MAGE Company is excited to bring you the Kickstarter for Aether Captains! Aether Captains is a steampunk themed, scenario-based, asymmetric board game for 1-5 players by Todd Sanders and published by Ninja Division Publishing.

One player commands the mighty naval zeppelins of the Grand Compact: Dauntless and Dominion. As Commander, you have been tasked by the Emperor to defend the Grand Compact and Arkady from the merciless sky pirates. With your staunch crew of steam welders, engineers, navigators and gunners, you fly with honor to confront the pirates threatening Arkady.

The remaining players command waves of attacking sky pirates, each with their own unique objectives which may pit them against any player when it results in the greatest profit for themselves. Infamous and feared, you have risen through the cutthroat cadres to become a War Captain. You swear to never rest until you control the skies and the Grand Compact falls!

In the following image you can see the components of the game.

The dice of the game are 19mm, acrylic, high quality, imprinted with heat transfer. Each die has 6 different faces and that's why we chose this technique. No engraved die can be so complex and with many colors. We are experienced with the imprinted dice and the whole procedure and we can guarantee for their quality. 

Click the image below to download the beta rules. Please note that these rules are still a work in progress. Images, rules adjustments, and editing are all pending.

Aether Captains offers a unique gaming experience and playstyle which begins with the different roles players assume. The Navy Commander protects Arkady from the raiding War Captains, using a "points selection" system. The War Captains who are attacking Arkady play using an "action choice" system. Although War Captains have the same goal of raiding Arkady, they do not play cooperatively except when it will result in the greatest benefit for them based upon each player's unique objectives.

Aether Captains use 6-sided dice to form the different ships which compose the fleet of the Navy Commander and the War Captains. These "dice-ships" play a strategic role in the game, but players do not roll them. The dice-ships represent the power and life of each player's fleet. All ships begin the game with their starting face up. As the ships take damage, players turn the die face to the next side. Each side of the ship's dice represent several numbers: attack, strength, and value.

Each War Captain recruits a fleet of up to three dice-ships with a value equal to or lower than five points. Each War Captain plays the game with their own unique objectives. Each objective card creates different elements and conditions in the game, increasing the replayability. Each objective has an Entry Point, which specifies a city or an area on the game tiles where the War Captain's fleet begins the game.

Aether Captains uses twelve-sided dice (d12) as a randomizer for attacking, damage, value of resources, and other elements of the game which require a randomizer. Aether Captains attributes are mechanically built upon a small set of cardinal numbers: 2, 3, 4, 6. A D12 nicely combines with these cardinal numbers for multiplying and dividing, and provides the game with a smooth and natural feeling.

The ship miniatures are used to mark your fleet's location and movement on the game board as they make their way over the skies of Arkady. Movement can be affected by not only other players' ships, but by the wind and weather. Choose the path you take carefully. The enemy is waiting, hidden in the clouds—ready to attack!

The dice used in the game act as miniature ships for the players. As a ship takes on damage, the dice are rotated to show different faces and the players can see the damage to their ships mounting. So you get a nice realtime visual effect of the ship in trouble. Cannons on sections of the ship also lose range as damage is taken so it is important for the player to spend time repairing the ship which takes away from attack and defense so there is a strategic balance to contend with. Here you see all the 6 dice of a zeppelin ship from the top to the bottom. From the left to the right you see the different faces of each die while it gets damaged more and more.

The following videos and podcasts include previews of the game and interviews.

GAMING NONSENSE UNCENSORED EP 035: AETHER CAPTAINS

Aether Captains: An Interview with Designer Todd Sanders | COG Gaming

Kickstarter Tabletop Alert: ‘Aether Captains’ by GeekDad

Aether Captains (Preview) by Dad's Gaming Addiction

 COMING SOON....

Shipping will be charged through the pledge level, based on the actual cost to ship your pledge and any additional rewards you select. To help minimize your shipping and customs costs, we will ship rewards to multiple international shipping hubs at our cost. These hubs will then ship all rewards to backers in their region. Currently we have shipping hubs in USA and Germany. Depending on your region, this will help eliminate any additional import duties you will be required to pay. Our current estimate for shipping costs are listed in the chart below.

USA: $12

EUROPEAN UNION: $15

CANADA: $20

CHINA: $20

NORWAY, SWEDEN: $20

FINLAND: $25

AUSTRALIA: $25

REST COUNTRIES: $25

MAGE Company Ltd have created and published popular board games, and card games, for over five years, including: 12 Realms, Hoyuk, Raid & Trade, Wrong Chemistry, and Eragra. We have successfully run over 20 Kickstarter campaigns, bringing our passion and vision to gamers around the world.

We always support the longevity of our Kickstarter funded games by offering all games and expansions to retailers. If you are interested in carrying Aether Captains, or any of our exciting games, please contact sales@ninjadivision.com for North American trade orders, or magecompanyinfo@gmail.com for European and Rest-of-World trade orders

Todd Sanders lives in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where he works as a graphic designer and furniture maker though board game design is now taking up more and more of his creative focus, not that he has any complaints. His training was in architecture, and the problem solving aspects of that education, combined with his artistic skills, has led to a number of well received print and play style games, for which he is most known in the boardgame community.

Aether Captains, the Print and Play (PnP) version from 2010, was one of the first serious games he designed. That original game used dice to form sections of steampunk zeppelin ships (rather than using miniatures). Other dice became attacking pirate ships and the solo player would fight battle scenarios against them. This first game led to a number of others in the Aether Captains world, and out of that work he created a narrative tying the games together as well as an entire world - Arkady - where the steampunk style Grand Compact battles the dread Domain of the Air Pirates for supremacy in the skies.

MAGE Company approached him a couple years ago about publishing the game and he was tasked by them to grow the original concept into a multiplayer game. From the initial PnP idea they have created a game that operates on both a macro level where players vie with and against each other for control of the resources and cities of Arkady and a micro level where they captain ships of the AetherNavy and Air Pirates engage each other in combat situations.

In addition to the multiplayer rules, he has designed a series of new ships and scenarios for the game and hope those familiar with Aether Captains as well as new players will enjoy what he and Mage have created.

Director of Operations: Alexander Argyropoulos

Game Designer: Todd Sanders

Artists: Space Penguin (Team Leader), Usanekorin, Saiseki & Anthony Cournoyer

Rules Editing: Samuel Wolf, Todd Sanders

Graphics: CDS Studio & EtherLogic. 

Miniatures Sculpting: Ninja Division Publishing.