On May 25, 2023, I had the pleasure of demoing tabletop games at my local brick and mortar store. One of the games I played and briefly covered was named “Aetherial War Card Game” (AWCG), a tense card battler with dice based off of the developer’s sci-fi themed book “Chaos and Consequences“. Little did I know at the time, Nathan E. Doverspike (the developer/author of everything mentioned above) had also created a younger brother to the “AWCG” card game titled “Aetherial War: Untold Adventures” (AWUA). Today we’ll be looking at the latter. Before I go any further I am required to mention under FTC regulations that I was paid to cover this game but as always, any and all opinions are my own. The only thing paid for here was my time.
1 Player, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 20-30 Minutes
Setup & Gameplay
“AWUA” came in a small tin case, similar to that of “Mint Works” and “Mint Cooperative”. My copy contained a set of both small and large sized mini-cards, a D6 die, cubes of various colors, and a blue transparent meeple. In place of a rulebook was a series of cards numbered 1-12 with the last few cards catering to achievement tracking. A hard mode is included as well should you want more of a challenge (no vitality/willpower recharging and/or refreshing items between levels).
“AWUA” is a sci-fi themed rogue-like set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Don’t worry, you won’t need to read the book to fully enjoy the game. At the start, you’ll pick between four different species and six different classes. Your chosen species & class will determine your stats, equipment, and any notable abilities.
The goal of the game is to complete a quest (the game includes four to choose from). Each quest card depicts a name, a series of boxes, and a difficulty listed on the bottom. The player will move from one box / location to the next, attempting to surpass the location card drawn and will sometimes be given a choice as to how to proceed. Most encounters will be an enemy or some sort of trap, though some location cards just give you the option to draw a new location card and move on. A boss awaits the player in the final box. It’s worth mentioning that as part of setup, the player will remove enemies that do not conform with the faction symbol listed on those chosen quest card (there are two enemy factions in the game).
As mentioned above the player will be moving along the boxes / locations on the quest card trying to reach the end and defeat the boss to win. These boxes form rows / tiers that tell the player the strength of the enemy they’ll face (should they face one). On the back of enemy cards are dots representing tiers 1-3. Facing an enemy on the tier 1 row causes the player to draw a tier 1 / 1 dot monster and etc. After moving from one level to the next, the player can flip up one item they have (that was exhausted /used before) and recover all health and willpower. In hard mode, there’s none of that niceness.
Combat is determined via a die roll and goes back and forth between the player and the enemy. The species you chose will have a health, attack, and willpower value on its card, while your chosen class card will have modifiers to these stats along with starting items and special abilities. On a successful combat roll (2-5 or 6 = crit +1 damage), the player will inflict damage against the enemy’s health value equal to their attack strength. Of course, the enemy can do that to you as well assuming they are still alive. Not to worry, you’ll be able to spend your willpower to activate abilities. Equipment you have can also be exhausted for some kind of special effect should you need the extra push. Armor can also help to deflect some of that damage, should you have any.
On occasion the player will have to deal with traps. Traps are another instance where players will have to make a decision, usually in the form of a dice roll check. In most if not all instances, the player can typically bypass a roll altogether by opting to lose a point of willpower.
Defeating enemies and traps earn the player EXP. When reaching 10 EXP, the player can draw an item card. Some items are one-offs (healing, etc.) while others stick with you. Players also earn rewards on the cards they defeat…some grant EXP while others give you a few options from which to choose. EXP, vitality, willpower, and armor can all be tracked via the provided cubes & stat tracker cards. You’ll track your current enemy’s stats that way too.
You’ll either reach the end or you won’t. If you do…feel free to reset and pick another quest! If not…try, try again!
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the rulebook, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
Mat not included, but purchasable separately.
The Review
I’m repeatedly impressed by the ability of some games to fit a huge chunk of gameplay and replayability into small packages. “AWUA” is no exception. While the developer could have kept it simple and included a single character with set abilities, he didn’t. With the ability to mix and match a variety of species and classes, each playthrough will be fairly different, especially since the quest/dungeon itself is randomly generated via location cards. This variety packs the game with a lot of punch.
I also liked the simplistic retro black/white color scheme. The art itself is incredibly well done. Having never read the book myself the art made it very clear as to what a Wulvern or Rhonar was. The card quality, on the other hand, seemed a bit off. Within seconds of touching these cards I had fingerprint / smear marks all over them. I’m not an expert on card materials but these just felt…greasy? I highly recommend sleeves of some kind to preserve the cards over the long haul.
I did have a couple of concerns. For one, you know how I am with dice games that feature very little mitigation and manipulation. While not statistically probable, it is possible to roll incredibly poorly on your attacks while the enemy does very well. I know, it’s a one in six chance of rolling a 1 to miss…but it’s possible. Some have come to appreciate the brutality that comes with dice rolling and the good/bad luck that comes with it. Yes, you can use willpower to activate abilities and exhaust equipment to give you an edge, but those are special cases. After 2 or 3 misses I’d probably house-rule it to auto hit on my next roll. I didn’t choose the stormtrooper class, after all.
