The Riverfolk Expansion adds two exciting new characters allowing up to six players to play, as well as a solo mode and new Vagabond player board. The Underworld Expansion adds two more factions and two new maps. The Mountain and Lake provide new battlegrounds to fight to victory on while the factions give you new ways to do so. The Great Underground Duchy mixes the play style of the Marquise and Eyrie factions, while The Corvid Conspiracy are a sneaky faction that plot and plan.

For those that can craft with ease then the mouse’s ‘Master Engravers’ can give you an extra point every time you do so. This can mean a whopping four points for those precious coins. However, Leder Games have four shiny new mechanical factions for us, and it’s a marked improvement. They slot into regular games of Root neatly, freeing players up to choose the smaller factions. Now, groups of two or three are no longer confined to the same factions. You can play as the Lizard Cult, or the Woodland Alliance, or whichever takes your fancy. Root’s gameplay is governed by some foundation rules that allow the factions to interact. It plays out on a wooded board containing 12 clearings, all separated by forests and connected by paths. Players battle for control between these clearings. At its heart, Root is an area control game. Three of the four factions score points by adding warriors, buildings, and other tokens to the board, then fighting for control against the other players. To enable this area control, players battle – a simple mechanic in which two D8s are rolled and players can do damage based on the number of warriors they control in the clearing. The player controlling the cats benefits from a big starting presence on the board. Their goal is to maintain control. They will score points by building different kinds of buildings in the clearings that they rule. To do this, players spend three action points on any combination of actions that are designed to allow the cats to fight off competition, keep their numbers high, and build increasingly expensive – and rewarding – buildings. The Eyrie The nefarious Marquise de Cat has seized the great woodland, intent on harvesting its riches. Under her rule, the many creatures of the forest have banded together. This Alliance will seek to strengthen its resources and subvert the rule of Cats. In this effort, the Alliance may enlist the help of the wandering Vagabonds who are able to move through the more dangerous woodland paths. Though some may sympathise with the Alliance’s hopes and dreams, these wanderers are old enough to remember the great birds of prey who once controlled the woods.Root's gameplay is governed by some foundation rules that allow the factions to interact. It plays out on a wooded board containing 12 clearings, all separated by forests and connected by paths. Players battle for control between these clearings. At its heart, Root is an area control game. Three of the four factions score points by adding warriors, buildings, and other tokens to the board, then fighting for control against the other players. To enable this area control, players battle - a simple mechanic in which two D8s are rolled and players can do damage based on the number of warriors they control in the clearing. When I first heard Root being talked about I had one burning question: would it play well at two players? I was concerned that the balance of the game would be off when the number of factions was reduced. It turns out that I needn't have worried. If you’re teaching people Root for the first time, make sure they know what to expect. If they can read the rules beforehand, even just for a single chosen faction, even better. The game gives you two rule books – one ‘Learning to Play’ walk through and one complete rules guide, the ‘Law of Root’. It even gives you a walk-through to follow on your first two turns. Even so, you won’t work out all the rules until you see them in action and that first play through is likely to go wrong. If you accept that and press on, you’ll find that this game is truly excellent. Components And Art Point scoring ministers may generate points every round per particular type of building on the board,or by discarding any number of cards of the same suit to score that many victory points.

The Vagabond works differently to the other factions. It’s actions are dictated by items it has it it’s satchel which change from game to game. The base box came with three possible characters all of which start with a very different set of items. You could be the thief (the character the meeple design is based on), which allows you to easily move around and steal cards. The Ranger is more aggressive and starts the games with weapons. Whereas the Tinkerer makes it easier to craft. Over the years, new cards have been added offering a variety of different characters. One of my favourites being the Scoundrel, a cat who wears a pumpkin mask and can torch a clearing making it unusable for the rest of the game. The Elder Treetop adds a new space to any clearing where buildings can be placed. This is a fantastic addition for any factions, like the cats, that need to build as much as possible. Once again, for someone like the Eerie, this will add nothing of use to the game. However, if buildings here are destroyed (in the usual way) then the victor takes two points instead of one. So be careful if you build up there. My only difficulty with the Grand Duchy is that, without any swaying ministers, their actions are limited to two per round. This really isn’t enough when you have markets to make and enemies to slay. So, swaying ministers that grant extra actions is advisable from the start!

In the base game, four factions battle for supremacy in the woodlands. I’ll introduce them here. I don’t have space to go into their mechanical nuances, but I’ll give you an overview of how they work. The Marquise de Cat

In Root, players drive the narrative, and the differences between each role create an unparalleled level of interaction and replayability. Explore the fantastic world of Root! Enough of that though, how does it feel to play against them? In a 1 v 1 game (playing as Eyrie as recommended), it’s a pleasingly tight affair. The Mechanical Marquise doesn’t use building tokens, so the focus is on taking down hordes of feline warriors. This makes it good practice for an aggressive Eyrie player. You have to work hard to stop clusters of Marquise warriors accumulating (which allow it to score points). There’s a nice ebb and flow to the two player game which I’ve always been fond of.Compared to other factions, the Duchy are slow to gain victory points at first. Don’t let this discourage you! By the mid-point of the game I found myself darting between my tunnels and creating almost unstoppable point scoring plays.