How to play Aristeia Board Game?

Aristeia! is a tactical board game made up of miniature characters. It is a two-person game where each player controls a team with four fighters willing to crush the opponents in a scenario divided into hexagonal squares. The goal of this game is to be the team that has the most members in the points zone at the End of each round.

One hundred seventy-five years into the future, the human race has reached the stars. While hyperpowers struggle in the shadows for power, citizens live permanently connected to Maya, the extensive interplanetary data network, enjoying new and exciting forms of entertainment. And of all of them, there is none more successful than Aristeia, the favorite extreme contact sport in the human sphere. This game has been designed by Alberto Abal, JesusTist Fuster and David Rosillo. Kenny Ruiz designed the illustrations.

This magnificent board game has been recommended for over 14 years, is for two players, and has an estimated game duration between 60 and 90 minutes. Inside each game box (30.5 30.5 7.5 cm.), we will find the following:

• Underdog token (made of cardboard)
• 52 State sheets (of paperboard)
• Hexagonal Red/Green (cardboard) counters x 6
• 6 Hexagonal Red/Blue (cardboard) counters
• Hexagonal Blue/Orange (cardboard) counters x 6
• 6 Hexagonal Green/Orange Markers (cardboard)
• Equipment Sticker Sheet (Paper)
• 11 Victoria Point Tokens (Cardboard)
• 5 Obstacle tiles (made of cardboard)
• 5 Tactics Hexagonal Markers (Cardboard)
• 39 Damage Sheets (of cardboard)
• 27 of Damage 1
• 12 de Damage 3
• 10 Frag chips (cardboard)
• 8 Miniatures (of plastics)
• 14 Dice (of bakelite)
• 60 Cards (63.5 88 mm.):
• 8 Character Cards
• 52 Tactics
• Eight cards of Initiative (41 63 mm.)
• HexaDome board (made of cardboard)
• 2 Control panels (of cardboard)
• Regulation
• Reference Guide
• Guide to Access to the Human Sphere

The good thing about this game is the gameplay it has. In addition, if you want to expand, you can do it since there are expansions available such as Soldiers of Fortune, Smoke & Mirrors, Human Fate, as well as additional characters such as Maximus Thermopylae, Parvati Victorian Automata' or Hexx3R Nomad Witch, among many others, and more that remain to appear.

And how to play it?

The game-style of Aristeia! It's evident, two teams of 4 players are going to have to move around the field, controlling zones and so on; while passing, they shoot, cut, hack, and dodge. 4 game modes already make us a global idea of the game:

Assault: This scenario is based on controlling the Scoring Zones, which change place in each round.

Conquest: here, the objective is to have more Scoring Zones conquered than the rival.

The King of the Hill: This is based on controlling the central End Zone, although sending enemies to the infirmary may also give you victory.

Scorched Earth: In this Scenario, the Scoring Zone also changes each round but can never be repeated. All this over five turns (or until one of the two gets to make eight victory points.

What's the mechanics of the game?

Well, it's pretty extensive, but basically, it's playing four times each round; the first round starts, I play one character, my enemy another, and four times. Especially in the beginning, it will take us a little more time to play a game; now, the game speed grows quite a lot when you have a shooting game. I imagine playing about 3-4 games, similar to an infinity tournament, although the table game model can shorten quite sure typical tournament moves.

We will move the characters during the game while shooting enemies, hitting them in combat, pushing them, sliding into scoring zones, and other more indirect ways of attacking, such as hacking or provoking the enemy. All this is possible because each character has a specific role, and the key of the game is both to know how to use them in the field and to see which combination of characters is adapted to us because the synergies between them are not few. 

As the game is thought at tournament level, we can create any grid of characters, although our enemy also chooses some of them; evidently, it makes it necessary to have a copy of the game to play against our fellow players. However, there is a game mode in which we take turns choosing the characters, so they are used if or if the eight characters are in the box.