Hell yeah, more hirelings! I may have missed this in the video, but if you are the controller of the stoic protector, can you still initiate battles and it’s just that the defender can’t deal any damage back, or is it that there simply can’t be any battles at all in the protector’s clearing?
It's both! I didn't even think to mention it but yeah, you can initiate battles in the Protector's clearing (if you are the controller of course) and the enemy cannot deal hits back to you because they cannot remove your pieces. It's wild.
@@kelvyndesouza4108 If the Vagabond is the controller of the stoic protector, enemies cannot battle you in the protector's clearing so they cannot damage your items. However if you the Vagabond battle them and they deal hits against you, then yes, some items can be damaged because the protector only protects the Vagabond from being targeted for battle, not from the consequences of their own actions.
21:18 I think Keepers in Iron still can devolve there, becouse the rule says you have to battle if you can and then you can devolve. So you jsut cant battle there, but you can still devolve there.
I have an overall Root question. I have never played Root, but appreciate the concept of asymmetrical. But in practice, it seems like each player needs to have an understanding of all the advantages and disadvantages of each faction to really be effective at the game. It seems some factions counter other factions. It seems if you had a new player who did not understand their faction, then naturally opposed faction would have a big advantage. True?
This is a great question. Their are natural counters between factions but I've found that rather than 1 faction being able to totally ruin another, that the interaction goes both ways. For example, the Lord of the Hundreds faction and the Lizard Cult have a mutually destructive relationship where either faction can choose to make the other's life difficult. Root is extremely rich with player choice and agency, so it's more about what you do with the tools at your disposal rather than what the tools are (even though the diversity of said tools is what makes this game so fascinating from a mechanical POV). If 1 player is newer and is clearly falling behind, the other players have a choice of whether they want to be mean or merciful. Give the newer player a chance to catch up and stay relevant in the game or just pounce on every moment of weakness. When I'm trying to introduce the game to new players, I give the newer players some slack to get a chance to make up for mistakes but I'll also make sure they understand why a certain move was not the best idea, so they can learn the consequences. The quality of the game definitely rises the more all players know the game and the dynamics between factions. This is because there is an emergent meta that helps guide your decisions (and Root provides lots of freedom to make your own decisions and guide the narrative of your particular game). Don't worry too much about balance, play friendly and don't try to delete other players from the board and the experience should be very enjoyable for all.
With the sunward expedition, if all of the footholds are on the map, when you move an existing foothold, do the warriors still come from the supply (i assume so). So, if all warriors and all footholds are already on the map, the action is basically to just move a foothold and nothing else (since there are no warriors left in the supply) [Only talking about step 1 here]
You would only move the Foothold as that's all that the step tells you to do, not the warriors. The reason is that you have 8 warriors but only 3 footholds so theoretically it is likely that all 3 footholds could be on the map but there are still warriors in supply that should be deployable.
a couple of questions about the spies: 1) I was under the impression that the spies themselves don't battle, they just allow you to start a battle with your own warriors in that region - is that incorrect? 2) if, while playing as the Eyrie, I control a single corvid spy that's tied for rule, does the "birds win ties" rule apply? (again, I have no birds there, only a hireling under my control) and about Hirelings in general: if I attack an opponents warriors and I roll more hits than I need, may I assign the excedent hits to hirelings that opponent controls in the clearing? thank you to anyone who might know!
1) Any time an action on a hireling card says "you may battle" it's talking about the Hireling warriors, not the controller. If the ability of the card starts with "Controller:" THEN it means you the controlling faction get to take the action. Rat Smugglers is formatted this way and it allows you to take a battle or move with your own warriors, but the Spies don't say "controller:" it just says "you" and in this case "you" is the hireling. 2) If you look at the updated wording (in the Law of Root) for the Lords of the Forest ability, it now says "and they have at least 1 Eyrie piece there". This new wording came into effect with the Marauder expansion but basically as long as you have a single Eyrie piece (bird warrior or roost) you rule on ties. A Corvid spy warrior is not an Eyrie piece even though you are controlling it, so it does not get the benefit of lords of the forest. 3) No, you can not assign excess hits to other pieces. When you initiate a battle, you choose a single target, either a faction or a hireling. Just like how if I attack an enemy in a clearing where I have hireling warriors, those hirelings don't help me in battle by soaking hits or increasing my rolled hits limit. They are not part of the battle unless it explicitly says so (Riverfolk mercenaries work differently from Hirelings).
