Your future young Seeker begins today. Today the Harvest Tournament starts and it time to find the grand champion of our village. With enough hard work, determination and a little luck you and your sibling can come out on top and be the champions of the nation!
From the makers of the game Scythe and the studio Stonemaier Games comes My Little Scythe.
Contents:
7 pairs of Seeker sibling minis
2 Pie Fight Dials
6 Player Mats
16 Power Up tiles
8 Personality Cards
Trophies
7 Action Tokens
7 Pie Tokens
7 Base Camp TIles
5 Search Dice
24 Apples
24 Magic Gems
12 Quest Tokens
1 Game Board
30 Magic Spell Cards
12 Quest Cards
7 Friendship Tokens
Game Setup:
Each player will chose a Base Camp Tile and pair of Animal minis along with a player mat and all of the pieces that go with your respective color. Players start with a token on the Friendship Track at level 3 and a Pie Token at level 3 on the Pie Track. All of the Quest and Magic Spell cards need to be put into their respective deck locations. The board is set up with the Base Camp tiles placed as per the random Setup Tile. Each player gets one Personality Card as well to start the game with.
How to Play:
On each player’s turn you select and perform an action based on your player mat. Each mat is identical, and allows for a Move, Seek or Make action. You select an action by choosing it with your action token, making a different choice than previous rounds.
Move: Move both of your Seeker miniatures
Seek: Roll dice to discover apples, gems and quest tokens on the map
Make: Spend apples and gems to gain pies, magic spell cards
Move: Move allows you to move both Seekers either two spaces if they are empty-handed or one space while carrying any number of apples and/or gems. Any or all of the resources in a space may be carried. All of the hexagons on the map are considered spaces.
As you Move, you will explore the spaces and do a variety of things. These include picking up and delivering apples and gems to the center Castle Everfree. You will earn one trophy for each of those deliveries once per game. The delivery happens when you enter the Castle with those supplies automatically. There are Portals on the board that allow you to jump around to other spots on the board as well.
Moving will also allow you to possibly stop on a spot with another Seeker from a different family and have a Pie Fight. This will be a battle with the pies you and the other players have accumulated. The winner is the one who in secret has used the most pies. Winners get a trophy, losers go back to their base camp. This is similar to the battles in Scythe and to the winner goes the spoils of victory-any apples and gems in that spot now can be picked up and traveled with by the Seeker.
You may also end up picking a Quest when moving into a new space. Quests are picked up by quest tokens and have three options on them. Some may require you to pay gems or apples, some require you to pay in Friendship level as well. But be careful-if it goes too low (below 3) you can’t get any trophies!
Seek:
With the Seek action, you can ask your Seekers to detect apples, gems and quests among the spaces on the board. Each of the two spots on the player action board will allow you to chose one of two different options of dice to roll. A token is shown on a dice face along with the region where it is discovered. All tokens must be placed and placement rules will apply for each type. This is a great way to gain back some lost Friendship-each time you place an apple or gem on a spot occupied by an opponent’s Seeker, you will immediately gain one Friendship.
Make:
When you use one of the three actions with the Make section you pay resources and gain something for it. Pay the cost listed in full and gain the benefit. These options include:
-Bake Pies: Remove 2 apples and gain 2 pies
-Conjure Spells: Remove 2 gems to gain a Magic Spell
-Power Up: Remove 1 gem and 1 apple to gain a pick from either power up deck to add to your player board. This will permanently change your player board for the rest of the game.
So with all of these actions, your goal is to earn trophies. If your Friendship level is high enough (above a 3) you may earn a trophy on your turn. Each can only be earned once if you satisfy the requirements. To earn a trophy on your turn you must fulfill one of these criteria:
-8 Friendship
-2 Power Ups
-3 Spells
-2 Quests
-Apple Delivery
-Gem Delivery
-Pie Fight Victory
-8 Pies
Each turn you may earn up to one trophy, but at the last round you can earn more than one if possible. The game ends when someone gets their 4th trophy and each other player without gets one more turn. The player with 4 trophies is crowned the winner and new ruler of Pomme!
Impressions:
What could be better:
Game length. Honestly, this game is almost too quick. I think it will be great for younger than our kids for that reason, but I wouldn’t mind a version that kicks out more trophies or ramps up the difficulty. I think it would be easy to house-rule that but it as it is it could be a bit longer.
Player boards. This is me being picky, but I think the only area I would like to see upgraded in the components is the player boards. a little thicker, or cardstock boards would be perfect here.
What I liked:
Components. The components, like any good Stonemaier game really sing here. The apple and gem tokens are great, the colors in all of the different Seeker groups really pop and everything is very sturdy. As mentioned above, the only thing I would have liked to see better would be the player boards, but overall the components are stellar.
Artwork. Wow-the Seekers are done so well-the art is cute and whimsical and everything I would hope for from this game. Knowing that it is rooted in the original fan version with My Little Pony characters I think Stonemaier stayed true to the basic joy and love put into that version. All of the other art aspects are great also-the board really pops and looks amazing set up on the table.
Minis. The pairs of minis for the Seeker clans look great. The detail is solid and they really pop. I personally can’t want to use the included painting guide to color them and add some real personality to the figures. Painted figures are a fun way to really personalize the game, and I would recommend doing these with the family together as a project to bring some life to the board together!
Gameplay. Let’s answer the most burning question-yes, it does play like a simpler version of Scythe. I’m ok with that and actually love that aspect of it. Scythe is one of my favorite games and to be able to play a version that really brings that gameplay boiled down to a an easier entry point is one I want in my collection. I can see playing this not only with children but also with non-gamers as a great entry point into the hobby.
The game introduces some core mechanics of our hobby like action selection, set collection and combat in a fun and easy package that is bound to be appealing to all audiences. It is gorgeous and really pops on the board. I cannot recommend this one enough for those aspects. It will not appeal to all hardcore/experienced gamers but that is not the audience this game is looking to speak to. If you are looking for a fun and whimsical game that will help guide not only young player but also newer players into this hobby we love, then My Little Scythe is a definite pick-up for you!
Overall impressions:
I really enjoyed playing through this game with the family. It’s simple to understand nature and complex yet easy to follow style makes it a perfect entry point for young or new to the hobby gamers to jump in. The whimsical colors and art style lend to an enjoyable experience for everyone at the table.
I personally cannot wait to introduce this one to younger gamers to give them an enjoyable experience that requires some forethought and strategic play without the aggressive or brain-burning aspects that can be present in some strategy games. If you have a chance to get this one to the table don’t miss out!
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