Alliance and Questor

Tuesday was supposed to be held at Joe's, but when Andrew and I both pulled out (I couldn't walk, thanks to gout) Joe charitably suggested we move the venue to my place, and Ian and Martin charitably agreed.

That was where the charity ended, though, as our first game was Root as requested by Martin and Joe and delightedly agreed to by me. Ian was curious - and amenable - enough after his play on Saturday to revisit.

Joe's birds (blue) begin to spread, whilst Martin's 

Alliance (green) have revolted

I won't give another overview as I've been writing about nothing else for the past two weeks, as previous posts will attest. But it's probably worth remembering that despite it's cutesy appearance, Root is as much a war game as something like Cuba Libre - possibly even more so.

With Martin there I was hotly anticipating which rules I'd been playing wrong, but fortunately there were only two minor corrections, and one glaring one concerning the Vagabond that went some way - not to take anything away from him, as we will see - to explaining Stanley's relentless parade of victories with this faction. Whilst I played the tramp himself, looking to complete Quests and possibly pick off the odd warrior, Ian reclaimed the Marquise de Cat, Joe played the Eyrie, and Martin was my personal favourites the Woodland Alliance.

We were off like a rocket - a kind of 1980's rocket, that made a big noise but didn't go anywhere, as Ian fell victim to the dreaded AP on his very first turn. He kept apologising, but Root is not a game where simple things necessarily suggest themselves. "Don't think too much" Martin told him, and Ian built a sawmill.

Ian, with me lurking behind

And so we began, and what also began was a procession of expletives from all corners of the table, with the exception of Joe, who remained sanguine throughout. The word fuck sailed through the air so many times I started jotting down who said what.

This game is fucking nuts - Martin, several times
Well, that's my infrastructure fucked - Ian, after I wiped out his sawmill
I should never have damaged that fucking hammer - me, regretting things
This decree is about to play out its last hurrah - Joe, admirably clean-spoken
This game is fucking mental - Martin, several times
That's me fucking fucked - Ian, after I wiped out two sawmills
I don't know what the fuck I'm doing - Martin, not necessarily telling the truth
Well, I'm fucking last then - Ian, victim again to our insurgencies

And the reason for all this profanity was the warfare playing out on the board, where the opening battles - Marquise versus Eyrie - were complicated by Martin's arrival in the form of some very cute little mice, with bombs. I - the Vagabond - was supposedly slipping in and out of the battle like a master tactician, gathering Quests and crafting some good shit. The thing was, instead of focussing on a particular type of quest - foxes, for instance - which would have been more rewarding, I was rather more scattergun, and hence less point-scorey. And I couldn't craft at all, because as previously noted, I'd damaged my hammer, and repairing it meant sacrificing a whole turn, sat in the woods on my furry arse.

Martin looks cute, but fools nobody

Ian's cats start the game as a natural target, as they have control over every clearing but one, and everyone hates the Marquise as a result. But Ian's brooding fatalism was somewhat in contrast to his march up the track, as mid-game he held a clear lead on the rest of us, and showed no sign of letting up with his many sawmills scattered across the board providing him with ample wood to build. He needed stopping, so I turned hostile and went on the attack.

Meanwhile Martin - as Ian kept reminding us - was building up to a big points haul in one fell swoop, but for Joe and I it was Hobson's choice, really - we knew Martin was going to hit jackpot at some point, but Ian was advancing with every build, and needed checking as well. We made an informal pact to take out both of them, despite the fact we'd been hostile since my second or third turn.

Martin on the verge of victory. Ian in second, but Joe about to play.

It got bleak. Ian tossed down his cards and said he didn't like the game. Joe went into Turmoil. I was languishing at the back on fairly minimal points, and glaring balefully at my broken hammer. Martin, despite his apparent bewilderment, and Ian's warnings, was gearing up for a win.

We focused our efforts on him, but Ian's two attacks ended in disaster - the first at the hands of an ambush, the second with a shitty role that favoured Martin (the Woodland Alliance are the strongest in defence, taking the higher roll when attacked). Martin told Ian to stop sulking. Ian said he wanted to sulk. Joe waded in on Martin, and so did I, but it wasn't enough: Martin crafted, spread sympathy, and disdainfully flicked Joe's home roost off the board as the cherry on his rodent-flavoured cake to hit the thirty-point mark.

