Scythe Collector's Edition by Stonemaier Games

Originally posted at (...) a new idea everyday!Product-ScytheProducer- Stonemaier GamesPrice- Preorder here (...)Set-up/Play/Clean-up- 115 minutes (1-5 players)Type- EuroDepth-MediumTL; DR-Great parts, but player count dependent. 95%Basics- COMRADE! Scythe is a board game of nation rebuilding and development following an alternative World War I. Players take the roles of different nations attempting to become the most successful nation after the fall. Each player is given two player boards to start the game. One board is your nation, describing your nation’s special power and unlockable powers you get when you build mechs-giant walking war machines that provide you with extra powers when you build them.The second board each player receives is an action selection board. Here is where you get more variety from the game. Each board has a specific type of focus associated with it. These focuses range from industrial to manufacturing, and the focus of your nation will drastically change how you play. The second player board also has the actions you will take each turn, but divides the board into top action and bottom actions. These actions are simple to read as actions with an icon in red being a cost, while icons in green are the resources they provide. This allows for language-independent play. Top actions typically get you resources to spend while bottom actions are where you spend resources to build your nation. The top actions are bolster (get points/cards for combat), produce (get resources depending on the tiles you are on), move (move your pieces/earn money), or trade (get two resources or get popularity). The bottom actions are upgrade, deploy, build structures, or enlist. These actions require a bit more description. The action board has a number of spots filled in with squares. When you spend the upgrade resources, you move one cube from the top (revealing a new option when you take that action) and cover up a bottom cost (making that action that much easier in the future). Deploy is how you place mechs on the field. Each mech you deploy unlocks new powers for your character as well as all other mechs such as moving across rivers or having bonuses to combat. Build allows you to move a structure from your board to the main game board. Once removed from your board, the space uncovered unlocks new options on your turn like allowing you to move across the board or harvest extra resources. The final action, enlist, allows you to get extra materials off-turn when opponents to your right and left take bottom row actions.With the basics, the game starts off with you having two workers on the main game board next to your base and your character mini on your home base. Players then take actions as described above. A player selects an action space, then takes the top action, if he/she wants to, of that spaces and then takes the bottom action, if he/she wants to, of the same space. What makes this interesting is the next time a player selects an action, that player cannot take that same action space!Two of the things I mentioned above are combat cards/points and popularity. Popularity is used in scoring at the end of the game. Popularity measures how well the common man thinks of you. Depending on your popularity, you receive more points at the end of the game for each area you control, each thing you accomplish, and how many resources you control. Lower popularity means you earn fewer points, so this is an extremely important number! Combat is also a simple and fast. When you move a mech or a character onto a space of another player, combat might happen. If there are only workers on that space, those workers flee back to their home base and you lose one popularity. If a mech or a character is on that space, then combat happens after the move action. Each player selects how much combat power they want to spend on the fight, from 0 to seven, and may select one combat card to add to the fight. Combat cards range from one to five. Each side selects what they will spend, (power is spent regardless of whether they win or lose), and reveal to their opponent. The loser moves back to their home base, the winner gets the tile and all the delicious resources on the tile.There are a few other minor things as well. Your character can have encounters which are random cards that describe fun, extra events in the game such as finding a herd of cows that you can kill, buy, or steal causing you to lose or gain resources in the game. Your character can also move to the center tile of the game and encounter the factory, an old relic of the last war. The factory has a deck of cards that provide you with an extra action you can take with new exciting options like double moves and bonus resources. The final thing of note is your goal. Every player starts the game with two goal cards. Goal cards state an action you must have accomplished on your turn for you to unlock a bonus way to score in the game.This game follows a very similar end game mechanic to Euphoria-each player has six stars. When a player completes a goal such as deploying all his/her mechs or winning a combat, that player places a star on the board in that spot. When a player places his/her last star, the game is instantly over. At this point, every player scores points based popularity and tiles they control, stars placed, and each pair of resources as well as the extra structure bonus tile. The player with the most money/points at the end of the game wins!Mechanics- I liked this game’s mechanics, but I didn’t love this games mechanics. I had fun and built an empire, but I don’t think it’s much of a combat game. Your actions are quick and easy to do, but the concept of fighting feels slightly added on. Overall, the game is sleek and works well, but it feels like a cog missing one tooth-the machine hums along well, but every once in awhile, you get a bit of a clunk. However, the two pieces of the player’s boards do make for an awesome mix as you get vastly different empires attempting vastly different strategies with warlike nations having to focus on farming while peaceful nations might end up with a manufacturing center. That variety really makes the game fun. Also the indents in the board make all the actions that much more fun. I love the upgrade action so much as I can see and even feel my nation getting better! I have my minor gripes, but it is a fun game. 4.5/5Theme-Much like the mechanics, I liked this part of the game, but didn’t love this part of the game. Combat sticks for me. We’re post-world war, but the fighting feels simple. That is good as you resolve combat quickly, but it also means that combat doesn’t have much depth. I do feel like I’m building and reclaiming pieces of after a war. The instructions build on the nation's providing each with their own background, story, and life. I do feel like each nation when I play and the differences in player boards emphasise the theme each nation is taking. 