Players: 1-5
Ages: 14+
Official Playtime: 90-115 min (which is pretty accurate)
Released: 2016
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
BGG Link: here.
Reviewed by Edward.

👉Read other Game Reviews here.

Disclosure and foreword

1. I own a copy of "Scythe," which I bought myself. At the time of publishing this review, I don't have any affiliations with the game's creators or publishers. The opinions in this review are my own. Find the Review Policy here.

2. I try to be as objective as possible, but the review is based on my personal experience and includes opinions you might disagree with. If you do, let us know in the comments below.

3. Scythe has a solo mode and optional expansions. However, I have not played the game in solo mode or with any expansions, so the review focuses on the standard multiplayer games without expansions.

4. The review does not teach how to play Scythe. This review does not fully detail all mechanics or teach how to play the game. It looks at the most important aspects, elements, and mechanics, providing an overall idea of the game's value so you can evaluate whether the game might be a good fit for you.

5. The article includes our original images. If you want to use them in your blog or socials, use attribution by linking to this article and "Joyful Games" as the image's creator.

Let's Find Out How Good And Fun "Scythe" is!

Scythe from Stonemaier Games was one of the most talked-about games almost 10 years ago! So, obviously, I am late to the party when writing this review in late 2024.

However, it is still a popular board game among enthusiasts and semi-enthusiast board gamers, so I am sure the review might interest a decent amount of readers.

So, let's see how this established board game holds up 8 years after its release!

Scythe, Explained to a 10-Year-Old

Scythe is not particularly a great game for kids, but you can play it with a 10 year old who has experience in other strategy board games.

In this pseudo-historical war game, you'll team up with a fictional country or Europa resembling one of five European power countries of the early 1900-s and try to earn the most money at the end of the game. You'll do that through bolstering your popularity and power, controlling territories on the board, and more.

Skill Level: How Difficult Is it to Learn Scythe?

Difficulty Rating: 3/5

• The game has a decent amount of specific rules and situational sub-rules.
• Most of the mechanisms are straightforward and can be taught quickly, but some specific situations and definitions may let you pick up the instruction book during your first playthroughs. 
• When playing the game, only a few elements require reading (Encounter cards, Action board), so it is a fairly good game to play with players who don't understand the game's language.
• In our experience, we had some misunderstanding of some mechanisms and situations, but they were cleared up the end of our first playthrough.
• The rulebook is well-written, and you can also find many tutorials on the internet.
• Overall, the game has a decent number of mechanisms but relatively few sub-rules. It's quite eacy to learn if you already know other medium-complexity strategy games.
• Overall, I give it a complexity rating of 3.5/5. (higher means it is more complex). 

Related: Methods for Learning Complicated Board Games.

Social Interactivity of Scythe

Social Rating: 3.5/5

At its core, Scythe is a war game, so it requires social interactions- sometimes voluntary, other times involuntary. Sometimes direct, sometimes - indirect. That being said, it is possible to play Scythe with few interactions and still win.

On the main board, players compete for tiles where they can move units, build buildings, earn/use resources, and fight other players. They also compete to gain control in segments, which in turn provide other opportunities. 

In addition to action on the main board, players also take action on their player boards. It's a well-balanced mix because you can do a lot using your player board only and a lot on the main board, effectively requiring you to utilize both elements.

Overall, depending on your own and your opponent's playstyle, it is possible to play the game with few direct interactions with other players by focusing your actions near your base and quickly utilizing resources, but especially for 4+ player games, you'd like to have at least a little bit of direct business with other players.

Scythe, Best Number of Players

With the expansion, Scythe can be played with up to seven players, but the main game is played with up to 5 players. Usually, when it comes to board games, more players equals more fun. Scythe is no exception in this case.

Although many actions can be taken regardless of other players, when playing with three or more players, you'll be more likely to fight for resources and board tiles. So, the race for the most tiles, highest power, popularity, and, ultimately, the most money intensifies when you are competing with more opponents.

Depending on this information, some will find 3 to 4-player games more adequate, allowing them more freedom of choice, while others will like the heads-on one-on-one games.

Of course, more players will result in a longer playthrough, but that is not a bad thing, because the overall pacing is quite fast. In my playthroughs, we rarely got stuck on analysis-paralysis.

That being said, while I enjoyed 3 to 4-player games the most, for this game, I think it plays quite well in all player counts (note: I have not played it in solo mode, so I cannot comment on single-player games)

What Did I Enjoy the Most About Scythe?

Player Boards

Before the game, each player picks (or randomly draws) 2 player-boards - one faction mat and one player mat. Each of them have slight variations introducing asymmetrical gameplay elements.

These boards will set your starting places on the main board, provide you with your starting stats (power, gold, popularity), and introduce some attributes unique to your faction and/or player mat.

In addition, the player mats are well-designed and double-layered, making them very convenient to use.

All this makes up for satisfying asymmetrical gameplay and increased replay value with a convenient yet functional design.

Action Taking Mechanism

To continue from the previous section, your actions are depicted on the Player Mats and cleverly sorted in 4 columns (with the possibility of getting a 5th one after gaining control of the Factory). Each column presents 2 Actions (top row and bottom row). While this explanation might seem complicated, when actually playing the game, this structure makes for a really satisfying playing experience.

Miniatures

Each Faction in Scythe is represented by a set of plastic miniatures - each faction gets its leader and four mechs, and the great thing is - they are unique for each faction. And if you like painting - you can paint them as well. In total, you'll get 25 miniatures (5 for each faction).

Little Luck Elements

While it's not a bad thing to include luck and random elements in a board game, Scythe plays well without them. Basically, the only random in-game element is the Encounter cards, but even those still allow you to choose one of three bonuses. 

