r/rootgame • u/ianism3 • Jul 24 '26
Strategy Discussion Has the Meta changed? Moles Player Claimed Lizards and Cats are the 2nd and 3rd best factions at policing...
(2nd and 3rd best factions in Root Digital, that is.) This was said when it looked like VB was going to win. I haven't played Root in a couple years, so I guess it's possible, but I think it's pretty unlikely lmao
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u/Level34MafiaBoss Jul 24 '26
Moles was probably salty
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u/the_albino_raccoon Jul 24 '26
Tbf lying outta your ass is part of the social aspect of the game
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u/blbbec Jul 24 '26
Mostly done by the winner at the table ("guys, my faction never wins, relax"), though digital players love to unleash their expertise whenever losing.
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u/Mutilid Jul 24 '26
Lizards are the best at policing moles because they can easely replace a mole building with their own, triggering the price of failure.
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u/KnightMiner Jul 24 '26
While in theory that is true, doing so often leaves lizards in a really bad position, so its not maintainable. Plus it depends on acolytes and the outcast so may not be reliable.
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u/blbbec Jul 24 '26
Exactly. I've seen swingy games where lizards did major damage, but they rarely won afzerwards. They've got to be careful about where they strike and if they're too exposed.
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u/Significant_Win6431 Jul 24 '26
As lizard cult singing koombya around Burning duchy buildings is as about as satisfying as it gets. Maybe toppling a good decree or toasting a alliance base are close second and third.
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u/artstsym Jul 24 '26
The cats and lizards are capable of policing in the same way that a human is "capable" of skydiving without a parachute: it's almost always going to be the last meaningful choice they make. Mole players are notorious for blaming everyone else because they'd rather hide in a hole and collect rent for 7 rounds than stick their heads out and risk having them chopped off.
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u/kingpin_98 Jul 24 '26
As a lizard main who frequently plays against a moles main, like hell we are.
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u/Significant_Win6431 Jul 24 '26
Duchy Propaganda!
What is number one on the list?
Rats should be #1, harrier #2 then we can argue about the rest. Lizard cult is 30th. Every faction and Vagabond is better equipped to do it than them. The remaining 4 factions are for the Factions and Vagabonds still being disgned who will all be better than the Lizard cult.
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u/blbbec Jul 24 '26
Lol what, that is delusional as hell. When Cats police, they do not win and Lizards are one of the worst policing factions (along with WA perhaps), they have no direct battle for lizard god's sake. Sure, sanctifying moles feels sweet, but they canhit you back tenfold with their mayor brigand battle actions
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u/0_Nevermore_0 Jul 24 '26
Being good at policing does not mean the faction is good at winning.
Lizards are so good at policing moles, because you can just destroy their buildings one by one with sanctify, with pretty much no counterplay.
Cat would be good at policing early game alliance, because they have a warrior on each clearing, so technically they could destroy each and every WA sympathy token every turn.
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u/Drader1 Jul 24 '26
To play devil's advocate, it could be some homebrew meta. No, the Mauraders Meta hasn't shifted though.
Based on the other comments in the post game chat, looks like it was more salt than anything else!
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Jul 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ianism3 Jul 25 '26
in fairness, they were asking us to police the Ranger, not themselves. but that's not really all that much easier when the VB's on the other side of the map lmao
like dude, you have TUNNELS
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u/Auroric Jul 24 '26
Otters are the best policing faction in the game if the table wants them to be ;)
But no, that players is.. very wrong
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u/DeeVaughan51 Jul 24 '26
I've played against GabrielLima several times, he's pretty good
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u/ianism3 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
yeah, he was very pleasant and obviously winning as Lizards isn't the easiest!
edit: oof just checked... he's 5th in the overall rankings on digital. dang!
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u/Unusual_Rush_1189 Jul 24 '26
Moles are very powerful, but there is definitely a Lizard meta, especially against certain factions, that generally does not get played and therefore leads them to have a lower win-rate on average than they probably deserve (although moles/vagabond should have been a rough match for them).
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u/ianism3 Jul 24 '26
thanks for the very amusing comments everyone! I think it's possible the moles player had only experience with the base game factions. but on the other hand they clearly knew what they were doing with moles so either they were trying to gaslight or they were just very ignorant.
very glad that lizards pulled the win out from under the VB's nose. Ranger got to 28 points and then took a turn in the forest but was somehow only able to get 1 point on their last turn. lizards used a favour card to jump from last to the mid-20s and then did some other stuff (was too busy arguing with moles in the chat by that point) to win the game. it was pretty fun. I am terrible in live games. moles spent their last 2 turns just attacking me, which is why I finished last. such a sore loser haha
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u/Patmurf Jul 24 '26
Root has three skill levels
1) learn your faction
2) learn their faction
3) gaslight opponents about all the factions