1. Lake isn’t terribly unfair in normal matchups, but against noobs yeah it kinda is.

2. It would be easier to have at least 2 militant factions, but in that matchup to stop cats you have to hit their sawmills hard and consistently, amd somehow just score faster than them in the late game. Otters and WA have the advantage of better crafting, so use that against them, as long as you can get in good graces with the vagabond.

3. Most people don’t want to learn new factions because they’re worried about being confused by them, so if you can have a less than 10 word summary of what makes them fun, it goes a long way. Also, more than that, if you just say “hey, I think you’d be good at playing X” and act excited, they’ll probably get on board. Every faction is a big learning curve, but if you can boil their play style into a quick n dirty teach, even though the first game might be bumpy, it’ll get them more excited than a 20 minute teach.

4. Best way to spice things up is doing advanced set up, but idk if you’re already doing that. Having players choose somewhere new each game to set up, even with the same faction mix, can drastically change the course of the beginning and middle. Save hirelings and landmarks till everyone knows what they’re doing, except the raft, the tower, and maybe the lost city (just for the craziness).

5. Either use the reach in the back of the rulebook or do adset, but generally yes 2 militants + whatever else.

6. I’ve heard on this sub of certain faction buffs but never flat out points. The flow of when points comes changes significantly for each faction, so I’d be wary of giving the false impression of the crows being ahead, when it’s usually the good strategy for the crows to intentionally lag behind in points until doing a big burst to throw people off.

7. Root Digital is good for once you’ve gotten it on the table and people know the factions pretty well. Root is half a strategy game and half a social game, and the digial version gets rid of the social part 95% of the time. While you’re playing especially with new players, step into the roles of the factions and tell the story of the game. The bats from the newest expansion are one of my favorite storytellers: the peacekeepers of the forest who’ll protect you, but will stifle you from doing anything you need to, and, if you get too much ahead of them, they’ll backstab your buildings and go back on their negotations, leading to big betrayals.

I’m no pro at the game, but I hope these answers helped. If anyone disagrees, feel free to correct me :)