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Board game review & gameplay of: Scythe

Game design: J. Stegmaier

Illustrations: J. Rozalski

  • 9/10
  • 14+
  • 1-5 players
  • 115 minutes

Gameplay

Scythe is set in 1920, after the first great war. The capitalistic city, also known as the factory, has closed its doors and neighbour lands try to seek their fortune and claim the land. 

Players all choose a faction and action board. Each comes with its own powers and actions. On a turn players place the action pawn on one of the actions not used the previous turn and completes this. 

Different actions are moving pieces, gaining popularity or military power, or producing resources. Each action also comes with an extra action, for which resources must be payed. These actions are building mechs, buildings, make upgrades and unlock bonusses. 

When one of the actions is executed till a certain point, you may place a star on the board. If a player places their sixth star on the board, play ends immediately and the end scoring will be calculated. Coins will be given for the amount of stars, resources and land the player controls. Popularity makes everything worth more coins. Player with the most coins wins the game.

Thoughts

Scythe is a gorgeously illustrated game which keeps its promise given by its popularity to me.

Because of the different factionpowers and varying playermats, there is a lot of variety possible between games. There is a solid engine building mechanism hiding beneath the racing element of the game. Getting everything forward and up and running as fast as you can. 

It feels perfectly balanced. It almost feels like you can't go wrong with any of your choices. In the beginning you can just start and after a while you start to feel which direction you should give more attention in order to score the most coins and stars in order to win.

I highly appreciate this game. I love the exploration of the different factions, the way the mechs work and that it's a game without too much interaction. 

9/10

Also check my let's talk about story series about Scythe in my story highlights on IG!

A copy of this game was provided to me by Stonemaier Games for the purpose of writing this review. My opinion however remains my own.

Boardgamegeek BGG

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