Scythe VS Expeditions - Duel of Meloch Board Game
Transcript
It's sigh versus expeditions in the duel of Melo.
Thanks for joining us at Tantrum House Studio D. I'm Melissa Del
and I'm Kevin Dub. Duel of Melo is a competitive one to twoplayer game that takes about 45 minutes [clears throat] to play. One player uses the rules for size, while the other uses the rules for expeditions.
It's designed by Jamie Stagcm and published by Stonemire Games, who sent us this copy to review.
In this video, we'll give a quick overview of the game and then share our thoughts. In Duel of Melock, two players are competing to be the first to place four stars on the triumph track. Each player has different goals for the achievements that align with their side scythe or expeditions,
but only one star can go in each section. If one player gains the star for money, the other cannot. So, it's a race not only to four stars, but for the achievement spaces themselves.
During the game, players take turns using the rules and mechanisms of the side they're playing. The scythe player chooses an available action section on their board and performs the top, the bottom, or both. The actions are the same as in Scythe. The player boards are compatible with the original game. The expedition's player moves their activation token and performs the visible actions: move, play a card, and gather. On most turns, only two of the actions will be triggered. The new character, companion, and mech are compatible with expeditions. Both players share the map board, so there are multiple symbols on the spaces, some pertaining to just the side player and some to just the expeditions player. The map tokens are dual use. The expeditions player gains the reward on the opposite side. The side player discards the token and draws an encounter card.
There are some new rules specific to the game for how the two sides interact with each other. To initiate combat, the expedition's player must take a vanquish action and be on a space with the opponent's combat unit. The side player can choose to fight if after a move action, at least one combat unit is in the same space as the other player's mechs. Players spend power and add combat cards. Like inside,
winning a combat is one of the possible achievements. The other achievements depend on which side of the triumph board you're using. The sides player can place a star after meeting an achievement goal. The expeditions player though has to take a boast action to place a star unless it's a combat star which happens immediately.
When you place a star, the other player gets a small bonus based on the melo cards. They get everything facing them.
You continue taking turns until someone places their fourth star and wins the game. So, I know that was a quick overview and we kind of assume that you already know how to play the original games, but we will cover some more details as we talk about our opinions.
We're separating the sections into four C's, our thoughts about the components, our critiques, our commendations, and finally our conclusions.
So, first up, the components.
So, there's a new scythe faction, and it's Everin and Aar, and they're based in Constantinople. Uh, of course you got the new mechs. And this one uses a special power called leverage where once per turn you can discard um one of the unplayed stars to gain a resource or pay a resource to regain one of the discarded stars. And that's really helpful if you're looking for some resources.
On the expedition side, there is a new mech that allows you to once per turn trash one corruption to upgrade, meld, or boast. And that's a really helpful power because the map is so small and that scythe player can get some mechs out to make your movement more difficult to get to the spaces you need. So being able to do those important [clears throat] actions by getting rid of corruption is very helpful. There's also a new companion and a new character.
There is a doublesided neoprene map. Feels nice. I like neoprene maps. The triumph board is double-sided, so you can flip it to different sides so that you're going for different achievements.
There's also a double-sided tournament achievement sheet. There's also in the game special combat cards that you can use for powers and discard bonuses.
Each player has their own sheet of rules for their side of the game. So, there's a rule sheet for the side player and a rule sheet for the expeditions player.
Now, for our critiques. So the first critique has to do with these boards. Now I like the feel of the neoprene in this. But what happens is you have to choose one map side and one of the uh triumph track sides. And they're double-sided. So there's a couple different combinations as you uh decide what to play. And I we found that if you have a combination, for instance, on one of the sides where the scythe player starts, he can start with um oil production and people production. If he's on the side where it's easier to where he gets a star to upgrade, which is right there, um then it's a little bit easier for him to get a star out.