4.5/5Instructions-This game has a ton of instructions, but they do a good job explaining the game. The rules are not complex with the bulk being chose action, maybe do top action, and maybe do bottom action. The thickness of the rulebook is to build story (awesome) and to clarify all the working pieces. I like what I see here. It does have a few things I’d like clarified like how the submerge powers work, but overall it’s a well done and well laid out rule book that you can learn on the fly, if maybe a tad too long. 4.8/5Execution- HOLY COW! Stonemaier games is known for their parts, and it shows in this one! Players get nice wooden pieces, the resources are all beautiful, even in the more simple price ranges, and the mechs/characters all look beautiful and different. The details go so far as the worker meeples all have different hats. It’s just a little detail, but it’s a beautiful one that really shows how much the creators loved this game. I have an unboxing video showing all the pieces of the game here (...)Summary-This is an interesting one for me. I like this game, a lot actually, but I don’t think this is my new favorite. The mechanics are sleek, the gameplay is fast yet deep, and the execution is amazing. If have a few issues with the theme and mechanics, mostly dealing with combat. I do feel like I’m building or maybe rebuilding an empire, but there are just a few things that feel a tiny bit off. These things don’t derail the game by any means, but it did take me out of the zone a bit. Also, this game’s experience might rely heavily on the player count. I have had more fun playing with five players than I did in a head to head match. This might not be the game I ask to bring to the table, but if someone asked if I wanted to play again, I would be happy to any time! 95%

Ordered the "Collector's Edition" and received the "Special Edition" from CollectorsPlayingCards. No board extension, no custom resource tokens, no metal coins... but that didn't stop them from charging me the "Collector's Edition" price.

They did not send me the edition they advertised so, many of the fun bits were not in the game, no metal money, no fun 'goods' etc. the game itself is fun but part of the fun of a game is the aesthetic. I buy games with the most 'goodies' I can get. Not having those reduces my fun. Hence the one star.

I’m a big fan of Jamey Stegmaier’s previous games (Viticulture and Euphoria) and heard a lot of pre-release hype about his newest offering in Scythe, so had been eagerly looking forward to trying it out. It balances a lot of moving parts in a way that requires some getting used to, but provides a wonderful experience once things click in the players’ minds.Gameplay:I debated leaving this section out, as I feel I’d have to get into much more depth than I want to for it to be truly explanatory, but I do want to give an idea of Scythe mechanics so I’ll do my best to highlight the most important aspects of playing Scythe in a somewhat accessible way.Each player controls one of five factions (seven after the upcoming expansion) that starts in a specific area of the game board, and has a faction specific board that shows a unique faction power, some starting conditions, and slight variations on four additional abilities that will become available during the game if/when the player builds their four mechs.In addition to a faction board, each player will use a separate, unique player board which with determine which actions can be taken during turns. Each board has a top and bottom row with four actions each, and on a turn you choose one “vertical” and do either or both the top and bottom action on that vertical. The top actions are identical across all player boards, including costs and benefits, but are in a different order from board to board. The bottom actions themselves are the same and they are in the same order on every board, but the costs and bonuses vary.The top row actions all involve things on the main game board and/or one of the game’s four “currencies” (explained below). They are:1) Move: move units on the game board or gain money.2) Bolster: gain power or draw a combat card.3) Trade: collect a set number of resources from the bank or gain popularity.4) Produce: generate resources on certain hexes where you have workers (new workers are also gained using this action).The bottom row actions directly affect your player and faction board (as well as sometimes adding things to the main game board) and generally enhance your powers or make actions more efficient/beneficial. They are:1) Upgrade (costs oil): move a small block from somewhere on the top of your player board to somewhere on the bottom. This makes the top action you are moving the block from more beneficial and reduces the cost of the bottom action you are moving it to.2) Deploy (costs steel): move one of your mechs from your faction board to a spot on the main game board where you have a worker.3) Build (costs wood): move one of your four buildings from your player board to a spot on the main game board where you have a worker (and no other buildings). Two of the buildings provide additional abilities on the game board, and two of them make player board actions more beneficial.4) Enlist (costs food): Move one of your “recruits” (cylindrical markers) from the player board to your faction board. This gives you a bonus when you (or any other player) does the bottom row action you moved the recruit from, and gives a one time bonus determined by which spot on the faction board the recruit was moved to.Each bottom action will additionally give the player 0-3 money. The specific amount given for each action is what varies on the bottom row among the different player boards.So the top actions generally increase things you can spend (besides move) and the bottom actions make taking individual actions better. The fact that each player’s board has different sets of these actions in each vertical along with different combinations of faction and player boards will force different tactics from game to game.