Root Solo: Coming Home To Roost! (Nightmare + traits)

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Glad to get Root on the channel for the first time! Thanks to Leder Games for the review copy of The Clockwork Expansion and I'm looking forward to exploring more combinations of factions in the future. :) Happy Gaming! Greg

[@justinlenhart4330]

Hands down you make the best and most solo playthroughs and I appreciate it. Solo playthroughs love train starts here!

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Thanks, Justin!

[@otis892]

Would definitely want to see more root!

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Duly noted! Might be a while but I’ll be sure to swing back to it at some point. 🙂

[@johnathankokoski]

Root! Nice to see that Nightmare with all power up cards is possible to win - the Electric Eyrie tends to brutalize my games lol. I do play with 3 bots though so the game is waaaay more chaotic. Marquis and Vagabot are so easy to run once you learn them that the overhead isn’t terrible. Definitely understand that multiple bots aren’t for everyone, but part of the fun for me is working through the turns. Prefer this one multiplayer these days, but will get it back on the table once the newest kickstarter arrives.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Good stuff, Johnathan! Yeah - I think this game will ultimately settle in for me as a multi-player game, but the solid solo option with Clockwork is really nice to have. Hopefully everyone gets their Kickstarters soon!

[@otis892]

Now that I have the clockwork expansion I should play this a lot more! Also got the root role playing game.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

What’s up, Otis!? It’s a fun game and Clockwork really keeps the pacing up once you understand how the AI operates. Still a lot more to explore with it personally.

[@dlopez0320]

Great playthrough! Looking forward to more playthroughs of this game, maybe you can play against 2 bots next time?

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Thanks, dlopez! Maybe...but not likely for the next one. I'll consider it though! :)

[@dlopez0320]

@@SoloPlaythroughs great, any Root coverage is great. I enjoy your play style and how quickly you move through the turns so it's helpful to learn the bots.

[@derdopey]

Hey Greg a movement mistake at 51:55 where you move over the river

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Ha! Did I really do it again?? :) I'm not sure if anything could have done different with the art, but for some reason my brain processes those rivers as roads. I think in part this is because it seems like the river segments are where it makes sense for there to be roads.

[@jinsoloboardgames]

Wow Root!!!!

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Ha! Glad to see this makes some people excited! :)

[@ragnar3434]

Spirit Island is a good comparison. The artful production, use of lore both explicit and implied, the political literacy (a lot of this is based on Focault's writings on power and power structures, not that I know anything about any of that) and it's all overlaid on what would be an excellent game without any of that.

[@ragnar3434]

I just wish I liked playing it more. The war game aspects of this war game aren't for me. I enjoy a couple of factions, the vagabond and the alliance, but they exist somewhat orthogonally to the rest of the game in a way that makes me doubt my enjoyment of Root even more than I would if I didn't like playing any of them. It doesn't help that, from what I've seen and heard, a lot of groups ban both of "my" factions. They agree with me! I guess I just don't want to be in the war; I enjoy playing a game that happens in the context of a war. Maybe I'll like the Root ttrpg better.

[@ragnar3434]

Wait, I think I was misremembering something. The game isn't explicitly based on Foucault.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Hey ragnar! Yeah - I don't think the game is explicitly based on Foucault, but I know Space-Biff (Dan Thurot) has done some analysis of Root in the context of Foucault's philosophy. :) You point out a really interesting extension of the Spirit Island-Root comparison, and I definitely agree with you. There's a lot of depth to the game that go way beyond the mechanics, which are actually rather simple at their core.

[@amansparekh]

I never thought I’d see root on here lol. I like root a lot, but unfortunately for me it doesn’t really work solo (even with clockwork and BPP)

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Hey Aman! Yeah - it's a bit of a change of pace for the channel but this is definitely a beloved solo game. I understand not liking the solo mode of this game though, as it's got a certain wonkiness and flavor that can take some getting used to.

[@amansparekh]

@@SoloPlaythroughs I was obsessed with root for quite a while, but multiplayer (especially 3+) just offers a different experience for me in terms of negotiation and entanglement. Being able to predict a lot of what the bot is going to do took out a lot of strategy for me. Still, I really enjoy it (fav faction is the underground duchy from the the underworld expansion)

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Makes sense to me! Don't have The Underworld Expansion but I might pick it up one day. My gaming groups haven't really taken to Root yet so I'm taking my time picking up anything beyond The Underworld Expansion for now.