How to Play Root: Rules, Setup, and Scoring

The Root is an asymmetric game of adventure and warfare where you will play as one of the four factions against one another in a race for victory points and show that you are the most worthy ruler of the vast woodland.

The four major factions, Marquise de Cat, Valiant Eyrie Dynasty, Vagabond, and the Woodland Alliance, dominate the woodland forest, fighting for pride and glory. Build umpires, alliances, or craft your umpire. Each player controls a different faction with different gameplay elements, victory points, tactics, and scoring options.

If you are 10+ years of age, you can play this game with 2 to 4 players. The average duration of the game lasts 60 to 90 minutes. In this blog, we will discuss the root board game rules and gameplay.

Before we learn how to play root, let’s take a quick look at the essential root board game rules.

Root Board Game Rules

The game of Root can be played with 2 to 4 players.
Players must be 10 or older to play the Root Board game.
Each player receives three cards, and the rest are kept as draw cards.
Players can win by scoring 30 victory points or completing the objectives of a dominance card.
Each turn has three phases in the game: birdsong, daylight, and evening.
There are two sides to the map. You can select either the autumn side or winter side of the map.
The player with the most warriors and buildings in a clearing becomes the ruler.
The two dice are used in battles, and the dice roll determines how many hits each side will obtain. The attacker claims the higher number rolled, and the defender claims the lower number.
There are four suits in the Root Board Game i,e. Foxes, Rabbits, Mice, or birds. The birds are called Wild cards due to their ability to fly.
Cards with a yellow background power you to take an item from the top of the root game board. However, items must be available to claim it.
Cards with a blue background deliver a persistent benefit.
Ambush and Dominance cards cannot be crafted. However, to use dominance cards, players must have at least 10 victory points.
There must be 3 or more players to use the dominance card in the game of Root.
Winter Board is a professional board game located on the opposite side of the game board. All the basic root board game rules are the same, however, the paths are different.
The Eyrie dynasty must follow the decree in order to avoid turmoil, i,e. setbacks.
The vagabonds can move in and out of a clearing without being the ruler of the clearings or having any special permission.
Vagabonds cannot rule any clearings as they are lone wanderers, not warriors. No player can remove their token from the game board.
The Marquise de Cat is the most powerful faction on the board as they have the greatest army support. Their actions are easily recognizable and hence beginners can also choose them in their first gameplay.
You can craft items during daylight and select three actions in the daylight, i.e., battle, march, build, and recruit. The best way for cats to earn points is through building.
The Woodland Alliance works together to build alliance and sympathy. They earn points by accumulating supporters.
Woodland Alliance can start a revolt by placing two supporters matching the suit of a sympathetic clearing. They can remove all enemy pieces except vagabonds.
Hammers are used to repair broken items. A torch is used to find items from the ruin in a clearing.

The Four Factions in Root Board Game

Learn about the four factions and their moves in the Root board game to play Root.

The Marquise de Cat

This faction controls the forest by building workshops, sawmills, and recruiters and scoring more victory points. They have the largest army in the Root board game and even built a mighty industrial war machine to control the woodland.

Keep: No other factions can build a palace or sympathy in this clearing.
Field Hospital: Use a card of a field hospital to save a wounded warrior.
Sawmill: It generates the wood supply for your kingdom.
Overwork: This card is used to produce additional wood.
Workshop: Marque de Cat uses these workshops to craft cards.
Recruiter: One warrior stays at every recruiter.

The Eyrie Dynasty

They are said to be the rulers of the forest before the cats come. They try to retake their authority by capturing territory and building roosts. Each leader has specific qualities and moves. They score victory points based on the number of roosts in the forest map. However, they are bound to follow their decree.

Roosts: The roosts are the buildings made by the Eyrie dynasty to mark their dominance over a place. They also score victory points for these roosts.
Decree: Eyrie must follow suit for each action to avoid turmoil.

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The Woodland Alliance

They are the masters of guerrilla warfare and wanderers of the woods. They try to collect the sympathy of the creatures in the forest and score victory points for each sympathy token. The more sympathy points, the more they score victory points.

They must have supporters to gain sympathy tokens. They might cause violence or rebellion across the forest. They set up bases to train their officers and increase their military strength.

Sympathy: The Woodland Alliance grows sympathy in the clearings.
Outrage: If opponents remove sympathy or move warriors into their sympathetic clearing, then they must put a matching suit card to show the alliance support or show their hand.
Base: The woodland alliance’s training ground; if they lose or remove the base, half of the army officers and supporters will be lost.

