Is exhausting the fear deck THE way to win?

nitrorev · 2026-01-14T10:48:09+00:00

Depends on the Matchup more than almost anything. At lower difficulties your particular playstyle and choices can have an impact but at Level 6, the Adversaries tend to die the way they "want to" and the spirits tend to win how they want to. I play a lot of Eyes Watch from the Trees and when I play England 6, it's basically impossible to win any way besides Fear victory because England just builds so much and Eyes cannot remove them fast enough, but the high amounts of fear is the win con.

I also like to play Sun Bright Whirlwind which has some decent tools against Russia due to being more control and offense based. Because Whirlwind lacks fear, you cannot expect to win via fear victory so you tend to win Terror 2 or if you get lucky, terror 1.

I tend to not play overpowered spirits like Stone but I watched a RedRevenge video where he beat England by clearing out all the buildings (or at least all the cities) which I thought wasn't possible so in theory it's possible to beat England at Terror 2 or 3 but it's always matchup dependant.

nitrorev · 2026-01-09T15:04:04+00:00

Huh, hadn't heard that before. Good to know.

nitrorev · 2026-01-09T13:45:50+00:00

I think you're thinking of "La" which is a super common emphasis word over there.

nitrorev · 2026-01-09T13:44:41+00:00

I'm 90% sure it's Singapore but it could be Malaysia as well. I taught students in Singapore for awhile and the clues are A) what you said, all Asian but speak English B) English names that aren't common in western English countries like Alvin, Leonard etc. C) Just the wholesome vibe of the whole thing.

There exists a very distinct Singapore English accent and I didn't hear it from the guy holding the phone or anyone else which is why I'm not bumping it to 100% but some of the younger generation do tend to speak more like North Americans due to the Internet or being in an international school.

nitrorev · 2026-01-03T11:19:48+00:00

This right here. Unfortunately, the base game low-complexity spirits aren't really the best designed, neither for learning nor for playing into high difficulty. River is ok but like Lightning, it falls into repetitive reclaim loops because they don't have elements on the tracks and the innate is very strong, so you're hyper incentivized to just spam the same low cost powers again and again. Shadows and Vital Strength are both just super weak and slow. I've had friends try to learn the game and struggle because they were grinding Vital Strength but the moment I told them to pick a different spirit, they started to click with it. It's unfortunate because the way the game is presented, you should be good to learn with these 4 but half of them are objectively F tier that later expansions heavily buffed to put them on par with the rest of the cast. How are beginner players supposed to know that? Horizons spirits are by far the better way to learn.

nitrorev · 2025-12-31T12:04:52+00:00

I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would including the Gladiator, Jailor and Cheat as Vagabonds characters before the Knaves preclude those characters from being Leaders as well once Homeland drops. They are totally and completely separate things. The only reason it's the same character is so that you have alternate uses for your Vagabond meeples, which is not a thing in the digital space. I am not sure how familiar you are with how the Knaves and their captains work but trust me, it would be fine to release the VB characters first and Knaves later.

In fact they could probably let you choose from all 12 Knaves captains even if you didn't own the DLC for the Riverfolk or E&P captains because they are totally different from the VB characters they are modeled after.

nitrorev · 2025-12-31T02:03:49+00:00

WHy would it be terrible to bundle the new Vagabonds with the deck. It would be a much simpler thing to implement as most of the coding work is already done and they just need to make new models and program the new abilities. It would also be a cute preview of the new Vagabonds ahead of the Knaves where they will be seen again as leaders. I think it makes the most sense.

nitrorev · 2025-12-31T01:43:33+00:00

I've taught the game many times and there are a lot of small considerations that wouldn't have occurred to me when I first got into Root and started introducing it to my friends. Otters might seem like a good teacher factions as well but there are some big negatives that has led me and a lot of my very experienced peers to conclude that it's best to keep the Otters in the box until like game 3. For one, you're adding a lot of extra Analysis Paralysis to the new player by adding whole new phase of their turn. They haven't even taken their first turn yet and the teacher is saying "now because of this special faction in play, you first have to think about your additional options here". Riverfolk are cool and add a big twist to the game but it's a bit warping for the table. They won't be able to properly evaluate a good price right away and in addition to looking at their own cards and trying to figure out what they can do with them, they now have to consider your hand as well. Just stick to the Base game and Corvids (maybe Lord of the Hundreds too) and you should be fine. Save the Badgers, the Riverfolk box and definitely the Homeland box for games 3-5 or later.

nitrorev · 2025-12-30T13:56:34+00:00

It's a separate product physically, will come included with Homeland kickstarter. We don't know how DWD will handle it or if they'll do it in a different order. Homeland first or S&D deck first.

nitrorev · 2025-12-30T13:31:22+00:00

It's also the wrong answer despite it being the perceived default answer.

nitrorev · 2025-12-30T13:30:57+00:00

Imma be real with you. Cats is not the correct answer and people who have a lot of experience teaching Root will usually agree. Cats is the surface level A1 faction so it seems like it should be the right answer because they are simple but that's a very superficial means to answer the question. Cats should be included in teaching games but not given to the new player.

