How-to-play Scythe - Solo vs. the Automa

hi i'm pete krause with modern cardboard and if you're ready to learn scythe solo against the automated opponent called the atoma and learn what all the hieroglyphics do on the atomos card then you're in the right place so i'm ready to get started and i hope you are too this video assumes that you already have knowledge of how the rules work for the multiplayer game in scythe if you need a refresher of these rules then see the first video in the series where i put a link to that down in the description setup for the solo game inside is a little different from how setup works for the multiplayer game first your opponent the atoma doesn't get a player mat just a faction mat you can choose any faction for the atoma but for the first game or two or more if you're like me it's recommended to choose a faction whose home base is far away from yours so in this case i'm crimea and for the atomo we'll choose nordic once you've selected a faction mat move the atoma's power marker and collect combat cards as shown on the mat now you don't want to peek at these combat cards you draw for the atoma just place them face down next to its faction mat place the atoma 6 stars and four max on its player mat place two workers on the territories connected to the atoma's home base since the atoma doesn't have a player mat you'll place the rest of its workers on its faction mat the atoma gets five coins to start the game place the atoma's popularity marker on space number 10 of the popularity track this is another difference for the atoma this marker is going to stay in this space and doesn't move for the rest of the game choose one of the four star tracker cards for the atoma and place a technology cube on the space marked with a roman numeral one you can see that each one of these has a different difficulty in this video i focus on the normal atoma rules but i'll point out one difference if you play with the easy rules shuffle the 19 atoma cards and make sure all the cards in this deck face the same direction then place them face down and you'll need to leave room for two different discard piles next to them place these atoma quick reference cards nearby they come in really handy especially for your first couple games when playing against the atoma treat the factory cards like you're playing a two-player game so you'll shuffle the factory deck and deal three cards here and then lastly place the atoma's character on its home base when playing a solo game against the atoma the way your turn works is almost the same as it would work in a multiplayer game however the atoma's turn is quite a bit different the atoma doesn't use a player mat on its faction mat it's not going to use the faction ability nor does it use any of these mechs abilities the atoma doesn't produce resources it places stars a little different than you do on the triumph track and it moves quite a bit different than you do so next let's look at the big picture of how a solo game in scythe works and then after that we're going to look in detail of how you take the atomos turn so when playing against the atoma you'll always get to take the first turn of the game after your turn then you'll take a turn for the atoma where you'll flip one of these cards over and resolve the instructions listed on it similar to the multiplayer game turns alternate until either you or the atoma places your or its sixth star on the triumph track or near it in the case of the atoma when that happens the game is immediately over and then you collect your end of game coins and tally up the final score so let's look closer at what you do when you take a turn for the atoma after you flip over one of the atoma cards from its deck you'll see that there's a green side of this card called scheme one and it's noted with the roman numeral one and then there's a reddish orange side of this card known as scheme 2 and that's noted with the roman numeral 2. at the start of the game you'll only focus on this scheme 1 in green for the atoma and you can completely ignore what's listed in scheme 2 in this reddish orange section of the card later in the game these cards get reshuffled and rotated 180 degrees where from that point forward you'll only focus on scheme 2 the reddish orange section of the card for the atomos turn so think of each line and the star in the center of this card as four phases for the atomos turn the top line of this card tells you which atoma unit you'll move the second line tells you what the atoma gains the third line tells you what recruit bonuses you earn if any and then the center star tells you whether or not to advance the tracker cube on the star tracker card if there's no red x covering the star then you advance the tracker cube and if there is a red x covering the star then the track or cube doesn't advance this turn to get a quick idea of how the atomos turn works i'm going to take one right now i flip over the top card of the atoma deck i start with the top line which says move worker we're going to look at this action in just a minute so using the rules for move worker i move the atoms worker 1 territory the next line shows what the atoma gains and that's 2 power there's nothing on line three so then we just advance the star on the tracker card one space and then it's back to my turn as turns progress for the atoma sometimes the tracker cube moves and sometimes it doesn't as we've seen with the star in the center of the atoma card so when the tracker cube needs to move and it's at the end of the row you move it down to the far left space on the row below when the cube reaches this space with the roman numeral 2 you'll place one of the atoma's stars next to the