Putting down Root

Saturday, and Andrew and Ian joined Stan and I for our first crack at four-player Root. This has been the hit of the household here with Stan requesting it every day and I've been enjoying it as much as he has. Last night was something like our ninth play, but for Andrew and Ian it was their first, and Root's asymmetry can initially be quite bewildering.

I went through each faction in as much detail as I could, and assigned Andrew the Eyrie (expand aggressively!) and Ian the Marquise de Cat (build aggressively!) whilst Stan took his usual Vagabond (sneak in and out the trees like a sneaky thing) role and I was the Woodland Alliance (spread sympathy, cause revolts).

What I left out - I only realised writing this up - was encouraging them to begin at full pelt. Root doesn't tend to reward an exploratory start, as I have found to my cost more than once, and Andrew's gentle perambulations in the south-west corner of the woods were not racking him up points. Ian meanwhile seemed foxed by the number of options - he needed to build, but which buildings? Sawmills for wood, Recruitment stations for more warriors, or Workshops for crafting cards (and scoring points).

Stanley foraged into the lead even without going aggressive, accumulating items in his satchel and picking off a couple of Quests. But then he went aggressive anyway, turning Andrew's birds hostile toward him - harder to move around them, but picking them off scored him points.

As the Woodland Alliance I've previously been baffled because they start with zero presence on the table and although revolts can be explosive, they don't guarantee adding a lot of warriors. Instead I focused on a more sneaky tactic of removing warriors from play to generate more sympathy, which scored me points. Despite Stan's victory, I felt pleased to end not far off the 30 point mark.

Ian and then Andrew were a bit further back, as one might expect on a first play, but neither were as moved by Root as I'd hoped - Andrew's aversion to overtly combative games reared it's genteel head and Ian said he was bemused, but open to another play. However my thoughts of another play straight away - sans Vagabond, who'd gone to bed - were a non-starter. We didn't note the scores but it was something like:

Stan - loads of points
Sam - 26
Ian - 18
Andrew -16

Instead after a cupboard perusal we went for the gentler - or at least, less fighty - Calimala. This hasn't hit the table enough in my opinion. Although we know better than to suggest it's the Euro Martin might like, it is probably the Euro Martin might choose to suffer over other Euros. Maybe.

At heart it's a basic area-majority game, but the two things that elevate it are the action mechanism - take an action someone took before you, and they get to do it again - and the scoring, which dawdles for a while before toppling like a domino rally. Also, the current player gets to hold a small wooden version of Death.

Again Ian seemed almost bamboozled by his options, only with less Cat. He triggered his own previously-taken actions several times, which served him well early in the game. But as we positively rampaged through the second half of the scoring rounds he fell away somewhat. Then Andrew and Ian's endgame scoring cards both helped me more than they helped them, and I claimed a convincing win.

It was only half ten but I was pretty fatigued at this point and we called an end to the evening. Glad Calimala went down well, and thanks for giving Root a go chaps!