---
product_id: 31622452
title: "Scythe - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins"
brand: "stonemaier games"
price: "€ 241.74"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
category: "Stonemaier Games"
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/31622452-scythe-a-strategy-board-game-by-jamey-stegmaier-an-engine
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# 115 min avg playtime Minimal luck, max skill Solo Automa opponent Scythe - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins

**Brand:** stonemaier games
**Price:** € 241.74
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> ⚙️ Master the machine, conquer the board, own the moment.

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Scythe - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins by stonemaier games
- **How much does it cost?** € 241.74 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/31622452-scythe-a-strategy-board-game-by-jamey-stegmaier-an-engine)

## Best For

- stonemaier games enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted stonemaier games brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Solo Mode with Smart Automa:** Challenge yourself against an intuitive AI opponent that adapts and strategizes, making solo play as thrilling as multiplayer.
- • **High-Quality Components & Artistry:** Premium laminated player mats, detailed miniatures, and Jakub Rozalski’s stunning artwork elevate your game night to a stylish, immersive experience.
- • **Immersive Alternate-History Setting:** Step into a richly illustrated 1920s dieselpunk Europa where every faction’s asymmetric powers create endless replayability and narrative intrigue.
- • **Engine-Building & Area Control Mastery:** Balance resource production, mech deployment, and popularity to outsmart rivals in a game where skill trumps luck every time.
- • **Strategic Depth Meets Streamlined Play:** Efficient action-selection keeps turns brisk and engaging, perfect for busy pros craving meaningful gameplay without downtime.

## Overview

Scythe by Stonemaier Games is a critically acclaimed 1-5 player strategy board game set in an alternate 1920s Eastern Europe. Featuring engine-building mechanics, asymmetric factions, and minimal luck, it offers deep strategic gameplay in about 115 minutes. With beautifully crafted components, a solo Automa mode, and high replayability, Scythe is designed for adults and families seeking a rich, immersive experience that rewards skillful planning and tactical decision-making.

## Description

Buy Stonemaier Games: Scythe - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins: Board Games - desertcart.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

