rootisms

[rootisms]

A small and far from complete list of why every root faction is problematic and should be cancelled:

Marquise de Cat: They literally wanna industrialise the woodland. Kaczinsky would be seething if he knew what these kitties were up to (I do not support the unabomber in any way shape or form)

Eyrie Dynasty: Their claim on the woodland is entirely built upon them ruling it before. They are textbook conservatists yucky.

Woodland Alliance: Revolts are indiscriminate and hurt a lot of people involved. Their radicals with no clear goal after they win.

Vagabond: They're an egomaniac out for blood.

Riverfolk Company: Capitalism.exe

Lizard Cult: T-theyre a cult? Like what else do I have to say.

Underground Duchy: They are actual colonisers.

Corvid Conspiracy: Terrorism doesn't always win the day and they are trying to take control of the woodland via less than moral tactics if we read their plots.

Lord of the Hundreds: Ontologically evil.

Keepers in Iron: Visist the British Museum.

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God does not look kindly upon keep rushers

[rootisms]

Cats vs Rats

Welcome to a small series of posts I wanted to do where I analyse certain match-ups. In these posts, I will go on the assumption of a 4-player game where the other two factions are variables. I will focus on what each faction needs to protect and how the other faction can be sabotaged. In this first post, I wanted to tackle a difficult match-up, that being cats vs rats.

This match-up heavily favours the rats, but the cats are not at a complete loss with some table talk. Your existence already slows down the rats and you have the warriors count that allows you to block off Warlord from certain chokepoints. Contradictory to what military factions usually like I think the Marquise has the best chances on a map with many chokepoints like Winter or Lake instead of Autumn or Mountain. This way you can block of the Warlord from expanding further by putting recruiters on chokepoints or even the keep there.

As usual, you will want to protect your buildings, spreading them out is even more important now than ever as the warlord has the tools to fully take out a single clearing, but would have difficulty if it was more spread out. 6 warriors and two sawmills in one clearing are easier than 3 warriors and a sawmill in two different clearings, maybe even 2 warriors and a sawmill are already annoying enough.

For other factions to look out for, definitely keep an eye on other military factions in the mix and hope they can deal with the Warlord while keeping you alone, you need the building slots for points to deter both from attacking you. Also, encourage factions like the crows and lizards to recruit inside warlord territory, that’ll keep the warlord busy and away from your buildings, you can do the same with a march but it is less than advised as your warriors are precious and field hospitals is not always an option.

As for Rats, you should think about a high-prowess track. This way you can move through the map easily taking out as many buildings as possible and taking as many clearings as possible. Command is less than useful here as cats have difficulty getting to your backline without using up a lot of actions, still if you build some stronghold don’t leave them undefended. Also constantly pressure chokepoints cats have set up, when the time is right you can break through.

Cats aren’t a point thread to you and you’re not to them, you score at about the same pace with cats being a bit more reliantly explosive at the end with 4 VP sawmills whereas you may still only get 2-3 VP for oppress, so cardboard eating is essential in the last stretch and cats provide enough of that. Punish any stray wood tokens and destroy sawmills as usual but also focus on recruiters as they are the main way cats can rival your recruits and warrior count early on, in the late game this shifts to field hospitals so try and slow that process down as much as possible.

Also, Cats are a great rowdy abuser, you can get that extra card draw by parking your warlord in a clearing with a sawmill. You’re killing two birds with one stone, you get the extra card draw and deny the cats wood for one turn which is detrimental in the early game. Cats also don’t have the actions to deal with a ball of rats immediately.

Racy factions are still your main enemy as rats and you should focus on stopping them but don’t leave the clearings empty as that just invites the cats to head in there, leave some warriors that contest for rule or perhaps a stronghold if possible, or even just eliminate a close by cat clearing, this way they are still only even when they claim a clearing.

I hope these tips help both rat and cat players but never forget that Root is a 4-player game and the other two players are eager to capitalise on a war between rats and cats, so don’t catch yourself lacking by focusing too much on rats/cats.

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Had a Root game last night and thought it would be interesting to do a small dissection of what happened and some general strategy that was involved.

The game was played with two new players and a novice player. For the draft I took out all high complexity factions like Keepers in Iron and Lizards and put down every available faction ADSET card to keep availability at a maximum. 

I was seated first player so let’s start with player 4, they chose to play the Eyrie and I urged them to either choose despot or charismatic for an easy game, and adviced charismatic if they had a bird card so they went with charismatic and chose the top-left fox clearing to start in. 

Next was player 3, they chose to play the Corvids. A good option honestly and an easy faction. They set up very agressively by putting their homeland with plot token right next to the Eyrie, this plot would go on to define the whole game. 

Next was player 2 who chose to play the rats. The homeland they chose was the double building slot fox clearing at the bottom, initially I saw no issue with it but as the game continued I think they shot themselves in the knee by starting there.

