First and foremost, I am ashamed. 110% ASHAMED of myself.
As per my last post about the Rise of Fenris campaign , I said I would share my thoughts following the conclusion of my campaign, and that's what I'm here to do. But the fact that this is an 8-episode campaign and my last post about it was after episode 3, May 1, 2021...????? That's embarassing for someone who loves EVERYTHING Scythe so much! 😏
I will defend myself by saying that 2021 & 2022 were very tough years for us. Add in other new games coming into my collection, my campaign was just put on hold. Really, this is a poor excuse considering how much I loved it. But that's all I got!
I do feel that a contribuing factor to my recent plays to finish the campaign had to do with my rekindled energy for Scythe. Not that my love for the game ever went away. But as I completed my collection with MORE stuff, it just kicked my love for the alternate 1920's Europa into high gear!! 😊
THOUGHTS ON THE RISE OF FENRIS CAMPAIGN
Sure, I'm 100% biast perhaps since Scythe is my favourite Tabletop game. I can't help it! 😎 As mentioned in the title (and my other posts regaring the RoF campaign), no spoilers here. Granted it was really tough to not share pictures and stories of my adventures throughout. But I am one that LOVES surprises, so I would NEVER spoil those for others. Especially the ST folks!
-This campaign was FANTASTIC!! The backstory you get to better understand where this world is during the base game plays, is wonderful and exciting. 😀
-Of course, the artwork from Jakub throughout just speaks to me. I can't get enough of it!
-The things you unlock throughout your 8-episode campaign are SO GREAT!!! It's so much fun! It truly feels like you're finding long, lost treasure! 😀
-The ability, in true Stonemaier games fashion, to utilize any/all expansions while playing RoF is also so much fun. Though I opted to only involve the 'Invaders from Afar' expansion at most.
-When you finish the campaign it can be fully reset. Naturally, the surprises won't be as exciting, however I will GLADLY play through this again. Particularly because choices and outcomes can vear down different paths at a few points during the campaign. (i.e. I unlocked many things, but I can't officially say everything was used in my first campaign due to the path I chose). 🤔
-I chose to play my campaign (way back in 2021 🙄) against 1-Autometta opponent only. For non-Scythe folks, the Autometta is the easiest level of AI in Scythe. In Scythe, since the map is big, playing only one opponent means (at least 50% of your games) will be less "crowded". This was strictly my choice as I wanted to focus on the storyline, and the fun surprises along the way more than worrying about my opponents. Therefore, I won my campaign. By a good margin actually. But with ZERO regrets since I can do it again anytime I want! 😊
-The way this campaign tied into the alternate 1920's Europe was awesome! Even (as with Scythe's base game) tying in certain elements of our reality, it really made the storyline fun to follow as you played through.
-I don't feel this is a spoiler to say this (as I believe it's mentioned at the beginning of the campaign) that elements that you unlock during your 8-episodes can be utilized in your regular games of Scythe afterwards! Wow! And let me tell you, the amount of variety you can bring to the table with just the Rise of Fenris aspects is incredible (let alone the other expansions for Scythe). I'm just amazed! 😀
-I'm excited on my next playthrough to play against the Automa (normal difficulty) with a couple of them in the campaign with me as well. It'll really change what happens along the storyline when my competition will be tougher, and the map will be much tighter! Yikes! 🙂
If you enjoy Scythe, this is a MUST HAVE expansion. If you don't enjoy Scythe, you probably didn't even make it this far in my post anyway, but I wouldn't recommend RoF to you. 🤣 For those who do love Scythe, I'm actually really glad I did things in the order and timeline I did with Rise of Fenris:
-Scythe kicked my board gaming passion (and solo gaming hobby) into high gear in February 2020. Between that time and late April 2021, I purchased the Invaders from Afar expansion (2-new factions) and just played the game, learned the rules better, learned how to run the Automa better... I just had fun with it. When I got RoF in early Spring 2021, I didn't even have Wind Gambit yet. Only being a year into the game, I would still have called myself a 'rookie' in the alternate 1920's world. But having said that, that allowed me to just focus on the story and excitement of what Rise of Fenris brings to the table, rather than worrying about extras (so it never seemed overwhelming - only exciting). Now that I have WAY more plays under my belt with Scythe, I can add some additional aspects to my next campaign with little hesitation. 😀
FINAL THOUGHTS
Yep. I love it! I absolutely recommend it. This made me love Scythe that much more. 😍