triumph track and that's the point where you'll shuffle the discard pile back into the atoma deck and then rotate it 180 degrees from this point of the game until the end you'll now use scheme 2 this reddish brown section of the atoma card and ignore the scheme 1 green section now how the atoma places stars throughout the game works in a couple different ways the atoma places a star when it reaches 16 on the power track when it defeats you in combat up to two times similar to how it works for you and then it will place a star next to the triumph track each time the tracker cube advances to one of the squares on the star tracker card with a filled in star if the atoma places its sixth star on the triumph track the game ends immediately just as it would for you and again you collect your end of the game coins and tally up your score the biggest difference with end of game scoring is that the atoma only scores for its stars and territories it controls it doesn't score for resources since it doesn't produce or control any for you the only difference in scoring at the end of the game is that you can only score for a maximum of 6 resources per territory so hopefully that gives you a pretty good overview of how the solo game works inside next we're going to dive in deeper to what all these hieroglyphics mean on the atomos card so that way you can take the atomos turn after your turn so when you take the atomos turn you'll start with line one as we've seen before this line provides one two or three options for moving atomy units with options being divided by a slash now even though there may be more than one option on this line you're only going to move one atoma unit per turn you start with the leftmost option and if that's a valid move for one of the atoma units you move that unit ignore the rest of the options on that line and move down to line two if the leftmost option is not a valid move for the atoma then move the next option to the right and see if that's a valid move if you get through all of the options on this line and none of these are a valid move then the atoma doesn't make a move for the turn and you move down to the next line on the card so like i said earlier the atoms units move differently than how you move your units in general the atoma takes a unit closest to its home base or on its home base and moves this to the neighborhood of another one of its units many times expanding closer to the factory in the center of the board the neighborhood of a unit simply means either the territory the unit occupies or the territory that that unit could move to one space away for instance the neighborhood of this atoma worker is this territory this space and this space because it could move to both of these in one move now this is early in the game for the atoma and the atoma hasn't yet unlocked the ability to cross rivers or enter lakes when the tracker cube is on any one of these spaces with this little water symbol with a red slash through it that means the atoma can't yet cross rivers or enter lakes once that symbol doesn't exist on the space the cube occupies then it's fair game to cross rivers and then the atoma can enter or even occupy lake territories with any of its units for an example of a neighborhood after the atoma has unlocked the ability to cross rivers and enter lakes for this worker here its neighborhood would be the space it occupies and then every adjacent territory to that worker now that we know this let's see how to move atoma's units now remembering how the atoma's units all move and all the details of the turn is pretty challenging at least it was for me in my first few games so i really recommend using all of these quick reference cards they have this gray back on them let's just say mine are well worn so we'll start with the symbols on this first line that tell you that you have to move the atoma's character the first symbol we see here on the left means the atomo will either try to pick up a factory card if it doesn't already have one or pick up an encounter token so if we look at the encounter factory quick reference card it says select the atoma character and the atoma characters on the home base then we have to find valid hexes and it says in neighborhood of any atoma unit there's two workers and the neighborhood for those because the atoma hasn't yet unlocked the ability to cross rivers or enter lakes is just going to be on this peninsula for this worker it's this territory this one and this one for this worker it's the same thing this territory this one and this one so for valid hexes it would be a neighborhood that contains the factory which is not here but we do have one a hex with an encounter token next it says pick up the character choose the destination hex we use our valid hex and there can't be an enemy unit or an atoma mech there which there's not and step five on here it says place character on the destination hex which is right here so we place it there now the atomos character is on a space with an encounter token you always just discard the encounter token and that just means you have one viewer to explore on the board now if on a later turn when the atomo unlocks the ability to cross rivers and enter lakes it has a couple more units like this mac and this worker it would have a couple different options if the atoma didn't already have a factory card it would choose this as its priority because it's in the neighborhood of this mac and there's no enemy units or max on that space so it would move here and then it would just take one of the factory cards that random now the atoma can't use that factory card it just takes one and gives you one fewer to choose from during the game if the atoma already had