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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: And you do the produce action will produce a word.

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If you don't use that word, it will sit there.

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So you can build up a stockpile. But if you've

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got an encroaching enemy player to one or two hexes away,

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and then they suddenly unlease that mech which allows them

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to move one extra space, you instantly stop panicking of

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can I move this resource? And you can move your

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resource if you take your worker away. But if they

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get to you before you choose to move, they're invading

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the space. Oh, your workers flee and the resource is

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now theirs to use.

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Speaker 3: But it is I think quite wonderfully thematic and terrifying

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when you have just a bunch of resources and some

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mechs nearby. Even if the other person isn't even considering combat,

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just the fact that they're there definitely keeps your edge.

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Speaker 4: I think.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a fairly neutral standoff across the river yesterday. Yeah,

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and there was no intention I think from Wayne to

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sink across that river or stride across it in his

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giant mech. But I suddenly realized how close he was

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to all of my workers and all of my resources,

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and I thought, I'm going to have to do something.

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So I then start essentially pulling back and treating it

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as they face off, and going, well, I'm not sitting

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on the edge of this combat ptental combat. I'm going

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to move, which then changes my next set of moves

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and opens up different options, but also shuts down some

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of that resource building because I'd maybe set up a

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mine there. Yeah, and now I can't use that mine

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or that windmill to.

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Speaker 4: Produce the extra thing.

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Speaker 2: And then I have to think, well, I'm going to

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have to bring my commander back, or I'm going to

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have to stock up on my max somewhere get them

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to move in as a pincer movement. Yeah, I suppose

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leaders onto the combat mechanic, which I think is fairly straightforward.

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Speaker 4: Do you know what. I love this mechanic.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we had a few comments the first time

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we played it, and because I was mostly desperate to

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see how it works, so I was building on my

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max and just throwing them at people and saying that, yeah,

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it was super fun. But it's essentially like say a

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wheel with the numbers naught to seven on it on

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a again a fantastically evocative piece of art, and you

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just pick the number on the wheel that you want

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to spend, which denotes the amount of power that you

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want to spend from your power track, adds your combat

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card to that value, and the combat cards are essentially

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values from one to five.

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Speaker 2: I think two to five. But yeah, it's a bit

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of a modifier. You may not even have a combat

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card left. I played yesterday, I didn't have one, And.

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Speaker 3: Then the other player does the same thing on their

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combat wheel and adds their combat card should they wish

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to or none, because you can sometimes fake people out

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into spending all of their power or spending their highest

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combat card.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you get them to over commit to a combat

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You're not really worried about you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe you just entered that space to pull that

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out of them because you're actually, in fact you want

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to invade another hex.

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Speaker 4: It has other resources.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and once they've spent that power, once they've committed

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from that power track, you can build it back up again,

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but takes a little while, it does. I think the

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most I ever managed in a turn was three power,

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possibly four towards the very end game. But if you're

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spending seven in one combat encounter, plus any combat card

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you've picked up, then it's not an easy commitment necessarily.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So the option the number on the wheel and the

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combat card that you add to the wheel is done

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in secret, and then at the same time you then reveal,

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and the player with the highest value in total wins

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the combat. And it's quite devastating for the loser. All

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of the losing workers and mechs and the command that

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if they were involved in the battle, retreat back to

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their home base.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they don't lose the characters that they've got

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on the board, they just have to start from the beginning,

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in which the progression.

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Speaker 3: Due to the slow nature of movement in this game,

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if you do combat in the early game, when you

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haven't unlocked some of your mechabilities.

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Speaker 4: That can be really.

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Speaker 2: Painful because it's a slow grind, slow creep back out.

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If nothing else, you have lost any resources that were

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on the tile that got invaded, So that might have

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sat there with three oil and two would because that's

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what you'd carried into it that now belongs to that invader.

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If there is a matching amount of power on your

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power wheels when you reveal the than the invading force winds.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so it almost a little bit of aggression.

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Speaker 2: It pays you to be a bit aggressive if that's

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what you're going to angle for, but not necessarily, as

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we found out today, because you can play a farming

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version if you.

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Speaker 4: Were a farm simulator, I guess.

