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.
Since coming out in 2018 the Rise of Fenris (RoF) has been sitting sealed in bubble wrap on my shelf waiting for today!
During that time I’ve managed to avoid any spoilers, and just as important resist opening it up.
I wanted to experience the campaign as it unfolded episode by episode revealing what ever surprises it held inside its box. You only get to do this once. It’s like watching a movie, or hearing a song for the very first time. You can never recapture that moment. No matter how hard you try.
Today Ben, Jeff, Shane and myself met up to start this journey together.
For this opening session of RoF we used the neoprene map. It truly is a lovely version of the game board. We were using the base game of Scythe plus the following expansions Invaders from Afar (nearly wrote Mars there), Encounters, and all the promo packs. For the first two episodes it is not recommended to play with the Wind Gambit expansion.
This meant all faction and player boards were in play when it came down to choosing our faction for the campaign.
Player boards were dealt out randomly to each player. Then starting with the highest numbered player board and going in descending order we drafted our faction board, avoiding any banned combinations. Which meant I chose first, followed by Jeff, then Shane, and finally Ben.
We had our factions for the campaign.
I thought on my drive over I had decided maybe I won’t chose Rusviet. But instead try another faction. Assuming no one else chose Rusviet that is. However without even thinking I went for my favourite faction. Somehow the familiar seemed right.
Having the lowest numbered player board meant that Ben would be first player in episode 1 of RoF. A bit of a curve ball for him as this would be his first time of playing the game! Which was also true for Shane. They were about to jump into the deep end of the pool, having only watched a tutorial online. Would they sink or swim? For sure their learning curve was going to be very steep, against two very competitive players.
Episode 1
This is how the factions and player boards matched up for the opening episode of the campaign.
- Republic of Polania/Industrial (White) – Ben
- Saxony Empire/Patriotic (Black) – Jeff
- Nordic Kingdoms/Militant (Blue) – Shane
- Rusviet Union/Mechanical (Red) – Me
Setup for episode 1 was as expected, just like a regular game of Scythe. Then it came to making the additions for this opening episode.
The first addition was to draw 1 random objective card from the deck and place it next to the Triumph Track. This was to be an extra objective all players could complete and place a star on.
Next was to punch some cardboard and add an influence token to each of the Triumph track categories plus the objective we had just added.
We also got to choose a free perk for this episode. After that they would cost us hard earned dollars to purchase at the start of each episode. The first hit is always free.
The “special rules” were simple. Be the first to place a star on a category or the added objective and claim the influence token.
Objectives for episode 1 were simple. Win the game, and collect influence tokens.
This first game was basically like any regular game of Scythe. With the only difference being we got these influence tokens that we had no idea what they were going to be used for.
Somehow I wasn’t the first to the Factory! Ben was. Yeah I know how did that happen? But I was second.
This was an unusual game, or it felt that way. We were all in the first section of the popularity track when it came to the final counting. No one had massive amounts of territory that they controlled. There was combat but not massive amounts. It felt we were all being very insular.
I did trigger the end of the game. On the road to doing so I had collected 5 influence tokens.
Not one of us completed the additional objective.
After the tallying of coins was done, and the dust settled Jeff had won.
We made a note of the money earnt. This was going to allow us to buy stuff in subsequent episodes.
Before we moved on we had one more thing to do. Using our influence tokens we had to vote on the direction of the next episode. Did we want to focus more on War (combat and interaction) or focus more on Peace (engine building and infrastructure).
I voted for peace. Which with my 5 tokens guaranteed that was the route we would be going down.
Episode 2
For episode 2 we got new player mats, which were drawn at random. Once again enforcing the banned pairings. Below are the new faction and player mat pairings.
- Republic of Polania/Mechanical (White) – Ben
- Saxony Empire/Innovative (Black) – Jeff
- Nordic Kingdoms/Industrial (Blue) – Shane
- Rusviet Union/Engineering (Red) – Me
The game board was reset. The influence tokens returned to the box.
The setup for episode 2 gave us a new Triumph track in the form of a Peace Triumph track overlay. Plus each of us got our matching faction alliance token. We also got the chance to purchase a perk for the episode for $15.
The episode goals were to obviously win the game and build structures.
This time I was the first to get to the Factory. Order to the universe was restored.
It would have been nice to have had the Polania faction ability. But Ben wouldn’t have it. All he saw was the money on the front of the tile, and that he got considerable less on that front than me. He didn’t see how powerful my faction ability was. So sadly I was limited to just one of the encounter cards options.
Initially Shane turned down my offer of an alliance also. His Nordic ability would be handy for my workers. He listened to Ben’s flawed money argument. But eventually he caved and an alliance was made. At just the right time for me as it gave me enough income to fuel my factions abuse of its power until near the very end.
The river walk for my workers did prove very handy allowing me to expand out and build my structures close to encounter spots.
As the final scores show this episode really really suited my faction. I was in the final section of the popularity track getting the maximum points multiplier.
I wasn’t expecting any combat to happen. It didn’t “gain” you anything. However in the later half of the game Ben and Jeff turned to the aggressive side and attacked Shane!
At the end of the episode we got to choose a free Infrastructure Mod, and the chance to buy other ones for $50 each. The number you got to choose from depended on how many structures you built during the game. You got to draw two initially plus an extra one for each structure you built. Which meant I was choosing from 6 mods.
“Remember, wealth earned in Episodes 1-7 is not used to determine the winner of the campaign, so spend it to improve your empire!” Rise of Fenris rulebook, page 19
How cool is the above? “The winner of the campaign is the winner of the final episode”. Love it.
I really loved these first two episodes. The additions weren’t overwhelming, they ease you into the campaign very gently. I can’t wait for our next session in two weeks time and see what surprises lie in wait for us. We haven’t even opened a box yet!