Scythe - Shut Up & Sit Down Review

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First published on 25th Feb, 2017.

[Asylumrunner]

going back to this video it's amazing that everything Paul says about Kickstarter board games is true but it's gotten worse to the point where Scythe looks positively svelte by comparison

[LaneBee]

The thing about Scythe in particular is that you CAN have an entire game without any combat whatsoever.
What this means is, that you can have a little gentleman's agreement that enables you to put your mechs into vulnerable positions. But then what happens when someone seems to be snowballing and/or someone is obviously losing is that they tend to break a little and "play YOLO" and ruin the winning player's position by attacking them.

Also, the end game is very interesting where you often have a bunch of very close people who are each trying to work out how they can eek out those last couple of points and end the game without their opposition ending the game first.

Our games tend to end up being quite tense towards the end, where it's not unheard of for the game ending turn to be
"I move my mech, dropping two workers on the way to gain an additional 2 hexes, then end the move in your hex, initiate combat, which I then win, sending your mech back to base and taking ownership of this hex and your two metal resources, which I now use to deploy my last mech, giving me an achievement point for winning a battle and an achievement point for deploying all my mechs, and even though my popularity went down, those 3 extra hexes mean that I win by 2 points.... oh wait, you've got 3 more coins than me..."

[anthonypearson]

I think it's best described as a Cold War Game--where there is adversarial moments, but it's more of you looking at them warily as they do the same. While you have your giant robots in adjacent fields--waiting, watching, sometimes farming :)

[DavidSupina]

I love Paul Dean and I love Scythe. I want more of both. This review doesn’t upset me, though I disagree with it.

[greysky]

I always get lost when I watch other channels try to explain a game because they get so bogged down into the technicalities of it or they are just plain annoying. But you guys really get at the core of what the game is really supposed to be all about which really helps me decide if I want the game or not.

[aznericxD]

I just got this game and I’m geeking out uncontrollably. I’m losing sleep cause I just wanna play solo before the next match against friends. The board looks beautiful and for someone who’s only board game was monopoly and chess(which I’ve lost) this is an out of the world experience! I’m already thinking of getting a new board monthly to start.

Something else that makes board games great is the bonding and unrivalled experience of having a games night rather than playing video games even over LAN. Then on top of that I get taken aback by the quality of the art pieces and lore that goes into the making. Stuff like expansion packs and table top purchases are so cool to me. I really need friends that will teach me dungeons and dragons now ....

[dave]

My gaming group is OBSESSED with this game. In my case, I appreciated the theme and mechanics, but it left me a big feeling of emptiness. I will play it again, but prefer other games.

[johnlonai]

3 years after this review, and man I still love this game. There was something about how daunting and confusing it seemed the first time you played that transformed into great satisfaction after finishing the first play through. Still find great enjoyment in setting up the perfect sequence of turns to accomplish multiple bottom row actions in a row!

[Groovestonenz]

It's 2022 and I still ❤️ Scythe. It's the boardgame that got me into modern boardgames. It will always have a special place in my heart.

[samiloucif]

"Lot of gravity in Canada today..." ROFL

[Ehurst]

To put my bias out on the table I Kickstarted Scythe and I love it. I own Inis(h), Rex, Terra Mystica, and Archipelago and will generally play Scythe over any of them unless I'm hankering for a specific experience that those games provide. For example if I want to play something more combat focused I'd throw down Inis, or better yet Kemet.

The issue I see with new players and Scythe is one of cognitive dissonance. People see plastic mechs and tigers and assume it's a combat game. I've taught the game several times to groups of new players and specifically tell them that you generally won't win by fighting all the time and the threat of a fight is often more important than the actual fight. In the end they still see mechs and I generally spend the game obliterating them. At the end I hear one of two responses. One is that I was right it wasn't about fighting and they understand the game now. The second is that it doesn't feel like a good area control / combat game. The latter folks are still running under the assumption that giant mechs = constant fighting. I would often get the same response when I first setup Terra Mystica until the players saw all of the wood pieces. They equate wooden cubes to Euro style games and cognitive dissonance is removed.

I'm honestly glad that the combat system in Scythe is simple to the point of boring because the game isn't about combat. Mechanics that incentivize combat would throw off the flow, if not the balance, of the game. At the end of the day Scythe about engine building. And guess what? It has great engine building mechanics. I don't fault Inis for it's crappy stock market mechanics because it's not a stock market game.

At the end of the day Scythe is by no means a perfect game. It is a fantastic engine building game and one of the best implementations of player interaction in any Euro style game I've ever seen. Scythe is not a good implementation of a 4x / dudes on a map game. Just like TI3 is a poor implementation of a filler, KDM is a poor implementation of a kids game, and Mechs vs Minions is a poor implementation of a MMOBA style board game.

[Tockohead]

Top 2 strategies that will boost your Scythe skills: 1. Try to plan your turns to always take both actions if possible. Each turn in which you only take one action hurts you exponentially. 2. Enlist, enlist, enlist. The accumulating value of enlisting early, before anything else, will put you out ahead of everyone else.

Happy building!

[AntoineHorns]

What I love about this game is that there is constant tension and fear of a battle, and you might spend many of your turns building up your military power, and then no battle happens in the whole game. It feels like a constant cold war and I love it.

[timmerdaswimmer]

I love SU&SD reviews, which are almost always spot on, but I almost completely disagree with this one. I can see how he feels it’s a slower game, but in all the times my friends and I have played this game I have never felt that way. I do feel as though it is incredibly mentally stimulating because of how you need to be able to manage your actions effectively and think ahead. This is, without a doubt, the best game that I own in my collection.