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Speaker 3: Although despite how it looks on the box and when

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you have the sweet plastic minis, this isn't a combat game.

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Speaker 2: No, No, far from it.

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Speaker 3: I would say, Yeah, I think that's probably the one

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thing to consider when you're looking at the game.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be a rarity more than a regularity

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from our experience. So far as we say that may

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change with more players, It may change with more experience

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or possibly even the combination of player and faction cards

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that you pick up, because some of those are angled

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slightly more towards a combative nature, others are more industrial

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or mechanical based.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and you can focus your player board and your

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faction towards its end. I mean I played the Red faction,

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which was geared towards I guess it's an abstraction of

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Sovior Russia utilizing the people for both work and the

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people's army. So the workers can add an additional combat

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card in combat, but then you can also keep spamming

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the same action over again, like you're forcing your workers

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to keep doing the same thing to drive your drive

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your industry.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've not had that one yet. I'm looking forward

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to that option for sure.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I didn't.

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Speaker 3: To be fair, I didn't use it as much as

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I thought I might, But it was just nice to

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have that option there. We should talk about the factory

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a little bit and the additional bonuses you get for

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getting to the factory.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So, as we say, the factory hex is in the

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middle of the map, so it's at least given that

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you have to alternate your move with something else. I'd

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say it's at least four turns before we can get

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anywhere close to the factory. When you do arrive there,

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you get a choice of factory cards which are equal

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to the number of players plus an additional one, and

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they add a bonus option on your player board.

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Speaker 3: And good god, are they powerful, super powerful. They are

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so good. It really does behoove you to get their

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first or get there early to get because you basically

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look through all of them and pick the one that's

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best for you. They act like an additional segment for

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your player board. So instead of four segments, you now

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have five segments.

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Speaker 4: And when you look at the options, you're like, good grief,

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I mean, I just get to I just get to

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do that. Yeah, so free.

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Speaker 2: Instead of a top and bottom row action, this is

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a combinatory card which just says pay this set thing

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which may be a resource and maybe money.

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Speaker 4: I think mostly it.

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Speaker 3: Could be money, could be force, it could be a popularity.

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Speaker 4: Pay a thing.

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Speaker 2: And then it gives you a combination of top and

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bottom row benefits.

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Speaker 3: So the bottom row benefit is always move move the

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character two spaces. You're getting a bonus move.

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Speaker 2: But the top one is yeah, it can be a

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direct thing, like you enlist an extra player, or you

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build an extra building just at the drop of a hat,

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which is supremely powerful.

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Speaker 4: Upgrade your player board.

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Speaker 3: I mean that would normally cost you a bunch of

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resources and movement and planning. Nope, there you go, just

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put your porn on that particular action and you.

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Speaker 4: Get to do it.

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Speaker 3: You have objective cards in the game which will get

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dealt at the very beginning of the game, and they'll

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denote a circumstance where if you can fulfill those requirements,

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you can completely objective and you get to put one

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of your six star tokens on one of on the

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Star Trek at the top of the board.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the object is very quite widely as well. Some

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of them require you to have almost one of everything,

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so I mech one of every resource, a worker of

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every type, every building out. Once you've met that requirement,

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then you've completed your objective card and you get one

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of your six trackers on the board. Other ones maybe

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to almost give yourself to the people, be very poor

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but have lots of workers and be quite popular. That's

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the one I went for yesterday. So depending on which

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one you're going for quite affect the style of game

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that you might start out with. Of course, once you've

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met that criteria, you're then free to carry on playing

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as in as.

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Speaker 3: It will kind of point you for the first few

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turns a direction that you might want to go, which

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can be quite useful because it's quite an open ended

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structure and how you attack the game.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course you may ignore the objective altogether because

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there's a number of other options up there.

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Speaker 4: Quite right.

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Speaker 3: I mean, the game end actually triggers when one of

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the players puts his sixth or his or her sixth

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star down on the star tracker if they remember, if

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if they remember, But once that sixth star goes down,

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the game ends and you move to end game scoring.

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Speaker 4: And so it's.

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Speaker 3: Important to take note of each each player's status during

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the game. Once you've got all your buildings out, there's

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a staff for that, you put your star out. Once

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all your mechs are out, there's a staff for that

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put your star out.

