Game stratgies

The most standard TRA is the Move action movement outlined below. This is because there will never be a game when a player doesn move though, I can imagine someone trying to challenge this.

Along with Move is an option to opt to Gain Coin instead. While Gain Coin is fairly rarely used, it can have its benefits or strategic uses.

The second most standard TRA is the Produce action. Production gains you the number of resources as workers on a standard hex outlined below. Regardless, each player starts out being able to Produce on up to two hexes. Additionally, each production costs the player a specific amount based on how many workers have been put onto the board workers outlined below.

Simply put, for every two additional workers put on the board a player has to pay the amount uncovered by the worker units. For example, once 4 workers are on the board, each Produce action costs that player 1 Power. And once all 8 workers are on the board, it will cost that player 1 Power, 1 Popularity, and 1 Coin for every Produce action thereafter.

The third most common TRA is the Trade action. Trading allows a player to pay 1 Coin to gain any two resources outlined below of their choice. Along with that, a player may instead Trade for Popularity instead of standard resources. For example, a player wants to use the BRA beneath Trade but has no need to gain resources.

They can instead opt to pay 1 Coin to gain 1 Popularity 2 if unlocked by Upgrade. Bolster allows a player to gain 2 Power 3 with Upgrade unlock by paying 1 Coin. Bolstering gives that player a boost to their total Power which allows them to be more formidable in combat. A player may instead opt to Bolster for a Combat Card instead of Power two cards with an upgrade. The Upgrade action allows a player to unlock and discount aspects of their player mat. The player can choose from any of six top row action upgrade cubes and move that down to any of six bottom row action resource icons.

To do this, a player must pay the amount of Oil specific to their player mat. On some mats, upgrading gives that player a gain of coin, while on others there is no gain. The Deploy action allows a player to place a mech on a hex occupied by at least one worker. The player can choose from any mechs still available to them. This will simultaneously unlock the mech ability associated with that mech outlined below. To do this, a player must pay Metal in varying amounts based on the player mat and any upgrades that have discounted this cost.

On some player mats, deploying a mech gives that player a gain of coin. On other player mats there is no gain. The Build action allows a player to place a structure from their player mat onto a hex with at least one worker and no other structures.

That being said, a player may not put a structure on a Lake hex. To take this action, a player must pay the amount of Lumber specific to their player mat. On some mats, building gives that player a gain of coin, while on others there is no gain. The Enlist action allows a player to unlock any of four recruit cylinders on their mat. These are located in the bottom right of each action row. What this does is allows that player to henceforth gain the added benefit under that marker. Not only when they complete an unlocked BRA, but also when opposing players to their direct left and right play that BRA.

To take this action, a player must pay the amount of Food specific to their player mat. On some mats, enlisting gives that player a gain of coin, while on others there is no gain. Listed below are the specifics of each player mat including some highlights and potential strategies. The Agricultural Player Mat starts a player off with 4 Popularity and 7 Coin with a turn priority of 5.

Not to mention, the Enlist action is widely considered the most beneficial BRA on any player mat. Aside from that, the Agricultural mat has the Upgrade action beneath the Move action. This allows a player to have the option to include an upgrade or two into their typical turn sequence without spending additional turns to do so. Finally, it has the Trade action above Deploy. Although deployment is expensive at 4 Metal on this mat, having the Trade there can help with having quick access to necessary additional Metal to complete a Deploy action.

As an added bonus, the Deploy action can be discounted down to only 2 Metal with two Upgrades making the potential for getting a mech out a single seamless turn.

Adding in a couple turns to Upgrade the cost of enlisting or deploying down will also go a long way. The Engineering Player Mat starts a player off with 2 Popularity and 5 Coin with a turn priority of 2. As an added bonus, the Build action can be discounted down to only 1 Lumber with two upgrades. But even more amazing is that with a single Enlist toward the Build action and having a Monument built, this column is one of the highest gains in Scythe with a potential of 3 Power, 3 Coin, and 2 Popularity per use.

Move over Enlist is important because it means a player can Enlist when moving as opposed to having to use a different action on an additional turn.

While, Trade being over Deploy means that getting mechs out can happen regardless of ease of Metal production. The Power and Build Stars are on the table, but really only easy for factions that have quick access to Forest hexes. The Industrial Player Mat starts a player off with 2 Popularity and 4 Coin with a turn priority of 1. The player will also gain 2 Coins from this action and has the ability to discount their Deploy action down to only 1 Metal after two upgrades.

