3.5X
Scythe is most similar to, but not entirely aligned with the 4X style of games. Here's a quick overview of what makes a 4X game for those who are unfamiliar with the term.
Explore
Your character will venture to far corners of the board, racing to have the “encounters” I mentioned above before the other players. Each encounter provides the opportunity for a quick gain, often at a greatly reduced price. The board is not obscured by a fog of war, but your character ranging out to have encounters and to visit The Factory, which provides a unique, often powerful benefit, feels very much like sending your scouts into the far reaches of the board.
Expand
Your expeditionary force starts with your character and two workers. You will need to acquire more workers, build some buildings, deploy your mechs, and take control of the hexes surrounding and extending beyond your start location. Each Faction starts off somewhat isolated. You have immediate access to three hexes, portioned off from the rest of the board by a river you must either build a building or deploy a mech to cross. Once out in the world, additional resources and opportunities are available. At the end of the game, each territory you control is awarded coins, depending on your popularity (the player with the most coins wins).
This initial isolation provides you with a degree of security as you establish a toe-hold in the land. However, if you remain forever behind your river, you will not have access to two of the resource types, will not acquire a new technology from The Factory, and will have to watch as your opponents have encounters which provide benefits that feel like opening a treasure chest. There are definite advantages to venturing forth from your start location. And, there is no guarantee that one of your opponents won’t cross into your home territory to raid your resource stockpile.
Exploit
Over the course of the game, you will employ workers, mine ore, drill for oil, collect wood, and harvest food. Each resource produced is placed on the hex where the worker produced it; it stays there until used to build, deploy, upgrade, or enlist. Or until an opponent defeats you in combat on that hex, taking the resources as spoils. Resources you control at the end of the game are also included in your coin totals at the end of the game.
Exterminate
Combat is where Scythe departs most noticeably from the 4X model. And to some, this may mean it should not be considered a 4X game. That is fair; I think you should still seriously consider playing it, even if it isn’t a 4X for you.
Combat is also where some playtesters had a disconnect between what they expect and what the game actually is. I will spend a bit of extra time on this subject to help clarify just what Scythe is and what it is not.
For me, Scythe can be explained by a story (I promise it’s true). The first time I played the Cities and Knights expansion for Settlers of Catan with my brother, we were both rather excited at the new depth that this expansion offered to an old favorite. However, about 2/3 of the way through the game, he asked me if the knights could attack the other players – destroy their settlements – or somehow be of benefit in your effort to get the resources you need. “No, sorry, you cannot,” was my sad reply.
In Scythe, you can. Scythe is not the gateway game Catan is – it is a deep and challenging game of resource production and protection. Of exploration and entrenchment. Of territory control and wealth acquisition. What that means is that if you want your dry Euro game to have some more direct player interaction and you like the idea of having to protect what you produce, then Scythe should excite and engage you. If you are looking for a more combat-intense war game with frequent, complex, prolonged battles where you must also be vigilant on the homefront to ensure your troops are supplied, then Scythe won’t scratch that particular itch. Scythe is a classic Euro game, wrapped in a beautiful ribbon of Theme, and sprinkled with player v. player combat. Combat is not intended to be a center point, or even a main part, of this game (to that point, on average, we found that there are n +/-1 combats where n = # of players). The point of the game is an intersection of farming and war (hence the comments about Agricola meets Kemet). The conflict is almost more of a cold war – posturing with an occasional skirmish. In fact, this ties in well with the theme. The Great War is over; the world is sick of fighting, but no one is willing to let someone else control the Factory, so they posture, position, and seek to win the hearts and minds of the people who inhabit the lands around the Factory. Winning their loyalty and out-maneuvering the other Factions will secure the peace and stability of your Faction. At least for now.
I see the combat as more of "bumping" like in Stonemaier’s Euphoria. If you want to possess a hex, you have to do A and B and pay X and Y. For that cost, you can take possession of someone's hex. If you try to take a hex you cannot afford, you might win if they don’t call your bluff, but there’s a high price for losing. Most battles will go to the attacker. And, often, the attacker will leave himself/herself open to counterattacks from the defender or another opponent.
These skirmishes or border clashes also fit perfectly in the thematic context: the world has just endured a massive war, fueled by the mechs The Factory produced. While everyone is now accustomed to having the hulking beasts in their midst, they are still a little gun shy. No one wants a new war. The Faction leaders and Characters are only going to order their troops into combat in situations where they think they can readily chase off the other Faction without starting an all-out war or over exposing themselves. Skirmishes with opposing factions are brief, intense, and generally avoided. Unless the rewards are worth it!