a factory card then it would have this valid hex and it would move here because there's an encounter token that hasn't been taken already and it would discard that let's say if it was early in the game and the atoma hadn't unlocked the ability to cross rivers or enter lakes and it had already removed this encounter token then you would skip this turn because there would be no valid territories for the atoma to move to and then you go to the next one on the card and that's the symbol we're going to look at right now and that one means move the atoma's character so for an example of a move character action for the atoma you're going to select the atoma's character like we did before and then you find valid hexes and this can be in the neighborhood of any atoma unit in the neighborhood of the atoma's base even in this case there can't be an enemy unit on that space or no atoma mech on that space so these would be valid hexes this would be a valid hex the hexes with workers are also valid next to the home base these are valid hexes over here as well and so when you're looking at valid hexes you even look at the valid hexes around the unit that you're going to move or could possibly move then it says pick up character and then choose the destination hex and this is going to be one of the valid hexes we looked at but it has to be the shortest distance from an enemy combat unit and so if we look down on the map just a little bit we'll see that there is an enemy mack right here that's my mac and so the territory that's closest to this enemy mac is going to be this one right here one space away now you'll see that steps six and seven of this card do a lot of what we saw in the last atoma action if the atomos character was on a territory with an encounter token it would pick that up and discard it and if it was on the factory space and didn't have a factory card already it would take one at random and put that next to its faction map the next move action we'll look at for the atoma let's say this is a different turn is the move mac action the move mech action for the atoma is actually very similar to the move character action we just looked at the difference is is that if the atoma has more than one mech out there we have to decide which one we have to move so if we look at the quick reference card it says select the atoma mech closest to the atoma's base the atoma has two mechs on the board at this point one in this territory and one in this territory since this one is closer to the home base for the atoma this is the one we're going to move for this move action mechs just like characters are trying to move closer to an enemy combat unit and so the valid hexes are in the neighborhood of any atomic unit in the neighborhood of the atoma's base there can't be any enemy unit on the space no atoma combat unit can be in that space either so that means the atoma can't have a mech or the atoma can't have its character in that space so we're going to pick up the mac and it's this one because it's closest to the home base and then for the destination hex this is one of the valid hexes that's the shortest distance from an enemy combat unit so this is the space this mac is going to move to and the reason why is it's in the neighborhood of the atomos character there's no character or mech that occupies the space and it's closest to my character and my mac so if we took that same example but in this case i didn't have a worker here then the atomo would move its mech to this space and the reason why is there's actually two valid hexes it could move to this one and this one they're both one space away from one of my combat units but then we use the tie breakers the first tie breaker is the hex that's closest to the factory and this one wins out now if there was a second tie breaker needed then you'd go reading order and that's left to right top to bottom so the next move option for the atoma is the move worker option atoma workers move differently than what we saw for character and mech movement for the atoma they really just want to move to a rather safe territory and they like to spread out so there can only be one atomo worker per territory so if we look at the move worker quick reference card the first thing we have to do is select an atomo worker this is going to be the one closest to the atoma's base and a tiebreaker would be in reading order so these two workers are close to the atoms home base and if we go in reading order left to right top to bottom we take the one from this hex and then we're going to move it to a valid hex so let's look at that next valid hexes would be in the neighborhood of any atoma unit or in the neighborhood of the atoms home base up here there can't be any enemy unit in that space and no atomo worker so that would rule out these territories now we pick up the worker and choose a destination hex and that's going to be one of the valid hexes we looked at in a neighborhood with the most atoma units and there can't be any enemy units in the neighborhood so if you remember i said the atoma workers like to go someplace pretty safe surrounded by a lot of their other units we have to look for the hex with the most atomia units in its neighborhood i couldn't put that worker here or here because there's an enemy in its neighborhood if i go here there's one two other units in its neighborhood if i go here in the factory there's one two three four units in its neighborhood there i can't go in a spot with another worker if i look at this lake here this looks promising there's one two three four five units in the neighborhood of this lake and so that's the spot with the most atomy units in its neighborhood and that's where that worker goes and