In the game are four factions – The invading Marquise de Cat, the proud Eyrie Dynasties, the upstart Woodland Alliance, the wily Vagabond, all striving ultimately to become sole rulers of the vast Woodland. We will learn more about these factions later.
Remember the main goal of each faction is to gain 30 VP points.
Read on and let us learn how to play Root simply and clearly.
How To Play Root Board Game
Game Components
- 2-sided game board
- Custom box insert
- 4 faction mats
- 2 custom twelve-sided dice
- 56 wooden meeples
- 98 cards
- 93 tokens
- The Law of Root rulebook
- Learning to Play rulebook
- Learn-to-Play Walkthrough sheet
Setup
The Vagabond and the Alliance are added under certain rules.
If only three players, discard the vagabond, and the alliance if only two players.
- Choose Factions
Players will select their factions and their accompanying faction pieces.
2. Set Scores
After selecting the factions, place score markers for each faction on the scorecard.
- Deal cards
Mix up and shuffle the deck of cards, and deal each player three cards.
- Place Ruins
Place the four ruin chits on the four slots on the map marked with “R”.
- Make Item Supply
Gather the 12 item chits shown to the right and place them on their matching spaces near the top of the map.
- Gather other pieces
Share the 16 faction overview cards among the factions and place the custom dice near the map.
- Setup Factions.
Using the instructions at the back of each faction card, orderly set up the factions: Marquise, Eyrie, Alliance and Vagabond.
Gameplay
Each player’s turn consists of three phases:
- Birdsong
- Daylight
- Evening
After the completion of the three phases by a player, the next clockwise player will start their turn.
This process continues until one player scores 30 victory points, winning the game.
The Map
The Woodland consists of 12 clearings connected by paths. This is where most of the action takes place.
Moving around the map
You are free to move from one clearing to the other. You can take as many warriors you want as you move from one clearing to another clearing connected by a path.
You can only move from or to a clearing you already control or rule. This means that you can only move from a clearing if you are in charge of that territory.
To rule a particular clearing, you need to have more warriors and buildings than other factions.
Clearings
Every clearing has one to three slots where buildings can be constructed.
In addition, each clearing also has a suit whether Fox, rabbit, or mouse.
These suits show the kind of community residing at the clearing.
The color of the trees at the clearing also gives an indication of the suit.
Item Supply
You must create an item supply by gathering the 12 item tokens and placing them in their matching spaces on the map.
The Cards
During gameplay, cards will be drawn from the shared deck of cards and you can perform actions with those cards. To perform an action, you will spend a card from your hand. You spend cards to solicit or call on animals to perform a form of labor, a favor, or break a deal with you.
Very much like clearings, every card also has a suit – the fox, the rabbit, a mouse, and also a fourth suit called the bird suit. Birds are wild so you can spend it even if you need a mouse to perform a particular job.
Crafting cards
Cards have secondary uses called craft cards. To create such pieces, you will need crafting pieces in a number of clearings. For instance, for the Marquee clearing workshops, for them to create traveling gear, they will need a workshop in the rabbit clearing.
Cards can give either immediate or persistent effects.
Cards with immediate effects are discarded after resolving the issue.
For persistent effect cards, you can use its effect as often as needed for the intended action.
You score victory points indicated on a card you are able to craft.
Cards can give either immediate or persistent effects.
Cards with immediate effects are discarded after resolving the issue.
For persistent effect cards, you can use its effect as often as needed for the intended action.
You score victory points indicated on a card you are able to craft.
Battling
You can remove other players in a particular clearing if you have more warriors in that clearing.
To battle, choose a clearing to attack and select your warriors for the attack. The targeted player becomes the defender.
- The attacker then rolls the attacking dice. The attacker deal according to the higher roll and the defender the lower roll. Players, however, do not deal a number of hits higher than the number of warriors they have.
- Then the player taking the hits chooses which pieces to remove.
You score a victory whenever you remove an enemy building or a token.
Extra Hits
Remember the effect certain cards have? Some of them allow you to do additional hits.
Extra hits represent superior positioning, tactics, or leadership. Irrespective of the number of warriors you have in a clearing, you can deal with extra hits. For example, a single warrior can deal extra hits.
The attacker will deal extra hits if the defender has no warriors to defend themselves.
Ambush Cards
The defending player can play an ambush before the attacker commences using ambush cards. These cards can be used to deal with double hits immediately.
The attacker can also foil this attack by playing a matching ambush card.
You are not limited by the number of warriors when dealing an ambush card.
The battle will end if the attacker’s warriors are all removed.
Marquise De Cat
The Marquise de Cat faction lives in the Woodland and their goal is to convert the woodland into an industrial and military hub. At the start of the game, they control 11 clearings.
They score victory points, arising from constructing a building whether it is a sawmill or a workshop.
More points are earned as the number of building increases on the map. Just like any booming economy, they must keep building and maintaining their constructions.
The Marquise de Cat has a keep token. This token allows them to bring back removed pieces from a clearing. With it, they can call field hospitals to revive and place back their warriors.
Birdsong
Place a wood token at each sawmill.
Daylight
Using workshops, you can craft cards in your hands. After, you can perform up to three of the following actions.
Battle: Initiate a battle. by spending one bird card per extra action
March:
Recruit: Once per turn, you can place one warrior at each recruiting station.
