How to Play Scythe Game Rules

On your turn,  you may take a single action or both actions (top action and bottom action), or neither action (you must still move your action token).
You may also complete an objective card.  The costs (red boxes) and benefits (green boxes) on your Player Mat are shown by the number of empty spaces before the action is taken.

When taking an action, pay the cost, and gain as much or as little of the benefit as you wish. You may only take an action once on your turn, not multiple times. After completion of your turn, (or as you’re finalizing your decision on a bottom-row action, the next person in clockwise order takes their turn.

Top-row Actions
Each Player Mat has a different order of Top-row actions. Top-row actions are:
Move, Bolster, Produce, Trade

Bottom-row Actions
The bottom-row actions are in the same order on all Player Mats, but the costs and benefits vary. The Player Mat visuals and the default costs and benefits explained in this section are based on the starting position of each Player Mat. Bottom-row actions are: Upgrade, Deploy, Build, Enlist

Resources and Workers during Move action:
Units can pick up and drop off any number of resource tokens 
Mechs can pick up and drop off any number of your workers. The action only counts towards the movement of the Mech. e.g. you can transport workers on the Mech and then move the workers using their movement.
Rivers and Lakes
Units cannot move across rivers or onto lakes. Some mech abilities overcome this.

Tunnels
All territories with tunnel icon are considered to be adjacent during Move action.
Moving into opponent-controlled territories
Note that workers cannot move by themselves into territories controlled by opponent workers, characters or mechs.

Home Base
You may not move any unit from the board into any home base (including yours)
Encounters
If your character moves into territory with an encounter token, its movement ends and cannot move again for this turn. Resolve Encounter after resolving all combats for this turn.
No Limit
There is no limit to the number of same-faction units on a territory.

Pay the cost and gain one of the following:
Increase power by 2 on the Power Track
Draw 1 combat card. Combat cards are used to augment the power spent in combat (players may spend up to 1 combat card per character/mech in combat).
If the combat card deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck 

Pay the cost and gain one of the following:
Gain 2 Resource tokens (any combination of oil, metal, food, or wood) and place them on any territory you control (with at least 1 worker on it). Trade action cannot be taken if all workers are on your home base.
Increase popularity by 1 on the Popularity track.

Pay the cost (indicated by what is shown on all exposed red rectangles before taking Produce action.
Choose up to 2 different territories that you control. All workers on these territories may produce. Each worker produces 1 token.
Resource token is placed on production territory.
If a worker produces another worker, place the leftmost worker of the Player Mat’s Produce action and place it on the village.

You are required to pay the full cost to take the Produce action. Take other actions if you don’t have the coins, popularity, and/or power.
Any number of resource tokens or workers can be on a territory. There are no limits to the number of resource tokens in the game. If necessary, place a multiplier token next to resource tokens on the board.
Workers are permanent as once you have a worker on the board, you cannot return it to your Player Mat.

Combat may happen at the end of a player’s Move action (after all units have moved but before the player takes a bottom-row action). If that player’s character and/or mechs share a territory with an opponent’s character and/or mechs, combat occurs.
Combat can happen on multiple territories; in that case, the attacker chooses the order of combat.
Combat occurs only between the two players whose units share a territory, whoever wins the combat gains a star. Other players may try to influence the combating players by bribing them with coins.

Limited Stars and Game End
Each player can earn a maximum of 2 stars for winning combat (except for the Saxon player, who can gain unlimited combat victory stars),
Players may still engage in future combats after they’ve achieved those 2 stars. If your 6th star is placed but you still have a combat remaining on your turn, the game ends and any units you moved to initiate that combat will move back to the territory from where they came.

Battle in a Lake
Lake battles can occur between factions like Polania and Nordic who have activated lake-related mech abilities. If a mech transporting workers is attacked while on a lake and the attacker wins combat, the attacking player loses 1 popularity for each of those workers (they are forced to retreat with the mech to their home base).

Upgrading improves your empire’s infrastructure efficiency. The resource used to upgrade is oil.
To upgrade: pay the cost, pick up a technology cube from any green box on your Player Mat, and place it on any empty red box with bracketed borders. Red boxes with solid black borders are off-limits for upgrades.

