Going back to the well – #boardgame quick-play of #Scythe (@stonemaiergames, 2016) + Scythe: Invaders from Afar (2016)

Scythe (Stonemaier Games, 2016) continues to amaze the RockyMountainNavy gaming family. We bought the game in 2017 and played it three times that year. We didn’t play it al all in 2018. So far in the first month of 2019 we have already played it twice! This weekend, we also added in the Invaders from Afar expansion with Youngest RMN Boy playing Clan Albion. Best of all, we played a complete game in just about 90 minutes. This is the fastest game of Scythe we have ever played.

The last time we played with Invaders from Afar, the Middle RMN Boy (the one with ASD) had a hard time. I think that subconsciously we shied away from the expansion after that. This weekend, the Youngest RMN Boy wanted to play “the hawg faction,” or Clan Albion, so we bent the rules and openly picked factions while randomly drawing player mats. While this certainly made for a fun game, at the same time I noticed Middle RMN Boy went “back to the well” with the Nordic Faction. He won with it last time finishing 25 points ahead of everyone else. This time he absolutely wiped the floor with us again, gaining 100 coins and ending 22 coins ahead of everyone else. It could of been worse; he actually could of ended the game three rounds earlier than it happened but kept playing to build up more points. Even then, at the end of the game my Saxony faction attacked his Nordic in the Factory to knock Nordic back and rob them of three territories (and the money/victory points associated with that).

Some folks on BoardGameGeek have done analysis that seemingly indicates the Nordic Faction is the dominant faction at three players. In our (limited) experience this appears to be true. The real test in the future will be how well he plays with other factions and if he continues to have an interest in Scythe even if he starts losing. So far, the indications are good; at the end of this weekends game he and his brother were joshing each other over what other faction they wanted to play next time.

I think the faster play tonight resulted partially from all of us being more comfortable with not only Scythe, but different game mechanics in general. In many ways, the RMN Boys have become real “gamers” in the past two years. I am still the one who actually reads the rules and teaches it to them, but the RMN Boys absorb (and process the rules quickly.

That said, Youngest RMN did make a mistake in this game and it may have cost him. The Clan Albion special faction ability is Exalt. With Exalt, the Albion character (Conner and Max) can place up to four flags on territories after they move. Territories with flags count as two territories when it comes to scoring. If he had remembered to place his flags he could of gained 16 extra coins finishing with 95 coins total and placing just 5 coins behind his brother. I get the feeling he won’t forget his special faction ability next time!

The RMN Boys want to get Scythe to the table again. I feel that the game may become our “evergreen” title of 2019 like Enemies of Rome (Worthington Publishing, 2017) was for 2018 when it was played 10 times over the course of the year. As far as expansions go, after reading multiple reviews I am not sold on the airships in Scythe: The Wind Gambit Expansion though at around $20 it may be worth the investment.

More vexing is the Rise of Fenris Expansion. I am not sure that we really want to play an eight-game campaign (with different rules?) just to unlock 11 interchangeable modules. With the price hovering in the $40-$50 range, I am not sure if this is the best use of my gaming budget.

Oh, who am I kidding. With the current popularity of Scythe in the RMN hacienda I have a feeling both Wind Gambit and Fenris will make appearances this year.

Feature image courtesy BoardGameGeek