Joe finished second whilst Ian and I - thanks to my hastily-formed coalition on my final turn, which I'm not sure Ian truly welcomed - were last third together. I would have been fourth if not for the coalition.

Martin!

Martin (Alliance) 30
Joe (Eyrie) 23
Ian and Sam (Marquise, Vagabond) 21

My dreams of a GNN group hug for Root look somewhat dashed, then, with Andrew and Ian far from convinced and Martin mostly bemused. At least Joe likes it! For me, I think it's the most fascinating new game I've played in a long time, one that always tells a story. It prompted much discussion afterwards, with even Ian conceding he'd play again - just not as the Marquise, who to be fair has probably the least gripping objective of building stuff - and without the tricky-but-interesting curio of the Eyrie's decree to accompany it. Martin was intrigued enough to revisit it too, and I'd definitely encourage that. As I've become more familiar with what's going on, the bafflement (if not the feistiness) drops away and you can focus on the tactical play much more... albeit I didn't do that particularly well myself last night.

Then, after Ian's spooner-related story about checking junk and spam folders, we played Lost Cities: The Rivals. A first play for me, and accurately described by Martin as Lost Cities meets Ra. I'm terrible at these bidding games because I play so conservatively, but it was fun all the same - a multi-player Lost Cities where you can force up the bid or play a single coin/token to force an auction - like having an optional 'one' token in Ra. Ian recovered from his Root experience to rack up a very convincing win, as Martin, Joe and I gnashed our teeth in despair.

Ian 44
Martin 36
Sam 33
Joe 32

And then we ignored Martin's protests and played Perudo. I'd love to say I played a blinder but to be fair I think there was only one instance where my dice were a jamboree - often I had a very helpful set of the same number, and often they were sixes or aces. Martin - to my left - kept dudo-ing and being utterly appalled by the failure of probability, as he lost die after die and was first out by some distance, leading to yet more coarse language. Next up was Joe, who while Palafico made an ambitious bid of two sixes. I had no sixes at all, so dudo-ed. Then Ian and I faced off and I dudo-ed again when he doubled my bid of a single four, and I had none.

Sam - wins!
Ian
Joe
Martin

Martin was keen on another game, but Joe was of a mind to go. Martin asked for a lift, and Joe said no. There followed a debate about how long it takes to drive to various destinations in Bristol, before Martin banged his fist on the table (metaphorically) and said he wanted a game or a lift, causing much mirth. They negotiated their way to a lift to the motorway, and we called it a night. A classic night. Thanks guys!

Eyrily Prescient

The last day of the summer holidays for Stan, and we broke out Root for yet another play. Stan's track record with the Vagabond is impressive and it seems he was bored of beating me with it now, as he decided to play the Marquise. Tempting as it was to give him a taste of his own Raccoon-flavoured medicine, I played the Eyrie and declared it would be a straight up war.

Stan built a recruitment station as close to me as possible whilst I moved out from the Eyrie's initial position at the bottom of the board. I conquered a first clearing with ease, and the game was afoot.

As the Marquise, the focus is on building, but having seen me neglect the threat of the Eyrie when playing the cats Stanley went aggressive as soon as possible. On the second turn of the game I countered, moving into a clearing where he had three cats and brought three birds with me. I only needed to rule the clearing (ie have more pieces there than him, or in the Eyrie's case, the same number of pieces as they win ties) so as long as I didn't roll 3-3 I'd be able to build.

I rolled 3-3. Despite the early stage, the birds fell into Turmoil, deposing their leader and lost all their points - which fortunately for me, was only one point.

But with three birds lost and my charismatic leader replaced by a despot, things were looking grim early on. Every time I placed a roost, Stan went for it. I fought back and regained ground on the board and on the points chart, with Stanley hitting 11 points as I gained six. I managed to negotiate some tricky decrees, but then Stan suddenly played a Dominance card - now, instead of winning by reaching thirty points, he merely had to control two (diagonally opposite) corners of the board.

