In my playtest, I paid 2 popularity for 3 lumber and 1 worker. After this attack, Nordic Kingdom will be far easier to beat, possibly even free if they spend a lot to win (which they did: 9 Power and a 2 Combat Card). Also, don’t be afraid to lose fights. They are a decisive faction, geared toward making the most out of opportunities and bloodying vulnerable opponents. Start with 1 Power and 4 Combat Cards as Saxony. So with that in mind, and Saxony’s propensity to fight (more on that in the next section), taking 2 Power off an opponent can mean the difference of them having 12 bidding Power or 10 bidding Power. Nordic had Bolstered for 3 Power last turn, but with “Disarm” they went down to 1 Power and had no Combat Cards. Each player begins the game with different resources (strength, victory points, movement capabilities, and popularity), their choice of several faction-specific abilities, and a hidden goal. This is a build video by Mafiul, who is a competitor in the Scythe Digital League. I still struggle with it and would love to master it... today is not that day, but thats okay, I was on a time… Ideally, I don’t suggest getting the Encounter on the Forest hex tucked to the far left of board until later in the game. Saxony. MOVE: Mechs from base Mountain to Combat with Albion on Albion Tundra, mech from Tunnel Mountain to Tunnel Tundra hex to complete “Northern Advantage” objective. Well, look no further, because we have knowledge to share. Encounter: We want something that helps us get a bottom row action without wasting an additional turn. I’ll make it more clear, good catch! . First, we need at least Crimea, Polania, or Nordic Kingdom to be in the game – which is always possible in five player games. Neo Conceptual Art. Glad you asked. So, unless some amazing Encounters come up, those are likely off the table. I have to agree that ripping into other factions as Saxony is quite satisfying, especially when you can augment that move action with a structure build and getting some decent resources. Unfortunately we do have limitations since we only get two Objective Cards in a single game to complete. Get out your pencils boys and girls, Norman is taking you to school. Ah, that was meant to be a joke haha. Here’s an optimized example of some combat turns with our Disarm, Speed, and Underpass mechs deployed: We’re not here to defend our pride or have a gentlemen’s duel, we’re here to win the war. Meanwhile, we can keep going and gaining Stars, and if that other faction doesn’t continue to put up a fight, they’re essentially giving us Combat Stars for free. STARS (6): Mech. Even against the hardest AI, this is still somewhat easy to manage. Black I can never get right. Contemporary Art. We bid 0 Power and a 3 or 4 Combat Card again. Jan 21, 2020 - Finally, the last faction in the base game, the Saxony Empire! [Combat Star] [Objective Star]. The Innovative and Industrial player mats can get Saxony a mech by Round 2, so by Round 3 we can access a huge amount of the central map. Third, to actually win the game is a challenge. Build: Produce (Village, Mountain). We lose, but now they’re down to 3 Power and 3 Combat Cards and we get a Combat Card. Saxony Industrial has some options for strategy, and many I may not have even considered that could potentially be better. This time, they bid only a 2 Combat Card because they think they’ll lose. Unfortunately, getting lumber and food for the Build and Enlist Stars will be pretty tough. I had the ability to attack everyone; however, Albion and Nordic were lowest in Power and Combat Cards. Consider that a general bottom row action Star takes about 4 turns to complete whereas many Objectives only need a single Move action. I deviated after round 6, as my opportunities unfolded very differently from Norman’s. But let’s take a more abstract look. I tend towards economical-turtle strategy, but after reading through this I decided to give the Rush a try with 4 medium bots. Lastly, we have two Encounters within two hexes of our Hero’s starting point. PRODUCE: 1 Metal, 1 Oil. Because of this ability, good Saxony players excel on prioritizing early game combats (when other factions Power and Combat Cards are low). Wow. Another detriment to our final score is the nature of the rush itself. I'm in no way a Scythe expert. Crimea can only access vacant base hexes with Wayfair. take additional move actions to occupy certain hexes. Get control of the Tunnels early and camp on them with multiple mechs. I did this one last because I dreaded it even more than the white. UPGRADE: Bolster / Upgrade. I played the game around 4 times and these are simply my biased observations. MOVE: Two Mech rush to Combat or stealing resources. If you don’t own Scythe I really recommend checking out the digital version, you can find it on steam! We win. Having the fallback option of an Upgrade Star is possible, but we have to allow that will make the game go more turns. Finally, the last faction in the base game, the Saxony Empire! This is our big money maker with a potential net of $12 if we go for our Upgrade Star; speaking of which, we have a very real possibility of getting two Stars in this row alone – Power and Upgrades – which in itself is quite powerful. So Move/Build without expending power or cards, or earning Stars (RIP Popularity though). We always want to maximize our Stars, and potentially control when the game ends to our benefit. Otherwise we go for Power and/or Combat Cards. Upside; we can upgrade twice to discount our Enlists down to 2 food which would make our trade / enlist action seamless for trading 2 food and Enlisting. We have no limitations to Stars for Objectives or combats? Disarm – Before combat on a territory with a Tunnel, opponent gets -2 Power. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs. To keep this strategy streamlined to under 20 turns, we need to accept we will only have a very limited supply of power and combat cards to use. We’ll deploy all our Mechs on the Mountain because once we have Underpass, the Mountain is essentially a Tunnel and will give us immediate access to the map and opposing Faction bases. Both Forestsare also easy enough for our Riverwalk Mech to get us to. Since we’ll be producing at least four (but probably more) times to Deploy our mechs, we should figure out what other resources we want to complete other Stars. However; here we’ll be relying a great deal more on scavenging other factions for resources to accomplish other bottom row actions in between a lot of moving around. Take up the role of leader by assuming command of one of 5 factions, and set out to conquer the coveted "Factory". Between using two Combat Cards and six Power, we could’ve won, but I opted to bid no power or Combat Cards. PRODUCE: 2 Workers, 1 Metal. Again, not impossible, but a lot has to go in our favor and we have to play smart if we hope to win with this strategy. So if things aren’t lining up for a quick victory, it’s totally within reason to slow play down and work on building up Coin reserves and getting Popularity to higher tiers. Sometimes you have to lose some battles, and as Saxony, if we’re going to lose, we want to take them down with us. So let’s say they spent 3 Power and a 4 Combat Card for a total of 7. Even though we won, 40 Coins probably doesn’t seem like much of a victory, especially considering our win was only by 9. Scythe – Saxony Empire. Downside; we have a few steps to take before we can access lumber on produce actions, and any upgrade to discount our Build action takes away a turn of upgrading our more powerful and profitable actions. Combat: We bid 0 Power and a 2 Combat Card. So, let’s look at our unique mechs and see what kind of fun can be had with their abilities. Ya know, use more units than available. Albion and Togawa are potentially accessible, but less so considering their hampered movement and they have to get to Albion’s Tundra or Togawa’s Mountain to engage in our first move action – not impossible, but less likely than the other factions. SCYTHE inspired Saxony Empire T-Shirt with the faction symbol heat pressed onto a CONTINENTAL No3 Unisex Tee. Saxony starts with a Mountain in their base, so from our first turns getting a mech out is very obtainable. Keeping in mind, all strategy needs some room for flexibility in this game. 4) Polania. Underpass – Move between any Mountain you control and any Tunnel. Militant Saxony is great. 3) Crimea. Because this is on a Tunnel, we’ll be able to reach it again on our next move action from the Mountain in Saxony’s base due to “Underpass.”. During early moves it causes us to have to move several times to get our Hero back onto the board. Additionally, if all that wasn’t cool enough, Underpass allows us to transfer units from one Mountain we control to another Mountain we control anywhere else on the board in a single move. I opted out of moving my mech this action because all that was available was a potential combat with Togawa on a trapped hex or stealing resources from Nordic workers. BOLSTER: 3 Power. It’s easier to decide not to get objectives mid game than it is to realize we’re short on Stars and have to rush around the board to complete an objective. DEPLOY: Underpass Mech on Mountain. With that in mind, one on one combats are always maxing out on a potential of 12 