Cry Havoc and Scythe
Cry Havoc: This game had a lot of hype around it when it was first announced, but many people came away disappointed so it fell out of favor among the masses fairly quickly. I'm assuming it didn't do very well because you can find it for as much as 50% off in online sales. What turned a lot of people off is the seeming imbalance among the factions of the game, and that you only get 15 turns in the whole game which is not a lot to work with.
But for me? I was hooked on my first game - its the first game in a long time that I wanted to set up and play again immediately. Cry Havoc is an area control game in Euro style, meaning you're not trying to kill all of your enemies or wage constant war - you're simply trying to control areas with crystals, and if you can score the most points off of these crystals you'll win at the end of the game. But to take and maintain control of these regions with crystals, you'll have to wage constant war and kill your enemies. The game comes with 4 very different factions that all play differently, which is where questions of imbalance come in. Some of the factions are easier to pick up and play than others, but after 4 games I can say that it does feel balanced once you know how to play the factions (though admittedly I played the blue Pilgrims the most and haven't figure out how to win with them yet!).
This all seems pretty straightforward and run of the mill for an area control game, but Cry Havoc is innovative when it comes to battling for a region. It's not done with dice, and can be done completely without cards (though cards can be useful at times) - instead of typical battle you'll be assigning your troops to three options: area control, prisoners, and attrition. You decide how many of your people to put in which box, and then your enemies will do the same (either your opponent, or being controlled by an opponent in the case of the neutral faction in a 2 or 3 player game). Whoever has the most people in area control wins the region, whoever has the most in prisoners gets to take 1 enemy as a prisoner for the remainder of the game (and score 1 point for each prisoner every round), and any troops in attrition can kill an enemy figure, which goes back to the enemy's reserve. Cards can help you move troops once placed (in case your opponent throws you for a loop) or can reverse the flow of the battle (so you can kill troops first and resolve area control last).
But where do those cards come from? That's the other beauty of Cry Havoc - the multi use cards. You start each of 5 rounds with a set number of cards, which you have to use for all actions that round. This can be recruiting new troops, moving troops, building one of your faction's buildings, using one of your building's abilities, setting up a round of scoring, or keeping them to surprise your enemy in battle. Each card does all of these things, so it's a matter of balancing how many cards to dedicate to which task while ensuring you're still able to do everything else you need to do. And you never have enough to do everything you want or need to do, constrained by your cards and only 15 turns, which makes for a very tight game indeed. There are a lot of decisions to make which will stretch you, and everything you do has a trade off. This is my favorite aspect of the game. But with only 15 turns, the game does feel like it ends one or two rounds early - just as you finally feel like you're getting a hang of things and you're in a good spot to do something great on your next turn, the game ends.
For me, this game is amazing, but I can see why people who don't like games to end abruptly wouldn't like this game. Or why people that want a game to feel 100% balanced the first time you play wouldn't like the game. Or why people that want lots of options and don't like feeling constrained like they can't really do what they want on their turn wouldn't like the game. But if you're like me and you like making tough decisions and don't mind playing a game a few times to really understand it, you'll probably like this game. And if you think you'll like it even just a little bit, take the plunge and pick it up on sale. You can get it for around $35, which is a steal for what you get in the box.
But for me? I was hooked on my first game - its the first game in a long time that I wanted to set up and play again immediately. Cry Havoc is an area control game in Euro style, meaning you're not trying to kill all of your enemies or wage constant war - you're simply trying to control areas with crystals, and if you can score the most points off of these crystals you'll win at the end of the game. But to take and maintain control of these regions with crystals, you'll have to wage constant war and kill your enemies. The game comes with 4 very different factions that all play differently, which is where questions of imbalance come in. Some of the factions are easier to pick up and play than others, but after 4 games I can say that it does feel balanced once you know how to play the factions (though admittedly I played the blue Pilgrims the most and haven't figure out how to win with them yet!).
This all seems pretty straightforward and run of the mill for an area control game, but Cry Havoc is innovative when it comes to battling for a region. It's not done with dice, and can be done completely without cards (though cards can be useful at times) - instead of typical battle you'll be assigning your troops to three options: area control, prisoners, and attrition. You decide how many of your people to put in which box, and then your enemies will do the same (either your opponent, or being controlled by an opponent in the case of the neutral faction in a 2 or 3 player game). Whoever has the most people in area control wins the region, whoever has the most in prisoners gets to take 1 enemy as a prisoner for the remainder of the game (and score 1 point for each prisoner every round), and any troops in attrition can kill an enemy figure, which goes back to the enemy's reserve. Cards can help you move troops once placed (in case your opponent throws you for a loop) or can reverse the flow of the battle (so you can kill troops first and resolve area control last).
