Root Review

A Forest at War with Itself

The Short Version – Tl;Dr

Root is the most ambitious board game on my shelf, and also the one most likely to cause someone to quietly fold their arms and say ‘actually, I don’t think this is for me.’ It puts 2–4 players in control of rival factions fighting for control of a forest. Each faction plays so differently from the others that it sometimes feels like you are all playing different games at the same table. That is both its greatest strength and the thing most likely to cause a first session to go sideways.

If asymmetric strategy sounds appealing and your group is willing to put in a session or two of learning, Root is one of the best games you will own. If you want everyone up and running in fifteen minutes, this probably is not your entry point.

What Is Root?

Root is a game of adventure and war, set in a stylised woodland full of cats, birds, mice, and vagabonds. Cole Wehrle designed it, Leder Games published it in 2018, and Kyle Ferrin’s illustration work gives the whole thing an almost children’s book quality that sits in very funny contrast to how aggressively people play it.

On the surface, you are placing warriors, battling enemies, and racing to reach thirty victory points. Underneath that, every faction is running its own internal economy and has its own way of generating those points. The Marquise de Cat builds sawmills and workshops and earns points for constructing buildings. The Eyrie Dynasties spend their turns issuing decrees that spiral out of control the longer the game goes on. The Woodland Alliance fans out a sympathy network across the map and earns points just for existing in clearings. The Vagabond goes questing and trading and can either ally with factions or turn on them.

Nothing about these factions rhymes mechanically, which is the whole point.

Key Game Information

Players	2–4 (best at 3–4)
Play Time	60–90 minutes
Designer	Cole Wehrle
Publisher	Leder Games
Year	2018
Categories	Strategy Games, Wargames and Skirmish Games, American Style Games
Mechanics	Variable Player Powers and Asymmetry, Area Control, Action Points, Direct Interaction, Hand Management
Theme	Animals and Pets, Fantasy, War and Military, Adventure and Exploration
Complexity	Medium-heavy
Best for	Groups who enjoy learning separate rule sets and competing through wildly different strategies

How to Play

Each turn, a player moves through three phases: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening. What actually happens in those phases is entirely dependent on which faction you are playing.

The Marquise de Cat

The Cats are the closest thing to a ‘normal’ faction. They have the most warriors on the board at the start and spend the game building a network of structures: sawmills produce wood, workshops let you craft cards, and recruiters add warriors. Building structures earns points. Managing your wood supply and keeping your buildings defended is the bulk of the game for Cat players. They feel like a worker placement engine buried inside a wargame.

The Eyrie Dynasties

The Birds score points by moving and battling and building, but the catch is that each round you add cards to a decree, and every round after that you must complete every action listed in that decree or fall into turmoil. Once turmoil hits, you lose points and reset the decree. New Bird players almost always let their decree spiral too far and collapse at a critical moment. It happened to my friend Dan in the first game we played: he had sixteen points and was convinced he was going to win, then turmoil wiped him back to nine. He did not take it well.

The Woodland Alliance

The Alliance barely fights at all for most of the game. They spread sympathy tokens across the map, which costs supporters (cards matching the clearing you want), and they earn points for every sympathy token they place. When they build bases, they can train officers and start moving warriors. The Alliance starts weak but if nobody removes their sympathy tokens they can rack up points fast. Other players generally come to hate the Alliance player for this.

The Vagabond

The Vagabond is a single character piece, not an army. You pick from several character types (Ranger, Tinker, Thief, etc.), each with a different starting kit. The Vagabond moves around fulfilling quests, crafting items, and helping or fighting other factions. Helping a faction earns you relationship points which eventually become victory points. Attacking a faction damages that relationship. The Vagabond is the faction with the most freedom of movement and the hardest to pin down, which means other players spend a lot of time trying to read what you are doing.

Quick Verdict: Root rewards players who understand what their faction needs to win. The first session is mostly about surviving long enough to figure that out. Book a second session before you sit down for the first.

Playing at Different Player Counts

Root is at its best with three or four players. With four factions in play, the board stays contested and every player has threats coming from multiple directions. The Vagabond in particular shines at higher counts because there are more factions to trade relationships with.

At three players, one faction gets swapped out. The game still works well, though the Vagabond can occasionally feel like a wildcard that one player gets to abuse a little too freely. Most people I have played with prefer four.

Two player Root exists, but it is a different experience. The designers recommend pairing specific factions for two player games because the asymmetry gaps become more obvious with less noise on the board. It is fine, but it does not fully capture what makes Root special. If you mainly play two player, you might find Oath (the spiritual successor also by Wehrle) a better fit.

Playing Solo

Root does not have an official solo mode in the base box. The main solo option is the Clockwork expansion, which adds four automated factions called Clockwork bots. Each bot uses a deck of behaviour cards to simulate a real player’s decision making.

The bots range in difficulty from Apprentice to Master and they do a reasonable job of applying pressure. You pick your faction, set up the bots, and compete for thirty points just as you would in a full multiplayer game. It is not quite the same as playing against humans because the bots cannot really read your strategy and respond to it, but it gives you a legitimate solo session rather than a solitaire puzzle.

If you are buying Root primarily for solo play, factor in the cost of Clockwork at the same time. It is a practical purchase rather than a flashy one.

