, weighing in at only 28 half-sized pages, has a table of contents, an index, and a quick reference sheet. Very nicely done.
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| Note, these are the metal miniatures from the collector's box. |
Concerns:
As a very odd coincidence, this game arrived at my doorstep just a day after a local gamer had shown me how to play GW's Shadespire. I say odd, because I find the two games strangely similar. I don't really view this as a problem or concern, it is just that the recent exposure to Shadespire made a couple of things jump out at me when reading through the rules for Aristeia.
The first of which is that I really missed the "dynamic/unknown" objectives of Shadespire and thus found Aristeia a little static in in that respect,. Maybe this will be resolved with new scenarios in the future. The second is with its deck building element: Will it follow the same buy-to-play model (where you have buy an expansion you don't want just to get access to certain cards: X-Wing, Armada, Test of Honour) that Shadespire does? And lastly, will the game itself be fun? Because while I found nothing mechanically wrong with Shadespire, I'm not sure it was fun.
The price point for this game also seems little off at ~$70 RSP. Since you are buying a full game, comparing price per model to a box of space marines (for instance) is not fair but there is some argument that one can compare the price per model to other "full" games like Shadespire, Necromunda, Mice & Mystics, Tail Feathers, so on and so on. So at ~$8.75/model, it is pretty high without having the plastic quality of some of the other offerings (Games Workshop). And compared to Zombicide Black Plague (which has great quality, IMO) it is sinful. Furthermore, comparing the cost to Operation Ice Storm/Red Veil for Infinity (which are full 2-player starter boxes) is more disheartening (pretty much the same costs per figure). The expansion boxes better come in at less than $15 each (with 4 figures) if this plastic quality continues and I highly doubt they will be that cheap, which does not bode well for the game.
Conclusion:
I am very interested in trying this game out and I really really hope it is fun, but I think the price point is off. It seems to be a nice, tight ruleset and should allow quick games to unfold while still providing nice depth of tactics. That being said, if Corvus Belli does not provide a constant and consistent stream of support for this game (Organized Play, new releases, new scenarios), I think it wont stand out among the crowded crowd (here is a great video demonstrating Corvus Belli's planned support for the game - it looks like full commitment). You also should not expect, even though it is Corvus Belli, the plastic miniatures to be insanely good (they are decent board game quality in my opinion, although mine have some unfortunate gaps).
I would love to see this game expanded to multi-player. Mechanically, nothing is jumping out at me right now as a reason you couldn't do it. Except the board and deployment zones maybe, but that would be an excellent reason to explore (and sell) different shapes and designs of boards... Just saying...
Lastly, I had decided a while back to not spend so much time reviewing rules that are freely available, you should and can just go read them for yourself after all. But I did not know these rules are available for free until I had wrote this up. You can find them here.
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