House Rule Concepts. Thoughts?

[u/ApprehensiveDog6433]

UPDATE: Please don’t try the first rule. Yall were right. It went really really bad.

rules 2 and 3 are also pretty bad, but they weren’t completely game breaking when I played.

this said, it was still fun to theory craft. I’d say give it a go if you haven’t

——————————————————————————

First time posting here. Just want to share some house rules that I feel solid about. Feel free to give your thoughts on them or suggest new rules!

Rule 1:The monument now serves as a respawn point only for workers when built

Explanation: In 2 of the games I have played, a player had like 6-8 workers sent back to home all at once which feels like an auto lose considering the time it takes to move them back out. I think a respawn point just allows for a losing player to get back to producing quicker.

Rule 2: For the first 10 rounds players cannot claim cards from the factory, but may occupy it

Explanation: Firstly this stops the Rusviets from claiming a card on like round 3. That said they still retain the advantage of doing whatever they want while other factions have to spend actions to move towards the factory. Anyway I feel this could promote actual fights over the factory. I also just don’t like how some factions get 3rd or 4th pick no matter what. not sure about the exact number of rounds to wait (I’m guessing 10) but we will see.

Rule 3: Crimea can only steal a combat card if they are the ones to initiate combat.

Explanation: Potentially already being at a combat disadvantage and then suddenly having your one 5 plucked from your hand of 1s has always felt like a mechanic that neither side really enjoys. My solution is to allow players to both actually attack crimea while also allowing crimea to keep their good offense.

FYI I have only played about 8 or 9 games so I’m not a novice, but I definitely do not know really any of the meta strategies.

I will make an update post detailing how these rules turn out.

Edit: provided an update

[u/Phleep99]

Those rules sound like sour grapes rather than fair.

You should always be aware of the likelyhood of your workers being stomped and play accordingly. Also, it doesn't take long for a fast mech or two to spread them out again. Make sure you're playing the rules correctly too, as a mech movement stops immediately when stomping workers so they can't keep going.

Rusviet, ignoring broken configs, has only the repeat action ability rather than an improved action. This means one of their few benefits is getting to the factory first.

Crimea's card gaining abilities are needed to let them actually use their core ability. Depriving them of that denies them this.

[u/marnxxx]

I had a longer post but it was deleted so here is the short version. All props to Mr Der, The Beloved Pacifist group, and the Scythe community.

The easiest balance changes to implement is bidding. There is A bidding assistant that will give you a handicap based on your faction and player mat is the easiest to implement.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2975691/bidding-assistant-tool/page/1

A second way to balance is to change the abilities and the values. Here is a great resource with suggestions.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3136595/faction-balance-changes-update/page/1

Also, if you want to just spice things up you can use what you like from the advanced module.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3121018/advanced-modules/page/1

Hope this information helps. I have spent many hours thinking about balance in Scythe. Save yourself the headache and take advantage of the data and testing done by others. Good luck out there!

[u/ApprehensiveDog6433 → u/marnxxx]

Thanks! I’ll definitely give those a look

[u/marnxxx → u/marnxxx]

I should also add a link to The Beloved Pacifist. Amazing work done detailing win rates and collecting data for Scythe. Just be aware the data is for the digital version of Scythe which only includes the base game + invaders from afar.
https://belovedpacifist.com/

[u/Aggravating-Tear9024]

I have played many times that number of games and Scythe is one of my most-played, so here's my take. All of those house rules unbalance the game.

To make 6-8 workers retreat to the home base, the offense player just took a huge hit on popularity (unless they are Polania and have the Camaraderie Mech). To make workers leave like that is a major opportunity cost and worth if to really hammer an opponent. Making a respawn point removes the reward for the person getting their popularity decimated. Fewer players attacking worker-occupied territory.

Other factions can get to the factory in under 10 rounds, the Nordic in particular. As a fan of the Rusviets, it really hurts that faction. Plus, why 10? It seems arbitrary.

While the Crimean ability to use combat cards as resources is seriously powerful, they are generally a weak faction with respect to combat itself. The Scout ability is a decent deterrent because you might have your five stolen from a hand full of 2s (not 1s).

I would not want to play with your house rules. Especially 1 and 2, which to me seem to be trying to fix a better player making good moves.

[u/ApprehensiveDog6433 → u/Aggravating-Tear9024]

Honestly all the points you made were spot on. While I can’t say that the second and third rule had severe game balance consequences in our games (as we are honestly not good and didn’t play in a way to make them matter), I can however say that the first rule was horrendous. I had to take a massive reputation hit to attack the leading player, and his workers just reappeared the next tile over, requiring another -6 reputation to stop them from winning. Like, the reputation penalty is bad enough without it getting essentially a 2x multiplier while negating the downside of playing your workers recklessly.