First off, this game is not brand new. This is a new listing for the game because it has changed from free2play to pay once and that's it. I have played Aerena snce it was in Early Access and have enjoyed many hours of fun turn-based strategy gaming. There was a time during the f2p stage that the monotiztion took a turn for the worse but this step turned the game back to the right path. For those that don't like to read look below; For those that don't mind reading I'll break it down into parts.

TL;DR: Fun strategy game with neat mechanics and good gameplay.

Gameplay:
A game of Aerena cconsits of 2 players with a ship, 3 shells, and 3-6 champions each. The goal is to get your opponent's ship accross the board down to 0 HP. Each plyer takes turns unloding champs onto the 7x7 board from their ship untill both sides have 3 out. Differant boards have dfferant tiles in differant places and the players have to accomidate them into their strategy to win. Each champ takes a turn in the order they were placed and can move, attack, use abilities, or use shells. Each champ gets 2 actions and once those are used they have to wait for the others to have gone before they can be used again. Play procedes this way untill one player wins.

Mechanics:
There are some mechanics in Aerena that really make this game unique. The first is the Aether mechanic. Aether is what is needed to use shells or champion abilities and the ship as well as each champion has their own pool they draw from. The ship aether is used for your shells. 3 shells are brought into a match and can be used once per game. The effects of the shells varry greatly, some might heal your champions, others might damage the opponent, some could reposition the pieces on the board, while others might affect Aether levels. Each champion gains 1 aether at the start of their turn as well as 1 for each basic attack. Keeping an eye on aether values is crucial to higher level play.
Ship aether on the other hand is harder to come by. Your ship gains 1 aether for ever oint of damage it sustains as well as 1 point for every time the enemy ship is damaged. For example if your ship gets hit for 2 damage your ship would gain 2 aether while your opponents ship would only gain 1 aether. Since you don't get to know what shells your opponent brought with them it can be risky to go straight for large ammounts of damage to their ship because they might have a shell to turn the tables on you.
When your ship looses all of its HP the game is over but when a champion looses their HP they are removed from the board and returned to their owner's ship. This doesn't come without consequince though because the owner's ship also takes 2 points of damage. Some heroes however can sacrifice themselves or other friendly pieces which does NOT cause your ship to take damage.

Balance:
In my opinion the game is rather well baanced. The champions and shells you are given to start with are well rounded and some of the better champions in the game. While having more champions/shells/ships does offer you more choices of what to use each game you can only take so much into a match and even then you are never guarantied to win or loose. The outcome of the match is in how you play. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, each ship their faults, and each shell their uses. If you can plan ahead effectivly you can take on your opponent even if you only have the basic starting gear.

Monotization:
This is a big one. The game used to have 2 types of currency, the one you gained in game (schillings) and the one you payed for(aether coins). It worked fine in early access since the the aether coins were for convenience and the things you bought with them were avaliable for schillings or didn't actually affect gameplay. You used to gain schillings after every match and could either put in time or money to unlock new champions or ships for differant strategies. Then it took a turn for the worse and you were limited on how many schillings you could earn in a day due to daily quests being the only way to get them. The devs really pushed the aether coins as their monotization and eventually fell on their faces. Now there are no aether coins and there is no limit to the schillings you can gain in a day. Everything except for the skins are avaliable for schillings and the skins are now a single DLC pack.

In conclusion, since you are here already why don't you give it a try? You can look for a streamer on twitch.tv or some other streaming site if you want to see some active gamelay, but since you've made it this far in my review you must have some interest in the game already. I think it's woth the price and would recomend it to any fan of strategy games.

Once again for those of you that scrolled to the bottom:
TL;DR: Fun strategy game with neat mechanics and good gameplay.

First off, this game is not brand new. This is a new listing for the game because it has changed from free2play to pay once and that's it. I have played Aerena snce it was in Early Access and have enjoyed many hours of fun turn-based strategy gaming. There was a time during the f2p stage that the monotiztion took a turn for the worse but this step turned the game back to the right path. For those that don't like to read look below; For those that don't mind reading I'll break it down into parts. TL;DR: Fun strategy game with neat mechanics and good gameplay. Gameplay: A game of Aerena cconsits of 2 players with a ship, 3 shells, and 3-6 champions each. The goal is to get your opponent's ship accross the board down to 0 HP. Each plyer takes turns unloding champs onto the 7x7 board from their ship untill both sides have 3 out. Differant boards have dfferant tiles in differant places and the players have to accomidate them into their strategy to win. Each champ takes a turn in the order they were placed and can move, attack, use abilities, or use shells. Each champ gets 2 actions and once those are used they have to wait for the others to have gone before they can be used again. Play procedes this way untill one player wins. Mechanics: There are some mechanics in Aerena that really make this game unique. The first is the Aether mechanic. Aether is what is needed to use shells or champion abilities and the ship as well as each champion has their own pool they draw from. The ship aether is used for your shells. 3 shells are brought into a match and can be used once per game. The effects of the shells varry greatly, some might heal your champions, others might damage the opponent, some could reposition the pieces on the board, while others might affect Aether levels. Each champion gains 1 aether at the start of their turn as well as 1 for each basic attack. Keeping an eye on aether values is crucial to higher level play. Ship aether on the other hand is harder to come by. Your ship gains 1 aether for ever oint of damage it sustains as well as 1 point for every time the enemy ship is damaged. For example if your ship gets hit for 2 damage your ship would gain 2 aether while your opponents ship would only gain 1 aether. Since you don't get to know what shells your opponent brought with them it can be risky to go straight for large ammounts of damage to their ship because they might have a shell to turn the tables on you. When your ship looses all of its HP the game is over but when a champion looses their HP they are removed from the board and returned to their owner's ship. This doesn't come without consequince though because the owner's ship also takes 2 points of damage. Some heroes however can sacrifice themselves or other friendly pieces which does NOT cause your ship to take damage. Balance: In my opinion the game is rather well baanced. The champions and shells you are given to start with are well rounded and some of the better champions in the game. While having more champions/shells/ships does offer you more choices of what to use each game you can only take so much into a match and even then you are never guarantied to win or loose. The outcome of the match is in how you play. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, each ship their faults, and each shell their uses. If you can plan ahead effectivly you can take on your opponent even if you only have the basic starting gear. Monotization: This is a big one. The game used to have 2 types of currency, the one you gained in game (schillings) and the one you payed for(aether coins). It worked fine in early access since the the aether coins were for convenience and the things you bought with them were avaliable for schillings or didn't actually affect gameplay. You used to gain schillings after every match and could either put in time or money to unlock new champions or ships for differant strategies. Then it took a turn for the worse and you were limited on how many schillings you could earn in a day due to daily quests being the only way to get them. The devs really pushed the aether coins as their monotization and eventually fell on their faces. Now there are no aether coins and there is no limit to the schillings you can gain in a day. Everything except for the skins are avaliable for schillings and the skins are now a single DLC pack. In conclusion, since you are here already why don't you give it a try? You can look for a streamer on twitch.tv or some other streaming site if you want to see some active gamelay, but since you've made it this far in my review you must have some interest in the game already. I think it's woth the price and would recomend it to any fan of strategy games. Once again for those of you that scrolled to the bottom: TL;DR: Fun strategy game with neat mechanics and good gameplay.