total Power being allowed to bid. Plus, we can grab several other Encounters (even Nordic’s) with 2 or 3 of our mechs deployed. What does this mean or even matter? For Saxony, that means almost total control of all Tunnel territories and the ability to camp our units there. This depends on if there are accessible resources for taking, or easy enough combats to be won. The idea behind this is because Scythe becomes a bit of a free for all in the centre of the board, whilst around the edges tends to remain clear. We also start with a Village hex within our base, which gives us a green light to start building an economy quickly. I still struggle with it and would love to master it... today is not that day, but thats okay, I was on a time… CONTINENTAL No3 UNISEX JERSEY: A bestselling t-shirt, this Continental jersey shirt, is a wardrobe staple. Trade (1 metal, 1 food). 4 Coins and 2 Popularity as Industrial. Saxony’s methodical approach to conquering the eastern lands surrounding the Factory is all about asserting force and completing specific missions. E.G. Although, at first glance forcing an opponent to lose 2 Power before combat seems like small potatoes. MOVE: 1 mech to combat with (opposing faction) on Tunnel hex. DEPLOY: Disarm Mech [Mech Star]. B.) No other faction can do this, and definitely not so early in the game. I did this one last because I dreaded it even more than the white. PRODUCE: 3 Workers, 1 Metal. Lead your mechs to war and your people to victory! Here’s why: We didn’t have any resources on this hex to defend. Dominate thrives on Objectives and combats, those thrive on movement; thus, our Move action is our friend. Third Row: Move / Build (3 Lumber) + $1. Black I can never get right. Saxony starts with a Mountain in their base, so from our first turns getting a mech out is very obtainable. If we have unlimited combat potential and the other factions don’t, doesn’t it benefit us to be excessive attackers? I used one of our mechs to send them home and gain the metal and the other mech to the Tunnel Mountain outside Polania’s base for better positioning. I also had “Stockpile for the Winter” which states I must control a territory with at least nine resources (one of each type) at the end of my turn. Mech to steal wood/oil. With Speed and Underpass unlocked, your units can go from bring out of play to getting anywhere on the map with a tunnel. Saxony can be a beast if it gets a good economic board (god forbid the one that makes the mechs more expensive). For the most part, I recommend focusing on mechs, upgrades, and enlistments when playing as Saxony. Scythe transports you to an alternate reality in 1920s Europa, one ravaged by the First World War. The Farm, easy to access because it’s also a Tunnel hex, can be reached via Underpass immediately. We can even invade other bases (Polania’s Forest, Nordic’s Forest and Mountain, Crimea’s Mountain hexes) all from our own base Mountain hex. This allows for rapid expansion, whilst … That’s not a great standing for building up our economy. Next (8) Trade/Enlist, picked the enlist alongside Upgrade, taking two CC. There were no targets with enough resources to be tempting in the first wave of attack, so I sat back and did Bolster/Upgrade, with improvements to Move and Upgrade. The early game trade-produce strategy is very neat, definitely committed to having no real production of your own in the mid and end-game, which made me nervous, but it ended up being huge fun ripping resources from the other factions. Breakdown was: Pop: Lvl 1, Stars: 6, Hex: 8, Res: 6, Lvl 3 Structure Bonus, and Coin: 16 Go into battles conserving Power and Combat Cards and bid low enough to lose while knocking their combat resources down. DEPLOY: Underpass Mech. So look for easy fights, and team up your mechs as often as possible. Get as many workers as possible and spread them out along the edges of the map. Your email address will not be published. If you need more Saxony help check out my general guide here. Nordic. As well, this combo can be played even better by more experienced players. The word "scythe" derives from Old English siðe. Looking to take your game to the next level? So, in this game, knowing we’re planning on limited production and a focus on combat, I immediately opted out of “Stockpile for the Winter” and realized I would likely need an additional combat to make up for it. Ideally we want to get bottom row actions done, so we’ll focus on those that we got resources for before reengaging. The Saxony Empire starts in the bottom left hand corner of the board, with meeples on a … scythe * Required. We have so many options with combat for Saxony that we