Are you looking for an intensive game for your board game night, made by a renowned game design team that has created several popular tabletop games? Scythe may be just that for the dedicated and patient board game crew. The design team at Stonemaier Games has created multiple other games my board game group has played, including Wingspan, Wyrmspan (the dragon version of Wingspan), and Viticulture.
Like some of their other games, Scythe is aimed at more experienced players who are willing to invest some time in it. It’s a war board game based in Eastern Europe which involves elements of war. The game is pushed forward through engine building and completing objectives by gathering and creating resources, engaging in battles, working toward popularity, and strategically coordinating workers, a main character connected to a specific faction (each with their own powers), and mechs to journey across the board.
The base game can be played solo or with up to five players. It’s versatile if game night gets cancelled, and you still want to play anyway. That said, the game is heavy – literally and figuratively. The box with its components is heavy. The gameplay is quite complex. Setup, learning, and actual gameplay will take longer. This one is not recommended for less experienced gamers. There is only one version where this is an exception, as that version is an alternative board game for kids. We’ll get to that later on in our comprehensive guide.
Scythe: The Base Game
- MSRP: $99.00 USD
- 1-5 Players
- 115 minutes
- Ages 14+
As mentioned, the base game is complex. Given its higher price tag, it will also be a bigger investment to start playing than some of the other board games listed in our other buying guides. This is likely tied to the figures inside the box, which can be painted to a player's liking.
You should get the base board game and learn it before you explore the expansions. Knowing how this original works will help you understand and connect with the other available expansions.
Scythe Expansions
Expansions can add more obstacles to the game. Some expansions also allow even more players to join the fun. Scythe has three expansions available.
Scythe: Invaders from Afar Expansion
- MSRP: $35.00 USD
- 1-7 Players
- 115 minutes
- Ages 14+
Contents: 10 paintable plastic miniatures, two new player factions, additional pieces allowing for two more players, including mats and tokens- making the max amount of players up to seven
After getting the hang of the base system, add the first expansion: Invaders from Afar. The expansion adds two more factions to the game: Albion and Togawa. These factions will allow you new ways to explore, claim territories, and gain the necessary victory points to win the war.
Scythe: The Wind Gambit Expansion
- MSRP: $30.00 USD
- 1-5 Players
- 115 minutes
- Ages 14+
Contents: 7 airship paintable miniatures, airship tiles, ability tiles, and resolution tiles
It’s time for you to expand to the air now in airship warfare. The Wind Gambit is playable for five players (without other expansions) and in solo mode. The expansion features some new features with tiles that trigger end-game content. It creates additional layers to be mindful of as you strategize your quest for victory.
Scythe: The Rise of Fenris Expansion
- MSRP: $60.00 USD
- 1-7 Players
- 115 minutes
- Ages 14+
Contents: 13 paintable miniatures, wooden tokens, custom dice, tiles, cardboard tokens, a campaign log, and an achievement sheet
The Rise of Fenris is the final game in the original Scythe storyline. It adds additional depth to the game with campaign capacities (8 campaigns) and modular play (11 modules), which can be used alongside other expansions. One of the modules is a cooperative module instead of a competitive one.
You will need the base game to play it, like other expansions. Rise of Fenris can host five or seven players as well as solo play, depending on whether all of the expansions are owned.
Other Scythe Games
Two other Scythe games are available, operating as separate titles that do not require the base game. One is geared toward older players, and the other is a separate game with a separate expansion available to much younger players.
Expeditions
- MSRP: $80.00 USD
- 1-5 Players
- 60-90 minutes
- Ages 14+
Contents: Five big paintable miniatures, mech mats, location tiles, cards, multi-colored worker meeples, corruption tiles, and guides to playing solo or against other players
Expeditions is the sequel to Scythe. It’s a stand-alone game that takes place years after the original when a meteorite crashed near the Siberian Tunguska River. This game is completely separate from Scythe and requires no previous knowledge to play it.
Expeditions is an engine building board game with different mechanics, objectives, and navigation. You’re working towards vanishing corruption in the area, enhancing your mechs powers through quests, gaining power, and building up worker capacities to acquire the most money and treasure to win the game. The game can be completed in about half the time as its predecessor.
My Little Scythe
- MSRP: $60.00 USD
- 1-6 Players
- 55 minutes
- Ages 8+
Contents: 14 paintable miniatures, a painting guide, an achievement sheet, custom apples, gems, mats, tokens, boards and cards
The kid's version of Scythe is a far less complicated game that turns the popular original into a family-friendly board game that can be played with kids as young as eight. It incorporates animal characters to use with limited actions in a colorful journey involving pies, magic, castles, and friendship. While the game has war-like elements as they find and establish new homes, the fighting aspect is reduced to a quirky alternative: pie fights.