(For a small example, resources generated using the Produce top action can be used for that vertical’s bottom action the same turn. So if production is above Upgrade for me, I may be more likely to have my workers congregated on oil so I can produce it and upgrade in the same turn. If production is above Deploy for someone else, they may be slightly more interested in steel hexes early on.)The four “currencies” of the game are:1) Popularity: measures how much your faction is beloved by the population. Can be spent or lost in certain situations, and determines how much stars, territory, and resources are worth in end game scoring.2) Power: measures military might, and is used in combat and spent in certain situations.3) Money: measures your wealth😉, and in addition to being spent for certain actions, acts directly as victory points at the end of the game. The person with the most money wins.4) Resources: there are four types of resources that can be produced (oil, steel, wood, and food) using different hexes on the game board. Each one is used for a different bottom row action as marked above.Throughout the game, players can earn stars (place their star tokens on a achievement track on the game board) for a variety of things, mostly related to placing all of a particular type of piece or maxing out certain currencies.Stars can be earned by achieving maximum popularity or power (one star each), building all of your upgrades, mechs, buildings, or recruits (one star each), winning a combat (up to two stars), completing a mission card (one star). Whenever any player places their sixth star, the game immediately ends. All players earn end game money bonuses based on their popularity and the number of stars they’ve placed, territories they control, and resources they control. Most money (after bonuses) wins.There are a lot of details I left out (like the importance and function of the “factory” space in the center of the game board, the encounter cards featuring interesting choices and Jakub Różalski’s incredible art, etc) that both tie the above together and provide additional depth, but hopefully I’ve given the flavor of the main moving parts. The key to the game is that while there are all of these elements working together and a lot of rules to explain and keep track of, each players’ turn is kept manageable by it always boiling back down to “choose a vertical, do one or both actions on it.” I found everything fit well once the game got going and I understood how it all worked in conjunction.General Thoughts:It did take me a full game to start to get an inkling of how to play strategically and our group was a bit split, with everyone enjoying it to some degree but some loving it right away and others finding it “one level of complexity too many.” I’d say there is a steeper learning curve than Viticulture and Euphoria. But my personal impression is there’s more depth too, so I think it’s well worth the slightly higher “start up cost” and I feel it becomes more accessible on subsequent plays.One things that helps immeasurably is the incredible graphic design. Everything you can do in the game and all effects are represented in symbols on the various boards, so once a player gets the gist of the symbols there are constant, unobtrusive gameplay reminders at hand at all times. The theme is also beneficial in that respect, with the interactions of desperate elements making sense within what they represent thematically. I also find the theme/game world fun and immersive.Having faction specific character and mech abilities that are separate from the slight variation in action costs and rewards on the player boards is a fantastic way to increase replayability and depth. The flip side of this is players must be willing to be open to letting player board (not just the faction board and special powers) guide strategy to some extent, which can take a little getting used to.There are a lot of interesting choices to be made, and I love the mechanic of choosing one “vertical” on your player board per turn and concentrating on one to two key actions to keep things manageable yet complex. I found an unusual combination of planning and flexibility is needed to do well, and am enjoying that aspect immensely.The game plays differently with more players, but retains the same general feel and atmosphere as it scales and the set board worked well at the 2 and 4 player level games I’ve played.The Collector’s Edition shines, even beyond Stonemaier’s general excellent production quality. It includes realistic resources, wooden stars, metal coins, a board extension, and promo cards. None of it’s necessary, but I adore the extra layer of visual impact and the weight and feel of the tokens and coins, and the extra gameplay variability from promo cards is always nice.OverallScythe definitely has a learning curve and is Stonemaier’s heaviest game yet, but I was pretty well acclimated after a single game and I adore the way it comes together. This is a unique game that won’t necessarily appeal to all fans of Jamey’s other offerings, but players who can take it for what it is and enjoy adapting to (somewhat) constantly changing situations and balancing needed actions with required currencies will find a thoroughly enjoyable (and quite possibly addictive) experience here.