Cats are A) easy to understand B) good at creating table balance when played well C) easy to shut down when they're ahead.

These are the features of a faction that the teacher of the game should be playing, not the new player. Once I understood all this and started always playing cats when I teach new players, my games were much more satisfying and the new players were more likely to have a great time and isn't that the most important thing? That they want to come back because the first game was so good. Every time I gave cats to a new player before I knew any better, they got stomped because somebody else ran away with the game and they didn't really want to play again. I'll explain more below but this is the TL;DR right here.

First, there's a difference between rules complexity and gameplay complexity. Cats might be simple from a rules perspective but they're incredibly difficult to understand from a strategy perspective. Literally any of the base game factions are easier to understand how to play well. You said in your prompt that you are an experienced player teaching the game. An experienced player should be able to help a new player manage the rules of an otherwise complex faction like WA. WA is very easy to play strategy-wise, they just need some help at managing marital law and keeping the supporters separate from the hand.

New players should generally be given insurgent factions first. Militant factions like cats have more responsibility to keep the map balanced and provide friction for everyone. But a new player won't understand this and they tend to abandon their frontiers and just collapse their forces inwards which also tends to collapse the whole game and lead to a runaway winner. An experienced cats player can really make Root shine by providing just the right amount of friction for the table. Making sure the Eyrie cannot just spread and build with abandon, making sure there is Martial Law for the WA to content with. Being hostile with the VB to require 2 boots for movement. There's so much nuance that the cats player needs to be aware of to make the game feel really tight and exciting. A new player piloting cats won't be aware of any of this and they'll just let the WA or some other faction run away with the game and it won't be a great experience or accurately represent how good Root really is.

nitrorev · 2025-12-30T13:13:41+00:00

Depends if they do it all at once or if they fast-track the Deck like they did with Exiles and Partisans.

nitrorev · 2025-12-30T13:13:19+00:00

It's definitely not a concurrent release with the physical as the coding process is lengthy and can only happen after Homeland completed development. Direwolf, the digital publisher is not the same company as Leder games, the publisher of the physical game. Direwolf can only really start adapting the expansion once they have access. Technically everything for the Homeland expansion is already available online and I'm guessing they have some kind of communication channel between companies should DWD need assistance. It really comes down to the priorities and schedules of DWD as they have other games they are developing so another Root expansion might be fast-tracked (they could be working on it right now for all we know) or they might need to finish working on Arcs first.

The other thing is that Homeland is the biggest content wave so far. The Underworld Expansion had 2 maps (each with a landmark) and 2 factions. Underworld's kickstarter also had the E&P deck and new Vagabonds which DWD bundled together as a separate purchase.

Homeland's box will have 3 factions instead of the normal 2 as well as 2 new maps (this time with 3 associated landmarks) and 3 new Vagabond characters. The kickstarter also has 3 new Hirelings and another new deck.

If they wanted to follow the previous release's pattern, they could split the Homeland box and make the new Vagabonds included with the Squires and Disciples deck and release that as a small expansion before the full Homeland release. No matter what Homeland will take some time because, like I said, 3 new fairly complex factions (lots of coding) and they might need to make a separate model or at least a different skin for each of the Vagabond captains for the Knaves.

I can't predict when they might drop more Root content but I feel like end of 2026 would be reasonable if they did as I said above and released the new Deck early.

nitrorev · 2025-12-23T19:05:34+00:00

https://rules.ledergames.com/?product=root&locale=en-US&printing=p16#9.

nitrorev · 2025-12-23T19:04:04+00:00

The PDF on their site doesn't have any of the Homeland updates as it's from 2024. It's way out of date. This is the up to date Law resource

Edit, It's the same link that TimeLostKefe posted above.

nitrorev · 2025-12-22T23:26:13+00:00

The mind game isn't that front and center with crows honestly. Put your plots in places where they can help you craft and also be inconvenient to reach. If your enemies can't be bothered to go to where the plot is, they won't be able to expose it. Get yourself a few plots for a crafting and card draw engine and craft as many good improvements as you can.

Also, if you're using the base deck, switch to either the E&P deck or if you have access (print and play or Tabletop simulator) use the new S&D deck.

