Top 14 · #10 of 40 in Strategy
Scythe
Set in an alternate 1920s Europe, this is a strategy game in which you take one of five factions (Crimean Khanate, Nordic Kingdoms, Republic of Polania, Rusviet Union, Saxony Empire) and use mechs and workers to gather resources and widen your territory. It is built so that quietly growing your economy and your holdings pays off better than fighting, which is why it is well known as "a war game where combat is rare." Each faction board has different abilities, so the mix of strategies changes every game.
Rules
1. Setup
Take one of the five faction boards and one player mat separately, then place your starting resources and starting position on the map. Each faction has its own starting resources and special abilities, and each player mat has its own action layout and costs, so how the two are paired changes the game every time.
2. Turn flow
On the action board you pick one column and take its top-row action (Move, Produce, Trade, or Bolster) first, and if you have the resources you can then also take the bottom-row action fixed beneath it (Build, Enlist, Upgrade, or Deploy). Early on you lack resources and just repeat top-row actions, but as resources pile up the gain from handling two actions in one turn grows.
3. Key rules
Combat is settled by secretly assigning power tokens and combat cards, and losing can cost you popularity (public support). Stars (achievements) come from many different things such as finishing structures, reaching the top upgrade level, deploying your units, and winning combat, and every star collected brings the end of the game closer.
4. End condition
The game ends immediately when someone collects all six stars, and your place on the popularity (public support) track changes the multiplier used to convert resources, territory, and structures into points, which decides the winner. With low popularity the same resources score less at the end, so a plan that only piles up stars through combat can work against you.
Rule summaries are reference content written by us, not quotations from the official rulebook. Always check the official rulebook for exact rules.
💡 Master tip
Rather than chasing points through combat, it is safer to hold your popularity up and quietly build territory and resources, and to keep checking how fast the other players are collecting stars. Build your base with top-row actions alone early on, and from the midgame, as resources pile up, the key is finding the column that lets you use the top and bottom rows together efficiently.
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