We talked Chris through the turn structure (Birdsong; Daylight; Evening) and how each of our three factions functioned, assuming they functioned at all. Chris was commendably unbamboozled - at least at the start. Then with nary a pause, we were away.
Having been stiffed by cards before on the crafting front, I all but ignored building workshops and focused on pushing up my wood supply with sawmills. Joe began with an extravagant two-card addition to his decree, and started as he was to continue - uber-aggressively, as is the Eyrie's wont. Chris spread some sympathy - a modicum of jam to our slathers of butter.
I made the same mistake as in previous games - my memory should win some kind of prize (maybe it has) - of neglecting to address the Eyrie's building threat early, as I pottered away constructed little buildings in half-empty clearings. Before we knew it, Joe was holding a third of the forest, and looking strong. I countered, building a third recruiter and recruiting twice before spending a bird card for an additional action and attacking.
Chris came through a mid-game breakdown where he momentarily fell victim to cognitive overload; going from a turn bewildered to a couple more productive, first attacking Joe, then building a confection of officers and going on night manoeuvres to bump up his points.
Chris, with ears
I also attacked - but we'd left it too late. Suddenly Joe was ten or so points ahead of us, and looking good for the win. My canny strategy was to see where he had to recruit and make sure he couldn't, by eliminating the only rabbit roost he held. Only my canny strategy was let down by my basic sense of vision/attention/brain power, as he held a second rabbit clearing right in front of me that I somehow overlooked!
Joe's building decree...
That plan turned to mush, and Joe subsequently a mere two points from victory on his following turn, Chris and I combined to wipe out his other rabbit clearing, and ensure in his next turn he'd fall into turmoil. Even so, he was miles ahead, and even after turmoil, he was looking at a one point gain, which would put him on 29 points...
aieeeeeeeeeee
I launched into my cunning plan, which was to abandon the victory point track in favour of a Dominance strategy: all I needed to do was control to diagonally-opposed clearings at the start of my next turn! I controlled them already, so I recruited and piled extra cats in there for what I hoped would be a spectacular about-turn for the Marquise.
Unfortunately for me, it wasn't to be. Before Joe's decree fell apart, he managed to craft the extra point he needed - despite a points loss of 3, his haul of 5 overall put him on 30 for a much-deserved victory!
But after the combative Root we went for something a bit silly - in the push-your-luck potion-brewing delights of Quacksalber Von Quedlingburg.
This is from Wolfgang Warsch, he of The Mind, Illusion, and Ganz Schon Clever, and I was interested to try it with three as my two-player experiences, whilst fun, hadn't seemed to justify the hype around the game (in Germany, at least). Over nine rounds you're pulling ingredients out of a bag to add to your potion, and you want it to contain as many ingredients (or as many powerful ones) as possible to score more points, and spend money on more, better ingredients.
But some of them are volatile, and if you draw too many your potion explodes - now you can either score points, or purchase more stuff, but not both.
It's fun in the drawing of the stuff and hoping that your good chits come out, and we enjoyed it. But it is a mite fiddly too, with no interaction at all - fun, but for me not as fun as Wolfgang's other games.
Maybe I'm just saying that because I lost though! Chris overcame droplet issues to nab a debut win, finishing his final round with a flourish:
Chris 55
Joe 53
Sam 47
And with the time just past 11, we called an end to the evening. Thank you gentlemen!
Thanks Sam! Root has the promise of a lot more game than the first play reveals. Impossible to get a handle on it first time and therefore you need to accept that it will be a kind of training game.
ReplyDeleteI've never played an asymmetric game like that before, save for ones with different starting factions maybe which all play the same rules. My confusion came mainly from muddling up everyone else's rules with mine and not quite getting the language.
Fun though and I would be happy to play it again.
The other game was light and fun. Quite like a bag builder...
Wow my first win at Root! I thought I’d screwed myself on turn one by adding two cards, neither being wild. But I managed to cling on, keeping my despotic leader for the whole game. I feel I had it fairly easy though, as chris in his innocence left me some easy pickings on a couple of turns.
ReplyDeleteStill a big fan of the Eyrie.
I enjoyed Quacksalber too - but I agree with the overall assessment that it’s quite solitaire-y and light. Something fun about ‘bag building’ all the same.
Thanks Sam for hosting and blogging - good to see you again Chris!
Yeah Quacksalber was just fine but, to be picky, I feel it's a 20 minute game really rather than the 45 minutes. A solid six whereas Wolfgang's other stuff I rate a bit higher.
ReplyDeleteI won't go on about Root again.