The Northmen return with Nordic Innovative and some very strong strategies. And because sometimes Clan Albion being in the game or not changes what the Nordic Kingdoms strategically do, I’ve included two different step by step playthroughs including a “What if Albion does this?” scenario. Let’s roll!
The core of this strategy actually comes from watching a tournament game with Digital Edition player JoyDivision where he wins with this combination. This set my mind to reworking my previously held strategy. If you’re interested, the tournament game is actually quite enlightening to watch as there are a few really good players going at it:
And if you haven’t gotten a chance, we did an interview with JoyDivision on strategies that you can check out here!
Innovative Mat.
The Innovative Mat in Scythe is widely considered one of the best mats – if not THE best mat – by more experienced players. The reason for this is because the arguably strongest top row actions (Produce and Move) are above the arguably strongest bottom row actions (Deploy and Enlist), which drastically shortens the time in which you can achieve your Six Stars.
Highpoints:
- As stated above, we have incredibly strong rows in Produce/Deploy and Move/Enlist.
- For Nordic, the Trade/Upgrade row is also quite powerful and very lucrative simply because we start out on a Tundra hex.
- With a couple Upgrades we can discount our Enlist down to 1 Food.
Lowpoints:
- Nordic doesn’t start with a Farm hex within quick reach, so it puts some additional strain on us to decide to Trade or go out of our way to Produce Food.
- Deploying and Enlisting are our worst coin generating rows, so we’re not going to be racking up wealth that’ll help our score in this game.
Star Strategy.
I don’t recommend starting a game without considering what Stars you want to achieve. For those unfamiliar, Stars are Victory Points, and the first player to Six Stars ends the game. So, they’re kind of important. Here’s some star strategy for Nordic Innovative:
- Upgrade Star. We’ll plan on getting a couple Upgrades to help with the flow of the rest of our mat; however, this mat is streamlined to Deploy and Enlist. Meaning, later in the game, we won’t be wanting to spend our turns on Trade/ Upgrade. Not to mention, it takes six full row actions for an Upgrade Star and all other bottom row actions only require four.
- Mech Star. We’ll be trying to integrate our mechs into when we Produce for the most effective turns. With how many times we Produce, it’s to our benefit to focus on this Star.
- Build Star. We have the potential to Build and do it fairly well on this Mat. Again, the issue comes down to Innovative being streamlined for Deploy and Enlist, therefore it wouldn’t be ideal to push for this one. But, if things fall off the rails for us or we get some Encounters that give us Buildings, we can have this one as a fallback.
- Enlist Star. Innovative is geared to Enlist, and because we can discount the cost down to 1 Food with two Upgrades, we’re definitely going to have a focus on this Star.
- Worker Star. In the course of all our necessary Produce actions, it won’t be difficult to gain our eight workers, so we’ll go for this one.
- Objective Star. Objectives are always on the table. We should be able to work our game around getting one completed. If not, we’ll know at the start of the game that we have to make some adjustments.
- Combat Star(s). We’ll always have these as a focus.
- Popularity Star. Very rarely has Popularity gotten to 18 in competitive games I’ve seen or played in. So, there’s really no point in having it as a focus. We might try for Tier 2 Popularity for scoring, but not the Popularity Star.
- Power Star. Maxing our Power could be possible if we considered our Bolster / Build row seriously. But, we have much better options and we don’t want to spread ourselves thin by adding in Bolstering to our sequences. No Power Star for us.
For this combination, we’re going to focus on our Mech, Enlist, Objective, Combat (2), and Worker Stars. We’ll keep some flexibility for Power and Build in the event our Objectives are terrible.
Objective Strategy.
Getting an Objective is important for us to get our 6th Star. Mainly because not getting an Objective means we have the arduous task of spending more additional turns to get a different Star, dragging the game out and making it less likely for us to win.
For our first game playthrough, we received “Harvest Advantage” and “Population Advantage.” Both are possible because we’ll be moving around and it won’t take much to strategize how to occupy specific hexes.
Harvest Advantage states “Control at least three Farm territories at the end of our turn.” We don’t have a farm in our starting hexes but we plan on Enlisting a bunch and we’ll be moving about the map, so this is possible.
