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Oh no you are just too kind! I'm glad you like the design - I'm looking forward to testing it properly as well :)

I'll pass on your compliments to the artist! She really did an unbelievable job!

Truthfully, there are way too many brilliantly executed and creative ideas to say that any one 'deserves' to win, but I am flattered by the high praise!

Right! Now I understand you better :) Yes, sending VIPs to and from the Agreements wheel is definitely an avenue that can be explored - I agree it fits very well with the political theme of the faction. I will definitely give it some proper consideration!

The TTS assets are coming along nicely! 👀

Thank you Tricholome for your detailed and kind feedback! I'm glad you like these ideas, and I have passed on your compliments to my sister-in-law :)

I like your suggestion for factions to be able to use VIPs from enemy factions (reinforcing the corruption theme) - I will explore this option to see if it enhances the gameplay without adding too much rules bloat.

I don't think the VIPs remain static at all though - they are indeed placed during setup, but they must move every single turn, and may move again every single turn as per Too Good to Turn Down. Furthermore, the Confederacy may move enemy VIPs via Astute Diplomacy if enemies remove their pieces, meaning VIPs may move 3-5 times per round if they are battling the Beavers.

Of course, all this will be playtested extensively. I envision a dynamic and interactive action wheel that encourages interaction at Lodges and strategic planning to get the most use out of the available actions in the long term. The Confederacy will also need to plan critically to mitigate the effectiveness of enemy VIPs! 

Thank you so much Alex! :)

Sparky thank you so much for weighing in with such kind words! 🥹 You pretty much summed up the vision I had so I'm glad it shines through! 😂

'Too Good to Turn Down' works almost exactly like you said. They have to move to one of the 2 adjacent action tiles in Agreements. Then they may take the action, or may move again (but not take the action). So they either get a free action or prepare to take a different action on a future turn.

Yes, you are quite right (so eagle-eyed!) - there should be a bird card icon near the end of Market Dominance. I accidentally left that layer transparent when converting to png format. It should read as follows:

Thanks again for your feedback! :D

I know, the art is just mind-blowing!! I've already screenshotted your comment to pass onto her - from a fellow artist it is especially meaningful so thank you for the highest praise!

I'm genuinely, genuinely looking forward to playtesting this faction because I think the mechanics will be so interactive with other factions and give so many opportunities for table-talk and negotiations between players :) Thanks again for being so generous with your compliments here Tin! 

Thank you so very much! I wholeheartedly agree on the artwork, and I'm looking forward to testing and developing the faction further :) 

I'll be sure to pass on all art-related compliments to my sister-in-law! 🔥🔥🔥

Wow Tin you went above and beyond with the compliments! Thanks so much for such generous comments!

I am very happy that you like the gameplay concepts and the artwork (which coming from you of all people means so much! Some faction matchups haven't been fully tested. I will have to keep myself aware of Woodland Alliance and Vagabond interactions with these Wolves because they might become a little weird! Bear in mind though that although the Wolves have great power to damage other factions (they are reach: 10), they only score points by capturing the opposite Wolf Pack pieces, so every time they go after another faction they are sacrificing their own scoring tempo! But for sure I will keep an eye on it as I continue playtesting :)

Thanks again for the kind words and the detailed review!

Hi Codo! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, your interest in my faction is a massive compliment in and of itself! 🙂

I understand your concerns over balance, it is indeed powerful to be able to capture a piece by moving into a clearing. But in the early game, Wolves don't have enough actions (Vehemence) for this to be overly oppressive, and in the late game their militancy is still not as brutal as a Warlord with 4 prowess. Moreover, the Wolves are forced to direct most of their attacking to the opposite Wolf Pack (for both scoring and action engine building), so they don't want to be using their actions on other factions too much!

Vehemence = no. of Captured Bishops + Knights + (Queens x2). You can just count them up on your board.

Wolves have a supply of removed warriors like any other faction, but these warriors can't be redeployed. Hence maintaining a strong board presence is very important for them! This obviously contradicts their checkmate scoring condition, making it very difficult to know how much to sacrifice to force checkmate or a promotion! Only Wolves can capture pieces.

Yes, both factions have separate hands and crafted items/improvements. It wouldn't make any sense thematically for arch-enemies to share resources like that 😁

Hopefully this has answered your questions, if anything is still unclear then don't hesitate to shoot me another reply! Thanks for your enthusiasm for this idea, it makes me happy! 

Hey Sparky! Thanks haha it took a lot of mental struggle to make the parts fit together but I'm happy with how it turned out so far! The playtests I've done have been very satisfying from a gameplay perspective - there's the horrific dilemma between sacrificing pieces to increase Vehemence (action engine), but permanently reducing your board presence with each piece Captured! Then there's the puzzle of trying to position for a Checkmate or a Promotion but also the need to police other factions who will outrace you. Finally, opponents taking Countermoves have to decide whether to use the action to police the Wolves, police a rival, or retrieve one of their own Captured pieces... so yeah there's brutal decisions for all players involved. Truly, you must sacrifice 😂

I'll pass on your comments to the artist, trust me when I say I'm as eager as you are to see more of this beautiful art because it's outstanding!!

Hi loopyloo! Thanks for your kind comment! I'm so glad you enjoy the theme and mechanics!

Your question regarding Bitter Feud is valid, perhaps it would be better to change it from "all actions" to "each action" to avoid the possible misinterpretation you described (no.1 is correct, no.2 is wrong).

Vehemence is visually intuitive if you keep all captured Knights, Bishops and Queens on the same side of the Captured Pieces boxes, then you just have to count them.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment, very kind of you to do so! :D

Hi Ettrian, thanks for your compliments and also for the feedback regarding Vehemence. By the sounds of it, you have correctly interpreted the rules as written on the board (bravissimo!), but I'm guessing you didn't notice the Caveat I put in the project page text:

"Forgot to add the caveat that Vehemence cannot be lower than 2 (so wolves can actually do stuff in rounds 1 and 2)." 

This means that even if factions aggressively try to crowd wolves out of clearings, they can still take a few moves per round to start building their Vehemence engine :)

Hope that clears things up! Thanks so much for your interest in this faction, it means a lot to me! 😍🙏🏼

Thanks chruw for the kind words, it means so much to me! 😍 I agree that the art is amazing and will pass your praise on to the artist ❤️ 11 warriors on the map for each Pack (with 4 Queens-in-waiting), but yes with all their separate ways of moving it becomes a bit chewy to learn. I'm so glad people are loving the concept of the faction! Doubtless further refinement will be undertaken to make it more approachable. Thanks again for the encouragement! 

It's a definite option for future consideration. All the pieces have simple movement that's clearly defined (and loosely follows chess pieces' movement style) on the faction board. I went for maximal chess theme in order to emphasise the theme of sacrificing pieces to Checkmate or get a new Queen.

But yeah I will continue to test and develop the ideas presented here in the discord server, and would be delighted to receive further insights from Root connoisseurs such as yourself! I look forward to seeing you there! :)

And thanks so much for the complimentary comment, it made me so happy! :D

I should say that all wolf artwork is original fan art done by a friend of mine (who has not got an account for me to credit) - I would love to pass on any compliments you may offer, because they did an unbelievable job at emulating the great Kyle Ferrin's work! 

I should say that all wolf artwork is original fan art done by a friend of mine (who has not got an account for me to credit) - I would love to pass on any compliments you may offer, because they did an *unbelievable* job at emulating the great Kyle Ferrin's work! 

Thanks so much bal! Yeah I tried to go for a concept that was very unique! Glad you like it! 🙌🏼