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Speaker 2: If you reach peak power at any given point, or

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if you reach peak popularity at any given point, you

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gain a staf for each of those, and that goes

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on the star trecker.

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Speaker 3: We talked about the artwork and the theme before do

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the mechanics help accentuate that theme.

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Speaker 2: Esthetically, can't fault it. As I said at the top

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of the session, I think it looks amazing, and when

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you pick up any of the individual pieces or these

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item cards, objective cards and so on, it so evocative,

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so evoxative of the idea that it's trying to portray.

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Once I'm playing the game and say getting into that

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engine building kind of thought process, I feel for myself

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I'm losing connection with the theme slightly.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I will say this is definitely more

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of a euro game.

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Speaker 4: We're pushing towards hybrid. This game, I think does a.

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Speaker 3: Great job, even in spite of it's incredibly tight and

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very elegant gameplay, still being thematic and not just being

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a puzzle.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely a flavor to it which is present throughout.

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I can't deny that for absolutely.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, no, I think like any game that is

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this tightly designed in terms of its mechanics, you are

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going to lose a little bit on the theme, gameplay, interaction.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. What I did notice so the pointing out to

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me earlier, is that the designers have got a full

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biography almost for each of the player characters. They're individually

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named on the player card, including their pet or sidekick,

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however you want to name it. So they clearly thought

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about a lot of the background that's not necessarily at

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the forefront of your mind as you playing. If you

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want to get that detail and pull yourself deeper into

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the world they've created, it's there for you. So I

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can't deny them that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I should probably point out as well. So

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the artist is a Polish concept artist and an illustrator

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called Jacob Rozowski, and he's.

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Speaker 4: Known for this style of art. This is what he's

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done before.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, so Stomia Games have pulled him into work

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on Scythe and he's done a phenomenal job.

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Speaker 2: It's unquestionable. And I think I'm just looking at some

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of this art in the background, and the scale of

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it and the subtlety of it. It's just an accepted world.

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The workers are in the fields, this enormous mechanoid is

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behind them, and they're not terrified of it any more

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than the real threat of it maybe being there. They're

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not suddenly going, oh my goodness, there's a thing here.

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Everyone just lives under an accepted, oppressive nature, and they

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are striving and struggling to live as they normally would

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with this happening around them.

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Speaker 3: Let's talk about the gameplay flow, as simon, how do

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you think the game flows? Is it smooth, is it enjoyable?

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How do you find the mechanics of the game in general?

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Speaker 2: I think it works really well. As we said, there's

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essentially four options. Sometimes you're limited to what you even

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can do out of those four if you haven't got

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the coin or resource for it. So unless you're in

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a particular bind or you're particularly unsure of where you

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want to head for your next few turns, it's very

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easy to pick what you want to do, and the

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back and forth between the players or around the circle

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can flow very quickly. Some of the options might give

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you If you're picking the second row and you choose

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to build, you can take a moment to decide that

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while the next player continues.

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Speaker 3: The game has it recommends in fact, this overlapping nature

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of the actions, so once a player picks the top

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row action while they're thinking about the bottom row action,

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the next player can take their turn, which really helps

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the game flow and helps it tick along at a

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pace I never really felt like I was waiting for anything,

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and in fact, before you know it, it's your turn again.

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It really moves along at a clip once people really

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get the hang of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely suffer from analysis paralysis. So if I've

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got a choice to make, sometimes when you're revealing the

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mechs is waited early, You've got four choices, a different

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one under each mech. So sometimes I'll sit there and

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it will become my go again because I've taken so

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long to decide. But that's just my own downfall.

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Speaker 4: I guess, So not even waiting that long.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm not preventing everyone else having their go

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because I can choose that while the game continues around me.

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Speaker 3: So again, just another element of smart design. Yes, and

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I think that's probably something that we should really accentuate,

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even aside from the art which we talked about on

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you know, sort of adnauseum at this point. The mechanical design,

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the rule design, the interaction design is brilliant. It's very

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well done and it's very clever.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they have clearly put in a lot of thought

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to the combination of the map design, the artwork, the

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mechanics and the interaction of players and their resources with

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each other.

