this analytic data on Scythe from hundreds of games. Crimea’s fast, and solid games can end between turns 12 – 16. Lastly, Crimea has easy access to two encounters. So, lose away! Grabbing more territories in the far reaches of the board not only benefits us in score, but it hampers our opponent(s) from knocking us off those hexes. However; that in no way guarantees victory. Feed Coercion all the Combat Cards we can get. Your character has the option to place a flag token (they get four of those) at the end of his movement. All without sacrificing any popularity. However, your opponents will be watching what you’re doing as well, so plan for contingency and have some backup plans. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europa who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction's stake in the land around 'The Factory' - an abandoned state from a previous great war. They start off with access to pretty much everything except wood, which wouldn’t be particularly useful anyway. Here are some useful tips and tricks that you can explore as you get more comfortable playing Scythe and each faction: There are 5 base factions and 2 expansion factions in Scythe: Factions are at the core of what will determine your strategy in the game. The Russian Cyber Strategy. Making your resources to costly to go after is the best way to deter opponents. At that point, your opponents will either be forced to take a popularity loss to take a tile you have a worker on or take time to move around your workers.The seafaring ability can also be very useful for mechs. The game is pretty well balanced but some factions tend to be easier to play while others can be extremely powerful if you learn to use their ability efficiently. Finally, when you can spare a worker or a mech, you’ll be eating 2 movement turns to get there. If your opponent is aggressive and wants a specific space, sometimes the best strategy is to just put as much distance between their units and yours as possible. It still currently ranks as one of the top strategy games on Board Game Geek. At it’s most basic level, Scout makes all our enemies think twice about attacking us. To spoil it now, Crimea can use Combat Cards as resources. I wanted to do a text discussion of discussing which is better, Rusveit Industrial or Patriotic Crimea. You can start producing to get your engine running and utilize tunnels to get your workers to far-reaching areas of the map. Get Scout out ASAP and jump into battles. At the same time, we need to think about mobility to move off of our section of the map. So I have no doubt that these strategies are some of the best that can be used in the game. As such, a lot of the time, Crimea’s neighbors are also Enlisting. This is definitely something to keep in mind while you play this faction. Then sometimes later in the game for moving across rivers into other faction homelands to claim those territories without much of a threat (if those factions are inactive). It’s worth trying to place a star for the bottom row action that will earn you 3 coins. Now for the downsides to the faction that you’ll have to watch out for. Scythe is a board game that’s designed to be played many times. Bursting with pride, the shogun gave Akiko a special trained monkey named Jiro. If you don’t own the game, check it out at Stonemaier Games or find the Digital Edition on Steam. Get them out and exploring – whether that is around the edge or in the middle of the board – utilise that ability and you won’t go far wrong. However, you will sacrifice a few turns of bottom actions to set this up. After moving your character, you may place a Flag token on its territory. Having trouble understanding a certain player mat’s beneficial synergy with Crimea? The base board is set up such that you can only really riverwalk towards the centre of … This faction is arguably the strongest in the game and one of the most difficult to counter. This ability also applies to a Factory card if you have one (see Factory section). Well, Wayfare is our way of steering clear of that opponent attacking us while we work on our victory conditions. The four mech types are: Riverwalk and Speed are the typical mechs every base faction has, and they’re pretty self explanatory. But it has a ton of potential, and if used properly can be like a spreading cancer to our opponents. As a player, you take on the role of a … There are two factions (Albion and Togawa) that are included in an expansion for the game called Invaders from Afar. Luke: Scythe has been one of my favorite games for a long time, that is undeniable. It’s hard to decide to go for the oil for an upgrade or metal to build a mech. We’ll jump into some strategies that you will need to use for any faction before diving into faction-specific strategies. If you’re in a position where you can’t spend power, your opponents will take their opportunity to get an combat star. To the point that in the hands of a player who knows what they're