And we found that it's if that happens, it might lend itself a little bit more towards the side player winning on that because it's a little easier to get stars out. And the same for the opposite side,
I think, especially if you play with the faction that's in the box because
uh upgrading is only two oil barrels and it can get upgraded to one. So, I was able to get that oil out really quickly and upgrade. And then the other side, uh, the scythe player is producing wood and metal. And then there's also a mech ability. So like if you decide to be like, "Oh, I'm going to play the scythe player with the opposite side of the triumph uh board," then it could make the side player harder, which I think might actually be better in Duel of Melock. I think you want to put just a little bit of a handicap on size. Um, in this case, especially I don't I'm going to say your first turn, your first time you're playing, but uh we found the exped expeditions player, it's a little bit more difficult. And here's the main reason because the expedition player actually has to take a turn to fight
and has to take a turn in order to place a star out. Whereas a scythe player, all they have to do is achieve their whatever their goal is and they get a star on that turn. It's like, oh, like if the uh side or if the expedition player didn't put a star out in a certain spot and the side player does it, then there's no chance for the expedition player to come and be like, "Oh, I I really was going for that spot." So, yeah, it has to be watch all that out,
right? Yeah, I agree with everything you said there. Uh my next critique is on the jungle side of the map. There is not a blue worker printed on that side. So the expeditions player cannot gain a blue worker by gathering. Now in this game you do have the golden workers, the wild ones. I think that came in with the expansion to expeditions. It's not in the base game. So you can use that for a blue worker. Also, there are other ways to gain a workers throughout the game where you can choose any of them. So it's not that you can never get a blue worker. It's just a little bit more difficult on that side of the map.
Um, another thing, a small critique is um player times is maybe the way of saying it because scythe turns can be pretty quick. They're just moving their person to the other action board. they're going to take in the top, probably the bottom action if they're able to be be efficient. But sometimes the expeditions player is like, "Okay, I need to play and move or I need to move and gain and and sometimes their turns can be a little bit more uh more things going on."
Yeah, there's more chance for combos, I believe. So, it could be a chain of actions that just elongates that player. It's not a terrible thing, but it could make like the side player go turns go pretty quickly and they're just sort of waiting for the expeditions player to play. So, not that it's frustrating, it's just you got to be aware of that as you're playing the game. All right, are we ready for our commendations?
Let's go for it. So, I like games with variability and so I'm really excited by the fact that the factions from Scythe and from expeditions can be used in this game and the opposite. So, it seems like the combinations are almost endless. And I'm sure that there are some that will work a lot better than others.
I was thinking of some size factions. Like, I don't even know if I want to play a duel of meluck with that side faction
cuz the board isn't very good. But, and there are rules in the in the rule book for each side faction of how it works or doesn't work or certain things that would be applicable to duel. Um, certain players play styles will probably lend themselves more towards sighthe or expeditions depending not only how your brain thinks but just like how you maybe like to play games and maybe you maybe even you know scythe better or expeditions better that's going to be a benefit to you when you play that side and in dual melo you could be like oh I really like side I'm going to try sides but maybe you're like maybe you want to have challenge so you're going to go on the other side and play expeditions for a little while and see if you and get better at the game. And maybe that's another way of getting better at uh the game play or the strategy for uh the different not only factions but also the games themselves in duel of Melo. So then when you go back to expeditions or scythe, you're actually playing better.
There's also you can play it scythe versus scythe or expeditions versus expeditions. So that's wow even more variability or if like you were saying both players really like scythe or both players really like expeditions you can also do that in the game.
Another thing that I enjoy are the new combat cards. They are multiuse. So they have the normal combat power but then they also have on the right hand side a benefit a reward that you can gain if you just discard the card. And I know playing as the expeditions player, that was helpful for me. There's a worker. I can get that blue worker. Um, and then they also have extra powers at the bottom. [clears throat] So side player or the expeditions player only has one mech, can only ever play one combat card. Side player could have three units or four or more. So they can play a lot more combat cards. But some of these cards may say draw another card and add it to it or get an extra power for every unit that's on that space. So it's it helps I think the expeditions player especially to maybe balance out those fights a little bit
if they get the right cards.
Yes, if they get the right cards.
Um I appreciate games or I like games that have a race mechanic. What I mean by that is there's Euro games that four rounds and it's over. And then [clears throat] there's games where it's like your need to achieve this thing and then the game's over. I my play style maybe leans a little bit more towards the race mechanic and in Duel of Mock and you find that in Scythe and and Expeditions with the stars like placing the stars out there. So you have that same feeling which I like um in games. So you're playing placing four stars. Whoever places the four stars out first wins. And it's not just a race to four stars. It's a battle on what stars you're placing because we said earlier in the video, the expedition side and the scythe side are sort of battling each other out for each kind of star.
Not just like, oh, battle battle, but it's like one side is um you're trying to get enough corruption and the other side's getting a mech or something. It to necessarily the same. So, you're sort of looking at the other side and saying, I wonder, oh, Melissa's getting money. I might need to either get some money or or e or just say I'm not going to worry about that star and then race for another star which I think is another kind of like strategy like race idea which I I like.
Now I am very glad that there are some consolation prizes. That's what I'll call it for the player the other player. So, if Kevin gets that star,
I then get some bonuses from the melo cards and basically you draw one and then you orient it. So, there's two options and you get everything that's facing you. So, it could be two benefits, three benefits depending on how quickly players have been getting the stars. And that's just something nice to hopefully boost your uh playing so you can get the star next.
