Aether Captains Clockwork Cabal

    We had to pick a game to pick apart and analyze, so I picked the solitaire print and play Aether Captains Clockwork Cabal. While we were encouraged to do a 2+ player game due to our upcoming board game creation project, I chose this because I felt it would be interesting experience, and I planned to talk about how you could play it with more than one player.

1. Goal of the game.  You have 4 cards to keep track of your health, knowledge, strength and the object that makes you win the game parts: the Antikytheria, which has 6 part that are hidden within the location and event deck. You also have a card marked with 60 points that represent the hours and every move you make counts as one hour. Your goal is to complete the six parts of the Antikytheria machine before time runs out. You lose the game if your health or time reaches zero before completing the Antikytheria.

2. Core Mechanic.   One of the core mechanics, is that whenever you move, unless there is a previously placed map tile in your direction, you must place a new map tile. There are 3 possible markings on a map tile. A gear signifies an event card must be drawn and acted upon. A key is essentially a warp tile, if you have already gotten the Amber market card, which is where you receive a key. There are also blank map tiles that simply act as bridging spaces. Another core mechanic is that every move you make takes away 1 hour of time.

3. Space of the game. Each map card has black arrows denoting where the player can go. As your map grows, so does the space of the game, but when all cards have been placed, the space stops growing. It is a 2 dimensional game, that follows a 1 dimensional path. This sounds confusing but is really simple: You can move in the X and Y axis, but only when you have a card that tells you that you can, making your path linear. You essentially make a single hallway like a very linear video game. Each map card is one entire space, meaning wherever you are in it doesn't matter, the entire card is a 1 dimensional point, made into a rectangle. 

4. Objects, attributes and states. Your game objects are the map cards, your attribute cards, and the Antikytheria. Your player does not change states, unless you have found the map, which adds 2 additional movement speed; but the map isn't guaranteed to be found in a game. Your Strength and knowledge are the most affected during the game, as they decrease and increase depending on the event card drawn. The map is both static and dynamic; in its state. It is built as you go on, and usually stays the same layout. However, there are multiple cards which make you rearrange the placement of the map, while keeping its original layout. 

Your player has 3 attributes which are kept track on your player cards. Your strength and knowledge is allowed to go down to 1, because many cards can bring one or the other back up, but one condition of winning the game, is that your have not lost all your health, so health cannot go below 1.  

5. Operative Actions. The actions a player can take of their own choice are pretty limited, but that is only because most of the actions are started by event cards. Your options in movement are to move to a new tile, or move to existing tile (this is also considered the same as moving to a key tile when you possess the key.) 

6. Resultant Actions. Most event cards affect your strength, knowledge or health, and one in particular, gives you a choice between two outcomes. The Cabal Attack card allows you to either subtract 1 hour of time and move to an adjacent tile, or to roll a d12 die to see if you can beat them or not, risking your precious knowledge points on the outcome of a die. This card has different gravity or ease of countering when your stats are higher up at 12, versus when they end up in the 2 range. All of the event cards with the pieces of the Antikytheria require you  sacrifice time, knowledge, or strength as a means to get them. I found myself being more and more strategic as the game went on, taking longer to decide whether or not to attack or flee. When I ended up winning the game, I was very close to losing and was very low in stats, but I still pulled through, so my strategy worked it seems. 

7. Notes on Rules. Because the game is a solitaire game, the rules are pretty straight forward and easy to follow. It is games like this that if you cheat, you are literally only cheating yourself, and a great deal of fun in this game is following the exact rules to see if you win.

8. Learned skills. While playing this, I think it can be a learning experience. The event cards are very strategy based, so weighing your options becomes a big part of winning the game. You learn to pay attention to your time first of all, and your health, and to use your strength and knowledge in tandem to make up for each other. One tactic that I learned in this game, was when I came across a card that allowed me to look at the top 3 action cards at the expense of 1 hour of time, and to rearrange them to your liking on top of the deck. I put a card that reduced my knowledge (which at the time was at its maximum) on top of the deck, and made the second card under it a card that swapped my strength (which was only at 2) and knowledge, so at the end of my second turn, both my strength and knowledge were close to eachother, and my more important strength attribute was better so when I came to a fight and won, my knowledge went up to 3 and beyond as rewards.

9. Chance. The is a good amount of chance in this game, due to using a die to decide the power of enemy attacks and comparing them to your own. Also the randomness of the map and event cards when you draw them. But with most of the event cards, you have a choice, and the ones that you do not, have more of a positive side to them than the negative that they cause. You cannot predict what the dice may say, but you can prepare by being strategic.

10. How I could make it 2 player. A simple way to make it two player, would be to have two games going at the same time, with 1 time card, but each has their own health, strength , knowledge and Antikytheria. Because action cards like the pieces of the Antikytheria and the Amber market are placed on the board when drawn, players could go to them to get the piece if they were not the ones who drew it.