To be clear on the lack of speed, a player would have to spend six turns using the Upgrade action in order to get the Upgrade Star. Despite this, with an Enlist toward the Upgrade action and a Monument, a player could churn out 4 Power, 3 Coin, and 1 Popularity each time this column is used.

Also, both Deploy and Enlist can be discounted down in cost with Upgrades, making them even more valuable. Additionally, more advanced players consider the Innovative player mat the strongest in the game. The reasoning behind this solely falls in line with these two columns, and the results speak for themselves as the Innovative mat makes it possible to have victories in as short as 12 rounds with most factions in competitive games.

Having the Trade action right above Upgrade only makes this mat more valuable as it means players need only produce 1 Oil before taking an action to Upgrade. The Mechanical Player Mat starts a player off with 3 Popularity and 6 Coin with a turn priority of 4. As a bonus, the player also gains 2 Coin per action, and Enlist can be discounted down to only 2 Food with two upgrades.

The benefit is the player gets good Power gains from getting mechs on the board, which synergize well together for combat situations. The Power Star can also be an added bonus if a player can get an Upgrade to increase their Bolster action. As a bonus, the Deploy action can be discounted down to 2 Metal. Additionally, the Enlist action can be discounted down to only 1 Food with two upgrades, and it has a decent coin gain.

Suggested Strategy: With the Militant mat, players would benefit a great deal from focusing on their Mech and Enlist Stars.

Along with that, a player gains a decent amount of coin from this column, and their Enlist can be discounted down to 2 Food with an upgrade. Meanwhile, upgrades start as the cheapest a BRA can be initially and they drastically cut down on the needed resources for our other strong rows. As well, they fall under the Move action making for a lot of streamlined turns and gain a player some coin.

Suggested Strategy: For the Patriotic mat, a player would benefit going for the Enlist Star as well as the Mech Star, and as a bonus may be able to pull off the Power Star. That being said, players would be wise to prioritize early upgrades while moving workers to ideal positions for productions. Choosing faction and player mats are actually a big deal in the game of Scythe. As such, some factions and player mats have clear advantages over the other choices available.

As well, some faction and mat combinations can be overpowered. Because of this, players should really hone in on making the most of this choosing process. There are different variants to picking faction and player mats before starting a game.

According to the official Scythe rule book, random selection is the preferred method of games. The reasoning behind this is that it prevents the first players to pick from being able to utilize the best mat synergies. I would add that this method is the most interesting to more seasoned players as it allows for more attention to general strategy knowledge.

Other clever methods can involve removing one of each mat and then rolling a six sided die for each pile. For newer players, it may be best to get comfortable with a specific faction and player mat combination. In such cases, it can help players learn the game faster by avoiding a lot of the more detailed rules and variants. Just simply choose what factions and mats players prefer and roll with that until the rules of the game seem to make more sense. An addition to the game that long time players have implemented is the bidding variant.

In many cases, these variants have helped make the games more fair as well as have added additional pre-game tactics. Most commonly, the bidding variant works based on how players want to combine the factions and mats, whether randomly or intentionally.

The balancing element to this is the players then have to subtract that amount from their end game score. Then, players take turns placing a coin next to whatever they want to bid for.

Once it gets to where a player is the highest bidder, they pass until someone bids higher for that combination. And so on until all players have a highest bid combination. On the Digital Edition, this can be accomplished by using this app created by Discord player SmugSkull , and then creating a non-ranked game where the players then pick the faction and mat combinations they bid for.

Players then subtract the amount they bid from the endgame scores and total them to find out the winner. The reasoning behind banned combinations are due to their ability to consistently win games fast with little to no opponent interaction or interference.

The Scythe game board is a rich tapestry of art, icons, and details. Below is a quick guide to help players navigate their way. The first thing players will notice is that the game board is divided up into a honeycomb of hexagons. Each of these hexagons are commonly referred to as hexes or territories and they are important for the sake of in-game placements as well as end game scoring.

In addition to that, each hex is considered a single type, mainly for the purpose of resource production. The different types of hexes are listed below and include the applicable resource they can produce:. In addition to the different hex types, hexes have icons displayed on them to show various additional abilities. As such, some hexes may have both an icon for its type of hex as well as a variant ability. Players will notice the type is listed at the top of a hex, where any additional icons are positioned to the mid-bottom of a hex.

Hexes with the Tunnel icon have the ability of being treated like they are adjacent to one another. This means, a player can move from one hex with a Tunnel icon to another with a Tunnel icon on it in a single move.

