For this week’s Table Talk, I had the privilege of chatting with Digital Edition player and Discord Scythe Tournament winner Dankynugz. As far as time playing Scythe goes, he’s a deal more recent to the game, but his skill and ability to think on his toes are on point. I can attest to this after being easily beaten by him in some ranked digital edition matches.
Before delving into the conversation we had, I wanted to highlight the video of his tournament win. It’s a touch difficult to follow as it’s in the Scythe Tabletop Simulator, but the commentary helps walk through all the turns.
Introduction.
Norman:
Right out the gate, what got you into Scythe originally?
Dankynugz:
My group of friends is really into tabletop gaming, and they play a huge variety of games together. I was never much into board games, but they convinced me to try out Scythe on the Digital Edition, and I’ve been playing ever since.
I didn’t originally think I’d like it, and obviously wasn’t very good at the start, but I picked it up quickly and it’s become one of my favourite pastimes.
Norman:
Very cool, and obviously, you’ve gotten pretty damn good at it.
What would you say you enjoy most about Scythe?
Dankynugz:
While it’s hard to pin down what exactly makes Scythe so great, I’d have to say I like how no two games play out the same way. While there are strong openings for faction/mat combinations, encounters, secret objectives, combats, and the Factory keep the game fresh. I really get a kick out of the combat system in Scythe. It’s a fun mind game between opponents, of whether they are going to play minimum power, maximum power, or somewhere in between. Bluffing an opponent and winning a combat is very satisfying.
Norman:
Oh yeah, one of the things I’m absolutely the worst at.
Winning the Discord Tournament.
You were one of the original Discord Tournament winners, correct?
Dankynugz:
I was, and I had to go through some tough competition. A lot of the veterans in the community have been playing for a long time and I’ve learned a lot from playing against them.
Norman:
Very cool.
What was that experience like when you were in your final game and realized you had beaten so many other great players?
Dankynugz:
If I didn’t say nerve-wracking, I’d be lying. Going into the tournament, I can’t say I expected to win. I learned a lot during the tournament that really helped my play, so I owe it all to the vets.
Concerning the final table, I was nervous going into it, but I felt good when I was able to pick up a strong combination in Rusviet Mechanical, which I’d been quite practiced on beforehand. It felt pretty great to be able to beat the best of the best.
Norman:
For real, I can imagine.
Speaking of tournament play, how are you faring in this present tournament?
Dankynugz:
Decent so far. First round I bit the bullet and played Togawa, which was a mistake, and it ended up netting me a 3rd place finish. Second game I managed to eke out a first place finish against a 31 bid Crimea Militant with one of my favourite combinations, Polania Industrial. It’s a bit awkward to play, but I enjoy it.
Norman:
Oh nice!
Dankynugz:
Now I’ve got my third game coming up, and I’m hoping to take first again, which would put me in a comfortable spot to advance to the next round.
Norman:
Very cool.
Anything you do to stay in the zone? Drinking Red Bull, listening to certain playlists?
Dankynugz:
When I’m focused on something, usually competitive, I actually avoid listening to any kind of music or having distractions. I try to shut out all externalities when I’m trying to win.
If I’m casually playing Scythe online, I’ll usually have some electronic music playing quietly in the background. I drink lots and lots of water – stay healthy kids! Nothing better to keep your brain running at max capacity than loads of water.
Norman:
LOL, sounds like legit advice.
Favorite Faction & Mat Combination.
Alright, time for the million and one dollar question that everyone will probably want to skip ahead to:
What’s your all time favorite faction / mat combo? And not necessarily to win, but what does tournament winner dankynugz like to play for enjoyment of the game?
Dankynugz:
I’d say my all time favourite faction / mat combo has to be Polania Industrial. It’s awkward but I really enjoy the opener that a friend gave me a while back, and I love the way it plays the game out, even after the opening few turns.
As well, my two favourite factions are Polania and Saxony. They’re the most flexible in my opinion. Rusviet and Crimea, while objectively stronger, have most of their strategies cemented. I enjoy the flexibility that Polania has with encounters, and since combat is my favourite part of the game, I love Saxony. Nothing more satisfying than a good Saxony bluff, saving your power and good cards so you can hit your opponents again. Really messes with players’ heads.
I also have fun playing Albion, even though I consider them quite weak. My disdain for Togawa is also well-noted. My favourite games to play in Scythe are when everyone has boards that don’t favour Bolster actions. I find the game is most fun when everyone is playing low power, and has to really think about when and where they pick their combats.
Norman:
I’d definitely have to agree with you on Saxony. The hilarity of my early days playing was no one in my group wanted to be Saxony and found combats too jarring. Everyone preferred trying for the Popularity Star.
Polania is really cool, but it’s too loose for my mind to wrap around. Like a paradox of choices that get exponentially bigger as each round progresses.
Dankynugz:
A common trap I find is players focus too much on the Encounters. I see players snap up 6-7 encounters in a game, but it doesn’t push them toward their Stars or their engine, and they end up losing. I find you can get (hopefully) everything you need to run a solid engine with 3-4 Encounters from Polania.
Norman:
Ahhhh, yes. That’s half my problem with them for sure.
