How to Teach Scythe

After you learn how to play Scythe, how do you teach it to new players? This video tells you everything you need to know.

[siriusczech]

Hi, Jamey, first of all thanks for the WHOLE Scythe - I love new factions, airships and most of all Fenris and all its expansions. I love it to the extend I just bought a painting set and I am going to paint the characters and mechs of all 9 faction to add the depth of the experience. Great module design, too, btw.

How I teach Scythe? From finish to start.
1) The goal of the game - collet the most money and get the most money out of your final scoring combined.

2) Final scoring is based on you popularity level, which is hard to get by and useless throughout the game, but essential in the end for scoring due to 3 levels of it. Final scoring has 3 categories - stars, tiles and resources.
2a) Resources are easy - for every two controled in the end you get points. Controled means they do not go to your hand, everything produced stays on board till it is spend and could be spent only from those controling them, bringing me to
2b) Areas/Tiles. Board is divided in hexes and the amount you control at the end of the game by your units (and buildings, provided there are no enemy units standing there) gives you scoring. There are five basic types of terrain that can produce (farms, tundras, mountains, woods for resources and villages to get another workers from), lakes (nonpassable for most) and a Factory - counting as tripple in the end. Homebases are not areas to control.
2c) Stars are "goals, achievments" you get for developing your nation in a certain area. There is 10 of them and you can only place six stars and first player to place a sixth star immediately ends the game in his action.

How to play and get stars is rest of explanation along with basic rules. I love saying this to new players while they are slowly setting up their board based on what I am talking about ;)

3) How to play? You have your player mat in front divided into four sections. Each of these sections contain a top row action which all costs the same but we all may have it in different columns, and bottom row actions, which we all have in the same column as everyone else, but they may cost different amount of resources and bring different amount of money. I recommend to focus more on things bringing more money then those with little to none rewards.
Top row actions (in this order)
4a) Trade - two resources for 1 coin. In red costs, in green what you get. Behind slash is alternative benefit, in this case 1 popularity (upgradable to two pop, more with upgrades). Popularity is good for scoring and can also bring a star (1st star explained)
4b) Bolster - 1 coint for 2 (3) power / combat card(s). Both useful for combat. For power is also a star (2nd explained).
4c) Produce - pick two tiles to produce and every worker you have there can produce 1 resource of that type (wood, oil, food, iron) and leave it there and workers on villages can recruit more workers the same way. Recruting workers = bigger production, but growing costs of prouction. Also -> 8 workers = star (3rd star explained).
4d) Movement - you can move two units per 1 tile or get coins. Any unit can carry any amount of resources to remain in control of them. Mechs can also carry workers. Noone can cross rivers till unlocking the possibility on mechs. Character can trigger encounters giving bonuses and can get you a factory card from a first visit of the Factory.
Entering a tile with enemies results in combat where your power level and amount of combat cards matter (more when it will come possible to attack = around 8th turn). For combat you can earn two stars, each one for a single victory (4th and 5th star explained)

5) Bottom actions are easier - you pay required amount of resources and do the action
5a) Upgrades for oil - take any cube from a top action (thus making it better) and cover any suitable place on the bottom action (thus lowering its cost). For all 6 you earn a star (6th star explained)
5b) Deploying for iron - produce one mech. Every mech produced unlocks wider abilities for all your mechs and a character (not workers). Building all 4 = star (7th star)
5c) Building for wood - for wood you can build a building and place it on an area with your worker and with no other building built yet (yours or enemy belonging). Armory and Monument gives bonuses for top action, Mill gives 1 more tile to production limit (the tiles with Mill) and also produced ass a worker and Mine gives you your personal tunnel. Only at this point I am explaining what a tunnel is and that all tunnels act like they are adjacent to each other and that everyone can freely move between any of those 6 (+1 personal) and even initate combat. And all 4 building = star, so 8th star explained. You also get bonus coins at the end of the game if you meet requirements from below the popularity ladder.
5d) Recruits for food - you pay and unlock one of for bonuses for bottom action and since then every time you or your neighbors do such action, you get that bonus. You also immediatel get one of unused one-time bonuses from your faction desk. 4 recruits = star (9th one)

10th star is for one of two personal tasks you have been randomly given. Once you fulfill its conditions, you say it, reveal your task and place a star.

After sixth star is placed, game ends. As I said, it is good to focus on some goals than on all possible to place stars and score well. Average game consists of around 20 rounds with scoring 60-80 points in average per winner (our group needs this to get a perspective of how it works - money and points are really different between games of Scythe, Tapestry, Terra Mystica and others, so the basic range is good to know).

This is basically all I say. Sometimes people ask to go through each faction ability etc., but this is my 10 minutes of Scythe rules. It doesn´t take a lot of time to do and is in order that is making it easiest as possible to understand what are you doing. I am using my player mat to underline all I say and making it easier to understand for everyone what I am talking about.