Tunnels are primarily used for movement as such, but are also important to certain Objectives and some Structure Bonuses as far as building placement. Those hexes with the compass icon get Encounter tokens placed on them. Primarily, these are used to indicate which hexes a player can receive Encounters from, but they are also important to some Structure Bonuses and end game scoring in player games. Surrounding the tabletop game board are three different tracks, or side bars, that are used to indicate faction Popularity, Stars gained, and faction Power.

On the Digital Edition, these tracks can be optionally removed as game stats are displayed in a drop down menu. Starting with the far left of the board, the Popularity track displays a numerical gauge from 0 — This is separated between 6 and 7 as well as 12 and This tracks the Popularity of each faction in a particular game, and marks the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Tiers of Popularity for end game scoring. At the bottom players will notice a quick pictorial guide showing how Popularity affects the end game scoring based on which tier a particular faction falls into.

At the top left of the game board, the Triumph Track displays how many Stars each faction has accomplished and for what possible scoring category. Simply stated, this section is where players place their Stars when they complete their Star-based actions.

There is also a notable marking on the row of 7 which is to indicate the maximum amount of Power any faction can bid in a single combat. Additionally, there are non-standard resources such as Coin, Power, and Popularity which are still paid as a cost, but for different reasons. With standard resources like Food and Metal, Scythe requires players leave their resources on the hexes of the game board. As such, this brings in a lot of strategy for protecting these resources as well as moving them about.

Additionally, a resource is considered abandoned and unusable if a player moves all units off the hex where it resides. As has already been outlined, Popularity is a means of end game scoring. Such cases may be something like having 6 or more worker units on the board and having to pay Popularity in order to use the Produce action. For Encounters, Popularity can be a type of currency for some of the more beneficial options. Additionally, Popularity can be gained as a means of reward for Encounters as well as Enlistments and Building unlocks.

Power can be gained and used much the same as Popularity, though it is irrelevant in endgame scoring. It can also be gained by actions such as Bolstering, as a bonus for an Enlist or Building unlock, from an ability, or Encounter. Additionally, Power can be spent in situations such as the Produce action once a faction had 4 or more workers on the board, or primarily on combination bidding.

Represented as a gray ingot, Metal is gained from Trade or Produce actions on Mountain hexes, and can also be gained from Encounters.

Metal is primarily used in the cost of completing the Deploy action for mechs. Represented as a blue oil drum, Oil is gained from Trade or Produce actions on Tundra hexes, and can also be gained from Encounters. Oil is primarily used in the cost of completing the Upgrade action.

Represented as a yellow bag of grain, food is gained from Trade or Produce actions on Farm hexes, and can also be gained from Encounters.

Food is primarily used in the cost of completing the Enlist action to gain recruits. Represented as a brown log, Lumber is gained from Trade or Produce actions on Forest hexes, and can also be gained from Encounters. Lumber is primarily used in the cost of completing the Build action to gain a structure.

The game of Scythe has a variety of different cards. The purpose of each type of card is based on what category it falls under. Each type of card adds a different element of strategy to the game, as each type has its own high and low points.

Encounter Cards add varying elements of random benefits to each game of Scythe. Every Encounter Card displays three options and a small story a player can choose from in order to gain some benefit. Typically, Encounters are structured as follows:. But generally, the best options for players are the second and third choices on a card. As an exception to this rule, sometimes getting the first choice is the best option.

Regardless, not every Encounter is an overall opportunity or benefit. There are some pitfalls to choices and Encounter Cards in general that players can avoid by being observant.

For example, a player paying to deploy their final mech when they already have the resources or will be using the TRA that deploy is under anyway such as the Produce action to get the Worker Star.

In such a case, the player just wasted resources and a better choice on the Encounter Card. Playing too timid is something newer players tend to do. The idea of spending Coin or Popularity on the second or third choices on an Encounter Card may seem wasteful. As such, they opt only for the first choices which are always straight up gains without a cost. Not spending Popularity is only of benefit if a player is just above 7 or 13 and in Tier-2 or 3 Popularity scoring.

For example, taking an option for 4 Lumber when the Build action is nestled under something like Bolstering. Sure, bolstering for some Power and getting a structure might be an added bonus, but does that player actually need those? Some cards offer a worker in addition to resources, and in some cases this is a benefit. In those other cases though, players will opt to take the worker so they feel like they are getting the best deal — even when it hurts them.

If a player is uncertain as to whether a worker will be of benefit, ask these questions. Will this worker help me Produce on this Encounter hex where they get placed?

Will this worker being out disrupt my sequence of getting other workers out? Almost every newer player gets it in their head that getting a ton of discounted and free resources through Encounters is a great strategy.

This however is false. One of those times is when a player has more resources than they can use in the next couple turns. Another is when a player is spending every other turn moving to get Encounters and accomplishing nothing else. In either case, players who do this get left behind in scoring and end up finishing the game in lower places.

