Well, today was the day! I pulled off a 5-game Scythe marathon to complete my first "Scythe Bingo Campaign" (created by Steven St John). My campaign went 32 games in total, and unfortunately, in the end, it was unsuccessful. No Bingo. 😝 It came down to the last game; If I win, BINGO! If I lose, I have no other ways I can win.
The last game was really tough and I was nervous going in for two reasons;
1) The expansion factions (Albion and Togawa) are my weaker factions ... and I had to play with Albion.
2) The "Automa-Minus" faction was Polania. So what you ask? Well, take a look in the pic here where their home bases are on the map... Yikes! That's way too close for my liking...
However, overall I really enjoyed playing the entire campaign!
Let me start with a quick overview of what this fan-made solo campaign variant is, for those Scythe fans out there who may be interested. I'll keep it as brief as I can...
-You'll print just two sheets, that are very well done I must say: Your "Bingo Sheet" and Rules sheet (see pic right)
-The "Bingo Sheet" shows you your faction and the automa faction each game.
-Following your first game, you must always complete a game that is touching a previously played game (so as you go on, your options increase in that sense)
-When you win, you increase your difficulty by a level. When you lose, you decrease it (I loved that! More on that below)
-You have the ability to take bonuses throughout your campaign. There are 12 total bonuses to choose from, but each can only be used one time.
-You track your game, faction, player mat used (choosen randomly each game), difficulty level, final score and score differential all on your "Bingo sheet".
-A "Bingo" is achieved when you score 5-wins in a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). When you do, you total up your scores of those 5-wins, minus the sum of all losing differentials! Yikes! That will give you your final campaign score. (meaning you want to grab a "bingo" sooner rather than later...)
My thoughts...
Well, I'll start by saying that had I achieved a "bingo" in my last game I wouldn't have ended up with a very good campaign score after that many games (including some brutal losses) 🤣 I do think that Steven deserves a lot of credit for this solo-variant.
Here's some of the positives from my first experience with this solo campaign variant...
🏆 The game doesn't change. That's very important to me. The game is amazing, so I have no interest in fan-made variants that change elements of it or give it a different feel. This 100% does not change a thing. He even did a wonderful job with the rules and card sheet in terms of look/theme. Awesome.
🏆 It "forces" you to experience playing all factions. Not that this was an issue for me, as I always love playing with different factions and player mats every game. But this variant ensures that's the case regardless.
🏆 It "forces" you to experience varying difficulty levels. Before this campaign, I was still playing on the easiest level (Autometta). I just wasn't confident in making the jump to the Automa level. But this campaign allows you to do so in such a fun way. I loved it. And it gave me confidence in the higher difficulty. It was tough, but I love things to be a challenge so it really made things fun and interesting.
🏆 Can be played with or without the Invaders from Afar expansion. When I first looked at the "bingo card" I noticed the Togawa and Albion factions from this expansion (which is fine, I have it). In the rules however, Steven has designed it so if you don't have it, you can still play! Very well done. Simply choose your opponent or your faction randomly in the boxes that have one of the expansion factions. (*By the expansion factions added, I actually was able to learn them "better"... I use that term loosely however 🤣)
Here's the ONLY negative (that really isn't a negative - especially seeing as how I didn't win anyway)...
🙃 The only possible negative that I thought of is that you only play against one automa opponent each game. Before I began this campaign, I was beginning to play against 2-automa opponents to mix things up, and really enjoyed it. I ordered a second Automa deck, and I have the Scythekick app for additional automas if I wish. It truly is not a big deal here, but I felt I should mention it for those Scythe lovers who enjoy more than 2-players in a game.
Overall thoughts
If you're like me, and you absolutely love playing Scythe I highly recommend this solo campaign variant!!! Without question. 5-Stars to Mr. Steven St John for sure. Lots of strategy to how you approach your "Bingo card" and it definitely added some more intensity to some decisions during gameplay as well.
I also really enjoyed the stats aspect to it when I finished up. Here's some interesting stats on my 32-game campaign that I thought was pretty cool 😎:
Start Date: November 16, 2020
End Date: April 25th, 2021
Total Games played: 32
Wins: 14
Losses: 18
Games vs Autometta (Level 1-Easiest): 8
Wins @ Level-1: 7 (*Only loss at this level was game #1 of the campaign)
Games vs Automa-Minus (Level 2): 15
Wins @ Level-2: 7
Games vs Automa (Level 3): 8
Wins @ Level 3: 1
Games vs Automa-Plus (Level 4): 1
Wins @ Level 4: 0
Biggest Win Differential: +51
Biggest Loss Differential: -43
***The absolute best stat out of this entire campaign didn't actually hit me until after I finished my final game, and inputted my plays into my BGG log.
Game #32 to finish this campaign was also my 100th game with the physical version of Scythe!! WHOA!!! How cool is that!!??!! That couldn't have worked out better.
This totals 159 plays of Scythe to date (100 on the table, and 59 digital plays). And I'm still in love with it as much as day 1. 😊
NOW for the big guns... My new expansion: The Rise of Fenris OMG!!!!!!
Excellent overview, Derek! Thank you so much!