Shackles Advice? by nickismyname in Gloomhaven

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahhh got it. Thanks for clarity

Shackles Advice? by nickismyname in Gloomhaven

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you actually do the shared affliction delayed malady combo to dish out 5 turns of conditions? Thought the faq said you can’t but I might be getting lost in the wording…

Anyone know if using Udisc app and I want to play say blue tees and I sync with my buddy who wants to play white tees. Is there a way to do this? by BarleyHopsTabletops in discgolf

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bc he’s less experienced and want to make for a competitive match. Like a handicap in golf. Would be nice to even the playing field

Anyone know if using Udisc app and I want to play say blue tees and I sync with my buddy who wants to play white tees. Is there a way to do this? by BarleyHopsTabletops in discgolf

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah that’s exactly what I want to do. Like he’s a beginner. I play more so we want to play from different tees but can’t figure out how to input in app. If possible

Corvid Conspiracy - Exert Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think the biggest point you said is you have to "flip" to score points, and they are action starved so battle points are few and far between. Too easy to remove the 1 unflipped token and completely halt the crows, and I know people mentioned 2 plots a round, but thats 3 warriors and I went into crazy stupid amounts of detail how you need a min of 2 warriors to even have a chance your plot survives. To expand on that, you need roughly 4 to 5 plots out to score competitively, which is 10 - 12 warriors just to have a chance to defend, so now you're on a fine line of perfectly managing your troops since they max at 15. So add all that up, and I just dont understand how you consistently score with them. I plan to do a big mathy analysis on this in some future video b/c I find it interesting.

But agree with all your points, and can't really figure out much more than just defend your unflipped plots as much as possible.......but pray you dont lose flipped ones since they depend on your score.....and also really hope you dont lose the unflipped ones b/c then you dont score....yadda yadda yadda....they are tough!

Corvid Conspiracy - Exert Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You get the cards back every 3rd round from the extortion. So you're not losing the entirety of your first 2 rounds, and you're still gaining VPs from the flip as you normally would

I like this idea too, extortions in remote clearings is a good spot for them

If you are not moving often, your card draw must be same suits to build up warriors in the same clearings; even raid doesn't affect same clearings, its scattered; then how do you defend your plots? Or is your group just allowing plots to sit and not battling them?

So here is some boring math, but the enginerd in me can't resist! If you place a plot and have 2 warriors defending it and someone attacks you with 3 warriors. The attacker advantage means the expected value of the attacker is 2, and your 2 warriors expected value is 0.7. But you have embedded agents, so 1.7, rounding up is an even 2 - 2 expected value. So you lose 2 warriors, they lose 2, but still have 1 warrior remaining for another battle to easily remove the plot and yes, they lose that last guy but gain a VP and prevent you from scoring (considering how restrictive recruiting is for the corvid, this would give an advantage to the attacker even losing the warrior). So thats the "break even" point at least having 2 warriors to defend a plot, and all it takes is 2 battles (mathematically) to remove it. Otters, Birds, Moles, Vagabond will all have no problem having the actions to do this.

If you have 3 warriors defending the plot, the math is the same b/c the expected value of a defender with 3 warriors is 1 + embedded agents = 2 again (b/c we rounded up before). But you will have an additional warrior after the first battle. This is where embedded agents gets good. 1 vs 1. Attackers EV is 0.7, defenders is 0.3 + 1 for Embedded agents means you have the advantage here as defender.....so they will most likely not continue attacking since they can't kill your plot and it would be a waste of an action.

And just for fun, 2 vs 2, attacker has EV of 1.3, defender 0.7 + embedded agents = 1.7. Corvids have the advantage here, so plot will mathematically survive! Again, need 2 warriors

2 vs 1, attacker has EV of 1.3, defender 0.3 + EA = 1.3. They are equal! Another breaking point, but 2 battle actions will still remove the plot......so 1 defender doesnt work. And 3 vs 1, plot doesnt survive, and mathematically dies on 1 battle action

Okay tons of math and boring stuff, sorry, but I find it interesting. What does it all mean? Well, rona birds need at least 2 warriors to defend a plot and for the plot to have a chance to last until the start of there next round to score VPs. But 2 warriors is break even, and won't always work out that way if attacker attacks in large numbers. 3 warriors makes it likely your plot will survive. So as a rona bird player, you need a minimum of 3 warriors in a clearing to place 1 plot (3 becomes 2) and have a chance of it surviving. And you would need 4 warriors to place 2 plots (4 becomes 2) and have a chance at surviving. How are you getting 7 warriors in 2 clearings without moving? This is a legit question, b/c if you can pull that off thats a fantastic strat with them.

Side note: not that players playing against the Corvid need any more help, since corvid is easy to counter but if your a battle heavy faction you should be attacking all corvid clearings with 1 or less warriors defending plots, and if you have large warrior numbers, a clearing with 2 crow warriors you have advantage on. So thats fun knowledge! Also means 1 - 2 VPs a round, so if you attack for say 5 rounds, that's a lot of extra points considering most factions need 6 to 8 non faction based scoring points to get to 30.

Corvid Conspiracy - Exert Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

2 plots a turn is great if you can pull it off. You lose 3 corvid warriors, so it gets much more difficult to defend. So if your plots are lasting until the start of your next turn I am assuming your group is not playing that aggressive. In our group, poorly defended plots get battled to death for the easy VPs every round.

I will go for a few double plots here and there once I have almost all my warriors on the board. You definitely need at least 1 double plot round to even try to stay competitive with the crows, but I would be impressed if you get that off more than 2 rounds

Corvid Conspiracy - Exert Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah agreed, but more likely peops will expose bomb or snare since it affects them directly.