The cards received from the Factory are on an altogether different level, and at first glance, they may even seem like they break the rules of the game. Believe it or not, this is totally intentional. The Factory Cards, as they are known, tend to cover a wide array of specific bonuses and in a lot of ways, can be considered similar to the benefit from an Encounter Card that you can repeat.

Upon their first time occupying this hex, they can pick from the available pool of Factory Cards which should be the number of players in the game plus one during pre-game setup. Once a player secretly looks at the available cards, they pick one and place it beside their player mat as an additional option to their actions. The Factory Card then acts as an extension to the player mat, following the same rules and limitations.

The general layout of a Factory Card is a top row action that requires a player to pay a resource or two to provide a variety of potential gains. Just as in every other aspect of Scythe, there are strategies surrounding picking and using Factory Cards. The best general wisdom in picking a Factory Card comes down to players finding one that helps them achieve a Star. The reasoning behind this is that a player can potentially complete a Star from having nothing towards that Star in 4 consecutive turns along with their other BRA.

A player with the Patriotic player mat row with Produce above Enlist has three workers on a Farm hex and gets Factory Card 2. At the start of each game, all players will receive two Objective Cards. These cards have a variety of differing tasks including but not limited to the occupation of specific hexes or having a specific amount of resources.

Each player can only complete one Objective of the two per game with the exception of Saxony, who can complete both , and if a player manages to complete one, they get a Star for it. As such, Objective Cards are frequently in the forefront of strategy planning for any particular game.

Just like every part of Scythe, Objective Cards have a lot of strategy behind them. Because of this, there are some simple overarching themes players can be aware of that may help them make the most of the cards they receive. Some start with four while others start with zero. Because of this, Combat Cards have differing values with each faction. This would results as the best strategy of XYZ. When XYZ increases its prices, it would earn Rs. Therefore, it is better for XYZ to make its price constant so that it can earn more.

The dominant strategy- for XYZ is to keep the prices of its products constant. On the other hand, the dominant strategy- of ABC would also be to keep the price constant.

This is because ABC would incur losses if it increases the prices of its products. While analyzing games, the player who has adopted the dominant strategy is identified and then the strategies of other players in the game are judged on the basis of the dominant strategy. However, the existence of the dominant strategy in every game is not possible.

On the other hand, a dominated strategy is the one that provides players the least payoff as compared to other strategies in a game. In the analysis of the game theory, dominated strategies are identified so that they can be eliminated from the game.

Let us understand the dominated strategy with the help of an example. Now, assume that there are only two plays left and the ball is with the offense team. In this case, the offense team would adopt two strategies; one is to run and another is to pass. On the other hand, the defense team would have three strategies; one is to defend against running, defend against pass through line-backers and defend against pass through quarterback blitz. In Table-4, the numerical value represents the goals made by the offense team.

In this case, neither offense nor defense team have a dominant strategy. However, the defense team does have one dominated strategy that is quarterback blitz. Either in case of defending run or pass, quarterback blitz strategy would yield more goals to the offense team.

Therefore, the defense team should avoid quarterback blitz strategy. Dominated strategy helps in making the analysis of game easier by reducing the number of options. As we know, the main aim of every organization is to earn maximum profit. However, in the highly competitive market, such as oligopoly, organizations strive to reduce the risk factor. This is done by adopting the strategy that increases the probability of minimum outcome. Such a strategy is termed as maximin strategy. In other words, maximin strategy is the one in which a player or organization maximizes the probability of minimum profit so that the degree of risk can be reduced.

Let us understand the maximin strategy with the help of an example. Suppose two organizations, A and B, want to launch a new product in a duopoly market. In Table-5, it is assumed that the main motive of both the organizations is to maximize their profits. Let us first analyze the outcome of organization B. Organization B would earn profit of Rs.

However, if organization B launches a new product, then it would earn profit of Rs. Therefore, the minimum gain of organization B is Rs. Similarly, the minimum gain of A is Rs. Maximin strategy is not used only for profit maximization problems, but it is also used for restricting the unrealistic and highly unfavorable outcomes.

For applying the maximin strategy, firstly, an organization needs to identify the minimum output or profit that it would get from a particular strategy. Table-5 shows that the minimum output for organization A is Rs. However, if it launches a new product, the minimum output would be Rs. On the other hand, organization B also has the same amount of profit in both the cases.

Now, both the organizations, A and B, would find out the strategy that would yield them maximum of the minimum output. Sudden Strike 2. Space Trader. Naval Warfare.

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