Population Advantage states “Control at least three Village territories at the end of our turn.” Just the same, this one is also very doable. We’ll be Producing for our Worker Star, so finding an additional two hexes shouldn’t be overly difficult.
Neith one of these is ultimately better than the other, so we’ll keep our options open as one of these should show itself to be easier to fulfil.
During our second game playthrough, we received “Woodland Advantage” and “Technological Breakthrough.”
Woodland Advantage states “Control at least three Forest territories at the end of our turn.” We start with a Forest in our base hexes, though chances are we’ll be moving off it right away since we don’t plan to Build. However, this Objective is fairly easy to accomplish during our normal Move action turn sequences, so we’ll likely go for this one.
Technological Breakthrough states “Have one Factory Card and 0 Upgrades.” Normally this wouldn’t be our go to, but because we got it in a game we played against Albion, our tactics changed a bit and we actually won’t be actively trying to Upgrade right away.This one isn’t as likely or easy as the other, but we can keep it as an option.
Nordic Innovative Strategy Overview.
With the Innovative Mat, it’s our goal as Nordic to get some Upgrades and start working on the seamless engine of Produce/Deploy then Move/Enlist. Once we get there, we’ll have some time to start figuring out combats and getting an Objective.
Nordic Innovative Step by Step Strategy.
Game One – No Albion.
Objectives: Harvest Advantage and Population Advantage.
- TRADE: 2 Food.
- MOVE: Worker from Forest to Village, Hero to Forest.
- PRODUCE: 1 Worker and 1 Oil.
- TRADE: 2 Oil. UPGRADE: Move / Enlist.
- MOVE: Worker from Tundra and Hero to Mountain Encounter. ENLIST: Upgrade / Combat Cards reward.
- Encounter: We’d like Metal, Food, Oil.
- We received Encounter 7 and took paying 2 Popularity for 4 Oil which helps us out a lot with future trading turns by allowing us to get upgrades as well.
- TRADE: 1 Oil and 1 Metal. UPGRADE: Produce / Deploy.
- PRODUCE: 2 Workers and 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Speed Mech on Village.
- TRADE: 1 Oil and 1 Food. UPGRADE: Bolster / Enlist.
- MOVE: Mech + 4 Workers to Albion Farm (leave 1 Worker) then to Albion Mountain. ENLIST: Deploy / Power reward.
- PRODUCE: 4 Metal and 1 Food. DEPLOY: Seaworthy Mech on Albion Mountain.
- MOVE: Hero to Factory, Mech + 3 Workers from Albion Mountain to Village, Mech from Albion Mountain to Tunnel Mountain. ENLIST: Enlist / Popularity reward.
- Factory Card: We chose Card #6 which lets us trade 1 Power for 3 Coin.
- PRODUCE: 3 Workers, 1 Food, and 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Artillery on Nordic Mountain. [Worker Star].
- MOVE: Mech + 5 Workers from Village and Mech from Nordic Mountain to Combat with Saxony on N. Tunnel Tundra. Hero to S. Village Encounter. ENLIST: Build / Coin reward. [Combat Star] [Enlist Star] [Power Star].
- Combat: Saxony had a handful of Combat Cards and 2 Power, but we used our Artillery ability to knock them down to zero.
- Encounter: We’re set for most all the resources we need, so we’d prefer Combat Cards or Power.
- We received Encounter 25 and took the pay $2 for 4 Power option which gives us our Power Star.
- PRODUCE: 5 Oil, 1 Food, 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Riverwalk Mech on N. Tunnel Tundra. [Mech Star].
- We didn’t need the Produce action because we had enough metal; however, getting those additional resources will give us a few additional points for end game scoring.
- MOVE: Hero to Combat with Crimea on Crimea Farm, Mech with Workers to Tunnels, Mech with Workers to Factory. [Combat Star].
- Combat: Crimea had 10 Power and no Combat Cards plus they hadn’t deployed their Scout Mech making it easy to only need 7 total Power to beat them.
- Initially we were planning on getting one of our Objectives on this Move action, but because we only needed one more Star, getting a combat was more effective.
End Game Stats.
- Stars: Power, Mech, Enlist, Combat (2), Worker.
- Round 15; 67 Coin.
Thoughts and Tips.
