Root: The Marauder Expansion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Lord of the Hundreds
  • Birdsong
  • Daylight
  • Evening
  • The Looters Ability
• Keepers in Iron
  • Birdsong
  • Daylight
  • Evening
• Hirelings
  • Hireling Setup
  • Gaining Hirelings
  • Using Hirelings
  • Common Hireling Questions
• Advanced Setup
  • Advanced Setup in Detail
  • Homelands and Map Edges
• Rules Tweaks
• Extra Pieces
• Suggested Faction Mixes

Lord of the Hundreds

Claiming to be the one true voice of the Woodland, the Lord of the Hundreds consolidates power by crushing all dissent. In their Evening, they score points based on how many clearings they oppress, clearings they rule that have no enemy pieces at all. Their swarming army is led by the warlord, a warrior-demagogue whose shifting mood provides fleeting advantages. By piling items onto their towering Hoard, the Hundreds grow in Command and Prowess, which let them take more actions and attract more warriors to their warlord. If that is not enough, they can incite torch-wielding mobs to raze the Woodland.

The Hundreds have a single warlord, which is a warrior that cannot be removed outside of battle, cannot be moved outside of their turn, and cannot be placed onto the map except with the Hundreds' Anoint action.

The Hundreds feel a Contempt for Trade. When they craft an item, they may keep the item, or they may remove the item from the game permanently to score the points on the card. They cannot get the item and score the points!

However, the Hundreds can steal items from other players with their Looters (page 6).

Birdsong

First, Raze. In each clearing with a mob token, remove all enemy buildings and tokens. If a ruin is there, take an item from it, add the item to your Hoard on your faction board, and remove the ruin if it has no more items.

Sidebar: Skip this step on your first turn. You don't have any mob tokens on the map yet!

Raze Example

You have a mob with an Eyrie roost building and a Marquise wood token. You remove the roost and wood, scoring two points.

In another clearing, you have a mob with a ruin. You take the hammer from the ruin, put it on the Prowess track of your Hoard, and remove the ruin since it has no more items. This increases your Prowess from 1 to 2.

You roll the mob die and get a fox. There are two fox clearings with no mob that are adjacent to a clearing with a mob, so you can place another mob in either of those fox clearings.

Whenever you gain an item, put it in the leftmost empty space of your Hoard that shows that item type. Boots, bags, and coins increase your Command, while hammers, tea, swords, and crossbows increase your Prowess.

Faction board, The Hoard: Fill tracks from left to right. If you'd put an item on a full track, score +1 and remove that item or an item on that track. Command and Prowess each start at 1 and increase with items. (The printed numbers 2, 2, 3, and 4 under the tracks are not explained in the booklet text.)

After you resolve all your mobs, roll the mob die once, no matter how many mobs are on the map! Place one mob token in a clearing that matches the suit you rolled on the mob die. This clearing must be adjacent to a clearing that already has a mob, and a clearing cannot have multiple mobs.

Sidebar: Basically, your mobs spread like the Alliance's sympathy. However, if there are no clearings you can place a mob in, you do not place a mob.

Second, Recruit. Place warriors equal in number to your Prowess in the clearing with your warlord. Then, place one warrior at each stronghold building.

Recruit Example

It is your first turn. You put one warrior in your warlord's clearing because you start with 1 Prowess. As you gain hammers, tea, swords, and crossbows, you will gain Prowess.

You put one more warrior in the same clearing because you start with a stronghold there.

Third, Anoint. If your warlord is not on the map, you'll need a new one! Replace any Hundreds warrior on the map with your warlord. If you cannot, for example if you have no warriors on the map, then put your warlord in any clearing.

Fourth, Choose Your Mood. Your warlord is a fickle creature whose mood gives you a temporary ability. Here, you must replace your current mood card with a different one.

Your warlord's mood is driven by an obsessive need to hoard wealth. You cannot choose a mood if you have the item in your Hoard that the mood card shows in its top-left corner.

One mood, Lavish, does not show an item. You can always choose it as long as you're not currently Lavish. If you are Lavish and you have every type of item in your Hoard, though, you will stay Lavish.

Mood Example

Your current mood is Jubilant, so you cannot choose it as your new mood. You have coins in your Hoard, so you cannot choose Rowdy.

Daylight

First, Craft. This is a standard Craft action that uses your strongholds.

Craft Example

You craft a crossbow and put it in the leftmost space of your Prowess track. Because of your Contempt for Trade ability, you do not score the one point listed on the card.

However, you have the Master Engravers card crafted, which scores you an extra point each time you craft an item. Even with Contempt for Trade, you do score this point!

Second, Command the Hundreds. You may take these actions, in any order, a number of times up to your Command:

• Move: Take one move.
• Battle: Initiate a battle.
• Build: Spend a card to place a stronghold in a matching clearing you rule.

Sidebar: On your first turn, you will only have 1 Command unless you just crafted a boot, bag, or coins. You can move or battle with any of your warriors, including your warlord.