Move is optional because it says "You may move, and then you may battle". So first you decide if you want to move. No matter what you decide, you then make a separate decision if you want to battle. If you take both actions, they have to be in that order, but both actions are optional.
I'm curious on how the Protector would interact against an enemy Corvid's bomb plot. Setup. There's a Protector in a clearing with an enemy Corvid Warrior, a unfliped bomb and some other players warriors 1. The Corvid player starts its turn by revealing the bomb token. 2. It scores points per by the Corvid revealing plots mechanic. 3. The bomb itself won't remove any enemy pieces since the Protector doesn't allows it. 4. The Corvid player cannot remove the bomb plot token itself since the Protector doesn't allows it. 5. The bomb remains fliped up for the next of the game in a bugged-inactive state waiting for it to be attacked by any player? Like a Raid token but without any actual effect when removed.
No, the controller's pieces don't get removed by enemy effects. If you flip a bomb, that's you resolving the effect and therefore it gets removed. But if the Corvids flip a bomb on you in the clearing with the protector and you are the controller, you don't have any pieces removed by the bomb. The key thing to understand is that only the controller has the benefit of not having enemies remove pieces. Enemies of the Protector don't have this power.
Hi, thanks for your great content! I have a question about the mole artisans. While I control them, would I be allowed to always have 6+ cards in hand, no matter if I crafted an item and revealed its card or not, or just in turns where this is true?
Hey, glad the content is helpful. No you must still discard down to 5 during the draw phase. The clarification text of having more than 5 cards is there simply to explain that if and only if you've crafted items, you can redraw the cards after the discard step and therefore have more than 5. It's the only mechanism in the game that allows you to end the turn with more than 5 cards, therefore they felt the need to add the clarification text.
With the corvid spies, what happens if one or more of the clearings with a spy does not have any enemy pieces? Can you still take the action? For instance, if there were four clearings with spies and you are the controller, but only two of those clearing have enemy pieces, can I battle in those two and not the other two?
Yeah that's fine. The action doesn't say "you must be able to battle in every clearing" you simply battle in each one if you can. If ever you cannot take an action and the action isn't some kind of cost to do something else, like a remove as part of replace, then you just skip the action. It's like if the lizards lose a garden so they must discard 2 card but their hand is already empty, what do you do? Nothing, just skip the action since it's not possible. That's usually the answer in Root. How that makes sense.
Question about the Spies. Step one says, Place 2 warriors among any clearings with enemy pieces. If all the spies are already on the board do I pick 2 and move them? or do you skip step one?
No, never remove pieces from somewhere on the board unless it's stated to do so. The only examples I can think of where the supply being empty means you get to remove them from elsewhere on the map is when the Duchy uses a dig action or the Sunward Expedition places a foothold. Both of these examples, the text of the action makes it very clear that you may remove a tunnel/foothold if there are none in the supply. Unless it is specifically laid out, you don't get to re-arrange pieces like that.
Sunward Expedition second step refers only to Expedition warriors or may I place my faction warriors too? I think they should've put "Expedition warriors" just like in the setup part if they only meant the hirelings warriors. Thanks for this video!
It's a general rule that Hireling actions always refer only to the Hireling. The Bandit hireling is an exception to this rule and it says so on the card. Always assume that if a hireling action just says "warrior" it only refers to that hireling. If it says a "faction warrior of the controller" (which is what it says on the Bandit card) then you get to place one of your own faction warriors.