Deploy mechs (miniatures) to protect your workers, expand your empire, and add new abilities to your character and other mechs.
The resource used to deploy mechs is metal. To deploy a mech: pay the cost, choose any mech on your Faction Mat, and place that mech on a territory you control with at least one worker on it.
Mechs cannot be deployed on lakes (even if your faction has mech abilities allowing your mechs to move onto lakes).
From now on, your character and all mechs (not your workers) gain the ability on the Faction Mat that was under the mech miniature. These abilities vary from faction to faction. 

Rusviet Faction

Riverwalk – Player’s character and mechs can move across rivers onto farms and villages
Township – you can move character and  mechs between villages you control and the Factory (considered as adjacent)
People’s army – In combat where you have at least 1 worker,
you may play one additional combat card.
Speed – Your character and mechs may move one additional territory per movement.

Nordic Faction

Riverwalk – Player’s character and mechs can move across rivers onto forests and mountains
Seaworth – Your character and mechs can move to and from lakes and retreat onto adjacent lakes (you may still also retreat those units to your home base). Lake hexes are treated the same as other territories for movement.
When transporting workers onto a lake, workers or resources may not be left on the lake after moving off of it, nor may a worker move off of the lake without the assistance of the mech.
Lakes are territories, combat between two factions with lake-movement ability is possible. You cannot build a structure or deploy a mech on a lake.
Artillery –  Before engaging in combat, you may pay 1 power and cause combating opponent to lose 2 power. Loss of power is reflected on the Power Track. You may do this once per combat, not once per unit.
Speed – Your character and mechs may move one additional territory per movement. 

Crimea Faction

Riverwalk – Your character and mechs can move across rivers onto farms and tundra.
Wayfare – Regardless of distance, character and mechs may move from a territory or home base to any inactive faction’s or your own home base.
An “inactive faction” is any faction not currently in the game, including the expansion factions. Normally players may not move into any home base, but this is an exception to that rule.
Scout – Before engaging in combat, steal one of the opponent’s combat cards at random and add it to your hand. You may do this once per combat, not once per unit.
Speed – Your character and mechs may move one additional territory per movement. 

Polania Faction

Riverwalk – Your character and mechs can move across rivers onto villages and mountains.
Submerge  – Your character and mechs may move to and from lakes and move from any lake to another (similar to tunnel movement, but with lakes).
When transporting workers onto a lake, workers or resources may not be left on the lake after moving off of it, nor may a worker move off of the lake without the assistance of the mech.
Lakes are territories, combat between two factions with lake-movement ability is possible. You cannot build a structure or deploy a mech on a lake.
Camaraderie – You do not lose popularity when forcing an opponent’s workers to retreat after winning combat as the aggressor. This applies any time on your turn when your character or mechs force an opponent’s workers to retreat after combat.
Speed – Your character and mechs may move one additional territory per movement.

Build structures (structure tokens) to:
enhance actions,
control territories, and
get end-game bonuses.
The resource used to build structures is wood. To build a structure, pay the cost, pick up any structure from your Player Mat, and place it on a territory you control with at least one worker on it.
LIMIT 1 PER TERRITORY: Only 1 structure can be built on each territory. If you’re the first player to build a structure on a specific territory, neither you nor any opponent may build another structure there.
STRUCTURE CONTROL: Opponents can’t use your structure abilities. You always get your structure abilities even if you don’t control the territories they’re on (except for the Mill–you can’t Produce on the Mill’s territory if you don’t control that territory).
TERRITORY CONTROL: A territory with one of your structures on it is under your control even if you have no units there. However, if an opponent’s unit is on a territory with your structure, that territory is under their control.
PERMANENCE: Structures cannot be destroyed or moved.
FACTORY: You may build on the Factory territory.
PLACES YOU CAN’T BUILD: Your home base isn’t a territory, so you can’t build there. You also can’t build structures on lakes.
ONGOING BONUS: The benefit revealed by removing a structure from your Player Mat is an additional benefit you will gain when taking the top-row action directly above it in the future.


At the end of the game, you will gain coins for achieving goals shown on the structure bonus tile that was randomly selected during setup.
Bonus on structure bonus tiles
Gain coins based on Number of tunnel territories adjacent to your structures. Only count each tunnel once. A Mine does not count as a tunnel, and rivers do not break adjacency.