Review: Looks busier then it is. Great game and worth a play - This game looks busy, so many little pieces, so many little actions. However, it's not as it seems. I don't like overcomplicated games with convoluted rules. If I buy a game then I expect to learn it and play it, not spending time a college course equivalent of reading through and learning the rules. For the longest time, I avoided this game because of how busy it looks. Eventually, after hearing the praises by others and a 30 dollar price drop I decided to buy it. I was surprised to find a very engaging game with an efficient rule set. The system is what makes it work. If you have played enough games over the years one thing you will notice is how a few of the mechanics are borrowed. Little bits of other working games fitted in just right, like a recipe for a good meal. With that in mind, I would describe this game as a two-course meal. The action mats like the appetizer with the actions playing out on the game board like the main course. During the game, you will primarily interact with these two mechanics. First the action boards. They are laminated cardboard, unlike whole pieces, this makes them feel heavier and longer-lasting. Most of your bits and bobs fit into these mats. The small squares, most of the figures and buildings start or stay on this matt. As you play you only be interacting with parts of this mat making things much more easier to manage. Each section is just two actions so you will never have to deal with more than these two actions. The main actions on the top will either give resources or allow you to perform an action on the game board while the bottom the optional action will always cost something but will upgrade something, making things easier later or allowing you to deploy something. The player mats are mainly for reference and will be interacted with only when needed, like deploying a mech or using an inlist action giving a quick bonus or stat upgrades. The game board, this sucker is huge. Not only that but they have a larger board on the bottom that you can add to. On the game board, there are resources, tunnels, lakes and even a central factory. Using your action board you interact with the game board. Choose a move action and move a piece, choose a deploy action and deploy a worker. Using a secondary action to build/place a mech. Moving your workers onto a resource allows you to use the produce action to create resources that you can use any time to pay for costs on your action board. Doing this creates a cycle of production and paying costs to improve your possibilities. You're never doing more than one normal interaction with the game board at any one given time unless you start combat. By moving your character or mechs into spaces with your opponent's pieces starts combat. In this case, worker pieces will flee and or you fight your opponent's characters and mechs using combat cards and the combat dial. During gameplay, you will draw cards with numbers bonuses and gain power with the bolster action. Combat is easy, spend power using your dial and add power cards to add bonuses to it. Each player has the dial and cards face down, reveals them and the highest numbers win. That simple. The loser takes their peace and places them at the home base. The cost is though if you force workers to flee you will lose popularity, apparently, the people of your employer don't like seeing you bully unarmed people. Lastly on the game board are encounters. These are represented by tokens and if your player peace runs into one you draw an encounter card. These are great. Each one has three choices that are tied into one another and will put you in the situation to gain something and lose something depending on what you do. They represent great extra flavor and things that can mix things up. Combat vs peace. Despite using mechs the game is only one part combat. The other two parts being production and popularity. Combat can be useful but it's not the endgame method. The game is balanced nicely to make it so that no one player can dominate in any one given area, instead of its all about taking what you can do to push past your opponents. In this way, combat is more of a tool used only when you really need to instead of an end-all solution. A player can initiate combat just with the idea of placing a star on the victory track or just when you really need to push out an opponent from a strategic spot. The same goes for resources, you can't win just doing what an econobox does. You will need to fight sooner or later and worrying about resources gives no direct advantage. Popularity, the final component is how popular your character becomes, despite seemingly small, this is the last third of the game. In this case the more your people like you the more bonuses you get at the end of the game. The end goal is to end up the richest among your peers. You will earn some gold during the game but most of it will come from the popularity track. The multipliers on this track is a make it or break it, mechanic. Being down just one tier on this track can break a win. So popularity is very important and you need to keep in mind throughout the entire game. One thing I want to bring up though is how the game is balanced so it's very difficult for any player to truly know if they are winning. No single player during this game will be able to say they are absolutely winning. Only at the final moments of calculations will anyone truly know. In the manual, it is stated that this is done on purpose. This is great because it makes for an enjoyable experience throughout the whole game. It makes it harder for those power gamers of the world to create bad situations and makes it easier for new players to enjoy themselves. There is a rule in the game that states that at no time should any player attempt to take their turn calculating the other players. If any player takes more than 30 seconds gauging the other players they automatically lose 10 popularity. A very large penalty considering that's more than half possible. Overall I have really enjoyed this game despite my previous fears and recommend the base game for any player. For people who end up a fan than buying the expansions is definitely worth it. I got this game for 60, a great buy for a game you can easily spend 90 to 100 for at your local shop. The components despite being cardboard, plastic and wood are well made. The components even play into the rules a little to help smooth certain things over. This game is best for serious board game players but definitely accessible for people who are more casual. So give it a try and play on.
Review: Gorgeous and Exceptional Game: A Worthy Pursuit. - Scythe is an incredible board game of economic engine management and territory control. The components are top-notch and the art is absolutely gorgeous. It is an immersive, lengthy game with a rather steep learning curve for casual games. It is suitable for patient adults and advanced adolescents. Expect to spend about four hours familiarizing yourself with the rules and the board, and playing your first game. It may be difficult to play with a large group if your friends and family aren't fully committed to learning a fairly exhaustive (though not particularly intimidating) rulebook. "Replayability" is uncommonly high, as well, due to Scythe's rich assortment of "factions" and unpredictability. I can imagine nearly infinite ways a game could unfold. Scythe pits factions of power-hungry individuals against each other in an imaginary, post-WWI world of nearly dystopian scarcity. Players assume the roles of characters that represent different nation-states, all of which are vying for resources and territory following a period of sociopolitical unrest. Players can control character movement, select actions to increase resource production, maximize efficiency to gain power an influence, and conquer territories. Your global achievements in these arenas contribute to your final score and the game ends after a player completes six specific objectives. Played poorly, one could conceivably end the game by completing these achievements AND lose. Scythe is unique because skill is valued more than chance. On that note, luck's role is Scythe is kept to a bare minimum compared to other games in similar genres. Resource management, move/turn prioritization, and skillful board mastery are rewarded more handsomely than rote combat, of which there is surprisingly little. Combat interactions are performed using power modifiers that are mostly the result of judicious play. Mine, harvest, trade, bribe, build, conquer, pillage: Scythe has it all in spades. Of note, the "Automa" deck - a group of cards and rules designed to simulate a human opponent for solo play - is a world-class production. Its moves are intuitive, and its actions never feel random nor arbitrary. Automa feels like a living, sentient, rational opponent that is always one step ahead of you. Automa's difficultly level is also adjustable from "easy" (a loose interpretation of the word) to extraordinarily challenging, and you can buy expansion packs to play against multiple simulated players. It's a great way to spend an evening. If you're up for a completely immersive, steampunk-inspired game that values efficient choices and skill above dice rolling (not a die to be found), I highly recommend giving Scythe a try. It is a complex game of beauty that will soon be heralded amongst the best board games ever created. Very, very well done, Stonemaier Games.