Generally it’s a bit tough to get Enlists as Nordic, so starting off with a Trade for Food really set us up for making a TON of Power off of our Upgrades from our actions as well as our neighbors – which is the only reason we reached the Power Star without Bolstering at all. All that to say that Nordic Innovative can make this happen and we benefited greatly from it.
Otherwise, the game went smoothly. We got a great early Encounter which allowed us to Upgrade for our necessary Trades, which can’t be appreciated enough. Beyond that, some non-typical access to combats you can only expect from bots.
These Scythe bots man … I say it every strategy and I’ll say it again: they can never play to the level of a real player. In this game, Rusviet, Saxony, and Crimea were huddled on a couple hexes doing absolutely nothing of consequence. Meanwhile, Polania stayed in their base the entire game, built things and never even deployed a mech. These can be tough situations to get combats, but more realistically, they let us get away with whatever we want to do. Real players would be attacking us and challenging us a lot more, so remember that when you bring this strategy into play.
Nordic Innovative Step by Step Strategy.
Game Two – Against Albion.
*Disclaimer* This strategy will not make you many friends. I say that because whoever is unlucky enough to be Albion when we go first as Nordic Innovative is going to be screwed over. So, please keep in mind, if you’re having a friendly game, this cutthroat strategy could potentially ruin the fun atmosphere around the gaming table.
Objectives: Woodland Advantage and Technological Breakthrough.
- MOVE: Worker from Forest to Albion Village, Worker from Tundra to Mountain.
- TRADE: 2 Metal.
- PRODUCE: 1 Worker and 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Artillery Mech on Village.
- MOVE: Mech to Combat with Albion on Albion Farm, Hero to Forest. [Combat Star].
- Combat: Albion starts with only 3 Power and 0 Combat Cards. Using our Artillery mech ability, we pay 1 Power to make them lose 2 Power. From there, it’s an easy 1 Power bid and we take the victory plus any resources (2 Food in this particular case).
- This will put Albion in a terrible position that benefits us either way. Having resources on their starting hexes, they either forfeit those to us or they try to bring their Hero out again to protect those resources giving us another easy combat.
- TRADE: 2 Food.
- The temptation is to Trade for 2 Metal so we can Produce next turn and Deploy another mech; however, we need to finish the job next turn by pulling Albion’s teeth. If we don’t, they have the potential to get a mech out and then we have an enemy at our backs. So instead we’ll plan on Enlisting after we move next.
- In the event we didn’t get Food from raiding Albion, we would Trade 2 Metal here and wait for the next Produce action.
- MOVE: Mech to bump worker from Albion Mountain, Hero to Encounter. ENLIST: Enlist / Combat Cards reward.
- Albion had 3 Metal and 2 Food on their Mountain hex from their trades and productions.
- Encounter: We’d prefer Metal or Food or a free Enlist. We’ll also take a free Upgrade even though it’ll mess up our Objective. But thanks to having another possible Objective, we wouldn’t want to miss out on the Upgrade.
- We received Encounter 3 and chose to gain 2 Food and 1 Popularity.
- PRODUCE: 2 Workers and 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Speed Mech on Village.
- MOVE: Mech + 4 Workers to Albion Mountain. ENLIST: Upgrade / Power reward.
- PRODUCE: 5 Metal. DEPLOY: Seaworthy Mech on Albion Mountain.
- MOVE: Hero to Factory, Mech + 4 Workers to Combat with Albion on Albion Farm. [Combat Star] [Objective Star].
- Combat: Albion was able to Bolster and get one Enlistment since our last confrontation, so they had 2 Power and 3 Combat Cards. With Artillery we knocked them down to 0 Power and then used a 4 Combat Card in hopes they wouldn’t have a 5 and we won.
- Factory Card: We chose Card #8 which lets us trade 1 Combat Card for any 3 resources.
- FACTORY CARD: Trade 2 Power Combat Card for 3 Food. MOVE: Hero to Albion Village Encounter.
- Encounter: We’d prefer food. Barring that, Power, Upgrades, or Combat Cards.
- We received Encounter 23 and chose to gain $2 and 1 Popularity.
- MOVE: Mech + 3 Workers from Albion Farm to Village (leave one Worker on Farm to Produce one more Food), then mech to adjacent Lake. Hero to adjacent lake. ENLIST: Deploy / Popularity reward.
