Root: The Homeland Expansion
Root: The Homeland Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Lilypad Diaspora
Enclaves & The Frog Suit
Your enclave tokens represent concentrations of your people in the Woodland. Each clearing can only hold 1 enclave. Enclaves are double-sided—either Peaceful or Militant:
- A Peaceful enclave adds the frog suit to its clearing.
- A Militant enclave replaces its clearing suit by covering it.
Example: This clearing is double-suited: frog and mouse! (a clearing with a Peaceful enclave)
Example: This clearing is only the frog suit! (a clearing with a Militant enclave)
Peaceful enclaves let you score points through the Integrate action in Evening, and they increase your card draw. Militant enclaves let you place warriors and force you to battle.
When crafting at a Peaceful enclave, craft with either the frog or printed suit, not both.
Frog Cards
The Diaspora shuffles all of their frog cards into the shared deck.
Through the game, players draw these cards from the deck and can use them just like any other: you can use their frog suit or craft them.
Some frog cards show a frog crafting icon—you'll need a crafting piece in a frog clearing.
Frog Card Example: The Eyrie has a frog card in their Decree. This means they must act in a frog clearing—a clearing with an enclave.
The Pond
Frog cards are discarded face up to the top of The Pond placard, making a second discard pile. When a player draws any cards, they may take the first card they draw from the top of the Pond instead of the shared deck.
When the shared deck is reshuffled, also shuffle in all cards from the Pond.
Birdsong
First, Craft. You can craft using your enclaves.
Second, Rally or Reconcile. You must choose whether to Rally or Reconcile.
- Rally: Place 1 warrior at each Militant enclave.
- Reconcile: Any number of times, flip a Militant enclave to Peaceful. Each time you do, the enclave's ruler draws 1 card.
Reconcile Example: The Diaspora reconciles a Militant enclave to Peaceful. The Eyrie rules this clearing, so they choose to draw the top card of the Pond.
Daylight
In Daylight, you may Settle or Provoke up to 3 times in any combination and order:
- Settle: Choose a clearing. You may move into it any number of times. After these moves, you may battle in that clearing, or you may place a Peaceful enclave there if you rule it.
Note: Remember, you can only place an enclave in a clearing without one.
Settle Example: First, you move in a few times from clearings you rule. After these moves, you rule the clearing, so you choose to place a Peaceful enclave there.
- Provoke: Flip a Peaceful enclave to Militant, or place a Militant enclave in a clearing on the river or with a Diaspora warrior. Then, you place 1 warrior at each Militant enclave. Finally, discard a random card.
Note: This random discard includes frog cards, even though they have a different card back. Just shuffle your hand under the table, or close your eyes.
Provoke Example: You place a Militant enclave in an empty river clearing, covering its clearing suit. Then you place 1 warrior at each Militant enclave. Finally, you discard a random card. Since you have no cards, you skip this step!
Evening
First, Retaliate. You must battle at each Militant enclave.
Note: Skip battles in clearings with no enemy pieces.
Second, Integrate. You may spend one card to Integrate. If you do, score 1 victory point per Peaceful enclave in clearings matching the card suit. You cannot score the frog suit.
Note: You cannot Integrate multiple times per turn.
Integrate Example: You have 3 Peaceful enclaves in mouse clearings, so you spend a bird card as a mouse to score 3 points. You can't Integrate multiple suits per turn, so you're done.
Third, Draw and Discard. You draw cards based on the number of Peaceful enclaves on the map, as shown on your player board. Then, if you have more than five cards, discard down to five.
Draw cards from Peaceful enclaves on the map (table as printed on the page):
- 0–1 Peaceful enclaves: draw 1 card
- 2–3 Peaceful enclaves: draw 2 cards
- 4–7 Peaceful enclaves: draw 3 cards
- 8+ Peaceful enclaves: draw 4 cards
Draw Example: You have a total of 4 Peaceful enclaves on the map, so you draw 3 cards.
Swimmers
The Diaspora are Swimmers—you treat rivers as paths, and they ignore rule while moving along rivers.
