Scythe Starting Strategies - The Mill

This week’s The Mill focuses on Scythe Starter Strategies, but not before talking about the arrival of Scythe Encounters and an update on the modular board that none of us wanted to hear.

As always, let me know if there is anything you want to see talked about on the show. Comments, Questions and Suggestions are welcome in the comments. Thanks for watching. If you enjoy the videos, make sure you like, subscribe and hit the bell to make sure you’re notified when new episodes arrive.

Thanks! Dusty.

----- IMPORTANT LINKS FROM TODAY'S VIDEO ------

(Links other factions at the end of the original post)

Transparency Statement - This channel is sponsored by Stonemaier Games. This isn’t a review channel though. Jamey has made it VERY clear that Stonemaier Games doesn't pay for reviews. I am not a reviewer. I am passionate about Stonemaier Games though, and they sponsor me so that this fan-focused channel can exist. I create this content on my own, and while Jamey watches these videos, he doesn’t review any content in advance. There is also no guidance in terms of what games or topics I should cover. I want to be as fully transparent as I can, so if you have any further questions, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Credits:
- A special thank you to Maximilian Berbechelov for The Mill's terrific new logo.

[GameKingFaiz]

5:27 - Strategy talk begins, but it is a rehash of the video that Jamey Stagmeir did on Board Game Network, if you've seen that you can skip ahead
11:05 - Non-Jamey strategy/thoughts

[Anvilarm]

Very helpful. I played my first game of Scythe today and while I understood the mechanics I didn't have a clue about strategy. I still had a ton of fun and look forward to playing again.

[dannylyons]

Thanks for your time and effort Dusty.
Your tips are sound, and also greatly appreciated.

[PiotrTheGreat]

don't be so modest, very helpful video for me as a complete beginner. many thx =)

[kirksellman]

Good job explaining this for beginners.

[HorseIRL]

Great Video. I just started learning scythe. Probably late to the party but the game is great regardless of my time of purchase!

[scythereaping]

I love Scythe. I learned that the first 5 moves are crucial. I usually have my workers set already by that point and spread them out as area control and I tend to analyze the map so I can deploy mechs as well as build monuments. I love to diversify my resources and even them out. I also tend to collect Combat Cards early on just in case I face my opponent.

[patrickterry]

Another beginner tip/strategy: Upgrading is great, but you only need to upgrade 2-3 times in most games (move, bolster, produce). Don't commit to staring in upgrades because of the extra turns it takes (12 vs 8). That said, here are the exceptions that that generality: 1. Rusviet can handle it because of faction ability
2. Engineering is viable because upgrade is on the produce action, but only if your faction starts with oil. If you can't get to oil until mid game, forget about it.
3. Industrial is worth considering if you start with oil because you could commit to getting upgrade and power stars, but youd have to be willing to sit at home or spending 0 power until you're at 16.

[vladimirjuric]

Thank you for your time and effort to make this video. Keep up the good work :)

[mdmccu]

Going into each faction’s strategy sounds intense, but super helpful for sharing with newbies who are trying to make the most of the unique abilities. Love to give some feedback on those!

Another note, I think that another strategy that must be taken into account is that Scythe, while fundamentally the same no matter how many players, requires different tactics at different player counts. 4-5 person games don’t see much of this effect. In 2-3 player games, you know it will be easier to spread out later in the game so you need to identify when the game is ending in order to spread out and maximize coins. Likewise in 6-7 player games the board is so crowded that you need to hurry to claim territory before you lose the ability to produce on a resource type or before you lose the ability to spread out before being forced to engage in combat or lose popularity when workers retreat. Speaking of combat, the stakes are a lot higher in high player count games, because there are 5+ players who could take advantage of your reduced power after combat. Less so in small player count games.

[CascadeHush]

Almost everybody says get riverwalk out first. I find the special move ability is almost always more useful (usually the second mech from the left). More important to build the mine as soon as you reasonably can. If you are increasing your workers, you should have a hex with 4 workers on it by about turn 4 or 5 (plus another worker on a different hex). Build the mine and a mech on that hex and then use a mech to move all those workers out of your home area onto a tunnel space. From that point on, riverwalk is not that crucial, since you can expand into the centre area without it.

[BishopSheenRosaries]

I find the factory is least essential if you are Rusviet because the beauty of factory cards is being able to move every turn and you can do that anyways as Rusviet

[MagicMikeD]

Great video, One thing I would add, the factory card "is" valuable late in the game because you can move continuously with it. You can take the move action, and then the factory action, even if you skip the top factory action, you can still use the bottom factory move action to drop off workers with a mech. This allows you to grab as many territories as possible at end game. Depending on your popularity, this can be the deciding factor in a game. Of course if you are the Rusviet Faction, then you can take the same action twice in a row, so this a moot point for them.

[haydenl]

Great production quality in these videos! Keep them up please

[styks]

Hey man!

I really like your production quality and video. It's unfortunate that board games channels have a hard time getting traction with the current Youtube algorithms. None the less, great job! You've gotten yourself a subscriber.

[antonnieuwkoopable]

Thanks for this video (and all the others)!
I agree with you that the turn by turn strategies aren't fun but also like to ignore all the interaction between players and the game (encounters). Global strategy is more helpful as it doesn't really matters which faction or mat you play, you can always apply it.
About the kind of strategy video's your are considering:
-What kind of players is this channel aiming for? And who are actually watching it?
- make a distinction between video's for novice and experts. Everything at the same time is distracting .

Me personal like to see something about a pre game/begin game assessment(0-2 stars), mid game assessment(3-4 stars) and end game assessment 4-5 stars).
So break the game in 3 parts and make a list with things you have to take in account.
For example: Pre-game: How do I get my six stars/the most points, what actions Am I likely going to do very often (so upgrading pays of), what resources I have easy access to, Where are my opponents and where can I easily expand. What are the strength and possible weaknesses of my faction.
Mid-Game: Is my begin game strategy working? Do I have to adjust based on other players moves and accessible resources?
End game: Am I in the lead, how can i end the game as soon as possible? Am I behind? How can I get the most points (not stars necessarily) as possible and/or How can I stall the game by discouraging another player to end the game.

Just my two coins
Again: Thanks for your videos, I really like watching them.

[jarvbricks]

Just brought ride of Fenris, we’re up to episode 4, it’s fantastic loving the variation

[manzell]

One thing that's developed in our meta (we usually play 4-6 players from a pool of about 8 players) is that the Special Objective cards end up being too powerful, since certain ones allow for relatively easy 3-star turns (complete a combat, complete a bottom-row star, and hit your special objective) which are the crux of our games.

[raustzeal]

that was a solid 5 minutes and 30 seconds of preamble... too long

[benjespina]

Thank you for making this video, bro! :) subscribed