You said earlier you’re not as into tabletop games as friends; any other gaming you’re into?
Dankynugz:
Most of my gaming time goes to League of Legends, which I’ve been playing for almost 8 years now. It’s very mentally taxing to play, so I enjoy Scythe as a nice game to wind down and drink a beer with friends at the end of the day.
Norman:
Gotcha, I’ve never played League of Legends, but I’ve watched an eSports tournament with it. Seems extremely complex.
Game Improvement(s).
Norman:
So, I’ve played Scythe for perhaps … 3ish years now, but only in the past year got into the Digital Edition and onto the Discord community. I’ve heard a lot of talk about how broken and overpowered certain parts of the game are. So, as someone who’s been around the same talk, I have to ask, if you had one thing you’d amend or outright change in the game, what would that be?
Dankynugz:
I picked up Scythe around six months ago. The game is definitely not a beacon of balance, as there are no patches being done to address stronger or weaker options or combinations. That’s all well and good, as imbalance brings entropy.
If I had to change something – if I could – I’d love to have a bidding system* for factions to be standard in all games. It adds another layer of complexity and strategy to the game, as well as balance. If that’s not possible, I would bring Crimea and Rusviet down a notch, keeping them at least somewhat more in line with the other factions.
For example, Rusviet can not use Relentless (their faction ability) to Move or Factory Move on consecutive turns. For Crimea, some kind of change to the Scout Mech I think would be best, without destroying their identity as a faction. Scout is without a doubt one of the best, if not the best mech ability in the game.
*(For those unfamiliar with drafting or bidding; in it’s simplest form it’s basically auctioning for a faction, mat, or combo that you want to play. In Scythe game play, that would look something like taking turns around your table or on an app bidding coin for what you want to play that would come off your end game total.
Here’s a bidding app presently used by Discord players for Scythe.
As an example; Rusviet, Nordic, Togawa, and Albion are the factions to choose from. Rusviet clearly has the most advantages of those factions, so the players of this theoretical game end up bidding more often for it than the other factions. And let’s say by the end of the draft, the player who gets Rusviet ended up bidding $15 on it while Nordic, Togawa, and Albion players only ended up spending $3 or less. Now, the Rusviet player gets the advantages of playing Rusviet against slower opposing factions; however, they also have the disadvantage of having to take $15 from their end game score – which as many players know can be a sizable swing).
Norman:
That makes a great deal of sense. The bidding system definitely seems to help a great deal in the format of DE players using it at present.
I’m curious about your statement of “imbalance brings entropy,” would you elaborate on that?
Dankynugz:
Part of what makes Scythe so enjoyable for me, and I think for most of us, is a lack of predictability once everyone moves out onto the board. When a game is perfectly balanced, it becomes stale, and loses its flair, and by and large part of its following.
For instance, League of Legends. The company that makes the game makes balance changes every two weeks, always keeping the game fresh. Strong combinations become weak, meanwhile, weak combinations become strong. If the game ever got to a point where it was perfectly balanced, everyone would play the same style, with the same characters, every game. It would get boring very fast. I love Scythe in all its imbalanced glory, but I would still tone down the stronger factions a bit. Alternatively, buff the weaker factions! If everyone is overpowered, then no one is!
Norman:
LOL, that’s definitely some solid insight.
Advice on Being More Competitive.
Norman:
Okay, last question. What is the best advice you can give newer players that want to start getting more competitive. Similarly, players who just want to up their home games?
Dankynugz:
I was hoping you would ask that. If people want to really grasp the concepts, I would say watch the top guys like FOMOF and how they think about the game, and try to incorporate that knowledge into their own games.
As my own personal advice to take to your games: be a disruptor. Getting your own engine going is great, but disrupting other engines is even better. If it costs you one turn to disrupt someone else’s engine by 2-3 turns, well now you’re a turn ahead! At the end of the day, Scythe is a race, but you don’t always have to be Usain Bolt to win the race, you can also win by being Tonya Harding.
If you wanna change that reference to make it more understandable for the younger readers, I’d probably go ahead and do that lol. But I thought it was cheeky.
Norman:
Lol, I’m not changing it at all. I love it!
Dankynugz:
Haha I’m glad!
Norman:
I’ll just link a video for reference:
I actually have to admit, your advice of being a disrupter took me forever to learn. And I’m definitely still working on it.
Dankynugz:
You’re not alone there.
I learned it from a great online player – AxlPrototype – when I was still learning the game. I played a 3 player game against him and he crippled both mine and the other person’s engine in one turn. He’s a really solid player who enjoys disrupting others. When I played him in the tournament, I had to keep that in mind and not open myself up to it.
Norman:
That’s impressive!
I definitely appreciate your time in addition to your insights. It’s been great chatting, and I know the site will benefit from your wisdom!
Dankynugz:
Happy to be here 🙂
Norman:
Definitely hope to catch a game on Digital Edition with you again sometime and see your strategy in action.
Dankynugz:
Likewise!
Thanks for checking out this week’s Table Talk with Scythe Digital Edition player Dankynugz. I hope it was as insightful to you as it was to me. Check out more Table Talk interviews and stay posted for more Table Talk sessions!
Happy gaming!
- Norman