Note: This ability is the same one that the Riverfolk Company has!
Negotiations
The Diaspora's enemies can flip enclaves to Peaceful by entering into Negotiations.
Once on their turn, an enemy at a Militant enclave may flip it to Peaceful. If another player rules it, the flipping player must give a card to the ruler in order to flip the enclave.
Note: The enemy can give a card of any suit. It doesn't have to match the suit covered by the enclave.
Fears Come to Pass
The Diaspora's enemies can flip enclaves to Militant by making the Diaspora's Fears Come to Pass.
After an enemy removes a Peaceful enclave or battles you at one, flip all Peaceful enclaves with that enemy's pieces to Militant and place 1 Diaspora warrior at each one you flipped.
Fears Come to Pass Example: The Eyrie battle you at an enclave. It survives the battle, so you flip it to Militant and place 1 warrior at it. The Eyrie are at two other Peaceful enclaves, so you flip them to Militant and place 1 warrior at each.
Common Interactions with the Frog Suit
Woodland Alliance
You may spend frog Supporters to Spread Sympathy and Revolt in clearings with enclaves. If it's a Peaceful enclave, you may combine frog Supporters and Supporters of the clearing's printed suit.
You cannot Revolt at Militant enclaves because your bases don't have the frog suit.
When a base is removed, discard Supporters of suits matching the base's clearing, not the printed suit on the base. (For example, if a base is removed from a fox clearing with a Peaceful enclave, discard foxes, frogs, and birds. If one is removed from a clearing with a Militant enclave, discard frogs and birds only.)
Lizard Cult
You may reveal frog cards to Recruit and Build at enclaves—place a garden whose printed suit matches the clearing's printed suit. (We include a reminder card that the Lizard Cult can use, since their player board only shows fox, mouse, and rabbit cards for these actions.)
You cannot Build at Militant enclaves.
You can craft with gardens whose printed suit match the Outcast, but they fulfill crafting icons based on their clearing, not the printed suit on the garden. (For example, if the Outcast is mouse, your mouse gardens are crafting pieces. If one is at a Militant enclave, it only fulfills a frog icon. If one is at a Peaceful enclave, it fulfills either mouse or frog.)
Riverfolk Company
You may place trade posts at Peaceful enclaves, but not Militant enclaves. Place a trade post whose printed suit matches the clearing's printed suit.
Corvid Conspiracy
You may spend a frog card to Recruit at every enclave.
Keepers in Iron
If you Recover from a clearing with a Peaceful enclave, count clearings you rule of matching printed suit and clearings you rule with enclaves.
Twilight Council
Assemblies
The Council gains power through their assemblies. Assemblies start on their Closed side. In Evening, you can flip assemblies to Governing in various ways, and you may take actions at your assemblies, whether they're Closed or Governing.
Closed Assembly and Governing Assembly (icons shown on the page).
Assemblies on their Governing side will Govern their clearings—enemies there cannot craft with, flip, place, or remove pieces there, except in battle. In Evening, you score victory points from Governed clearings that have any enemy buildings or tokens.
Note: Not even the Vagabond can craft at Governing assemblies.
Loyalists
Your player board can hold 4 warriors from your supply as Loyalists. You gain them with various actions on your turn or if an enemy Entreats you on their turn (page 9).
You can place Loyalists in Birdsong with your Assemble action or if an enemy Entreats you.
Note: You can freely put Loyalists back in your supply.
When an enemy removes an assembly, remove 1 Loyalist.
Entreating the Council
Any number of times on their turn, an enemy can Entreat the Council to flip an assembly to Closed. The Council must do so, but they may either gain 1 Loyalist or place any number of Loyalists at the assembly.
Enemies can Entreat during their actions except for battle. For example, the Lord of the Hundreds could Entreat during their Raze action after rolling the mob die but before placing the mob token.
Birdsong
First, Take Actions. Any number of times, you may reveal a card from your hand to take one of these actions in a clearing matching the revealed card:
- Move: Take a move.
- Recruit: Place 1 warrior.
