Landscaping

When you first unfurl the neoprene playmat the game takes place on, you’d be forgiven for giving a groan. A groan of “Oh no, this is going to be really complicated, and take ages“. Despite the bright colours and sharp printing, there are things to look at all over the place, which gives it an air of something more complex than it actually is. Oath’s grand scale belies a game that is actually easier to play than you’d think.

Rather than replicate the asymmetry of a previous game like Root, Oath drops all of the players into one of two roles to start with. You’re either the Chancellor – the big character with a sign on their back saying ‘Insert knife here’, or an exile – the ones looking to partake in the stabby-stabby action. Roughly speaking, the Chancellor wants to remain the Oathkeeper (the person ruling the most sites) until the end of the game, and the exiles want to usurp them by ruling the most sites, thereby taking the little cardboard Oathkeeper away from the Chancellor.

I’ve grossly oversimplified the game there, but it gives you an impression of what the game is about, which isn’t obvious at first. Players pick from the standard actions available to them, which let them gather more of their chunky Warband meeples, draft and play cards, attack one another, or move their bigger pawn piece around. Actions cost supply points, and you gain supplies back at the end of your turn. The more warbands you have out in the world, away from your player board, the more you have to support them, so the amount of supply you get back is reduced.

It’s a wonderfully simple dynamic that underpins the game. Yes, you can get your little wooden army stomping all over the place, but it’ll cost you, and limit what you can do. As with all things in life, moderation is key. The croutons in Oath’s soup are the Vision cards. Cards which, if drawn, give the exiles new, unique win conditions. The visions change the way each game plays out, and often result in a bit of exile-on-exile fisticuffs, drawing focus away from the relieved Chancellor.

Dictatorship

In many modern Euro games, the players dictate their own paths. They choose what they want to do, and build their strategy around those choices. In contrast, Oath requires you to adapt. You might have a plan, but executing it is another matter. Your actions and reactions affect the game, and the world it exists in, in ways you don’t expect.

Oath is a game that is meant to be played by at least four people, and the same group should be playing every game of the campaign together. The way that unspoken – or blatantly spoken – alliances form and break is brilliant. The game board changes so much as cards and locations are played. It’s like huge swathes of paint being daubed on a canvas, changing what you’re looking at while you’re taking it all in.

The Chancellor acts as a huge target, and playing as it can feel like you’re playing as an AT-AT on Hoth, as Snowspeeders buzz around your legs, trying to bring you down. The Chancellor’s got a wonderful trick up their sleeve, however, whereby they can offer citizenship to an exile, bringing them onside, in exchange for a powerful relic. It’s like the AT-AT pulls one of the rebels to one side and whispers “Look, if you don’t wrap that string around my legs, I’ll buy you a pint“. So now the Chancellor has other people on their side – nice! More twists ensue however, because the citizens can snatch power – and victory – away from the very person who offered them a partnership. It’s just brilliant.

As I sit here now, typing these words and explaining what I love about the game, it makes me want to play it again. And I can do just that. I can simply reset my game to the same state as when I tore the shrinkwrap off of it, and start again with a new group. I just need to find a new group.

Any takers?

Known by the company you keep

Teaching Oath well, and with the right group, is what elevates it from a clever idea to a masterclass in how to make a legacy game. Just, y’know, without all the legacy bits.

There’s a nicely-written book in the box which teaches you how to play, with led examples. If you’ve played Root and used the walkthrough in that, you know the sort of thing. It’s a nice way to do things, and Oath’s is a better teaching aid than Root’s. Understanding the motivation and planning behind why you’re doing, what you’re doing, is the most important part.

Now, while you can learn ahead of time and then teach your group, I believe the better option is to gather the group who’ll be playing through the campaign, and do the teach-and-learn together. The decks are pre-constructed in such a way that every example in the book ensures the cards are where it expects them to be, and I for one don’t much fancy trying to reconstruct them.

The other advantage of learning together is in levelling the battlefield. If nobody has prior experience of the game, then nobody has an advantage during the first session, when you should all be finding your feet. I really want to emphasise the importance of regular group for Oath, because it’s the one factor that will make or break the game. Forming alliances between the Chancellor and Exiles between games is personal and intimate. It weaves the players themselves into the world they’ve made.

The tendrils spawned by your decisions in one game reach far into the following games, tugging at their roots, influencing how they grow.

Final thoughts

Trying to sum up Oath in ~1500 words is a very difficult job. There’s so much I want to tell you. So many small touches that make it special. Every card you draw can cause you headaches, trying to choose where to play it. Trying to keep an eye on what everyone else is doing, while guessing what they might have planned, is something I adore in a game when it’s done well. And Oath does it so well. For such a simple action set to choose from, and with only three roles available in the entire game, Oath has no right to tickle your brain in the way it does.