Number of lakes adjacent toyour structures. Only count each lake once.

Number of encounters adjacent to your structures. Only count each encounter once. These count whether or not the encounter tokens are still there. Rivers do not break adjacency.

Number of tunnel territories with your structures on them. A Mine does not count as a tunnel for this purpose.

Number of your structures in a row (any continuous straight line is fine; only count the longest row of structures you have; rivers do not break continuity).

Number of farms and tundras with your structures on them.

You can enlist new recruits (cylindrical tokens) to join your force with the food resource.
ONE-TIME BONUS

To enlist a recruit, pay the cost, pick up a recruit token from any section of your Player Mat, place it on any open Recruit One-Time Bonus space on your Faction Mat, and immediately gain the bonus shown. This is your new recruit contributing to your forces. The token remains there permanently—it can’t be moved.
The four one-time bonuses are: Gain 2 power, Gain 2 coins, Gain 2 popularity and Draw 2 combat cards.

ONGOING BONUS

Each recruit also gives you a Recruit Ongoing Bonus related to the your selected the recruit token’s action (the bonus in the circle).  For the rest of the game, whenever you or the player on your left or right take the bottom-row action on the Player Mat’s section from which the recruit was taken, you may gain the specified bonus. Top-row actions or similar action on a Factory card do not count.

PLAYER ORDER: If more than one player gains a Recruit Ongoing Bonus, the active player goes first, followed by the player to their left, then the player on their right. If a player places their 6th star as a result, the game immediately ends.
PROCLAMATION: Announce when you take bottom-row actions so that adjacent players know to check for Recruit Ongoing Bonuses.
TWO-PLAYER RULES: In a 2-player game, whenever your opponent takes an action that gives you a Recruit Ongoing Bonus, you only gain it once.

As your character moves, you will encounter local people and situations. Each encounter has three options for you to decide how you want to interact with the people. Your choice will impact your popularity.

Encounter Card
When moving your character onto a encounter token territory, their movement ends and cannot move again for the turn. When your Move action is completely over and you’ve resolved all combats (but before you take a bottom-row action, if applicable), discard the encounter token and draw an encounter card. Only characters will trigger an encounter.

Show the art to the other players and read the thematic text (the text in all caps) out loud.
Read through the options costs and benefits on the options and choose one and pay the applicable cost. After your selection, discard the encounter card to the bottom of the encounter deck face-down.

REQUIRED COST AND OPTIONAL BENEFIT
Options aren’t available if you can’t pay the cost.You may gain as much of the benefit as you like (e.g., if a benefit would give you 2 metal and 1 worker but you don’t want the worker, you can just gain the 2 metal).

BENEFIT LOCATION
Gained resources, structures, mechs, or workers from the encounter card go on the same territory as your character (i.e., where the encounter took place)

ISOLATED COST AND BENEFIT:
You do not pay additional costs or gain additional benefits outside beyond those of the encounter card for instructions that result in you gaining something or performing an action nor do you trigger any Recruit Ongoing Bonuses.

COMBAT:
If combat occurs in a territory with an encounter token, the encounter only happens after a player’s character wins combat. Otherwise the encounter token remains on the territory.

The Factory is the centrepiece of the Scythe board, does not produce any resources and is worth a total of 3 territories (instead of just 1) to the player who controls it at the end of the game.

Character moving to The Factory for the 1st time
When your Move action is completely finished and your character is on the Factory for the first time this game, choose one Factory card and return the rest to the board.
The first player to get their character to the Factory gets to choose cards equal to the number of players +1; each subsequent player will see one fewer card. It’s good to get there first.

A Factory Card is like a 5th section on your Player mat (place next to it)
USING FACTORY ACTIONS:
The Factory card is treated as any other Player Mat section. On your turn, you may place your action token on the Factory card and take one or both actions
(starting with the top-row action if you choose to take both).
SEPARATE FROM PLAYER MAT BONUSES:
Factory card actions are independent of other Player Mat actions. So you get neither Recruit Ongoing Bonuses, Structure bonuses, nor coins from similar actions on your Player Mat.
MOVE:
All Factory cards have a bottom-row Move action.
CONSISTENT WITH OTHER RULES:
All other rules for movement still apply, particularly for events that end entire Move actions  (if your character moves onto a territory with an encounter token or a character/mech moves onto a territory occupied by an opponent’s unit(s))
MINE:
If you have a Mine, you may move through the Mine with this Move action.
SPEED:
If Speed mech ability is unlocked, one of your mechs or your character may move up to 3 territories with this Move action.
ONE-CARD LIMIT
Maximum of one Factory card (the one you choose the first time your character goes to the Factory) per player
PERMANENT SELECTION
Your selection is permanent—you may not switch your Factory card for another card if your character ends a future Move action on the Factory.

