Scythe Review

Scythe is by no means a new game but there's a reason it continues to be so highly regarded. It's theme and mechanics blend seamlessly in a way to create a world that is original yet feels bleak and desolate but when things kick off, they really kick off. The overall aim of the game is to place your stars on the triumph track by completing specific objectives. Each player controls a faction and takes their leader, mechs, and pieces as well as any specific starting materials. They'll start with a leader and 2 workers but they can gain more workers and eventually over time put down a mech (or 4). The actions are two parts later in the game but early on, you'll only be able to complete the top part of an action. These top actions include moving, where you can move your pieces to new spaces. There is also produce, where you will place resources on the map for the locations you choose to produce at. This is also where you can gain workers because they're a resource. Bolster will let you increase your power for combat as well as to pay for certain actions. Trade means you can gain two resources of any type. This is helpful if you're far away from a section or it's potentially dangerous. That's going to be your core actions for the game but if you can afford it, you can do the bottom actions as well. These are much more powerful and necessary if you want to win the game. You'll pay resources for them and gain their benefits. These include deploying your mechs where you can take a mech off your board and place it on the main board. Mechs will help in battle and can move workers across rivers. For each mech you place, a new ability is unlocked. The upgrade action lets you pay to move a cube from your top row action and move it to a bottom row. This is beneficial because it makes the top row stronger and the bottom row cheaper. Build will let you place buildings on the board in order to gain benefits. For example, if you build a tunnel, you can use it to navigate to any other tunnel opening on the board. This is huge to get workers spread out. Enlist is the final action. This will give you an immediate bonus as well as a long term bonus when the players next to you take specific actions.

Players are vying for control of the area and to be the most prosperous. The leaders can move and do encounters which will give the player a choice of 3 outcomes to benefit themselves. They're also working on getting to the factory. The factory is in the middle of the board and will allow them to gain a factory card which acts a new action they can use for the rest of the game. Combat is surprisingly rare in Scythe but when it happens, it's relatively simple. You'll each take the combat counter and decide how much power to spend and add combat cards. The highest wins and gets the territory and a star and the loser retreats to their home base.

Once someone places their 6th star, endgame scoring begins. You'll earn coins for each category in the scoring and the higher your popularity was at the end, the more you'll earn. The player with the most coins will be the winner at the end.

The Good: Scythe is a game that I've admitted before was intimidating to me. After playing a few times, I'm not really sure why though. Everything works together so seamlessly and makes sense. This is an engine that I'm still not great at running and figuring out but when you get a general process that works, it's extremely satisfying. There is also something really interesting thematically that the only resources you have available are the ones that are on hexes you currently have units on. It makes you need to spread workers out leaving them potentially vulnerable. If an opponent forces them out, they now have the resources. It's an interesting concept. The game does a fantastic job of funneling a lot of action towards the factory. Players want to get that extra action and it's a great chokepoint of the map. The race to 6 stars is nice because you aren't guaranteed victory by being first. You're simply guaranteed to end the game.

The Okay: There is a really solid solo mode to the game but it is extremely difficult to run it manually. There are a lot of concepts that you must interpret yourself and it can be a challenge to overcome. Luckily, Scythekick exists which runs the automa for you with an app. It's not perfect but it's better than I am. The general teach of the game is a little tough because there are a lot of concepts at play here to understand for new players. The rulebook is good though and provides lots of examples of things at play in the game you may run in to.

The Not So Good: Playing with lower player counts is not ideal with Scythe by any means. The map is simply too large so you must actively shift towards violence unless you're fine playing in your little world. This is a good example of the automa being used to fill in the place of missing players but it can also take away some of that excitement when you lose to a robot. While every faction has their own special abilities, some feel more powerful than others. For example, Rusviet will let you do the same action as the previous turn where the Nordic can move workers across rivers. Both nice, but Rusviet wins that one if you ask me.

Final Thoughts: Scythe 7 years after release is still a staple of board gaming. It was a game I've had on my radar for a while but I was always afraid to pull the trigger on because of it's overall size and complexity. Thankfully, it blew my expectations away. Sure, it's a complex beast but it's beautiful and when you're running efficiently the game works beautifully. I'm sure I've said nothing new that anyone else but Scythe overall is well deserving of it's spot amongst the greats on BGG.

Thanks to Stonemaier Games and Jamey Stegmaier for providing a review copy.