Kyle Ferrin’s artwork and design choices aren’t just cosmetic. They’re practical. They open the game up. This game could easily have been set in a barren, dystopian future, full of muted browns and greys, as a wargame. It would have worked. It would have been a good game. Instead, it’s a child’s pencil case full of colour and fun. The bright, chunky pieces make the game friendly and less intimidating. The bizarre setting, the way you’re just dropped into an alien world, even the Chancellor’s mask – so much of it has you wondering “What?”. There’s no lore to read. You make it all up. It all helps to elevate the game above a standard theme or setting, which in turn increases its potential cohort of players.

But look, I’m not about to tell you Oath is for everyone. It’s a very thinky game, on the heavier end of medium-weight, which might put you off. It’s a game which takes you by the collar, pushes one arm up behind your back, and demands you find a regular group of people, in order to enjoy it properly. If I didn’t have access to that regular group, I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it as much. Sharing the experience of continuously reshaping the world in which you’re playing is an intrinsic part of the game’s joy. If you’ve got three or four people in your pocket though, and if you want a game that’ll land on your table week after week after week, Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile is borderline essential.

Review copy kindly provided by Leder Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oath is available from our sponsor – Kienda. Sign-up using this link to get 5% off your first order over £60.

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Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile (2021)

Designer: Cole Wehrle
Publisher: Leder Games
Art: Kyle Ferrin
Players: 1-6
Playing time: 60-120 mins

The post Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile Review appeared first on Punchboard.

If the phrase ‘war game’ conjures up images of acres of beige and green hexes, with tiny tank tiles on them, you’re not alone. It’s an image the scene has a hard time shaking. What Leder Games and designer Cole Wehrle have done with Root though, is to boil-down the mechanisms and the scale of the conflict game, and dress it up in costumes straight out of a cartoon, leaving us with a sweet, potent concentrate. We’re looking at the Ribena of war games here.

Kyle Ferrin’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous throughout. Just like one of my other favourite board game artists, The Mico, you can spot his work a mile off. His style is so unique, so full of charm, and brings so much colour and life to a genre of game traditionally dominated with small drawings of vehicles and murky green and brown landscapes.

If you go down to the woods today

The aim of Root is to rule the woods. Four different animal factions are vying for the title, and between them the cats, birds, rabbits and raccoon (just the one) use their unique abilities to try to claim the 30 VPs needed to win. Each turn is split into three phases – Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening – and each faction has different actions available to them in each phase. Cardplay is central to the game, and you’ll use your cards to gather support, craft items, and aid you during the inevitable fights.

On first glance, the woodland board of Root looks confusing. The first time you see it you’re likely to see a few blue birds in one corner, a lone white raccoon somewhere on the board, and orange cats swarming into just about every clearing. If you’re coming to Root accustomed to the balanced way just about every other board game starts, it can seem daunting. Leder Games recognise this though, and there’s an absolutely brilliant touch in the box.

The Walking Through Root booklet plonks four players into the middle of a game in progress. All four factions are represented, and each player has a preset hand of cards. Players pass the booklet around in turn, doing what it tells them to, and reading out-loud an explanation of why they’re doing it. After a couple of turns each the scenario ends, and everyone around the table has a far better understanding of what’s going on, how it’s happening, and why. It’s a really clever interactive tutorial, and I love it.

Fly-wheels and ping-pong balls

Like the Vast games before it, Root is very asymmetrical. I can’t stress that enough; there are no two factions in Root that play anything like one another. The Marquise de Cat needs to spread her reach, building and harvesting the forest’s resources for her war machine. The Eyrie Dynasty forms an ever-increasing government to build roosts, but risks collapse from poor planning. The Woodland Alliance try to gain sympathy for their cause, slowly gaining momentum. And then we have the Vagabond, acting as claws-for-hire, completing tasks for, and jumping in to aid, the other factions in combat, before disappearing again.

Some factions slowly chip away at the VPs, pinging one or two, here and there with each turn. Others take time to wind up to speed, like a fly-wheel, scoring big later in the game.. Even if it looks like one person is taking an unassailable lead in the early game, the clever balance means that games tend to end up closer than you expect after the first few rounds. The feeling of a race to score the deciding points is so tense, and so much fun.

It means that learning to play Root is no easy task. Once you’ve learned how to play as one of the factions, you’ve got to start again when you try a new one. Sure, you’ll have an idea how they work from your previous games, but you still need to find out how to get that engine running smoothly. For this reason, Root is a game best played with a regular group. A seasoned player versus a newbie is always going to result in the latter being trampled into the mud. You’ll end up holding their hand through their turns, and making sharp intakes of breath as they make a poor move. Frustrating for you, and potentially annoying for the new player.

If you’re looking to add a new player to your Root games, I recommend they pick up the excellent digital version of the game. They can learn the game and practice against the AI before they ever sit down at a table with you. Trust me when I say it’ll make the experience much more fun for everyone involved.

A ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?

If you’ve never played Root, and you’ve made it this far in the review, you’d be forgiven if the biggest concern on your mind is about balance. Asymmetry is a tricky thing to create balance in, but Leder Games have a lot of experience in it, with the two Vast games that came before. Between the physical and digital versions of Root, I’ve racked up a lot of games now, and it doesn’t seem to matter how good you get with one faction, someone will always come up with a way to trip you up. If you’re playing with less than four players, some combinations of factions just don’t really work well, but the rule book explains this and suggests which to use.

