Base gameFeatured

Scythe

Farms, factories and giant walking machines across a 1920s Europe that never was.

Players: 1–5 players
Time: 115 min

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The feel of it

Why it lands at the table

The board is a painted landscape of fields, rivers and a ruined factory at its centre, and the war that made the mechs is already over. Each player leads a faction trying to rebuild after it, with a hero, an animal companion and a handful of workers on the land.

Most of the evening is quiet work: moving workers, producing grain and metal, building, enlisting recruits. The tension sits underneath. Mechs gather at the edge of a neighbour's territory, power is spent, and when a fight finally comes it is short, sealed with a secret dial and over in a moment.

What people remember is the turn the game suddenly ends. Someone places their sixth star, coins are counted for territory, popularity and achievements, and the person who looked strongest on the map is often not the one who wins.

The rules, briefly

How it plays

01
Each turn, choose one of four sections on your player board, never the same one twice in a row.
02
Take its top action (move, produce, trade or bolster), then, if you can pay, its bottom action (upgrade, deploy a mech, build or enlist).
03
Expand across the map, upgrade your actions so they cost less, and fight with combat cards and a hidden power dial when units meet.
04
Place a star each time you reach a goal, such as deploying all four mechs or winning a combat.
05
When someone places their sixth star the game ends at once, and the richest player wins.

Who and when