I as player 1 chose moles so that I could have some control over the board and moles in first is just a fun position to be in. My plan wasn’t yet clear but I had a good hand to sway brigadier turn 1. I set up further away from the rats than the Eyrie hoping I could take Eyrie early game better than Warlord.

The first round saw some pretty normal plays from me and the warlord but the corvids had a really cool trick up their sleeve. They started their turn by flipping the plot and it was a snare, this was huge as it blocked me and the eyrie from having easier access to the centre of the map, plus it was defended by two warriors which early on worked as a good detterent. This plot would be in the game up untill the final rounds. 

Now this plot had an interesting consequence for the battle hungry Eyrie decree. The rats chose to expand eastward meaning that the Eyrie had to either attack me or the crows,  but due to the snare they had to attack me as the two warriors were too much for the Eyrie to handle. This would start a cold war in the top bunny clearing that forced me to set up my second clearing with buildings somewhere I did not want to. 

Now that the most defining plays have been dealt with I’ll do a quick summary of the midgame. Eyrie went pretty stable for a while, then Rats clapped back hard and reduced them all the way back to their homeland so me and birds allied against the rats. I went with citadels to be able to play more agressively. After this the rats were reduced back to their homeland clearing and here the fatal mistake in their set up began to show. The clearing only had two paths so it was badly connected and the warriors were all stuck there defending two strongholds. The worst part was that I parked most of my warrios in the neighbouring mouse clearing which kept pressure on the strongholds and forced the rats to try and leave via the bunny clearing where they would be continuesly punched by the Eyrie. 

Throughout all this the crows were going pretty strong even if they had some minor setbacks, their mainstay plots were all in bunny allowing for some great item crafting and once they knew to target less populated clearing it went pretty well for them.

Rats never recovered from their pushback, unlike the Eyrie but they unfortunately turmoiled due to an ambush that was quite obvious. This also set them back too far and it was a race between me and the corvids. 

I had set up two citadels in my homeland and two markets right next to the rats, also had all important ministers swayed and it was pretty much too late to destroy my buildings. Rats and corvids did manage to do it with some teamwork but it was already too late and I leapt from 20 to 29 and then to 30. 

Fun game overall, I think these players could’ve given me a run for my money if they were a little bit more experienced and I was a bit more kind with my negotiations (which I probably should’ve been). 

This game also showed the importance of where you set up and the dangers of ambush cards. Also showed that getting punched sets you back a turn and because I was punched too late I was ahead of everyone and won the game.

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Okay, you’ve seen Root and you’re curious how to play Faction X and Y but you don’t got the basics down and the Law of Root is just a lil too much for you well, in Root 101 I’ll be teaching you all the basics and today it’s going to be: key terms and actions. These are the words and actions you’ll need to know to play any faction, what they mean is one of the few universal things in Root.

First, let’s start with the 3 basic pieces that every faction usually owns one of. These are warriors, buildings, and tokens. Warriors are the small wooden meeples that represent your army, buildings are the square cardboard, and tokens are the circular cardboard. What these are used for will be explained in later sections. Then there is the vagabond, who also uses a meeple but this one is considered a pawn and not a warrior making them exempt from a lot of rules warriors are subjected to.

Next, let’s look at the map and see what it is made of. As we can see below the map consists of 4 things, clearings, forests, paths, and a river. The first 3 work in relation to each other, clearings (C) are connected by paths (blue stripes) and paths and clearing creates a space inside them called a forest (F). Clearings are where you will put down most of your pieces when they enter the game, a clearing can hold as many warriors and tokens as you want, but the number of buildings is limited by the number of building slots (the small white squares).

Warriors can move from clearing to clearing as long as two requirements are met.  The first one is that the two clearings need to be connected via a path and the second is that at least one of the two clearings that the move takes place through has to be ruled by you. Rule is a key mechanic in Root that almost every faction requires to move and build. You rule a clearing if you have more warriors and buildings in that clearing than any other faction present (this does not include tokens), nobody rules if there is a tie. So as long as you control either (or both) the destination clearing or the clearing you’re in you can move.

Below you can see which paths the Marquise de Cat warriors can take and which they cannot (checkmark is yes and cross is no). The clearing encircled in white does not have a majority and thus no one rules it. 

There is already a lot of information, so let’s finish it with some simple terms you shouldn’t confuse. Moving and placing is an important one, if you move you don’t place your warriors in the destination clearing but you move them in and placing is when you place a faction piece from your supply onto the board. Remove is the opposite of place so you put a faction piece from the board back into the supply. Replace is a combination of remove and place and must be fully performed for the action to be taken, so if you can’t place you are not allowed to remove and vice versa. Last is swap which entails you switch two pieces their locations with each other, simple as.

Place from the supply (my hand) onto the board.