- Assemble: If it has no assembly, place a Closed assembly and any number of Loyalists from your player board. Then, if you don't rule the clearing, discard the revealed card.
- Battle: Initiate a battle there. If an assembly is there, discard the revealed card.
Daylight
Sleep. Flip assemblies ruled by enemies to their Closed side.
Note: Yup, that's it! You're nocturnal, after all.
Evening
First, Convene Woodfolk. In any order, return each card that you revealed in Birdsong to your hand to act at a matching assembly. Return these cards one at a time.
Note: You can act at both Closed and Governing assemblies.
When you return a card except a bird, you may agitate or banish at a matching assembly:
- Agitate: Spend the returned card. Flip the assembly to Governing if it's Closed. Gain 1 Loyalist.
- Banish: Initiate a battle. You take no rolled hits and cannot hit buildings or tokens. Your hits do not remove enemy pieces—instead, they force defending pieces to move to a single destination you choose, ignoring rule.
Banish Example: You return a mouse card to banish the Eyrie. They play an ambush card, leaving you with 1 warrior. You roll 3-2. You only have 1 warrior, so you force 1 Eyrie warrior to move how you choose.
When you return a bird card, you may empower any assembly: Roll one battle die and remove your warriors from the assembly equal to the rolled number. Then, either gain Loyalists equal to your removed warriors, or score 1 victory point if you rule the assembly.
Empower Example: The Council returns a bird card to empower and rolls a 2. After removing 2 Council warriors, they still rule, so they choose to score 1 victory point.
Second, Craft or Inspire. You may craft cards with assemblies. If you do not, you draw 1 card for each
Editor's note: the draft prints the draw icon as a literal "
Third, Adjourn. You may remove any assemblies you choose. Flip assemblies you rule to Governing.
Fourth, Oversee. Score victory points based on the number of Governing assemblies in clearings with any enemy buildings or tokens, as shown on your player board.
Editor's note: the draft prints this value as a placeholder, "<VP TRACK FROM BAT BOARD: +1 VP for 1 assembly, +2 for 2-3, +3 for 4, +4 for 5-6>". The companion faction sheet gives the same values as 1: +1, 2–3: +2, 4: +3, 5–6: +4.
Fifth, Draw and Discard. Draw 1 card. Then, if you have more than 5 cards, discard down to 5 cards.
Note: You can only draw extra cards based on your Assemblies track in the Craft or Inspire step.
Peacekeepers
The Council are Peacekeepers at their assemblies unless the Vagabond is defending.
In battle at an assembly, if an enemy is defending against anyone except the Council, you must add your warriors there as defending warriors. However, your warriors only take hits after all of the defender's own warriors have been removed.
Note: This ability helps defend enemy pieces that you might want to Oversee.
Peacekeepers Example: The Eyrie battles the Marquise at an assembly, so the Council warrior adds to the Marquise's. The Eyrie roll 3-2, removing all defending warriors but not the Marquise's sawmill.
Knaves of the Deepwood
Captains
The Knaves are led by 3 unique Captain warriors that can move in and out of forests, ignoring rule.
Each turn, you choose one Captain to act by placing its Captain card on the Acting Captain slot of your player board. After it acts, you flip its Captain card face down and set it aside.
On later turns, you cannot act with a facedown Captain. However, once all three Captains are facedown, you Take It Easy, flipping their Captain cards face up so they can act again.
Captains cannot be placed except in setup and their Ready step in Birdsong (page 14), and they cannot be replaced, such as with the Convert action of the Lizard Cult.
Knave Captain card (Gladiator): When you Assault, draw 1 card at the start of battle.
Items & Your Stash
In setup, each Captain adds the 2 starting items shown on its banner to the Stash box on your player board. In total, you set up with 6 items.
When you craft or take items in play, place them in your Stash.
In Daylight, you may flip face-up items in your Stash face down to take special actions (page 14).
Flipped items remain face down until all three Captain cards are facedown. At this point, you Take It Easy, flipping your items face up along with your Captain cards.
Skunks
You have a set of 10 Skunk warriors. When a Captain moves, they can move Skunks with them. Just like Captains, Skunks can move in and out of forests, ignoring rule.
