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Scythe Reviews

4.9 Rating 44 Reviews
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Scythe is a game by Stonemaier Games, designed by renowned auteur Jamey Stegmaier. Set in an alternate reality 1920’s Europe, the game focuses on expanding your faction’s dominance across territory whilst harvesting resources, creating upgrades and battling your enemies. Whilst not exclusively a game about conflict, Scythe rewards players for conducting many different types of engine building leading to great variety in play styles. Each of the five factions in the box have different special abilities and these are paired each game with a different economic player board. During the turn each player chooses one of four unique actions from the player board, which also gives a secondary bonus action. These actions move the faction workers, launch mechs and leader across the board, adding buildings and even upgrade their own options by manipulating the player board. The game is surprisingly swift, even at higher play counts due to the pairing down of actions per turn. As players complete goals, such as bringing all four of their mechs onto the board they begin to collect stars. After a faction has laid down their sixth star this triggers the end game. The winner of the game is faction with the most coins. Scythe also contains a fully realised single player module, where the player competes against an ‘Automa’ A.I. A deck of cards controls the A.I. player faction and offers a compelling experience as an alternative to the multiplayer game. Visually, Scythe looks stunning on the table. From the sweeping lands on the board to the faction leaders design, all the artwork is dramatically evocative. The leaders and mechs are all unique sculpts for each faction. Workers and materials are made up of wooden markers. Whilst complete, the game is upgradable with expansions that increase the player count, add more game modules, event cards and most recently a legacy campaign mechanic. Player count: 1-5 Time: 115 minutes Age rating: 14+
 

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The game is just wonderful! I mean, you probably won't find anything really deep or innovative in it (it is not a break-through game in terms of mechanical board game design) but it puts all well known mechanics into a very neat package that creates truly unique experience. And its table presence is just gorgeous! I believe you won't find any other game that will look the same on the table when played.
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago
Easy to learn board game. Super fun to play! More of a advanced risk tyoe of board game. There is a single player story or coop or free for all! The art is beautiful! Love the game alot!
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago
I was not too keen on the sound of this game, it sounded overly complicated (my husband's perfect game :-D) but it is incredibly playable, and not as complex as it seems. Very enjoyable first game, and I think it's one of those that will get more interesting the more you play.
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago
Aleksandar G
Verified Reviewer
We anticipated playing this greatly and our first game was very enjoyable, however, we did not understand how to play correctly and got through our first game with mistakes! Still the game proved to be fun and we want to get back into another game as soon as we can!
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago
Risk meets Catan meets Halo Wars! Every best games review I have read has placed this game in their top 10 list and many as their top game. After playing it I can see why. Despite the fact there is a lot going on with the game from exploring, resource gathering, upgrading, deploying armies, and trading, the game is easy to learn and each players turn is quick meaning you are not kept waiting for your next moves. The game has the feel of a strategy computer game because of its level of detail and immersion, and with many expansions available there is always different scenarios on offer to add variety to your game and leave you looking forward to your match.
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Posted 6 years ago
The quality of this game is top-notch, great!
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Posted 6 years ago
Fantastic game, beautiful art, amazing value, cant recommend enough!
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago
I am posting this review after our first game. Initial impressions are mixed, but generally favourable. The components and thematic design are about the best I have seen anywhere, so that is a major plus. We played as two players and were both initially unsure how best to approach the game, but it quickly became clear that you are building an efficiency engine to get the most value out of each of your turns. We avoided combat entirely in this game, mostly because it just seemed unnecessary, and this led to a rather 'solitaire' feel. I think the game might really come alive with 3 or more players. Beautiful, beautiful game though.
Helpful Report
Posted 6 years ago