It’s also interesting to note that the developer included a list of achievements to shoot for. I know a LOT of people who swoon over achievements so I can understand the appeal. My fiancé Aidalee purposely plays digital games she hates just to earn Steam achievements. Personally, I prefer achievements that reward me with something permanent for my troubles. While it may unbalance the game, perhaps achievements could earn the player a reroll or a +1/-1 die pip once per game/combat/whatever. It would help to address any bad RNG (video-game-speak for random number generator) a bit.
On that note: the game is advertised as a rogue-lite on the tin. Rogue-lites imply progression from game to game (skill trees, permanent progression, etc). Rogue-likes are one-off runs that reset every time. “AWUA” falls into the latter category, in my opinion. Achievements exist, but they don’t alter your next run in any way. As mentioned above, I prefer rogue-lites to rogue-likes, but I still play them when I’m in the mood. You COULD make this a rogue-lite by picking the next quest after defeating a boss and continuing on with the equipment you have up to that point, but I can’t vouch for the balance.
I only saw one enemy card per faction tier, meaning you’ll face the same enemy card every time on floor 1 (tier 1 enemy), floor 2 (tier 2 enemy), and so on. It would have been cool to have a bit more variety with the enemies I was facing. I’m assuming the bigger brother of the two games (“AWCG”) solves this problem. On that same note, when drawing an item after reaching max EXP, I’d house-rule it to draw two/three and keep one just to have a bit more control over how I’m building my character.
The “Come to a T” card was a bit confusing as well and required me to get some clarification from the developer. As stated above you remove the enemy faction of the one not shown on the quest card, yet the “Come to a T” location showed both faction symbols (facing one faction going left, the other going right). I didn’t know if I was forced to go the direction of the faction on the quest card or if I could bypass the enemy by going the other way (the dev confirmed it was the latter). There was no door icon to make it obvious that I could just move on. The developer noted that he plans to put up an FAQ to help players with their questions, which is great.
My favorite classes are the Aetherial and Scientist. The former lets you spend a willpower to up your die roll by 2 while the latter lets you spend a willpower to auto succeed a trap encounter. Paired with the Mk. 1 Cyber-1 item which lets you exhaust it to recover two willpower, you’ll become a force to be reckoned with. When you are able to chain abilities and items successfully…well, it’s a great feeling. I defeated the 1 and 1.5 skull difficulty quests easily, though things got a bit tougher after that.
“AWCG” clocks in at $23.99 on “The Game Crafter”, which is unavoidably higher than I would have liked. I’ve stated many times that producing there is expensive but it allows developers to at least get started on their dreams of creating their own game. Most games in tins run between $10-20, but I should remind you folks that this game has a ton of replayability. The extra few bucks, in my opinion, is justified in this case. I just wish the card stock was better and less smear-y.
“Aetherial War: Untold Adventures” impressively crams theme, a fair amount of content, and replayability all into one condensed and portable package. It’s perfect for those who want to play a light RPG / dungeon crawler but don’t have a lot of time to do it. Its size makes it perfect as a travel companion. It makes me want to play “AWCG” and try out the character / deck combinations featured there. It is a bit too luck based for my liking (not enough dice mitigation even though it’s present), but in a package as small as this I imagine you can only do so much without making the game bigger and hiking up the price. It’s not perfect and I feel like there’s room to improve, but “AWUA” is pretty darned good.
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Score: 7/10 (“Pretty Darned” Good)
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Important Notes
Two expansions are planned per the game’s “Game Crafter” page: “Stranglehold” and “Unholy Revival”. There’s a game mat you can buy now to help organize everything if you’d like to go the extra mile. “AWCG”, the larger of the two games and the game I originally demoed, is due to launch on Kickstarter in June, 2023. If you’d rather wait, “AWUA” and its neoprene mat will be available as addons during the campaign.
When asked for the differences between the two games, Nathan responded as follows:
*Both games have expansions designed/planned, but only the Aetherial War Card Game has a future of more base sets.*Aetherial War Card Game (AWCG) has three unlock packs included with the core game that players unlock after completing a campaign. *AWCG is solo and up to 3 players cooperative. There is also a competitive mode that allows one player to control a boss and up to three others fight them. *AWCG has full color illustrations of all enemies and locations, while Untold Adventures has a retro Sci-Fi look. *Untold Adventures will be available as an add-on during the June-July Kickstarter campaign. *AWCG is designed for longer tactical battles, whereas Untold Adventures typically has much shorter combat encounters.
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I also overviewed the components / game via video below:
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