Scythe
Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.
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It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries.
Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction’s stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.
Each player begins the game with different resources (power, coins, combat acumen, and popularity), a different starting location, and a hidden goal. Starting positions are specially calibrated to contribute to each faction’s uniqueness and the asymmetrical nature of the game (each faction always starts in the same place).
Scythe gives players almost complete control over their fate. Other than each player’s individual hidden objective card, the only elements of luck or variability are “encounter” cards that players will draw as they interact with the citizens of newly explored lands. Each encounter card provides the player with several options, allowing them to mitigate the luck of the draw through their selection. Combat is also driven by choices, not luck or randomness.
Scythe uses a streamlined action-selection mechanism (no rounds or phases) to keep gameplay moving at a brisk pace and reduce downtime between turns. While there is plenty of direct conflict for players who seek it, there is no player elimination.
Every part of Scythe has an aspect of engine-building to it. Players can upgrade actions to become more efficient, build structures that improve their position on the map, enlist new recruits to enhance character abilities, activate mechs to deter opponents from invading, and expand their borders to reap greater types and quantities of resources. These engine-building aspects create a sense of momentum and progress throughout the game. The order in which players improve their engine adds to the unique feel of each game, even when playing one faction multiple times.
Designer | Jamey Stegmaier |
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Publisher | Angry Lion Games, Crowd Games, Fire on Board Jogos, Ludofy Creative, Morning, Playfun Games, Albi, Arclight, Delta Vision Publishing, Feuerland Spiele, Ghenos Games, Maldito Games, Matagot, PHALANX, Stonemaier Games |
Play Time | 90m – 115m |
Mechanics | Area Control / Area Influence, Grid Movement, Miniatures, Variable Player Powers |
Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players |
Ages | 14+ |
Theme | Economic, Fighting, Science Fiction, Territory Building |
4Corners
A unique game that looks like Ameritrash but plays like a euro, set in a parallel universe where different nations are fighting for supremacy and/or busily doing their own thing producing goods, building etc (hence the term scythe and its dual purpose). The goal is to have the most money at the end of the game, and the end game is triggered by the player who first completes 6 conditions (signified by placing a star on the conditions). You start the game with a leader of a nation who has a unique ability and a somewhat unique set of mechs (these are the advanced technological machines of war) as well as a random player board, each of which has the same actions, but the pairing of the top and bottom actions, as well as the costs/payouts of the bottom actions are each slightly different. On your turn, you select one of the action columns, doing the top first, then the bottom (although you often won’t have the resources to pay for the bottom action), and you cannot do the same action column two turns in a row. The top actions are: 1) gain power or combat cards (power is a currency that you can spend when in combat, and it’s also a star condition, and power cards are another currency that you can spend, more situationally, in combat), 2) movement (very important as you want to spread out on the shared map as there are several different regions for producing goods, there are random but good events that you can benefit from if you use your leader, and there is the central factory where you can gain a powerful extra action slot if you use your leader) or gain money (you can gain 1 or up 2 dollars (all basic abilities can be upgraded, more on that later), 3) produce (your workers will produce 1 good per worker on that hex, this is the main, but only, way to generate resources, as well as more workers (which is a start condition), but the drawback is the more workers you have producing, you get penalized each production (loss of power, money, popularity), 4) trade (pay 1 money for any 2 goods, a nice way to get those resources you really need but don't have access to), or popularity (pay 1 money for 1 (or 2 if upgraded) popularity- popularity is very important as its a star condition if you get high enough, but more importantly, it's a multiplier for your end game board position). The bottom actions, which always cost resources, and generally pay out money after completing, are: 1) upgrade (a double benefit as you unlock/improve a top action ability, while decreasing the cost of a bottom action ability, and also a star condition for completing all upgrades), 2) construct a mech (you have 4 mechs, each with their own power that once built, applies to all of your plastic pieces (all your mechs and your leader), as well mechs and leaders can participate in combats), 2 of which if successfully won can get you stars, 3) build a building (each building has an ability, provides ownership of a hex, and is a star condition, and as well each game there is a bonus criteria for building certain patterns of buildings on the board), 4) enlist (you can receive a bonus each time you and/or your neighbor takes that particular bottom action for the rest of the game, also a star condition for completing all enlists). The game end is immediately triggered once a player has achieved their 6th star; at this point endgame scoring provides money (to be added to the money you already have on hand, which could be significant) for each star you achieved, each hex you control (only your worker, leader, mech, and/or building on a hex), and each pair of resources you have left over (in descending order, as stars are more valuable than hexes etc); the caveat is that you get awarded coins based on your popularity, the more popularity, the better your endgame multiplier. I was initially not interested in/dismissed this game, and as a result I missed the kickstarter. Stupid me. I ended up running around and eventually got everything, and I mean everything for the game. I originally though it was pretty cool, then I thought it was too random, now with many more plays, I definitely appreciate the game and enjoy playing it. Great components, art, design, lots of ways to play it, nice asymmetry, very fun. This is one of my 10 year old's favourite games. There are 3 major expansions, as well as some minor ones. I think it's all worth getting, but the major expansions are excellent and must have, Invaders from Afar and especially Fenris are top notch. Own the [boardgame=199727]Invaders From Afar[/boardgame], [boardgame=223555] Wind Gambit[/boardgame], [boardgame=242277]Rise of Fenris[/boardgame], [boardgame=262151]Encounters[/boardgame] and the [boardgame=279304]Modular Board[/boardgame] expansions.