Each player starts the game with 2 objective cards and kept secret from others.
You may reveal a completed objective card during your own turn before or after you complete a top- or bottom-row action.
If revealed: place 1 star token on the Triumph Track’s objective space and
discard both your objective cards to the bottom of the objective deck.
Only 1 objective star can be achieved unless you’re the Saxon player, who can achieve up to 2 objective stars.
You may wait to reveal your completed objective if you wish, but you must meet the all objective requirements when you reveal it.

Players may negotiate informal agreements. The only items that may be exchanged are coins. In tournament play, coins may not be exchanged for deals or alliances.
If combat has been engaged (movement of character/mechs into the same territory), you can’t negotiate your way out of it. Agreements made between players are not enforceable.

As you build your empire, you will earn and place stars. Stars are worth coins at the end of the game. Here are the ways to place stars, as shown on the Triumph Track:

– Complete all 6 upgrades
– Deploy all 4 mechs
– Build all 4 structures
– Enlist all 4 recruits
– Have all 8 workers on the board
– Reveal 1 completed objective card
– Win combat (up to 2 times)
– Have 18 popularity
– Have 16 power
When one of these goals is achieved, you must place a star on the appropriate Triumph Track space. You cannot lose a star after you’ve placed it. 
By default, each player may complete each of these goals exactly one time. Having a star on a goal does not prevent other players from placing their stars on the same go

The Game immediately ends when a player places the 6th star token.
EDGE CASES
If the 6th star comes from taking a bottom-row action, before you place the star:
gain the primary benefit, the coins, and the Recruit Ongoing Benefit.
If you have units (character, mechs, or workers) remaining on a territory with an opponent’s units (from a Move action), undo that portion of your Move action, returning the unit(s) to the territory they moved from.

If placing a star for total popularity or total power as a recruit bonus on an opponent’s turn, the placement occurs after the opponent\’s action (e.g., build a structure) in clockwise order and only if that opponent didn’t place their 6th star by taking that action.

Count coins you had before the game end was triggered plus end-game coins—to
determine the winner.
To calculate coins you earn for each of the three scoring categories, look at your Popularity Track level and pick up coins for that category 

DELAY OF GAME VARIANT
Because of the various end-game scoring categories and their connection to popularity, it’s difficult for players to determine who is in the lead (this is intentional).
However, it is possible for a player to interrupt the game to calculate the final score for each player as they plan out their next few moves. That’s not fun
for anyone.
The Delay of Game variant says that if a player delays the game (while the game is being played, not during end-game scoring) for more than 10 seconds by trying to
calculate the final score, they lose 2 popularity.

SCORING CATEGORIES

COINS IN HAND
The coins you accumulated during the game count for end-game scoring.

EVERY STAR TOKEN PLACED
Gain coins for every star token you placed during the game.

EVERY TERRITORY CONTROLLED
Gain coins for every territory you
control (including lakes). Home bases aren’t territories. 

FACTORY
At the end of the game, the Factory is counted as 3 territories to the player who controls it.

EVERY 2 RESOURCES CONTROLLED
Earn coins for every 2 resource tokens you control (e.g., if you control 13 resource tokens and have 10 popularity, you’ll gain a total of 12 coins). Workers are not resources. You control all resources on territories where you have a character, worker, mech, or a structure not occupied by an opponent’s unit.

STRUCTURE BONUS TILE: Earn coins based on the number of structure bonuses you achieved. You gain this bonus even if you don’t control the territories your structures are on.

DECLARING THE WINNER
Announce your coin total, and the player with the most coins wins!
If multiple players have the same total, these are the following tiebreakers:
Number of workers, mechs, and structures
Power
Popularity
Number of resource tokens controlled
Number of territories controlled
Number of star tokens placed on board