## Features

- Explore: It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries.
- Alternate History: Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period in Eastern Europe. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor.
- High Replayability and Variability: With five different factions and five different player boards, players can mix and match to enhance replayability. Asymmetric powers keep the game fresh every time!
- Quick Turns: Scythe uses a streamlined action-selection mechanism (no rounds or phases) to keep gameplay moving at a brisk pace and reduce downtime between turns. This area majority strategy game for 1-5 players has a 115 minute playing time with only a 5 minute setup time. Great game for couples, solo gamers, 2 players, family, and friends.
- Low Luck and Randomness: Scythe gives players almost complete control over their fate. Other than each player’s individual hidden objective card, the only elements of luck are “encounter” cards that players will draw as they interact with the citizens of newly explored lands.
- Beautifully Designed and Illustrated: Designed by Jamey Stegmaier (Viticulture). Richly developed alternate reality with interesting and beautiful 1920+ artwork done by Jakub Rozalski (Iron Harvest).
- Cold War Tension: The tension comes more from the threat of combat than the combat itself. Combat hurts both parties but can also benefit both parties. Popularity is lost when you are the attacker in Scythe or forcing a worker to move off of their land, but popularity is gained when making decisions that would gain popularity in a story.
- Thematically Designed Mechanisms: The reward descriptions on the Encounter cards add a role-playing feel to Scythe, giving your decisions some morality conflicts besides just selecting from resource benefits.The animal companions, mechs, and characters all tell a rich story of intrigue and sought glory. Upgrades reveal more benefits and make progress in the game easier, giving the feeling of actually upgrading something.
- Solo Play: Features an Automa to play against in a 1-player game for a fun solitaire experience. The Automa simulates an opponent for you to compete against, while your game as a player remains the same. On the Automa’s turn, flip a card to see what action it takes.
- Published by Stonemaier: Stonemaier is a tabletop game publisher based in St. Louis and distributed worldwide. Stonemaier's brands include Viticulture, Euphoria, Between Two Cities, Scythe, Charterstone, My Little Scythe, Between Two Castles, Wingspan, Tapestry, Pendulum, Red Rising, Rolling Realms Collection, Libertalia, Smitten, Expeditions, Apiary, Wyrmspan, Stamp Swap, Finspan, Tokaido, Vantage, Origin Story, Duel of Meloch, and Wingspan Pocket.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B01IPUGYK6 |
| Age Range Description | Adult |
| Best Sellers Rank | #31,052 in Toys & Games ( See Top 100 in Toys & Games ) #714 in Board Games (Toys & Games) |
| Brand Name | Stonemaier Games |
| Color | Multi-colored |
| Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 5,386 Reviews |
| Edition | 1 |
| Educational Objective | Develop strategic thinking and planning skills |
| Estimated Playing Time | 115 minutes |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 00653341025005 |
| Grenre | Eurogame, Strategy |
| Included Components | 1 game board, 5 player mats, 5 faction mats, 5 plastic character miniatures, 20 plastic mech miniatures, 2 rulebooks (multiplayer and solo), 1 quick reference guide, 6 structure bonus tiles, 42 combat cards, 23 objective cards, 28 encounter cards, 12 factory cards, 5 riverwalk cards, 5 quick-start cards, 2 power dials, 80 coins tokens, 12 multiplier tokens, 12 encounter tokens, 36 wooden technolog… |
| Indoor Outdoor Usage | Indoor |
| Item Dimensions | 11.81 x 4 x 14.57 inches |
| Item Dimensions L x W | 14.57"L x 11.81"W |
| Item Highlight | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins |
| Item Part Number | STM600 |
| Item Type Name | board game |
| Item Weight | 7.3 pounds |
| Language | English |
| Manufacturer | Stonemaier Games |
| Manufacturer Part Number | STM600 |
| Manufacturer Warranty Description | No Warranty |
| Manufacturer recommended age | 14 years and up |
| Material Type | Cardboard, Cardstock, Plastic, Wood |
| Model Name | Scythe |
| Model Number | STM600 |
| Number of Items | 1 |
| Number of Packs | 1 |
| Number of Players | 1-5 |
| Operation Mode | Manual |
| Package Quantity | 1 |
| Power Source | Board Game |
| Product Style | Base |
| Set Name | Base Game |
| Size | One Size |
| Subject Character | Sichel |
| Supported Battery Types | No battery required |
| Theme | Mystery |
| UPC | 791109147986 653341025005 |
| Unit Count | 1 Count |

## Images

![Scythe - A Strategy Board Game by Jamey Stegmaier | An Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920+ Europe for Adults & Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71YQKD6fojL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Style** options.

