I know what you're saying to yourself as you read the title; "wait what??" But it's true!
I was perusing the BGG forums the other day for a some fan-variants for solo Caverna to mix things up a bit. In the process, I came across a couple campaign ideas. Then I remembered, I had come across some fan-made campaigns for Scythe, and decided to search a bit more thoroughly through those for some ideas.
I'm not a "campaign" game guy. I love replay-ability in my games, so I get turned off when games are campaigned based. However, the idea of campaigns make sense and do grab my attention. So finding some fan made campaigns where the cost is only your time invested, and you can still play your game as per usual when you're done is appealing to me.
I found the Scythe Bingo Variant and was instantly impressed. I got home from work last night, printed off the rules and "bingo sheet" and played my first game of the campaign. Just like in regular bingo, you're trying to get a straight line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of wins on your bingo sheet.
I won't go through all the details of it here, but I will give a few things that I am really excited about;
- The rules are simple and straightforward.
- It doesn't change the game at all (except for using "perks" the odd time and the automa levels vary slightly), which I love. Scythe is amazing and should not be changed in my opinion.
- The tracking / logging details of your games on the "bingo sheet" is great. And the sheet looks great.
- You have the opportunity to play as and against all the factions, including the Invaders from Afar expansion factions.
- A wonderful detail in the rules for anyone who doesn't have the expansion factions (Togawa and Albion), is when those factions are present, you choose the faction randomly in those cases. Great little adjustment if need be.
- I love the varying difficulty. I still lose games against the Autometta (easy level of the automa) so I doubt I'll be using much of the higher levels. LOL When you win a game, your next game moves up an automa level. When you lose, it moves down. Wonderful addition! The creator also added two more automa levels that have a very minor variation to the original automa functions. Very cool!
- The "perks" idea is an excellent addition. You can choose up to 2 perks out of the 8-10 available, but you can only do so once per "perk" during your entire campaign. It forces you to think about when you use them, so you don't waste them.
- There are plenty of games to be played during the campaign.
- The replay-ability of this is huge. Once you're finished your "bingo" card, you could easily print a new one and play again since every game is different.
For Scythe lovers out there, I would highly recommend checking out this wonderful solo campaign/variant.
Even champions have their bad days. :)
LOL Thank you (probably shouldn't tell you about my recent significant loss to the full Automa level opponent.... so I won't) ;)
You are a true champion, Derek! Good luck!
5-games in and I've won 3/5. I can't believe it! Still alot of work to get a row of 5 on my "bingo card" mind you, but I'm pretty excited.
Tonight marked my 70th play in Scythe, and I did it with a win against the Automa(-) level.
Scythe Bingo adds those extra levels of difficulty as I mentioned in the post. So after winning at the easiest level (Autometta), you move to Automa(-) level. This is played with the Automa level card, but you use the "skip a turn" symbol as you would with Autometta level.
Since I won the last two games, now I'll be moving into my first ever game at the normal Automa level. Whoa! :)
Thanks for sharing this info! Fans of the game will surely appreciate it, it sounds fun. 🙂