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Thanks for the clarification! True that you do sacrifice your own tempo, I just know I personally would take any opportunity to delete the WA 😆. Cheers!

 Apparently my review and writeup for these guys never uploaded 😭. I don't have a copy of the writeup either, but this faction is MORE than worth doing another one for. Because from the gameplay mechanics, the lore, the ARTWORK. I love these lil Wolfie warriors so much!

To start off with, I am MEGA biased towards awesome artwork, and this faction has it in spades. Not only do you have full on character designs for the front and back, you have a LINEUP of fantastic characters on the header image for the faction, with a fantastic background of scenery following the root style. You yourself should also really be commended for the background pattern, meeple design, and token designs. All absolutely top notch and all there to really immerse you in the...

LORE! What a cool story to tie in the theme of sacrifice, and honestly it just really paints how much appreciation there is both for ROOT and for chess in here! I mean who even comes up with the idea of playing chess within root and then making that idea seem like a real part of the conflict? And that story is supported so well by the...

Mechanics! The insanely unique concepts (like straight up adapting some ideas from chess to root, let alone you basically play against yourself) are translated so well. You've used consice language that has been allocated very clearly to the faction board, using the specific language official factions use. (See the second faction ability). The gameplay also flows really well, and sections that are needed "in the moment" like pawn promotion and captured pieces are given a more prominent place on the board, to make them easy to find at a glance. 

The one thing that concerns me is their interactions with some other factions on the board. I believe you're able to capture another factions pieces just by moving into the clearing with them? Imagine the WA gets their warrior held hostage without even the need to battle. All of a sudden they've been SEVERELY nerfed until you decide to give em that warrior back for a card. (If it were me, this would be never). 

All in all an absolutely fantastic submission. Can't wait to see your continued support for them, whatever faction you cook up next, and whatever artwork youd friend decides to share with us. Thanks so much!

I love how you've turned ROOT ORB® from a meme into an insanely unique and mechically creative faction! The board layout and lore behind them are fantastic, and I'm a sucker for both! Your faction patterns, meeples, adapted character art, and faction piece design are all fantastically top notch and help with immersion. 

Cursed paths is SUPER cool cuz they play with a unique design space of the paths, and we could definitely use more factions that use that sorta mechanic. 

Both how the revenant act and how factions can go after the orb are really unique and fantastical, though losing the orb seems like it SUCKS. That's toooootally by design, but I'm a little afraid folks will take the opportunity to super kneecap these guys instead of finding some other creative ways of doing so. Honestly just an observation, playtesting on my part would be needed to see if it's a non-issue, cuz removing that mechanic would lose lotsa flavour. 

Overall their mechanics are mega thought out and super creative, but that's to be expected! You've constantly been pushing the envelope when it comes to faction creativity, and I look forward to seeing as you keep developing them. Awesome work! :)

Faction mechanical design is on point as always, of course that's to be expected from a seasoned root content creator! The turn flow is fantastic and easy to decipher, a few games in I'm sure you'd be able to instinctively tell what actions you should be taking next. 

But that's what's interesting, with the dice roll mechanics, even if it were the exact same setup on the board, your game plan has gotta change depending on your dice rolls. Very unique and sets em apart in any given root game, but not enough to where they feel they don't belong. 

I like congregation as an ability! At first I thought "why would someone take an extra warrior there, when it benefits the pangolins more?". But honestly the extra warrior would mean a lot in certain situations for all faction, but especially those who value warriors a ton like otters, WA, crows even. 

I'm interested to see how the martyr actions would go, it's a fantastic concept and I really wanna see it used in gameplay in creative ways by the player. But if be tempted to go the greedy route and just go for points each time. Would take me some plays with em to see if that's actually the case! Just an awesome concept that I want the player to use. 

Really awesome faction as usual, and I can't wait to see how you continue to support and playtest these guys on your channel! ❤️

Hey it's me, the guy completely immediately won over by good storytelling and creative artwork. And this faction absolutely has both in spades. 

