Root Factions Ranks

This is my definitive ranking of the factions within Root. Please note that this is strictly my own opinion and I'm sure that others will have different viewpoints. I'm also writing this with the assumption that you are mostly familiar with the game at a high level.

The Marquise de Cat

The Marquise is one of the more accessible factions to play as in Root. Ironically, it's the faction I use the least but not because it's no fun to use but because I'm usually playing with new players and they're the easiest to teach someone who is unfamiliar with the game. The cats want to do one thing and one thing only. Expand their networks of supplies and buildings. Each turn, they'll generate resources in the form of wood and then they can craft new buildings that will score points each time they advance on their respective tracks. The cats get 3 actions from the following list:

1. Battle

2. March

3. Recruit

4. Build

5. Overwork

The first two are pretty self explanatory. When they recruit, they'll add a new unit to every single recruiter that has been built. Buildings come in 3 options: recruiters, sawmills, and workshops. Sawmills allow you to generate more wood and workshops allow you to craft items. If you choose to overwork, you'll burn a card so that you can add more wood to your sawmills. Their turn will end by simply drawing cards and discarding to their hand limits. Scoring points with the cats is very straightforward. Building and winning battles gets you points.

Because of their general simplicity, I really enjoy when I get to play as The Marquise de Cat. They feel closer to what you would expect from an area control/war game perspective. It's a very safe faction to play as but there is some deep strategy involved because if you over expand yourself, you could find it too difficult to police the entire map. On the flip side of that, though you can overwhelm your opponents in a hurry if you move quickly for a huge advantage early on in the game.

My only real issue with them is that they can get a bit boring to play as. When I get further into the factions, the complexity will increase and the play styles will become much more interesting but if you're new to Root or want to give yourself a rest from some of the other factions I'd put the Marquise in the S-Tier.

The Eyrie Dynasties

So it took me 2 factions before things get weird in Root. We went from kind of mean kitty cats that want to build stuff in the woods to what I can only equate to as the Lannisters in bird form. The Eyrie wants to rebuild their kingdom of the woods and take back as much of it as they can. Here's the thing though, they all hate each other and eventually it's all going to fall apart. I always knew birds were jerks so thank you Cole Wehrle for reinforcing my opinions.

The Eyrie plays totally different from the Marquise. For starters, they're all about following their decree. Which is a really polite way of saying programming mini game from hell. The Eyrie will always have leader in place which can help you score points in various ways and on your turn, you'll add two cards to your decree, craft, and resolve the decree from left to right. The actions themselves are simple; recruit, move, battle, build. Cards are resolved by what suit you are playing them for with the bird suits being wild. Here's the problem, though. If you can't do every single thing in the decree from start to finish, everything falls apart and you go to ruin. Your leader is usurped and you need to start fresh. Oh any you lose points for bird cards in the decree.

If, and this is a big if, you are good with the Eyrie, you can absolutely steamroll other players. They can be absolute point generation monsters if you have been successful at getting your roosts out to the board. Each turn will generate points based on how many roosts are out plus you'll get points from your leader and battle.

The Eyrie is probably the faction I've played as the most, and this is not by choice. It is so difficult to be effective with them and even more difficult to teach it to people that I default to playing as them so I can avoid teaching it.

I'm conflicted with where to place them because on one hand, they're so difficult to grasp but on the other hand, they're so unique to play as and can be a really tough faction to play against that I almost enjoy it. I think they'll fall somewhere in the middle around a B-C Tier.

The Woodland Alliance

Angry rabbit feasts on the tears of the oppressed. That's a sentence I've never written before. These guys are all about spreading discourse across the land and gaining sympathy from others leading to revolt.

The Woodland Alliance must spend supporter cards in order to place their sympathy tokens on the map. If you are able, you can spend supporter cards to cause a revolt in that clearing. This will eliminate all other players pieces and bases in favor of your own. That's the first part of your turn. Luckily it's the most obscure part of it.

Your daylight phase is much more straightforward. Here you can craft, add cards to your supporter deck and train your warriors to be officers. Officers are your prerequisite to the evening phase. In the evening, you can take your battle actions; move, attack, recruit, and organize. When you organize, you can place another sympathy token into a clearing by removing a warrior.

The Woodland Alliance starts out weak but can become an extremely formidable opponent the deeper into the game you get and they have excellent longevity in battle. If they're defending, they get the higher rolled die. Sneaky angry rabbits.

This is one of the factions I was least familiar with and a big part of the reason why I'm doing this faction ranking. I wanted to truly feel like I understood them all at their core. Early game, you'd probably score them fairly low because they're a bit of a slow burn but once that payoff really happens, it happens tenfold. I'd probably put them in the B-Tier. They're weird but extremely satisfying once you hit that turning point with them.

