How to play Scythe

Scythe is an asymmetric engine-building game by Jamey Stegmaier set in an alternate-history 1920s Eastern Europe. Each player leads a unique faction, racing to build an economic engine — producing resources, recruiting workers, deploying hulking mechs, and expanding across a richly illustrated hex map — all while eyeing the same contested territories.

Turns are deceptively quick: you place your action token on one section of your personal player mat and resolve up to two actions. The tension comes from knowing you cannot return to that section next turn, so every choice shapes your next move as much as the current one. Powerful faction abilities and the looming threat of combat make each game feel distinct.

New to engine builders? Think of your player mat as a machine with four levers. Each turn you pull one lever: its top half is a small, cheap action (gather, move, trade), and its bottom half is a big, expensive one that permanently improves your machine — cheaper costs, better yields, new abilities. Early turns feel modest; late turns cascade. And despite all the mechs on the table, Scythe is mostly a farming and economy game — battles are rare, and the threat of one does more work than the fight itself.

What's in the box, and what each piece does at the table:

• 1 game board — the hex map of Eastern Europa: farms, forests, mountains, tundra, villages, and lakes ring the central Factory, and the popularity track, power track, and Triumph Track (where stars land) run along its edges.
• 5 faction mats (Nordic, Rusviet, Crimea, Saxony, Polania) — your faction's unique ability plus the four mech abilities it can unlock; your mechs start here, each covering the ability it will release when deployed.
• 5 player mats (Industrial, Engineering, Patriotic, Mechanical, Agricultural) — the engine itself: four columns, each pairing a top-row action with a bottom-row one, combined differently on every mat. The mat also sets your starting coins, popularity, and objectives — and its printed number decides who goes first.
• 5 character miniatures (1 per faction) — your hero and their beast: they fight, trigger encounters, and can claim a Factory card by reaching the map's center.
• 20 mech miniatures (4 per faction) — deployed with metal; combat units that ferry your workers across the map, each unlocking a mech ability (river crossing, speed, and more) as it hits the board.
• 40 worker meeples (8 per faction) — they produce resources, build, and deploy, but never fight; forcing them to retreat costs the aggressor popularity. Two start on the board; the rest wait on your mat, and the last few uncover extra Produce costs as they leave.
• 30 technology cubes (6 per faction) — mark your Upgrades on the player mat: each cube moved makes one top-row action better and one bottom-row action cheaper, permanently.
• 20 structure tokens (4 per faction: Mill, Mine, Armory, Monument) — built with wood onto territories for ongoing perks (the Mine is your private tunnel); they hold territory for scoring but never fight.
• 20 recruit tokens (4 per faction) — enlisted with food; each reveals a one-time bonus plus an ongoing one that pays you whenever you or a neighbor takes a certain bottom-row action.
• 30 star tokens (6 per faction) — your achievements, placed on the Triumph Track; the moment anyone places their sixth, the game ends.
• 5 action tokens (1 per faction) — sits on your chosen player-mat section each turn; the one rule of rhythm is that it can never stay put two turns in a row.
• 5 popularity tokens & 5 power tokens — your markers on the board's tracks: popularity multiplies your entire final score, power is the ammunition you spend in combat.
• 80 resource tokens (20 each of food, wood, metal, oil) — produced onto the map and staying there: food enlists recruits, wood builds structures, metal deploys mechs, oil buys upgrades. Whoever controls the hex controls the goods.
• 80 cardboard coins — money and victory points in one: you earn some during play, and at game end everything you've built converts into coins.
• 12 multiplier tokens — swap in when a territory piles up more resources than fits on the hex.
• 12 encounter tokens (11 used per game) — mark the encounter territories; your character discards one on arrival to draw an encounter card.
• 6 structure bonus tiles (1 per game) — a randomly drawn end-game bonus that rewards where you built — on tunnels, beside lakes, in a row.
• 42 combat cards (values 2–5: sixteen 2s, twelve 3s, eight 4s, six 5s) — secret boosts: in battle you may tuck one per involved unit behind your dial to pad the power you spend.
• 23 objective cards (2 dealt to each player) — secret missions worth a star; you may complete only one of yours (Saxony may complete both).
• 28 encounter cards — three-choice vignettes your character stumbles into, from generous to ruthless — the friendlier options tend to cost coins, the harsher ones popularity.
• 12 Factory cards (players + 1 per game) — each is a fifth column for your player mat, always featuring a flexible Move action; characters who reach the Factory pick one, and earlier visitors choose from more.
• 2 Power Dials — the two sides of a battle secretly dial 0–7 power before the simultaneous reveal.
• 5 Riverwalk cards, 5 quick-start cards & 1 quick-reference guide — player aids: which home areas each faction's Riverwalk mechs can reach, plus a guided first five turns for new players.