As commented by another, the lore and theme behind this faction is absolutely fantastic. It does indeed feel like what is taking place after the WA won, I like the idea of playing the 2 in a game together... Almost like watching a cycle of uprising and empowerment that never ends. 

Focusing on the sacrifice of morals and values to upkeep your faction is also fantastic, and adds an extra management of a resource that isn't yet seen in the game of root. You've also woven in lore - aspects of the base game (cards denoting help and followers of the denizens) to reflect your decreasing popularity among the woodsfolk. Amazing. 

Deserters and Growing greed are both really easy to understand abilities that are a basis for your gameplay to resolve around. It's good to place em where they are, since you're less likely to forget their existence and affect on your game plan. 

The split card draw is unique and adds an interesting choice mechanic. 

I'd be interested to see if their game plan isn't just "sit on 3 palace clearings" and defend for up to 9 points a turn. Maybe in actual gameplay other factions get into the way to where this isn't a viable stretagy. I'd need to playtest to see! It's just corruption is a fantastic mechanic, and I really want to see it interacted with and not ignored. Living shields might also get in the way of counterplay to this strategy potentially. Just had to add in something mildly criticizing considering how fantastic I think everything is lol

The character art is absolutely fantastic. Also love how as your pan across the header image, the lil foxes get more tattered and less happy go lucky, so sad but so well done. 

Absolutely support all of the commendation for this fantastic submission, you've really hit it outta the park here. 

Theme and faction board design are super on point, and I'm a fan of how you've incorporated our theme for this jam! They also at least to me seem pretty balanced and methodical. They also have just the right amount of ingredients and spice to make em unique and interesting without overbearing. 

Dark offering makes sense but is a bit weird, part of me feels like you should also be rewarded for if you include an extra sacrifice of one from an additional temple. (EX: 1 fox x 1 bunny gives 1 pt, but if you also sacrifice 1 mouse I kinda want them to get another point as opposed to nothing at all 😆). But perhaps this is just part of the really unique scoring mechanic they have, and some of the consideration and planning that the player must execute in order to properly pilot this faction. Honestly I'd need to playtest them to see if they're able to score competitively enough for this to be a non issue. 

Kinda feels rough for the LOTH and VB to have another faction vying for items, but at least they'll NEVER get the ruins. This isn't a complaint though, as the flavour of these guys FAR outweighs any pain the VB may feel 😈. 

The graphics for the temple and altars are fantastic, and the mechanics and gameplay are outlined very well and easy to understand and follow. Daylight actions are especially awesome! Also love the false orders effect of dark harvest. 

Fantastic submission!

I've got the unique oppression to review and rate your new version with updates! It's a lot easier to understand for the most part, and I'm able to follow along with their mechanics and game plan a lot better. 

It's super duper important with these guys to be able to play a game with em in order to criticize for the most part, just since they're pretty involved and it would be tough to gauge their strength without actually seeing it in action. 

Still I gotta really commend the creativity put into their mechanics and their theming. The one time abilities are fun and unique to them as well!

You're 3/3 in my opinion 😆. 

Sounds awesome!

Sounds thought out and considered!

Theme and mechanics are super clear and concise! Would love to keep seeing em as they're developed!

Order of the hive could benefit from having either names of the moves boldened, or with a symbol for each move denoting that they are separate actions. Just so it's easy to choose from the "menu", right now it's kinda a text block in an otherwise very organized faction board. 

Great submission , look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

I am suuuuuuuch a sucker for theme and flavour, I'm probably the most biased of the folks reviewing these in that regard 😆. When it comes to storytelling, theme conveyed in mechanics, and ARTWORK. This faction has got it all!! Absolutely lovely stuff, and about time we got a squirrel faction. 

The idea of em having to go back to the forests of they don't have a safe house is fantastic. I love how drawing cards can be an action, and actions are connected to martyrs. I'd be a little interested to see how it works with these guys in game, cause if you're playing against VB, lizzies, moles, maybe WA + crows, it might be tough to get martyrs for points and actions since they either barely move or can chose to avoid paths where a bomb is near. 

Love how you have used the design space of the paths though, and like I said I love the storytelling and artwork. Fantastic, splendid work. 

