Scythe

Scythe gets compared to Root a lot in my group and I finally understand why after enough plays of both. Root leans hard into area control with engine building bolted on the side, Scythe is the reverse, it’s an engine building game first and the map fighting is the garnish, controlled and rarely as debilitating as the mech minis on the box suggest. If you buy this expecting a war game you’ll be a little disappointed by how rarely combat actually happens.

The faction asymmetry is real but uneven, which is my main gripe. I played the Polish faction at two players once and their ability felt busted, genuinely too strong, then tried the same faction at five and it barely mattered. A game this reliant on faction identity for replay value should probably have caught that gap in playtesting, and it’s the kind of thing that makes me hesitate before recommending a specific faction to a new player without knowing the table size first.

Production is the reason most people buy this and it’s deserved, the resin minis, the coin and resource design, the encounter cards are all genuinely lovely. I do think the dual sided map insert, the extended board printed on the back of the standard one, is a bit of an upsell dressed as a feature. Either commit to the bigger map as standard or don’t offer it half-baked on the flip side, I don’t need two options I’m only ever going to use one of.

Mechs have real heft in hand, good weighty resin, satisfying to place down with a small thud when you finish a build action. Doesn’t travel light though, this box is dense with cardboard and plastic and it’s staying on my shelf, not coming to a friend’s place in a backpack.

Four stars, my most played engine builder even with the faction balance gripe still nagging at me.