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Speaker 1: Every table has rules, but the best stories usually begin

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when someone ignores them. A risky move, a broken alliance,

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a perfect role at the worst possible moment, and suddenly

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it's not just a game anymore. It's the victory nobody expected,

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the argument everyone remembers, and the story your friends will

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still be telling years from now. I'm Scott Ralph and

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this is table tales, where board games, card games, and

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role playing adventures become stories worth retelling. So pull up

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a chair. The next tale is already on the table.

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Speaker 2: We played Scyth. We played as a series where we

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talk about an epic board game that we played this week,

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and this week is the Old History nineteen twenties Eastern

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Europe inspired steampunk flavored kickstarts at Bahemoth Scythe. In this episode,

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we'll be diving into the things we liked. I'm breaking

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down the element that make it great, because at the

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end of the day, we only play awesome games, and

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Ssyth is truly awesome. Syth was released in twenty sixteen.

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Plays one to five players has an oddly specific length

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of one hundred and fifteen minutes listed on the box.

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It's a competitive engine building slash four x slash action

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selection game and is published by Stone Byre Games. Designed

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by Jamie Stegmayer of Wingspan Fame and Charterstone. So another

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chapter in his history of excellent game design. So first,

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let's talk about the components and art design of the game.

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So what do you think of the components and the

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art design?

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Speaker 3: I am going to put this word out here straight away, luxury.

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If someone asked me to describe the components of this game,

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the first and foremost, the only thing I could say

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is luxury. It is beautifully built.

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Speaker 2: It is luxuriously. I think that's a great way to

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describe it. It comes with a variety of plastic minis.

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You have some almost steampunk esque mechs, these mech plastic minis.

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You have some wonderful wooden tokens to represent the resources

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that you might gather during the game.

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Speaker 3: It's the wooden tokens that really yeah, they speak to

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me as much as the plastic models for your main

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player character and your mechs are fantastically three D printed.

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It's the little wooden tokens that you get for your

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me pools in your resource management. They're just oh yeah,

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a little.

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Speaker 2: Bit yeah, they're that little bit extra, and you have

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some buildings as well. You have a wooden action selection token,

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which looks like basically a pawn. Yeah, it's yours. Your

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classic board game porn. You have a variety of different

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sized cards. The card stock is of fantastic quality, and

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the artwork on the cards is beautifully illustrated.

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Speaker 3: It is incredibly evocative of the scenes that they're trying

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to set, and the map itself is very well designed.

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You've got a reversible board game. The map, I believe,

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is the same on both sides, except the flip is

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half of an upscaled version.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's already a massive board. I mean the board

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is not. I mean it's not small. You need a

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lot of table space, especially to accommodate the additional player

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boards as well, which we'll get into a little later.

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Speaker 3: Maybe two by three feet. Yeah, it's a big old board.

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Speaker 2: And the other side of it is an upscaled version

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where you can buy an additional add on to make

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an even bigger board, which I don't even know why

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you'd need that.

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Speaker 3: I can't imagine playing this on a four x six board,

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but perhaps when you get up to the max five

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players and you've got all of the resources loaded out.

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You might want that tile space, I.

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Speaker 2: Mean even the standard sized board. Like you say, it's

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big enough, and it is beautifully detailed, the colorization, the artwork,

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the little villages, some of the snow drifts. It's an

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alternate history nineteen twenties Eastern Europe inspired art design.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you zoom yourself in as it where and

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take a close look at any given hex. The board

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is divided into hex panels to control as territories, any

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given hex is full of little details if you care

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to look in. The board quickly gets busy with your

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tokens and items, so do take a good minute to

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look at that before you start filling it up and

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appreciate some of that artwork.

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Speaker 2: The game also comes with a player board and a

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faction board, and these will denote the kind of actions

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that you can take and the special abilities that your

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faction will have. And again the artwork follows through to

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those elements of the game. And yeah, it's stunning. Really,

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it's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played,

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and the most thematically consistent across everything, the backs of

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the cards, everything from the font even the tiniest details

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seem to be tied together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I think, with the exception of the plastic mech models,

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it's almost as though the game itself was created from

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that alternate universe, as it's a wooden cardboard of high quality,

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but with a muted and consistent color set as well,

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So you've not got a vast range of color. It's

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all reds, yellows, and blues of muted tones, but they

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pop in comparison to each other.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a good point to make. Actually,

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this isn't an ultracolorful game.