Wow no way! That drawing seems so super long ago now 😆. Thanks so much for sharing the story behind these guys, feel like maybe a few eggs were broken to make this omelette haha. 

Hope you keep developing em, and keep making awesome factions in the future!

Whaaaat the heck I love this! Visiting the crafters is so sweet for the bonuses they give you, remind me of the flavour of my Crocs from last year. ❤️ Love the sweet theme you've got going, makes me feel warm and fuzzy 😆. 

The lil writeup you included helps me see the unqieu game genre you're bringing to the world of root, really cool how You've incorporated worker placement games into their mechanics in a way that makes em unique but also fit like a glove into the game of root. 

Visitors are awesome since it's like a competition for other factions to be able to benefit and compete with EACH OTHER. Amazing!

If I ever get time, I might reach out with some character art you can use. Since you've created such a fun background and theme for their character designs to stand on. :)

Honestly don't have much criticism, I'm saying it a lot but particularly this faction really appeals to me especially. LMK if ya ever need help with em!

Wow these guys look really fun to play, and I'm so happy to see that they continue the legacy "protector John" the hireling made to look after and defend the denizens of the woodland. 

Mechanics seem fun, easy to understand, and not gamebreaking, which is a huge feat in itself! I especially love the use of the action dice, and being able to "unlock" them through your factions mechanics. Also appreciate how in your faction board design, the more important aspects of your factions mechanics are given the space and attention they need, makes it very easy to follow. 

Seems like they fit well into base root, though it's tough for me to criticize or offer help on their mechanics without being able to playtest em. Thanks so much for the great submission :)

Well dang these guys seems mega fun, the herald itself is a striking idea and is incorporated well into the core mechanics of the faction. There's also a ton of flavour in the token / building design, not to mention the actual names and wording that you've used. 😆

Their gameplay and presence in any given game also most likely isn't going to fall into the trap of making things "feel" like a totally different game. By this I mean that although a game is gonna feel totally different with these folks in the mix, it for sure is gonna feel unabashedly like ROOT. 

Fantastic work! Glad to see you still supporting em!

In reviewing these guys I've taken the opportunity to look through your newer version, and I think things have cleared up quite a bit! Definitely needs more playtesting, but as that's not something I can focus on or judge for the moment, I wanted to commend you on your understanding of fun game mechanics and how to get them to flow well together. 

I also do love the theme of the phoenixes, you've obviously put some research into their mythology, and as an extension into how that can be applied to a game of root. (Life cycles etc)

One thing I'm unsure about is with crafting, them not having an item box isn't really much of a nerf or anything that affects their gameplay much, if anything it just kinda messed things up for the VB and LOTH. LOTH would have an important interaction with these guys, but that's kinda taken away by this. 

Great submission, crazy that it's one of three!

Thanks for clearing that up, that sounds a ton more balanced! 😆

Oh my word yeah I can see the headache that the wording would cause. Still great work though! :)

Well dang you've obviously put a ton of thought behind each of these scenarios and mechanics, kudos!! 😆 Coffin makers being in the game at all does sounds totally rough lol, but I'm with you on balancing only for the E&P deck haha. 

Thanks for clearing things up :)

There's so much going on here thematically, and the whole thing is just so WITTY and WACKY. Cole has a great writeup below when it comes to mechanics, so I'm not gonna focus on em as if they are to be a balanced and core faction 😆. 

Cause the way I see these guys is PUMP UP THE WEIRD. Like the existence of state partnership as a concept is so funny to me. They seem so fun to play and their mechanics are so out there, that I would almost wanna commit to a game with them as a guest fan faction just to see how fresh they make things. Awesome work!

Excuse me you play as a -hireling- pretty much? What a fantastic idea that gets interacted with so much by the other factions. That's such a novel and exciting concept. 

Mechanics are simple and easy to understand, which let's the theory crafting of possible interactions really shine. If things were more complicated then their ability to be used by other factions gracefully and effectively would totally be lost. 

