Togawa Mechanical Strategy.

I haven’t spent enough time with Togawa in my overall Scythe gameplay, and I wanted to find a decent mat and faction combo to kick off more Togawa strategy on The Daily Scythe – but I was coming up short in having anything worth sharing. Fortuitously, Digital Edition tournament winner JoyDivision recently came out with a video for Togawa Mechanical. 

Check out my recent interview with JoyDivision!

So in the spirit of getting an official Togawa strategy on the site and showcasing a well made overview, we’re going to share JoyDivision’s video for Togawa Mechanical and attempt a more general playthrough following his initial strategy.

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A couple key points that stuck out with me from the video on Togawa as an overall faction was utilizing their movement and picking two bottom row actions, and doing them well. So we’re going to take that in stride as we go through our play through of Togawa Mechanical.

Mechanical Mat.

The Mechanical Mat in Scythe seems to be designed to streamline itself with upgrades and spit out Power and Mechs consistently. The trick – as with all other mats – is finding the rhythm this mat thrives on with each faction and the available hexes of each base. Unfortunately, Mechanical doesn’t have one particular high coin generating action and instead spreads the wealth of the mat between three action rows. This means we get an average influx of coin, but won’t be raking it in quickly. Regardless, let’s take a look at our rows of actions and find the strengths and weaknesses: 

First Row, Trade  / Upgrade (3 Oil). 

• At first glace, this row looks unimpressive. 3 Oil to upgrade and no coin payout. In fact, we net negative $1 per action on this row. But it has more potential than that, and though it’s not even close to our strongest row, it’s still helpful.
• Thanks to Togawa’s position, we start on a Tundra, so we can Produce and then Trade / Upgrade by turn 2.
• Upgrade also can be discounted by 1 Oil. So with our first upgrade action, we can turn this row into a seamless action by trading for 2 Oil and upgrading each use.

Second Row; Bolster / Deploy (3 Metal) + $2.

• Being able to discount our Metal cost down to 2 and then only 1 for Deploys after successive upgrades is fantastic and quickly frees us from needing our workers to stay put on hexes for continual production.
• In the four actions it’ll take to get our Mech Star, we’ll net 12 Power and $4, The coin isn’t impressive (unless we get the Mech Enlist), but the Power surge means we’ll potentially be in reach of the Power Star during our gameplay.

Third Row: Move / Build (3 Lumber) + $2.

• We’ll move a great deal and Togawa is within somewhat easy reach of a Forest.
• Upside: Lumber cost can be discounted down to 2 Lumber per Build action making it possible for a fast build if the resources are available. As well, it’s nice to have a build action under our move action as it allows us to move our workers where needed for a Structure placement and/or bonus.
• Downside: Getting enough Workers to Lumber to Produce effectively won’t happen until the midgame. Also, Trading for Lumber isn’t a worthwhile option, so we really aren’t making great use of this until turn 7 onward.

Fourth Row: Produce / Enlist (4 Food) + $2.

• We’ll always produce, so it’s important to consider getting Enlist as a bottom row action.
• Upside: Togawa starts on a Farm hex, and that Farm hex borders a Village hex. This makes it entirely possible to Produce and Enlist seamlessly with some work.
• Downside: 4 Food is a really high initial cost, and getting two upgrades to discount it down means we’re having to Upgrade maybe more than we’d like or use our Upgrades over things that may be more beneficial, like getting our Mech Deploy costs down. So we’ll either be needing to cart 4 Workers to the Farm hex or spend turns Upgrading.

Strategy.

After looking closely at our mat, the next best thing we can do is weigh those options with Togawa’s starting position on the map and their abilities to see if we can come up with a semblance of what we’d like to accomplish.

To begin, we have to acknowledge that the factions from the Invaders from Afar (or IFA) expansion (Albion and Togawa) are slow moving due primarily to not having the ability to unlock the Speed Mech like all other factions. As that’s the case, we want to make certain that we aren’t staying stagnant in our corner of the map while our opponents take over. We have to use our Move action a lot more just to get ourselves into the positions we want, and we absolutely shouldn’t have our focus being to rush the game. To prevent other factions from ending the game quickly, our focus needs to be on constantly building up our coin reserves and occupied territory, which in turn will keep our score high enough to be competitive.