I shudder to think how many games must have been played during the playtesting of Root. It paid dividends though, because the balance is brilliant. Because the factions are so different, learning to play one is like learning to play a new game, and it helps keep Root feeling fresh. It’s a great way of evening things up if you find one player is too dominant with a faction they’ve used a hundred times. Just get them to play as a different one.

What if you do grow bored of the same factions, or get tired of the same map? Luckily for you, Root has plenty of ways to spice things up if the lustre is starting to fade.

Expansions

The Riverfolk Expansion (2018)

The Riverfolk Expansion adds in two new factions to play: The Riverfolk (otters) and The Lizard Cult (um, lizards). It also throws in another Vagabond, some co-op scenarios, and the first example of an automa / bot to play against on your own. There are some new variants to play for when you’re playing as the Vagabond, but maybe the nicest thing this expansion does is to change the player count. It takes Root from 2-4 players up to 1-6, which is great if your regular group is more than four.

I really like the two new factions, they both feel like a breath of fresh air. The otters are my favourites to play as. It gets really interesting as players are paying you for services with their warriors, which you can then spend to perform your actions. It’s a proper little brain burn, deciding what to do, and when.

The Clockwork Expansion (2020)

The Clockwork expansion doesn’t offer any new factions, but it goes one better than The Riverfolk Expansion and its bot player. In fact, it goes three better, giving you bot versions of all of the base factions to play against.

Obviously, this is fantastic news if you play a lot of games solo. Rather than playing a two-player game against an automa opponent, you can play a complete four-player game against three bots. There’s a little overhead in doing this, as you need to run through the list of priorities for each rival faction on each part of their turns, but with the new player boards included in the box, they’re not too cumbersome to run. I’ve certainly played with more complicated bot opponents in other games.

The other really nice thing it does is to allow a couple of human players to team up and take on two bots. In this game mode you race to score 30 VPs each before any bot does the same. Co-op play is surprisingly rewarding in a game designed around direct conflict between players. The Clockwork Expansion is a really good investment if you want to practice building your strategies, but don’t have enough people to play with every time.

The Underworld Expansion (2020)

Two new factions, and two new maps in this one. The Underworld Expansion adds in The Underground Duchy (moles), and the Corvid Conspiracy (crows, not germs). The moles are great fun to play with. Being able to tunnel all over the map and just spring up, makes them feel like dangerous opponents. The way they use their sway to influence the game is really nice too. I like the crows too, with their plots. You even get to plant bombs and wipe out all resistance in a clearing. Once again though, as powerful as that sounds, the balance is really good.

Maybe the star of this box, however, is the new game board. There’s now a lake and a mountain map, each with their own unique features. The lake adds a… well… it’s a lake. This puts a huge divide in the middle of the map, but the addition of a Ferry means that any player using it can move to any lake-adjacent spot on the board. With movement being the key to strategy in Root, it adds a really interesting new dimension. The mountain map adds a new mechanism, with blocked tunnels. Players can spend cards to clear tunnels, opening up new ways to move around the board. There’s also a new Keep piece added to a clearing, and the faction controlling the keep gains a VP at the end of their turn. It gives the game a real King of the Hill feel.

Final thoughts

There are some people who never manage to get on with Root. Something about the game just turns them off completely. I’m not one of them, I absolutely love Root. I spend so much of my time playing non-conflict Euro games, that the change of pace, and styling of Root is a welcome change. There is so much variety afforded by the different factions and the deck of cards you draw from, and with the expansions (there’s another due to land soon), there are a ton of ways to keep the game fresh, if you get addicted to it.

While the balance in the game is there (check the errata on BGG for each game too, some may have rules tweaks from your printing), the biggest problem comes with the player skill imbalance that I mentioned further up the review. It’s very hard to break into an established Root group if you’ve never played before. Buying the digital version really does help, but if you’re bringing a newbie to the table, be prepared for a baby steps game or two.

When it comes to the expansions, I recommend The Underground Expansion first, then Riverfolk. Only get the Clockwork Expansion if you intend to play solo, or with low player counts, but want all factions on the map.

If you’re after the woodland feel and the cute animal characters, but don’t want the conflict, look instead at Everdell. But if you fancy something with a bit more bite, or you’re on the fence when it comes to whether you’d enjoy a war game or not, get Root. The game design is genius, and it’s a lot of fun to play.

Image credits: ¹ Ross @ More Games Please

Root is available from our sponsor – Kienda. Sign-up using this link to get 5% off your first order over £60.

I bought Root and the Clockwork Expansion with my own pennies. The Riverfolk Expansion and The Underground Expansion were kindly provided by Leder Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Root (2018)

Designer: Cole Wehrle
Publisher: Leder Games
Art: Kyle Ferrin
Players: 2-4 (1-6 with expansion)
Playing time: 60-90 mins

The post Root Review (+ expansions) appeared first on Punchboard.