Third, Advance the Warlord. You may advance your warlord a number of times equal to your Prowess. Whenever you advance, you may move, and then you may battle, neither is required. The move must include your warlord, but you can also move warriors along with your warlord, and the battle must be in your warlord's clearing.

Advance Example

With a crossbow on your Prowess track, you have 2 Prowess. So, you can advance twice.

On your first advance, you move your warlord with no warriors, and then choose not to battle.

On your second advance, you move your warlord along with a warrior, and then battle.

Evening

First, Incite. Any number of times, you may spend a card to place a mob token in a matching clearing with a Hundreds warrior, even your warlord. A clearing cannot have multiple mobs.

Sidebar: You don't need to place mobs adjacent to clearings that already have a mob, like you do when you roll the mob die in your Raze step.

Second, Oppress. You score points based on how many clearings you rule that have a Hundreds piece and no enemy pieces at all, no warriors, no tokens, no building, nothing, as shown by the track on your faction board.

• 1–2: +1
• 3–4: +2
• 5: +3
• 6+: +4

Third, Draw and Discard. You draw one card. If you have more than five cards, you discard down to five.

Sidebar: If you want to draw more cards, choose your Rowdy mood!

The Looters Ability

This is how your Looters ability works. In battle as the attacker, you can choose to loot the defender. You still roll, but you deal no rolled hits, but the defender still does. At the end of battle, if you rule the clearing where you just battled, you may take any one item from the defender's Crafted Items box.

Sidebar: Notably, you cannot loot the Vagabond, who does not have a Crafted Items box.

Looters Example

You spy a tasty boot in an enemy's Crafted Items box, so you battle them. You have your warlord and two warriors there, and they only have one warrior there. Easy win, right?

At the start of battle, you declare that you want to loot them. They play an ambush and deal two hits. You roll the dice and get 1-1. You don't deal any hits from the roll, but your mood is Wrathful, which lets you deal one extra hit. In total, you each deal one hit. This removes everything in the clearing! You no longer rule, so you cannot loot their boot.

Keepers in Iron

The Keepers in Iron are an order of exiled knights who have returned to recover relics lost in bygone conflicts. First, they must delve relics out of the forests, then move the relics to their waystations, where they can finally recover them to score points. But they must plan carefully, since they rely on their Retinue of Woodland locals, who might go missing, or worse, as they help the Keepers delve and recover the relics they seek.

The Keepers are Devout Knights, so in battle they ignore the first hit they take if they have a relic and a Keeper warrior in the clearing of battle, whether attacking or defending. When moving, their warriors can move relics along with them, one per warrior moved.

However, the relics are Prized Trophies. When an enemy removes a relic in any way, the enemy scores two points instead of one, and they place the relic back in any forest.

Birdsong

First, Encamp. In any number of clearings, you may replace a Keeper warrior with a waystation building. Your waystations have two sides, and you can place the waystation on either side.

Sidebar: Each waystation shows what type of relic you can recover at it. For example, this waystation lets you recover either figures or jewelry, depending on which side you place face up. There are three types of relics: figures, jewelry, and tablets.

You cannot encamp in the same clearing multiple times in a turn.

Sidebar: You can encamp a waystation in a clearing that already has a waystation from a previous turn!

If you have no warriors or waystations on the map at all, you may place one warrior and one waystation in any edge clearing.

Second, Decamp. Decamp is essentially the opposite of Encamp. In any number of clearings, you may replace a waystation with a Keeper warrior. Likewise, you cannot decamp in the same clearing multiple times in a turn.

Third, Recruit. Any number of times, you may spend a card to place two warriors at a matching waystation.

Sidebar: Yes, you can place six or eight or even ten warriors down on a single waystation if you have the cards for it!

Recruit Example

You spend two fox cards to place four warriors at the fox waystation, and you spend one bird card to place two warriors at the mouse waystation.

Daylight

First, Craft. This is a standard Craft action that uses your waystations, regardless of type.

Second, Act with Retinue. You may take one action per card in your Retinue, located along the top of your faction board, from left to right. Take the action listed by the card's action slot in a clearing that matches the card's suit.

Sidebar: The Retinue works like the Eyrie's Decree, but you may skip actions without penalty.

Retinue Example

You start with one Faithful Retainer bird card tucked in each of the three action slots. On your first turn, you may move once, battle then delve once, and move or recover once.

The Retinue has three action slots, left to right:

• Move: The left action slot lets you move from the matching clearing.

• Battle then Delve: The middle action slot lets you battle and then delve. If you take this action, you must battle in the clearing you're acting in, unless there are no enemy pieces you can battle there. Then you may delve in the same clearing. Here's how delving works...

  If you rule the clearing and have a Keeper warrior there, you may move a relic from any adjacent forest into the clearing, and then flip the relic over to reveal its value.

  Sidebar: Each relic type has four tokens with the same values, 1, 2, 3, and 3. Every relic starts on its side with no value. When delved, it flips to show its value.

  Once you've delved a relic, count how many clearings you rule adjacent to the forest you delved from, basically, all the clearings that are touching the forest. If you rule fewer of these clearings than the relic's value, you must discard the card in your Retinue you used to delve.

