Admit it, you’ve played a few games of Scythe and pondered why there are seven faction spaces on the main board but only five factions in the box. Don’t worry, I’ve taken one for the team, picked up the Invaders from Afar expansion, given it a few plays and I’m here to use far too many words to say “it’s inessential, but the two additional factions do play slightly differently to those in the base game - just enough that I think this is possibly worth getting if you play Scythe a lot”.
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Solo mode: The Automa Factory
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
2016
Those multiplayers among us that enjoy a very long game session may well be picking up a copy of Scythe: Invaders from Afar to start playing six or seven player games of Scythe. For this humble solo player, I picked the expansion up largely to feel like the base game was complete – those two spare faction spaces on the main board kept staring at me during my ‘vanilla-Scythe’ games, chipping away at my curiosity. Additionally (and not that I felt that the base game was lacking) I also wondered whether this expansion might offer even more variety to an already veritable feast of a base game.
Who am I kidding – I am just a sucker for expansions…
What’s in the box?
• Two complete new factions - character, mechs, workers, faction mats, tokens etc.
• Two additional action selection boards - not faction specific in any way, just two more variable boards to add to the available mix.
• A couple of new automa cards, some $50 carboard tokens (unused for me as they are unlikely to come into play given my woefully mediocre scores!), a couple of small overlays to use in very specific cases to tweak the rules slightly for balance if ever playing with 7 players (again, unused by this solo player and still in the box).
The new factions:
1. Clan Albion (Connor and Max)
Special Ability: After moving your character you may place a flag token on its territory. At the end of the game if the flag is on a territory that you control then it counts as an additional territory (for example, you have a worker and a flag, or a building and flag, then you score two territories rather than one)
Mech Abilities:
• Move across rivers to or from an additional tunnel territory
• Before combat where you are attacking, opponent gets -2 combat points
• Before combat where you are defending gain 2 combat points
• Move to a territory where you have a worker or a flag token
2. Togawa Shogunate (Akiko and Jiro)
Special Ability: After moving your character you may place an armed trap token on its territory. Your opponent triggers the trap when it moves onto the same hex and gets a malus for doing so. Armed traps count as a territory in end game scoring (those traps that have been triggered are not counted but you can always return to re-arm traps throughout the game).
Mech Abilities:
• Move across a river (max 1 character or mech per turn)
• Move to or from lakes and in combat on a lake you may play an additional combat card
• Before combat where you have exactly one unit, gain 2 combat points
• Move to any territory with a trap token, you may arm the trap.
General Headlines:
Your average fan of Scythe will live a perfectly content life without ever picking up this expansion. Its most definitely not a ‘must buy’, isn’t fixing any deficiencies in the base game, isn’t bringing about any mind blowing changes that challenge everything you previously thought you knew about Scythe. But there are a few reasonably subtle things that are specific to these new factions that make me glad that they are in the mix when I reach for Scythe solo – knowing that if I play with them I am going to have to approach things just that little bit differently.
Firstly, you may or may not have not noticed on the main board that the spaces for these two new factions don’t have a river separating their base from the rest of the board. You are free to move unimpeded right from the start. No waiting to build your engine enough to get the riverwalk mech into play. This in itself makes me stop and reconsider my possible pathways and approaches, but if you thought that it was a simple straight path to the Factory or wherever else you felt like racing to, it is also worth noting that neither of these new factions has the Speed ability – they can only move one space at a time, and even if and when they reach the Factory and gain the ability to move two spaces, this will be the maximum that they will ever be able to move each turn. Does it alter the game significantly in any way? Not particularly. Does it give a little more pause for thought in comparison to the base game factions. I think it does – particularly in relation to getting out of the automa’s way and more generally having a more considered and focused approach to spreading out to maximise your controlled territories at the end of the game.
Secondly, both factions also have the ability to move their character or mechs to a space where they may have previously set either a trap token or laid a flag token. This changes the spatial puzzle - in effect I can now teleport to previously visited spaces rather than having to move using the conventional movement rules. Again, not an astonishing game changer given some of the general abilities of other factions that allow for more flexible movements - but different enough to feel unique. The fact that the traps and flags also count as additional territories for end game scoring also forces you to actively think about their placement in a strategic way.
Solo Headlines:
There is one key difference with these factions in comparison to the base game factions - particularly when played solo. In the base game the automa does not have specific abilities and plays the same way each time. Here however there are some (very minor) rule changes that allow the automa to play as these two factions and place traps and flags. Another subtle difference but something that might bring some periodic freshness to the solo game – playing against a specific faction rather than a generic automa. There are also one, maybe two minor changes to the rules - or more accurately the tiebreaks for automa movement - to enable it to trigger some of the traps that you may have planted when playing with the Togawa Shogunate faction.
Other than that, business as usual.
Any downsides?
Nothing major to report. It’s just more of the same and I’d already reviewed ‘the same’ as being a 9 out of 10. I guess the only things to note would be:
The new factions bring a tiny bit more complexity to proceedings – the laying of flags and traps just lifting the weight of each faction fractionally. I’d be recommending people to be fairly comfortable with the base game before diving straight in with this expansion.
The only other minor niggle came when playing as the Togawa Shogunate faction and setting traps for the automa to trigger. This felt a little underwhelming - at least in the couple of games I played. Some of the traps felt more significant to trigger than others and a little deflating if a good one wasn’t triggered. For example – if the automa triggers a trap that would usually force a player to lose popularity points, the trap has no effect as the automa never gains or loses popularity points. I almost wanted each trap to have a devastating (or at least substantive) impact on the automa but instead they often felt like a damp squib. The traps additionally count as a territory though for end game scoring so this minor grumble wasn’t a deal breaker as I was reaping the benefits of the traps in a separate way regardless.
At a glance:
The completionists will have already purchased this expansion without even reading this review. For the more casual Scythe players, you aren’t going to be missing out on anything substantial if you don’t pick up a copy of Invaders from Afar. That said, if you enjoy randomly choosing a faction to play with each game, want even more variety and a couple of new ways to approach Scythe then it’s worth a look – just temper your expectations a little as there isn’t anything hugely different or substantial going on.
+ Two new factions with the same wonderful component quality
+ Some subtle differences - particularly not starting the game stuck on a peninsula / flag laying / trap setting abilities which give more food for thought
+ Adds the ability to play against a faction with its own distinct abilities rather than just the basic automa
- Don’t be expecting anything major – go in thinking that you will get two new factions and you will be happy.
Final Score:
It’s a couple of new factions for a 9 out of 10 game. I will avoid scoring this expansion on its own as I feel it doesn’t warrant it in the same way that a larger, game changing / augmenting expansion might.
Reviewed after 5 plays.
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