I'm assuming they score points when they place a building? I feel like this might snowball really quick since their build action isn't impeded by much (like wood for the cats). I feel like once you're established, you can easily build for something like 10 points. Yikes!

Awesome concepts and great submission :)

What a phenomenal -idea -faction board -faction mechanic -token and board design -theme. Like seriously this is great stuff. Simply the amount of creativity alone that shines through in the blessings and curse decks is phenomenal (tho as loopy said, maybe we find a way to free up those items somehow 😆)

The card abilities actually seems pretty balanced, and I love the push and pull of WANTING to skip phases (excuse me what a unique idea) but in this way making these benevolent forces upset in the process. Really illustrated well by the tokens of each phase. And you've used the pases of birdsong daylight etc in such a unique and compelling way. Obviously a lot of thought has been put into this, crazy there's so much where AFTER cutting a lot of content you've cooked up. 

I do think balancing might be an issue with them, and part of me is interested to see how much you CHOOSE to do on your turn when you are a lil deincentivized to do things. 

Great work and submission!

Also shout-out the hireling

I yearn for the horizontal faction boards ❤️. 

The split daylight actions are so so cool, and thematically appropriate since the lil snake dude doesn't have a place to live any more, poor guy. It's such a cool concept that I wish there was a way to CHOOSE which panel of daylight actions to go with, or at the very least be able to trigger the conditions of the switch to the wandering priest yourself. 

A LOT of theme and flavour has been put into what they do and why they do it, and their gameplay and actions are outlined very well and clearly. The action sacrifice as a way to gain points is cool, part of me wishes it would be nerfed a LITTLE just (maybe 1 VP per sac) just so the rest of their action economy and game plan can be buffed a lil maybe and really shine. 

Of course these are more of a wishlist than actual changes that need to be made, just since you've cooked up a lot of fun ideas and game mechanics to work with. Great stuff!

The faction board here looks absolutely phenomenal, sure the artwork is great but it's been used in such a lovely way. Complete with awesome lil icons for your actions in cultivation. The theming is also fantastic (of COURSE the mushrooms would connect with mycelium and benefit from decomposition!) and uses one of the most unique applications of sacrifice that I've seen so far here. 

You've also obviously put a lot of thought into making them affect the gameplay of each faction when they're in the game. You're def gonna NOTICE when you're playing with the shrooms

Cole gave a suuuuuper thorough writeup below (the guy puts in WORK), so I don't really have any criticisms or anything. Just wanted to highlight some areas where I think your faction really shines. Awesome work as always :)

Haha first off I love the theming of these lil fellas and the artwork on those tokens 😆. Not only is it mega unique but there's also a lot of cheeky flavour in their theneatics and lore that spill over intp their gameplay. 

The header artwork is absolutely phenomenal I love it 😭. 

Cool mechanic of determining where the void gets to show up next. 

I feel like 5 abilities at the top might be a lil too much, where maybe one or two could be included elsewhere. For example, sheepish war could BE your battle action. Ex: Sheepish war - Reveal a card to battle in a matching clearing, you take the lower dice roll. 

Due to their high warrior count and THIRST for cards, I can see these guys buying every single turn from riverfolk. Might make em supah OP in those scenarios but would require a test. 

Lure is SO fun, mini false orders!

Their craft is sadly way too limited, I don't Believe they can ever craft anything that costs more than one suit? Maybe include the fake rifts in this check?

I'd be interested to see what their game plan is like in action. Their theme is super cool and their mechanics are very clear and easy to understand. Great work!!

Actually really cool use of a limited warrior count, feels almost as if the vagabonds finally got the sense to work together and take over the woodland for themselves!

Nimble and strong - wording makes it kinda seem like they can never deal more than 2 rolled hits, even though I'm pretty certain that's not the intention. 

Midnight actions are a super cool idea! And are executed well! 

I almost wanna see if there's another way to make it more balanced across player counts, although you've actually thoughtfully included a way to do this in your action economy. 

Great submission and would be super awesome to see with a stylized board, since it would make some important things like midnight actions really pop! These guys would benefit a lot from this, since there's a ton going on thematically that would shine through. 

