So for the last time (“thank feck for that” I hear you say) I’ll be saying the following.

SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

I wasn’t expecting Ben for this final showdown. Having checked in with him afterwards he has been having a rough time health wise. I know I speak for all of us that know Ben and don’t, that we wish him a speedy recovery. He has been missed during our campaign, and we all look forward to when we can game with him again.

Now onto the bit everyone who has been following this has been waiting for.

Episode 8 – The Final Episode – TESLA’S MADNESS

So here we are episode 8, the final episode of the Rise of Fenris campaign. The only episode that counts in deciding the winner of the campaign.

With our failure to rescue (or is it recapture in the case of the Fenris faction?) Tesla in the previous episode, this episode had the title of Tesla’s Madness.

This meant that the Tesla mini started on the Factory space and would move around the board based on a die roll and a Mad Tesla tile, attacking anyone he moved into the same space as. Tesla would be the last to take a turn. So in our game between Shane (last) and Jeff(first). Jeff was given the duty of controlling Tesla.

I will say it was confusing in the rules when it referred to using the blue and orange dice with Tesla. The dice aren’t coloured that way. They were black and brown! Then it clicked with Jeff the rules were referring to the colour of the numerals on the dice! Why?

The rules allowed players to chose their player mats this episode. Naturally the combo restrictions for Rusviet and Crimea applied. The order of choice was based on total wealth at the start of this episode. Which meant Jeff chose first, then Shane, and finally myself. Here is our final faction and player mat setup.

• Vesna & Voltan/Industrial (Cyan) – Jeff
• Rusviet Union/Patriotic (Red) – Shane
• Fenris/Militant (Orange) – Me

Once again we were given the option to use the Wind Gambit expansion, and the Backup Plan/Doomsday Clock resolution tiles. So naturally we were going to have in play the airships. However I went with this being the “classic” end of game condition. Besides we also had the defeat Tesla end game condition.

Jeff started off the game with a bit of shock and awe, using a factory card and an infrastructure mod he completed one of his objective cards and had a star out on the triumph track. Plus had an encounter!

The first actions of Shane and myself were not as impressive. Although I did thanks to my infrastructure mod have a mech out on turn one unlocking my leap ability.

I was definitely aiming to have Rasputin out and roaming the board putting out those influence tokens right from the start.

Tesla roaming around the board threatened to attack on several occasions. But I was the first to take Tesla on and win. I did have death ray at that point plus the mod that could add +2 to my attack.

I did take an early lead getting stars out but kinda ran out of gas towards the end for doing that. Jeff was getting close to ending the game, so I was hoping that either Tesla would get him off the factory tile or I could get to him and kick him off. However Tesla was unable to defeat him (twice) and I was unable to get there in time.

Although Shane got more stars out than me, and was threatening to end the game. I did feel he was not “aggressive” enough with my beloved faction. He did seem penned in to his home area for much of the game. He could have had a factory card and control of more tiles.

Jeff had chosen two Vesna mech abilities to do with lakes. The first allowed him to teleport between lakes. The second gave him +1 for each location he controlled that was a lake. Add in the fact he had control of the Factory at the end, the territory he controlled gave him the victory. He got 48 odd points from this. It basically accounts for the point difference between us.

So congratulations to Jeff on his victory and on winning the campaign.

I hope Jeff enjoyed his chicken dinner. Obviously Shane and I didn’t get a one.

Thoughts on Rise of Fenris

We had a blast playing this campaign. Some great twists and turns.

The great thing is we can now use the expansion as modules to a regular game, as well as getting two more factions. Add in the modular board, the two unofficial variants (in the complete rulebook) and wow talk about variability and replay ability.

For example the triumph track now can be the “classic” no change, or you could use either the war or peace tracks, or have it totally random using the tiles from Tesla!

You can focus more on conflict or down grade it’s importance. Basically tailor the game to the style of play you enjoy the most, or feel like on the day.

And then there is the Desolation module that’s adds a co-op mode to the game.

Plus you can replay the campaign. Ok you won’t have the surprise element to the campaign as it unfolds. But that doesn’t matter. It might change how you approach each episode.

You don’t have to play the campaign to start with and can just use it as modules for the game. But why wouldn’t you play the campaign first?

This is an amazing expansion that offers fantastic value for money.

I might even say this may be my favourite and the best expansion for Scythe. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the other expansions. Especially the Wind Gambit and what it adds to the game. But Rise of Fenris just blows them away.