There are no rounds or phases — players simply alternate turns until someone places their sixth star. Your turn:

1. Move your action token to any section of your player mat except the one it occupied last turn. Each section pairs a top-row action with a bottom-row action; you may take the top, the bottom, both (top first), or neither.
2. Top-row action (cheap or free): Move up to 2 different units one hex each — rivers block movement, and a character stepping onto an encounter token stops there — or gain 1 coin instead; Trade 1 coin for 2 resources or 1 popularity; Bolster 1 coin for power or a combat card; Produce on 2 territories, where each worker yields that terrain's resource — and villages produce new workers.
3. Bottom-row action (pay the printed cost): Upgrade (oil) improves a top action and cheapens a bottom one; Deploy (metal) puts a mech on the map and unlocks its ability; Build (wood) places a structure with an ongoing perk; Enlist (food) reveals a recruit's one-time and ongoing bonuses. Each also pays out coins printed under the covered space.
4. Combat happens only when, after your full Move action, your character or mechs share a hex with an enemy character or mechs. Both sides secretly dial 0–7 power and may tuck one combat card per involved unit; totals are revealed simultaneously, the higher wins, and the attacker wins ties. Both sides pay the power they dialed. The winner keeps the hex and all resources on it and places a combat star (max 2 by combat, except Saxony); the loser retreats all units to their home base, drawing a consolation combat card if they revealed at least 1 power. The attacker loses 1 popularity per enemy worker they forced to flee.
5. Place stars the instant you meet any of the nine milestones — all 6 upgrades, all 4 mechs, all 4 structures, all 4 recruits, all 8 workers, 1 completed objective, up to 2 combat wins, 18 popularity, 16 power. The moment anyone places their sixth star, the game ends mid-turn.

A stretch of turns, played out. Ana takes Produce: her two workers on a mountain yield 2 metal and her village worker produces a new worker. Next turn — barred from Produce — she Deploys, paying 4 metal for a mech that unlocks Riverwalk. Beto Moves his character onto an encounter hex, discards the token, and pays 2 coins on the card he draws to gain 2 metal and a worker. Carla Trades for 1 popularity, then Enlists a recruit: from now on, whenever a neighbor Deploys, she gains 1 power. Diego Moves a mech carrying two workers onto Carla's forest, where her lone mech stands: he dials 4 and tucks a 3-value combat card (7 total) against her dialed 5 — Diego takes the hex, its wood, and a combat star; Carla's mech retreats home and she draws a combat card for her trouble.

When a player places their sixth star, the game ends immediately — even mid-turn. Everyone then converts their empire into coins, with all three rates set by your tier on the popularity track: at 0–6 popularity you earn 3 / 2 / 1, at 7–12 4 / 3 / 2, and at 13–18 5 / 4 / 3 coins — per star placed, per territory controlled, and per 2 resources on your territories, respectively. The Factory counts as 3 territories for whoever controls it. Add the coins you banked during play and your structure-bonus-tile coins. Most coins wins; ties break by total workers + mechs + structures, then power, popularity, resources, territories, and stars.

A strategic note: popularity is a multiplier on nearly everything, so a high-popularity position can overcome a star or territory deficit at the end. However, rushing toward your sixth star too early can leave others time to score resources and territory — the player who ends the game is not always the player who wins it. Watch the leader's star count: once it reaches five, the whole table shifts into end-game urgency.