The Vagabond

They have different roles in the forest; a vagabond is believed to be a trader, wanderer, or even thief. You will explore the forest as a vagabond and find items and ruins. You can trade these items and make ties to complete your secret quests.

They score victory points for improving their relationship with other factions or removing warriors of other factions. Explore the woodland, collect items, and provide aid to other factions to collect aid.

Sword: It is used by Vagabonds to start a battle.
Boot: Used by the vagabonds to move.
Torch: It helps vagabonds search for an item or ruin in the forest.

The root game offers more functionalities for each faction. We will now learn how to play the root board game below.

Root Board Game Setup

The root is played on a Root Game board with two sides: autumn and winter. On the autumn side, there are 12 clearings, each marked by a fox, rabbit, or mouse suit. Roads connect the clearings. Apart from these three suits, the fourth suit is a bird suit. The bird cards are wild and can be used during the birdsong phase of the day.

There are one to three slots marked for buildings, with some with the letter “R” representing ruins.

For a game, choose either the “Fall” or “Winter” side of the board and place it in the center of the table.
Shuffle the shared deck of cards and place it face down on their designated place on the board. Place the remaining cards near the deck as an open market or discard pile. They are also known as the “Lost Souls” pile.
Each player gets 3 cards in a four-player root board game.
When the player count is four, players must select their faction, i,e. Marquise de Cat, Eyrie Dynasties, Vagabond, Woodland Alliance, etc.
The 4 “R” tokens i,e ruins must be placed in their marked places and explored before building anything, typically carried out by vagabonds. 12 item supply tokens must be kept in order on the board.
If there are three players, you can remove the Vagabond, and if there are only 2 players, then you can remove the Woodland Alliance.
Each player takes a faction board and the faction pieces. The back of the faction board consists of guides related to moves and tactics related to the game.
There are three phases in the game: birdsong, daylight, and evening. Once a faction completes its evening phase, the game passes to the next faction.
There are three suits in the game, i,e. Fox, rabbit, and mouse cards. The suit of the card allows the player to take the actions in the clearing that match that suit.
The factions with the majority of supplies, buildings, and warriors rule the clearing. Players can move any number of warriors from one clearing to another if they are connected by a path. However, players must rule both the clearing to facilitate movements.
If warriors from multiple factions occupy the same clearing, they may announce battle action to remove opposing warriors from the board and rule the clearing. They become “defenders” after removing the factions.
The attacker rolls both combat dice, where attackers deal with the higher role and the defender deals with the lower role. The faction that removes other factions receives one victory point.
Each faction has separate gameplay, which allows them to dominate the woodland based on their tactics and strategies.
The faction with over 30 victory points wins the game.

How to Play Root: Gameplay

Now that we are aware of the game setup, we must familiarize ourselves with how to play root board games. In Root, there are three phases on the board ( Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening), and everyone has to make a move in each of these phases, as mentioned on their faction board.

After a player completes the last phase, the turn moves to the next player to the current player’s left. The faction board consists of all the major mechanics allowed to each faction on the board.

Players can start from either side of the map, i.e., autumn or winter.
Set all the score points on the score track to the initial position i,e. “0”.
Shuffle the remaining 39 cards to form a shared deck.
Place the 12 items in their specific positions on the top of the map.
Place the Ruin tokens on the place labeled with “R” on the map. They are hidden areas that must be explored before building anything in that area.

Objective

The main goal of the player is to reach 30 victory points or complete the goal marked on the dominance card.

Dealing

Each player is dealt 3 cards after shuffling. Each faction has separate movements and must follow them during the three phases, i,e. Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening.

Turn Structure

Each player’s turn is divided into three phases: birdsong, daylight, and evening. The actions taken during the phase depend on the faction. Each faction has a designated role in each phase of the game. You can find the details on the faction board.

Factions, Strength, and Strategies

Marquise de Cat: The main objective of this faction is to build buildings, control clearings, and generate resources to gain more victory points. They have a strong military presence on the board.
Eyrie Dynasties: They are the fallen rulers of woodland who follow the decree to expand their reign, battles, and build roosts to score Victory points. They must follow the decree, or they will be in turmoil.
Woodland Alliance: They spread sympathy and successfully revolted to gain victory points, and they were capable of turning the tables on larger factions.
Vagabond: They complete quests, defeat enemies, and help other factions to gain victory points. They can be manipulative and cunning and can move through forests while interacting with all factions.

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Battling

The combat situation occurs when a player decides to attack another to take the ruling of a clearing. The winner is decided based on two custom dice rolls. During the battle, one player hits another, and for each hit, one piece of the opponent, i.e. tokens, buildings, or warriors, is removed from the clearing.