Build: You can build by spending wood tokens, placing them in empty slots at clearings you rule.
Overwork: Place extra wood tokens at sawmills by spending a card matching that clearing’s suit.
Evening
Draw one card and extra for every uncovered draw bonus.
If the cards are more than five, discard the rest.
Eyrie Dynasties
The Eyrie Dynasties work a little bit differently. They have a leader who they wish to restore to his former glory. He has decrees which he must perform at each turn. Failure to perform those decrees at a turn leads to an overthrow and you will lose points.
The Eyrie are regarded as lords of the forest and they rule even if they don’t control many clearings.
Birdsong
You must add 1 or 2 cards onto any columns in the Decree. The columns can hold as many cards as possible.
Only a bird card can be added.
Daylight
Using roosts, you can craft as many cards as you want.
You must resolve cards in the columns of your faction board. You can choose them in order you want. Here are the actions you can perform:
- Recruit
- Move
- Battle
- Build
Evening
First, score the victory points shown on the rightmost empty space of your Roosts track.
Draw one card and extra for every uncovered draw bonus.
If the cards are more than five, discard the rest.
Turmoil
If under any circumstances, taking an action wasn’t possible you will fall into turmoil.
Here are some steps you need to follow to bring order.
- Lose a victory point per bird card on the Decree.
- After that, discard all cards on the Decree except the two Loyal Vizier bird cards.
- Turn the current leader face down and place it aside. Choose the next leader from cards and place it on the faction board.
- Put your Loyal Viziers into Decree spaces listed on a new leader.
- If you must choose a new leader but none are face up, flip all leaders face up.
- End the daylight phase and proceed to the evening phase.
Woodland Alliance
The Woodland alliance has two ways of play. Either with their normal cards on the faction board or with their supporters.
Their goal is to engender the sympathy of the various oppressed creatures in the woodland. The more sympathy they create, the more points they score.
They create sympathy using the supporters and their cards on the faction board.
The supporters can instigate a revolt, creating a new base and improving their military flexibility.
The Alliance are experts at Guerrilla warfare. Even on defense, they use the higher roll, and the other player, the attacker uses the lower roll.
Birdsong
Just like other factions, you can perform actions.
You can revolt and spread sympathy as many times as you want.
Daylight
During the daylight phase, cards will come from your hands, not the supporters.
You can perform the following actions.
Craft: Using sympathy tokens, craft a card.
Mobilize: Add up to the supporter’s stack.
Train: Spend a card matching a built base and place a warrior in the officer’s box.
Evening
Actions to perform during the evening phase.
Move: Move once.
Battle: Battle a player for the control of a clearing.
Recruit: Place new warriors in a territory with a base.
Organize: Reorganize your warriors, categorizing them correctly by making sure sympathizers are separate from non-sympathizers.
Vagabond
The Vagabond is like the jack of all trades, playing all sides, making friends and enemies as per is like, and boosting its own influence throughout the forest.
The faction scores points when it strengthens relationships with the faction or destroys other factions hostile to it.
He is what you will call a lone wanderer, no allegiance to anybody.
He only has one piece, the Vagabond pawn. Although it is not a warrior, it can move and battle just like one. You cannot remove a vagabond pawn from the map.
The vagabond also has a special ability, the nimble ability, allowing it to move back and forth from clearing to clearing without having to rule it.
Items
The Vagabond’s abilities require items.
The vagabond needs to manage and expand their items by exploring the woodland ruins and aiding other factions.
Items will be damaged through usage.
Store all items in your satchel with the exception of these items 
which are stored on the left side of the faction board.
Birdsong
Revolt or Spread Sympathy any number of times.
Daylight
Actions are taken by exhausting items and flipping them face down.
- Move
- Battle
- Strike
- Explore
- Aid
- Quest
- Craft:
- Repair:
- Special Action
Evening
If you are in a forest, repair all of your damaged items and turn them face down.
Then, draw one card, plus one card per on your track. If you have more than five cards in your hand, reduce the number of cards down to five.
Finally, if the number of items in the satchel has exceeded the item limit, put the extra items back into the item limit. (6 items plus bag)
Relationships
As a vagabond, your relationship with the other factions is extremely important. They can either be friendly or hostile.
You can strengthen a friendly relationship with a faction by aiding them using your aid action card.
Battling as the Vagabond
You don’t have warriors so your rules for batting are different.
Because you are not a warrior, you are affected like other faction warriors. You are immune to the effects affecting other faction warriors.
However, you can battle other players where you are.
The maximum hits you can inflict by rolling equals your total undamaged, exhausted or not.
You take hits by damaging items of your choice. If you have no undamaged items, you ignore further hits.
You are defenseless, taking an extra hit if you have no undamaged item.
Dominance Cards
The deck contains four dominance cards, one for each suit. Unlike ambush cards, these cards cannot be crafted, they can be used for the suit. 
When you drop or use a dominance card for a suit, do not discard it! Rather, place it at the side of the map. At the daylight phase, spending or using a matching unit, any player can pick up a dominance card.
Any player, during their Daylight, may pick up a dominance card near the map by spending a card of matching suit.
End of the Game
The first player to score 30 victory points wins the game.
Video Tutorial on playing Root
Over To You
Playing root is not an easy feat, but with this simple but in-depth article, you can play root very easily. If you love this hobby, check out our board game page for more ideas.
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