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Speaker 3: I mean it is.

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Speaker 2: It's full of beautiful color, but it's not massively bright contrasts.

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It's this almost gently oppressive kind of color palette.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they've got the red, yellows and blues as some

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of the main strongest colors that pop out, but then

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there's a layer of oppression almost being painted overswathed over

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it to feel like you're grinding under the oil and

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gears of these giant mechs that are stomping the landscape.

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Speaker 2: The game comes with some really well written rules. It's

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incredibly language independent, and I am normally skeptical with some

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of that because a lot of symbolism in a game

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can make it hard to learn and give it a

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steep learning curve. But Syth is so well designed, so

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elegant that a quick read through of the rules and

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with the very well written quick guide that comes with it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I set the game up yesterday to maybe ten minutes,

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and that was my first time ever setting it up,

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and I just used a quick reference guide. I didn't

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need the main book at all if for any reason

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I did get lost. There was a very good opening

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spread which told you this is what every single item is.

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Also gave you the color background, so there's essentially three

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types of cards, and it described them, but also then

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said green or red or yellow because that's the main

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color you'll pick out. And it just makes it that

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much much more straightforward to set up.

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Speaker 2: So how do you win smythe you have the most

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money at the end seems simple, have the most money

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at the end of the game, and it kind of

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seems to try it, and it makes you think, just

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through our brief description or try description there, that this

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is an economic game, and in some aspects it is.

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You're generating resources, you are trading to get resources, you

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are triggering events to get money, but it's much more

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than that, and you have a multiplier on that is

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denoted on the board links to your popularity, where you'll

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get additional money given to you at the end of

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the game depending on how many hexes you control, how

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many resources you've managed to generate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a degree of different options to choose from.

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You essentially have six activities that you need to complete,

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but there are more than six that you can choose from.

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So it might be building on your mechs, it might

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be employing all of your people. You start with some

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on your board and they've got a beautiful little recess

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on a double layered player card for you to sit

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them in.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I think that's something that's worth

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mentioning that I didn't talk about in the components of

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the game. Yeah, that those player boards are. When you

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said luxurious, it is top of the line. I mean

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that that little cutouts. I mean I've played plenty of

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board games where you get a player board and you

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knock something off it you have no idea where it's gone.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I had never seen anything like this before, and

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it's it just it makes you not even have to

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think about what's where it's well, it can only go

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from here or to here, and it's just perfect.

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Speaker 2: I read I think it was on Stone my Game's website,

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or maybe they did a tweet about it or part

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of the FAQ that these were an absolute pain in

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the ass to make. They were in especially in large quantities,

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and they're so much more expensive, and especially because they're

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also unique to each player.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they vary by player card as well. There are five,

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one for each player, and then there's the separate faction

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card which goes with it, and they combine. There's a

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couple of band options that you can't have the combination of,

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but each single one is detailed and slightly different to

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the next, so it's not mass produced feeling game at all.

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Is very much got that hand built feel to it. Yeah,

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it's absolutely fantastic. I mean yeah, I literally cannot shout

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loud enough about the quality of the components and the

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art design of this game. It's one of my favorite

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things I've ever opened. I think it's brilliant.

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Speaker 2: And let's take a look at some of those things

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that you might be able to do on your turn.

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Your player boards are divided into four sections, and on

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your turn, you essentially choose one of those sections.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a relatively straightforward choice, or at least apparently,

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so you can produce on the tiles that you own

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or a limited number thereof. You can move a couple

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of figures. You've got a bolster option, which allows you

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to gain more power, so if you were to enter combat,

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you'd be in a stronger position. And the last one

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is to trade, where if you've got the coin, you

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can essentially buy either popularity, which is a rareer choice

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in our playthrough so far, or you can just buy

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the raw materials that you need to then develop your

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next option.

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Speaker 2: And those are the top options on each of those

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four segments. The twist is those four segments also have

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a bottom option, and on your turn, you can either

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do the top option in one segment, the bottom option

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in that same segment, or both if you have the

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resources available to do both.