## Questions & Answers

**Q: How is solo play?**
A: I won't go as far as saying you should buy this game just for solo play with the "Automa" system, but it is definitely a perk to have. It provides a cool way to learn the game and with all the variants available by the publisher online it adds variety for those who can't get a group over for a game night but still want some board games.  I haven't tried all the way up to 4 Automas at once but can confirm that it is challenging and adds to an already great game. For me a big part of board games are the friends you play with so excluding the social part lacking Scythe's solo play, or Automa as they call it, is the most in depth and worth while solo variant I have spent time with.  (I've only owned two games with such variants and seriously spent time with one of them)

**Q: Is solo play played on the computer (after purchasing the tangible game)?**
A: Soon played on the game board itself. The game comes.with rules that alllow you to play solo.

**Q: Does this item contain any Kickstarter items?**
A: No, this is the standard retail edition of Scythe.

**Q: Is this game fun with 2 players?**
A: That's the beauty of this game: it works at any player number. The strategies you use may change, but fun remains.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Looks busier then it is. Great game and worth a play
*by A***X on February 7, 2020*

This game looks busy, so many little pieces, so many little actions. However, it's not as it seems. I don't like overcomplicated games with convoluted rules. If I buy a game then I expect to learn it and play it, not spending time a college course equivalent of reading through and learning the rules. For the longest time, I avoided this game because of how busy it looks. Eventually, after hearing the praises by others and a 30 dollar price drop I decided to buy it. I was surprised to find a very engaging game with an efficient rule set. The system is what makes it work. If you have played enough games over the years one thing you will notice is how a few of the mechanics are borrowed. Little bits of other working games fitted in just right, like a recipe for a good meal. With that in mind, I would describe this game as a two-course meal. The action mats like the appetizer with the actions playing out on the game board like the main course. During the game, you will primarily interact with these two mechanics. First the action boards. They are laminated cardboard, unlike whole pieces, this makes them feel heavier and longer-lasting. Most of your bits and bobs fit into these mats. The small squares, most of the figures and buildings start or stay on this matt. As you play you only be interacting with parts of this mat making things much more easier to manage. Each section is just two actions so you will never have to deal with more than these two actions. The main actions on the top will either give resources or allow you to perform an action on the game board while the bottom the optional action will always cost something but will upgrade something, making things easier later or allowing you to deploy something. The player mats are mainly for reference and will be interacted with only when needed, like deploying a mech or using an inlist action giving a quick bonus or stat upgrades. The game board, this sucker is huge. Not only that but they have a larger board on the bottom that you can add to. On the game board, there are resources, tunnels, lakes and even a central factory. Using your action board you interact with the game board. Choose a move action and move a piece, choose a deploy action and deploy a worker. Using a secondary action to build/place a mech. Moving your workers onto a resource allows you to use the produce action to create resources that you can use any time to pay for costs on your action board. Doing this creates a cycle of production and paying costs to improve your possibilities. You're never doing more than one normal interaction with the game board at any one given time unless you start combat. By moving your character or mechs into spaces with your opponent's pieces starts combat. In this case, worker pieces will flee and or you fight your opponent's characters and mechs using combat cards and the combat dial. During gameplay, you will draw cards with numbers bonuses and gain power with the bolster action. Combat is easy, spend power using your dial and add power cards to add bonuses to it. Each player has the dial and cards face down, reveals them and the highest numbers win. That simple. The loser takes their peace and places them at the home base. The cost is though if you force workers to flee you will lose popularity, apparently, the people of your employer don't like seeing you bully unarmed people. Lastly on the game board are encounters. These are represented by tokens and if your player peace runs into one you draw an encounter card. These are great. Each one has three choices that are tied into one another and will put you in the situation to gain something and lose something depending on what you do. They represent great extra flavor and things that can mix things up. Combat vs peace. Despite using mechs the game is only one part combat. The other two parts being production and popularity. Combat can be useful but it's not the endgame method. The game is balanced nicely to make it so that no one player can dominate in any one given area, instead of its all about taking what you can do to push past your opponents. In this way, combat is more of a tool used only when you really need to instead of an end-all solution. A player can initiate combat just with the idea of placing a star on the victory track or just when you really need to push out an opponent from a strategic spot. The same goes for resources, you can't win just doing what an econobox does. You will need to fight sooner or later and worrying about resources gives no direct advantage. Popularity, the final component is how popular your character becomes, despite seemingly small, this is the last third of the game. In this case the more your people like you the more bonuses you get at the end of the game. The end goal is to end up the richest among your peers. You will earn some gold during the game but most of it will come from the popularity track. The multipliers on this track is a make it or break it, mechanic. Being down just one tier on this track can break a win. So popularity is very important and you need to keep in mind throughout the entire game. One thing I want to bring up though is how the game is balanced so it's very difficult for any player to truly know if they are winning. No single player during this game will be able to say they are absolutely winning. Only at the final moments of calculations will anyone truly know. In the manual, it is stated that this is done on purpose. This is great because it makes for an enjoyable experience throughout the whole game. It makes it harder for those power gamers of the world to create bad situations and makes it easier for new players to enjoy themselves. There is a rule in the game that states that at no time should any player attempt to take their turn calculating the other players. If any player takes more than 30 seconds gauging the other players they automatically lose 10 popularity. A very large penalty considering that's more than half possible. Overall I have really enjoyed this game despite my previous fears and recommend the base game for any player. For people who end up a fan than buying the expansions is definitely worth it. I got this game for 60, a great buy for a game you can easily spend 90 to 100 for at your local shop. The components despite being cardboard, plastic and wood are well made. The components even play into the rules a little to help smooth certain things over. This game is best for serious board game players but definitely accessible for people who are more casual. So give it a try and play on.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gorgeous and Exceptional Game: A Worthy Pursuit.
*by W***R on August 17, 2019*