Acclaim
You have 8 acclaim tokens. Each clearing can hold one acclaim.
Most of your items' special actions place acclaim (page 14). Also, at the end of any battle where your Captain is attacking, you place acclaim at the Captain as long as it's still in the battle clearing.
You score victory points for acclaim in Evening and they improve some of the actions you take with items (page 14).
When an enemy removes acclaim, your supporters Run Away: that enemy places 1 Skunk in an adjacent forest.
Note: If your Skunk supply is empty, don't place one.
Prisoners
When attacking a faction in battle, you can take one defending warrior you hit as a Prisoner: move it to a forest with no Prisoners, ignoring rule. Because this is a move, the forest must be adjacent.
Note: You can lay Prisoners down to distinguish them.
Taking Prisoner Example: While attacking in a mouse clearing, you hit 2 Diaspora warriors. You take 1 Prisoner, moving it to an adjacent forest, and remove the other one.
In Evening, you score victory points for your Prisoners. When you Take It Easy, one enemy will have the chance to release some of their Prisoners.
Prisoners cannot be used by their owning faction in any way.
Birdsong
Ready. Place any face-up Captain card in your Acting Captain slot. If its Captain warrior is not on the map, place it in any forest, then remove all Prisoners from that forest and adjacent forests. In Daylight this turn, you take one less action.
Daylight
First, Your Captain Acts. You may take up to 4 actions with the Captain in your Acting Captain slot, as follows. If you placed your Captain in Birdsong, take 3 actions instead.
- Move: Move your Captain. (You can move Skunks with it!)
- Battle: Initiate a battle in your Captain's clearing.
- Filch: Once per turn, you may take 1 item from the Crafted items box of an enemy in your Captain's clearing or forest, or you may craft a card using your Captain. If you craft an item with Filch, do not score victory points for it.
- Item Action: Flip a face-up item in your Stash face down to take its action below.
- Dash (Boot): Move your Captain up to twice, ignoring rule.
- Assault (Sword): Initiate a battle at your Captain. Take every warrior you hit as a Prisoner, placing them in separate forests with no Prisoners.
- Skirmish (Crossbow): You must move your Captain from a forest, then initiate a battle at your Captain. In this battle, ignore the first hit you take.
- Nab (Bag): Initiate a battle at your Captain. If your Captain is hit, move it to an adjacent forest instead of removing it. If it is not hit, you may move your Captain after the battle.
- Revel (Tea): Place acclaim and 1 Skunk at your Captain. If acclaim is already in your Captain's clearing, place 2 Skunks instead.
- Gift (Coins): Place acclaim at your Captain and draw 1 card. If acclaim is already in your Captain's clearing, draw 2 cards instead.
- Serve (Hammer): Place acclaim at your Captain. If acclaim is already in your Captain's clearing, craft cards with acclaim in all clearings matching your Captain's clearing.
Note: Each acclaim can only be activated once per turn to craft with.
Second, Retire. Flip your Acting Captain's card face down and remove it from its slot, placing it by your player board.
Note: You can lay your retired Captain's warrior down flat to distinguish it.
Evening
First, Mock the Powerful. Score 1 victory point for every 2 Prisoners, and score 1 victory point for every 2 acclaim on the map.
Note: Count and score Prisoners and acclaim separately, not together.
Second, Protect the Weak. Once per acclaim on the map, you may spend a matching card to place 1 Skunk at it.
Third, Take It Easy. If all your Captain cards are face down, flip all your Captain cards and items face up, then the enemy with the most Prisoners may choose a clearing and place all Prisoners of their faction from adjacent forests into it. On a tie for the most Prisoners, you choose which tied enemy places their Prisoners.
Fourth, Draw and Discard. Draw 1 card, then discard down to 5 cards.
Captain Choices
This expansion includes 3 Captain warriors: the Jailor, Gladiator, and Cheat. Play your first game with them.
The Knaves have a total of 12 Captains, which use the corresponding Vagabond pawns as their warriors. For example, the Thief uses the Thief pawn from the base game.
