Albion Mechanical Strategy

Oh Albion Mechanical … the struggle is real. This strategy was quite difficult to work out. A lot of props given to Digital Edition player Nevic for giving me a place to start with and vetting this strategy out. It’s likely there may be an update or two on this one, but for now, let’s take a look!

Mechanical Player Mat.

The Mechanical Player Mat starts a player off with 3 Popularity and 6 Coin with a turn priority of 4. It’s strongest column is Produce / Enlist, because having Enlist below Produce sets a player up to get their Enlist Star off of a standard game action. As a bonus, the player also gains 2 Coin per action, and Enlist can be discounted down to only 2 Food with two upgrades.

Along with that, Bolster / Deploy is the next strongest column. The benefit is the player gets good Power gains from getting mechs on the board, which synergize well together for combat situations. Also, both TRA and BRA are working toward Stars and the coin gain is decent as well.

Suggested Strategy: 

For the Mechanical mat, I think it best that players prioritize their Enlist and Mech Stars. The Power Star can also be an added bonus if a player can get an Upgrade to increase their Bolster action. With these options, it helps players a lot when they’re having trouble coming up with getting their Objective Star.

Albion Mechanical 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.

Upgrade Star. 

Aside from hoping to get an upgrade or two, we don’t have plans so go after this Star.

Mech Star. 

Albion thrives with their mechs and the Mechanical player mat gains a fair amount of coin for the Deploy action. As such, it would be our intention to go for the Mech Star.

Build Star. 

The Build action is below our Move action; however, with no immediate access to Lumber, and the high Lumber cost of the Build action, it just seems like it would take more effort to make this work than it’s worth. No Build Star for us.

Enlist Star. 

Albion Mechanical is geared to Enlist. Albion starts a worker on the Farm hex, which is right next to their Village hex. Meaning, workers have immediate access to producing Food. The Mechanical mat has the Enlist action right below the Produce action. As such, when the player mat and faction agree on a Star, we go after it.

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 if Encounters make it possible, but not the Popularity Star.

Power Star. 

We’ll have the potential to gain the Power Star, but we’ll probably need a decent encounter or to Enlist the Upgrade action to make it happen. We’ll say maybe to the Power Star.

All in all, for Albion Mechanical, we’re going to focus on our Mech, Enlist, Objective, Combat (2), and Worker Stars. We’ll also have some flexibility for the Power Star if our neighbors Upgrade a lot and if we get a decent encounter. 

Albion Mechanical Objective Strategy.

Getting an Objective is important for us to get our 6th Star. Because of this, we really need to have a solid plan going into the game of how we can accomplish one of the Objectives we get; and if we can’t, knowing right away that we’ll have to adjust our gameplan.

For this game, we received “Woodland Advantage” and  “Shore up the Shore.”

Woodland Advantage.

“Control at least three Forest territories at the end of your turn” to complete. This Objective is relatively tough for Albion (just as all “occupy” type Objectives are for them). The reasoning behind this is all based on their slow movement and lack of nearby Forests. Top that off by having only 3 – 4 Forest hexes accessible to them, two of which are in other faction’s bases and require the Burrow Mech to get to. Yeah, it’s not impossible, but it’s a lot to plan.

Shore up the Shore.

“Control at least five territories surrounding the same lake at the end of your turn,” to complete. Again, another “occupy” movement based Objective for Albion. This one is tough, but might be a bit easier as it can focus on the peninsula Albion starts in. As well, Albion can eventually get enough movement to surround the nearest Lake hex to them.

Overall, considering both Objectives, we’ll lean toward completing Shore up the Shore. It’ll likely be a bit easier and won’t confine us to getting mechs and our Hero stuck in opposing bases – unless of course that would be of benefit. Either way, we’ll see what transpires.

For a more informative look into Objectives, check out our Objective Cards Strategy overview.

Strategy Overview.

Albion is slow, we all know that. But we don’t have to allow their lack of speed to be a disadvantage. Instead, we can use it to help us stay focused on each step of the way. So we want to begin by making sure we get enough workers to strengthen our economy, getting our Rally Mech out soon after to help move those workers around. Meanwhile, we want our Hero to try to grab both nearby encounters as quickly as possible and see if those can boost our turn sequence. After that, it’s going to be focusing on movement, Enlists, and Mechs. Sadly, those are each their own column, so that’ll add some turns. But not much to do about that. Let’s see how it goes!

Albion Mechanical Step by Step Strategy.

Objectives: Woodland Advantage. Shore Up the Shore.

