I started playing Root in 2019, about a year after the hype had died down. My friend Kevin brought the game to our Tuesday night gaming sessions. The artwork features cute woodland creatures. That was pretty much the extent of how I would describe “cute”. I was mistaken about “cute”. The game includes four separate rule systems. Each of the four factions will likely feel like it is playing a different game.
When I read the Marquise de Cat rules (which I found simple and easy to follow for a retired accountant) and glanced at the Woodland Alliance board, I was shocked. “How in the heck are those three measly supporters going to accomplish anything?” Sixty-eight games later, I am now the Alliance player of choice. Something about playing the underdog who can come out of nowhere while everyone else is arguing over who is actually winning is incredibly satisfying. But that is the point. So many Alliance players fail because they make themselves the target far too early. Mastering the mechanics of your faction is helpful, but the real trick is understanding the psychology of your opponents.
You begin with almost nothing (a few supporters, little to no board space) when playing the Alliance. Your opponents’ industrial complexes and military units make you look tiny. A common rookie mistake is trying to rush to put warriors on the board. Every time I see someone rush to put warriors on the board, I cringe.
We had a new player, Justin, play his first Alliance game in the middle of last summer. Poor Justin was so excited to build his first base on turn one. He happened to draw some matches for supporters and thought he was being sneaky. After two rounds, his base was destroyed and he was left with depleted supporters. He spent the rest of the night wondering why his “mighty” faction was feeling like it was operating with one arm tied behind its back. The Alliance is mighty, not despite its slow beginning – but because of the huge jump from appearing to be weak to dominating.
My approach to playing the Alliance revolves around what I call the “Third Place Strategy”. You want everyone at the table to believe that you are losing, but you are also still in the game and not an immediate threat that needs to be addressed. It is psychological warfare disguised as a board game.
Sympathy placement is a key part of this. You obviously need to accumulate supporters and ultimately control territory, but more important than that, you are creating psychological pressure. Typically, I place sympathy to slightly inconvenience everyone, but not significantly hinder anyone. Place tokens near areas where the Marquise wants to build, the Eyrie needs to pass their decree, the Vagabond wants to explore, etc., but do not create a situation that makes an opponent feel compelled to remove your sympathy or lose.
Save those initial supporters. I know it is tempting to use them to achieve short-term gains, but restraint is rewarded. First, you want to save them for defensive plays. There is nothing better than using a well-timed Guerrilla War when someone attacks your sympathy. Second, it creates confusion as to your true capabilities. The looks on the opponents’ faces when you suddenly pull out eight supporters of various suits when they thought you had three? Unbelievable.
Establishing a base is also important. If you do it too soon, you are inviting attacks before you have a chance to defend yourself. If you wait too long, you may find yourself behind on scoring. My rule for establishing a base is to do it when I have at least five or six supporters left over, I have scored five or six points from sympathy, and there is a greater threat diverting the attention away from myself.
Location is far more important than most people realise. Alliance players always want to establish bases in the centre of the board where there are multiple access routes. Do not! Those locations are death traps. I prefer to establish bases in the corners of the board with two access routes. Ideally, it is located in close proximity to clearings where I have existing sympathy. Less accessible to attackers, but still allows me to grow my rebellion rapidly.
Recruiting officers is what drives everything. People say that you should recruit balanced officers, but I have done better with specialization depending on the state of the game. Board crowded with multiple pieces? Then you want to recruit military officers to utilize Guerrilla War and Ambush. Empty clearings? Then recruiters allow me to swarm the area when I revolts. Playing against factions that excel at removing sympathy such as the Birds and Cats? Then you want to recruit organizers to rebuild your network quickly.
My best Alliance games feature the “double revolt turn”. I use my first revolt to defend myself, establish a base in a safe location, restore my supporter pool while pretending to be weak, then use my second revolt to establish a second base and immediately score 4-5 points through military action. Changes from “Evelyn is still having trouble” to “How is she now competitive?” in one turn.
The Alliance’s greatest asset is not any specific mechanism – it is how the other players perceive your threat level. Sometimes managing that perceived threat means making non-optimal decisions simply to keep up the illusion that you are struggling. I have literally skipped turns with great options available, simply to continue the illusion that I am failing.
One of my favorite moments in Root came when I convinced the table that I was acting as kingmaker between the Eyrie and Marquise. I continued to place sympathy that seemed to harm the Birds more than the Cats. Linda was playing the Marquise – she understands my games and should have known to be wary – but she largely ignored me. Meanwhile, I quietly built supporters that matched the martial law clearings. When I finally revealed my hand and created two bases in one turn, and mobilized enough warriors to score 7 points immediately… the betrayed expressions on the table were absolutely worth it.
Of course, seasoned players will not fall prey to these tactics indefinitely. With more experienced opponents who understand the Alliance’s potential, you can take advantage of the target and defend. Focus on building Guerrilla Wars, plan your Rapid Response carefully when sympathy is removed, and occasionally establish bases primarily for defensive purposes rather than offensive purposes.
The Partisans card is a special case – and possibly the most powerful individual card for Alliance players. Getting this card early influences the direction of the rest of your strategy since it is effectively a wild supporter for revolt purposes. Keep it secret until the pivotal moment. Opponents determine your capabilities based on visible sympathy and clearing types, only to be surprised when you revolt in an area they believed was impossible.
With aggressive opponents who truly grasp the Alliance’s potential, sometimes the best tactic is martyrdom. The “Sacrifice Play” – establish sympathy in a manner that invites attacks, generate supporters via martial law while opponents waste actions removing easily replaced sympathy tokens instead of earning points. Works exceptionally well against the Eyrie, due to the rigid nature of their decree and the ability to force them to expend valuable actions dealing with sympathy.
There was a time when I played against Jim (he is the Eyrie specialist within our group) and I did not establish a base until the final round. I just collected supporters, established sympathy in strategic positions to disrupt his decree, earned points via martial law infractions. By the time I established the bases, I was at 24 points and needed one additional military action to win.
He wasted the entire game doing my work for me and generated supporters via martial law faster than I could via organising.
The expansions released recently have altered the dynamic somewhat. The Underground Duchy is a direct competitor for the same board space but operates on a different timeline. I concentrate on clearings that the Duchy has not yet accessed but intends to. Forces them to either delay their expansion or provide me with supporters. The Riverfolk Company provides advantages to select purchases of their services while confusing the table about my true intentions.
To successfully play the Alliance, you require both table awareness and a form of psychological manipulation that is unique to the Alliance compared to the other factions. You are not merely playing the board; you are manipulating the perceptions of the other players. Success is achieved by determining when to pretend to be weak, when to appear as a victim, when to seem cooperative, and precisely when to reveal your true power.
The most satisfying Alliance victories are not when you dominate from the onset – they are when the table realizes, too late, that the revolution they have been ignoring has already won. There is nothing more rewarding than when the top faction realizes that I am counting their points, recounting them in disbelief, and say those magical words: “Wait, how are you already at 28 points?”
That is when you know you have played the Alliance correctly. They never knew it was coming because you never allowed them to see it coming. The Revolution was always there – hidden in plain sight – waiting for the exact moment to declare victory. And by that time? It was too late to stop it.
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