Crimea Strategy

Welcome to the Crimea Strategy; and no, that isn’t the name of a progressive metal band.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Of all the factions, Crimea typically holds the most advantages – possibly even more than Rusviet. Everything from mech abilities, faction abilities, and even their starting hexes. However; that in no way guarantees victory. In fact, to play Crimea well, it’s important to understand the methods to their strategies.

So, enough preamble, let’s dive into it!

Crimean Khanate.

Mech Abilities.

Deploying a mech will open up one of it’s abilities to all deployed mechs and our Heroine / Falcon – Zehra and Kar. Now, Crimea 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:

• Riverwalk – Move across rivers to Farms and Villages.
• Scout – Before combat, steal one of the opponent’s Combat Cards at random.
• Speed – Plus one hex per movement.
• Wayfare – Move from a territory or home base to your home base or that of any inactive faction.

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.

Scout Mech.

This Crimea strategy wouldn’t be complete without the crowning glory of Crimea’s mech abilities. Not to mention, some would argue the strongest mech ability in the entire game. Essentially, it’s as the text states. Any time we’re in combat, we can steal one of our opponent’s Combat Cards at random. This applies to whether we’re attacking or on the defense.

Sounds really simple right? Well, it is. And maybe you’re wondering how that’s considered the best mech ability by a great deal of players. Okay, let’s get into that.

At it’s most basic level, Scout makes all our enemies think twice about attacking us. Do they really want to risk losing one of their high value Combat Cards? Probably not, especially if there’s easier prey on the board to be had. And that’s not even considering opponents who only have a single Combat Card. It’s pretty embarrassing to have your only Combat Card stolen and used against you in that combat.

Additionally, whether attacking or defending, losing a combat is like an early Christmas. Not only do we steal a card at the beginning of combat, but when we lose (and spend 1 Power or 1 Combat Card) we can claim an additional card. Two Combat Cards is like an Enlistment bonus. So, lose away!

Also, something we’ll cover later on is Crimea’s faction ability. To spoil it now, Crimea can use Combat Cards as resources. So even stealing a value 2 Combat Card has some great benefits.

Wayfare Mech.

One of the most underutilized, and perhaps most misunderstood mechs in the game is the Wayfare Mech. Perhaps the reasoning is that this ability isn’t as obvious as perhaps the Scout Mech. But it has a ton of potential, and if used properly can be like a spreading cancer to our opponents.

With Wayfare, the name of the game is occupying more territory. Often this is territory that’s really difficult to get to for our opponents. Basically, if there’s a faction that isn’t in the game, we can move to their base from anywhere on the board. Or, to our own Base if needed. And just for clarification, a faction’s base is the logo on the board that a player’s main character starts on.

This ability is so crucial late in the game, especially when we’re neck and neck with an opponent in score. Grabbing more territories in the far reaches of the board not only benefits us in score, but it hampers our opponent(s) from knocking us off those hexes.

Additionally, and perhaps more abstract is the ability to hide from opponents using Wayfare. Consider we have an opponent who only needs a single Combat Star to win the game. Well, Wayfare is our way of steering clear of that opponent attacking us while we work on our victory conditions.

On a side note, a lot of inexperienced players like to use Wayfare to chase after Encounters. I’d strongly advise against this. Getting Encounters is great when it lines up with the rest of what you’re trying to accomplish, but bouncing about the board just to get them is a waste of turns and will generally leave a player further behind their more focused opponents.

Faction Ability.

Coercion: Once per turn, you may spend one Combat Card as if it were one resource.

Lets talk about Crimea’s faction ability, because this is a huge part of how they can start the game so strong. With Coercion, Crimea can use a Combat Card as any resources once per turn. Now, this may not sound like a huge deal, but it makes a major impact, especially early game.

The first advantage can be an easy comparison of Crimea vs. another faction. Given the same resource counts and the same player mat, Crimea will always have that slight edge with Coercion. For example, if say Albion is coming up one resource short on completing a bottom row action (BRA), they will then have to wait two more turns to complete that BRA. Crimea won’t have that problem, and thus excels their game play rounds faster than most of their opponents.

The second advantage of Coercion is its natural affinity toward the Enlist action. Enlisting is widely considered the strongest BRA in the game due to the benefits of the recruitment bonuses. Additionally, Enlisting also has the added benefit of gaining Power, Popularity, Combat Cards, and Coin based on our neighbors. As such, a lot of the time, Crimea’s neighbors are also Enlisting. This of course just creates a steady stream of Combat Cards to buffer Crimea’s resources.

The third advantage is how well Coercion and the Scout Mech ability synergize. Stealing Combat Cards from opponents to turn around and use them in combat or for resources? Yes please.

Crimea Strategy.

Starting Zone.

Crimea’s starting zone comes in a close 2nd place to Rusviet’s in our opinion. However; for Crimea, it’s the perfect positioning. Starting right off with workers on a Village and Farm hex means we can start building our worker economy and get our first Enlist action completed fast. Additionally, there’s a Mountain in our base hexes, which is fantastic for getting our Deploy action online quickly.

Additionally, with a Riverwalk Mech, Crimea has immediate access to all five primary hex types. So, within a single move action, a mech with workers can get from the Farm or Mountain hexes to any other type. That just means a great deal of accessibility for us.

Lastly, Crimea has easy access to two encounters. The one located on the Mountain in the starting zone, and the one on the Village just outside of their base. This gives an already rush oriented faction a good chance at an early game economy boost.

8 Workers (Almost) Every Time.

To clarify, we should always aim to get our Worker Star by spitting out all 8 of our workers in a game. Why wouldn’t we? It’s one of the easiest Stars to get. But sometimes, and in most other factions, it isn’t wise to get all 8 workers out in the early game.

Crimea differs here on most of their player mat combination strategies. Because our starting zone has pretty much all the hexes we need within a single move action (provided we have Speed and/or Riverwalk Mechs out), it’s of a huge benefit for us to get all our workers out immediately and get them to a desired hex for maximum production turns.

Now, there are a few Crimea strategies that this doesn’t benefit us as much on. But with those exceptions, once we start our Produce action for workers, we aren’t stopping until we have all 8.

Overall Crimea Strategy.

• 8 workers (almost) every time, then Produce like madmen.
• We need to line up top and bottom row actions as often as possible. So our turns need to be efficiently geared to making that happen often.
• Enlist! And get it done early! Feed Coercion all the Combat Cards we can get.
• Most commonly we’ll be focusing on Deploying and Enlisting bottom row actions. We typically won’t Build and only use Upgrades as needed.
• Crimea’s fast, and solid games can end between turns 12 – 16. The only reason to go longer is if Objectives aren’t possible to complete.
• We will never NEED to get more than two Encounters – if that. So, unless our Heroine can grab another as part of a Move action for spreading out or combats, we don’t need to waste our turns hopping about the board for them.
• Get Scout out ASAP and jump into battles. Stealing Combat Cards AND getting a Combat Card for any losses is fantastic.

Mat Combination Crimea Strategy.

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

• Agricultural
• Engineering
• Industrial
• Innovative
• Mechanical
• Militant
• Patriotic – Banned (but we’ll eventually put out a strategy anyway).

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 or find the Digital Edition on Steam. Both are 100% worth whatever you spend on it!

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

Happy Gaming!

• Norman and Jacob