Unboxing Aetherium (Part 1)

So a little under a year ago I backed the Aetherium Kickstarter, a decision influenced by this interview at House of Paincakes.  I liked the vaguely Matrix like atmosphere, the sculpts looked good and the gameplay seemed a bit different. It was also a 'proper' Kickstarter - a new company (or rather Collective - Anvil 8 Games), a new idea, raising the cash needed to get it made. A couple of weeks ago a heavy box arrived, here it is:

My first thought was 'this box is heavy'. I'd followed the vaguely production updates from the Kickstarter but not looked in detail at the components as they were revealed. I wondered what I would find inside... This lot apparently...

This lot to be exact:

First the piece of paper - hang onto this! The models in the box are resin, this is a quick (and useful) how to work with resin sheet. Then - that is one big, heavy mat!

The quantum noise mat, on which the game is played. Having seen pictures of the game set up, it visually conveys the 'noise' very well. It's robust too, as is much of this game kit. Next out:

Counters - 2 types, acrylic and heavy card stock, colourful and thick:

(Ok it's not a micrometer but you see these aren't flimsy.

Cards:

There is a small pack of these, unit cars and some kind of action cards, more on these when I get to a play through.

Dice (17mm ish by my measure) 

They roll satisfyingly:

Bases (these are the only component I'm not sure about they're very chunky and will need some thought in painting):

Then it's the miniatures themselves - three clamshell packs, one with each faction, the third with the Kickstarter exclusive models (I'll look at these next time).

I haven't had a gone over the miniatures properly yet - that's for the next post - but here's a quick snap of the detail:

These are good! Clean details, minimal mould lines.

Then we have the game ("Schema") tiles:

These are also nice and thick, they have a nice gloss finish and bold colours.

The rulebook (Thick again - there's a theme here - and pretty too, plenty of art, I can't comment on the text, I need to read it...)

Another game tile:

The player boards ("Command Consoles"):

And finally a couple of odd rocks (yeah ok, they're actually nice, there is a lot of detail in the surface waiting to be painted, and I'm sure they're important in game, but when I first picked them out of the box there was a 'what's this doing here?' moment).

So that's a quick look at the contents, next time I'm going to open the miniatures. The plan with Aetherium is to paint before playing so I'll have a look at the rule book and see what's needed on the bench first...

Where it's at (aka Kickstarters received)

A few 'done' models from ongoing projects...

Myth - got this from the Kickstarter, have played (and enjoyed it) a bit, mostly low level solo play so far. I'm working through the heroes/agents before tackling the darkness minions, trying to paint to a 'tabletop' level. The game tiles from Myth are pretty and the bases the models come on are ugly, so with a little knife work they're all going on clear bases.

Escape - another Kickstarter, I've only played this once so far, also solo, it looks to have potential but I decided to paint everything and then dive in. The miniatures with this were hit and miss, some came out perfectly, others are weirdly proportioned or not so well moulded (or assembled - the pvc on this one was all pre-glued). While working through these I've been trying to figure-out/learn/practise some basic techniques, so there are a lot of attempts and non metallic metals, osl and little bits of free hand - the models had enough character to practise on but were not so good that I minded a few failed attempts. I have just a couple of the character pvc models left, the Puppet Master and then the bots. Oh and a load of resin I picked up with it. And all the bases need doing... quite a lot of work before this one gets played.

These are from Bombshell Miniatures, very nicely sculpted and produced metals. I have a load of these plus the space ship they Kickstarted, and the Counterblast rule book - which reads nicely but hasn't seen the table yet. 

Mantic/Deadzone - I went in big on this, and although I've only played half a dozen times I think it's a great game. The Reb's, Plague and (restic) Enforcers are all painted and the characters have been sitting on my desk getting occasional attention when I have too much of an appropriately colour on my pallet. These three are the latest to get that treatment (and yeah, all the DZ stuff is on clear bases). The new hard plastic Enforcers are looking very nice but are still sitting on their sprues, this will probably be the next big project after Aetherium.