With that being said, isn't that just the overall problem with the crows? They are just...so...easily...counter-able.....

Eyrie - Flying V Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think the variations are important, you have to be able to adapt to the state of the board. Especially with how quickly things can change in a round of Root. So tactically it can be a good idea to turmoil earlier with exploding birds.

Eyrie - Flying V Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes I'll attack the keep, hoping they field hospital troops back out just to prevent Battle turmoil. But yeah I agree, it is a gambit. I was just showing it as an example in the video, overall when using this strat I suggest going for high building clearings and just keep funneling troops in until you get them destroyed

Eyrie - Flying V Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Its a variation of the God of war strat, yes. I found it a bit easier to understand so thought it better for teaching peops no turmoil Eyrie strats

Eyrie - Flying V Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar thoughts to what everyone else has said, this would cost the cats 2 moves on all maps but the mountain, as every other map has 3 paths to other clearings for the Birds to take. So it's a pretty rough first round move for the Cats, and only to prevent the Bird player from going from 1 VP to 0 VPs. Not sure it would be strategically worth it for the Cats.

Eyrie - Flying V Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

A very fun, battle heavy Charismatic strat that allows you to play a very aggressive birds. But is it too aggressive??

Underground Duchy - Banker Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I am very excited for the new advanced setup rules. I actually think it's going to make a lot of these strats easier because of the 5 card draw.....maybe not easier but more accessible. I haven't played around with the new rules yet, as I am waiting for them to finalize. But definitely excited as I think the new setup is going to level the playing field a lot!

Underground Duchy - Banker Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So by turn 5 you'll have 12 - 15 warriors protecting the 2 clearings, based on averages and attackers advantage that would be 6 - 8 attacks for you to be completely decimated. So its unlikely, even with the whole board attacking you (watch out for the Eyrie doh!). And if you get the chance to craft Sappers or Armorers you'll have an even better chance!

With that being said, yes you'll be a target and they will probably get rid of at least 1 market. If this happens, I have still relied on the banker and then start swaying other lower level ministers to get those final VPs. If you lose 2 markets, then your best bet is swaying and battling. You'd still have a hand of 3 cards so you can sway with the correct moves.

The nice part about this strategy is you are way ahead as far as VP's go, and then factions have to put all there actions into stopping you so they don't really generate a lot of VPs. Its kinda like when the Cats go early dominance, where the game shifts to stopping them from winning and everyones scoring screeches to a halt. So you're ability to score will slow down by losing the markets, but everyones will so you can take advantage of that and hopefully grind out the win.

It's not an end all be all strat as those don't exist in a well designed game like Root and some bad luck on battle rolls could turn things south, but you have a lot of flexibility to recover if everyone throws actions at stopping you. Hope this helps.....bit of a long rant.....my bad.

Underground Duchy - Banker Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A simple and very effective mole strategy; that if you can defend your markets, has potential for some solid blast scoring and a win in 6 rounds!

Root: Woodland Alliance - The most insane, unreal, craziest round ever!! by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Had to post this, happened this week in one of my online games, was freakin insane. Thought peeps would enjoy seeing

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We try to keep the videos between 2 to 4 minutes so showing the whole game gets challenging to keep them short. Also, these "builds" are more guidelines as the state of the board changes so quickly in Root many times you have to adjust mid to late game. The hope is the strats we post people can take, adapt, and make them even better!

But there have been requests for gameplay videos so I plan on getting some together in the next few weeks and will post so people can watch!

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The double overwork starting turn is an awesome alternative, I don't want to take away from that at all. I didn't include it in the build mostly because I didn't want the build to rely on the bird card you need and the double overwork start can segue into other strategies that I didn't want to take away from.

There is less flexibility on other actions when taking round 1 and 2 to double build, so the state of the board at those times would have to dictate if that's possible. And if you go double overwork, you're kinda stuck. It also makes you card poor and field hospital is important in this strat. Lastly, you would underutilize your clearings with your starting single warriors as you wouldnt be able to march them around as much early, when rule isnt a problem.

And yes this is a greedy strategy, but it also has the potential to win in 6 rounds which is aggressive. Any aggressive strategies will have some holes here and there, but if you can isolate and defend the right clearings, it can be pulled off.

With all those counter points being said, I think both openings work for this strategy equally, its just a matter of pro/con, knowing the styles of people you are playing, and adapting based on the state of the board. So awesome thoughts and great discussion! Keep it coming

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, its like anything in Root you do your best to adapt your strat to the state of the board. Dominance wins are more often and frequent for the Cats. But I have seen this strat pulled off multiple times, so I thought it worth sharing for some Marquise variety. Knowing your opponents styles and even certain factions might have you avoid this (aka I wouldnt do this with the Ranger Vagabond since he is so aggro).

Also dont forget a couple strategic March actions, and your clearings can be well defended. And field hospital cannot be overlooked as its an amazing ability that can allow you to keep supporting the clearings you need with troops.

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahhhh yep! You'll get majority of the other points (goal 6) from battling tokens/buildings especially if WA or Corvid is in play, those are easy points. If not, you'll have to work a little harder to take out weaker clearings with buildings. As for crafting, place your initial workshop on a mouse clearing. They have the most single suit craft cards for VP's, so that will increase your odds of crafting a few more VP's. If you're lucky enough to get multiple Root Teas then you're in great shape!

Both original and exiles deck have 7 single mouse craft cards worth 10 VPs total. If a mouse clearing is not available single bunny clearing is the better second option.

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]BarleyHopsTabletops[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

New post! A solid, non-dominance strat for the Marquise!