Haha there's so much flavour in this! Love the senate standings idea, and how it incentivizes factions to interact with the mechanic. I'll be interested to see if their a bit overpowered though, as their scoring mechanic seems pretty strong and sorta tough to stop. 

I'm also a lil concerned about "enforce peace", not recruiting because you rule seems like a nightmare for some factions. Imagine you put 4 warriors on the WA's first base, they are immediately cooked for the game. They could battle you sure, but if they don't regain rule there is little coming back, especially to keep up with game pace. Same could be said for birds, rats n badgers to a lesser extent. 

Still live the game mechanics you've cooked up though, adds a lot of interaction which is always fantastic. Thanks for the submission :)

Cool idea to go with stacking pieces, and interacting with other factions warriors in an interesting way! 

I'm wondering if the counterplay to them is to remove as many darkspores as possible and just let em have the light ones. Since removing dark spores in battle seems like EZ points. 

Btw what are the function of light and dark forts? I see how they are placed but don't know what they do. 

Great submission!

Playing the faction: "Try not running out of fuel". I love this actually 😆. 

I don't think the furnace needs the rule that it's always undefended since it can't be removed, but I love the ability that it does serve. It's such a a big part of your faction's game plan here! 

Feed the flames is SO COOL removing cards from the game permanently! I do wonder how it would go with factions that needs lotsa cards tho, like badgers and eyrie. 

I actually think your mechanics are really smooth, a nice push and pull between discontent and trying to build as much as you can to avoid riots! I don't have much to say about what might need to be changing with these folks, since the mechanics are there, just need testing. 

Thanks so much for the great submission! :)

Haha hope of some your platy-pals some justice here! Figured the lil guys are SO weird that they'd give me lots of design space to work with!

For sure will need help playtesting soon! And yup I'm going to continue to release new versions of em, wanna print em off at some point!

Great idea on when you lose a generator, since lore wise that platy-pal is no longer powering anything! I might add that in the next edition, Just wanted it to be permanent to fit with the theme of them being permanently sacrificed. I still wanna see if their punishment mechanic of not having the mutant/ not being able to cycle mutations is enough to hurt em. That way they're hurt without hitting action economy (just be to special like that 😆), might not pan out - but wanna test it

Appreciate all the writeups and helping me out here! I had just wanted to highlight a mechanic I'd tried to cook up 😆. Hope folks return the favour of giving your shrikes attention too!

Appreciate you sticking around for further discussion! We gotta look at the "sacrifice" and "outcompete" actions here. 

The action "sacrifice" let's you place a Generator in a clearing without one, by replacing a warrior there with a token. That replaced warrior permanently goes into mutations. Lore wise- they are commiting their life to generating electricity for your syndicate. 

When you get to outcompete, the text reads "take actions up to WARRIORS in mutations plus one". 

So to fuel your action economy, you have to balance your board presence / warrior supply with your action economy. (Not to mention make your way to an eligible clearing to sacrifice). They're already limited here so in my testing it's a weighty decision, similar to officers with the WA. 

On my game they ended up with five generators on the board, so 5 warriors in mutations. Meaning 6 actions to select from at outcompete, which is needed to hunt for those mutations!

Thanks for staying curious about these curious fellows! You're right, one action for one warrior is expensive! I though venomous spurs would make the one warrior tougher to kill, but there's a balance here to be struck. I'll re-evaluate!

Hey! Super glad you checked em out, and appreciate the massive and thoughtful writeup you've made. Been noticing you've done em for each faction and it's much appreciated! Especially with a summary near the end!

Thanks for the feedback on mutations! Like the idea of the change for the WA and LOTH mutations, very glad that the cast majority ended up more or less balanced. The only one I'm very attached to it the riverfolk one, but with the existence of favours... I might have to let em go 😭. 

Good idea on clearing up general mutations in a law of root. Basically how they work is to be added to a game with less than 5 opponents, just so you've always got 5 mutations to target for. Even in the WORST games you should need more than four of these. I should definitely add the clarification of "one mutation per battle", nice catch! Would wanna playtest em more before I change the timing window of when to use mutations yet. 