The requirement to battle is not "if possible", it's required to battle of "there is an enemy piece there". Because there is an enemy, a battle is required for the delve but the protector means you cannot battle the controller, so if the controller is the only enemy present, you simply are unable to battle and therefore cannot delve.
@@josealberto6298 Yep, that's correct! Make the Badgers' lives harder but not leaving empty clearings. Even some hirelings that are not controlled by them is a great way to make delve just a bit harder.
@NitroRev's Root Channel The Keepers would only be stopped if the enemy faction ruled the clearing since, in the rulebook and faction board of the keepers, it states they only have to battle "If able" and the rulebook further clarifies this by saying, "you must battle in the clearing you're acting in, unless there are no enemy pieces you can battle there." Since the Keepers wouldn't be able to battle the enemy faction with the protector there they move onto the delve part. Only then, if they don't rule the clearing, the delve action is stopped.
@@IcyP3ngu1n0 If I'm being honest, the rules lawyers are still debating this and we're awaiting a final ruling from Joshua Yearsly to determine the legality of this ruling. I would lean towards the Protector blocking battles and therefore blocking delve since the protector is still an enemy piece because this makes the Hireling more impactful for the keeper enemy rather than an exploit.
![I played the worst faction in the game so you don't have to. [Playthrough]](/img/n.gif)
Hell yeah, more hirelings!
I may have missed this in the video, but if you are the controller of the stoic protector, can you still initiate battles and it’s just that the defender can’t deal any damage back, or is it that there simply can’t be any battles at all in the protector’s clearing?
It's both! I didn't even think to mention it but yeah, you can initiate battles in the Protector's clearing (if you are the controller of course) and the enemy cannot deal hits back to you because they cannot remove your pieces. It's wild.
Thanks!
Wow, the protector really is one of the spiciest hirelings
@@skergy1579 I just made a short addressing your question. Good questions are very valuable for me to know what else needs clarification.
@@nitrorev but it can still damage the vagabond items, right?
@@kelvyndesouza4108 If the Vagabond is the controller of the stoic protector, enemies cannot battle you in the protector's clearing so they cannot damage your items. However if you the Vagabond battle them and they deal hits against you, then yes, some items can be damaged because the protector only protects the Vagabond from being targeted for battle, not from the consequences of their own actions.
Raven Sentries is VERY good for Keepers since they can bring their relics around with them to deal an extra hit.
Wooo was waiting for this!
21:18 I think Keepers in Iron still can devolve there, becouse the rule says you have to battle if you can and then you can devolve. So you jsut cant battle there, but you can still devolve there.
*delve
@@ForgeofAule yes
Yesss, finallyyyy, I love these videosss
also congrats on 5k subs!
Thanks so much! I wish I had the time in my life to celebrate it with a post but I'll be back soon.
I have an overall Root question. I have never played Root, but appreciate the concept of asymmetrical. But in practice, it seems like each player needs to have an understanding of all the advantages and disadvantages of each faction to really be effective at the game. It seems some factions counter other factions. It seems if you had a new player who did not understand their faction, then naturally opposed faction would have a big advantage. True?
This is a great question. Their are natural counters between factions but I've found that rather than 1 faction being able to totally ruin another, that the interaction goes both ways. For example, the Lord of the Hundreds faction and the Lizard Cult have a mutually destructive relationship where either faction can choose to make the other's life difficult.
Root is extremely rich with player choice and agency, so it's more about what you do with the tools at your disposal rather than what the tools are (even though the diversity of said tools is what makes this game so fascinating from a mechanical POV). If 1 player is newer and is clearly falling behind, the other players have a choice of whether they want to be mean or merciful. Give the newer player a chance to catch up and stay relevant in the game or just pounce on every moment of weakness. When I'm trying to introduce the game to new players, I give the newer players some slack to get a chance to make up for mistakes but I'll also make sure they understand why a certain move was not the best idea, so they can learn the consequences.
The quality of the game definitely rises the more all players know the game and the dynamics between factions. This is because there is an emergent meta that helps guide your decisions (and Root provides lots of freedom to make your own decisions and guide the narrative of your particular game).