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Speaker 3: And sometimes doing the top will then provide you with

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what you need for the bottom. So the one in

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front of us, I can see, pay a coin, you

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get a trade that gets you too raw material. If

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that too raw material is then the thing you need

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for your bossom option, you can immediately spend it and

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gain your upgrade.

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Speaker 2: Such a simple and elegant design. And again these are

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all slightly different.

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Speaker 3: Oh yes, so you've got the same four top options,

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the same four bottom options, but the combination.

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Speaker 2: Of the top and bottom options is slightly different, and

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the benefits that you get on the costs of them

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can be slightly different.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's somewhere. Deploying a mech is all you do.

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Sometimes you gain coin for deploying a mech. Other times

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you maybe lose or have to pay extra to do

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the same.

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Speaker 2: So that's the player boards, and that's the majority of

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that mechanic. You move your porn into one of those

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particular segments on your player board, you do the top

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or bottom or both of those actions, and then the

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turn goes around the table. It also denotes the special

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ability of each of the clans.

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Speaker 3: And some of those are clutch. They are things you

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would suddenly it's a very much wait, you can do what.

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Speaker 2: This happened to think in every single.

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Speaker 3: Game, yeah we played, And with that, as you say,

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impending threat always ever present. It's suddenly to see your

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opponent move halfway across the board in one turn, because

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that's what their character option is. Is wonderful, really adds.

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Speaker 2: I think it's with that sort of alternate history in

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nineteen twenties Eastern Europe vibe. It definitely has a Cold

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War feel in some respects, where you are generating power

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on the board, You're putting these massive war machines onto

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the board, You're expanding your influence, but everyone's kind of

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always on the edge of fighting over resources, never quite

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tipping into it because it's you know, it can be

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quite devastating.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. The description in the beginning of the book describes

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the factory that center tile as a city state which

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has shut down, and then the surrounding regional countries I

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suppose you'd call them, although the scale of the map

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doesn't quite reach to a country and that quite that size.

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They all start showing an interest in the closed down

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city state and the resources surrounding it, which is where

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each of your player characters comes in to see how

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they can prosper in this post war, heavily rationed environment.

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Speaker 2: Each clan has some peoples, some workers who will generate

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resources for you. Yep, you will have some buildings that

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will offer you some sort of bonus when you build

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them and put them onto the map.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, getting those out is a great option early on

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if you can manage.

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Speaker 2: It absolutely, especially the mill, which counts as another worker

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essentially and gives you a permanent extra resource depending on

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where it's placed. You have a mine which you can build,

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which will give you adjacent access to the other mines

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on the map, so you can quickly scoot around the

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board quicker than you will do otherwise, because movement can

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be quite slow, especially in the early game. It's a

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cleverly designed map. I think four out of the five

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factions to start with are limited to three or four

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peninsular map squares map hexes, and then to get to

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the main bulk land mass you need to build that

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mind to even get out there.

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Speaker 3: Correct.

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Speaker 2: You also have we talked about before, the plastic mechs,

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and the mechs can carry your workers around with them,

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which is going to be extra useful when they can

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eventually upgrade and get more movement. They can also carry

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an unlimited number of resources. And the final figure type

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is your main character, I guess your commander.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and they've each got a name and an accompanying animal,

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which I think is a fantastic little addition.

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Speaker 2: It is really cool. So you have like you have

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the commander with a bear, you have an eagle, you

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have like a giant yac kind.

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Speaker 3: Of thing, even one with a tiger in some post

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war Russia with Siberia and tiger, your ak and in

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Bolshevik hat and then giant. Yeah, I'm going to war

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with them. It's awesome.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is really awesome. But your main player character

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is the only one that can trigger these big events.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And there's a think a dozen dotted around the landscape.

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I'm meant to count the hextes. I think there's about

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forty to fifty hexes across the board. So the reasonably

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well spread out certainly can't reach more than one in

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any given.

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Speaker 2: Turn, or certainly not not with the sort of generally

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fairly slow or methodical pace of the movement, especially in

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the early game, when you can only choose to move

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one every other turn.

