New Raiders arrive on horseback

Renegade Game Studios has opened their pre-order system for Shem Phillips' Raiders of Scythia. This is a reimplementation of Phillips' Raiders of the North Sea with a few mechanical differences and, of course, a new theme. Garphill Games will open their own pre-orders later this year. European customers will have to wait a few more months too.

Image source: BGG

Raiders of Scythia is a 1-4 player worker placement and hand management game. You play as a Scythian warrior (one of eight available, each with their own special abilities) keen on raiding and plundering Greek, Persian and Assyrian settlements. You will need to form a crew, train eagles and gather provisions. In the solo mode, you compete against a Scythian chieftain (the designer claims this solo mode is better than the one in Raiders of the North Sea). The game ends when all but two settlements have been raided or there are only two quests left on the board.

Image source: BGG

PS. I noticed that the game includes 32 Kumis tokens. Wikipedia says Kumis is a dairy product made of mare or donkey milk (similar to kefir), historically consumed by the peoples of Central Asian Steppes. According to Herodotus, Scythians used this delicate method of milking their horses:

Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them in preparing their milk. The plan they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone, not unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of the mare, and then to blow into the tubes with their mouths, some milking while the others blow. They say that they do this because when the veins of the animal are full of air, the udder is forced down. The milk thus obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion is of less account.

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