I marched to the south-west, and jettisoned him from there. He countered in the south-east, and as he controlled both northern corners, it was looking grim. I needed to recruit in the one roost left to me, march south and gain control of the south-east corner - which I did, by a hair. However I had no momentum left, and Stan built and recruited there, leaving me even more bereft. I attacked one last time, needing to roll a two or a three - anything but a zero or a feeble one in attack.

some pics from earlier

I rolled a one and a zero.

It was a game of distractions with builders here and Joe asking for snacks on a seeming minute by minute basis, but all the same - a thumping.

In the evening then, we went head to head again, with the same factions as our early battle. This time the early dice smiled on me as the Eyrie spread out across the board, and even a relatively early turmoil didn't have too much effect. With my charismatic leader deposed, I went for the commander instead, only I kept forgetting to do the extra damage in battle he causes.

I also kept forgetting to craft. I was getting too excited by the fact I was in such a strong position, especially when a Dominance card fell into my hand - control three mouse clearings to win the game outright. I already controlled them, and had avenues to move more birds in. Ignoring the fact I was scoring four points per round - or more, if I ever remembered to craft anything - I threw down the gauntlet and jettisoned my marker from the points track.

Stanley sallied, gathering his troops and piling in to gain control of one of them. I counter-punched and got it back, and this went on for a couple of turns. My problem was that while I could kick him out easily enough, Stanley was still scoring points, whilst I had forewent that pleasure with the Dominance card, which I was now regretting. I realised I'd have been past 30 points easily if I hadn't had the rush of blood, but as it was my despotic foolishness meant Stanley eked out his second victory of the day - in 45 minutes.

Madness

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!

And so it gheos

This week's games event was at Sam's place, and it began with six avid gamers huddled around the kitchen table. Sam was joined by Stanley, Joe (the grown up version, not Stanley's brother), Ian, Martin and me.

On one half of the table sat Sam, Stanley and Joe, getting ready for a game of Root, the new craze that swept the world of Sam and Stanley. At this end of the table, Martin had a new game to try, Gheos.

It had an interesting way of choosing the starting player; the one who can refrain from laughing the longest.

This game involves building a the playing area using triangular pieces with water and land, to create continents to put civilisations on. We don't control these civilisations in any way but, as gods, we can share in their success by picking up cubes of the same colour. We can also force the them to fight or migrate, by replacing parts of the world with new land masses, thus connecting or separating previously established continents.

This aspect of joining civilisations to make them fight reminded me of Tigris and Euphrates, and the game got a similarly cold reception from me. Ian said he enjoyed it and that he was expecting it to be more combative. I had to remind him that both he and Martin had killed off civilisations that I had a large stake in, in consecutive moves. Martin liked it, despite having to pay a cube if you want to be a dick to someone and change their continent.

Ian 70
Martin 69
Andrew 53

Meanwhile, in Root, after some debate whether Joe should choose an easier faction to play, the game was well under way. Stanley caused early upheaval by being hostile towards his dad, and wanting to hit Joe with a hammer. Added to this were strange discussions about battles in rabbit land or something. It looked nice but was all very opaque to an uniformed spectator.
Stanley won with what was, apparently, his favourite faction, while Joe managed to get into second and afterwards had nothing but praise for it.

Stanley 31
Joe 19
Sam 15

While we waiting for them to finish, we whipped off a quick round of Divinare. This game of psychic divination is rarely seen (because I never bring it) but is usually well received when it is.

We began with Martin saying he could hardly remember how to play. Suffice to say, it all came back to him.

Martin 10
Andrew - 1
Ian - 2

Afterwards, Martin explained his winning strategy, which is to remember what cards you hand your neighbour, because you'll see everything else. Not psychic powers, then. How disappointing.

Now, after so much ponderous gaming, we were in the mood for something riotous. We chose Decrypto, with our teams being Knackers All (Martin and Joe) against The Angry Stoics (Ian, Sam and I).

