Scythe review

Game Review - Scythe

Mechanics: engine building, worker placement, territory control

Game Difficulty: Difficult

Game duration: 1 – 4 hours

Number of players: 1-5

Best number of players: 3-5

The game Scythe has something to offer both to those who like visually elaborated games and to those who value the mechanics, the game process and the challenge of finding the best, most profitable and fastest way to achieve their goals - and the challenge will not remain here.

War. War never changes.

Around 1914, after many years of work, Nikolas Tesla presents his mechs to Europe - a semi-autonomous machine that can do the work of many people without effort, creating peace and prosperity in the world. The world looked, said, "Yes, thanks, that's very nice, but where exactly can you screw a machine gun on him?", and the World War began. It's 1918, and all the nations of Europe say they want to live in peace, and it works out about as well as usual, as they all simultaneously prepare to occupy the mysterious Factory, the place where all the mechs were made. Of course, guided by purely scientific goals.

You know the saying "If you want peace - prepare for war"? It doesn't even matter what you want here... Get ready for war.

Since I easily classified the game into three serious categories, I will look at them separately.

• Each player has eight options of actions, divided into four groups - in a turn you can do everything that one group allows, ie one or two actions. Action types are logical and understandable by their names - Move, Produce, Buy resources, Build a house, Buy mecca, etc. The engine is already built, and the engine building aspect consists of improving it by buying trades and making actions (or houses, or mechs) cheaper, others - stronger, and gaining the ability to receive bonuses for the actions of neighbors.
• Workers are the foundation of every nation. Workers produce resources on the squares they are on. Build houses where they are. Mechs can only appear on the square where there are workers. On the other hand, just like in real life, workers are not very good at crossing wide rivers, do not know how to fight, and are unable to take control of an area where someone already is. Mechs must also be deployed for this purpose - they must escort workers, eliminate threats, and sometimes simply drive enemy units home. And here we get to the point that...
• It is not enough to visit the territory and take a good look at it, you need to take it under your control - place mechs where enemy combat units can appear, build buildings where they give bonuses, workers where they are not threatened by immediate hostilities and where they can get the right resources, etc. , etc. At the end of the game, territory is one of the main conditions for victory.

I will not retell the book of events (which, by the way, would not be difficult - although the game has many elements, it is relatively simple to explain to new players), I will only make you happy - once the rules are understood, it turns out that the game has incredible dynamics and excitement.

Despite some details that the history teacher left out to us in class about 1918 (for example, 20m tall, walking battle machines), the game is a fairly realistic leadership simulator - both the mentioned questions of economics and tactics, and the inevitable question of which of several possible to choose the paths to victory (the condition for winning the game is to collect 6 stars from 10 categories - so it will not be enough to specialize in one specific thing, but trying to do everything uniformly will not help either). In addition to this, there is also an authentic Cold War effect - mechs are drawn up to the borders and are ready for battle, but since the battle means risk and a high price, and after it someone may take the opportunity and attack the exhausted victor, the decision to whether to attack or hope to intimidate the opponent and prevent an attack is never easy.

Add to that the replayability of five countries (each of which requires a slightly different playstyle), six action combination boards (which affect your strategy in the same way), and please, a game perfect for more serious companies. Add to that expansions that add aircraft ( Wind Gambit ), two civilizations ( Invaders from Afar ) and an entire campaign ( Rise of Fenris ) and we have a recipe for many, many hours fighting for control of steampunk Europe…

You can buy the game in Brain Games stores on the 1st floor of Rīga Plaza or K. Barona Street 55, or in the online store: Scythe

Board Game Geek rating: 8.3

Author: Karl Bergmanis

Pictures from personal archive and Board Game Geek