need a whole section for it. Retreating our mechs isn’t always necessary, but it’s smart if our opponent has the ability to defeat us in combat on successive turns and force us to lose gained resources. PRODUCE: 1 Metal, 1 Oil. With this game, we had a lot of things go our way with early Encounters giving us a huge jumpstart. Second, to pull off the first rush is easy, but to keep the pressure on and take advantage of successive move actions to steal resources and win combats is difficult. Black I can never get right. BOLSTER: 2 Power. We take our Hero to the Forest Encounter first because that hex is out of the way in relation to the rest of the board. The four mech types are: Riverwalk and Speed are the typical mechs every base faction has, and they’re pretty self explanatory. The two starting hexes our workers begin on are Mountain and Tundra, giving us a quick start to getting production toward our Deploy and Upgrade actions. The benefit to this strategy can be a faster game, but the drawback is getting stuck between turns if no combats are easily available. Few other mech abilities in the game are as important as Disarm is to Saxony. Here we also get no coin and actually lose $1 each time due to Trade or Popularity Boost (though, both can be worth it). I chose to Trade turn 1, Produce turn 2, and Bolster turn 3 as it’s the fastest way to get to our upgrades going which help us quite a great deal toward accomplishing our endgame. We spent eight (half) of our turns trading and moving which for the Industrial Mat aren’t coin generating – in fact we netted negative 4 Coins from those actions. First off, Scythe combats are always limited to a maximum bidding of 7 Power and one Combat Card (values of 2 – 5 Power) per attacking unit. Tag: scythe saxony empire. And we want to be mobile as Saxony. Even a worker standing alone on a Mountain makes this possible. I still struggle with it and would love to master it… today is not that day, but thats okay, I was on a time crunch. With Nordic workers; although free resources are nice, losing all our popularity takes away the last choice on our upcoming Encounter card where we likely have an option to pay in popularity for something. Getting 8 workers is possible with 4+ produces, so we can keep that as a likely possibility for the Worker Star. I did this one last because I dreaded it even more than the white. Mech with worker to next build location (since I’m moving so much, may as well get the structure bonus) Today, the agricultural technology branch in Saxony is character-ized primarily by small and medium sized enterprises. Apr 28, 2019 - Finally, the last faction in the base game, the Saxony Empire! How are you attacking with four units when the maximum number of units allowed to move in a turn is three? That in mind, getting a Mech Star will likely happen without trying very hard since we need mechs for combat, Deploy is below our Produce action, and we can discount mechs down to one metal with upgrades on the Industrial Mat. We can also discount the lumber for this action down to 2, which means we can build quicker or even trade for those resources. Starting positions are specially calibrated to contribute to each faction’s uni… With Saxony, you can get a Star per objective – meaning two potential Stars. We beat them using 1 Power (wanted to save Combat Cards) as opposed to when they attacked before and it would’ve taken all our 6 Power and two Combat Cards to beat them. Unless you get some really easy objectives or combats you will likely be placing a star for upgrades as well. Enlistments are the bottom row action that I most commonly don’t place a star for. Not only will our opponents typically not attack us on a Tunnel hex, but a lot of them will also avoid placing and leaving their units on Tunnels. We win again. [Combat Star] [Objective Star]. Will have to try some of these tips and see what happens…. We also notice that in a single upgrade, our Bolster is maxed at 3 power and our Upgrade will be discounted to 2 oil. Additionally, most opponents would rather avoid that loss of 2 Power. Whoa! PRODUCE: 1 Metal, 1 Oil. This means, we’ll be needing an influx of resources to be able to work other bottom row actions. Check out what we have below: If you need some additional Scythe tips, check out our Quick Tips strategy posting! I did this one last because I dreaded it even more than the white. I’ve never had a good game playing as Saxony. The Saxony Empire don’t start in the best place in Scythe. To gain more than just a Mech Star and Combat Stars, it also helps a great deal to have an objective, but ideally both objectives that we can manage to pull