Hey folks,

First off, if you haven't played the game yet, and you're looking to see if this is the game for you: STOP
This guide may be slightly overwhelming if you've never played before, because we're going to be talking about the game's ever-changing balance. Four completely different factions of critters are vying for control over the forest, and because they're all so different, their interactions are all very rock-paper-scissors. We'll be talking about when to be a rock, when to be a scissor, and when maybe we all just need to be papers together to stop this one mega rock player.

If you've played a few games against the AI, or your friends, then this guide is perfect for you.

To understand how to make the best decisions in ROOT, you have to understand two things: The Balance of the Forest, and the Openings that will both empower and restrict you.

I hope you enjoy, and as always, happy gaming!

"Perfection is found in balance, unless you're the Woodland Alliance." -- Officer, Woodland Alliance

Symbiosis:
All of the different factions work together to keep the game in a balanced state- except the Woodland Alliance. The game gets broken down into three phases just like your individual turns, and the balancing act changes throughout the game: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening.

Birdsong: The Cats and the Eyrie have setup their initial bases, and immediately you notice there's a vacuum. The Cats control almost the entire map, but not in any meaningful way. Areas can be cleared with ease no matter who you are. For this reason, the Cats very often dictate the pace of the early game, and give way to the Eyrie. The Cats will determine how the map will be split between them, and the Eyrie will graciously take what they're given with little resistance.
Despite the "your half, my half" board, it is still the responsibility of the Cats to deal with any rebel sympathizers until the Eyrie can control their space.
During this time, the Vagabond goes through and collects any ruins they deem necessary.

Daylight: The Eyrie now control their given share of the forest and will either push further or hold their ground, the Cats have receded and move swiftly to execute their win condition, and the woodland alliance is spreading faster than can be controlled. The Vagabond is strong enough to begin working towards their own win condition, but still looks to keep the game in balance to avoid any swift endings.

Evening: The Eyrie push aggressively to remove any Woodland Alliance bases, as they outpace the other factions. The Cats claw their way to the finish line, as they are the slowest faction in the Evening. The Woodland Alliance determines on each turn if this is their chance for one final aggressive expansion. The Vagabond calculates how many points they can score with their dozen-or-so actions.

"These hammers are for um... fixing stuff. There's no need to use Codebreakers on me. There's nothing to see here!" -- Tinkerer

This is the Balance of the Forest. In a balanced game, the Evening stage will always be reached, and many games will be separated by just a couple of points. However, if the balance of the game is not maintained, it is most often that the Woodland Alliance will steal away the victory.

Special note: Dominance cards.
Dominance serves to eke out a quick victory at the cost of the balance of the game. Typically the Eyrie or the Cats, the Dominance forces the hand of the other Major Faction (Cat or Eyrie) and creates a vacuum out on the board that the Woodland Alliance is always more than happy to fill. If, say, the Cats declare Dominance (as they so often do), then very often the fate of the game comes down to either the Cats winning or the Woodland Alliance winning. This is because the Eyrie would have to commit a major army to dealing with the Cats, and these attack actions are not being used to keep the Woodland Alliance in check.
How could the Eyrie win here? Why, throw down their own Dominance card of course. But we'll cover that more in-depth later.

"That's a mighty fine base you have there. It'd be a shame if someone... sacked it" -- Hunter

The Balance of your Faction:

A refresher on Birdsong:
Each faction plays a role in the early stages of the game, and breaking this will lead to some form of imbalance- most often resulting in a Woodland Alliance victory.
The Cats must put down the woodland alliance while the Eyrie ramp up their forces. If the Eyrie or Cats are seriously wounded (by say a Vagabond) then the Woodland Alliance is given a lot of freedom. Look at the cause-and-effect based on who gets seriously injured:

• Cats get sacked - Rebels get an early base and harass the Eyrie to the point where they cannot muster an army large enough to destroy the bases.
  
• Eyrie get sacked - Eyrie do not take their half of the board quickly enough, and the Cats enter the Daylight stage of the game and begin ignoring the rebels before the Eyrie can handle it.

Woodland Alliance:
The Woodland Alliance has two openings: Corral the Eyrie, and Tax the Cats.

• Coralling the Eyrie involves dropping sympathizers one clearing away from any and all Eyrie troops, forcing them to move either into you (and double Outrage) or move to the path you've set down for them. Taxing the cats involves dropping sympathizers on all high priority targets in the Cats' domain, forcing all of their moves early to be devoted to dealing with you, not building structures.
  