The Vagabond

Oh, the Vagabond. The tricky raccoon plays all sides of the conflict. Where every other player gets a small army at their disposal, the Vagabond flies solo. They're in their own world trying to fulfill quests for renown and collect items from the other factions and scrounging ruins like the trash pandas that they are.

They have the ability to slip, meaning they can go into the forest to quickly navigate the map. They can never be taken off the map or rule clearings. They use items to complete most of their actions so they're constantly repairing them or getting them from other factions in order to increase their reputation among them. If they're hit in combat, they damage items to compensate for losing warriors.

If you are allied with a faction, you can gain benefits such as using their warriors as if they were your own. This will allow you to keep your items. You can also help them in battle to get points or drag them along as if they were your personal bodyguards. You can also totally betray them and allow another faction to move in on their territory. This raccoon holds a lot of power in his little hands. On the flip side, you can be hostile with another faction meaning you'll get more points for removing their pieces but it costs items to move into their spaces.

The Vagabond is a silly character to play as. Because they just float around the map playing every side it can create some genuinely funny moments and lead to some big plays when you choose to betray someone or team up with someone else. They can be tough to get into play when you don't have a lot of players and they're not as fun without the count so I can't give them an S-Tier in good faith but I'm happy to give them an A-Tier. They're just such a weird but well designed faction to play as.

Lizard Cult

Sacrifice one for the many. Or two or three. It's fine.

The Lizard Cult wants to simply radicalize everyone in a clearing. They'll do this by building their cult gardens and spreading the word throughout the clearings. They play their cards to build, recruit, and also score. Scoring points depending on how many gardens are built of the suit. They can also sacrifice meaning they'll put a warrior in the Acolytes box.

Acolytes are spent so they can move across the map and battle or replace warriors with one of their own or even remove a building to put up a garden.

The Lizard Cult is one of the more unique factions I've gotten to play with so far. They're mostly passive and can't really go anywhere until you've built up your acolyte pool. Once that happens though, all bets are off. They can spread across the map like a plague.

As of now, I think these are the most fun of the expansion factions. They're a bit of a slow burn but with the right moves you can end a game in a hurry. I don't know if I can give them an S-tier but they're very close.

Riverfolk Company

Capitalistic otters want to take all your money. America.

The Riverfolk Company is by far the strangest faction to date. Every birdsong these little jerks take a look at the board and decide how you want to gouge the other players by setting their price on their services. This includes taking a card from their hand, allowing river travel, and mercenary work. Each player decides if they want to use this by paying soldiers at the beginning of their turns.

The Riverfolk plays mostly similar to the other groups outside of this. When they are given units, this is their price of entry to determine how many actions they can do on their turn. They commit units or spend them.

Points are scored by building your trading posts along the map in their matching clearings. It's their most expensive action costing two units but also their most worthwhile one. they'll also score for having units on trading posts.

Overall, I'm indifferent on these guys. I love that you need to look at the state of the board to determine your price at the start of the day. For example, I knew the cats were about to be attacked and they had no chance so I charged 3 for mercenary services to give myself a full day of actions. Outside of this, though they felt a bit underwhelming. This falls into C-tier for me. If you can get good with them I'm sure they're a lot of fun but they're a slow burn and don't get involved much in action outside of being opportunistic.

They do get bonus points for being my favorite meeple of the bunch though.

Underground Duchy

Make mountains, not molehills.

The Underground Duchy simply wants one thing and one thing only, world domination. These moles want to come from underground to take over to woodland. Similar to the Marquise de Cat, they spread themselves quickly by building fortresses and tunnels where they can lie in waiting just looking for the time to attack. They're not complete barbarians though, they have order. If you play matching cards to a clearing you own, you can sway one of your ministers. These will net you points but also give you bonus actions like building more on your turn. The other unique thing about them is that anything revealed is sent back to their hands as opposed to being discarded (unless it's a bird card).

These angry moles are very aggressive and can overwhelm you very quickly if you aren't careful. They can build a tunnel and send 4 warriors from underground in one fell swoop. It's a lot of fun. Because they can spread quickly and own a lot of clearings at one time, they can score points quickly from crafting or destroying your stuff. Not nice moles.

They're not completely OP though. If you destroy a building, they'll lose one of their ministers as well and need to gain them back which can be easier said than done because a card needs to be discarded as well.

At the time of writing this, I think the Underground Duchy may be my favorite faction to play as. They have an added layer from the cats with the underground and ministers but they're also very aggressive. Conversely, you need to really know how to play as other groups, or else it can be a short game so I wouldn't use these guys against newer players or I would let the newer player use them if that's the case. No brainer, A-Tier.

Corvid Conspiracy

Hold the fort, also burn everything.

The Corvid Conspiracy is all about grabbing territory and hanging on for dear life. During birdsong, they can flip a token from their stash and they'll get to do what it says and get points for flipping them. These tokens can do anything from letting them draw more cards all the way to blowing up everything in a clearing to force every enemy piece out of it. Because they rely on being sneaky little crows, they don't really build up a strong force so they essentially need to keep an area close and take advantage of chaos from others. Crafting for points is huge for these guys.

