Take to the Skies In Arcane Mini's Newest Game: Aldarra

Apotheosis Studios is a very lucky place to be. In the world of promoting our extensive work in the world of tabletop role playing games, we meet some truly remarkable friends and creators doing some very exciting work.

We have been in contact with Benny McLennan, the founder and CEO of Arcane Minis. The bringers of highly detailed, 3D printed minis have been next levelling themselves with their offerings to the wild world of tabletop gaming. We've already become big fans of their latest 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons adventure, [ADD], but they've wowed us all again. You can learn more about Arcane Minis in our world exclusive interview with Benny McLennan himself, but we're taking a long look at the company's latest project in this post.

Now on their Kickstarter is the rich, complex, and compelling board game Aldarra. Their ongoing theme of steampunk airships is on full show in this game. So, what is Aldarra? How is it played? How do we win? How many kinds of airship will we take speeding across the infinitely customisable board? Let's take a deep look.

How to Play Aldarra

We're taking all of our information presented in this article about Aldarra's rules and gameplay from this video by RTFM. We're also taking an opportunity in this post to offer our own thoughts about gameplay, its unique points, and how it strikes similarities among the many many other board games I have played in my time ignoring the boring world and rolling dice and flipping cards.

Core set contents, anyone up for a game? - Image by Arcane Minis

Aldarra is a heavily themed, area control game designed by Arcane Minis, which has features of set collecting, unit deployment, and secret objectives. At the start of the game, each of the two to four players chooses one of the four different factions represented in the world of Aldarra: the Cin'dar Navy, the Mining Corps Coalition, the Odarian Empire, and the Arrodan Syndicate. Each faction has access to similar classes of airship and tower, but each faction has certain powers and abilities that modify how they play.

Also at the start of the game, the board is set up out of hexagonal terrain tiles. It's generally better to set the tiles up in a more regular shape, but having fun and making a strange shaped map adds a level of uniqueness and challenge to gameplay. The starting player is chosen randomly, and that first player replaces one of the map tiles (that is not a crystal deposit) and places their stronghold there, as well as a number of ships – which must be at least two spaces away. The second player does the same, then the third, and so on. Then in reverse order, the last player may then play down an outpost tower and more ships, but they can be placed anywhere (except near crystal deposits). This snake draft style of deployment very much reminds me of Settlers of Catan, however that award winning classic doesn't have airships.

Each round has three parts: Preparation, Expansion, and Management phases. During Preparation, you decide the turn order based on who has the fewest points into the most. Then crystals spawn in the crystal deposits and a random number of crystals are distributed across the board. Crystals are very valuable and should be snapped up quickly.

Now that we're all set up, what can we do on our turn? In turn order, players use their three Order Tokens to move their ships around the map. Each player puts an order token somewhere and either moves ships towards it or away from it. Each ship has a movement speed that determines how far they can go in one turn. There are certain powers which stop your movement early and some which increase your movement speed. When you move, you can pick a fight with enemy ships in the same space (which I'll cover next) or you can Explore it, by placing an Explored token and drawing a card, which has a beneficial effect for you.

So you're passing through a section of air space with no good interlopers in there. Time to teach them who's boss. Since you earn a victory point for winning points you start, picking fights is a big part of gameplay in Aldarra. Light ships attack first, because they're nimble and quick to the draw like Han Solo. After that there's some damage calculation, then buildings and heavy ships attack. After that second round of damage, either player may retreat; if neither does, we repeat this cycle again. Each ship and building has a combat die, represented by different colour, special d8s. Rolling them and applying cards or faction abilities that modify your dice rolls is taken into effect to see how much damage you assign. If you tie or exceed the armour rating of your attack target, it's blown out of the sky and destroyed. Don't feel too bad if your ships are destroyed in combat, you make back a coin if your ship is destroyed; yay war profits!

Mining corps minis - Core set contents

After exploring the map and blasting at your opponents with your battleships, we have to wonder how we can build replacement ships or upgrade our outposts. After Exploration comes the management phase. Much like with worker placement games like Lords of Waterdeep, Stone Age, or Champions of Midgard, we all cash in certain rewards for having our ships and outposts in certain spots on the board. This is called Mining. Then, once you've collected your cash and crystals, players in turn order can buy one or three Victory Points; once everyone's bought points, we check to see if anyone has got 20 or more points, thus crowning them the winner (with turn order breaking ties). If no one wins, you can draw secondary objective cards, to bring unexpected new ways to score points at any time you meet the card's requirements (though remember, you can only win if you get 20 on the step before it, so you'll need to wait another round before victory). The discovery step is a way to bring even more unique upgrades to your remaining units, then finally there's the build step. During the build step, you turn your hard earned coins and crystals into more ships or upgrades for your current ships and outposts.

Once Management is done, we go back to the Preparation Phase to pick a new turn order, then play goes around again! We keep going until one person is at twenty points and victory is seized.

Law of the Sky Sailors

One thing I will preface about the game, as we saw from the fine gameplay efforts of our very own Satine Phoenix and Jamison Stone when they played: this game has a very high complexity level. The phase like structure of rounds, the many steps and actions that can be done in each phase. On top of that, there are multiple kinds of resources, but they're accumulated and handled at different points in each round. The different kinds of ships all have different statistics, and managing when they're upgraded requires another understanding of timing and when it's beneficial to you.

That said, complexity is not a downside. Intricate is not an indication of difficulty. I have spent afternoons staring at the rulebooks for Eldritch Horror and Betrayal at House on the Hill wondering what to do, when one picks up clues, and if it's okay to put this kind of house tile there. Overly complex is not a thing to put people off playing. For serious tabletop gamers, a system this byzantine, at least for me personally, is a hugely encouraging and something that makes me want to play more.

Aldarra has a lot to offer for any kind of gamer. For those who want to escape into the entrenched science fantasy storyline of the four factions, and seeing who will reign supreme after game after game, we can be swept up in it easily.

For the players who enjoy deep strategy, who wants to leverage the unique powers of each airship units, to execute an intense strategy, and who want to feel the rush on rolling multiple explosive hits on powerful dice, you get that intense rush.

I have given the fine game smiths at Arcane Minis a huge endorsement on their Kickstarter. I believe in this project, as does everyone else here at Apotheosis Studios.

Aldarra appeals to every kind of gamer.

You can see Jamison Stone, Satine Phoenix, and special guest Ian Kellet playing Aldarra on Twitch here. For even more backstory on the fine minds behind the game, read our exclusive interview with the CEO of Arcane Minis right here on Apotheosis Studios. To put your own pledges to back Aldarra, find their Kickstarter right here.

Now we want to hear from you. Will you be making your pledges to back Aldarra? Has your interest in the other sky ship flavoured projects of Arcane Minis excited your gaming sensibilities? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.