Root belongs to a small but burgeoning subgenre of tabletop board games that immerses players in a forest world of rats, raccoons, and other wildlife. For the most part, these are adventure-style games with an emphasis on narrative detail. But Root is different. Behind the adorable exterior is a challenging conflict game where four factions clash for control of the forest house. This is really a natural red for teeth and nails.
what’s in the box
Root comes in a relatively small box, but the contents are heavy. There are three rulebooks: a quick start walkthrough, a more detailed guide to the game in the box, and a full bulleted rulebook containing details of the game’s many expansions. There are four different player boards, one for him per faction, and the boards themselves are double-sided, so you can play on two different maps.
Beneath all that cardboard is the game’s charmingly cute component. But where he really shines is in the cards. Adorable and deadly seriousness at the same time.
That dichotomy is also captured in a bag of screen-printed pawns that use simple eye and nose features in a surprisingly distinctive way. There is a pile of pawns and one fourth pawn reminiscent of a raccoon for the Wanderer. A few punchout tokens and a pair of custom 12-sided dice with 0-3 printed three times round out the content.
rules and how to play
At first glance, Loot looks like a typical conflict and territory game, where players fight for control of parts of the map. And in some respects, it is just that. But being a highly asymmetric game, it’s far more novel than it looks. Each player not only has some special powers, as seen in a typical game of this style, but essentially controls a faction that plays the game with its own distinct rules. This takes some getting used to – hence the helpful quick start guide – but the results are sublime.
There are some common concepts that all factions use. Players get cards each turn that must be “crafted” to play, or cards that can be discarded to further certain effects. Everyone uses the same movement, control, and combat system. This involves moving between board spaces and rolling two custom dice with values from 0 to 3. This also takes some getting used to, but it’s an interesting concept that rewards aggression.
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Beyond this, the factions are diversifying. Cats are the closest thing to a standard war game, with a pool of actions you can use to build, move, and attack, and score points by defeating enemies and creating your own structures. However, the way they are played is very different. Their factions have “orders” that indicate that certain actions must be taken in certain spaces, and orders must be added each turn. This can give them a huge number of actions, but if they don’t follow the decree’s orders, the consequences are catastrophic, losing points and being forced to start over with a new decree.
Cat vs. Bird is the recommended setting for a two-player game and makes for an engaging showdown. On the one hand, we have a familiar cat, trying to acquire territory and resources. They’re gathering armies and sneaking around the map while securing territory. On the other is a bird that gathers speed and power with each pass, like a mad clockwork toy, before crashing and starting over. The bird player has to plan carefully to ensure that the order can be fulfilled for as long as possible, while the cat combines the desire to undermine that order by preventing the bird from taking the required action and the consolidation balanced with the need for
The other two factions are even more unique. The Woodland Alliance is basically an underground guerrilla army made up of disgruntled creature farmers. They can sacrifice cards to buy sympathy, which later develops into a rebellion where they can destroy enemy forces and add allied forces themselves from a limited pool. Once established, incursions into Alliance territory by other players provoke anger and strengthen their cause despite military setbacks. , which brings a compelling new dimension to strategy and is portrayed in a relatively accessible way alongside the more usual clashes of forces.
Our final faction is the Vagabonds. It’s a lone piece that accumulates gear to role-play as his character and build action, rather than military power of any kind. They have the most complex rules and the most fluid point scoring palette. They thrive by exploring old ruins and completing quests, and later in the game they become friends or foes with other factions in the game, earning extra points for trading or attacking each of them. Playing Vagabond is a careful balancing act that anticipates how the game will ebb and flow, leaving space to pursue individual goals while supporting the right people. can annoy you.
The route really shines with all four players. A military clash between birds and cats sets the stage, with Woodland his Alliance and Vagabond hiding behind curtains to sneak out and try to get the point together. This dynamic feels very unusual, a zero-sum game of two armies tearing strips of each other while constantly looking over their shoulders to avoid offending alliance supporters or gaining vagabond animosity. The result is a game that feels like a war board game, but with negotiations over alliances on the back burner and mechanical strategy highlighted without diminishing player interaction.
However, it takes some effort to fully enjoy the game. Learning one faction is fine, but you need to know the rules of all factions to plan your strategy well. To get a good handle on things, you should ideally play every faction multiple times so you can understand the issues from the inside. Also, while route asymmetry is attractive, it can also lead to an unhappy game where each faction feels like it’s doing its own thing, and the leader doesn’t allow other players to do much about it. You can win without being able to.
