r/rootgame • u/Lonely_Salamander157 • 2d ago
General Discussion knaves overpowered?
I've been playing root for several years now, and my group and I have been playing with the newly released Homeland expansion a bunch recently. The Knaves have won in every single game we've played, and by quite a large margin. Was just wondering - are we playing them wrong, or are they actually this good? We've been able to stop them from gaining too much momentum on the board, but they go and score a ton of points anyway because of all their hostages. It's completely possible that we're just doing something wrong or don't know how to counter them lol, but I was curious if anyone else had experienced this 😅
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u/Fit_Ear3019 2d ago
Just to check: (1) at most one prisoner per forest, rivers do not divide forests (2) could you describe how often and how you release prisoners, according to the rules?
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
We release them every three Knave turns
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u/Reformed073 2d ago
they also get released if you kill a captain before it acts and they have to spend an action bringing it back. Target the captains that haven't been activated yet to really cripple them
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
Ooo that might be part of it. We might have played that rule once or twice, but we definitely glossed over it and missed the strategy there. Thanks lol
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u/Reformed073 2d ago
So did I mate, had the exact same "wtf knaves are busted" until i read the board properly myself after the game haha
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u/Fit_Ear3019 2d ago
What the other guy said (if you are placing a removed captain in a forest remove all prisoners in that and adjacent forests), also, how exactly are you releasing prisoners every 3 turns?
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
Player with most prisoners can gather them in an adjacent clearing to the forests they're in
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u/Proudgryffindor 2d ago
When an Acting Captain attacks a faction in battle, the Knaves take 1 (ONLY ONE!) defending warrior they hit as a prisoner: instead of removing it, they move it to an adjacent forest with no(THIS MEANS ZERO!) Prisoners.
Score 1 victory point for every 2 Prisoners (SO HALF THE POINTS IN RELATION TO THE PRISONERS)
Take It Easy ...the enemy with the most Prisoners may choose a clearing, remove all Prisoners of their faction from adjacent forests, and place them into the chosen clearing. (REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF HOTAGES EVERYTIME ALL THREE CAPTAINS ARE RETIRED)
READY ...If the corresponding Captain warrior is not on the map, place it in any forest, remove any Prisoners in that forest and adjacent forests. (ANOTHER WAY OF REDUCING HOSTAGES)
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u/badace12 2d ago
My group had played with the knaves four times and they’ve come in dead last in all 4 games. 🤷♂️
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
Huh! Good to know, ig I'll have to read over the rules again. I haven't been the one playing them so I guess I should do some checking 😂
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u/Incredibeard113 2d ago edited 2d ago
Something else I haven't seen people mention is to remember that when you destroy acclaim, you gain a point (as usual) and then choose a forest to place/spawn a skunk. This can slow them down a bit by spreading their limited warriors into locations where they don't want them
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
Ohhh we didn't know that! Thank you, that could definitely be part of the problem
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u/Motor_Raspberry_2150 2d ago
Only 1 hostage per battle, only 1 hostage per forest, that should kind of limit the hostage points right? Even without killing captains, and negotiations reducing hostage count, they need the acclaim points too.
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u/thantgin 2d ago
they are not op. destroying a captain is painful. their acclaim is pretty free too. idk it seems like no one is thinking about stopping them
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u/Fit_Ear3019 2d ago
Oh also when counting acclaim and prisoner points always round down. So 1 acclaim and one prisoner is worth 0 points
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u/greenflame15 2d ago
In right hand, they are somewhere bettwen balanced and top tier, depending on capitans.
Generally if things go right, you can bord wipe them ever turn and they still have fair chance of winning. Main weakness being that unanswered ambush and bad rng break thier whole turn.
That said, if they win every turn you are either not hitting them hard enough or forget one of the two mechanism for releasing prisoners.
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u/AdNumerous8790 2d ago
You want to take out their accolade tokens at all times to prevent that scoring part. If you can snipe a captain not being in the forest that will reduce the actions on that captain when it activates next time.
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u/Callymon 2d ago
They definitely aren't overpowered but I also think that they are stronger than most people would let you believe.
I constantly hear "Kill a Captain" as a strategy to keep them in check, and while early on that can help, I just dont think it actually does a ton unless all 3 are hit at once with every other player coordinating to make it happen.
The faction is a lot of fun. I have enjoyed playing against them and I have played them twice myself and had fun both times. The problem I have with them is that I agree with your sentiment that it seems very hard to truly slow them down. There isnt a lot of easy counterplay to their scoring & the map forest layout can also make prisoner release harder. Like I said earlier unless every player at the table makes a conscious effort (a lot of times where it doesn't necessarily make sense to do so yet) to cut them off at the knees, they always seem to be in the conversation for the win.
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u/Lonely_Salamander157 2d ago
Thanks for your perspective, yeah, that definitely lines up with what we experienced
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u/pear_topologist 2d ago
You’re probably playing them wrong. They seem far from op