Mastering a Turn is the Key to Victory
One of the biggest mistakes new Scythe players make is not fully understanding the structure of a turn. Each action you take can dramatically affect your strategy, economy, and position on the board. Want to ensure you maximize every move? This guide will walk you through a full gameplay turn, breaking down each phase to help you optimize your decision-making and dominate your opponents.
Understanding the Turn Structure
In Scythe, each player takes turns one at a time in a clockwise order. A turn consists of three key phases:
- Action Selection: Choosing a section on your player mat.
- Top-Row Action: Executing economic, movement, or trade actions.
- Bottom-Row Action: Deploying mechs, upgrading, enlisting, or building structures.
Each faction has slight variations in these actions, making decision-making unique to each player. Let’s break down what happens in a typical turn.
Step 1: Selecting Your Action
Each player has a player mat divided into four sections, each containing a top-row and bottom-row action. On your turn:
- Move your action token to a different section than your last turn.
- Decide whether you will execute just the top-row action, just the bottom-row action, or both.
- Ensure you can pay any required resource costs before selecting your action.
Choosing wisely is crucial, as pairing strong top-row and bottom-row actions together can give you an edge.
Step 2: Performing a Top-Row Action
Top-row actions focus on resource management and economy. The four primary top-row actions are:
- Move: Move up to two units across the board.
- Bolster: Gain power or combat cards.
- Trade: Gain resources or popularity.
- Produce: Generate resources or workers in controlled territories.
Players should consider which top-row action best suits their current game plan—do you need more resources for upgrades, or is movement your priority?
Step 3: Executing a Bottom-Row Action
Bottom-row actions are more powerful and focus on long-term strategy. They include:
- Upgrade: Improve a top-row action while reducing a bottom-row action’s cost.
- Deploy: Place a mech on the board and unlock new abilities.
- Build: Construct a building for additional benefits.
- Enlist: Gain an ongoing benefit and bonuses from neighboring players.
Since bottom-row actions cost resources, players must plan ahead to ensure they can afford these crucial upgrades.
Step 4: Resolving Movement and Combat
If you chose the Move action, you may move up to two of your units across adjacent territories. However:
- Workers cannot enter enemy-occupied spaces.
- Characters and mechs can enter enemy spaces, triggering combat.
- Mechs can transport workers, allowing for strategic positioning.
If combat occurs, players secretly choose a power amount to spend and may play combat cards to boost their strength. The highest total wins, forcing the losing units to retreat.
Wrapping Up
Each turn in Scythe is an opportunity to optimize your strategy, gain resources, and position yourself for victory. Whether expanding your territory, strengthening your economy, or preparing for battle, every action should be carefully planned.
Key Takeaways
- Players must select a different action each turn, adding strategic depth.
- Top-row actions focus on economy and movement, while bottom-row actions provide long-term advantages.
- Combat occurs when opposing units share a space, requiring strategic planning.
