Scythe but With House Rules

We changed Scythe's rules so that there's more combat! But is this new gameplay balanced? Would Stonemaier Games approve? After all, the mechs and minis probably shouldn't be fighting this much, but why let Saxony have all the fun? Now everyone's win condition and strategy can involve them getting an unlimited amount of combat and objective stars. Plus, we've also figured out creative ways to use this board game's existing pieces and components. And don't worry, the euro foundations of the action boards and non random fighting remains the same, but that's subject to change for our next tabletop house rule video...

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Stuff Used:
Banjo Kazooie - Main Title
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Banjo Kazooie - Treasure Trove Cove

#boardgames #tabletop #scythe

[Possi_ball]

Just check the Rivals module from the Fenris expansion that plays with the "War" star track. You basically put your stars as bounty on other players and you have to beat them to put the on the track. Also there are no "put out 8 workers" star and such on the War star track.
Also remember there are people who are tired of constant fighting on a game that lasts for hours, just saying 😛.

[garylangford]

Shows how hard game design is. One fix creates 3 new issues...

[JasonRedeemed]

Have you guys tried the Rise of Fenris expansion? There are some modules in there that might give you what you're looking for...

[NikoTeaJay]

Interesting. Would be fun to see more house rule stuff.

[nactra]

Proper competitive scythe:
Auction negative points penalties for the right to a seat (think rusviet is op, try winning now that you have -30points at the start of the game) - all tournaments use this

Only house rule i use:
If wind gambit: airships move for free when you bolster instead of move but cannot move normally

Other:
always fully randomize setup including start places and modular board

[davidt]

Rise of Fenris would address all your convernce and then some. Scythe is a great game. Fenris makes it much better.

[jacobjslee]

9:10 I like your combat idea. It sounds cool. Ultimately, I think I would go back to the cube tower to resolve combat. I first tried it in Wallenstein and I would implement the cube tower into more games if possible. Power on track plus units plus combat cards = cubes in the tower. It's not completely deterministic and it is full of the "drama" that you said combat was lacking. My favourite idea you suggested is the stars on the encounter spots. I love the encounter cards and want to see more of them in the game. Great video!

[ferver-san]

I too do have issues with Scythe, mainly faction balance but i enjoy it well enough for what it is.It will never be in my top 20 but also i don't want it to become a full combat game.
There is Kemet and also a myriad other dudes on a map games for that experience.
With that said i generally like houserules and i would like to see more similar videos with other games.

[paintballinrn]

randomly ran into you guys and love it. I like this style of video and smart showing the aftermath of your house rules. hope to see more like this.

[tenyenlark]

Very fun video! I like the experimenting--it shakes up cool games and gives a fun insight into a) the game's design and b) what a Daniel/Ashton designed game might look like haha

[AdamJorgensen]

It's interesting to see that some games like Scythe seem to get worse the more a group plays them (Due to the various balance issues and so forth)...I guess I should feel happy about only playing it 2 or 3 times XD

[benjoslin]

I have wanted to create and alternate rule set that turns Scythe into a Troops-on-a-Map or Dice-Chucker type game, but I lack experience with those types of games and game design in general. I agree with your love for the components and while I adore regular Scythe, I wish there were more ways to utilize the components. It's just so beautiful.

[Everyandyday]

Totally awesome episode. I love house ruling games.

[duranbarnett]

Really really excited to see more of these! I 100% agree with how you guys feel about Scythe vanilla. While I don't own it (my friends do) I've always felt it never lived up to expectations and the faction + bottom board combos always felt weird. I ended up buying My Little Scythe for my daughter and that is a waaaay more satisfying game.

[jericosha]

I love this. Your channel is great and stuff like this is encouraging.

[aspiringhobbit]

I recently tried making Scythe's combat more TI-like by giving mechs sustain damage and having players spend combat power to roll dice in combat. It made fights less predictable, but players remained pretty combat-averse until the late game. I think you're right about the game's core being super resistant to de-euro-fying, but I'm glad people are giving it a shot. Now I want to try mixing in some of your ideas.

[DrHopeSickNotes]

Really fun to watch, I'm right there with you with the motivation for this, I love the look of Scythe and despite rating it average (5/10) I still play it just because it's a cool universe to hang out in with your mates. If you hardly want to alter the rules yet you want more combat and more encounters - you could give the winner of combat an encounter card? Symbolising the spoils of war. You could also get rid of the popularity penalty in combat too. Sure these aren't going to fix the game but it won't drastically swing it either - and may just make combat more of a core strategy! Anyway great video and look forward to the next iteration!

[georgekaminaris]

I agree with all your points in this video and the scythe review. But honestly you should get the rise of fenris expansion. It has many many modules and you can definetly tune the game to make it way more combat oriented in an organic way! Would highly recomend it. Besides modules it has some components that gives it a of replayability ! <3

[dannyp]

If variants of gameplay is what you are looking for, play "the rise of fenris". It's full of modules that change the gameplay.

[shortydancer]

I can’t help but jam out to the Banjo Kazooie theme.