Duel of Meloch is a bold experiment that blends two beloved strategy board games together, but newcomers may get left behind

Jamey Stegmaier is both a publisher and game designer. He’s best known for Scythe, which cleverly blends a complex resource optimization puzzle with the pushing and shoving of area control, delightfully packaged in a novel steampunk universe with giant mechs. But that universe also features in another of his games, Expeditions, where players take the part of explorers, controlling individual mechs, delving into darkest Siberia in search of a mysterious meteorite.

Multiple games set in the same shared universe is nothing new. But Stegmaier’s latest offering, Duel of Meloch, is a very novel take worthy of the best board games in terms of ambition: it’s a stand-alone game that allows two players to go head to head, one using the rules from Scythe and the other the rules from Expeditions, with a little judicious tweaking. You don’t need to have either of those titles to play but, if you do, you can use their factions or characters in the duel, and vice-versa.

Triple the rules

This means, as you might have guessed, that playing Duel of Meloch requires you to learn three different sets of rules: one for Scythe, one for Expeditions and one for the Duel itself, which is mercifully simple compared to the other two. Neither of those games are particularly lightweight so, unless you’re already familiar with one or both of them, this is a fairly herculean task. Neither are their rules included, so you’ll have to crib them from the internet if you need them.

Running a game with two entirely different rules sets feels like it shouldn’t work, but the secret sauce is that both titles use similar hex-map boards and have similar victory conditions. In Duel of Meloch, each hex space has double the number of icons, some of which are used in the Expeditions rules and some of which are used in the Scythe rules. The latter, for instance, is an engine-building game, so the hex icons you need to pay attention to are what kind of benefit they provide if your workers take a “produce” action there as you spread your miniature empire across the board. The former, meanwhile, is more about card management and allows you to take actions to play or refresh those cards based on the icons of the hex your mech is currently in.

In both games players race to earn stars by fulfilling certain conditions, and the same is true of Duel of Meloch, which hands victory to the first player to gain four stars. The included “triumph track” has eight possible spaces for stars, with different conditions for both players printed on each. Both games have a coin resource, for example, so there’s a star available for the Scythe player earning 12 and the Expeditions player earning 9. Often the requirements are very different however: another star is available for the Scythe player deploying their fourth mech, and the Expeditions player upgrading their mech three times. Importantly, and unlike the base games, these stars are exclusive. So once one player has taken a slot, it’s blocked to the other player.

This immediately makes the game more directly interactive than either of its parent titles, but that’s not the only point of interaction. The two players can also fight directly in Duel of Meloch, basically using the card-based combat system from Scythe. The Expeditions player can gain these cards from using certain map icons and combat is triggered if their mech moves into a hex containing mechs or workers belonging to the Scythe player which, given the relatively small board, is pretty common. In combat each player secretly selects how much of their power resource they're willing to spend, plus bonuses from optional combat cards, one per unit in the fight. This gives the Scythe player an edge in fights, as the Expeditions player only ever has one unit.

Double the fun

The most astonishing thing about Duel of Meloch is how well these two entirely different systems work together. It’s a bold experiment, and mechanically speaking it’s entirely successful. Both Scythe and Expeditions are very enjoyable games in their own way, and this Duel version preserves that enjoyment near-perfectly.

The Scythe player is still focussed on the complexities of building their engine through optimal movement and resource management. Indeed, arguably, Scythe here is marginally more fun than it is in the original game, particularly for beginners, as the sheer scope of the full board can feel overwhelming. Expeditions is still about the struggle for card management and collecting upgrades that fit your strategy as you try and tame corruption across the board. This portion of the game suffers a little from the smaller board and the lack of face-down hexes that give the original a real feel of exploration, but it’s still plenty fun enough.

However, the degree to which the two games meld into one in Duel of Meloch is almost too perfect. There’s a nagging question as to why, given the smoothness of the translation, you’d choose to play this format over simply playing one of the original games with two. It’s true that both parent games work better with more than two, but that feels like a relatively thin reason to have to internalize both different rules sets, plus modifications, to play a single game. You can, however, use the small maps here to play quickfire two-player games of just Scythe or just Expeditions, if you own that particular original game.

A potentially more compelling reason is the degree of interaction in this head-to-head version. Expeditions isn’t a very interactive game at all. Scythe is more so but it’s deceptive; although it looks and feels like an old-fashioned combat game, growing your engine is a far more important plank of victory than combat. The relatively cramped maps in Duel of Meloch - there are two, on opposite sides of the lovely neoprene mat that serves as a board - do ensure more interaction, but not as much as the game seems to promise. The Expeditions player can stop the Scythe player’s workers from producing in a hex, so it’s tempting to use that blocking power on undefended hexes. But because they’re weaker in combat they need to pick their battles very carefully, making actual fights relatively rare.

It’s a similar story with the triumph track. While, in theory, having each space as mutually exclusive should invite competition, it also makes it dangerous. If one player draws ahead in a race for a particular slot, it’s generally wise to stop competing for it, otherwise you’re potentially wasting precious actions. As a result, the bulk of each faction’s gameplay is still very much focussed on doing the core things from their own parent game rather than engaging with the things that make Duel of Meloch stand out.

Where this box really shines, though, is when you own and are already familiar with both of its source games. Having a new faction for Scythe and a new character for Expeditions is great, and both are designed to feel distinct from the existing options. Plus the miniatures for these new options look great, really adding to the visual pop of the original games. Similarly, having both parents allows you to swap their factions and characters into Duel of Meloch, giving you a ton of variety to mess around with. While you’ll mostly be sticking to the rules and actions of the source box, lining different options up against each other in the included “Tournament of Meloch” campaign version.

Should you buy Duel of Meloch?

There’s a pretty simple path to recommending Duel of Meloch: if you have access to, and enjoy, both Scythe and Expeditions, it’s entirely worthwhile. Having it as an expansion to the base games is reason enough. The option to play a two-player Duel campaign, or use the included components for fast, two-player variants of the originals, is just gravy.

If you’re not, or if you only own one of the games, not only is there not really enough here to engage with but the entry barrier is frustratingly high. You’ll need to learn an entire new game to enjoy Duel of Meloch and the results feel too similar to the original games to stand out. While it’s a fascinating experiment in mechanical blending, you’re better off simply picking up one of those games, or sticking with whichever you already own.