Don't worry too much about balance, play friendly and don't try to delete other players from the board and the experience should be very enjoyable for all.
With the sunward expedition, if all of the footholds are on the map, when you move an existing foothold, do the warriors still come from the supply (i assume so). So, if all warriors and all footholds are already on the map, the action is basically to just move a foothold and nothing else (since there are no warriors left in the supply) [Only talking about step 1 here]
You would only move the Foothold as that's all that the step tells you to do, not the warriors. The reason is that you have 8 warriors but only 3 footholds so theoretically it is likely that all 3 footholds could be on the map but there are still warriors in supply that should be deployable.
Am I overlooking it? But with the stoic protector, you can still battle enemies in that clearing, however you cannot lose pieces? Is that correct?
That's correct!
So good
a couple of questions about the spies:
1) I was under the impression that the spies themselves don't battle, they just allow you to start a battle with your own warriors in that region - is that incorrect?
2) if, while playing as the Eyrie, I control a single corvid spy that's tied for rule, does the "birds win ties" rule apply? (again, I have no birds there, only a hireling under my control)
and about Hirelings in general: if I attack an opponents warriors and I roll more hits than I need, may I assign the excedent hits to hirelings that opponent controls in the clearing?
thank you to anyone who might know!
1) Any time an action on a hireling card says "you may battle" it's talking about the Hireling warriors, not the controller. If the ability of the card starts with "Controller:" THEN it means you the controlling faction get to take the action. Rat Smugglers is formatted this way and it allows you to take a battle or move with your own warriors, but the Spies don't say "controller:" it just says "you" and in this case "you" is the hireling.
2) If you look at the updated wording (in the Law of Root) for the Lords of the Forest ability, it now says "and they have at least 1 Eyrie piece there". This new wording came into effect with the Marauder expansion but basically as long as you have a single Eyrie piece (bird warrior or roost) you rule on ties. A Corvid spy warrior is not an Eyrie piece even though you are controlling it, so it does not get the benefit of lords of the forest.
3) No, you can not assign excess hits to other pieces. When you initiate a battle, you choose a single target, either a faction or a hireling. Just like how if I attack an enemy in a clearing where I have hireling warriors, those hirelings don't help me in battle by soaking hits or increasing my rolled hits limit. They are not part of the battle unless it explicitly says so (Riverfolk mercenaries work differently from Hirelings).
7:00 do you have to move in order to battle? Or can you not move and just battle?
Move is optional because it says "You may move, and then you may battle". So first you decide if you want to move. No matter what you decide, you then make a separate decision if you want to battle. If you take both actions, they have to be in that order, but both actions are optional.
@@nitrorevthanks!!
Do you have hireling sleeves?
I'm curious on how the Protector would interact against an enemy Corvid's bomb plot.
Setup. There's a Protector in a clearing with an enemy Corvid Warrior, a unfliped bomb and some other players warriors
1. The Corvid player starts its turn by revealing the bomb token.
2. It scores points per by the Corvid revealing plots mechanic.
3. The bomb itself won't remove any enemy pieces since the Protector doesn't allows it.
4. The Corvid player cannot remove the bomb plot token itself since the Protector doesn't allows it.
5. The bomb remains fliped up for the next of the game in a bugged-inactive state waiting for it to be attacked by any player? Like a Raid token but without any actual effect when removed.
No, the controller's pieces don't get removed by enemy effects. If you flip a bomb, that's you resolving the effect and therefore it gets removed. But if the Corvids flip a bomb on you in the clearing with the protector and you are the controller, you don't have any pieces removed by the bomb.
The key thing to understand is that only the controller has the benefit of not having enemies remove pieces. Enemies of the Protector don't have this power.
@@nitrorev Gotcha!
Hi, thanks for your great content! I have a question about the mole artisans. While I control them, would I be allowed to always have 6+ cards in hand, no matter if I crafted an item and revealed its card or not, or just in turns where this is true?
