Combat?

[John the John]

Hi. I just wanted to know how important is combat in the game. I have watched some videos and people say that Combat is about 20-30% of the game. What I want to know is: Could I control an entire map? I know that conquest isn't the main goal of the game but I want to know if it would be theoretically possible to conquer an entire map and defeat all players by force.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

We've played the tabletop version repeatedly without any combat at all - this is more an economy, worker placement and engine-building game than it is a combat stomp fest. Defeating players by force is not really an option as their units do not "die" but rather retreat to their home tiles, ready to be deployed again. Controlling the whole map is not going to be an option either as you only control the tiles with your 4 buildings, 10 workers, 4 mechs and your character on them.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Originally posted by Erik2266:

Thank you for your reply. Do you like this game? Would you recommend it?

If the digital edition will be even half the eye candy the tabletop version is, absolutely!

[dogthinker]

Contrasting view... I've played Scythe with several different groups of players, and my games have been much more aggressive (possibly because almost all the games have been with 5 players, so the map is crowded.) Combat has definitely been a deciding factor. In almost all my games the winner has had at least 1 combat star, usually 2. It's often used as a mechanism to choose the exact moment that the game ends, as with careful preparation you can often surprise your opponents by scoring 3 or 4 stars in a single turn (Saxony could actually score 6 - 3 combats, 2 missions, 1 from the bottom action - haha, I'll have to try for that some time...)

I'd say we usually have around 5 to 10 combats per game, in total, on average, with 5 players. I don't think I've ever played a game with no combat at all.

Even if you have relatively passive players, if Saxony is on the board, and being played by someone vaguely competent, then there's definitely going to be combat.

[BigTplaysGamesTTV]

Scythe is not a wargame or anything, but there is a combat element. It's unique in the sense that you have these units at your disposal and usually units mean military might but in this case they are used more for resource protection and acquisition and things like that. But there IS a fairly strong sense of aggresion, depending on who is playing and their factions.

I can see a two player game existing with very little military action, depending on which faction they chose. I play four player games usually. The way me and my friends play, we tend to go after each other so our games got TOO aggresive. People who play the board game version solo fidn the AI to be aggresive. Almost too much so. I would say your average gamer would find their sweet spot somewhere in the middle between my experiences with the 4 player game and solo on one side and the poster who finds almost no combat.

To answer OP, you can't really eliminate people and you can only spread your units so far. It's definitely possible to win with military aggresion, but you wont be knocking people out and you won't completely dominate the entire board by yourself without taking a few lumps.

[GomiBushi]

I love the game. I would echo what the other replies, but add a bit:
If you attack someone you need to spend of your military might, so you wil be weaker after. Most likely significantly. Therefore there is a constant sort of arms race to not fall behind on the power track, because you are then an easy target (you score if you win a combat). If you are too agressive, spend your power and win a few combats you will likely be fatigued and may very well lose any ground gained very quickly.
So, because of this you don't usually want to go all Blitzkrieg. There is a lot of posturing, threats, promises and manouvering, and yes, there will usually be some combat.

I love it because of the incredible depth of the interconnected systems (any many other reasons), combat and military dominance is just one.

[KittyPerry]

As someone who owns the physical version I have had my eye on the upcoming digital edition for some time. If you're curious about this game check it out on Boardgamegeek. It's highly ranked amongst thousands of games and for good reason.

[JM_VFX]

Aggression is all based on how many players are in the games and what faction. There are factions that benifit more from battle than others. If you play with a full 7 players is drasticly different from 2-4 players due to spacing and scarcity of resource tiles. As nothing is destroyed in the game there is little cosequence of being a war monger if you play it smart