Welcome to the latest edition of ‘Games I really enjoyed multiplayer, felt for some unknown reason quite intimated by the solo mode, watched that feeling snowball into something bigger in my mind, left it unplayed on the shelf for way too long, feel a little silly now as it’s an intuitive, straightforward and dare I say quite an easy solo experience’. This week, Scythe.
Scythe
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Solo Mode: Morten Monrad Pedersen
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
2016
How to Play:
Grab a player mat representing a faction. Your faction is going to have some unique, subtle(ish) abilities. Enjoy them. While you are at it, also grab a separate action board from the stash – noting that each one is generally the same but has slightly different configurations to keep you on your toes and make each game feel slightly different to the last. Pop your character’s mini on its starting space on the edge of the board and pop two workers on the hexes adjacent to it. Lets start playing…
Choose one of the four actions on your action board which broadly speaking will allow you to; move your character or workers; trade a coin for some resources of your choice; strengthen your faction in case of any ‘argy bargy’ (also more commonly known outside of the UK as ‘combat’) or make your workers produce whichever resource is displayed on the hex they are currently standing on (including new workers themselves). Once you have taken that main action, you also have the option to take a secondary action if of course you have sufficient resources gained from previous turns to do so. Perhaps you will have some metal to build big Mechs to join your workers on the board bringing with them some new abilities to use from that point onward; maybe some food to use to enlist recruits who will earn you some immediate and ongoing bonuses; you could have some wood to build some buildings that unlock even more abilities, or some oil to let you upgrade the power of your future main actions as well as permanently reducing the costs of your secondary actions. You’ll not be able to take the same action twice in a row (well, unless your faction enables such mythical talents) so best start planning a few moves ahead to try and eek out the best possible synergies and strategies.
Perhaps when you move around the board you will land on a space that lets you gain a bonus, perhaps you will make it as far as the Factory in the middle of the board which lets you take your pick of a new unique fifth action, perhaps you might stumble across your opponent as you move, perhaps you will try to avoid them, perhaps you’ll find some tunnels enabling you to move more quickly. Perhaps you might be the first player to have achieved six of the game’s overarching objectives and as a result trigger the end of the game. Perhaps by this point you might have gained lots of workers and mechs and have spread them out across the board. Perhaps having completed more objectives and spread out more than your opponent means that you earn you the most points and win the game…
There is no perhaps about it though: you’ll be itching to play again.
This game is an absolute gem.
Solo Headlines:
Why did I let this solo mode intimidate me for so long having previously enjoyed the multiplayer game so much, leaving the game on the solo shelf of shame when I could have been having so much fun with it?
I think a few things put me off. Firstly when I see people talk about a solo mode and at least 75% of comments say “use the app as it makes the solo mode so much easier to run” then I am instinctively going to think that the solo mode is an absolute beast (in addition to my personal aversion of using apps when playing board games).
Those feelings are then compounded when I see that the solo mode has its own separate rulebook. Gulp.
I flick through the automa rulebook and I gaze upon a note telling me there is going to be a steep learning curve. Double gulp.
“Maybe I’ll give it a go another time….”
Two years later and I am staring once again at the automa rulebook and particularly how to move its characters around the board. It’s just not making sense. A few tutorial videos later, a few playthrough videos later and it still doesn’t click… yet I still I refuse to listen to the chorus of “use the app”.
I then give myself the best piece of advice that someone could give to another person who might be wanting to learn how to play Scythe solo: Just start playing.
What becomes clear pretty quickly is that this is a relatively straightforward ‘flip a card and take one or two simple actions on that card’ – more often than not this will involve moving one of the automa pieces around the board. Reading the rulebook makes the automa movement feel very complex. But seeing on the table that the automa can realistically only move to one or two spaces and that it’s pretty obvious turn by turn which one to choose and after the first game you are flying. Moves start to take moments and quickly feel smooth and instinctive.
Unless your game is called Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders, I usually don’t like asymmetrical player powers in a game – I generally like the feeling that everyone is playing within the same conditions. Each to their own. In Scythe though the automa doesn’t have varying powers game to game - it plays the same way each time. I quite like this - each game I just play as a different character of this wonderfully rich world of Scythe making the game feel fresher each time rather than me worrying that my opponents powers are better or worse than mine. Your solo game is variable rather than players having asymmetric abilities.
The automa is spreading out and its heading in your direction slowly but surely. You are going to have to prepare for its arrival or get the hell out of its way (see my comments on 'combat' below). Its clever, feels intelligent and each turn it moves ever closer to gaining more of its 6 objective stars which will trigger the end of the game. Will it get 6 before you? Will it have control of more territories than you at the end of the game? That I suppose will depend on the difficulty level you chose (there are four available) as well as how good or bad you play. You can also adjust the feel of the game by starting the game with the automa as far away from you as possible to give you time to engine build before it comes near – or instead start it closer to you to make things a bit more confrontational shall we say.