While this game has some fun elements, including the ability to share the joy of painting miniatures with your family, it’s not without its balance of good and places to bid caution.
This younger version can be played solo or with up to six players. It also plays in half the time that its adult counterpart titles do. However, quite a few pieces are still in the box. As a mom who knows the pain of wrangling parts in games with her own kids, I can warn you this is something that you’ll want to keep in mind during your family game night.
My Little Scythe: Pie in the Sky Expansion
- MSRP: $20.00 USD
- 1-6 Players
- 45-60 minutes
- Ages 8+
Contents: two new paintable miniatures (owls and arctic foxes), one airship miniature, nine airship mats, five airship gadget tokens, four additional power-up tiles, two new quest cards, seventeen trophy tokens, rulebooks, and an achievement sheet
It’s the eve of a Harvest Tournament, and your animals seek to find new homes in the kingdom. Some time has passed since their last adventure, though. Now your animals have access to sky travel in the form of, you guessed it, airships. Some new animals have also joined the fun in this edition, which is playable for up to six players.
You need the base game to play the Pie in the Sky expansion. This expansion is also a far more accessible price point for many parents.
More Ways to Play
Scythe and its expansion, Invaders from Afar, can played on Steam in two different ways. The Polish development team, The Knights of Unity, developed a standalone and DLC version. That base game of Scythe on Steam is $19.99. The expansion, Invaders from Afar, is also available as DLC that can be added to the base game for an additional $9.99.
This digital version on Steam also features a lengthy tutorial. It took me about an hour to get through it when I ran through it. It’s a complex, slow-moving game with many moving pieces and mechanics. The tutorial, despite being long, was immensely helpful in helping me navigate and learn game mechanics for the base game and the expansion.
The Steam version offers the ability to play the game solo against up to 6 players (when you have the expansion and the base game), which can be any combination of AI bots or local human players. Players can also pair up with folks online if they choose to. You’ll have an extra step to set up for online play. Online play will require you to register with AsmoConnect and create an account to play online.
The game and several expansions (Invaders from Afar, Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, Scythe: The Wind Gambit, Scythe: The Wind Gambit + Invaders from Afar) as well as its sequel Expeditions and the version for younger players called My Little Scythe can also be played on the browser-based board game platform Tabletopia. Tabletopia operates as a different subscription-based service on multiple platforms. It has three tiers from which interested players can choose. Each level tier gives folks different capacities to play games.
You can get a Bronze level membership, allowing you to play two simultaneous game sessions for free. In the case of Scythe, it will allow you to play the base game of Scythe (2 players with Crimea vs Nordic), the kid's version of Scythe for up to 7 players, and the sequel’s demo edition for up to players for free.
You’ll need a Silver or Gold tier subscription to play the other editions and the capacity to play. The Silver tier subscription, which costs $9.97 monthly, gives you access to premium games. The Gold level subscription costs $14.97 monthly, allowing subscribers to add guests to premium games.
Tabletopia also has Scythe as a playable game in its Premium collection on Steam. The Premium level subscription on Steam is $14.97 monthly, but don’t worry about double spending! You can connect your Steam and browser accounts and pay only one monthly fee of $14.97.
Bottom Line
The popularity of the Scythe series is nuanced. For one, the art is absolutely gorgeous. The capacity for players of multiple age groups to add to it with paintable figurines adds a layer of customizable beauty. The game was made by board game designer Jamey Stegmaier who is extremely interactive with the community. The team at Stonemaier has several other strong titles in its catalogue. I can see why the game received its 8.1 rating on Board Game Geek.
At the same time, the learning curve is quite considerable. The online tutorial was tremendously helpful in its stand-alone version via The Knights of Unity Steam version. Learning to play it via Tabletopia was far more difficult as you had to learn how to play the game and move pieces without the help of a program that helped to do that for you. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable playing that version with younger kids via the browser version of Tabletopia or their Steam version, even though the kid's version is among the free games on the base-level subscription.
In its physical form, Scythe is also a massive game that requires considerable investment in purchase, storage space, and keeping all those pieces together, especially in the kids' version. The company offers a way to get replacement parts; however, the price of those parts is not immediately visible, so it’s unknown how much it would cost if multiple things went missing after a chaotic game night.
Seasoned and patient players will likely enjoy the game. It’s worth giving a chance, especially if you can partner with a friend or two who are already familiar with it to help you learn the ropes. Try it out at a board game cafe, or see which of your friends already owns it and try theirs. Seasoned gamers will likely know at least one person with a copy in their friend circle. I found several who did in mine when I initially asked about it!
Lastly, the younger version counterpart is also incredibly cute. It softens up the war aspects of the game for players who might want a less abrasive alternative that takes less time to complete regardless of their age. Sure, mechs are cool, but pie fighting with animals is quite a delightful spin on an otherwise heavier topic.
Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.