there can't be any other worker on that territory which there wasn't and no enemy units in that neighborhood if there was a tie for the hex that that worker moved to then you'd put that worker in the hex closest to the factory or the second tie breaker is choose reading order that takes care of the basic move actions for the atoma so now let's move on to the attacking moves so the first one we're going to look at is an attack move against one of my workers so this means a combat unit is going to try to move into a spot with one of my workers and run them off and chase them back to the home base so the first thing we do is select the atoma combat unit and this is going to be the combat unit like we've seen before either closest to the atoma's home base or on the atomos home base so the one closest to the home base is here that'll be the one we move next we look for valid hexes and this is in the neighborhood of any atoma unit or in the neighborhood of the atoma base and now to narrow it down significantly it has to contain one of the enemy workers or one of my workers and there can't be any enemy combat unit in that space the only workers of mine that are in the neighborhood of an atoma unit are these workers here so these are the only two valid hexes and the hex that it goes in is the hex that has the most resources out of those two that are available so these are my two valid hexes and this is the one that has one resource so that's going to be the one my met goes to now once the atoma combat unit is in a place with my worker my worker is going to retreat back to my home base and then the atomi unit returns any resources on that hex back to the supply and as a reminder the atoma's popularity always remains at 10 even though my worker retreated to its home base the atoma doesn't lose any popularity the next attack move we look at is an attack move against one of my combat units and by the way if you see this little symbol with the circle and the red x over it this symbol only applies if you're playing the easy level if you are playing easy and you encounter this symbol then you would skip the whole turn for the atoma and just go back to taking another turn if you're playing any of the other levels like we're playing normal then ignore the symbol the way you read the option for the attack move versus a combat unit is you look at the number and if the atoma's power is at that number or greater in this case a 6 or greater than the atomo would try to move and attack one of my combat units if the atomos power is less than 6 then you skip this option and move to the next one and in this case that's an attack move versus one of my workers alright but in this case let's say the atoma's power is at seven so that means it's going to go ahead and try to move one of its combat units to attack one of my combat units so the first thing we do is select an atoma combat unit closest to the atoma's base or on the atomos home base and in this case this mech is the closest unit next we look for valid hexes now the valid hexes could be in a neighborhood of any atomic unit or in the neighborhood of a potoma's home base but we're going to narrow this down significantly because the territory has to contain an enemy combat unit and so there's only one neighborhood that does and it's this one right here it's in the neighborhood of this character and the atoma's mac so we pick up this mac and we're going to put it here so if there's more than one spot that was valid and maybe this spot had two combat units of mine the atom is going to choose a spot with the fewest combat units now just like in the multiplayer game when movement ends and there's two combat units of opposing factions in the same territory combat ensues and that's what we're going to look at next now in the multiplayer game instead of both players choosing their combat power and their cards at the same time you choose your power and your cards first and in this case i don't have any cards i have five on the power track and so i'm gonna spend all five of mine the reason you do that first is because it's going to be a surprise to you when the atomer reveals its power that it's going to spend in the combat cards it's going to spend so if you remember during setup for the atoma i said leave space for two separate decks what you do for the atoma is you draw the top card and you're going to set it in a separate pile i turn mine sideways because i'm just looking at this little table on the bottom so if we look at this combat card we can figure out how much power the atoma is going to spend and if we look at the table it says that if the atoma has power between 0 and 7 it's going to spend seven power if it has between eight and thirteen it spends seven and if it has fourteen on up it spends seven as well so it's spending full power on all of these options you'll see on some other cards it's not quite this high so it looks like i'm going to lose the other thing that we see on this card is how many combat cards it's going to spend and in this case it's just going to spend 1. so we move the atoma's combat dial up to 7 and add its combat card and now we finally reveal it as we didn't know what this was before so we see in this case i lose it with five power and the atoms spend seven plus two equals nines the atoma wins as combat so you adjust the power markers accordingly after the combat then you discard any combat cards and in this case it was just the atomos combat card then since i lost i retreat my unit back to my home base and just like in the multiplayer game the loser collects a combat card even if the atoma lost the atoma would collect a combat card too so i get one and then if there were any resources in