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Speaker 4: I also had a quick look.

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Speaker 2: On ball game Geek and their own website earlier, and

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they are even now the designers are giving feedback and

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response to players.

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Speaker 3: It's super highly rated by the board game Geek community.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think unless the game style entirely doesn't speak

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to your desires, I can't see how anyone would be

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faulting this game. You can't even really just be a

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bit met about it. I think if you've played it,

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you've either it's not for you full.

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Speaker 4: Style, you don't like this kind of your style, or you.

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Speaker 2: Just say, my god, look at the design and effort

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and skill that's been put into this game exactly.

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Speaker 3: And I think, having only played it a few times,

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the more that we play it, I'm absolutely convinced the

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deeper the world it's going to go.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm worried about when you get real good at this.

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Speaker 4: Not at all. So what do you think about the

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complexity level of sythe.

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Speaker 2: It's got a number of combinations which might take a

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little getting used to, but overall, I think it's got

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just the right level of simplicity and it's not simple simple,

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but you've only ever got a limited.

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Speaker 4: Number of choices.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's up to you how you choose to

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use them, So I don't think it's supremely complex.

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Speaker 3: I always kind of think about it as to in

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terms of how often do I have to dip into

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the rule book? Yeah, And I'll be honest, after the

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first game, I rarely looked at the rule book. I mean,

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I think that's just testament to how well designed it

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is to be fair, and there's been games that we've

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played plenty enough where I need to need to look

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at the rules again because I can't remember. Yeah, I mean,

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it just doesn't stick in. If I would normally wait

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things out of five in terms of complexity, somewhere between

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the two and three for me, I mean.

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Speaker 2: I'd probably put it at three. You do get given

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for each player a little guide, and on that guide,

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it tells you what you can do on a given turn,

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which is also kind of laid out on the player

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board itself.

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Speaker 4: And they're very clearly laid out.

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Speaker 2: It also gives you suggestions for your first four.

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Speaker 4: Turns, which is just so good.

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Speaker 2: Try this on your first turn, So try this on

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your second turn. Now that you've done this thing, now,

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maybe try this thing so it gives you a flavor

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for each.

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Speaker 4: Really super helpful and so good for the new players.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, when I talk about complexity, I'm not talking

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about the strategic or tactical depth of the game, which

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I think is vast and going to get bigger. I'm

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really purely talking about the rules grasping.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the facility to play the game is not obstructive.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly that, That's exactly how I describe it. So

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what did you like most about Sith?

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Speaker 2: I'm going to come back to my first point, the

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luxurious design of it. It's a great fun game to play.

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But I could sit here and just look at it.

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I'm looking at it now and just going yep, yeah,

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that's bloody brilliant.

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Speaker 3: It looks sweet, that looks good. Yeah, one hundred percent

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with you art design. But I think what I like

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most about it is the seamless interaction of mechanics. It

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is so unbelievably smart. I mean, Jamie Steigmier is an

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excellent designer anyway, with Charlestone and his new hit or

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my game is new hit Wingspan, But this is really

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just I think, a flawless design of interaction mechanics, resource gathering, expansion,

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the combat. It's great, feels clean, easy to learn, works

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really well. Nothing feels unfair, it's there is no very

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little randomization. Everything feels like you've done it. It makes

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you feel clever when you achieve something.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of the very few games I played

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that doesn't have a dice roll in it. It's very

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much on the player to make that decision.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, because it's a.

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Speaker 2: Fixed outcome each time, but it's going to be a

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different outcome each time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's not even the randomization of the cards is

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so minimal. You are really you are hung by your decisions.

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Speaker 4: In this game. From the early game, yes, I think if.

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Speaker 3: You start well, you'll fly. If you start poorly, you

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end up playing catch up and before you know it,

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your opponents have got three or four stars down on

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the board and you're like, oh shit, will happened? And

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I think that's just the beautiful nature of the game.

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And there's nothing you can do about that except but

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your hands.

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Speaker 4: Up and go, do you know what? I made the

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wrong decisions? An incredible game. Really glad I got it,

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and I cannot wait to play it again with some

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more players. Met