Moving toward our end game, we want to ensure we’re maximizing our potential to get all the Stars we can. Though Togawa isn’t widely known for being the faction that gets its 6th Star to end the game, it’s important that we have as close to 6 as possible to give us the best possible score.

The first Star option we’ll look at is Power. As Togawa, we start with 0 Power, so getting to 16 for our Power Star may seem like a tall order. However, with the Mechanical Mat, we’ll be Bolstering for Power prior to our Deploy action. Since it’s likely we’ll upgrade before getting our first Mech out, it’s entirely possible to net 12 Power by the time all mechs are deployed. That leaves us with a gap of 4 Power to close. Fortunately, Togawa has the unique ability “Ronin” for a mech deploy. With Ronin, we gain 2 Power per combat where our Hero or Mech is our only unit in said combat. This may not seem like much, but given the two combats we’ll need for Stars, we can get 4 Power in those alone. Plus, with Ronin we can get 2 Power even when we’re attacked. If we play it safe with combats and don’t needlessly spend Power, this can be an viable option.

The Upgrade Star for this combination is pretty much out of the question. Even though we could technically get our Upgrade Star by round 12 if we Traded / Upgraded every other turn, since it nets us negative coins, it would be more ruinous to Togawa’s need to keep competitive with score than it would help.

Getting the Mech Star is entirely possible. Especially if we’re considering getting our Power Star, getting all our mechs out is pretty much a guarantee. It’s also helpful that we have a mountain within a single move from our Village making it possible to get our Workers producing Metal quickly.

For this faction / mat combo, it’s a divided issue as to whether we get the Build Star or Enlist Star. Togawa generally will only get the option to complete Stars from two bottom row actions, and since getting the Mech and maybe the Power Star are on the table, our workers will have to be placed on either a Forest hex or Farm hex, but not both; even though both options are in reach of our Village. Because Togawa needs to Move a lot and Build is the bottom row action for Move on the Mechanical mat, it would seem intuitive to go for the Build Star. However, by getting the Build Star, we sacrifice all the benefits of getting the Enlist Star; and vice versa. Let’s take more of a look at what going toward each Star gets us.

Star Strategy.

Build Star.

• Once we get the Monument on the board we’ll be increasing our Popularity with each Mech Deploy. Given that we start with 3 Popularity, getting some from an Encounter will have us in tier two for Popularity and help us stay competitive.
• Getting the Mill out early enough can shave a turn off our production.
• Getting the Mine out can help with mobility – which for Togawa is a big benefit.
• Once we get a trade or two in the beginning of the game, we won’t be using the Trade action after that. So we wouldn’t get much from the Armory being built.
• Structure Bonus can be a big end game boon toward our score with potential in most cases for an additional 9 Coins to our score – which isn’t insignificant. The only tough issue with this and having Togawa can be getting workers on the necessary hexes when we need to build and not wasting additional turns to move for this.

Enlist Star.

• Combat Cards. We start the game with only 2 and chances are we’ll need a chance to get decent ones before we try to win combats. If we Enlist Combat Cards first, we get an additional three for other Enlists, plus our bonus 2 Enlist reward, plus some if our neighbors Enlist. So we’re looking at getting at least 5.
• We talked about getting the Power Star, and Enlisting for Upgrades is a great way to achieve passive Power – especially when we have opponents with a Produce, Bolster, or a Move action above their Upgrades. Just from our neighbors, we have some decent potential to gain enough Power to help us toward our Power Star.
• Enlisting for Deploy is never a bad choice. We’ll always get extra Coin from our mechs and our neighbors which all adds to our endgame total.
• Enlisting for Builds isn’t a bad idea to gain some Popularity, but as mentioned, in our case, if we go with Enlists we won’t be getting many – if any – structures on the board. This would typically be our final Enlist unless we had an opportunity to get Tier 2 Popularity and our neighbors were building structures.
• The Enlistment Rewards can’t be emphasized enough: 2 Coin, 2 Popularity, 2 Power, and 2 Combat Cards to pick from each time we Enlist. The most powerful aspect of this is we get to choose which reward we want first. The flexibility of this helps us a ton as we can always pick the option that best suits our current needs – oftentimes saving us additional turns.