They're a slow burn to play as which isn't going to be for everyone. There were numerous turns where I completely skipped my daylight phase because it wouldn't have been beneficial to do anything. As the game progresses, they have abilities that can make it more difficult for other players such as swapping tokens around or getting more out there.

I really liked their token abilities though. The trap essentially locks everyone out of a territory so if you like a spot, you basically can have it for the whole game if you want. Raid is an excellent way to spread out. As soon as it's removed, a warrior is placed in each adjacent clearing. This is good because they can be with other factions no matter who controls it. The only issue here is that they're random so you don't necessarily know what you'll pull out.

Overall, the Corvid Conspiracy is an interesting faction. They're not really aggressive but they can completely wipe out entire areas. It's an interesting mix of play styles. Ultimately, they won't be a faction for everyone and I totally get that. For me, they're a solid B-tier. I may not use them everytime but I have no problems playing with these guys.

Lord of the Hundreds

Rats with an attitude problem.

The Lord of the Hundreds quite literally wants to burn the forest down. During birdsong, these moody rats activate their mobs. This means they'll destroy any enemy buildings or tokens in a clearing that has the mob token and if theres a ruin, you'll pick up the item for your player board. Also, you'll roll the mob die which lets you put the mob token on a matching adjacent clearing for the next turn. They they recruit by adding one army for each stronghold and two or more join the leader depending on prowess. Next, if your leader was defeated, add it back to the map and then you can change their mood. Moods will let them do special abilities on certain actions. Daylight is pretty standard. Craft, then command armies. You'll start with 2 actions but can gain more with items. Then, move the warlord. He can pick up armies along the way and battle. Essentially, they can battle twice in a turn. Finally, cleanup in the evening. You can add mob tokens. Then score points based on how many clearings you control and draw and discard.

Items are key with the Lord of the Hundreds. The warlords prowess and command tracks rely on the items picked up along the way. Unfortunately, they don't score points when they craft but points come in droves. They spread like a disease. Especially if you can get a lot of strongholds out. Then they'll just overtake with sheer numbers. This is the most straightforward area control faction of the game. The more you have, the more you score. Having the ability to score points in birdsong with the mob is huge as well. They gave me my most dominant victories.

Their ability to put up so many points is also why I probably wouldn't play many games with them unless I have a very experienced group. They may be the most fun faction to play as but they're too overpowered at times. At two players, they'll dominate but at higher player counts their numbers can be kept in check a little easier.

Overall, I think they've overtaken the moles as my favorite faction to play as. Being able to overrun other players is a ton of fun. They don't make for the most balanced games at times but they're absolutely S-Tier. While not as technical as some, I think it's been established that I'm not great with some of the more advanced factions (looking at you otters).

Keepers in Iron

Relic Hunters with a twist.

The Keepers in Iron simply want to keep order and gather relics from the forest. Also, they'll kill you. In birdsong, they have the option to remove a warrior to put down a waystation and vise versa. You can also discard any number of matching cards to add 2 warriors per card to an area. They can multiply in a hurry. I didn't think badgers were known for that. Similar to the Eyrie, they have an order of operations above their board. Less similar, you don't need to follow it to a tee. If you can't do an action, that's okay. Their actions are pretty straightforward: move, battle then delve - this is where they pull a relic from the forest and flip it. If they own the amount of surrounding clearings, no worries, otherwise they're discarding the card. Finally, they can recover the relic. As long as there's a waystation that matches. They also need the clearings. This is where points get scored with these guys. In the evening you'll remove warriors with 4 or more in a clearing so you need to spread out. You can also add cards to your retinue and then draw and discard.

These are an interesting faction to play as. They feel and look like they should be aggressive but they're a lot more reactive. They're nomadic so you don't ever really have a set base camp and you need to be paired up to fully be able to take advantage of waystations. Being able to get a lot out at once can really set you up for success though. Especially if the other factions have huge armies neighboring you.

Because points aren't a given every turn, you'll want to craft a lot if you can or find other ways to get points. Depending on the play count and the factions in play, they can get overrun very quickly. Especially when you start moving into enemy territory.

Overall, I think the Keepers in Iron are a really nice A to B-tier faction. It depends on how many players there are and what other factions are being used in the game for them to really shine. When they can be active and collect their relics they're one of the best to play with but if they're backed into a corner, it feels like you're waiting for the inevitable.

Clearly, I like to play fast and aggressive when I play Root. I like the feeling of taking over a map and really seeing my progress as I go. While I didn't enjoy every faction they all have redeeming qualities to where I could see them being extremely effective in the right situations. Even the Riverfolk Company which I ranked lowest I'm willing to play more as but they will not be my first choice. Root as a whole is a fantastic game that sets the standard of asymmetry.