  
• The Corral the Eyrie strategy causes tension between the Cats and the Eyrie. If the Cats wanted to split the map Left-vs-Right, then forcing the Eyrie to go Top-vs-Bottom can create tension in the corners.
  
  
• The Tax the Cats strategy forces the cats to use up all of their cards and actions to remove sympathizers OR ELSE. Eventually you'll be dropping 4 sympathizers per turn and they simply cannot keep up, and you will cause serious damage to them.

Eyrie:
In the Birdsong stage of the game, the Eyrie have four openings: Commander Cat Cripple, Despot No Turmoil, Charismatic Dominance, and Despot 5 Roost Turmoil.

• Commander Cat Cripple is an opening designed to put the cats at an early disadvantage (breaking the balance of the game), wherein your goal is to remove as many Cat soldiers as possible early, making your Dominance victory much easier.
  
  
• Despot no Turmoil is where you are typically adding one card per turn to your decree, often to the Move or Recruit actions early. You allow the Cats to pull their forces back, or keep an occupying force. This often suffers to the Woodland Alliance's Corral the Eyrie strategy.
  
  
• Charismatic Dominance is an opening where you try to gain as many troops as possible before turmoiling as close to 10 points as possible, and rushing Dominance. This opening is made much easier if you start with the Dominance card in your hand, or if you see the Woodland Alliance put it in their Supporters deck early on.
  
  
• Despot 5 Roost Turmoil is a Despot opening where you try to rush 5 roosts as quickly as possible, worrying more about rebel sympathizers than the Cats, and dropping attack actions where needed. It does not matter how sustainable your decree is, as long as you sustain it long enough for 5 roosts. Simply switch to the Commander, and deal with any rebel bases that pop up.

"Yeah, but are these 22 moves REALLY doing me anything?" -- Eyrie

Cats:
The Cats determine their Birdsong stage of the game by first determining how they plan to win the game. The main openings are Recruiter Rush, Sawmill Rush, and Turtle.

• Recruiter Rush is a Dominance-based strategy, where you ignore any sympathizers on the Eyrie "half" of the board, and build recruiters in the key Dominance clearings. Once three are built, you should be recruiting on every turn.
  
  
• Sawmill Rush is the stock-standard opening, where you are trying to win with 30pts, by dropping buildings wherever and whenever possible. Recruiters are built on the edge of your "half" of the map, sawmills are built deep within the empire, and workshops are built on the Eyrie "half" of the map, so that they can be destroyed and rebuilt for additional points.
  
  
• Turtle opening is one that is very Vagabond-dependent, because you drop one recruiter early and spend the majority of your turns pulling your forces back, trying to lose as few as possible. Once you have your troops, you build sawmills on all of your remaining building slots. Once you run out of building slots, you move just enough troops into an Eyrie clearing, build a sawmill for 4-5pts, then pull the troops back to the line. The Eyrie destroys it for 1pt and you can just keep repeating it. This is vagabond-dependent because the vagabond must deal with the sympathizers early for you (works best with hunter vagabonds).

"My military is purely for dealing with possible insurgents." -- Marquise De Cats

Vagabond:
Clear the ruins, remove the sympathizers. Quite literally anything else will cause the Eyrie or Cats to attack you. You have to stay on their good side early, while they have a massive uncontestable military. Do not aid the Woodland Alliance, or you'll find yourself wasting a lot of turns repairing items.
The only exception to this is the tinkerer, who does not start with a sword. here, you often have to show your value to the Cats by aiding them early on. Call this a tax you have to pay, or else they simply attack you every turn.
Try your best to avoid the Eyrie, as they'd love for nothing more than to use an action attacking you.

"You've been holding onto that card for a suspiciously long time, rebels" -- Thief

Now you've got a foot in the door, so go try out these different ways to play!

If you discover any new openings for the different factions, give me a shout. The game is going to evolve very quickly now that it's on Steam.


*2023 update*
Well, we've got four new factions and two new maps to shake things up with!
This guide was built with only the four original factions in mind, so it has been difficult to try and think of a way to maintain this style of guide now that you may play a dozen games with equally as many faction combinations present.

The next guide is going to have to be a good bit larger than this one. Hopefully it retains its readability and accessibility- I know I can count on everyone to tell me where it needs extra effort.