Saxony Empire

Curious about the Saxony strategy, the tactics of the dark harbingers of the Scythe world? Well, look no further, because we have knowledge to share.

“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Saxony has the potential to be extremely vicious. If that was ever a question, just look at their sigil and the two massive direwolves – Nacht and Tag – prowling about with our Hero Gunter. They are a decisive faction, geared toward making the most out of opportunities and bloodying vulnerable opponents.

Saxony Empire.

Mech Abilities.

Deploying a mech will open up one of it’s abilities to all deployed mechs and our Hero / wolves – Gunter, Nacht & Tag. Now, Saxony has some run of the mill mechs just like every base faction, but they have two very unique mechs as well. The four mech types are:

• Disarm – Before combat on a territory with a Tunnel, opponent gets -2 Power.
• Riverwalk – Move across rivers to Farms and Villages.
• Speed – Plus one hex per movement.
• Underpass – Move between any Mountain you control and any Tunnel.

Riverwalk and Speed are the typical mechs every base faction has, and they’re pretty self explanatory. So, let’s look at our unique mechs and see what kind of fun can be had with their abilities.

Disarm Mech.

Few other mech abilities in the game are as important as Disarm is to Saxony. Although, at first glance forcing an opponent to lose 2 Power before combat seems like small potatoes. And the caveat of having to be on a Tunnel hex also seems fairly limiting. But considering the nuance and psychological aspects of Scythe combat, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.

First off, Scythe combats are always limited to a maximum bidding of 7 Power and one Combat Card (values of 2 – 5 Power) per attacking unit. Of course, there’s exceptions to those rules when considering some mech abilities. With that in mind, one on one combats are always maxing out on a potential of 12 total Power being allowed to bid. Now, for those unfamiliar with the advantages of early to mid game combats, I’ll inform you that Power is rarely above 7 for any faction. So with that in mind, and Saxony’s propensity to fight (more on that in the next section), taking 2 Power off an opponent can mean the difference of them having 12 bidding Power or 10 bidding Power. But more likely, it can mean the difference of an opponent having any Power to bid and no Power.

Additionally, most opponents would rather avoid that loss of 2 Power. This is perhaps the biggest benefit to Disarm, and it’s psychological. Not only will our opponents typically not attack us on a Tunnel hex, but a lot of them will also avoid placing and leaving their units on Tunnels. For Saxony, that means almost total control of all Tunnel territories and the ability to camp our units there. And in case you’re curious, controlling Tunnels as Saxony with just a Speed Mech allows us to dispense our brand of justice on all these territories:

Underpass Mech.

This Saxony strategy wouldn’t be complete without the the flagship mech ability Underpass. Aside from their faction ability, Underpass is Saxony’s strongest tool in their arsenal. Though at first glance it may not seem all that impressive, if we look at it in some practical applications, we start to see it’s potential.

To begin, if our first mech deployed is Underpass on the Mountain in Saxony’s base hexes, we instantly have access to all Tunnels in a single move. The Innovative and Industrial player mats can get Saxony a mech by Round 2, so by Round 3 we can access a huge amount of the central map. No other faction can do this, and definitely not so early in the game.

• Rusviet can only access the Factory from their base Village with Township.
• Crimea can only access vacant base hexes with Wayfair.
• Polania can only access Lakes after several moves and Submerge.

What does this mean or even matter? It means we have lots of control of the central map from the onset of the game. Any faction crossing or landing on any Tunnel hex is within our reach. Add in our Speed and Riverwalk Mechs, and suddenly almost nothing on the map is out of our reach. We can even invade other bases (Polania’s Forest, Nordic’s Forest and Mountain, Crimea’s Mountain hexes) all from our own base Mountain hex.

Additionally, if all that wasn’t cool enough, Underpass allows us to transfer units from one Mountain we control to another Mountain we control anywhere else on the board in a single move. Even a worker standing alone on a Mountain makes this possible. So, if we have a mech on our base Mountain and a workers across the map on Togawa’s Mountain, we can cross that distance in a single move – and we will!

Faction Ability.

Dominate: There is no limit to the amount of Stars you can place from completing Objectives and winning combat.

Okay, can we talk about how amazing this ability is? We have no limitations to Stars for Objectives or combats? Wow.

Having Dominate as a faction ability, really sets a tone for Saxony as instigators of combats and aggressors. In fact, some other factions (Albion, Nordic, Crimea) have some early game strategies that center around how close to having a mech Saxony is. Because of this ability, good Saxony players excel on prioritizing early game combats (when other factions Power and Combat Cards are low).

But let’s take a more abstract look. If we have unlimited combat potential and the other factions don’t, doesn’t it benefit us to be excessive attackers? Even if we lose, in a head to head match we’re only ever giving another faction at most 2 Stars for Combat. Meanwhile, we can keep going and gaining Stars, and if that other faction doesn’t continue to put up a fight, they’re essentially giving us Combat Stars for free. As hilarious and trolling as this may seem, it’s definitively what Dominate does.

As for Objectives, “unlimited” is loosely relatable. Unfortunately we do have limitations since we only get two Objective Cards in a single game to complete. However, having the flexibility of being able to complete both Objectives opens a lot of doors for us. Namely, it takes a lot of pressure off us to establish economies centered around getting certain bottom row action Stars. Consider that a general bottom row action Star takes about 4 turns to complete whereas many Objectives only need a single Move action.

So if you’re following along, you may be noticing a commonality in what Dominate emphasizes and strengthens. At the most basic level, this ability boils down to movement. And a stagnant Saxony is a dull Saxony.

Saxony Strategy.

Starting Zone.