Seems long, but is short enough for group not to get lost completely and also making the setup faster ;)

[vibhuganesan]

Everytime I am about to teach Scythe to a new group, I come to this video. Today was the 4th time! :) Thank you for creating this video Jamie.

[jessedana]

Had a truly wonderful experience with Scythe yesterday... used your suggestions to teach my wife who never played anything above a 2.8 difficulty on BGG... She was able to grasp the concept very quickly and thoroughly enjoyed the game. Thanks for all your wonderful content, it's an asset to the community.

[SqueebyJeebies]

Just want to say I love your game, and I'm grateful for you helping me teach it to my friends!

[MrKeller]

Jamey, I don't know how you do it. You consistently blow me away. You design great games, some of my favorites(Euphoria got me in to modern/designer board gaming). All that time doing that and making videos all the time, and even showing people how to teach one of your games.

I have probably watched this and Rodney's Watch it played rules explanation 2 or 3 times each getting ready for my copy to get shipped to me at the end if the month. Can't wait.

Thank you for what all you do. Every one of your games that you have designed or published so far has had me smiling all the way through playing them. Between two Cities was my favorite game if last year. And I have a feeling Scythe will take that spot this year. Now to watch the videos again.

[markoreilly]

You sure go the extra mile Jamey . Awesome!

[alanvanrossum]

Such a nice video. I rewatch this every time I introduce new friends to Scythe, which is a lot of times. Best boardgame ever designed, hands down.

[julianrivas]

For how broad the intricacies that arise from the way the rules interact, the implementation is so euro-clean and how that translates to changing power dynamics on the board is very elegant. It’s a great game man.

[trinitrotoluene]

I like to give everyone a photocopied version of the rule book, and have everyone read in silence for 15 minutes. After that, I'll have them take a short quiz (where they only need to score 80% on to continue) and once that's all passed, then we can begin with the "scenario-based questions" where we can test their deeper understanding of the concepts.

[quaide]

At the end of the day Scythe is a popularity contest.

[charliepagel]

Me and my pals all get together to play this every recess! We love your game! Thanks for making it!

[mmik]

Being an effective teacher is a skill all on its own. You can be really good at something and have a difficult time conveying information about it. One big factor is who your audience is, as well. You might teach a game to somebody one day, and have them understand it right away, and another day the same way of teaching it might go horribly for someone else. It's not necessarily your fault if your friends don't pick it up right away.

Think about how long it takes for you to read and learn all the rules, double check them, look up clarifications online. Then look at how you try to cram all the important bits into a 10 minute teaching window, and expect them to play without a perfect grasp on the game. The ideas in this video are good, but I think that if you don't give them specific goals to keep in mind from turn one, they're going to hesitate quite a bit. My first game we went over the rules pretty in depth, but it was also my first game, so it was a good refresher. Next time I'll probably try a much lighter explanation, though.

I personally plan to explain, before my friends take their first move, what each of the top row actions do, and how the resources are collected to take the bottom row actions, and the fact that they won't be able to do the bottom row actions until they collect resources. I'll be taking a risk that they'll want to have the rest of the actions explained, but maybe that'll be something else they need right away.

I also feel the achievement tracker and achievements are really important to explain early on, but as simple as the goals are, you can't really give them that information without explaining the bulk of the game, so I'm not too sure when to introduce that. It may actually be best mid game, after all the mechanics related to it are explained. Perhaps the objective cards could be explained right away, to avoid problems of incompleteable cards down the road.

[dfunkction]

A friend of mine received his deluxe copy of Scythe earlier this week, and we finally got together today to learn and play it. I have to say it is an AWESOME game in every way (art, components, design, gameplay, mechanics, theme, etc)! I can't wait for Gen Con, so I can pick up my own copy (deluxe, I hope)! I really want to try the Automata in Scythe (I fell in love with your Viticulture world earlier this year).

[link_]

I like the oil field print hanging in the background. It’s one of the more subtle 1920+ pieces and it’s not obvious at first glance there’s a mech lurking in the background.

[robertaburnes]

I call this the "peeling an onion" approach to teaching ... layer by layer. So much more effective and accessible! I've taught Scythe countless times, and it works every time. Thank you, Jamey!

[hyperinox]

Great video, just what I was needing! Have been excited to play this game for a long long time, finally had a chance to play/learn it solo once, and am getting ready to introduce it to my play group for our first multiplayer session today.

[paultaylor]

About to start playing with a new group and this has been fantastic! Thanks heaps! Love all your work!

[panwall]

Just got my copy. Amazing game! Thanks for these instructions, makes it so easy to get a game up and running in <20mins.

[JeffMcLeod]

Playing it for the first time this week, hopefully! Thanks for the really helpful video!

[nemisysone]

Great Video! I love the alternate history theme of the game, and the artwork really helps drive this home! The card art, player mat art, and board itself look beautiful! I love the steampunk-style mechs, and like the idea of uncovering more options and benefits as the game progresses! I am starting to understand most of the rules by watching videos like this one. Thank you for creating this awesome game, and for this informative video!