Hey, glad the content is helpful. No you must still discard down to 5 during the draw phase. The clarification text of having more than 5 cards is there simply to explain that if and only if you've crafted items, you can redraw the cards after the discard step and therefore have more than 5. It's the only mechanism in the game that allows you to end the turn with more than 5 cards, therefore they felt the need to add the clarification text.
Thanks for the clarification!
With the corvid spies, what happens if one or more of the clearings with a spy does not have any enemy pieces? Can you still take the action? For instance, if there were four clearings with spies and you are the controller, but only two of those clearing have enemy pieces, can I battle in those two and not the other two?
Yeah that's fine. The action doesn't say "you must be able to battle in every clearing" you simply battle in each one if you can. If ever you cannot take an action and the action isn't some kind of cost to do something else, like a remove as part of replace, then you just skip the action.
It's like if the lizards lose a garden so they must discard 2 card but their hand is already empty, what do you do? Nothing, just skip the action since it's not possible. That's usually the answer in Root. How that makes sense.
Nice! Will you do the same for the other hirelings?
Yep, just 1 more video to go and I'll have covered them all
Question about the Spies. Step one says, Place 2 warriors among any clearings with enemy pieces. If all the spies are already on the board do I pick 2 and move them? or do you skip step one?
No, never remove pieces from somewhere on the board unless it's stated to do so. The only examples I can think of where the supply being empty means you get to remove them from elsewhere on the map is when the Duchy uses a dig action or the Sunward Expedition places a foothold. Both of these examples, the text of the action makes it very clear that you may remove a tunnel/foothold if there are none in the supply. Unless it is specifically laid out, you don't get to re-arrange pieces like that.
Is there a box that contains ALL the hirelings?
Unfortunately not, they're all currently separate purchases
Sunward Expedition second step refers only to Expedition warriors or may I place my faction warriors too? I think they should've put "Expedition warriors" just like in the setup part if they only meant the hirelings warriors.
Thanks for this video!
It's a general rule that Hireling actions always refer only to the Hireling. The Bandit hireling is an exception to this rule and it says so on the card. Always assume that if a hireling action just says "warrior" it only refers to that hireling. If it says a "faction warrior of the controller" (which is what it says on the Bandit card) then you get to place one of your own faction warriors.
@@nitrorev Got it! thanks for the clarification
Why the keepers in iron cannot delve in the protector clearing? I thought they can delve always and they battle only if it is posible
The requirement to battle is not "if possible", it's required to battle of "there is an enemy piece there". Because there is an enemy, a battle is required for the delve but the protector means you cannot battle the controller, so if the controller is the only enemy present, you simply are unable to battle and therefore cannot delve.
@@nitrorev so if there aren't enemy pieces you can delve without battling, but you can't if there is a protecter, thanks
@@josealberto6298 Yep, that's correct! Make the Badgers' lives harder but not leaving empty clearings. Even some hirelings that are not controlled by them is a great way to make delve just a bit harder.
@NitroRev's Root Channel The Keepers would only be stopped if the enemy faction ruled the clearing since, in the rulebook and faction board of the keepers, it states they only have to battle "If able" and the rulebook further clarifies this by saying, "you must battle in the clearing you're acting in, unless there are no enemy pieces you can battle there." Since the Keepers wouldn't be able to battle the enemy faction with the protector there they move onto the delve part. Only then, if they don't rule the clearing, the delve action is stopped.
@@IcyP3ngu1n0 If I'm being honest, the rules lawyers are still debating this and we're awaiting a final ruling from Joshua Yearsly to determine the legality of this ruling. I would lean towards the Protector blocking battles and therefore blocking delve since the protector is still an enemy piece because this makes the Hireling more impactful for the keeper enemy rather than an exploit.
For the furious protector, if he starts at a ruin clearing then the vagabond can’t enter the clearing and search the ruin until the protector leaves 😮
The ruin items are not enemy pieces, they are game neutral so explore is legal.
Good work here!!! The secret to YT success = "promosm" .
Thank you! I'm not really sure what you mean though 😅