adammale
Scythe is the most anticipated game of the year 2016. Fun fact: scythe is used for both farming and war. Personally for me Scythe is an alternative to Terra Mystica, both are great games. Mechanism and Heaviness: It's basically an action-selection game with resource management and engine building. Solid mechanic. Multiple paths to victory. Very similar to The Gallerist, each turn you choose 1 out of 4 sections with 2 actions available. You can do the top-row action, or bottom-row action, or both (top-row first), or neither. In summary: move, produce, bolster power/ popularity, build structures, deploy mechs, upgrade & enlist recruits. There's no rounds or phases. It's medium heavy. It's thinky. If you like thinky Euro games like Terra Mystica, you'll like this game. Straightforward and intuitive gameplay. The depth of the game relies on the strategies players apply during the game. Almost no downtime, the turns can go very fast between players as resources are limited. Clear iconography. Theme It's alternate-history Eastern Europa circa 1920s. Building your small empire on the map. The factions, the miniatures and encounter cards gives more thematic feeling. The encounters provide more options to get more resources, and if you spend more time to read the flavor text on the encounter cards, you get to immerse yourself into the worldbuilding, similar like Arkham Horror game. Can be retheme as Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings if you want. Components and Setup The components are superb and top notch, so many different shapes of tokens, different types of cards, the character and mech miniatures looks great on the board! The setup feels very much like Terra Mystica with starting resources (military, combat cards, objective cards, popularity, money) and units + buildings on personal player boards. Wooden token management on the mats like in Terra Mystica and Eclipse. There are several decks like combat, encounter, objective (just need to complete one per game) and factory cards (extra action space, gained when visited The Factory for the 1st time). Factions and Replayability Well-balanced asymmetry faction and mech abilities like in Terra Mystica. 3 out of 4 mech abilities are to improve mechs' and character's movement, while the other 1 is to improve combat. Variability created by random pairings of faction mat and player mat for each player. Terra Mystica base game has 14 different factions, with Fire and Ice expansion has another 6 factions (10 different coloured boards), Scythe base game has 5 faction boards and 5 player boards, with 25 different combinations. With the Invaders from Afar expansion, there's gonna be 49 combinations! The replayability is high. Different faction, different starting available terrains, different strategies. You've got to adapt to your surrounding. Actions TOP: move/ gain money (by moving, there can be combat/ encounter/ factory), bolster military power/ gain combat cards, trade resources/ gain popularity or produce on tiles (different tile different resource, resources stay on board with worker: wood, oil, metal, food or worker); BOTTOM (pay with resources): upgrade (move cube from top row to bottom row for discount), deploy mechs (special faction abilities), build structures (mine/ monument/ armory/ mill) or enlist recruits (1-time bonus and unlock action-reaction). Dual benefits of the upgrade system - increase top-row action benefit and decrease bottom-row action cost. Some small reminders: mechs share abilities with character, not workers, which include riverwalk; mech and workers can transport resources; mill is an extra territory for production; enlist ongoing bonus include activation from active player and immediate neighbours. Combat Threat of combat is constant, but not mandatory. Deterministic combat systemu sing power dial and combat cards like in Dune/ Rex (also Game of Thrones, Forbidden Stars, Cosmic Encounters). Add numbers on power dial (up to military power to spend) and numbers on combat cards (2 - 5, depend on number of units on tile except worker). The combat resolved fast, unlike those other games. Sometimes a game can be without combat. Each faction need only to win 2 combats to put 2 achievement stars on triumph track except the Saxony. Combat will lower attacker's popularity if there is any retreating workers from the opposition faction. There are no units/ structures destroyed, only retreating to home base. Endgame Endgame condition triggers when 1 player put 6 stars on the triumph track after fulfilling various requirements. The stars will come out very fast towards the end of the game. Unique endgame condition, very similar to console gaming with the achievement stars on triumph track. Most money win - popularity (love) reminiscent to Euphoria's morale track affect how much money collected for each stars, territories controlled (The Factory counts as 3 territories) and resources controlled. Plus random structure bonus scoring tile. Solo Variant - Automa There are 4 levels of difficulty, Autometta for easy, Automa for normal, Automaszyna for hard and Ultimaszyna for hardcore. The Automa cards make the solo variant plays very smoothly. Mostly the Automa units would aim to reach The Factory. The solo variant is as good as The Gallerist's. Final Thoughts Scythe is a keeper. Fans of Terra Mystica, The Gallerist, Eclipse and Game of Thrones will be at home with this game, with extra ability to play solo. Reputable designer of Viticulture and Euphoria fame. Watch Rodney's Watch It Played video before playing the game really helps you understand how the game flows. Expansion The expansion with extra 2 factions is a must, the board just scream for epic 7-players game! With the base game, it's War of the Five Kings, with the expansion, it's gonna be Battle of the Seven Kingdoms!
ACEL13
The artwork and figures are fantastic. The minis look even better when painted by a steady hand. The one glaring flaw about this game is its fixed board state. It can get figured out in the same way you can figure out chess. Once you know what faction you are, you immediately know how you're going to win. The secret agendas and tech cards have very little impact in changing the game up. Fortunately, a modular board was designed. It's not as variable as Catan or Twilight Imperium, but it does the job.