But where do those cards come from? That's the other beauty of Cry Havoc - the multi use cards. You start each of 5 rounds with a set number of cards, which you have to use for all actions that round. This can be recruiting new troops, moving troops, building one of your faction's buildings, using one of your building's abilities, setting up a round of scoring, or keeping them to surprise your enemy in battle. Each card does all of these things, so it's a matter of balancing how many cards to dedicate to which task while ensuring you're still able to do everything else you need to do. And you never have enough to do everything you want or need to do, constrained by your cards and only 15 turns, which makes for a very tight game indeed. There are a lot of decisions to make which will stretch you, and everything you do has a trade off. This is my favorite aspect of the game. But with only 15 turns, the game does feel like it ends one or two rounds early - just as you finally feel like you're getting a hang of things and you're in a good spot to do something great on your next turn, the game ends.
For me, this game is amazing, but I can see why people who don't like games to end abruptly wouldn't like this game. Or why people that want a game to feel 100% balanced the first time you play wouldn't like the game. Or why people that want lots of options and don't like feeling constrained like they can't really do what they want on their turn wouldn't like the game. But if you're like me and you like making tough decisions and don't mind playing a game a few times to really understand it, you'll probably like this game. And if you think you'll like it even just a little bit, take the plunge and pick it up on sale. You can get it for around $35, which is a steal for what you get in the box.
Scythe:
This is a game that had a lot of hype as well, and everyone seems to think it lives up to the hype. Well, everyone but me that is. I guess I was expecting more the way the game was hyped up as a 4x game with mechs that plays like Terra Mystica. I was expecting an Eclipse-like 4x game, with mechs that can combat with special abilities and individual player boards that offer you cool decisions on your turn. What I got was a repetitive game with a boring combat system, mechs that are in the game simply so the game can put mechs on the box, and a joke of a 4x system.
Let's start with 4x. Exploring isn't like exploring in most 4x games - the whole board is static and laid out in front of you, so exploring is simply moving into a region with an encounter and drawing the encounter card. The encounter cards have different text on them, but the same 3 options on every card, all of which are pretty much good things or minor trade offs for great things. What bothers me with this is there's no surprise in exploration, and there's no disappointment either, which is part of the fun of exploration in the first place. Then there's exploit, which the game does well. You gather resources with one of your actions depending on how many workers you have on the resource, and it's exploitation at it's best. Expand is similar, you move into a new region and take it over and you can exploit the resources once you do, no complaints there.
But then you get to exterminate and it leaves you scratching your head again. Battles are costly, and resolved with blind bidding of combat points and combat cards - which seems like it could lead to some interesting outcomes, but in general is a let down because even if you win all of the troops and workers you "killed" just go back to the starting hex of the other player. That's right, starting hex. Not back to their reserve, not back to their player board... back to their starting hex ready for your opponent to use them again the next round. In other words, there's no extermination. I'm not saying the game should have player elimination to be extermination, but you should be exterminating SOMETHING, be it a worker or whatever. There needs to be some sort of attrition for a game to include extermination, dang it! Otherwise you end up with a game like Scythe were the defender in battle usually doesn't care other than the fact that they're losing resources or control of a region, but knowing you wouldn't go to battle with them without expecting to win they just bid nothing on the battle and bow out gracefully to keep their combat points so they can use them for something more useful than battle. But whatever, the designer put out a statement saying he's bending the definition of 4x for his game, so it' all OK now, right? No, it's not. You don't get to change a long-standing definition just to fit your game. Call it something else, or adjust your game to actually fit the category you're trying to put on the box. This is a 4x-lite game, don't go into it expecting a real 4x experience.
Well fine, maybe I misunderstood and hadn't read the designer's description of 4x yet, but I had read the designer's notes about how the game was influenced by Terra Mystica. So the player boards must be epic, right? Well, yes and no. There are 5 different boards, which mix with 5 different factions to give you 25 combinations to play, which is admittedly pretty cool right out of the box. But the boards all have the same 8 actions, just mixed together differently to give you 4 combos of 2 actions each time. The problem is, in reality you only get these 4 options through the entire game. 4 options. That's it. That's not a lot of options when you really think about it, and it gets boring after a while. You're racing to get these stars, and you have to take the actions to get there, but eventually you'll earn a star and then a certain action isn't useful anymore, so you're down to 3 actions, then towards the end of the game you're bouncing between the last 2 actions, and it stops being interesting (actually, it stopped being interesting well before you end up bouncing between the last 2 things). OK, you can get to the factory to get a card that'll give you a 5th action, but half the time that action's not super useful or it's too costly. It's all pretty meh. On top of that, the factions and boards are fairly specialized which forces you down certain paths based on the luck of the draw. Not quite as exciting as expected.
And yes, it does force you down a certain road because at it's heart Scythe is an efficiency game with a race to get 6 stars first. Getting your boring engine up and running in the most efficient way is key to this game, as a single mistake early on can cost you greatly later in the game. Don't even try to switch strategies mid-game, it's a sure way to lose. Which means you better play to your faction/board's strengths from the start or you'll fall behind, which makes the game scripted at the beginning when you're just getting started.
