In the game Scythe, every player takes on the role of a deposed leader striving to regain their reputation and guide their group towards dominance in Eastern Europe. In the game, players take control of land, recruit other players, gather resources, acquire villagers, construct buildings, and unleash strong mechs.
Scythe’s action-selection method is minimalistic, with no rounds or stages, to minimize downtime in between turns and keep gameplay moving quickly. There is a lot of direct combat, yet neither player removal nor the ability to kill or destroy units exists.
There is an element of engine building in every facet of Scythe. In order to increase their efficiency, players can upgrade their actions, construct structures to move closer to the center of the map, hire new recruits to strengthen their characters, use mechs to keep enemies out, and extend their boundaries to harvest additional kinds and amounts of resources. Throughout the game, these engine-building elements give it impetus and forward motion. Even when playing the same faction more than over, the sequence in which players enhance their engine adds to the distinctive sense of each game.
The scythe is finished. Scythe is finished after completing the three-expansion story arc and finishing with extras like the modular board, the Legendary Box, and the whole rulebook. The Scythe game is finished, and we will not be extending it further, even though we will still reprint and support both new and old Scythians. Scythe’s follow-up, Expeditions, is likewise situated in the 1920s+ environment created by Jakub Rozalski.
All of the following are included: 1 box (300x365x98 mm); 2 rulebooks (solo and multiplayer); 1 quick reference guide; 5 player mats; 5 faction mats; 1 game board (624×818 mm); the rear of the board can be joined with an additional board extension for larger hexes.
The following tokens are available: 80 wooden resource tokens, 80 coins tokens, 12 multiplier tokens, 12 encounter tokens, 6 structure bonus tiles, 42 combat cards, 23 objective cards, 28 Encounter cards, 12 factory cards, 2 power dials, 5 riverwalk cards, 5 quick-start cards, 5 wooden action tokens, 5 wooden popularity tokens, 5 wooden power tokens, 36 wooden star tokens, 20 wooden recruit tokens, 20 plastic mech miniatures, 5 plastic character miniatures, 48 wooden workers, and 36 wooden technology cubes.
What is the Scythe board game?
With stunning, evocative artwork by Jakub Rozalski, graphic design by Christine Santana, and a solo mode by Morten Monrad Pedersen, Scythe was created by Jamey Stegmaier. Since its initial release by Jamey’s own firm Stonemaier Games in 2016, Scythe has essentially been a hit game.
With just the base game, Scythe can accommodate 1 to 5 people; depending on the number of players, a game can last an hour or two. The first few games you play will take a lot longer.
Scythe is still very much in print and, I’m quite sure, an evergreen product from Stonemaier. It frequently retails for less than its suggested retail price of $124 Canadian or $99 US.
Although this game has a wide range of expansions, we will just be discussing the primary game box in this review.
In the never-was 1920s, Scythe puts you in charge of one of five European groups. The Factory stands in the centre of this dieselpunk, war-torn landscape of farmers, farms, monuments, and mecha.
Alternative Versions
Stonemaier Games released a standalone spin-off of Scythe in 2017. A fan project at first, My Little Scythe was eventually turned into a print and play by Hoby and Vienna Chou that won the 2017 Golden Geek Award for Best Print and Play game. Although the game’s operations were similar to those of Scythe, it was simplified and given a new theme to make it more kid-friendly and casual.
The board game is not closely related to the My Little Pony franchise, despite the designer’s initial intention to include that property owing to licencing issues. My Little Scythe: Pie in the Sky, an expansion that included two new factions and airships, was released in June 2020.
Travis Williams gave the game high marks for playtime, accessibility, engagement, mechanics, and components in a Techraptor review. Polygon mirrored this opinion, complimenting the game’s fundamentals and ease of use. Rebel Times’ Michał Szewczyk came to the conclusion that the game bridges the gap between family games and serious board games, being a well-executed if simplified variant of Scythe.
Asmodee Digital released a video game called Scythe: Digital Edition in 2018, which is a digital version of the game Scythe. On September 5, 2018, the game was made available on Steam for PCs running Windows and Mac OS X. A mobile version was later made available for download on iOS and Android in 2020. In September 2020, Iron Harvest—a real-time strategy game with a 1920s theme—was also launched. It garnered praise for both its theme and artwork.
Amazing Factions
Every player assumes the position of the head of a faction vying for control of the area surrounding the enigmatic centrally located factory. Your goal is to use your particular talents and available actions to produce, populate, please, and punch your way to the highest possible end-game wealth when everything is scarce. When a player reaches their sixth star, or goal, the game ends, but the real win is the money they have made.
Furthermore, that seems like a hefty order when you consider the cards, minis, and boards. Indeed, it is. Alternatively said, it would be if you had to perform each of those tasks during every game. However, as I have stated, you are not required to. Actually, you can’t. Additionally, you will inevitably place your boots in certain locations but not others due to the asymmetric powers of both your own character and your actions.
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to earn stars in a game. Therefore, strategies can be adjusted to fit your desired outcome. which is fantastic for me as a player because my regular opponents frequently have very different skill sets and strategies from mine. Since I rarely fit the mould, I struggle with strategy games where there is a single size fits all player.