Organized & Well-Written Rulebook

While the rulebook is not the most exciting part of a board game, it is an essential part nonetheless. The included rulebook is well-written, with illustrations and detailed explanations. Yes, there were a few situational rules that we needed to look for on forums, but for the most part, the rulebook is very good.

Relatively Quick Setup

Sure, when playing it the first time, the setup might be a bit longer, but the next setups should be a breeze as the elements are well coded, and it is well explained in the rulebook.

To recap, the key highlights of Scythe

• Strategic gameplay with little luck elements;
• Player boards with asymmetric elements;
• Nice looking miniatures;
• Quality materials;
• Quick setup;

What Could Be Better?

Overall, Scythe is a refined and fun game, but, in my opinion, there are some key points that should be addressed.

Batting is Hit and Miss

Although Scythe revolves mostly around resource management, it is also a war game, and the battles are—at least on paper—a key element of the game. However, in my experience, the battles are underwhelming. Don't get me wrong—the battling system is not bad, but it's not very useful. Especially in 2- to 3-player games, there is actually little reason to have battles at all. 

But I am sure that other players like this system. As I said, it's not bad, but I think it could be better.

Missed Opportunity on the Main Board

This is not particularly a bad thing, but it is a missed opportunity. Respectively, the game comes with a dual-sided playing board, but the other side is just an enlarged version of the A side (well, half of it. You need to buy the other part of it separately).

I think that it would be much better to make the B side different from the A side - adding alternate and asymmetric elements. This would add more value to the vast majority of players.

Replayability of Scythe

Replayability Rating: 3.5/5

Scythe offers a decent amount of base actions, and the player boards add on asymmetric punch to the game, so it is a relatively repayable game. However, the limited randomness elements, limit the replay value.

Our first five playthroughs felt fresh, as each time, we were able to pick new factions, change our strategies, and change our game style.

That being said, the game introduces limited randomness (basically, the only significant random factor is the encounter cards), so probably 5-10 playthroughs would be the max. until it becomes repetitive.

By that I don't mean, it will become boring - especially the 4+ player games still are fun after even 10 games as the completeness keeps it fun, but after the mentioned 5-10 games, you probably will have explored all (or most) of what this game has to offer.

Overall, I give it a replayability rating of 3.5/5.

P.s., Scythe has optional expansions that increase the replay value, but I have not played any expansion, so this review do not account the expansion.

Scythe - Components and Art

Components

The core game of Scythe includes quite a lot. It has a big playing board, five player mats, five faction boards, 25 plastic figures (5 for each faction), 80 wooden resource tokens, more than 90 cards, two battle dials, a bunch of cut-out tokens, and, of course, an instruction book. 

You'll also receive a decent amount of plastic zip-lock bags, which will allow you to conveniently organize and store all the elements straight out of the box.

Overall, Scythe contains quite a lot - from wooden tokens to cut-out tokens to even plastic figures.

P.S. If you want to increase the bling value, you can get the optional metal coin and realistic resource token packs, which are quite costly.

Art and Design

The game is illustrated in a painting-style design depicting pseudo-historical Europe of early 1900s. The illustrations are gray-ish with brown tones illustrating the the grimm reality of war stricken Europe of this time period.

While some players might dislike the grim tones, the art is consistent across the board. The playing board, cards, and instructions are professionally illustrated, so if you are not against such an art style, you will probably enjoy how the game looks.

In addition, the elements and text on the cards are clearly visible, the resources have unique colors and forms, and the cards are printed on quality paper, so overall, Scythe definitely holds up in the art and design department.

Value & Final Rating of Scythe

To know how good of a value a game is, we must consider its price. 

Scythe is a very popular game that has been available for some time now, but its price varies a lot. When it came out, it cost well over 100 USD, and it was a very expensive game, but currently, I have seen it on sale for less than 80 USD (however, that is an exception). For this review, let's use the average price of 100 USD.

Scythe: Value For Money

Value Rating: 4/5

As explained, the price for Scythe varies significantly, and so does its value accordingly, but for this review, I am using 100 USD as a reference price, which includes 80-90 USD for the game and a potential 10-20 USD for shipping.

The game includes a fair number of cards, a cut-out element, a big playing board, professional illustrations, and 25 plastic miniatures, so it is a packed game. However, for 100 USD, it's not that impressive. It's nice, but the plastic figures are quite small, and other elements are nice but standard for this price point.

That said, I'd say the content value is adequate—not bad, not exceptionally good. But considering the polished mechanics, fun gameplay, and many tokens, I think it is still a great value game.

Scythe, Final Rating: 4/5

Scythe is a relatively old board game, so it would not be a surprise if you had heard some things about it. Given its rating on BGG, I am sure they are good things for the most part.

And I can agree—Scythe is a good game if not a great one! It is well-designed and balanced, includes good-quality materials, and is quite simply fun. 

It mixes a lot of mechanics (worker placement, resource management, battling, area control, and more), so if you like managing resources, controlling tiles on the board, and a bit of battling - it's for you. That is if you can stomach its high price.

The bottom line is that its high price and relatively low replay value reduce some points from the perfect rating, but overall, I can wholeheartedly give it a respectable 4/5 rating, making it a great game.

Most likely, Scythe is not for players who:

• Strictly enjoy laid-back games;
• Dislike competitive games;
• Dislike grim/grayish design;
• Simply hate the war theme;

Otherwise, Scythe is an excellent choice for players who:

• Strive in conflict;
• Love mixing multiple mechanics;
• Mildly enjoy battling other players;
• Like having minis on the board;
• Like the war theme.

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