Scythe
- 1-5 players
Setup
- Each player picks a faction.
- Place encounter tokens on the board.
- Shuffle and place combat, encounter & objective cards on the board facedown.
- Shuffle factory cards and select # of cards equal to # of players + 1 and place on the board facedown.
- Randomly place 1 structure bonus tiles face up on the board.
- Each player:
- Selects a faction and pieces and a player board (random?).
- Places their character on the home base and 1 worker on each of the land space adjacent to the home base (2 workers total).
- Place technology cubes (6), workers (6), recruit tokens (4), and structures (4) on your player board.
- Keep the player token handy.
- Place star tokens (6) and mechs (4) on your faction mat.
- Place the power token on the board matching the faction's power level.
- Draw a number of combat cards displayed on the faction mat (keep secret).
- Draw a number of objective cards displayed on the player mat (keep secret).
- Place the popularity token on the board matching the player mat's popularity level.
- Take coins equal to the value shown on the player mat.
- Take a power dial.
- Player with the lowest value on the player mat goes first.
Concepts
- Map is labeled with 1 of the 7 terrain types: villages, tundra, forest, lakes, farms, mountains. The 7th type is the factory in the middle of the board.
- Units are unique character, mechs and workers.
- Structures also control a territory as long as no enemies are in that space.
- Units cannot move across rivers or into lakes unless they have or gain that ability.
- Only mechs and the character can take part in combat.
- If you have any unit in a territory, you control that territory and have access to the any resources on that territory.
Game Turn
- Place your player token on one of the 3 sections of your player mat that it wasn't on previously. (Place on any section for the first turn).
- Optionally perform the top action, paying the costs (red background) and gaining the benefit (green background). Ignore covered up slots.
- Optionally perform the bottom action, paying the costs (red background) and gaining the benefit (green background). Ignore covered up slots.
- You don't need to take all of the benefits.
- If at any point during your turn you satisfy the conditions of an objective card, reveal it, place a star, and discard both objectives. You can only complete 1 objective during the game. You don't need to reveal the object card right away but the conditions must still be met in the future to reveal it.
Actions
- Move / Gain
- Either move up to 2 units 1 space or gain money (changes after technology cube is moved).
- Units cannot move across rivers or into lakes unless they have or gain that ability.
- Units can bring any number of resources along with them.
- Mechs can bring any number of resources and/or workers with them (not the character).
- You cannot enter your or any other home base as a move action.
- Tunnels are connected and considered adjacent.
- Any number of resources/units/structures can be in a single territory.
- Workers cannot move (by themselves) into territories that have opponent units. They can move into territories with opponent structures and then gain control of that territory.
- If a mech or characters moves into a territory with opponent workers they must stop and at the end of the turn the workers flee to their home base. You lose 1 popularity for each worker that flees.
- A mech can carry workers into a space with enemy units.
- Control of a territory stays until after combat.
- Combat is resolved only after all moves are done. Attacker determines territory combat order.
- If a character enters a territory with an encounter token it stops and after any combat, discards the token and draws an encounter card resolving it.
- If a character is on the factory for the first time and after any combat, secretly take 1 factory card.
- Bolster
- Pay 1 coin and increase power or draw combat cards.
- Trade
- Pay 1 coin and increase popularity or take any 2 resources and place them on a territory with one of your workers.
- Produce
- Pay the cost (free for first turn) and then choose up to 2 different territories you control and all workers produce 1 resource of the type shown on the territory.
- Villages produce new workers per worker producing on that territory. Place new workers on that territory.
- Upgrade
- Pay the cost and move a technology cube from the top row actions to a dashed line spot on the bottom row actions. Also gain 1 coin.
- Deploy
- Pay the cost and take 1 mech and place it on a territory with at least 1 of your workers. (Not lakes).
- All deployed mechs and your character gain the ability revealed on the faction mat.
- Build
- Pay the cost and choose 1 structure to place on a territory with at least 1 worker on it.
- Cannot build on lakes, home spaces, or a territory with another structure (yours or another players).
- Reveals an additional benefit on the player mat.
- Your tunnels can only be used by you.
- When choosing Produce the mill acts as an additional territory to produce with and produces as if it's a worker along with any other workers you have there.
- Structures control a territory as long as no enemy units are there. You don't lose the benefit of the structure though.
- Structures give bonuses at the end of the game depending on the bonus structure card.
- Enlist
- Pay the cost and place 1 round recruit token on one of the bonus space on the faction mat and gain the benefit.
- It reveals a bonus benefit that is gained when you or a player on your left or right takes the same bottom row action.
- Recruit benefit order is: active player, player to the left, player to the right.
- If a 6th star is place the game ends immediately before other recruit benefits are received.
- The active player can finish their bottom row action before any stars are placed.
Combat
- Take the combat wheel and secretly select how many power points to spend. (Points are always spent)
- Play # of combat cards from their hand equal to number of character + mechs they have on that territory. They are placed secretly under their power dial.
- Reveal cards/dials and highest amount wins with ties going to the attacker.
- Combat cards are discarded face up.
- Winner of the battle places one of their stars on the combat star spaces. Only 2 available.
- Loser retreats all units back to the home base.
- If attacker wins, he loses 1 popularity for each worker caused to retreat. If defender wins, popularity is not lost.
- If the loser had revealed at least 1 power (card or dial) they draw another combat card.
- If a star is gained during a combat, other combats are cancelled and units go back to where they moved from.
Goal
- Once all 6 stars are place by a single player, be the player with the most money.
- Stars:
- Place all 6 upgrades (technology cubes).
- Build all 4 mechs.
- Build all 4 structures.
- Place all 8 workers.
- Complete 1 objective.
- For winning 2 different combats.
- For reaching 18 on the popularity track.
- For reaching 16 on the power track.
- Scoring
- Money you currently own
- Look up the coin value depending where you are on the popularity track and get that many coins times the number of stars you placed.
- Using the popularity coin value you get that many coins per territory you currently control.
- The factory counts as 3 separate territories when counting this.
- Total all the resources you currently have control over and divide it by 2, rounding down. Multiple that by popularity coin value.
- Gain any coins from the structure bonus card.
- Most coins win.
- Ties go to who has the most workers, mechs & structures in play, then to the greatest power level, then greatest popularity, most resources controlled, most territories controlled, and finally the most number of stars placed.
Game End
- The game ends as soon as someone places their 6th star.