- We’re setting up for our final produce / deploy action and we want to ensure we also protect ourselves by stacking mechs onto hexes from any one on one battles with Albion or Polania.
- PRODUCE: 3 Workers and 1 Food. DEPLOY: Riverwalk Mech on Village. [Worker Star] [Mech Star].
- MOVE: Mech + 5 Workers (leave the 6th Worker on Village) from Village to Nordic Forest (leave one on Forest) to Tundra. Hero to Factory. ENLIST: Build / Coin reward. [Enlist Star].
End Game Stats.
- Stars: Mech, Enlist, Objective, Combat (2), Worker.
- Round 14; 50 Coin.
Thoughts and Tips.
Oooof. Two total points for Albion?! Not a very fun game for them at all. Hence my earlier disclaimer; so again, don’t do this to friends you want to remain friends with.
There are a ton of little mistakes the Scythe bots make, including the early game where Albion was still trading for Food after we defeated their Hero and bumped their worker. Real players likely wouldn’t do that, and instead would’ve probably built up their Power by Bolstering. We played to prevent this, but chances are if a player didn’t just quit, they would be more of a threat later game than the Albion bot in this game was.
Aside from bots making their typical odd choices, things went fairly smooth. We tried to stay focused on the prize and made a lot of efficient judgement calls that helped us win.
What if Albion Moves to the Village Before Us?
It’s frequently possible for Albion to go before we do as Nordic Innovative. Because Nordic is clockwise from Albion (play moves in clockwise order), we run the risk of going after them depending on what they and other players get for mats. The Mat orders are as follows, lowest number goes first:
- 1 – Industrial.
- 2 – Engineering.
- 2A – Militant.
- 3 – Patriotic.
- 3A – Innovative.
- 4 – Mechanical.
- 5 – Agricultural.
As you can see, 4 different Mats go before Innovative, so chances are decent that Albion will go before us. Now, if they don’t use their Turn 1 action to Move onto the Village with a Worker, we can play just as we were planning; however, if they do Move to the Village on Turn 1, then here’s a simple play order that’s similar to the “Non-Albion” strategy. This is even possible with Rusveit in the game as we’ll be enlisting before they get to their Farm(s):
- TRADE: 2 Food.
- MOVE: Worker from Forest to Tundra, Worker from Tundra to East Village.
- PRODUCE: 1 Worker and 1 Oil.
- TRADE: 2 Oil. UPGRADE: Move / Enlist.
- MOVE: Worker from Tundra to Mountain, Hero to Tundra. ENLIST: probably Deploy / Combat Cards reward.
- TRADE: 2 Metal.
- PRODUCE: 2W, 1M. DEPLOY: Speed on Village.
- TRADE: 2 Food.
- MOVE: Mech + 4 Workers to Farm (leave 1 Worker) Hero to Encounter. ENLIST: Probably Enlist / Power reward.
- Encounter: Probably want to find something that gives Metal, Oil, Upgrades or Enlists.
- TRADE: 2 Metal.
- PRODUCE: 4 Food and 1 Metal. DEPLOY: Seaworthy Mech on Farm.
- MOVE: Hero to Factory, Mech + Workers to Factory Mountain, and 2nd Mech to Factory Mountain or available combat. ENLIST.
- PRODUCE: 5 Metal. DEPLOY (whatever benefits you).
- MOVE: Mech + 3 Workers to Tunnel Village. Other units to combat, Encounter, or to complete Objectives.
- PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 3 Workers. DEPLOY (whatever’s left).
- MOVE or Factory Card. Looking for combats and objectives from here on.
And there you have it: Nordic Innovative! With all these different strategies, I think players should get a good sense of how to play Nordic Innovative and have fun doing it. My hope is that they help you grasp the finer points of the game and potentially win a few for you.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Nordic faction, check out our Nordic Kingdoms overview guide. And if you’re seeking more faction and mat combinations, check out our Strategy Archive. Additionally, if you’re new to Scythe or would like some specific strategy refreshers, feel free to peruse our Quick Tips & Strategy section.
Thanks for checking in with us, and as always feel free to comment below on thoughts, suggestions, or highlights from your times trying this strategy out!
Happy gaming!
- Norman