Root.

[Katie]

I'm going to bail in favour of an early night's sleep.

[scorpion0x17]

I am now definitely not making it along tonight anyway.

Got to get latest prototype, of something I’m working on, all printed and sliced up, so I can take it along to the board game play test meetup tomorrow.

[Katie]

What boardgame playtest meetup???

Do people playtest wargames rules there?

[scorpion0x17]

Sept 17, 2018 17:10:02 GMT Katie said:

What boardgame playtest meetup???

Do people playtest wargames rules there?

Tuesday nights, at the Cricketers.

Not seen wargame rules being play tested there, but I’m sure you could.

[kaustic]

Just some thoughts about this latest game. An other good one.


Is there a specified order of players and who is to be first player ?

Also read somewhere that the players get their starting cards before choosing where to start. Could be significant.

[scorpion0x17]

Apologies, hadn’t seen this before now.

Anyway, first player and seating order are determined randomly. But there is an order to faction setup (this matters the most when Marquise and Eyrie in being used).

From the rules:

5. Setup
5.1 Standard Setup Procedure
5.1.1 Step 1: Assign Factions and Starting Player. Assign one faction to each player using any method. The viable factions at each player count are listed in the learning-to-play guide (page 22). Determine the starting player and seating order randomly. Each player takes their chosen faction board and all pieces, as listed on the back of the faction board.
5.1.2 Step 2: Place Score Markers. Each player places their score marker on “0” on the score track.
5.1.3 Step 3: Draw Starting Hands. If you are playing with two players, remove all four dominance cards from the deck. Shuffle the deck. Each player draws three cards.
5.1.4 Step 4: Place Ruins. Place a ruin in each slot on the map marked with an “R” (four in total).
5.1.5 Step 5: Form Item Supply. Place these items on the matching spaces of the item supply near the top of the map: 2 M, 2 B, 1 C, 1 H, 2 S, 2 T, 2 X.
5.1.6 Step 6: Gather Other Pieces. Hand out the 16 faction overview cards as desired, and place the two custom dice near the map.
5.1.7 Step 7: Set Up Factions. In setup order (A, B, C, etc.), each player follows their faction’s setup instructions, listed in their rules section and on the back of their faction board.

[Katie]

Good game last night. First time in yonks I've won a boardgame

I think having 2 vagabonds is a brill mix.

[kaustic]

Indeed an other great game.

Apologies for mistakes with the Badger. Missed that the cost to aid an other player goes up by one for each level. So from neutral to allied should take 6 cards in total and three turns minimum.

Also missed that to enter a hostile controlled area takes an extra boot. So in hindsight would have taken an other boot over that fourth sword.

The badger special ability might have come more into play if the woodland alliance was on the board. I think I made more attacks than any other.

Eyrie still looks very difficult to get right. As for the Lizard cult, still haven't got a clue how they work.

Two vagabonds hoover up the items fast. Maybe an extra set of ruins ?

[Katie]

Nah. There were still lots of items. One of the reasons I ended up with loads of stuff is the ability to pull cards off the discard deck & craft them myself.

I did NO fighting at all; steered clear of it.. I reckon I could have done a bunch of those quests instead of crafting quite as much and should probably have started on them earlier.

[scorpion0x17]

Yeah, was a great game. Sorry it was a little marred by my not remembering some of the faction rule details - there’s just so much to remember.

Anyway, I’m trying to find a good set of player aids, to help with that, but haven’t found a set I like yet.

Regarding the ruin items I don’t think having two Vagabonds really makes much of a difference - with one vagabond there’s only one item under each ruin - with two there’s two. I guess you both felt you had to explore as quickly as you could, so the other didn’t get them all, but a single vagabond should be exploring early game anyway, as that’s how they get more actions.

Lizards are definitely the hardest faction to play. I think I figured out what you’re meant to do with them, but not how. They’re so very dependant on (a) getting Acolytes and (b) what clearing suit is outcast. And both those are things you cannot easily control.

[Katie]

They might be hard to actually play, but they do have some very powerful options there; including the garden conversion one.

I think they're supposed to be this chaotic potential -- a looming threat that chance eventually makes everything line up for them and then they just explode across the board. So everyone else has to be just that bit prepared all the time.

I think the big restriction on the vagabonds is actually the needing to move around so much; I spent a lot of time looking at cards trying to work out how to get places in order to do things; particularly if you're trying to build a particular alliance (for the VP boost), people losing clearings and you having to chase them down to another matching one to give them cards is expensive.

[JamesR]

Finally made it onto the forums. Yes I'd like to play Root next time someone plans to bring it in. I was originally hoping to get a copy of Xmas but left it to family for too long before realising there was a shortage of release copies. New stock should appear in January so I'd like to take the time to actually try it before buying.

Edit: seem to have replied to what I thought was a recent post, still interested in a game come January but now I think about it this may be the first time I've used a forum properly in as long as I can remember. Yikes.

[scorpion0x17]

I’ll definitely be bringing it to the club in the future.

I’m not great at checking the forum often, but post here if you want me to bring it on a given week and if I see the post I will.

But there’s a high probability I’ll bring it on any given week.

[Katie]

If you go Top menu bar > "Profile", Across from your icon, "Edit Profile", Little tabs at the top "Notifications"... you can turn on email alerts for various things.

[jamesryley]

Scorpion23 I should be at games night tomorrow the 7th, but will need to leave before 10 to wait in for some shopping