off. In this game, Polania had 4 workers on their Village with 2 Metal. Now that we’ve put in our due diligence with taking inventory of what our strengths and weaknesses are, let’s discuss our strategy. However, having the flexibility of being able to complete both Objectives opens a lot of doors for us. Give his video a watch, maybe he'll make more! This serves two purposes; getting to use 2 Combat Cards per combat, and preventing our opponents from coming right back to fight us to gain an easy victory for them. (I should say all other factions were very weak except Crimea whom I avoided until the final round, so I never needed two mechs in a battle.) – We sell a growing range of Tasmanian-made products. [Combat Star]. February 2, 2017 January 10, 2017. With our mech and faction abilities considered, we want to make sure we optimize what we’re doing in fights. This is encouraging because Saxony thrives with getting mechs out, and going for a Mech Star is optimal. And the caveat of having to be on a Tunnel hex also seems fairly limiting. NOTE: from here on out the game will have too many variables to consider, so I’m going to highlight what happened in my playthrough. The next round (7) was like my birthday. Look no further! MOVE: Mechs to combat with (same faction) on non-Tunnel hex. I didn’t have the popularity to spend on the bottom option and the middle one was going to give us a worker, which at this point would start costing us a popularity to produce – which would mean we’d have to spend a turn to get popularity just to do our final produce action. But it seems like you took it in stride. We appreciate the compliments, and we’ll be continuing to bring you more strategies and insights into Scythe, as it happens to be one of our favorite games. Your email address will not be published. Deploy (Riverwalk on Village). [Combat Star]. Polania Agricultural 16 Turns - Scythe Board Game - Duration: 1:05:03. I think I only had to miss one build opportunity due to lack of resources. Not an easy task considering we’ll only have 1 power – but with 4 Combat Cards we can send two mechs to gang up on a hex. PRODUCE: 1 Metal, 1 Oil. Produce (Village, Mountain). With “Fortschritt” farm machines, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery had its corporate head-quarters in Saxony since the 1960s. Saxony’s starting zone might not be ideal for other factions, but it suffices for what Saxony thrives on. Prints of Agriculture in Thuringia, Scythes, Fields in Saxony, Timber framed houses in Thuringia #18858626 Framed Prints, Posters, Canvas, Puzzles, Metal, Photo Gifts and Wall Art MOVE: Hero to Village Encounter outside of base, two mechs from base Mountain to combat with Albion [Combat Star]. Now, for those unfamiliar with the advantages of early to mid game combats, I’ll inform you that Power is rarely above 7 for any faction. DEPLOY: Riverwalk Mech. Objective (1), Combats (3), Worker. Take up the role of leader by assuming command of one of 5 factions, and set out to conquer the coveted "Factory". Stars (6): Mech, Objective, Combat (3), Workers. However; since there are so many variables, I’ll just be listing the turns I had in my playthrough. Actually, the entirety of Scythe is fairly well balanced, so they start in a distinctly neutral place. PRODUCE:1 Metal, 1 Oil. Nordic had two tiles of undefended workers with 3 wood and 3 food between them. Art. The Nordic mech had 3 lumber with him, so I used it to build at the end of our move action. Well, I learned a lot, and I’m sure you did as well. However; due to the combative needs of Saxony, Power likely will be in short supply for a Star. The first builds a lot more on economy, while the second is a full on rush assault on other factions. As such, we have to be smart and make the most of our move actions to get workers where they need to be, and make the most of our actions in between our constant assault. Every Move was a ranked choice. Mar 2, 2020 - Finally, the last faction in the base game, the Saxony Empire! Also, it takes six upgrades to get the Upgrade Star – which means we’d likely have to spend additional turns to get there through moving workers and trading until we can produce enough. DEPLOY: Speed Mech on Mountain. As we look at them we need to ask: It’s always best to have a semblance of a plan in mind with objectives. Check out Discord tournament winner Joydivision as he plays through on Saxony Industrial: Typically, there are a lot of things that need to be in our favor to make it possible to actually win, and not just annoy all the other players until they take turns stomping us into the ground. We know that moving is a guarantee in