By round four, we had one error each, but then Knackers All got an interception. As we entered round five, I was in a fix, since we were sure that they had worked out three of our secret code words. Luckily, the combination I had to communicate to my fellow spies had the one word they knew least about. I entered a significant reverie that was long enough to be called a Joe Turn, and for reference to be made to Paul's epic contemplation on round nine of Lords Of Waterdeep.

In the end, it was all for nought, as they guessed it anyway. However, they failed to communicate their final clue, giving us hope that we might win on fewest mistakes. We didn't. Ian showed some talent by working out two of Joe and Martin's words, but those were just consolation goals in the football game of espionage.

Knackers All, loud and clear
The Angry Stoics, too much noise on the line.

Next was every quantity surveyor's favourite party game, Illusion. Last time we played, we were amazing in our accuracy. Today, not so much. Martin was distracted by a video of Huddersfield's wonder goal from the half-way line (into their own net, unfortunately) while I had a game where I neither challenged nor was challenged. Eagle eyed Ian took first place.

Ian 3
Martin 2
Joe 1
Sam 1
Andrew 0

Next was Face Cards, another new favourite. Just like Gheos, this game also had an ingenious way of choosing starting player: draw a card and the person who most resembles it begins. Apparently, I most resemble the Mona Lisa.

This game saw an audacious strategy by Joe. In his first round, he attempted to get us to match Mozart with Bach and he was amazed when no one chose it.

Then, in the next round he hoped that by playing Beethoven into the middle, that we would remember his fondness for dead composers and assume that was his card, despite the completely dissimilar card (a sheik) he had in front of him.

This plan was foiled when he accidentally put the Sheik in the middle and kept Beethoven in front of him. There was no way any of us could put those two together in those circumstances, especially since the author Goethe was among the six choices (which was my guess). But, to be honest, even if he'd got it right, I still don't think that it would have worked. Still, as I said, an audacious idea.

Joe also wondered if the game might be improved by betting real money on whether or not your pair is guessed. Maybe there's a variant on the Geek.

Martin 11
Ian 10
Joe 10
Sam 10
Andrew 9

Then we played a new very simple roll 'n' write, Kriss Kross. Roll two dice and write them (next to each other) in a five by five grid. Points are given for two, three, four or five in a row horizontally and vertically.

I omitted to pay much attention to the verticals, but luckily my horizontals scored so high, they didn't matter.

Andrew 29
Martin 28
Ian 26
Joe 25
Sam 25

Finally, with a win under my belt, I set off for home. Ian, despite flagging, was tempted to stay for a game of continuous Pairs. Joe lost the first game (since there are only losers in this variant, no winners) and Sam lost the second game on the last card in the deck.

Nice to be back at Sam's, and thanks to all for another fun time.

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!

Maximus Frustratus

Dear reader, I bring you sad news from the war. Not news of lost lives or tragic fate, nor of excitement and derring do, but one of quite stoicism and sparse opportunities. And spicy crisps.

My unconventional opening

Rather than being a time of great turmoil in the history of the Roman Empire, we saw Ian become Emperor in round four and then stay there for almost the rest of the game. It was an uneasy but remarkably persistent reign. First, let's see how he got there.

Ian began in Hispania and with 3 blue and 2 red, he expanded south into Africa (buying a 2-level blue card). Then, with 3 yellow and 2 red he built a Basilica and reinforced his army, both in Africa (bought a 2-red). Then, despite weakening the neutral emperor in Rome for Martin's benefit, Ian decided his next hand of 5 blue, 1 red would be best spent on a new 3-level governor and being voted into Thracia.

As expected, Martin then became emperor using exactly the same sequence of cards (3B 2R, 3Y 2R, 5B 1R) and then I unseated Ian in Thracia, crucially giving him a spare governor to use on his next turn. Joe sportingly sent an army into Italia to weaken Emperor Martin's army there, despite him having no chance of becoming Emperor. Ian capitalised on the moment and with his fourth hand of 3R 5B, he recruited a Nomad in Africa, crossed the sea to Italia and defeated Martin's army (“after I'd loosened the lid,” as Joe pointed out) and was duly voted as Emperor.