1. MOVE: Farm Worker to Village. Hero to Farm.
2. PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 1 Worker.
3. MOVE: Hero to Tundra Encounter (place flag).
   • Encounter: We want an Upgrade, Enlist, Food or Oil. Barring that, Power and/or Combat Cards.
   • We received Encounter 22 and chose to pay $2 for 4 Metal.

4. BOLSTER: 2 Power. DEPLOY: Rally Mech on Village.
5. PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 2 Workers.
6. MOVE: Hero to Village. Mech + 4 Workers to Farm (place flag).
   • Encounter: We want an Upgrade, Enlist, Food or Oil. Barring that, Power and/or Combat Cards.
   • We received Encounter 12 and chose to gain 2 Food and 1 Popularity.

Mid Game.

7. PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 4 Food. ENLIST: Deploy action and Combat Card bonus.
8. BOLSTER: 2 Power. DEPLOY: Shield Mech on Mountain.
9. PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 4 Food. ENLIST: Enlist action and Power bonus.
10. TRADE: 1 Oil and 1 Metal.
11. PRODUCE: 1 Metal and 4 Food. ENLIST: Build action and Popularity bonus.
12. TRADE: 2 Oil. UPGRADE: Move / Deploy.
13. BOLSTER: 2 Power. DEPLOY: Burrow Mech on Farm.
14. MOVE: Hero to combat with Polania on N. Tundra Tunnel. Worker from Mountain to Farm. Mech + 3 Workers from Farm to Village.
    • Combat: We threw a Value 2 Combat Card and 3 Power but Polania threw max Power of 12.

Late Game.

15. PRODUCE: 2 Food and 3 Workers. ENLIST: Upgrade action and Coin bonus. [Worker Star] [Enlist Star].
16. MOVE: Mech + 5 Workers to combat with Polania on N. Tunnel Tundra. Hero Rally to combat. Mech + 1 Worker from Farm to Tundra. [Combat Star]. (Place flag).
    • Combat: Polania only had 1 Power and some Combat Cards after the last fight, so we threw down 2 and 3 value Combat Cards for the win.

17. BOLSTER: 2 Power. DEPLOY: Sword Mech on N. Tunnel Tundra. [Mech Star].
18. MOVE: Hero to combat with Nordic on Nordic Forest. Mech + 4 Workers from N. Tunnel Tundra to Factory Forest. Worker from Factory Forest to Factory. [Combat Star] [Objective Star].
    • Combat: Nordic only had 1 Power and 2 Combat Cards, so we threw down enough for 6 Power to win.

End Game Stats.

• Stars: Mech, Enlist, Objective, Combat (2), Worker.
• Round 18; 88 Coin.

Albion Mechanical Thoughts & Tips.

Getting that first Encounter with 4 Metal and getting Tier-2 Popularity were both huge boosts in this game. Had it not been for either, it’s likely the game would’ve taken longer and we’d have scored closer to $70.

How would’ve we gotten to our 6 Stars sooner? Because 18 Rounds seems like a long game in consideration of the present average of 16 Rounds in Scythe Digital Edition. For Albion Mechanical, the shortest recorded game has been in 16 Rounds itself to get 6 Stars. So, first, getting Upgrades on one or both of our Encounters would take 1 – 3 turns away in which we wouldn’t have to use the Trade / Upgrade column.

Second, getting a simpler Objective like Foundations of the Empire where we don’t have to break out of our turn sequence would save some turns. And easiest of all would be winning combats against our opponents on their turns when they attack us to get our Combat Stars. All that considered, 16 Rounds is totally doable, and possibly even 15. However, that would be in the most ideal setting for this combination, and that may end up being rare.

This playthrough was against the “hard” Scythe bots, and as I say all the time, bots are okay practice here and there, but they’ll never get you ready to win against real players. Bots tend to play it safe and don’t spread out on the board, oftentimes staying in their base and Upgrading. Real players also have the intuition of what you’re trying to do and will oftentimes throw wrenches in your path. All of that is good practice for getting flexible with Scythe.

Albion Mechanical Video.

Content creator FOMOF has a live stream on this combination. Check it out and comparatively see how his strategy works!

Albion Mechanical Epilogue.

That’s about it! If you’re a newer player or would like a refresher on some general parts of Scythe, check out our Quick Tips and Strategy section. Looking to get into Scythe? Check out the tabletop version at Stonemaier Games or the Digital Edition on Steam!

Otherwise, if you’d like more Albion combinations, check out our Albion Strategy overview, and if you enjoy our faction / mat combination posts, find more of them in our Strategy Archives. As always, leave a comment if you have any thoughts or want to share how this strategy worked for you!

Happy gaming!

• Norman