this territory those resources would go back to the supply so that's what happens if the atoma wins the combat now let's look what would happen if i would win the combat in this case let's say i won i spent five power and played a combat card with the value of five for ten and this was against the atomos seven plus two equals nine so in this case i would have won and when the atoma loses rather than putting the atoma's combat unit back on its home base it actually goes to its faction mat and then don't forget the atoma gets to collect a combat card when it loses again we would both adjust our power markers depending on how much power we spent now let's see what happens if i invade a territory one of the atoma's units occupies and i win or drive off workers so in the case i moved here and drove off this worker i would lose one popularity but then i would also gain resources to see what resources i gain i'm going to look at the top card in the atoma discard pile and so the card i'm looking at is the card on the main discard pile not the combat discard pile and if we look at this box here it shows us how many resources we gain for this victory either i drove off a worker or i defeated an atoma combat unit and these are the resources i gain so in this case it shows me i gain two and the type of resources you gain matches the territory that you're in by the way if i was in the factory or a lake i wouldn't get any resources because those don't produce so in this case i gained two wood let's say on a different turn i defeated this mech in combat the mech would get driven back to the faction mat as we've seen earlier and the atomia gets a combat card but in this case i would again collect resources in this case i would just collect one and in that case it would be an oil because i'm on a tundra territory the last thing i have to talk about on line one is if you see one of the options surrounded in these brackets the brackets mean this option only applies if the atoma is playing the faction shown by this symbol here if the atom is not playing that faction then move on to the next option so if you're like me you thought that's a lot to learn on line one well like i said earlier the rest of these lines move a little bit more quickly so let's move on to line two and that shows what the atoma gains the atomic can gain power coins workers cards and then also deploy mechs and or its character power coins and cards are pretty self-explanatory but let's look at workers when the atoma deploys a worker you take a worker from its faction mat and place it on its home base if there's no more workers remaining on its faction mat then you just skip this this symbol means that the atoma gains either its character back from its faction mat or a mech from its faction map if the character is on the faction mat then you move the character from the faction mat to the home base if the character is already on the board then you move one of the max from the faction mat doesn't matter which one from the faction mat to its home base remember the atoma does not get to use the mech abilities as stated on its faction mat the third line or phase as i like to call it shows you what recruit bonus if any you'll get in this case if i played my recruit and uncovered the card icon i would gain a card on this atoma's turn so for the atomos turn i flip over the top card of the atoma deck and the first option shown here is the encounter factory option and if you recall that option means that the atomic character is either going to try to get the factory card or an encounter token in this case the atoma's character is in the factory space and already has a factory card so for valid hexes we're looking for a neighborhood hex of an atoma unit that has an encounter token that encounter tokens been taken and so has that one so there's no encounter tokens no valid hexes so we move on to the next option which is move character so to move the character we're looking for attacks in the neighborhood of any atoma unit or the atoma's base and a hexa has no enemy unit and no atoma mech so for any of these valid hexes we're looking for the one that's the shortest distance from an anatoma combat unit so in this case the atomos character is adjacent to this combat unit so it's only one space away remember in the case of a tie it's going to go to the hex that's closest to the factory since it's already in the factory it's in the right spot right there it's not gonna move so we skipped that option too so then we move down to line two we're gonna skip this first option because that only is for the alden faction and we don't have that in this game the next thing is the atom is going to gain a worker and a coin so i take a worker from the atoma's faction map and place it on the atoma's home base and then the atoma gains a coin and i just place that on the atomis faction map and there is no recruit bonuses in line three and i haven't enlisted any of my recruits yet so it doesn't matter to me and then i just advance the tracker cube one space on the star tracker card and that places me on roman numeral two and we know what that means first the atomia gets to place a star next to the triumph track and second we shuffle all these cards rotate them 180 degrees and for the next atomis turn it's going to start with this reddish orange scheme 2 area if you like solo games there's a few other videos that i have put together and they're on the modern cardboard channel so you can see the whole video library there otherwise we'll catch you in the next video

Channel: Modern Cardboard

Views: 6,548

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Id: gaHQU7W2Tk4

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021