Scythe is an incredible board game of economic engine management and territory control. The components are top-notch and the art is absolutely gorgeous. It is an immersive, lengthy game with a rather steep learning curve for casual games. It is suitable for patient adults and advanced adolescents. Expect to spend about four hours familiarizing yourself with the rules and the board, and playing your first game. It may be difficult to play with a large group if your friends and family aren't fully committed to learning a fairly exhaustive (though not particularly intimidating) rulebook. "Replayability" is uncommonly high, as well, due to Scythe's rich assortment of "factions" and unpredictability. I can imagine nearly infinite ways a game could unfold. Scythe pits factions of power-hungry individuals against each other in an imaginary, post-WWI world of nearly dystopian scarcity. Players assume the roles of characters that represent different nation-states, all of which are vying for resources and territory following a period of sociopolitical unrest. Players can control character movement, select actions to increase resource production, maximize efficiency to gain power an influence, and conquer territories. Your global achievements in these arenas contribute to your final score and the game ends after a player completes six specific objectives. Played poorly, one could conceivably end the game by completing these achievements AND lose. Scythe is unique because skill is valued more than chance. On that note, luck's role is Scythe is kept to a bare minimum compared to other games in similar genres. Resource management, move/turn prioritization, and skillful board mastery are rewarded more handsomely than rote combat, of which there is surprisingly little. Combat interactions are performed using power modifiers that are mostly the result of judicious play. Mine, harvest, trade, bribe, build, conquer, pillage: Scythe has it all in spades. Of note, the "Automa" deck - a group of cards and rules designed to simulate a human opponent for solo play - is a world-class production. Its moves are intuitive, and its actions never feel random nor arbitrary. Automa feels like a living, sentient, rational opponent that is always one step ahead of you. Automa's difficultly level is also adjustable from "easy" (a loose interpretation of the word) to extraordinarily challenging, and you can buy expansion packs to play against multiple simulated players. It's a great way to spend an evening. If you're up for a completely immersive, steampunk-inspired game that values efficient choices and skill above dice rolling (not a die to be found), I highly recommend giving Scythe a try. It is a complex game of beauty that will soon be heralded amongst the best board games ever created. Very, very well done, Stonemaier Games.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Behold!! Gaze in amazement, as you have stumbled upon the greatest board game, in all the ages!
*by L***S on December 13, 2017*