In retaliation, Martin took Africa from Emperor Ian and then put a mob in Hispania. Joe retreated from Italy back to Gallia, and built an army in his otherwise defenceless Syria. Previous games had seen the Middle East as a pit of turmoil and he (and I, with my Limes in Galatia) were expecting the worst. Oddly, nothing of the sort happened, and the massed Sassanids didn't cross over into our regions at all.

Ian unseated me in Britannia – the first of many such occasions when this country would change hands – to regain support in Rome while Martin, with only 3 yellow and 2 red, simply reinforced and boosted support in Africa. The score was currently Martin 24, Ian 23, Andrew 20, Joe 18.

The board after round five

Ian had somehow clung on for another Emperor turn, but how long could he hold out? Remarkably long, that's how long. On his turn he was always able to get a third region back, and his three-strong army in Italia made any election prospects very slim.

During the game, Joe pondered thoughtfully over choosing his next hand a couple of times. The first time was long enough for the three of us to finish a bag of wasabi crisps. During the second time, Martin mentioned that everyone has a Joe turn at least once during the game, and Joe refused to believe that “a Joe turn” was actually a thing.

My one chance at glory (when I had 5R, 1Y and 5B and was gearing up to reinforce Pannonia, move into Italia, defeat Ian's army and get voted in on a tide of populism) was actually spent on invading fighting Barbarians and dealing with Ian and Martin both sending mobs into my regions.

First sight of Kniva and the Goths. A pretty average indie band.

Joe's chance was snatched away even more cruelly, as we all forgot that a Pretorian Guard ignores any army units in a region when counting votes to become Emperor. How we forgot that, we cannot say. Perhaps we were too distracted by Martin going online and working out the odds of Joe's plan of splitting his red points to attack Franks in Frankland as well as running for the Senate. Joe did so, and beat the Franks for points before turning his mind to political affairs. He needed 9 votes with 7 dice, but he only rolled 7 votes. A plucky attempt.

Of course, later, when Martin played his own Pretorian Guard, he remembered the rule and we all realised Joe had only needed six votes so should have been Emperor by now. In the final reckoning, it would've been only enough to get him into third on the score track, but the injustice of it all certainly put a dampener on an already pretty damp game.

As the game came to a close, it was only eleven o'clock. Martin was on 49 points and it was his turn with 5 blue and 9 red (including a Pretorian Guard) his prospects were good. “Martin could end the game,” said Ian. “I hope so,” said Joe.

Martin used three blue to get voted into Gallia. Then he recalled his governor from Britannia. How ironic: it had changed hand with almost every turn and now, at the very end, it went back to being neutral. Then his army from Macedonia moved into Pannonia, foederatied an Alamanni and then defeated the other Alamanni there, before using eight dice to try and get six votes. He succeeds! His total at the end of the round is exactly 60 points and after the points for Emperor Turns was added on, it could hardly have been closer.

Pointing!

Martin 66
Ian 65
Andrew 48
Joe 46 (but should be up in the mid-fifties)

It was a shame that the game never really caught fire. The consensus among us was that the expansion cards really can't come soon enough.

Since the night was still young(ish) we played one more game – Lost Cities: The Rivals. This game was described by Martin as Reiner Knizia remixing his greatest hits, as the familiar mechanics of bidding, money recycling and set collecting all seemed to be taken from previous games.

It was okay, although I was quite tired. It's all about managing your luck and somehow knowing when to go big. But, as Joe said, “You don't know it's too late until it's too late.” He did not go on to say “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Joe 44
Andrew 43
Ian 36
Martin 25 “or something”

And so we were done. I drove Joe home in a very different mood from last month. Back then it was the triumphant return of the conquering hero. This time, Joe must've wondered if he'd accidentally angered an ancient god during a recent visit he'd made to some Roman ruins.

Rootling Around

Last night then I played through a few rounds of Root, the assymmetric game of 'might and right' by  designer Cole Wehrle. I suppose the first thing to note is that despite appearances - the illustrations look like they're out of a 1970's childrens book - it is a war game, of sorts.

And it'd be a war game that was easy to digest if all four of the factions worked the same way, as the rules for each one are relatively light. But as they don't, it isn't.

