Scythe is an epic, award-winning game that gives players an advanced, strategic experience! Transport yourself to the 1920's, but in an alternate history where characters each play as a fallen leader from a different faction in Eastern Europa struggling to recover from war and seeking to lead their faction to power. To start, each player will take the role of one of the five available factions to play during the game. Each faction has its own unique ability that is leveraged to gain actions and options. During game setup, faction play mats are randomly matched up with a player action mat, resulting in different combinations of turn actions for each player. Faction mats store items and tokens while the player mats contain interactive options and pieces that are put in play during each player's turn. The main board is populated with each player's workers, characters and mechs that can be deployed using resource production and turn actions during the game. Each faction vies for control of areas of the map, engages in battles, accumulates resources and earns power and popularity all with the goal of accumulating the most money to win the game.
Gameplay moves in turn order with each player choosing one of four “top-row" actions on their play mat and/or a “bottom-row" action in the matching column. These actions control deployment of mechs to the mainboard (each of which provide unique player capabilities) as well as movement of player's workers, characters and mechs on the main board. Other actions are the use of worker placement on the main board to produce resources such as food to enlist recruits, wood to place buildings on the main board, steel to deploy mechs to the main board and oil to enhance player board actions. As players complete goals (combat, earning popularity, winning battles, etc.), they earn stars as well as money. Once a player has earned six out of the ten possible available stars, the end of the game immediately triggers. At this point, besides the money earned during the game, players add additional end-game money based on their positions on the power and popularity tracks. Extra funds are also credited for unused resources and for a player's success level for the goal card that is active for that game. After totaling all dollar amounts earned, the person with the most money wins the game. For 1-5 players, with a 115-minute gameplay.
Note: There is a good play through on You Tube. Search for Scythe Board Game Playthrough and choose the JonGetsGames play through.