I guess in the end I was just hoping for more, especially more theme. The game's artwork is amazing, but the designer relied too much on the artwork to try to tell the story and it doesn't work. And this beautiful artwork can't cover up a mediocre game. I played twice at 2 players and wouldn't mind never playing again, but we're keeping it to try with more players to see if that changes our minds. I can see why people love this game - there are times when you can take your careful planning to get 3 stars in one fell swoop to end the game and surprise everyone at the table, which is epic, and it's another game where you get better each time you play and there's lots to explore in the different factions which gives it depth and replayability. Of course I can see why people like this game so much, but it's just not for me. It's too light for what it advertises, and was an all around disappointment. But if you want a game that's a little tougher than a gateway game to help ease your friends into the actual games you really want them to play with you, Scythe may be just the thing you're looking for.
Let's start with 4x. Exploring isn't like exploring in most 4x games - the whole board is static and laid out in front of you, so exploring is simply moving into a region with an encounter and drawing the encounter card. The encounter cards have different text on them, but the same 3 options on every card, all of which are pretty much good things or minor trade offs for great things. What bothers me with this is there's no surprise in exploration, and there's no disappointment either, which is part of the fun of exploration in the first place. Then there's exploit, which the game does well. You gather resources with one of your actions depending on how many workers you have on the resource, and it's exploitation at it's best. Expand is similar, you move into a new region and take it over and you can exploit the resources once you do, no complaints there.
But then you get to exterminate and it leaves you scratching your head again. Battles are costly, and resolved with blind bidding of combat points and combat cards - which seems like it could lead to some interesting outcomes, but in general is a let down because even if you win all of the troops and workers you "killed" just go back to the starting hex of the other player. That's right, starting hex. Not back to their reserve, not back to their player board... back to their starting hex ready for your opponent to use them again the next round. In other words, there's no extermination. I'm not saying the game should have player elimination to be extermination, but you should be exterminating SOMETHING, be it a worker or whatever. There needs to be some sort of attrition for a game to include extermination, dang it! Otherwise you end up with a game like Scythe were the defender in battle usually doesn't care other than the fact that they're losing resources or control of a region, but knowing you wouldn't go to battle with them without expecting to win they just bid nothing on the battle and bow out gracefully to keep their combat points so they can use them for something more useful than battle. But whatever, the designer put out a statement saying he's bending the definition of 4x for his game, so it' all OK now, right? No, it's not. You don't get to change a long-standing definition just to fit your game. Call it something else, or adjust your game to actually fit the category you're trying to put on the box. This is a 4x-lite game, don't go into it expecting a real 4x experience.
Well fine, maybe I misunderstood and hadn't read the designer's description of 4x yet, but I had read the designer's notes about how the game was influenced by Terra Mystica. So the player boards must be epic, right? Well, yes and no. There are 5 different boards, which mix with 5 different factions to give you 25 combinations to play, which is admittedly pretty cool right out of the box. But the boards all have the same 8 actions, just mixed together differently to give you 4 combos of 2 actions each time. The problem is, in reality you only get these 4 options through the entire game. 4 options. That's it. That's not a lot of options when you really think about it, and it gets boring after a while. You're racing to get these stars, and you have to take the actions to get there, but eventually you'll earn a star and then a certain action isn't useful anymore, so you're down to 3 actions, then towards the end of the game you're bouncing between the last 2 actions, and it stops being interesting (actually, it stopped being interesting well before you end up bouncing between the last 2 things). OK, you can get to the factory to get a card that'll give you a 5th action, but half the time that action's not super useful or it's too costly. It's all pretty meh. On top of that, the factions and boards are fairly specialized which forces you down certain paths based on the luck of the draw. Not quite as exciting as expected.
And yes, it does force you down a certain road because at it's heart Scythe is an efficiency game with a race to get 6 stars first. Getting your boring engine up and running in the most efficient way is key to this game, as a single mistake early on can cost you greatly later in the game. Don't even try to switch strategies mid-game, it's a sure way to lose. Which means you better play to your faction/board's strengths from the start or you'll fall behind, which makes the game scripted at the beginning when you're just getting started.
I guess in the end I was just hoping for more, especially more theme. The game's artwork is amazing, but the designer relied too much on the artwork to try to tell the story and it doesn't work. And this beautiful artwork can't cover up a mediocre game. I played twice at 2 players and wouldn't mind never playing again, but we're keeping it to try with more players to see if that changes our minds. I can see why people love this game - there are times when you can take your careful planning to get 3 stars in one fell swoop to end the game and surprise everyone at the table, which is epic, and it's another game where you get better each time you play and there's lots to explore in the different factions which gives it depth and replayability. Of course I can see why people like this game so much, but it's just not for me. It's too light for what it advertises, and was an all around disappointment. But if you want a game that's a little tougher than a gateway game to help ease your friends into the actual games you really want them to play with you, Scythe may be just the thing you're looking for.
*These are first impressions of recently played "new to me" games.*
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