doing, it's pretty much unbeatable. In longer games it can even be a bad strategy. However, the highest bid of 15, for the Crimea Patriotic … You may choose the same section on your Player Mat as the previous turn. Welcome to the Crimea Strategy; and no, that isn’t the name of a progressive metal band. Progress is slow due to the holidays though. Yet, I have found that’s it’s often the most effective and all around the best option, if you know how to use it. Additionally, there’s a Mountain in our base hexes, which is fantastic for getting our Deploy action online quickly. Albion has an interesting new flag placement mechanic and mech abilities. This Crimea strategy wouldn’t be complete without the crowning glory of Crimea’s mech abilities. ... For example, if we have the Patriotic Player Mat, ... since Crimea is the 2nd head of the two-headed Rusviet-Crimea titan which rules the Scythe board with an iron fist. This faction can be extremely effective at dropping multiple units to a point quickly and overwhelming the enemies. Clan Albion. Here is Jamey Stagmeir’s, the creator of Scythe, thoughts on the faction: I think the Nordic faction ability is mainly good early in the game for production flexibility and creation flexibility–you can build structures on key territories before other players, and you can deploy mechs outside of your homeland without needing riverwalk. So, unless our Heroine can grab another as part of a Move action for spreading out or combats, we don’t need to waste our turns hopping about the board for them. I’ve made this guide with the help of this analytic data on Scythe from hundreds of games. One of the most underutilized, and perhaps most misunderstood mechs in the game is the Wayfare Mech. Additionally, if you can use the bottom action of bolster, you can net yourself two coins with each use of the action! We typically won’t Build and only use Upgrades as needed. The second advantage of Coercion is its natural affinity toward the Enlist action. That just means a great deal of accessibility for us. So that will be our main priority when playing this faction. As Akiko was entering her second year of training, her brother, a prominent engineer, went missing during a mission to the mysterious Factory in Eastern Europa. The faction has a hard time building up mobility but can be quite fast once a few workers are built and flags are placed. Often this is territory that’s really difficult to get to for our opponents. Yes please. This game lends itself to being enveloped in your own moves and planning out the next 5. You can repeat it as many times as possible and save the last star for when you’re in a winning position. They are the key to a strong early game. The starting position for this faction doesn’t have many resources, so most good strategies for will focus around mobility. With Coercion, Crimea can use a Combat Card as any resources once per turn. Many remain operational, having been re-purposed for peaceful farming and transport uses. So our turns need to be efficiently geared to making that happen often. Although it may seem like it, this isn’t the best way to deter enemies because there is one major drawback: combat stars. It’s one of the most efficient stars that you can place. If someone has very few resources on the board, generally it means they are in a good position to win the game. Watch for “the rushing reds” tactic to be played and be ready to counter it. Really Useful Guide. Numerous attacks were registering on both sides during the revolution in Kiev, and the cyber offensives have had an escalation after the approval of the Russian parliament for military use in Crimea. I’ve received some great response for this guide from the Scythe community, so there is definitely more to come. Either your trade or produce bottom row actions will cost three and can be rushed. The Saxony Empire starts in the bottom left hand corner of the board, with meeples on a Mountain… Scythe, for the non-game-playing geek, is a new tabletop game set in the aftermath of a dieselpunk World War I. Crimea won’t have that problem, and thus excels their game play rounds faster than most of their opponents. The Rusviets push their people hard, day after day, to achieve their ultimate goal. Each player represents a faction of Europa, a fictional version of Europe that is trying to rebuild itself after World War I.The factions consist of leaders (and their Loyal Animal Companion), workers, and four giant mechs.. Early in the game you can use this to get a quick upgrade or mech deployment. A lone mech is an easy target for an attack. ). It will get the popularity flowing, which is a huge factor in winning the game. Now, Crimea has some run of the mill mechs just like every base faction, but they have two very unique mechs as well. Patriotic – Banned (but we’ll eventually put out a strategy anyway). There are a few major advantages over the trade action: the cards can’t be stolen, can become any resource, and can serve as