Saxony’s starting zone might not be ideal for other factions, but it suffices for what Saxony thrives on. The two starting hexes our workers begin on are Mountain and Tundra, giving us a quick start to getting production toward our Deploy and Upgrade actions. We also start with a Village hex within our base, which gives us a green light to start building an economy quickly.

Additionally, we have a Farm and two Forest hexes right across the river from us. The Farm, easy to access because it’s also a Tunnel hex, can be reached via Underpass immediately. Both Forestsare also easy enough for our Riverwalk Mech to get us to.

Lastly, we have two Encounters within two hexes of our Hero’s starting point. Ideally, I don’t suggest getting the Encounter on the Forest hex tucked to the far left of board until later in the game. During early moves it causes us to have to move several times to get our Hero back onto the board. And we want to be mobile as Saxony. Plus, we can grab several other Encounters (even Nordic’s) with 2 or 3 of our mechs deployed.

Saxony Strategy Combat Tactics.

We have so many options with combat for Saxony that we need a whole section for it. With our mech and faction abilities considered, we want to make sure we optimize what we’re doing in fights. Lets call these the Five Tenets of Combat for a victorious Saxony:

1. Unite! All combats allow us to use additional Combat Cards per additional combat unit. Being the fighting machine that we are, why hesitate to bring multiple mechs and or our Hero to combats? Also, Saxony starts with 4 Combat Cards, which is more than any other faction. But just because we bring two mechs doesn’t mean we have to use two Combat Cards. Sometimes just the implied threat of it is enough for defending factions to bid low thinking they’ll probably lose.
2. Conserve! Similar to our latter point above: we don’t need to blow our combat resources on single fights. Saxony has a long scrappy game ahead and we want to make the most of lots of combat opportunities. So, bid low and bluff and we’ll live to fight another day.
3. Deploy! We in the Saxony Empire do so love our mechs. So we won’t want to waste our mech abilities. Underpass makes Mountains and Tunnels our domain. Disarm forces a loss of 2 Power from our opponents before combats on Tunnels. Seeing a theme here? Let’s take advantage of it.
4. Lose! What in Gunter’s name? Seriously?! Yeah! Go into fights being okay to lose. Why? Because even if we bid 1 Power and lose, we walk away with a Combat Card. This is the best way to turn 1 Power into a potential 5 Power Combat Card. Not to mention, we can lose 20 times to a single opponent and they only ever get 2 Combat Stars from it.
5. Tenacity! Don’t stop. Every move action can be a potential combat, and the more we pummel an opponent, the better off we are. They can only ever get 2 Combat Stars from us, but we don’t have a limit. And we will always wear them down because any fight they don’t try to defend is another Combat Star for us. The tipping point is always in our favor here.

So what does our Saxony strategy for combat look like in action? Glad you asked. Here’s an optimized example of some combat turns with our Disarm, Speed, and Underpass mechs deployed:

1. MOVE: 1 mech to combat with (opposing faction) on Tunnel hex.
   • Other faction loses 2 Power from our Disarm ability, so let’s say they’re now at 6 Power with 4 Combat Cards.
   • Combat: We bid 0 Power and a 3 or 4 Combat Card. If they win, we want them to win by spending 5 or more. So let’s say they spent 3 Power and a 4 Combat Card for a total of 7. We lose, but now they’re down to 3 Power and 3 Combat Cards and we get a Combat Card.
2. Other action.
3. MOVE: Mech that lost from off board to combat on same Tunnel via Underpass. This time we bring in another mech as well.
   • Other faction loses 2 Power again from our Disarm ability, so now they’re down to 1 Power and 3 Combat Cards.
   • Combat: We bid 0 Power and a 2 Combat Card. This time, they bid only a 2 Combat Card because they think they’ll lose. We win.
4. Other action.
5. MOVE: Mechs to combat with (same faction) on non-Tunnel hex.
   • This time no Disarm ability, but they still only have 1 Power (which they’ll likely need to Produce) and 3 Combat Cards.
   • We bid 0 Power and a 3 or 4 Combat Card again. They bid only a 3 Combat Card. We win again.

We’re not here to defend our pride or have a gentlemen’s duel, we’re here to win the war. Sometimes you have to lose some battles, and as Saxony, if we’re going to lose, we want to take them down with us. We want to soften our opponents up by bludgeoning them over and over again until eventually they can’t do anything to stop us.

Saxony Strategy Overview.

• Dominate thrives on Objectives and combats, those thrive on movement; thus, our Move action is our friend.
• Find easy combats, fight a lot, disrupt opponents turns by fighting, and then fight more.
• Go into battles conserving Power and Combat Cards and bid low enough to lose while knocking their combat resources down.
• Mechs are our friends!
• Get control of the Tunnels early and camp on them with multiple mechs.
• Remember the Five Tenets of combat!

Mat Combination Saxony Strategy.

Looking to take your game to the next level? Having trouble understanding a certain player mat’s beneficial synergy with Saxony? Look no further! Check out what we have below:

• Saxony Agricultural – Coming Soon!
• Saxony Engineering – Coming Soon!
• Saxony Industrial
• Saxony Innovative – Coming Soon!
• Saxony Mechanical
• Saxony Militant – Coming Soon!
• Saxony Patriotic

If you need some additional Scythe tips, check out our Quick Tips strategy posting! If you don’t own the game, check it out at Stonemaier Games. It’s 100% worth whatever you spend on it!

Thanks for taking a read of our overall Saxony Strategy! Feel free to comment below with any thoughts or critiques or successes you have had with Saxony!

Happy Gaming!

• Norman and Jacob