If you want unique warriors for the other 8 Captains, you can get the Riverfolk Expansion and the Vagabond Pack. Otherwise, you can simply use proxies.
Faction Interactions
The Knaves have a couple special faction interactions because they take warriors as Hostages. These interactions are shown on an included reminder card.
- Vagabond: The Vagabond cannot be included in games with the Knaves.
- Keepers in Iron: They don't count Prisoners in whether Encamp places a warrior and waystation.
- Lord of the Hundreds: Prisoners don't count toward whether Anoint places the warlord on the map without replacing, and Anoint cannot replace a Prisoner.
Gorge Map
Setup
Collect the 12 suit markers, flip them face down, and shuffle them. Place a suit marker in each clearing on the map, then flip them all over.
The Wall
The wall supporting the top bridge separates the forests above and below it.
The Bridge
The bottom bridge does not separate the forests below it.
Gorge Sides
The Gorge sides do not separate their forests—a forest is the whole area enclosed by paths.
Marsh Map
Setup
Collect the 12 suit markers, flip them face down, and shuffle them. Place a suit marker in each clearing on the map, then flip them all over.
- With fewer than 5 players, cover 3 clearings with flood markers. Place a flood marker each in a light green, dark green, and dark brown clearing space. Make sure the flood marker's color matches the clearing space and its paths align to the linked paths.
- With 5 players or more, do not cover clearings with flood markers. Instead, place the 3 landmarks included in this expansion (page 22) in the 3 clearings with no suit marker.
Editor's note: the draft's cross-reference reads "page 22"; the landmarks are printed on page 18 of this booklet.
Place 2 ruins in the "R" slots with no numbers and 2 ruins in the "R" slots with the lowest numbers.
Flood Markers
Flood markers are no longer clearings—they have some paths and some flooded paths. Flooded paths separate forests but cannot be used to move between adjacent clearings.
Landmarks
The expansion includes three suited landmarks: Foxburrow, Rabbittown, and Mousehold.
These landmarks add the fox, rabbit, or mouse suit to their clearings, respectively, and they have the effects listed below.
You use them on the Marsh Map with 5 players or more (page 16). However, you can add them to others map too during setup!
Editor's note: the draft's cross-reference reads "page 16" for the Marsh Map, which is printed on page 17 of this booklet. The draft's wording "others map" is kept as printed.
We recommend you place them in clearings of matching suit. But if you're feeling adventurous, you can place them in clearings of different suits so they are double-suited.
For full rules on landmarks, see Section A.5 in the Law of Root.
Foxburrow
While moving, you may treat fox clearings as adjacent to Foxburrow and ignore paths when moving between them.
Rabbittown
Once in Daylight, you may spend a rabbit card to place 1 warrior in Rabbittown for each other rabbit clearing with your pieces, then battle in Rabbittown.
Mousehold
In battle, whenever a player's warriors are removed from a mouse clearing except Mousehold, they may place them at Mousehold.
Game Improvements
We have included some updated cards and new components to make this expansion compatible with the rest of Root and to make playing Root easier.
Advanced Setup Cards
We have included advanced setup cards for the factions in this expansion.
To get advanced setup cards for the remaining factions, you will need the Marauder Expansion.
For advanced setup rules, see Appendix A in the Law of Root.
Editor's note: the card images for this section are blank in the draft.
Updated Cards
Some updated cards are included that replace cards from the base game, Riverfolk Expansion, and Exiles and Partisans deck. They have new wordings that make them more compatible with content released later.
Editor's note: the card images for this section are blank in the draft.
Reminder Markers
These markers can be placed next to turn phases on your player board to remind you to trigger crafted effects or faction abilities that happen during those phases, such as the Riverfolk Company's Services.
Extra Items, Ruins, and Dice
Battle dice in a new color and a full set of ruins and items are included. You can now play two games of Root at once, as long as you have a second deck, such as the Exiles and Partisans deck or Squires and Disciples deck.
Suggested Faction Mixes
Editor's note: the draft's Suggested Faction Mixes page is marked "