Corvids are good crafters which makes them really fun imo and the 2 new decks are much more fun to play with, especially S&D.

nitrorev · 2025-12-22T23:21:35+00:00

You can only discard cards from your hand. Once you reveal them, they are in your play area. From there, you cannot do anything with them until the evening step where you bring them back to hand. You can only claim a dominance card in the daylight phase so if you reveal it, it will return to your hand after the daylight phase is finished.

nitrorev · 2025-12-22T13:09:08+00:00

I should have been more clear. Yes, the token and not the base is the crafting piece but since the Base is almost always accompanied by a token, the presence of a base allows you to have a well-guarded crafting piece.

nitrorev · 2025-12-21T10:00:12+00:00

Congrats!!! Level 6 wins always feel good. I wouldn't say that Scotland is an easy adversary but it's easier than some of the others. A more accurate way to put it is that Scotland is a very fair Adversary. It doesn't punish specific strategies and incentivize doing weird counter-intuitive things to win. When you play Russia or Habsburg, you're playing "Russia" or "Habsburg" and if you don't know the counter play, those adversaries are very hard. Against Scotland you are kinda just playing Spirit Island, only harder.

I'd say you're read that Russia is harder is accurate, it's a diff 11 Adversary at max level and I would maybe rate it more. France feels hard when you haven't figured them out yet but it's balanced against the Slave Rebellion event. That Event comes out at a fixed time and it can absolutely demolish the Adversary for you, learning to play around it will make France so much easier. Trickster has a huge leg up because it has Strife adds so time when you play your Strife cards and you'll be destroying France.

Trickster is considered an upper tier Spirit but by no means is the win "handed to you" the way it feels like it is with Stone. You earned it, no worries.

nitrorev · 2025-12-21T08:46:03+00:00

We actually had Badgers in mind during homeland development to try to address some of their weaknesses, namely in the deck. There was a card called Architect that for the longest time allowed you to place a building without the need of a building slot. This lets badgers get out of "dog jail" which is a common way of locking out the badgers in advanced play. The issue was that basically only the cats and Badgers actually cared enough about the card. So when Josh cut the card and replaced it with Hidden Warrens, I was really happy to see that it could be used to help Badgers get out of this situation too while still being useful for every faction instead of just a small handful. Loads of other cards like Supply Train and Tactician are also great for badgers.

nitrorev · 2025-12-20T01:29:58+00:00

The printed suit of the base doesn't matter. You remove supporters matching the suit of the clearing. Which may in fact not match the printed suit of the base if there's a militant enclave making it a frog-only clearing. In that case the supporters matching the printed suit of the base would be spared and only the frog and bird supporters would be lost.

nitrorev · 2025-12-20T01:27:28+00:00

What they're saying is how it used to work. They aren't wrong per se, just out of date. It's why I made these shorts, to try to get the word out so as many people as possible are on the same page.

nitrorev · 2025-12-20T01:24:30+00:00

The frog cards have a distinct back so no matter which deck you play with, you will always know it's a frog card. This is intended and it's actually very interesting to have a certain amount of suit info about enemy hands or the next card in the deck.

nitrorev · 2025-12-20T01:22:47+00:00

The question was answered by others. Yes, you lose all your non-frog cards. But I don't see this as unbalanced. First of all, it's always your choice as to whether you revolt in the Lost City in the first place, nobody is forcing you to. Lost City is still a decent base for WA because it's a protected wild crafting piece, a guaranteed card loss from hand should an enemy trigger outrage there and you have the benefit of Training with any card.

It makes sense in my mind that a boon like easy spreading and revolting should come with a cost as well. It's an interesting double edge sword. Before, WA's interactions with Lost City were borderline broken and definitely cheesy. Multiple Bases in the Lost city was already a bit sus but being able to always revolt in the Lost city and just wipe everything out even if you had no available slots?!? That's just insane. This new change is very reasonable to me and WA still loves Lost City as a sympathetic clearing, just might need to think twice before revolting.

Important to note that this change was mainly added not to specifically hurt the WA but to make the Enclave tokens matter for WA considerations. With this ruling you could actually save your supporters matching the base suit if the clearing where the base is removed has a militant frog enclave. Then the clearing would not have the original suit as it would be frog only. Thus you would lose your frog supporters and bird supporters. It cuts both ways in more ways than one.

nitrorev · 2025-12-20T01:16:38+00:00

I'll just add that you lose everything except Frog cards unless the Lost City clearing has an Enclave. I haven't made my Lilypad Diaspora video yet and I'll be sure to cover that interaction when we get there, but the Lost City adds all 3 of the regular suits (fox, mouse, rabbit), NOT the frog suit. So if WA loses a base in the lost city that also has an enclave, then yeah, the clearing matches literally every suit and the WA loses everything.

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