Root: The Riverfolk Expansion

Root is a truly original game design. It's part area-control, part card/action selection and part war game with an amazing set of four totally different factions, and I do mean TOTALLY different factions! Each factions is almost playing an entirely different mini-game with the larger game! I kid you not. And as strange as that sounds, it all works...brilliantly! In principle, Root is simple: the first faction to gain 30 victory points wins. The board is a giant forest with several clearings marked by a 'suit' (fox, mouse, bunny, birds). Players compete to control these clearings. Players play suited cards to do actions in said clearings that match the suit of the card they're playing (i.e. need to play a bunny suited card to do an action in a clearing with a bunny suit.). Some cards also can be 'crafted' to gain a special ability, again matching suit of the card to the suit of the clearing where you want to do the action! Movement is based on area control. You can only move into or from a clearing you control (i.e. having the most units/buildings). Combat is super simple: the attacker rolls two dice and takes the higher total, eliminating that many of the defenders units; the defender does the same with the lower numbered dice. However, the attacker/defender can never eliminate more units then the size of his attacking/defending force. For example-attacking with 4 units and rolling a '5'. You only get to kill 4 units, not five. The same applies to the defender. Furthermore, there are cards and various faction abilities that can modify battle results in interesting ways. That in essence is how root plays....simple....but....the factions turn all this on it's head! At its heart, Root is a war game between the ruthless denezins of a fairy tale-like forest setting: THE CATS: The Cats run the forest as a vast labor camp. They score victory points by developing structures within the forest clearings and keeping the 'status quo.' THE BIRDS (EYRIE): The Eyrie used to run things until the cats came along, and they want their power and control back. They're fast, ruthless and are the strongest military power! They gain VPs by expanding their influence! They can spread like wildfire and crush the mightiest of foes! BUT....they have one great flaw: Their government is highly unstable! One wrong move can bring down their entire power structure and thwarting their plans! THE WOODLAND ALLIANCE: The Alliance represents all the other woodland creatures suffering under the yoke of the cats. They're the rebels! They want the Cats overthrown, and they want the Birds gone too! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! The Woodland alliance fights a guerilla war to free the forest of tyranny! They get VPs by overthrowing the Cats and the Birds. THE VAGABOND: The shifty Vagabond are the allegedly "neutral" raccoons. They've decided to become the merchants of death and profit from the growing war in the woodlands! They can 'aid' and/or hinder each faction for their own selfish reasons, hoping to become wealthy from the chaos! They can gain VPs by helping the various factions at crucial moments, and even side with a faction and ride their coat tales to victory! To win, you HAVE to be ruthless! There's no room in this game for care bears! The first faction to get a VP engine going can run away with game if the other players are not careful! Such VP leaders must be crushed! And the asymmetricral design of the game really brings this to life. The factions really to play that differently and have their own special way to victory. No two are even remotely similar! The game has only two downsides. 1) It's MEAN as heck. You can show no mercy in this game. 2) It's incredibly hard to teach because it is so different. Watching videos is pretty much mandatory.

First of all, Root is a phenomenal board game. As asymmetrical strategy games go, it’s tough to beat. I’ll be honest, it’s complexity is on the higher side (3.81/5 BGG weight rating) so if you’re inexperienced with hobbyist board games and are simply reading Amazon reviews to decide whether you’ll like it, Root might not be the best place to start. For more on Root’s fundamental merits as a board game, visit its page on BoardGameGeek. If you’re coming from BGG and wondering about this box as a physical product: man this game is a pleasure to interact with. Everything about it is endlessly charming. The artwork is superb - maybe my favorite of any game, ever. The print quality is extremely high across the board (no pun intended). Just opening the box feels luxurious. This game has excellent replay ability value due to the asymmetrical factions (which also make it more difficult to learn, but the payoff is worth it), which just makes you want to interact with all the lovely little bits even more. As you move your army of cats through the forest bent on extinguishing the critter rebellion, you’ll see the adorable vagabond exploring caves and collecting cute little items and you’ll think “Gee I want to do that” and you’ll be excited about your second playthrough before your first is even complete. This is a staple of my board game group for a good reason. If you’re a seasoned board game hobbyist, or a new gamer ready for a challenge, I highly recommend Root.

Root has been on my radar since its first Kickstarter. I finally picked this up, along with the first expansion. The second expansion should be releasing later this month in fact. There is a genre of games known as asymmetric. In these games, each player is effectively playing an entirely different game from one another, but together. Probably the best example would be Android: Netrunner where one player plays the corporation and the other plays a hacker. They are effectively fighting against each other, but even the very nature of their turns have no resemblance to one another. While some games claim to be asymmetric, they really just give each player a unique power or ability. This is not the same thing at all. Root is a truly asymmetric game, much like its predecessor: "Vast: The Crystal Caverns". Each player takes on one of four different factions (more with expansions) to either vie for control of the forest, or to meet their own personal goals (as is the case with the Vagabond character). Our family has really taken to this game within a few plays. This include my wife and our 8, 10 and 13 year olds. While our 8 year old does need help even with the faction that is labeled as having the lowest complexity (the cats), she still really enjoys it. My 10 year old has no issues at all and was giving us some pretty heavy competition. Still, the game is not light-weight and does come with a pretty steep learning curve. That said, once you have one of the factions down, it is VERY easy to break out the game and have everyone grab the same faction they played with last time, and get down to business quickly. If you are looking for a game that has great production value, is unbelievably well balanced, offers solid replay-ability and is guaranteed to provide many fun evenings of making your friends and family hate you (in love, of course), Root is definitely a solid option.

Excellent game, and the expansions not only add more players but mroe variants, a must for Root

Root definitely benefits from having at least 3 or 4 players and this expansion really helps in adding another player or two. Some of the bots are harder to run than others (I'm looking at you Vagabond) but after a few turns it all sinks in and the bots are really well designed, hats off to those involved! I've also used this to play solo, only against one of the bots and they put up a good fight with room to increase the difficulty too. If you love the puzzle of root then I recommend, however you do lose the personal touch that comes from playing against humans so don't expect it to capture that.

Gerçekten eşi benzeri olmayan bir kutu oyunu

One of my favorite games to play by far. Has excellent pieces and the art is amazing.

Leider nur in Englisch zu erhalten, aber kein Problem in meiner Spielegruppe. Besonders interessant sind die verschiedenen Fraktionen, wie sie Siegpunkte erhalten und dass es dennoch ziemlich ausbalanziert ist. Nicht zu empfehlen für Kinder, das lustige Design täuscht, die Regeln sind zwar gut erklärt (und das in 2 verschieden ausgeführten Regelbüchern) sind aber recht komplex.

Superroligt spel!