Trying Out a New Game

I have a couple of regular gaming groups, one that is primarily role playing and the other that mixes things up. Our mix it up group got together tonight to try out a print-and-play version of Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right which my friend Richard backed on KickStarter. Root pits various woodland critters (armies of them) against each other in a quest for points. The game is asymmetric in nature meaning that each race (cats, birds, little critters, vagabonds) has different mechanics for how it generates points. Asymmetric games are great fun when they are balanced, and with only one play through I’m skeptical about the balance in Root but I need to try it a few more times to really make that call.

I really liked the art and the theme, those make the game super interesting. Even the different ways that each race operated proved interesting. Each player fights over clearings which are assigned to the factions of bunny, fox, and mouse (the bird faction is a wildcard). Having clearings of specific factions helps you to be able to perform actions. I played cats so started with units all over the board, but being spread out left me deceptively vulnerable, especially when the birds really got going. The combat is fairly elegant, roll two four-sided dice and the defender inflicts the lower number of damage and the attacker the higher. There are a few other rules around combat, but it is fairly quick. I think this game has real potential, although my first play through was not that satisfying.

I disliked two aspects of Root. The first aspect is the inclusion of special victory condition cards. These cards change up the dynamic fairly quickly, but choosing the wrong card is devastating. I ended up in a no-win situation early on in the game. I spent the majority of the game knowing I couldn’t win and trying to find some other meaning in the game play. This was my mistake, but for a game to have such a costly mistake potential right at the beginning of the game might require some tweaking (either seed them deeper in the deck or remove them altogether).

The other thing I disliked was the potential for analysis paralysis with the races. This is especially evident with the birds. The other races start off with a fairly simple action, but the birds need to make a decision that will effect their whole turn. I think it is a cool mechanic but the result is that whenever we hit the bird player the game ground to a halt. The birds easily took 3 or 4 times the amount of time the rest of the players together spent each turn. And this was not even with our slowest gamer present (he missed the game tonight). So while it is a very interesting mechanic, there needs to be a way to streamline it.

Maybe things will improve now that we know the game. We’ll have to see. I must say that I am dreading a play through with our slowest player. Often we get to play a couple small games in an evening as well a longer game, not tonight. I’m keen to see the production values of the final game. Root has some real potential. I’ll let you know if things improve next time we play it.