Taking Root

Earlier this week Stan and I played Root, and since then he and I have talked - gaming-wise - about nothing else. And today we played twice more!

In the first game, I'd helped Stan over the line somewhat as the Eyrie, whilst I juggled control of both the Marquise de Cat (myself) and the Vagabond (absent Joe, who left us before his first turn was over! We kept the Vagabond out of interest). It was very much open warfare across the Woodlands, with the Vagabond flitting between us completing quests, until he turned hostile against me and starting cutting down my warriors before flitting into the woods again...

This morning at 07.30, I told Stan there would be no such assistance as we went for a straight-up head to head, with Stan replaying the Eyrie and me the Marquise. Stan immediately began a plan of expansion from his corner of the forest, whilst I focused on building - as the Marquise, you want a regular supply of wood to build with, so I needed sawmills. But with the Eyrie spreading their wings aggressively in the southeast, I also needed to build recruitment stations. If I wanted to craft for points, I also needed to build workshops.

I was so bamboozled I basically neglected to address the building threat of the Eyrie, and by the time I turned my attention to Stan, they were looking almost unstoppable - it was a procession to victory in under an hour!

Stanley (The Eyrie) 30
Sam (The Marquise) 15

After a long interim, we played again at 3pm. This time, I was the Eyrie, and Stanley tried his hand at the Vagabond; the lone raccoon.

I began expanding just as Stan had in the morning: the Eyrie demands it as you have to follow the Decree: recruit, move, battle, build. Only I didn't play a card to the battle decree all game, as it would have been too risky - all Stan would have to do is end a turn in the woods and the Eyrie would be in turmoil: the leader deposed, a new one installed, and points lost.

Stanley explored the ruins on the board and started completing Quests: only the Vagabond can do these, and to do so he simply gets to the correct part of the forest and uses the stuff in his backpack to complete them.

But as I was building more roosts across the forest, my points were ticking over rather too nicely, and we realised that it would have paid for Stan to turn hostile against me as soon as he could: it would make it harder to enter any clearing I was in, but he'd score points whenever he kicked one of my warriors off the board.

So he did - and the game turned into a series of guerrilla attacks from the trees as I got roosts down and warriors recruited only for Stan to slip from the trees and cut their feathery throats.

But it wasn't enough to make up for his slow start, as I was still turning over points on a regular basis and headed for a relatively stress-free win. But out of interest, I changed my winning condition by playing a Dominance card - now, instead of hitting thirty points to win, I needed to control three 'mice' clearings at the start of my turn.

When I played the card I did control three mice clearings, so the game changed complexion again as the pressure was on Stan to repeatedly eject me out from a mice clearing - and me to rebuild. He lasted three turns before his luck ran out: unable to stop me winning on my next turn, he needed to win instantly. He scored points for the damage he did and completed another quest. One more movement available to him, and he would have claimed an unlikely win from another crafted card.

Sam (The Eyrie) wins
Stan (The Vagabond) 28 points.

Great game. We still haven't really grasped the nuances of each faction, and how they need to be played slightly differently depending which factions your opponents are playing - and how numerous they are. Can't wait to play again!