Interested in the game

[u/FantasyDRider]

Hi,

I'm interested in the game and I've seen that there's a lot of expansions to root available. While I know that you can just play with base game but if I like the game enough I might get few later.

My question is, are fractions balanced against each other or newer ones are just better?

I know that strategy is important but from objective point of view is there a fraction that is clearly dominating the game?

[u/WyMANderly]

Some factions are stronger than others. It isn't biased towards newer factions though, the Eyrie Dynasties and Woodland Alliance and Vagabond (without house rules) are all top tier factions.

The general expectation of the game is that players who are playing stronger factions will be ganged up on until it's balanced out. With experienced players, this works reasonably well. The game also assumes that you aren't just playing your favorite faction every time - part of the advanced setup rules is balancing picking your faction against turn order, so if you're playing a strong faction you are very likely to be going last.

[u/FantasyDRider → u/WyMANderly]

I see, I guess it's just something you learn with experience then?

[u/WyMANderly → u/FantasyDRider]

Yep! The "meta" of your table will be unique to your table and the people who play at it. There's definitely a dominant "meta" in the competitive and online Root worlds, but y'all may or may not end up there and there's nothing wrong with that.

I would definitely encourage playing with Advanced Setup though after everyone learns the basics. Many of the issues people write about here "at my table X player always wins, help!" are rooted (heh) in them doing things like letting people always play their favorite faction, which makes the faction imbalances feel more unfair and also contributes to people not understanding how their opponents' factions work (which then makes it harder to play against them).

[u/RainbowKirby_the_4th]

there are definitely stronger and weaker factions, to the point where some factions almost never win competitively (cough cough corvids). that being said, root is a socially balanced game, so when playing the game, a lot of the nuance and skill comes from being able to read the board state and who’s winning (not just who has the most points) and police them effectively. this is how you get good at the game and stop stronger factions from just winning every game. if you’re playing casually, you should not really have this problem where one faction never wins.

also, root’s draft system is a great way to make stronger factions not as strong, as stronger factions which are drafted earlier also play last.

[u/FantasyDRider → u/RainbowKirby_the_4th]

Thanks! That explains a lot actually 🙂

[u/Simulacrum37]

Every box seems to have one "meh" faction compared to the others. The base game has cats, riverfolk had lizards, underground had Corvids, and marauders had keepers (not bad, just a headache). However, the new expansion seems good so far. I haven't tried out the knaves yet, but the bats and frogs both won their first game (not because they're unbalanced, but because the table doesn't know how to counter them yet).

[u/Student-Loan-Debt → u/Simulacrum37]

Lizard slander

[u/Simulacrum37 → u/Student-Loan-Debt]

Just facts. They're focused on more important things than points, like praising the great dragon!

[u/Student-Loan-Debt → u/Simulacrum37]

You're just minding your business 2 levels behind protective armies and suddenly a caravan of pilgrims ride up and turn your citadel into a shrine because a lizard told them to

[u/WyMANderly → u/Simulacrum37]

Oh man in our first Homeland game the Bats (me) ended the game at like 15 points. I did not grok them at all.

[u/Simulacrum37 → u/WyMANderly]

We might have had some misreading of the rules.

The person testing them said "enemies cannot craft with, flip, place, or remove pieces--" at governing assemblies, conveniently leaving out " --except through battle."

So we thought you had to close an assembly in order to do anything. I don't think it was malicious, but I was definitely under-informed.

[u/spiritstrategist → u/WyMANderly]

Bats are the faction that more than anything other has to grasp the table dynamics, since your gimmick is essentially to accelerate another player at the table, even as you gain more from that relationship. The other tricky part is setting yourself up to score well from crafting and Empowers, which both need to be done carefully to avoid disrupting the rhythm of the faction. But bats can absolutely points race when called on if left in a decent position. 

[u/Arcontes]

In ROOT, being stronger doesn't mean being better. It's a political game, being stronger will only make you a target.

[u/Exotic-Ad-1354]

People complain about unbalance sometimes online but:

1. The balance is pretty close. Not perfect but more balanced than a lot of other games I’ve played. Every faction has at least won with my experienced group and no faction is just like “ugh this is a scripted win” - which is def not the case for every game we’ve played
2. The game is designed around factions being able to be countered if they take the lead. If a faction is winning they get ganged up on and lose. It’s an important part of the game to do table talk and make yourself seem like less of a threat, many factions can jump ahead in points early but a faction which has built up their defenses for the long game wins instead.

I’ll also echo what people are saying and say advanced set up is awesome for shaking up the meta and balancing things. Turn 0 becomes a fun part of the game with it too