Components and Production Quality

The production quality is good. The box contains a mounted map board, a thick deck of shared cards, faction-specific boards for each faction, wooden pieces in four colours, and a pile of card stock tokens. Kyle Ferrin’s artwork is all over everything and it gives the game a warm, storybook look that belies how cutthroat the gameplay gets.

The faction boards are genuinely well designed. Each one lays out your phase structure, your special rules, and your scoring triggers clearly enough that experienced players rarely need to open the rulebook mid-game. When I first punched the game, I spent about twenty minutes just reading the faction boards out of admiration.

The main criticism I have heard is that the rulebook can be tough for new players. Root has a modular teaching approach where you are advised to learn one faction at a time, which is sound advice, but the rulebook itself jumps around a bit. Leder Games put a lot of work into the Root learning app (available on iOS and Android) which is a far better introduction than reading cold.

At Our Table: The first time we played Root, the Vagabond player spent the first two rounds just moving his character around the board saying ‘Not really sure what i’m doing’ He ended up winning.

Expansions and Other Versions

Root has several expansions that add new factions and content:

• The Riverfolk Expansion adds the Riverfolk Company (sell services to other players) and the Lizard Cult (a patience-based faction that converts clearings through Outcast cards). Both are relatively complex to play against because their mechanics interact awkwardly with newer players.
• The Underworld Expansion adds the Underground Duchy (subterranean moves and a cabinet mechanic) and the Corvid Conspiracy (plot tokens and bluffing). These are aimed at experienced groups.
• The Marauder Expansion (2022) added the Lord of the Hundreds (a Hobbit-style warlord who pillages) and the Keepers in Iron (relics buried across the map). It also introduced Hirelings, small units that any player can recruit for a cost, which adds a nice negotiation layer.
• Clockwork (mentioned above) adds automated faction bots for solo and cooperative play.
• Landmarks adds environmental features to the map that give individual clearings special properties.

There is also a Collector’s Edition with upgraded component quality, and print-and-play variants for some factions exist on the Leder Games website. In 2024 and 2025, Leder Games continued supporting the game with digital content and balance updates for the app versions.

Digital Versions

Root has a solid digital presence. The official Root digital app (available on iOS, Android, and Steam) supports both online and local multiplayer as well as single player against bots. It was developed by Dire Wolf Digital and holds up well. The async multiplayer mode is particularly good if you want to play a game across a few days with friends in different time zones.

Root is also available on Board Game Arena, which is free to play as a non-premium member if at least one player in your group has a premium subscription. BGA is probably the quickest way to try the game before buying the physical copy.

Tabletop Simulator has a community mod for Root, though the quality varies and it is more suited to groups who already know the rules.

If You Like This, Try These

• Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile (also by Cole Wehrle) – a longer, more narrative asymmetric game with a legacy-lite twist where each session reshapes the world for the next. Heavier and weirder than Root but scratches a similar itch for players who want maximum asymmetry.
• Vast: The Crystal Caverns – another deeply asymmetric dungeon game where each player takes a completely different role (knight, dragon, goblins, cave). Less polished than Root but a useful comparison point for fans of the genre.
• Spirit Island – a cooperative asymmetric game where players are spirits defending an island from colonisers. Different tone from Root but a great option for groups who want asymmetric roles without the direct player conflict.
• Scythe – a euro-strategy game with variable player powers and area control. Less combative than Root but a good next step for players who like the idea of different factions without quite as steep a learning curve.
• Pax Pamir (Second Edition) – another Cole Wehrle game, set in 19th-century Afghanistan, where alliances shift constantly and winning depends on backing the right faction. Tighter and nastier than Root with a smaller footprint.

Final Thoughts

Root is the kind of game that rewards the players who take it seriously. That is not a backhanded comment. It means that the more effort you put into understanding your faction and reading the table, the better the experience gets. Sessions two and three are noticeably better than session one, and sessions five and six are when it clicks into something genuinely special.

The asymmetry is the star here. No two factions feel alike, and the best sessions are the ones where every player is pursuing a completely different path to thirty points while finding clever ways to slow everyone else down. There is real strategy underneath the woodland aesthetic.

The weaknesses are real too. Root is not a casual pick-up game. The learning curve is steep enough that some players bounce off it. The two player experience is weaker than the three or four player version. And if you want to use all the factions properly, expansions add cost quickly.

Is Root worth buying? Yes, if your group will play it more than once. No, if you are hoping to explain it in five minutes at a family gathering. It is a commitment, and that commitment pays off.

Root is the best asymmetric strategy game I own, and I think it earns that place on the shelf every time I get it to the table.

Don’t take my word for it!

Check out these Video Reviews

Shut Up & Sit Down – A detailed and funny review that captures both the frustration and the delight of learning Root for the first time. Required viewing before your first session.

No Pun Included – A thoughtful breakdown of the asymmetry and what makes each faction interesting to play. Good for players who want to understand the design philosophy.

The Dice Tower (Tom Vasel) – A balanced assessment of the pros and cons, particularly useful if you are trying to decide whether Root suits your group’s play style.

Rahdo Runs Through – A run-through focused on the two-player experience, useful if you are primarily a two-player household.