Print n' Play Deconstruction:

Aether Captains: The Search

   The goal of Aether Captains: The Search (AC:TS) is different depending on the team that the player chooses. The objective of the Criminal player is to place a marker on each of the three crime scenes or by wounding all four police on the map. For the police to win they must surround the criminal on all four orthogonal sides with police pawns, barricades, or the edges of the map. This goal is made very clear in the instructions and also makes sense when considering the roles the players are playing as. The basic mechanics that allow the player to do this are moving their pawn(s) and using action cards drawn from a deck. Action cards can be used once and give the player some form of ability that turn, whether it's the criminal shooting a police pawn or a the police officers taking away a card from the criminal. Each side's card fit their position and allow for a very dynamic play through.

   

   The game pans out over a 4x5 array of randomly shuffled and placed map cards. The player must have their pawns on one of these cards, meaning their is only a sense of blocks, no vertex or line usage. The basic operative actions the players may make are translation of their pawns. Each turn the player may move one of their pieces by one map card orthogonally. This means no diagonal movement only side ways. Some map cards are special, others are just spaces. Special cards include sewers, crime scenes, and a police station. The sewers are a means of transportation for the criminal when he has a "Take to the Sewers" card allowing him to move himself to any other sewer map card on the board. Crime Scene cards are where the criminal must leave their marks in order to win the game. The police station card is where new policemen may spawn after being wounded if the police player has the "Call in Reinforcements" action card. 

The criminal has placed a mark on all crime scenes and won 

  

 The available spaces the criminal can move may be altered though if the police create a barricade. This is an action card that allows the police to block off a space on the map, essentially changing the state of that space. Another space change in state is the marking of a crime scene. In terms of states that a players pawns can be in, the criminal has only two states, on the loose and captured. He is captured when surrounded and unable to move. The police also have two states, in the field and wounded. Any police pawn may be made wounded when the criminal uses the "Shot in the Dark" action card to shoot and wound one. They may only be brought back in with the "Call in Reinforcements" action card played by the police player. 

Policemen have set up a barricade to strategically block the criminal from getting to the crime scene

   The rules are very solid in that no loopholes were found while playing. Gameplay flowed quite naturally as a turn based game and nothing was left up to ambiguity. Rules for each side's pawns differed slightly in their abilities and such, but everything felt balanced and fair. Just as a criminal could wound an officer, the officers could place a barricade and foil the plans of the criminal. Which brings me to the strategy involved in the game. There's a lot of strategy that both sides must implement in order to win. The criminal must figure out a path that they feel would be most efficient, taking into account they may or may not have cards that allow them to do certain things to benefit themselves. Which is where the timing of action card usage is powerful. Saving a "Shot in the Dark" or "One Step Ahead" card for a surprise wounded officer or quick movement can quickly take the police player off guard and make or break the game. Whereas these cards could also be used ineffectively by doing something that the police could easily recover from. The same goes for the police players, who must do their best to protect the crimes scenes and try to figure out the criminals desired path and block them off in their tracks to surround him. Strategy intertwines well with chance in this game though. 

   Chance plays 2 main roles. The initial set up of the board and which cards the player may draw from the deck each turn. The initial set up could give the criminal an easy home run to each of the crime scenes, or spread them around meaning avoiding police and traveling are more important. The chance of cards come into play as the player may get to take out an officer or create a barricade just in the nick of time to spoil the plans of the player they're against.

   I had a great time playing Aether Captains: The Search, it inspired joy in me when things went right, and disgruntlement when my own plans were destroyed by surprise attacks. The game engaged and immersed me successfully, marking it as a well designed board game.