Coming soon to Kickstarter: Scythe by Stonemaier Games

"Think of it as Agricola meets Kemet with asymmetric factions."

This quote came from Stonemaier Games November 2014 newsletter that announced a new game they were working on called Scythe and for almost a year board game fans have been talking about and waiting for it to make an appearance. Granted it wasn't just the statement above that caused the stir but also the incredible artwork for the game from Jakub Rozalski whose 1920's alternate universe art inspired the design of Scythe. The time for just talk and buzz are about to come to an end as Stonemaier Games has announced that Scythe will be launching on Kickstarter on October 13th and end on November 5th. I for one will be a backer from day 1 as soon as I can get to a PC to pledge. Keep in mind there is no rush to pledge as Stonemaier Games never does early birds and everyone will enjoy the same prices throughout the campaign.

Scythe is a 4x board game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europa who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction's stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.

Scythe will launch with multiple different options for backing ranging from just the game to a collectors edition tier with a beautiful hardcover book of Jakub's artwork. Included in the collectors edition is a clever extended board that takes the reverse side of the regular board combines it with a board extension and creates a large version of the regular board. There is nothing unique about the extended board other than the size, Stonemaier has placed a .gif image on the Kickstarter project page that shows how this works and I have to say it is quite clever. Also included is a realistic upgrade to the resources that comes with the base game as well as metal coins. The realistic resources that replace the wooden ones are made out of resin or zinc and painted to look like the items they represent. Those that are familiar with Stonemaiers' 'Treasure Chests' will recognize these as the same ones that are found in them, those of you who aren't are in for a pleasant surprise when you see them for the first time. The metal coins are made to represent each of the 5 playable factions in the game and will be available for purchase separately as well. Stonemaier Games has created some magnificent games using Kickstarter including Viticulture, Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, and Tuscany: Expand the World of Viticulture and they are known for running excellent Kickstarter projects and producing exceptional component quality so it is a safe bet that Scythe will deliver the same. If you interested in finding out more about Scythe you can find it here on BGG as well as on Stonemaier Games website here. Jamey Stegmaier himself has also recorded numerous videos about Scythe that you can find on BGG and/or YouTube. So for those of you who have been following the news about Scythe there is just a few short weeks to wait for the Kickstarter launch and for those that are just learning about it welcome to the buzz. Fortunately there are a plethora of games waiting for us to play in our collections as we wait for Scythe to make it to our doorsteps.