Remove from the board into the supply (my hand)

Again, very simple terms but they can be sneaky when used in certain contexts.

Hope this guide has helped you navigate the rules and faction boards of root a bit better, next class we’ll be discussing battles.

[rootisms]

I scheduled a game of Root on Friday ao expect a fun game analysis on Saturday if it was fun. >:)

Big Sales at Mole Mart will crush the Marquise wood economy into shambles that even the Eyrie their crypto stocks will fall into turmoil. Shouldn't have put a suited card in Bitcoin dumbass.

[rootisms]

Boardgames and their price tags have a relationship many tabletop fans would rather avoid talking about. Prices are high but should that take down the value of the game? Root is expensive yes, so I highly recommend making sure you want to invest before you buy the physical edition. Luckily there are other ways to play the game which are cheaper, the two options are either buying Root Digital or downloading the Tabletop Simulator Mod. 

Root Digital has the advantage of accessibility and ease of play but it does not have many expansions yet and can be a bit buggy at times. It currently has the riverfolk expansion and the vagabond pack and the exiles and partisans deck. 

The other option is the TTS mod which is also cheap enough and includes everything but you have to move every piece manually and you also need to find people on the discord community to play with. 

Both are good options but if you really wanna go for physical Root that’s a great option too. There are a ton of expansion recommendations out there when it comes to Root but I think that the only necessary expansion is the Exiles and Partisans deck, the others just add more options but this is a genuine improvement of the game. Other than that I think Underworld and Marauder are better than Riverfolk in terms of content and everything else, like landmarks and additional vagabonds are very optional even if they’re fun.

If you’re looking for where to buy a physical copy always check your FLGS and after that some online retailers. Ledergames’ webstore also sells them but beware of shipping costs outside US and shipping times. 

Steam Links Below: https://store.steampowered.com/app/965580/Root/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2516434159 

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Quick and less structured post.

Wanted to talk about what makes Root so special and unique to me. The first thing that comes to mind is the way the asymmetry is used in the game to create an environment where there are clear and set rules that are then subverted by every faction in a new way, but that's not all. Every faction has unique interactions with eachother making no match the same and also creating interesting ways the game changes, "what will happen if the lizards and moles have to face off" you'll ask yourself after a couple of games.

And that's still not the main attraction to it for me, the biggest reason I love root is the fact the game is a small ecosystem where every player plays their part and if one starts limping or is taken down that ecosystem breaks and pushes someone ahead thus encouraging the players to keel eachother on even footing till the final stretch comes in. It keeps the table civil and everyone in the game until the very end and that's just something many games fail at for me.

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Autumn is board game season and no game to me fits this season more than Root. I am obsessed with this game and all of Tumblr NEEDS to know. 

Root is a strategic wargame with fully asymmetrical play. Now, this might sound like a bunch of buzzwords but it essentially means that there is a lot of thinking about guys on a board and a lot of vying for control over space between the players. Asymmetric means that every player plays with unique rules and goals. Oh, and the guys are cute woodland critters!

Root: a game of Woodland Might and Right, indeed takes place in a forest and every player plays a faction corresponding to a certain animal. No guns, no tanks, just cute cats and birds with spears. 

Every faction in the game seeks to gain control of the woodland in one way or another and do so on a board that is divided into clearings in which warriors stand to rule and battle, but also help build and protect.

In the base game, the players are assigned one of four factions with different goals and mechanics, but all seek to get those 30 victory points.

First up is Marquise de Cat and her giant army of meow meows. After having recently conquered the woodland she seeks to industrialise it and build a strong infrastructure of wood through the clearings. You also have access to the keep, a token that reserves a clearing all to yourself and where your cats respawn constantly with their 9 lives.

Next are the former rulers of the woodland who fell through infighting, the Eyrie Dynasty. They seek to regain control over the woodland by building roosts throughout clearings. The Eyrie take their actions by abiding by their leader’s decree but watch out as turmoil is just around the corner if you fail to keep up your promises.

During all this infighting a third faction has formed, a coalition of all the woodland animals who are tired of being ruled by either of the previous factions and thus have formed into the Woodland Alliance. Their goal is to spread as much sympathy for their cause in the woodland and revolt in sympathetic clearings to set up bases. Their small warrior count may seem like a handicap but their guerrilla tactics make them fierce opponents in battle.

Last, but certainly not least, is the vagabond who is out for eternal glory through the conflicts in the woodland. A one-man army, the vagabond collects items throughout the game which they use to take their actions. They can quest, aid, and destroy their opponents to quickly earn points and keep up with the larger factions.

The expansions add even more variety with new and interesting factions but also additional mechanics like extra maps and modular rules.

So give the game a try, or watch some games and reviews of it on YouTube if you're interested. Also, check out the Woodland Warriors discord server where an amazing community is flourishing.