Who doesn’t love a good expansion to their favorite board game? One of the more popular games for the younger players in our circle has got to be My Little Scythe. Designed by Hoby Chou with his daughter Vienna Chou and based around the wonderful world of Scythe from Jamey Stagmaier, this has been one of the more fun ports of a game I have seen. Today we are going to look at a quick overview of the base game and share some exciting news on the first expansion Pie in the Sky! Let’s see what the new expansion brings to the table!
My Little Scythe Pie in the Sky is the first expansion for the base game and is designed once again by Hoby Chou with his daughter Vienna Chou. It is published by Stonemaier Games. It is intended for players ages 8+.
Let’s discuss some of the basic gameplay aspects of My Little Scythe, then we can talk about the expansion and all of the new stuff coming with Pie in the Sky.
My Little Scythe Setup and Gameplay:
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 and must make a different choice than the previous round. The actions you can select from are:
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!
Expansion: Pie in the Sky
The first expansion for My Little Scythe adds some interesting gameplay aspects and components to the game. Let’s start with what is in the box to begin. The contents include:
9 Airship Mats
4 new Power Up Tiles
6 Seek Overlay cards
5 Airship Gadget Tokens
2 New Quest Cards
1 Airship Kai mini
1 Airship die
2 Pairs of Seekers
10 Trophy Tokens for the new Seekers
7 Trophy Tokens for the base characters
The storyline places us in Pomme on the eve of the 3000th Harvest Tournament. The Airship Kai appears back into Pomme after being gone for a long time, bringing the Seekers from the Fox and Owl Kingdoms who have not been seen since the ship left long ago. The airship was originally designed by the founders of Pomme and each gave it a specific part of their species to build it. Now with the return of the ship the animals of Pomme are ready to celebrate and explore the Airship Kai and learn how it responds to their specific animal species!
Differences in Setup:
Setup is the same as My Little Scythe but set aside the 5th trophy at the beginning. The Airship brings asymmetrical powers to each Animal Kingdom, so you can decide at this point if you want to assign the powers to the specific Seeker group or randomly. Either way you take the appropriate airship mat and align it to the left of your player mat. Some of the Airship abilities will have Tokens and you place those on your mat also. Now your 5th trophy is placed on your Airship mat. On your player board you will cover your Seek action with one of the new Seek overlay cards. Place the Airship on the portal space closest to the last player’s base camp.
The two new Kingdoms are the Foxland Foxes and The “True” W.P. Grey Academy of Magi Owls. The Foxes come in with Jojo and Becca who are their most accomplished technologists. The Owls bring siblings Firean and Aubrey who are disciples of the foremost school of magic.
The Airship Kai
Let’s talk about the Airship and how it is used in the game. Kai is going to provide Air Support through cargo holds, abilities and gadgets. Each Seeker group can command the Airship on their own turn and it then becomes a shared piece of all player’s abilities.
The cargo holds are specific to each Kingdom. Your cargo hold is on your personal Airship mat and can hold items obtained through Air Support. Air Support is obtained by using the new Seek action which will allow you to roll the new Airship die with the other dice. Once you roll them, first place all of the apples, gems and quest tokens following normal rules then you may move the Airship and call for Air Support. Airship movement occurs as follows:
First you can move Kai based on movement rules based on the die face. Trophy side lets you move spaces equal to your remaining trophies and the 6 is just straight 6 spaces. Once the Airship reaches a spot with a apple or gem you may then use Air Support to retrieve the apple or gem from the space into your cargo hold or perform the unique ability of you Kingdom for the Airship. Kai can never be in Base camps or the Castle Everfree space but can move around the board as commanded.
Your Cargo hold is limitless in what it can hold. You can spend items from there at any time to go with the other apples and gems you already have in control.
Some Airship Kingdom boards give that Seeker group a Gadget they can use. These Gadgets will go on the board and have persistent benefits until they are moved. No more than 1 Gadget can exist on a space at a time. The game is now triggered when someone gets 5 Trophies instead of 4 as in the base game.
And to answer your questions, yes all this fits in the box! I was able to get the Airship along with all the components back in to the box without any issues. Here is a picture of all of the Seekers in their new home back with everyone else in Pomme!
Gameplay-Should I Add This To My Base Game?
Let’s talk about what this doesn’t do first. By adding Pie in the Sky, it doesn’t overly complicate the game. Stonemaier games has been particular with keeping this game as streamlined as possible, and I think they did an excellent job with adding this new gameplay that doesn’t make the game more difficult to play. It gives us something new but by enhancing the Seek action instead of adding a new action to choose from it keeps gameplay streamlined and familiar for younger players. I really appreciated that aspect when playing it with some younger players. Playing with younger grade school aged players is exactly where this game shines, and you can rest assured if your young players enjoy this, the addition of Pie in the Sky does not make it incredibly more complicated for those younger players to understand and follow through with.
The Airship Kai as a shared player piece is an interesting addition that really makes the game shine in a unique way for younger players. By adding a shared piece we all have access to, players are able to make similar moves but still with enough differences in them to stand out. I also like how the ship starts strongest with movements in the beginning of the game but as it progresses and you gain Trophies your movement slows down. The ship makes it feel like your Seek turns were more rewarding, giving you more options or resources that seem to speed up other aspects of the game. The extra 5th Trophy seems to balance that out.
The new Seeker characters are great. I love the thematic aspect of them coming back to Pomme to join the adventure and bringing the Airship with them. Another painting guide is provided for them as in the base or you can be as creative as you would like to! The characters look great and were very well-received with our gamers.
The Airship Kai itself looks great floating above the board-I really like the presence it brings to the map and game overall. The detail is great and it really fits the rest of the game well. The Airship mats are great and give all of the Animal Kingdoms a specific power and ability- I love the variety and the option to give them to a specific Kingdom or to spread them around as desired. That way if your your players have a favorite Kingdom they can explore the differences in the Airship mats and not feel stuck with one in particular. The dice and other tokens are great also.
And what about those extras? With new Power Up Tiles and Quest Cards the base game gets some new life and cards that you may be getting used to. I love expansions that give you new stuff that is also familiar to expand on aspects you already love!
Overall
As mentioned above, this is a solid addition and expansion to an already excellent game. If you and your young (or young at heart) players already enjoy My Little Scythe, this is a definite addition for your game. This should lead to fun additions to the game and I look forward to exploring them all!
Be the first to comment