Scythe: The Wind Gambit Expansion Announced by Stonemaier Games

Stonemaier Games has announced that they are planning to release Scythe: The Wind Gambit in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2017, an expansion to the award winning game Scythe which was released in 2016. The Wind Gambit expansion will change the game in two fundamental ways:

1. The Airship Module will expand the world of Scythe by helping factions take to the air with new technology.
2. The Resolution Module will change the way each game ends.

With 700 playtesters now having played the expansion over 450 times, the expansion has moved toward the next stage of production and is in the hands of the graphic designer. While still working out the production details, Stonemaier Games anticipates that it should be priced similarly to the $30USD MSRP of the Scythe: Invaders from Afar expansion. Unlike Scythe, no Kickstarter campaign or pre-order campaign will launch this expansion. The expansion is currently scheduled for a release at Essen 2017 which takes place October 26-29. The Airship Module The Airship Module was a fan creation designed by Kai Stark and shared in the Scythe Facebook Group. Impressed by the design and well written rules, Scythe designer and Stonemaier Games founder Jamey Stegmaier began working with Scythe artist Jakub Rozalski and Stark began collaborating to bring the expansion to market. The rules for the Airship Module expansion as described in the announcement:

In the airship module, 2 airship tiles are randomly paired at the beginning of the game (one passive and one aggressive). Each player's airship miniature (a new type of unit; 1 big miniature for each of the 7 factions) has those abilities, as well as the core ability that airships are free to move onto any territory (land or water) and across rivers. Each player starts with their airship on their home base, so they can start moving out of their home area right away.

As components, the airships will be released with one airship in each faction color for a total of 7 new airships. Designed by Heriberto at Märchen Atelier, the airships will be 80mm long, looming large over the Scythe landscape. Resolution Module While fans had been creating and playing the Airship Module, Stegmaier had been working on an expansion of his own. The Resolution Module adds "resolution tiles" that alter the way in which the game end is triggered. The Wind Gambit will include 8  resolution tiles, with 1 being used each game. Big Empty Box How will fans fit Scythe, the Map Board Extension, the Invaders from Afar expansion and The Wind Gambit Expansion in one box? This won't be the first time Jamey Stegmaier has been asked that question. On March 16 Stegmaier posted a lengthy blog article about how often he had been asked that question, the challenges with coming up with a solution, and where his thinking is headed. It appears he has settled on box dimensions and a distribution plan for the box if third-party vendors come on board:

I’m currently considering reaching out to a few of our accessory and third-party vendors (US and international) to see if they would be interested in sharing a print run of a big empty box for Scythe. I would configure the box (maybe using the original illustration or a different one) to be twice as deep as the original Scythe box but otherwise the same dimensions, which are designed to fit on a game shelf.

Scythe Awards Scythe has been cleaning up in 2016 and 2017 awards categories. Winner of (among many others):

• 2017 As d'Or - Jeu l'annes Expert (Cannes Golden Ace Game Award - Expert Game of the Year)
• 2016 Swiss Gamers Award Winner
• Boardgamegeek Golden Geek 2016 Game of the Year Winner & winner in 4 additional BGG 2016 Golden Geek Categories

The Best of 2016 episode of the Dice Tower had both Eric Summerer and People's Choice ranking Scythe as the best board game of 2016.