The cats have taken the forest, building up their industrial empire, when lo and behold the birds, who have aspirations of their own to control the forest, decide to stage an invasion of their own. The other inhabitants of the forest (including the foxes, mice, and rabbits) wonder why they are being subjugated by these other factions, and there is a traveling dude who just wants to do his own fighting and treasure hunting.
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Short Explanation of How to Play
Root is a very fun concept for a game. Different woodland creatures trying to have supremacy of the forest. The four factions I mentioned above are the factions that are present in the core game. Each of them plays differently, with different rules and strategies for victory. Each player needs to work toward 30 points to achieve that victory, but the paths that they take to get there are divergent, each with their own nuance and complexity. Additionally, this is the base game. If one wanted to turn this into a cooperative game and play against automated opponents, or add lizards, beavers, badgers, or other factions, there are many expansions to Root that add great variety to the fun.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work For Our Family
What Worked: This game reaches the upper edge of nuance and complexity for our oldest child, who is 9. She enjoys playing the vagabond, which is the individual character that can go around and pretty much do whatever he wants. She has played the cats as well and has figured out what she is doing with expanding. That being said, I gave her a lot of extra support as we were playing so we could get through a playthrough. Also, the nice thing about this game is that they give you some cards and a booklet that walk you through a few turns, so you can learn as you are playing. That helped a bunch to get started.
What Was Challenging: Learning the rules and teaching them. The buy-in to the cute animals and art was easy, but actually getting to the game was hard. The setup and take down took a little bit of effort, but not too much.
Why it Works/Doesn't Work With Friends
My gaming friends enjoyed this game. It took us awhile to get a handle on the rules, but once we did, we had some really good games. The drawback? If you don’t pull Root out periodically, then everyone forgets how to play, and then you have to start at square one and relearn the rules. This is definitely one to keep in the rotation if you plan on having it around.
Teacher's Corner
This game has some economic considerations, but does not particularly align with any concepts that I would want to teach with this game. Mastering the rules would be the main goal with this game, so other concepts would take a backseat to that!
Overall opinion, rating, and recommendation
6 year old son - My son likes the wooden character figures and wanted to try to learn how to play the game, but lost interest fairly quickly when the rules were difficult.
9 year old daughter -This game reaches the upper edge of nuance and complexity for our oldest child, who is 9. She enjoys playing the vagabond, which is the individual character that can go around and pretty much do whatever he wants. She has played the cats as well and has figured out what she is doing with expanding. That being said, I gave her a lot of extra support as we were playing so we could get through a playthrough.
Mine - I will rate this game Heavy Family. I’ll give the caveat that this is not for the younger kids unless they are playing along with an adult who can help them work through the things they need to do. The complex aspect of this game is the fact that every faction plays differently, so the person teaching the game has to have a really good handle on what each faction does, as well as being able to explain a bunch of unique rule sets to different players. The theme and presentation of this game is absolutely kid friendly, as the art and wooden pieces are interested and attractive for kids, but learning and mastering the rules is important if this is going to work for a family. It is a great game, and if the kids do not understand it initially, they can fortunately grow into it with time if they are interested in the game and want to work into it. This game works well when the players are interested in varying playstyles, especially if you want to give the game longevity by trying different factions and game combinations. The game can feel long between turns if players are not efficient on their turns. There is a time and energy investment in mastering the rules. The booklet that walks through the first few turns helps a lot, but understanding the playstyles of the different factions and rules will take awhile. The payoff is worth it for a very fun game, but be cautious if your gaming group needs a quick teach and lighter fare.
Games with similarities with this one at each rating level:
Casual Family: -
Heavy Family: - Villainous / My Little Scythe
Casual Adult: -
Heavy Adult: - Hegemony / Scythe
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