It’s a smart, smooth, easily managed solo bot that makes for a very satisfying and at times challenging game. Plays in around an hour – doesn’t at all feel like it outstays its welcome. In fact, Its perhaps the only game I have played too where I have felt that running two automa might make the game even better. I can see this game generally playing really well at 3p (I have only previously played multiplayer at 2p) and while I haven’t played with 2 automa (an additional set of automa cards would need to be purchased or printed or I believe the app can run multiple automa) I think the automa is easy enough that two would be simple enough and that the increased competition for space on the board would bring even more enjoyment. Regardless the game against one automa was perfectly enjoyable. But its telling that a game that initially intimidated me solo ends up being one that I’d be happy to double down on!
General Headlines:
Scythe is definitely a Euro. It is certainly peppering in some other spices to the recipe to make things taste a little different, or at least a little less dryer. And it makes for a really refreshing, thematic take on Euro proceedings.
At its heart it’s an engine builder – and a nicely thematic one at that. At the start of the game your Faction is trapped on a peninsula, unable yet to travel across the river that separates it from the rest of the board. In some other engine builders it takes a while for an engine to explode into life and Scythe is no different. Here however I really enjoyed how this incremental building of your engine thematically makes sense – as I start gaining resources trapped on my starting peninsula I can start using those resources get new powers to then enable me to move eventually across the river and start then moving across the board. I wasn’t just building an abstract engine which let me do more stuff. My workers are literally farming the land that they start on to strengthen their numbers to become more powerful and start conquering the lands.
Its other main focus is area control but with a constant and delicious balance of needing all your workers to stay huddled together to keep yourself building that focussed engine rather than spreading too thinly - but then at just the right moments moving ever further outwards. You definitely want to move, but the lip licking moments in Scythe revolve around when to move.
It certainly scratches my strategic game itch but also keeps me on my tactical toes - your Faction’s unique abilities and the separate action board that you play the game with will dictate how you are going to approach each game and you’ll get a sense right at the start of the 6 objectives that you are going to try to complete in order to bring about the end of the game (hopefully before your opponent). But there will also be constant pivots as your opponent perhaps reaches a spot first, gets in your face, starts completing objectives faster than you etc. I really like that mix of being clear at the start on what I want to do and how I want to do it but having the occasional curveball scuppering those plans or making me have to think on my feet. Additionally there is a nice tension of knowing I could achieve one of my six objectives right now but I might just delay it for another turn or two to eek things out a little longer and try to get even more points.
The game almost creates the illusion of being a sandbox style game – it feels quite free, almost controlled chaos-like. Its a lot more controlled that it appears but it mechanisms do allow a flexibility and feelings of roaming freedom. Some might find that a little unnerving - perhaps needing a little more handholding rather than ‘you can do lots of things, just try any of them’, though as I type this I realise that the freedoms emerge as the game progresses and actually a lot of handholding probably does happen up front before the proverbial umbilical cord its cut.
Combat can be an option in the game – indeed two of the objective stars that you gain can come from successfully winning a battle with another opponent (a quick push your luck / auction style mini game). But there is a lovely tension throughout as losing (and even winning) combat can leave you vulnerable having spent precious combat points to do battle. You’re therefore only going into combat if you think that you reallllllly can afford to and come away both winning and staying strong after it - and that is a rarity. More often than not though you will be cautiously trying to avoid your opponent and hoping that they avoid you. The threat of combat is tantalising.
I rarely in my reviews mention component quality – taking it as a given that if I haven’t mentioned it then the reader can just assume that all is fine. However its worth mentioning here that the quality of Scythe inside out is just superb. Everything you touch just reeks of quality. Components are amazing, excellent art, theme pops through well. Absolute top notch. It’s a pleasure to bring to the table.
I cant think of any real downsides on this one, there is a reason it is spoken about in such high regard by many. Ok, set up and tear down is a beast I will warn you of that. But I tend to leave my games out on the table for repeat plays over a period of days if not weeks so it’s not particularly an issue for me. The short playtime of the solo game also compensates for the set up and tear down. Equally though its a fiddly set of rules even without the solo mode added in. Its not a heavy game by any stretch– probably closer to just above medium weight - but there is a lot up front to learn, maybe more than other games of a similar weight. The rulebook is excellently written however and does a lot of handholding throughout.
Overall Sycthe is just a fun game to play. Indeed it hits that sweet spot of being one of those kind of games where if I win then great but the win is incidental – I’m far too involved in having a good time playing it and usually only have one eye if that on the final score. Do I think everything here is impeccably balanced? Quite probably actually. Do I particularly care? Na, I am having way too much fun.
At a glance:
+ Very thematic take on a Euro – you almost forget it’s a Euro at times. A unique game to have in the collection
+ Amazing production quality
+ A sense of freedom as you play – not quite sandbox style, but not far off
+ An intelligent and enjoyable solo experience – the phrase ‘when it clicks, it clicks’ could have been invented for this game
+ Lots of paths to victory, variable ways to play, different characters to explore
+ Plays in around an hour, games feel satisfying rather than outstaying their welcome
- A lengthy set up and tear down
- Perhaps a heavier learning curve than other games of a similar weight, but its still not heavy per se
Final Score:
9 out 10. Reviewed after 12 plays.
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