When the mutant is killed, you end up not being able to use any mutations next turn anyway, meaning you don't have those specific ones to target for points again. Losing the mutations would actually be a bit of a BUFF I think, but maybe a necessary one. We'll see! 

The OP-ness of venomous spurs was meant to offset their vulnerability when it comes to warriors, I gotta see if it actually does this or if it's as OP as they seem. Good suggestion tho. The idea of their bad warrior count has to do with their sacrifice mechanic, you only get ANY actions above one if you permanently lock away your own warrior for the rest of the game in the mutations, with NO ESCAPE. A balance between warrior presence and actions.  

Not sure if they'll ever ever get the chance to have 8 generators in my playtesting :P

Thank SOOOO much for the massive and thoughtful writeup! Much appreciated!

Definitely the darkest one here, that leans heavily into the theme! Def not a bad thing, especially since things are kept light when I saw the found footage of the shrikes fighting the LOTH. Hope these guys get lots of attention since it's obvious there's been a lot of work and consideration put behind their theme and mechanics. Thank you SO much for including a law of root, makes their gameplay so much easier to understand and the flow of their mechanics is easier to appreciate. 

I love how these guys inadvertently buff lizards, you're totally right that these folks are really matchup dependant! Love the talisman ability, seems well balanced, and really incentivizes hitting em. I wouldn't worry too much about the need to police em early, you're actually given VP for doing so, unlike the other two with this tempo (moles VB). 

If you wanna make em seem more official, some wording could be changed to fit with established rules in base root. Unowned clearings = clearing you do not rule. Warrior supple = supply 😆

I see an issue with them were their warrior count on the map may be a bit too small. They use warriors to battle, sacrifice, move bodies, defend temples. Maybe they get one warrior at the talisman each turn, maybe building more temples improves recruit? They're just gonna be losing a LOT of dudes cuz of their need for blood. 

Honestly I'd need to play em to see if this is even an issue, you've left yourself a lot of sweet design space to make these guys run wild!

Awesome submission!! 

Seems like you put a TON of thought into their interactions, and I agree! After some testing we could find a way for em to be the first faction that can score off their turn!

And of course! I gotta support my fellow syndicate 😆

Love the animal choice! But FANTASTIC theme here, sacrifice being more of a sacrifice of honour is fantastic as a concept and sets these guys apart!

Also love how you incentivize vagabond hitting! 

I especially love the effect of the mouse clan battling in adjacent clearings to the tower! 

The balance of honour and dishonour to do things like recruit is super cool! You've also added a way to point shade in the honour system which is super fun. 

It'll be interesting to see how you'll balance the order cards since they're the meat of your actions, and since there's so many! But the way you activate these cards for each clan is great!

Only criticism I've got is to see if the rules can be made a little more clear, maybe even including a law page to describe what constitutes a clan, and clear up any interactions of interest that might happen with em. Just since I feel I'd make a lotta rules mistakes here!

Great submission!!

You captured the theme of this year in a really interesting way! I Like the idea of placing haunts through keeping your warriors in a specific spot as long as they are there. 

I think VP are scored whenever enemy warriors are moved from a clearing with a haunt? But I can only see that VP are scored when YOU take a specific action to force them, are they able to leave on their own and you DONT score VP?

If you wanted to battle an opponents building but a haunt is placed on it, are YOU able to battle that building? Does the haunt get removed along with the building? Or is the building kind of immortal as long as a haunt is on it? 

Just some questions I thought were fun :) of course these fun questions are here because of the cool mechanics you've cooked!

Honestly I've been looking through it and this concept is super creative! Hard to believe this is just one of these factions you've cooked for us. 

The body parts and their abilities are really fascinating, some might be more overturned than others, but I think it's all up to play testing to figure out which. 

I also enjoy the way he's placed on the map, and itll be interesting to see how they fit into the dynamic of root. 

Honestly not much to criticize without putting them to the test in a game scenario, very well done!

Glad that they delivered on that front 😆