combat cards if needed.Combat cards essentially become the key resource of the game for Crimea. Coercion: Once per turn, you may spend one Combat Card as if it were one resource. It can be a successful strategy and your opponents won’t see it coming. The annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine, the military deployment in Syria, the tense military standoff with the West in the Baltic and Black Seas, and the interference in U.S. and European domestic politics have all enhanced Russia’s image as a major power with significant power projection capabilities, as well as Putin’s reputation as a bold and skilled leader. Each faction has its own special ability, starting position, mechs, and backstory. If you watch what your opponents are doing closely, you can easily throw their plans off and turn the tables in a tough game. And that ultimately embodies this faction. I forgot to take pictures before the game started but this one is close enough. However, if you have all of that resource they need to use the bottom row action on one space, that space should be heavily defended or moved. First, building all of your workers will make it harder to maintain popularity. Get into the game quick without spending too much time fussing over the rulebook. So tunnels will be a big part of the Togawa strategy. And maybe you’re wondering how that’s considered the best mech ability by a great deal of players. It can be a huge advantage to have some of the other mech abilities while your opponents are trying to leave their starting island. Because our starting zone has pretty much all the hexes we need within a single move action (provided we have Speed and/or Riverwalk Mechs out), it’s of a huge benefit for us to get all our workers out immediately and get them to a desired hex for maximum production turns. Both are 100% worth whatever you spend on it! I’d strongly advise against this. And just for clarification, a faction’s base is the logo on the board that a player’s main character starts on. Naturally you would go for upgrades if you can’t build workers, but the village is so far away from oil that it will eat away at your factions efficiency to move a worker over. Not to mention, some would argue the strongest mech ability in the entire game. Scythe is a strategy game, based on a popular board game of the same name, set in an alternate history version of Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the First World War. Crimea’s starting zone comes in a close 2nd place to Rusviet’s in our opinion. A simple guide on play mats would be easy for me to put together, so I’ll add it to the list of planned articles. Sounds really simple right? Out of 49 combinations, 2 are considered banned for now. Enlisting is widely considered the strongest BRA in the game due to the benefits of the recruitment bonuses. The one located on the Mountain in the starting zone, and the one on the Village just outside of their base. Just focusing on what else is going on in the game outside your next move will help you win.It’s worth talking a little about defense since this is going to be your best bet at keeping that carefully constructed plan intact despite your faction or player mat. The starting area is large and has every resource in the game, which is a great starting point. Unlike most other factions, we can stop this strategy in its tracks and send the Rusviets back to their base with just a power card that is around a 5. Additionally, Enlisting also has the added benefit of gaining Power, Popularity, Combat Cards, and Coin based on our neighbors. There is no limit to the number of stars you can place from completing objectives and winning combat. Leftover from war-time, large Mechs litter the countryside. The first advantage can be an easy comparison of Crimea vs. another faction. With all of that out of the way, let’s jump into the strategy for each faction, their best playmat combinations, and their starting position. However, if you’re going to play this way you’ll need to horde your popularity which means building fewer workers. If you focus too much on combat, you will lose time and popularity while your opponents build engines for the late game. Perhaps the reasoning is that this ability isn’t as obvious as perhaps the Scout Mech. For example, if say Albion is coming up one resource short on completing a bottom row action (BRA), they will then have to wait two more turns to complete that BRA. It’s perhaps one of the oldest games I own at this point, which is a huge mark in its favor considering how often games rotate … Although I’ve titled this as workers, they actually represent popularity. Due to the faction ability, Crimea can leverage the bolster action as a trade. These won. Every time you produce after 4 workers, you’ll be dropping points. Stealing Combat Cards from opponents to turn around and use them in combat or for resources? Due to the faction ability, Crimea can leverage the bolster action as a trade. There are