All right, let's move on to our conclusions. So, I feel kind of buried here, but we're going to do a quick comparison before um we finish the video. So, you have Scythe and Expedition. Scythe has actually been out the longest. It was uh published back in 2016, so 10 years ago. It's one of the more popular uh games on Board Game Geek. I think it's like ranked like 26. That's pretty high. Then you have Expeditions, which was published in 2023, so even newer. I don't know if it's gotten as much love as size. Um, but I would say they feel like the games that they are. Right.
Right.
In Duel of Milo.
Yeah. I feel like when I'm playing the expedition side, I am playing expeditions. And when I'm playing the scythe side, I am playing Scythe.
With that, I think my recommendation would be that you it's helpful to already know the regular game before jumping into Duel of Maloc. Uh [clears throat] the the all the rules are in the rule book, but it's not quite as robust as the rule book for expeditions and for scythe. And plus, if you're not familiar, you might get decimated by someone who is and already knows all of the flow,
right? If you're like, "Oh, I don't know expeditions and I'm playing someone who already knows." Yeah, you're not going to do well in the in Duel of No game. So, another comparison is well, not only is it much smaller than the other boxes, it's a quicker game. It's about 45 minutes instead of an hour and a half to 2 hours. So, much quicker.
Yeah. And not only quicker, but I feel like easier. We can put these down. Um, easier to set up. It's easier to get to the table. Um, I think it's easier just to play in general. And I'd recommend this because not only is it fast, quicker, and easier set up, but also two new factions
to add into the other games.
That's right. So, that's something to consider when you're purchasing. You're like, "Oh, I can actually take this this game and make my other games play even diff, you know, different." So, that's great.
Now, Kevin and I don't play a lot of two-player games. It's just not what we do very often. But I actually really enjoyed this. Now, I already enjoy Scythe and Expedition. So, I liked the games that are being merged into this one. So,
yeah, for me being able to get that feel of playing Scythe or the feel of playing Expeditions in that shorter time frame was a plus for me. And I I think we will uh continue to play this one. Yeah, I was actually thinking I didn't know going into it what what my expectations really were. I was actually like, "Oh, is it just going to be a, you know, head-to-head battle and not going to feel right, whatever." I didn't really know, but going in like actually I really enjoyed it and I'm wondering because it's quicker and easier, will we play this more often just to get that experience of the Siden Expeditions? Maybe. Although if we're going to play a fourplayer heavier Euro game and we want to have the sides or the expeditions, we're going to pull those out of course cuz this is only two-player. So that's maybe a slight downside but not terrible,
right? Cuz I don't think either one of us and again we don't play a lot of two-player games will play Scythe or Expeditions at two players.
No,
we would never pull them out for that. So if we wanted that just the two of us without getting other people together, we would go this route. Yeah. So, I would recommend Duel of Melock. Uh for people who, of course, if you've played Silent Expeditions, nobrainer. You should totally go get this. I mean, it's totally worth it to get Duel of Melo. If you haven't played Scyther Expeditions, my first recommendation would be like go try like maybe you know Scythe really well. Go try Expeditions. It's a great game. I think it was one of probably our top 10 back in 2023 when it came out. So maybe it got lost in your shuffle of
I actually like expeditions better than Scythe, but maybe that's because we've had Scythe for so long and you're so good at the efficiency. I I like the a little bit more of the randomness that comes with expeditions and the card play.
But so after what I was saying is but after you play expeditions
and you like it then go purchase Duel of Melock. believe we haven't said this, but it should be available at Gen Con if you're going to be there um the beginning of August. And [snorts] even if you're not going to be at Gen Con, I think it's already going to be it's already it's pre-order is probably already up at this point at Stone for Stone Meer. And [clears throat] then it'll be in retail, I believe, sometime in August, maybe late August.
Yeah. So, let me know down in the comments. Do you like Scythe Expeditions? Which one do you like better? Are you excited about Duel of Milo? Tell me. We'd love to hear about that in the comments. Please like and subscribe. We're separating the sections into four C's. Our thoughts about the components, our critiques, our combinations, and finally our conclusions.
Conclusion.
Here we go. [snorts] We're separating the sections into four C's. Are I
I was also still drinking. All right, here we go. [clears throat] We're separating the sections into four C's. Our thoughts about the
outtakes. We're going to have some out takes.
Yeah. Here we go. Here we go. We can get this. [snorts]
I made it through. I'm still laughing, but it's okay. All right. I'm [snorts] first.
All right. Let's get stuffs.