So, given the choices, I think we’d have a more optimal chance at success going with the Enlist Star. There’s just too much we’d lose out on not going with it, and though going for Tier 2 Popularity with the Build Star would give us an edge in staying competitive with our score, it doesn’t synergize as well in helping us get other Stars.

Getting an Objective Star is and always should be an option for any faction. So, more on this in a bit when we take a look at the Objectives of this playthrough.

Combat Stars are almost always a must for any faction / mat combo. This is definitely on the table for us to complete.

Getting our Worker Star is almost a given with how much we’ll need to use our Produce action to get our Enlist Star. In fact, these two can go hand in hand and we could get both Stars in a single turn with enough planning.

Overall, I think it’s most beneficial for Togawa Mechanical to go for Mech, Enlist, Combat, and Worker Stars. Those plus the flex plan of getting an Objective or Power Star gives us some options should one thing or another not go our way.

Objectives.

As with every game, we need to take a serious look at our objectives before we start. Something a lot of less experienced players mistakenly do is disregard their objectives as optional. This is a big oversight as sometimes Objectives are so easy they can happen in the midst of regular gameplay. So missing out on an obtainable Objective is giving up a Star and making a player work harder to achieve other means of getting their six Stars. That being said, as we take a look at our Objectives at the beginning of each game, we need to ask:

• Is it possible to accomplish these during normal turns, or do we need to do something special? E.G. take additional move actions to occupy certain hexes.
• With our mat, is it likely we’ll be able to accomplish these without derailing our end game? E.G. trying to build structures when it takes half the game to even acquire the workers and hexes to do such.

It’s always best to have a semblance of a plan in mind with objectives. It’s easier to decide not to get objectives mid game than it is to realize we’re short on Stars and have to rush around the board to complete an objective.

Objective Examples.

In this playthrough, we have “Create a Permanent Foothold” which states we need at least 3 structures, 7 Popularity, and no Mechs. Unfortunately this wouldn’t fit in well with our plan, and to attempt to achieve it would likely derail our game progress – especially the requirement to have no mechs. “Achieve Tactical Mastery” is our second objective and it states that we need 8 or more Combat Cards and at least one Combat Star to complete. This one is much more within the realm of accomplishing; however, it will require a good deal of things to go our way as far as our neighbors Enlisting or us finding some means to gain additional Combat Cards though Encounters or losing fights.

Strategy Overview.

With all the planning we’ve done and possibilities considered, we’re going to start out by getting our Workers and making some progress toward our first Encounter so that we can quickly decide what route we’re going to have to take to accomplish our goals. From there, our focus is going to be on starting our Enlists and Deploys while moving our Hero to the Factory. Late game, our focus should be on getting combats and planning our turns to get our Stars while building up our score. If all goes well, we can come away with a win.

Togawa Mechanical Strategy Step by Step.

Objectives: Create a Permanent Foothold. Achieve Tactical Mastery.

1. MOVE: Hero to Farm, Worker from Farm to Village.
2. PRODUCE: 1 Worker, 1 Oil.
3. MOVE: Hero to Encounter, Tundra Worker to Mountain. BUILD: Mill on Mountain.
   • Encounter: We’re hoping for a structure or Wood enough for one, an Upgrade, Metal, or resources and a Worker. Ideally, we don’t want to pay coin so we can keep our score up.
   • We got Encounter 18 which is pretty amazing for us. By picking to pay 3 Popularity and gaining 3 Lumber, we can Build a Mill at the end of this turn. I didn’t take the Worker though as that would force us to start paying Power to Produce and we presently have zero.

• FURTHER TURNS: Due to the nature of this strategy being so dependant on this first Encounter, I’ve listed some flexibility options below:
  • Don’t produce unless we can bolster right after. Once we hit 3 Workers, the Produce action will cost us Power. So we don’t want to put ourselves in this position until we can get enough Power to continue producing by being able to Bolster / Deploy.
  • TRADE. UPGRADE: Bolster / Deploy as soon as possible and before you Deploy.
  • In the event we didn’t get anything to help us directly on our Encounter, I suggest the next action be TRADE / UPGRADE, followed by MOVE: Worker from Village to Mountain while Hero goes to Tunnel Village. From there we could Produce our next turn and get enough Metal to Bolster.