tough choices all around and no one strategy stands out as king. This is the first expansion faction on this list and these expansion factions are notably harder to play than the base factions. Your email address will not be published. Any time we’re in combat, we can steal one of our opponent’s Combat Cards at random. And get it done early! As you can see, this heavily depends on the situation. Given the same resource counts and the same player mat, Crimea will always have that slight edge with Coercion. Secondly, you’ll be making progress so quickly that you risk using up a bottom row action like building mechs which will lose some efficiency. Required fields are marked *. Of course, the negative here is that you will spend time moving your units. Essentially, it’s as the text states. Thanks for taking a read of our overall Crimea Strategy! It’s also one of the most straight forward to play and strategize with which makes it the go-to choice for any new players to the group. You may choose the same section on your Player Mat as the previous turn(s). Stegmeier (the designer of the game) was very clear: if you can prove it's possible to consistenly end the game in 14-16 turns he will ban a combination for tournament play. - Encounters and Flags are now shown on the Automa Helper, and encounter tokens are tracked, so Encounter/Factory moves are simpler. Timing your upgrades and mechs being built can help keep your efficiency high. The biggest trick with the Nordic Kingdoms is to utilise that swim ability for the workers. For the most part, Patriotic is the most powerful mat in the game. As for strategy, the most obvious is rushing the township mech ability which will get you the factory quickly and area control over the middle of the map. It’s a huge point swing and your opponents usually won’t see it coming. You’ll want to pick up as many encounters as possible to maximize the faction ability.Their ability is great for quick swings in advantage but there is a key to using it: keep an open mind on what directions and tactics you will use to win. I really like this strategy. This of course just creates a steady stream of Combat Cards to buffer Crimea’s resources. You choose one of these nations – Polonia, Saxony, Crimea, Nordic, and Rusviet – and fight for control of “The Factory”, an independent city-state which emerged during the first war. The submerge mech will also give you some good deterrence by being able to move into water tiles when you want to avoid being attacked. Based on their ability, it appears that Saxony is a war-monger faction. Additionally, whether attacking or defending, losing a combat is like an early Christmas. But that kind of brings a new problem where it opens players to be rushed somewhat easily. Starting right off with workers on a Village and Farm hex means we can start building our worker economy and get our first Enlist action completed fast. Impressed with the metrics based on games played. Lets talk about Crimea’s faction ability, because this is a huge part of how they can start the game so strong. Y'all know who I am. To add even more weight to the strategy, you can get all of your workers out as quickly as possible. The third advantage is how well Coercion and the Scout Mech ability synergize. Of all the factions, Crimea typically holds the most advantages – possibly even more than Rusviet. For example: On the Patriotic Mat you may do a Trade top row action, and then pay to do a Build bottom row action, whilst on the Mechanical Mat, Upgrade is the bottom action. If a player follows these steps, they can easily build the most amazing powerful engine which can help them win it. Features in 4.0.4 * Support for Episodes 5 and 6. Now, there are a few Crimea strategies that this doesn’t benefit us as much on. Alternate reality 1920s Europe was a foggy place. Your opponents are less likely to attack you since a loss would give you a star and shorten the game. It’s the best general post I’ve read. Thanks Patrick! On a side note, a lot of inexperienced players like to use Wayfare to chase after Encounters. Currently, Rusveit Industrial is banned online. Additionally, with a Riverwalk Mech, Crimea has immediate access to all five primary hex types. Crimea differs here on most of their player mat combination strategies. Because of the flexibility offered by the Nordic faction early in the game, I consider it the best faction for a new player to play. Using them to get around the map and place traps are essential to this faction. So even stealing a value 2 Combat Card has some great benefits. The former strategy seemed to yield better payoffs, as the three qualifying heats winnowed the field to semifinalists and yielded a few notable statistics: The overall average bid was 1.67; the average bid for winning players was higher, at 2.82. * Crimea / Patriotic combination is now banned as per Scythe FAQ. Basically, if there’s a faction that isn’t in the game, we can move to their base from anywhere on the