My Little Scythe – First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
My Little Scythe started out as a print-and-play game created by a fan of the original Stonemaier strategy game. In 2017, it won the BoardGameGeek award for Best Print-and-Play Game and caught the attention of the publisher, Stonemaier Games.
After that, it wasn’t long before an official version of the game from Hoby Chou and his daughter Vienna Chou was released and even more people were able to enjoy the competitive, family-friendly adventure that iterated on the popular Euro game.
Designed for 1-6 players (thanks to the always-present Stonemaier Automa system), it’s a game that plays under an hour and introduces kids to the Kingdom of Pomme. Just like in Sycthe, each player controls a faction on the board, but in this family game, there is no stratification of workers, mechs, and legendary figures. It’s just two adorable animal ambassadors traversing the land, collecting resources, and starting pie fights. Yes, you heard that—pie fights.
What It Does
What’s going on in the Kingdom of Pomme?
Well, the animal ambassadors of each faction must achieve several goals over the course of the game. It’s all about building friendships to increase your social rapport, slinging pies to overwhelm any opponents who get too close or rise too high, and completing quests along the way. I also shouldn’t forget about the important duty of all people to bring offerings of gems and apples to Castle Everfree, which stands tall at the center of the realm.
As in Scythe, there are a number of objectives that players can pursue. Out of 8 total categories, a player must earn 4 trophies in order to be eligible to win (because all players get a final turn, it can be possible for players to tie more often than in some games). Each turn, the active player will choose between three types of action—Move, Seek, or Make. Within each of those types are separate actions, especially when you unlock better actions with Power Up cards. By activating these spaces, players will be able to increase their friendship (similar to popularity in its big-brother game)and pies (the expendable ammo of the game used during combat); discover Power Ups for improved action spaces; complete quests to earn rewards; enter into combat with opponents and cast magic spells (to augment your score when fighting); forage for resources out in the wild; and then pick-up and deliver gems and apples to Castle Everfree.
It’s choosing how to navigate between Moving, Seeking, and Making that will determine the speed at which a player can complete the 4 objectives out of 8 that must be reached for the endgame to be triggered.
There are a lot of aspects that tie directly to mechanisms in Scythe, but you also don’t have to have any experience with that game to enjoy My Little Scythe. It’s a self-contained experience.
How It Does It
The “how” of it is definitely aided by the 3-piece plastic organizer from Game Trayz. The efficient system allows you to get everything out right next to the board and keep it some whatever isn’t used directly on the board at the ready for whenever a player needs it. When I’m teaching a game to kids or playing with them, minor details like that improve the experience by organizing another aspect of the game and allowing me to focus on the harder stuff (and the fun stuff).
But mechanically, how does it all work?
You’ve got area control, with each faction starting at the edge of the map and moving inward, collecting resources as they go, discovering quests, and possibly venturing over to clash with another faction.
There is resource management, as players must learn to use their gems and apples judiciously, as quests, deliveries, and other actions require those resources. You can generate more, by relying on the innovative dice mechanic in the game, but it won’t always guarantee that the new gems and apples are near you. When you roll, the results will determine what resources are pulled and what region they are placed in. It does provide a cool opportunity to share those resources with other players to increase friendship (which is a super sweet gameplay interaction that I’m glad is in here).
Also present is a pick-up and deliver system. Castle Everfree stands at the center of the board, acting as a safe haven for all visitors. But there are conditions for when you want to stay. You must bring gems and apples! The people of Pomme are hungry! And in need of… gems? Either way, those two resources can be transported to the castle in bulk, creating another interwebbing of mechanisms as players with bundles of resources trundle to the center of the map, well within reach of other players.
And I wouldn’t be doing this First Impressions justice if I didn’t talk about the pie fights. I don’t know of another game that allows you to throw pies at each other. Or to subtly finagle the number of pies you want to commit to a fight (either taken from your stockpile or conjured up in some magical pie spell ritual). Regardless, it’s a fun distillation of the combat from Scythe and it allows kids to have some aggression in the game without being violent or destructive.
My Little Scythe is easy to teach and simple to play, but there is quite a bit going on, which is good for younger players to experience and learn to juggle. It’s also nice for the adults who get to engage with their family while also scratching the strategy game itch.
Why You Might Like It
By implementing similar mechanisms to Scythe, the game enables young players to learn to juggle multiple objectives in their head while playing in a way that some other kid-friendly games don’t.
The fantastic production quality will likely draw the eyes of young gamers, with substantial (and cute) miniatures, hefty components, and a physical presence similar to adult-oriented titles.
Why You Might Not
The combination of Personality Cards (which help win certain trophies faster), Quests, and Power Ups that one player can get has the potential to catapult them toward the winning condition faster than other players.
While players can avoid confrontation and focus on their own objectives away from opponents, this game does have direct conflict built-in with combat (in the form of pie fights) encounters like Scythe.
Final Thoughts
My Little Scythe introduces young players to an implementation of a popular mid-weight strategy game. That’s an impressive achievement.
It compresses all of the area control, objective-scoring, and resource management into a 45-minute window (which played out accurately during my first time sitting down at the table with the game). It teaches kids the balance of pursuing personal agendas while limiting the progress of opponents. And it recreates some of the magic of Scythe—without most of the complexity—in a visually appealing fashion.
I do think that I need to get some more plays in before coming to a final verdict, though. One player surged toward victory based on the combination of cards, abilities, and happenstance from the game. I want to make sure that it’s not going to be that swingy every game and that the winning circumstances will even out over a large number of playthroughs.
But there are a lot of things here to bring a family together. My Little Scythe has beautiful miniatures that make me want to try painting without the fear of messing up models from some of my nicer games. It’s got the superficial feel of a complex game paired with the strategic accessibility of a family game. And it’s got the fantastic production value that’s consistent with other Stonemaier products. All of that makes for an engaging experience.
It is also different than other games that I have to play with my kids. It’s got more nuance than King of Tokyo. It’s more intricate in endgame conditions than Azul. But it’s got just as much of a table presence as our Crokinole board.
We’ll see if it’s got staying power in the collection, but I’m ready to see how my son enjoys it after several plays.
If you want to check out My Little Scythe, you can visit Stonemaier Games or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
Have you played My Little Scythe? Do you like any other Stonemaier Games?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.