4. TRADE: 2 Oil. UPGRADE: Bolster / Deploy.
5. PRODUCE: 2 Workers, 2 Metal.
6. BOLSTER: 3 Power. DEPLOY: Ronin on Village.
7. MOVE: Hero to Tunnel Village, Mech + 4 Workers to Farm.
8. PRODUCE: 4 Food, 2 Metal. ENLIST. Enlist / Combat Cards.
   • We definitely want to hit our CC Enlist first to get our Objective, which is why we’re going Combat Card Enlist first.
9. BOLSTER: 3 Power. DEPLOY: Shinobi on Mountain.
10. MOVE: Hero to combat with Saxony on Tunnel Farm, Mech to Tunnel Village. [Combat Star].
    • Combat: Saxony was camping on a Tunnel and didn’t have “Disarm” yet. They had 0 Power and only had 1 Combat Card. Because of our Objective, I didn’t want to bid any Combat Cards, so I bid the Power we got from Ronin thinking worst case, they throw their Combat Card and we’ll get a card for losing. We ended up winning.

11. PRODUCE: 4 Food, 2 Metal. ENLIST: Deploy / Power.
12. BOLSTER: 3 Power. DEPLOY: Toka on Mountain.
13. PRODUCE: 4 Food, 2 Metal. ENLIST: Upgrade / Coin.

• After our turn, Rusviet attacked. They had 9 Power and 10 Combat Cards. Because we gain 2 Power from Ronin, I bid 1 Power to ensure we’d get a Combat Card for losing.
• Including that card and gaining 1 from Rusviet Enlisting, we reached our goal of having 8 Combat Cards for our Objective.

14. BOLSTER: 3 Power. DEPLOY: Suiton on Mountain. [Objective Star] [Mech Star].
    • Had we not had to conserve Combat Cards for this Objective, we likely would’ve reached the Power Star by now with how many combats we’ve been in.
15. MOVE: Mech + 2 Workers from Farm (using Shinobi) and Mech + 1 Worker from Mountain to combat with Polania on Tunnel Village. [Combat Star].

• Combat: We definitely want to win this, but we don’t want to give up our 5 Combat Card in case we get attacked between turns. By this point, we know our next turn is going to get us the two last Stars to win, so bidding Power to ensure this combat was optimal as we wouldn’t get the Power Star unless we got attacked several times after this turn.

16. PRODUCE: 3 Workers, 1 Metal, 2 Food. ENLIST. [Worker Star] [Enlist Star].

END GAME STATS

• Round 16; 56 Coins.
• Stars: Mech, Enlist, Objective, Combat (2), Worker.

Thoughts.

Using the opening JoyDivision offered, I felt like this game went fairly smooth. One of the things I enjoy about Togawa is that the lack of mobility keeps me more focused on utilizing what’s around me and I can stay in the zone without having an exponential paradox of choices to muddy my thought process. In this game, I especially enjoyed the succinct switches of Production to Bolstering to Moving.

Tips.

I realize the more I play Togawa, how powerful Ronin is as a mech ability. Because of it, keeping units spread is an advantage and getting attacked isn’t such a setback. Between that and Shinobi, losing combats is more a matter of strategy than it is a problem. I would suggest Ronin as the first mech deployed in almost every game – with the exception of rushing Crimea’s base, in which case you’d want Toka.

Another fantastic part of playing Togawa is having every resource hex within easy reach of their base. This allows so much flexibility for deciding on which Stars to go after. The tough part of this is making certain we limited ourselves to focusing on only producing on the Farm, Village, and Mountain hexes (with the exception of the first Tundra Produce). As JoyDivision made clear in his video; Togawa does best when they focus on two bottom row actions and doing them well.

I hope you enjoyed this strategy read through for Togawa Mechanical. Scythe is an amazingly fun boardgame, and the more you learn the more you can enjoy all the nuances. I would love to hear any successful strategies with this combo that you’ve had as well as any thoughts and critiques on this one.

For more overview, check out our Togawa Guide.

Happy Gaming!

• Norman