ROOT: A Game of Woodland Might and Right. A Review.

Published 2018. Leder Games. Cole Wehrle, designer and art by Kyle Ferrin. 2–4 players base game, 1–6 with expansion. 60 to 90 mins.

ROOT is getting a lot of buzz this year and Leder Games just delivered my Kickstarter copy along with their first expansion. ROOT is an asymmetrical game of area control, sort of. One faction is a warring tribe and they play a traditional war game by winning and holding territory. Other factions have different objectives and ways to earn points by trading or helping other players. The player boards for each faction are the same shape, and each turn is divided into three components: birdsong, daytime, and evening. Otherwise, they don’t look much alike. First faction to 30 points wins the game.

The four factions in the base game are:

The Marquise de Cat

The cats start out with warriors in almost every clearing on the board. The cats score most of their points by putting out new buildings, but they have to hold on to their territory and keep producing wood to do it. The can only build in areas that they control and are connected by roads, so they need to carve out an area on the board and defend it.

The Eeryie Dynasties

The birds feel that they are the rightful rulers of the forest. Once they place roosts on the board, they get points every round based on how many roosts they have out in the world. This is the warrior tribe. They want to take and hold territory. Each turn they add cards to their “decree,” which creates a set of actions they must do on each turn. Fail, and fall into turmoil.

The Woodland Alliance

The woodland alliance represents the other critters of the forest made up of bunnies, mouses and foxes. They don’t like the other two factions and are trying to overthrow them both. They start by spreading influence and then once they have some sympathizers they can start an outright revolt. Then they can put warriors on the board and can come from nowhere to take the lead.

The Vagabond

There are three characters to choose from to play the vagabond, each with its own special abilities. This faction is just a single character, collecting items from the board and other players…