Behold!! Gaze in amazement, as you have stumbled upon the greatest board game, in all the ages! Prepare yourself to be immersed in a glorious steam-punk reality of endless wonder! You my friend, are about to embark on the intrepid journey that is.... Scythe!! With the expansion pack, choose from 7 different factions, and 7 different game boards to set forth on your quest of glory! Boost your defenses, conquer your surrounding land, and take no prisoners from your enemies! I've currently played well over 100 games of scythe, which probably clocks in close to 150 hours of total game time. I can honestly say it is THE most fun board game I've played, and I'm still not tired of it. Many other board games I will vouch for as being amazing, and I've played them several times over, but at some point, even those games become a little stale, and the gameplay itself becomes boiled down to a science. Such is not the case with scythe. It's got just enough random elements to keep it fresh and new every time you play it, without making it so random that you have no control over the outcome. It's the perfect blend. And now with its most recent expansion "Wind Gambits" the game has evolved anymore. But for newcomers, don't let the expansion intimidate you. I highly recommend playing the base game of Scythe for all it's worth (which is a TON) before worrying about playing with the expansion. I am an avid board gamer, and this is truly a one of a kind game that I have yet to become bored with, and I have yet to dice up into a science. Every single game will have you attempting new strategies, and exploring new options to declare yourself the victor. One of the most exciting parts of Scythe is that when the game ends, rarely will there ever be a distinct winner before the final points have been carefully calculated. There is a Scythe app on iOS and Android that I highly recommend downloading for deciding factions at the beginning of the game, and tallying score at the end. Without going into game play detail (I'll leave that to the rulebook) What I can say is that Scythe is, on the surface, a very complex game, but once you get your feet wet and play it, it really isn't too terrifying to learn. There's only so much you can do per turn, and once you run through it a few times, you begin to see the gears of the game click and turn, and you'll have a well running engine of a faction in no time! If you're just starting out with a group of people who are also new to the game, you're going to have your questions and missteps along the way where you might find you weren't playing certain rules down to their very exact intent, but this is perfectly fine. A lot of the fun in Scythe is discovering all the things you missed, or even may have been doing incorrectly, and changing up your game for the next time. For the most part, Scythe is an incredibly balanced game. If you get into a rhythm of playing with a core group of people, you'll start to realize the few imbalances it has *cough* Industrial Rusviet *cough* and learn to play around them. Again, figuring out what each faction is good at, how to make it work with your unique play mat, and formulate the best plan of attack, are just a few of the things that make Scythe such an immersive and brilliant game that will have you wanting to re-rack the game again and again. Hour and half to two-hour sessions seem like mere minutes when you really start grasp how fun the game is. If I had one gripe about the game, it would be the amount of players that can play. It's nice that Scythe can include 7 players, especially if you have a lot of board-game savvy friends who all want to be included. But be warned! 6 or 7-player games of Scythe tend to drag on, and when that happens, more often than not, one if not more people will lose interest, and thus become unenthused with the game. And nothing kills the fun of a game, like some one who is currently playing the game and not giving a crap about it. So if you have 6 or 7 brave souls willing to stick it out, it's best that all parties involved have a vast knowledge of the game, and indeed the actually WANT to play, knowing full well what they are signing up for. The sweet spot for Scythe, seems to be around the 4-5 player mark. The games are long enough that you don't feel cheated out of an epic board game experience, but short enough that the ADD in your friends doesn't start to show itself, and manifest into playing candy crush on their phones in between turns. Scythe is a massively wonderful game of strategy that I would absolutely suggest to any board game enthusiast looking to play one of the greatest games of all time. If new to board games, I would suggest watching several Scythe tutorials on the internet or playing with some one who has played before and has a good concept of the game. Again, it's complex, but not so much that I would say anyone wanting to learn the game, wouldn't be able to, regardless of their prior knowledge of board games. If you're willing to invest a little time to learn this game, you won't be disappointed!!

## Frequently Bought Together

- Stonemaier Games: Scythe (Base Game) | an Engine-Building, Area Control Strategy Board Game Set in Dieselpunk 1920s Europe for Adults and Family | 1-5 Players, 115 Mins, Ages 14+
- Stonemaier Games: Scythe: Invaders from Afar Expansion | Add 2 New Factions to Scythe (Base Game) | Increase Scythe Player Count to 7 | 1-7 Players, 140 Mins, Ages 14+
- Stonemaier Games: Metal Coins (Scythe and Expeditions) | Metal Coins to Enhance Your Gameplay | 80 Coins with Unique Colors and Sides for Each Denomination - Values Include 1, 3, 5,10, and 20

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*Product available on Desertcart Croatia*
*Store origin: HR*
*Last updated: 2026-09-06*