board. There are 4 basic ways to deter your opponents: This is an obvious way to keep your opponents from pushing your workers off resources and land. Like the Albion faction, they also do not have a speed mech. Stealing Combat Cards AND getting a Combat Card for any losses is fantastic. Being able to judge what will happen based on the situation can lead to the best deterrence in the game. On top of their good starting position, they have some great mobility mechanics in the underpass and speed mechs. Often an opponent will happily attack a mech for a combat star but won’t be willing to take a popularity hit for the workers on the tile. The encounters can give you some great opportunities to change tactics mid-game and blindside your opponents. My other two games were against beginners like myself, and I had managed to win one of those games by employing the simple strategy of getting as high as possible on the popularity track, and spreading out right at … The overall strategy for Scythe is pretty straightforward for every faction in the game. It’s worth trying a 0 popularity rush game where you just bash your enemies into submission. After we have increased mobility, we will be a serious combat threat to our opponents and that should definitely be used to our advantage. Putin’s popularity over the last 10-plus years has been pegged to military campaigns and patriotic hysteria. Most commonly we’ll be focusing on Deploying and Enlisting bottom row actions. Because of this, the best combative Saxony game is a short one. Not only do we steal a card at the beginning of combat, but when we lose (and spend 1 Power or 1 Combat Card) we can claim an additional card. The most obvious and one of the most effective uses of their faction ability is to spread workers out as quickly as possible. As the player, you follow the same rules as you would in a game against another human. Here’s how the moves would play out if someone tries to attack you: Your opponents will lose some tempo and likely give you a combat star in the process .Additionally, this is the only faction that can strategically skip the riverwalk mech and move on to other mechs. This applies to whether we’re attacking or on the defense. (Start of Scythe strategy blog Here) For my first of these case study posts, I looked and an 8-Worker strategy for Agricultural Polonia.I thought that for the second case study, it might be useful to look at how a similar strategy might look for the same Player Mat, but for a different Faction. Check out what we have below: If you need some additional Scythe tips, check out our Quick Tips strategy posting! Here is one example of great situational awareness: your opponent does not have the resources to use the bottom row action of their move but they do for every other action, therefore they are extremely unlikely to attack next turn because the move will not be efficient. I've houseruled it so that the base factions just have universal riverwalk on the modular board. It is this variance of the bottom actions and their cost that forms the heart of Scythe’s strategy, and its utterly absorbing. The central part of this faction is the ability to move across water immediately. Thank you I appreciate that feedback, I am currently working on a Togawa post. Okay, let’s get into that. Get attacked by opponent and use low level combat card or lose 1 power. 8 workers (almost) every time, then Produce like madmen. But sometimes, and in most other factions, it isn’t wise to get all 8 workers out in the early game. Before we jump into that, let’s go over defense strategies that are also useful to any faction. With the mobility that you’ll have one you have built your township and speed mechs, encounters should be somewhere on your list of priorities since they will be easy enough to pick up. If you need some additional Scythe tips, check out our Quick Tips strategy posting! Let's discuss the strategy, pros and cons, and I'll let you know my conclusion. This isn’t the best resort, but it is extremely effective. Hello everyone, welcome. Also, something we’ll cover later on is Crimea’s faction ability. Everything from mech abilities, faction abilities, and even their starting hexes. You can also add to the deterrence here by putting some mechs one hex away from workers, this will allow you to threaten an attack the turn after they take the tile. However; for Crimea, it’s the perfect positioning. Faction special ability: Exalt. This makes area control a piece of cake, gets you to resources quickly, and gives you an easy way to grab encounters. Feel free to comment below with any thoughts or critiques or successes you have had with Crimea! What is productive is taking steps to remedy imbalance. Thank you for what you’ve done so far! This is the most vague and hardest to use of the deterrence tactics. Unlocking submerge and using tunnels effectively will get you to the resources that you’ll need and will also give you access to most encounters on the map.