Contrary to what Disney would have you believe, the forest is a dangerous place for a critter just trying to make a living for himself. If it’s not the Cats opening big box stores and driving away small business, then it’s the birds going on and on about their birthright over your land. Ugh! And then there’s those pesky mice handing out flyers trying to get everyone to unionize. Yeah, yeah, power to the people and all that jazz. I’m just trying to get my kids through college! Oh, and let’s not get started on the <PERSON> always asking for a handout and talking a big game. I’m watching you, raccoon! Stay away from my dumpster!
How It Plays
Root has you controlling one of four different factions vying for some form of control of the woods. How Root plays is also one of its most highly publicized selling points. Every faction is driven by different motivations and functions in vastly different ways.
Every faction is racing to reach 30 points first but will employ their own unique methods to do so. <PERSON> begin the game in power and are keen on turning the forest into an industrial powerhouse. On their turn they will generate resources and choose from a menu of actions that includes moving armies, recruiting soldiers, and constructing new buildings, which is their main avenue for generating points.
The Eyrie Dynasties are the deposed avian royalty who are looking to reclaim power while beholden to their traditional ways. On their turn, they will add an action (or two) to their decree line and then must activate every card in that line, adding to the programmed actions over multiple rounds. These actions will be done in the following order: recruit, move, battle, and build. If they cannot carry out their programmed actions, their faction falls into turmoil. This will cost them points, clear their decree, and bring a new leader into the fold. Points are doled out based on the number of roosts they have currently built on the board.
The Woodland Alliance are a fledgling uprising looking to drum up support and spark a full-on rebellion. They will gather sympathy from the working-class creatures and force the other factions to give them cards representing support whenever they move into a clearing with sympathy. And so the Alliance goes about sowing sympathy wherever they can and gaining victory points until the rage hits a tipping point, allowing them to fight head-on in guerrilla warfare.
And then there’s the Vagabond. 629
A loner with a penchant for flair, the Vagabond is in it for themself. They have no allegiance to any ideology and will freely trade among all other factions if it means getting loot. They then activate that loot and move around the map accomplishing their own personal deck of quest cards.
The best part about Root is not that each faction plays radically different from one another, though that’s great; it’s not the artwork and production, though it’s adorable to no end; it’s not even the table talk that it engenders, and there will be talk! No, the best part of Root is how clearly the story and motivations flow out of the turn-to-turn mechanical structure. Take <PERSON>, for example. They begin the game with the most soldiers on the map, keying in to the fact that they are in control. They view the future as industry, reflected in the fact that they gain points through building. Their pace is steady. Slowly but surely making new buildings, recruiting new soldiers, creating more resources. The inevitable march of industrialization cannot be stopped. Your goal to transform the forest is reflected perfectly in the victory point reward system.
Then there’s the story behind the Eyrie Dynasties, my personal favorite. They are a blue-blooded, self-entitled, bickering gaggle of birds that have been ousted from power. They seek to regain their former glory but are hamstrung by their adherence to tradition and honor. The Eyrie has a leader on their player board that gives them flexibility when executing certain actions, and every round as they add new orders to the decree, it represents the leader making a strategic declaration. It will be carried out. It must be carried out. When the leader calls for battle, you will battle! But when you can’t carry out the order (as will likely happen), the shame that leader has brought on the Eyrie causes disruption and unrest within their ranks. The inner turmoil that this creates means deposing the old leader and electing a new one, clearing their previous one’s decrees to start anew while losing victory points as a result. It’s a perfect representation of a group that is content while things are humming along but so beholden to decorum that they throw a giant hissy fit when their leader shows the slightest signs of weakness. 579