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Speaker 3: Really, so yes, yeah, taking That's a key thing to

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note is that with the extension of one of the

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faction boards, you can't take the same option more than

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once in a row. So if you've moved last time,

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you have to do something else. So you're either trading

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to buy resources, you're producing your own or maybe you're

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reserving power and bolstering your forces.

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Speaker 2: So when you move your lead character, your commander figure

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over one of those events, you get to draw one

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of the incredibly evocative and beautifully designed event cards.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. For me, they're the thing that draws me back

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into that stylized world more than anything else. I find

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that I pull away slightly from the theme when I'll

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get to the engine building mechanic of the game. But

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then you pick up one of these encounter cards with

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a glorious artwork on it with it or again in

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the background, normally the giant mechs whole over some farm worker.

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Speaker 2: Almost almost etherial in nature, kind of shrouded a little

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bit by fogging a lot of them, and just looks

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like it's looming with an ever present threat.

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Speaker 3: It's like the old school War of the World's creep.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of almost that kind of atmosphere.

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Speaker 3: To it, combined with a little bit of wild wild West.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Like I said, just over a farm or

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something completely innocuous, you have this correndous war machines or

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hulking around the place, and by triggering these events, we'll

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give you a we'll give you three options generally, and

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they are all good, but it depends on what's good

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for you at the time.

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Speaker 3: Yes, there's normally a neutral option in terms of you

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gain a little benefit and not really any cost to that.

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There's a more outward benefit. You gain quite a lot

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of resource or potentially popularity, which you definitely want in

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this game, but it will cost you a bit of coin,

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which if you've got it to spare fair enough, you're

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almost paying your way. You're you're buying favor with the populace.

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And then there tends to be a third, more negative

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option in the sense of nicety. You'll lose some of

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your popularity, which will reduce your overall multiplier in that instance,

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but you gain a hell of a lot for it.

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Sometimes it can be build a mech, building a mech

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straight off just for losing some popularity, you're essentially getting

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forced labor, I think is.

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Speaker 2: However, I think that's what it's kind of is you're

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forcing the populace to work and build that for you,

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and the mechs are super powerful on your faction board

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where the mechs are. Underneath those mechs is an individual

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ability A couple of which are unique to those mechs

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or unique to that faction, and the more mechs you

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get out, the more powerful they become.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it applies to every single one that's on

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the board as well as your main player character. So

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you can suddenly cross the lakes and river, or you

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can one of mine I had yesterday. It was essentially

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teleport if you will use some backward route that's unguarded

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to make your way halfway across the map, utterly unfettered,

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and you suddenly just pop out halfway across the world

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and you're now open to a new set of resources.

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You've tenentually got a pinter attack coming. If you're looking

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to go for all out war. There's some powerful stuff

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in there.

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Speaker 2: So you'll generate resources inscythe by getting your workers out,

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and you get workers out by doing the produce action

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on a hex which generates workers, which are known as

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villagers in this game. When you have all of your

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workers out and they start to spread across the land,

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when you do the produce action, you'll start to generate

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a variety of different types of resources, which you can

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then spend on various upgrades and will be put towards

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the other actions on your player board.

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Speaker 3: So when you've then built up some pile of resource,

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and according to your playerboard, as we mentioned earlier, you'll

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have a varying requirement for resources to perform a certain action.

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So if you want to build that mind that we

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mentioned to help move your workers around some of them,

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you'll require up to four pieces of wood that happens

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to be the resource which is chosen for all building type,

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and that's a bottom rowaction. So you take your relevant

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top roaction, which will be varying depending on your player.

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You then take the bottom row action, pay any associated cost,

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which is normally just the resource, and you get your

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building out.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we've played this both three player and two player,

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and in two player we were kind of just exploring

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the map, generating our resources, upgrading our plan and our

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player boards, and kind of left our own devices with

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pretty much no combat in that game. In the three

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player immediately felt tighter and more of a fight for resources,

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and I can imagine with four and five players it's

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going to get very tense.

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Speaker 3: I can't wait to play this on five player. Yeah,

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as you say, even though with three on the board,

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if you haven't used your resources, and they're sitting where

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you've produced them, which is how that works. Any player,

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any worker that's on the tile with the forest,