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...