[kirbywarrior]

I have played Terra Mystica. I have played Archipelago. I have played Rex. I have played Inis. I will play Scythe over any of them. Terra Mystica is more unbalanced, as proved by the internet over the last few years. I stopped playing it because I played against someone who knew the "Snellman rankings" and just robbed all the fun out of it. I sold my copy. Archipelago is either a lot longer or far too short depending on the objectives you pick and the player count. Plus, building types as end-game triggers? Really? Rex is too long, and I'm told is only truly good at its full player count, and has too much conflict and randomness for my tastes. Inis is the closest to making your point to me, but I find it too back-and-forth and the card draw from both the green action deck and the red special deck too random.

Scythe is plodding, yes, but it accelerates like nobody's business. Yes, some encounter cards are better than others, but the game is in how you can turn the worse ones into your boons. Yes, you are spending a lot of time with your head down in your little engine board, but after you've expanded out just a little bit, all of a sudden you're sitting with EVERYONE on your doorstep. Is the factory worth going for for its three hexes of end-game control? Should you keep your nose down and just churn out resources like crazy and make your people really like you? What about your objectives? Are either of them worth it? Maybe! Maybe to all of the above!

It is not, however, a sandbox. What you must do is figure out, early on, which six achievements are your six, and go for them. Possibly adjust your plans when that early encounter sets you up in a way you absolutely did not expect. But it's just that - an adjustment. A tantalizing temptation of an adjustment that could actually be to your peril.

Some games are games of strategy in that you must untangle a web of nefarious mechanisms with a machete in order to discover your path through the dense undergrowth. Scythe is a game where the strategy is much less obtuse, and you and the other players must all finesse the hell out it as best you can because one little mistake could cost you the entire game. And hey, I've also noticed, that if you get into that situation where it all unravels, at least one person is pretty close to getting all their stars out and you'll be out of your misery in no time.

The best part of Scythe for me is the race. It is constant, from turn one, and the tension from the frustration of the slow starting pace is just right. In only builds, as I see the board start to tighten and I become jealous of everyone else's powers but my own, and I wonder if I'll ever be able to get where I want to go. With skilled Scythe players, it is very much a tense race, and the sequence of everything has to be just right. I've been one turn behind and lost a game, and then was left wondering which action I took was the wrong one. It's tough, but it's also so good. And feels good knowing I was that close. It could be a deficit in the faction/action mat combo. It could have been bad draws. But there are so many combinations coming out of the gate that it's pretty difficult to be 100% sure. Do we want it to be that sure, though?

The only big problem I've found is that the experience gap in this game is HUGE! If you've played a lot (and I have - over 40 plays) you've seen enough of the game that you will blow out new players. And no matter how many times you tell them "It will end way faster than you think it will" no one will ever believe you their first time out until after it's over. And if players try to "hunt the leader" and draw out the game? It doesn't really matter, because everything that involves will also propel those other players toward the finish themselves. The momentum is all forward. Scythe may be slow at points, yes, but what it absolutely never, ever does is stall.

It's interesting that you feel the game is unbalanced when the general consensus I've seen on BGG is that the game is balanced, if anything, to a fault. I'm not saying your experience wasn't valid - one of my friends too has recently claimed that his loss hinged on an encounter card not giving him what he needed - but it does seem to be more of an edge case.

I also recognize that people like different things from different games. For me, Scythe is a really good mild conflict-y game that doesn't make me panic too much and pits me in a battle of wits against my opponents to recognize our own path to victory and chase it down, hard and fast, before someone else beats us to it. It doesn't draw itself out, for a resource management Eurogame; it doesn't make you sit around for another six worker-placement rounds of five workers per player now that you've learned that apparently that combo of occupation cards or furnishing tiles your opponent has put together is surely the best and you will try do the same yourself next time if you get lucky enough to draw them. In Scythe, you either have enough time to do -something- to help your standing, or the game is going to be over in two or three rounds anyway. Those are the things I've found in Scythe that I like most. And you're free to not like them or not feel they're there. Shut Up & Sit Down does not recommend Scythe, and in the words of so many of your reviews, "That's fine."

[smartalec]

Quinns’ irrationally angry tone as Paul fails to cross water makes me chuckle over and over.

[mgrim]

Knowing nothing about this game before watching this review, I feel... a bit let down by Paul's description of it. Something I've always loved about SUSD is their ability to paint the broad strokes of a game's ideas/themes/mechanics, then get into the details and piece it apart. I'm at the 20:00 mark here and I'm not even certain what the goal of the game is. Without context of what ends we're trying to reach, all the talk of movement and battle and upgrades all just seems inconsequential. Feeling like some more editing is needed here.

[CaitiffPrimogen]

I got to play Scythe a few weeks ago. I found it a lot more enjoyable than expected, but I've been identified as a "Builder" player type. So I enjoyed expanding, and upgrading and building, and I didn't really care that combat wasn't a focus.

[markclifton]

Got this game last month and my wife and I cant stop playing. Cant say enough great things about it. The more we play the more strategy reveals itself.

We very much differ in tastes. I'm just really really happy i didn't see your review first or I may have missed this one.

[futureguysfromthepast]

Scythe is one of the best looking games out there. Even though we have only played it once, we do recommend it. We also purchased the metal coins for the game. The coins are intricate in their design and beautiful to hold. A fantastic addition to the game and well worth buying. I’ll agree with Paul that the game builds slowly but for us this adds to its appeal.