In the first phase, the attacker must choose a clearing where they have any number of warriors or other factions that have pieces there as well. Once the attacker declares the attack, the defender can use an ambush card to deal two hits to the attacker. If the attacker has no warriors left, then the battle ends.

However, if the attacker also has an ambush card, they can use it to respond to the defender’s first attack. If the battle still holds, it’s time for the next phase. The attacker rolls two 12-sided dice to decide the number of hits.

The higher roll is the attacker’s number of hits.
The lower roll is the defender’s number of hits.

Based on the number of hits, players must remove their pieces from the clearing in the order of warriors, tokens, and buildings. However, the woodland alliance can use their guerilla war ability to get the higher roll while defending. When players attack, the defending player loses one building, and the token gains two victory points.

Defenders can use ambush cards before the start of battle. If there are no attacking warriors left, the battle ends immediately.

Note: Players cannot deal with several hits higher than the number of warriors they keep in the clearing. For instance, if the higher roll shows three hits, and the player only has one warrior, they will only deal one hit.

Crafting Cards

Players can craft items using cards that match the symbols of the clearings they control. The conditions for crafting a card depend on the crafting items and are particular for each faction. For example, a woodland alliance will need a sympathy token to craft a card.

Actions

Move: Move your tokens along paths connecting clearings.
Build: Add or upgrade a building that is under your control using resources.
Battle: Attack other factions using two-phase battles to remove their warriors, buildings, and other items from a clearing.
Aid: This is used to provide healing to the injured warrior and gain benefits. You can remove other faction warriors’ markers and add them to your army.
Slip: This is a special action unique to the vagabond faction. It allows you to move from one clearing to the adjacent clearing or vice versa.
Craft: This action allows players to create items, gain victory points, and trigger special effects using cards from their hands.
Quests: This action is related to the Vagabond faction, which allows the vagabond to earn victory points by completing specific objectives, which involve using items the vagabond has acquired.

Moving

Players have specific movement patterns marked on faction boards. They can choose to move their warriors from one clearing to another. However, to facilitate movements, both clearings must be connected by a path.

Also, to allow movement, both clearings must rule one of them, either the clearing they are coming from or the one they are going to. Players must have more warriors and buildings than other players to occupy and rule a clearing.

Ambush Cards

Defenders can use an ambush card that matches the clearing before the battle starts. If the ambush isn’t foiled, the defender lands two hits immediately. The attacker can, however, use a matching ambush to neutralize the attack.

Dominance Cards

These cards provide players with an alternative to winning the game. Instead of 30 victory points, dominance cards allow players to use cards with at least 10 victory points listed in the game.

The dominance cards are marked with special missions, that players must complete to get points. For instance, ruling three fox clearings.

Winning and Ending the Game

The game of Root ends when one of the players has reached 30 victory points or has completed the goal of the dominance card.

Players collect victory points as a result of different actions on the board.

When an attacker successfully removes a building or warrior from a clearing, they receive one victory point for each piece.
A player can also earn victory points by crafting a card that comes with victory points.
Factions can achieve their objective marked on the faction boards to achieve victory points.

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FAQs

How long does Root take to play?

The average Root Board Game takes around 60 to 90 minutes. However, you can finish early by choosing to play with dominance cards, complete missions, and finish the game early.

How to play Root in 6 minutes?

You can complete the game and win the game in 6 minutes. Choose one of the four factions and complete missions to achieve victory points. The more battles you win and the more events you complete, you will take a step closer to winning. Also, complete missions on the dominance cards, which will help you complete the game sooner.

How does the Root board game work?

There are two sides to the root board game. Choose a faction and begin dominating the woodland. You need to collect victory points by following the events and missions on the faction boards. You also need to rule the clearing and win battles to collect more victory points. The player who manages to make 30 victory points first wins the game.

What are the rules for the root battle?

The Root battle takes place when there are more than one player’s pieces in a single clearing. To take the ruling of the clearing, players engage in battle. If there are no attacking warriors left, the battle ends.

What is the objective of the root board game?

The objective of the players in the root board game is to achieve 30 victory points first before the other player wins the game or completes missions marked on the dominance cards to win without the condition of 30 victory points. Either way, the winner is a player with more victory points.

What are the rules for moving in root?

If players have to move from one clearing to another, they must be the ruler of either one clearing, the one they are going from, and the one where they have to go. Also, movement is only possible if there are connecting paths connecting the two clearings.

How To Play Root Board Game: Rules & Gameplay