Scythe, and having this top and bottom row combo has some ups and downs: Upside; the Build action is typically tough as there can only ever be one structure on any given hex; however, having the Build action after a move is helpful because we can always reposition our workers to open hexes before the structure goes up saving us potential turns. Lets call these the Five Tenets of Combat for a victorious Saxony: So what does our Saxony strategy for combat look like in action? Saved from boardgamegeek.com. MOVE: Mech that lost from off board to combat on same Tunnel via Underpass. You need at least 3 upgrades to make bolster power/cc and movement better. Second Row; Produce / Deploy (3 Metal) + $2. FOMOF 583 views A.) Polania can only access Lakes after several moves and Submerge. With Disarm, all fights on Tunnels are to your advantage, so lure your opponents in. BUILD: Mill on my base Village. Agricultural Togawa works surprisingly well. 11-mrt-2018 - Scythe Pianted Miniatures (Saxony Empire) 11-mrt-2018 - Scythe Pianted Miniatures (Saxony Empire) 11-mrt-2018 - Scythe Pianted Miniatures (Saxony Empire) Explore. And a stagnant Saxony is a dull Saxony. MOVE: Hero to Encounter (Forest, not Village), Mechs retreat to distant Tunnels or press attack and resource stealing. Has really given me a deeper appreciation for the game. Almost without exception, these tactics rely totally on getting three combats or getting two objectives complete to get our six stars. I also saw this as my chance to complete one of my objectives, so I opted to fight Albion since they were on a Tundra and then I only needed to acquire one additional Tundra hex with my other mech. However, if we go there first, on our next move we can get right back to the Village Encounter in our base, and have much better move potential from that spot. OBJECTIVES: Stockpile for the Winter, Harvest Advantage. I only split our mechs here because no other faction had the ability to attack us on the Tunnels and Polania had no mechs (Speed most importantly), so they weren’t able to reach our mech in their base. First, the Stars we’re most likely to get are important to see before the game begins. From there on it was just bouncing back and forth between Move/Build and Bolster/Upgrade. Built Monument on my mountain. As well, getting a worker essentially saves us one produce action toward getting our 8 workers, as later on we typically would have to do one additional produce beyond our need for production to get that Worker Star. That being said, you really need the enlis… Without easy combats and objectives, I believe this strategy could stall out and force us to take the game into more rounds. Had 1 structure and 1 upgrade remaining, but opted to spend the last round taking land & resources for a quick boost to final score. Use your mech abilities to their fullest. Since there’s a heavy reliance on combats, don’t burn through your power and combat cards aimlessly. To offset this, I tried to play this game like the opposing factions were real players. MOVE: Hero and Mech to Combat against Crimea, move worker for additional hex. country * Which country did you win with? https://startyourmeeples.com/2018/01/11/scythe-strategy-polania-republic Today I am going to be writing up a game of Scythe I played recently as the Saxony Empire. A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or gleaning crops.It has largely been replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia.. Dominate: There is no limit to the amount of Stars you can place from completing Objectives and winning combat. In between our attacks, we need to develop a stream of combat cards and/or power in order to keep it up with any rate of success. It is made from UPGRADE: Bolster / Enlist. Character went to the forest encounter nearest base, paid coin for metal. Other faction loses 2 Power again from our Disarm ability, so now they’re down to 1 Power and 3 Combat Cards. I think timing your first attack is key…too early, and your too weak afterward, too late and your opponent is too strong. For this combo, it would be ideal to avoid food as we won’t be trading and enlisting and that would add another turn to our gameplan. Since this was on a Tunnel, it means we got to use “Disarm,” and our next move action, this mech will still be on this Tunnel to use “Disarm” on again. They bid only a 3 Combat Card. Stockpile for the Winter” however, not so much. Something a lot of players mistakenly do is disregard their objectives as far more optional than they should. MOVE: Hero to base Village Encounter, worker from Mountain to Village, and Mech in Polania’s base to Mountain Tunnel with our other mech.