Scythe (2016)

How To Play Scythe

Setup the Game

First, separate all the cards into their respective decks, shuffle them, and place them where they belong on the board. Assign each players one faction board and one player mat. You can mix them to create a bunch of variations for a single faction.

Give players their leader miniature and four mechs (in their faction’s color), along with all components matching their faction’s color. Then, you essentially fill in the holes in your player and faction boards. Each player’s faction mat and player mat show you what you start with: power (scarab), combat cards, objective cards, popularity, and coins. Everybody will be getting different amounts of stuff, so pay attention.

Place your character miniature on your home base (your faction’s symbol) and two workers on the board, one on each space adjacent to your home base. The starting player is the one with the lowest number on the label on their player mat. You’re ready to play!

Player Actions

Each player will have the same action options available; however, as each mat is unique, the cost and benefit of each action will vary. This combination of faction and player mat offers a first look at how each player can design their initial plan of attack. It also dictates the faction’s starting power, popularity, coin, and combat cards.

During a turn, players will choose one of four action areas on their player mat to activate. Each action area of the player mat will have a top-row action and a bottom-row action, both of which are optional to perform.

The top-row actions include:

• Move: Move up to 2 different units you control into new territories or gain coin
• Bolster: Pay the cost and gain power or combat cards
• Trade: Pay the cost and trade for resources or gain popularity
• Produce: Pay the cost and produce resources on territories you control

The bottom-row actions include:

• Upgrade: Pay to improve your top-row efficiency while reducing the cost of your bottom-row actions
• Deploy: Pay to add mechs to the board where you have workers present
• Build: Pay to add a structure to a territory you control
• Enlist: Pay to enlist new recruits to boost the efficiency of your bottom-row actions and receive a one-time bonus as well as an ongoing neighboring bonus

Of the bottom-row actions, the deploy action opens a whole new way to play your faction. As each mech is deployed, they unlock special powers unique to your faction. For example, at the start of the game, most factions are confined to their starting area and are unable to cross rivers. Unlocking one mech ability allows plastic units to Riverwalk to certain terrain types, opening greater access to the board.

Combat and How to win in Scythe

Whenever a plastic unit enters a space occupied by another unit, the moving unit must stop and either scare away an unprotected worker (losing popularity) or combat another plastic unit. Combat finds the two factions secretly choosing how much combat power to use as well as optionally adding a combat card for every plastic unit in the fight. Both factions reveal their totals and the highest number wins. Return losing units to their home base and relinquish control of the territory to the winning faction.

The goal in Scythe is to have the most fortune at the end of the game. But the game will end when one faction has placed their sixth and final star on an achievement section of the board, with some end-game scoring opportunities to earn extra coin.

Scythe Review

“Scythe was a Stonemaier Games darling from day one. What it brought to the table raised the bar for many publishers and challenged them to give thought to quality beyond mechanisms. It also highlighted a release model that provided a teaser for future expansion content, as well as a way to revise content to appeal to a larger fanbase. While the gameplay in Scythe isn’t as innovative now as it may have been then, there’s enough in the base box to keep gamers engaged in a tight efficiency and area control dance. An initial taste will help players decide if they want to pursue additional content to see if it improves play at their preferred player count.”

Brandon Bryson, boardgamequest.com

“Overall Scythe is the perfect example of a board game that can’t be judged based only on a couple of plays. This is a big, meaty game that is best approached slowly and explored along with a group also new to the game. While each individual action and system in this game is easy to understand, seeing the big picture of how things interact is not. If you do happen to be playing with experienced players I encourage them to take it easy on any new players, to help them discover the intricacies of the game and not just stomp all over them.”

Moe T., tabletopbellhop.com

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek and boardgamequest.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.