The game takes place in a forest (or woodland, to use the game's parlance) where clearings are divided by clumps of trees and paths. One faction, the Marquise (cats), have taken over from another, the Eyrie (birds) and are kind of running the place. If you're the Marquise you begin with a big presence on the board: cats in every clearing bar one and three buildings pre-built: sawmill, workshop and recruitment station. Your goal (like all factions) is to score 30 points, and to do that you need to keep building buildings or crafting items. Both score you points, and the sawmills provide you with wood (for building with), workshops let you craft, and recruitment stations recruit more cats to keep the status quo.

The Eyrie, of course, want to win the woodlands back under their control. They begin with six warriors in the only clearing the Marquise don't occupy, and swiftly set out to build more roosts on the board. This faction scores points at the end of every turn, but how many depends on how many roosts you've built. They can also craft items too.

The catch with the Eyrie is that they are very militarily minded and slaves to their own decree, which dictates where you can recruit, move, battle and build (in that order) in each round. You can manipulate the decree with cards, but you must always carry the whole thing out, otherwise your current leader is deposed and a new one steps in. This is called Turmoil, and it's bad because you lose points. But it's also almost inevitable, so your strong start will at some point hit a substantial hiccup.

The third populous faction is the Woodland Alliance, all the smallfolk trampled underfoot and pissed off about it. They operate in a different way again, sowing seeds of discontent by adding sympathy to the board. You can turn a sympathy token into a base (you start with no bases!) this is a revolt: and a well-timed one can have an obliterating effect on opponents, as all warriors present get hooked off the board and your own get added instead. The Alliance can also craft, using sympathy.

All this crafting has two purposes: to score points, and to entice the Vagabond to give you cards...

The final faction is actually just the Vagabond himself; a raccoon who flies solo, and the only character who can slip into the woods and leave the paths and clearings behind. He operates very differently from the others - he can fight, but his m.o. is trade - because he can complete quests by using equipment items, he'll visit other players and give them helpful cards in exchange for items they've crafted. Then he can cash them in. He can score points in other ways too; by having a good relationship with other factions, or conversely, by killing them off as well if that faction is hostile to him. The Vagabond can even ally himself with whatever faction is lowest on the score track, teaming up for the rest of the game to - hopefully - share the victory.

There's a fair bit more, with each faction having certain individual strengths and/or needs, but that's the gist. Each turn is actually very quick, or seemed so to me. Your actions go through three phases: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening, and must be taken in that order (although outside of the Eyrie, there's some flexibility in the order you take actions within a phase).

The cards are a kind of economy for everyone - each clearing on the board is populated by foxes, rabbits or mice, and each card has a matching icon. When you have things to do, you usually have to play a card with a matching icon to the icon of the clearing you're active in. But they can also be used to craft things, in which case they're discarded.

Despite starting a play-through feeling fairly tired, I found it quite addictive and played several rounds. The Marquise and Eyrie are relatively straightforward, although the Eyrie's decree can swing from brutally effective to brutally implosive! The Woodland Alliance seemed a bit trickier, but timing a revolt is clearly key to their success, and removing a warrior allows you to place more sympathy, which can be quicker and cheaper than trying to snag the right cards, as it gets harder to drum up sympathy the further you go up the 'sympathy track'. I guess this reflects the fact you can't be too downtrodden if your faction is in a clear lead...

The Vagabond I found trickiest of all, but this was partly due to playing all the factions myself, as he is so much about interaction. Often the other factions are in need of cards, and as he tends to have more than anyone else, he can come to their aid and take items in return - which is why it's worth the other factions crafting them in the first place. Like all factions, he can potentially win without reaching 30 points if he changes his winning objective - there are four cards in the deck that do this, but they are tricky to complete, and I didn't actually encounter them.

I can see a first play being rather long, but not as long as our Cuba Libre experience. I can also see why Root is getting rave reviews everywhere: it's reasonably accessible (maybe not quite as much as intended) has a lot of nuance in the play, and it really does look beautiful.

Pics courtesy of publisher and illustrator from BGG