• Move or Recover: The right action slot lets you move or recover relics from a matching clearing, your choice. Here's how recovering works...

  One at a time, you may take any number of relics from the clearing you're acting in. However, you can only take a relic if the clearing has a waystation of the same type: figure, tablet, or jewelry.

  When you take a relic, put it on your faction board in the leftmost empty Relics space of its type. Then, count how many clearings you rule that match the suit of the clearing you're acting in, including that clearing. If you rule fewer of these clearings than the relic's value, you must discard the card in your Retinue you used to recover it, then end the action.

  When you recover a relic, you score points equal to its value, and you score two more points if it fills a Relics column on your faction board.

The Faithful Retainer card reads: "When you discard this card, remove it permanently."

Delve Example

You have three warriors in a mouse clearing with two Marquise warriors. You must battle here, rolling 2-2, leaving you with one warrior.

After battling, you choose to delve the jewelry out of an adjacent forest and flip it over. Its value is 3!

You only rule two clearings adjacent to the forest you delved from, so you must discard the mouse card in your Retinue that you used to take this action. But you do keep the relic!

Recover and Score Example

You're recovering in a mouse clearing with tablet and jewelry waystations, and you rule two mouse clearings. You choose to recover a "1" tablet, then a "2" tablet, then a "3" jewelry.

The jewelry has a value of 3, which is greater than the number of mouse clearings you rule. You must discard the bird card in your Retinue that you used to take this action.

You recovered relics with values of 1, 2, and 3, so you score six points for them.

You have a figure from an earlier turn, so you score two points for filling a column!

In total for this action, you score eight points.

Evening

First, Live Off the Land. In each clearing that has four or more Keeper warriors, you must remove one Keeper warrior.

Sidebar: You're pilgrims with no solid infrastructure, so you're foraging supplies to survive!

Second, Gather Retinue. You may add any number of cards from your hand to any action slots in your Retinue. However, your Retinue cannot hold more than ten cards at a time.

If you don't add any cards, you may shift exactly one card in your Retinue to any other Retinue action slot. Usually you won't need to do this, but it's handy in a pinch.

Third, Draw and Discard. You draw one card, plus one card for each waystation on the map. Then, if you have more than five cards, you discard down to five cards.

Hirelings

The hirelings lend their services to the faction in the lead, attracted to promises of fame and glory, but they grow dissatisfied as the conflict drags on and eventually change allegiance to a new patron. Court the Marquise's infamous Forest Patrol or sway the Eyrie's rampaging Last Dynasty to join your cause!

In any game of Root, you can choose to add exactly three hirelings. Most hirelings are associated with a faction, and you cannot play a faction in the same game as its associated hireling. For example, the Marquise de Cat cannot be played in the same game as the Forest Patrol or Feline Physicians.

Sidebar: The four hirelings in the Marauder Expansion are associated with the four factions from the core game. Neutral hirelings, found in other Root products, are not associated with a faction.

Hireling Setup

We suggest you use hirelings with Advanced Setup (page 17), since it makes setup faster. If you want to use hirelings alone, you can set them up before choosing factions as follows.

Step 1: Collect and Place Pieces. Collect the 12 control markers and the control die near the map. Place the three hireling markers, marked "4," "8," and "12," on the "4," "8," and "12" spaces of the score track on the map.

Step 2: Deal Out Hirelings. Shuffle the hireling cards, deal out three of them, and collect their pieces in a supply. Return the rest of the hireling cards and pieces to the box.

Step 3: Demote Hirelings. Flip hireling cards to their Promoted or Demoted side (marked with "D" in bottom-right) randomly based on the number of players:

• Two players: three Promoted
• Three players: two Promoted, one Demoted
• Four players: one Promoted, two Demoted
• Five or more players: three Demoted

Sidebar: END OF TURN: Remove a control marker from hireling. If it is now empty, give the hireling and [hand-off icon] to anyone else. They roll for control.

Sidebar: Promoted hirelings have pieces you can use with the hireling's actions. Demoted hirelings usually don't have pieces, but give you abilities instead.

Step 4: Set Up Hirelings. Starting with the last player in turn order and going counterclockwise, the players each set up one hireling as described on its Setup line, if any, on its hireling card. (Some hirelings have no setup, and sometimes a player won't get to set one up.)

Gaining Hirelings

The three hirelings start the game uncontrolled. They all start in a supply near the map.

Hirelings go to the leader first. If you're the first player to score four, eight, or twelve points, immediately take the hireling marker from the score track and put it under the last step of your Evening. This will remind you to gain a hireling at the end of your turn.

At the end of your turn, do these steps:

1. Take any hireling card from the supply.
2. Roll for control (described below).
3. Flip over your hireling marker.

When you gain a hireling card, roll for control. Roll the control die. Take control markers from the supply pile equal in number to the die roll, and put them on the hireling card you took. When reading the die, count only the gold die pips if you have the most victory points or are tied for the most. Otherwise, count all the die pips, including if you have activated a dominance card.

Example

It is your turn. You just scored a point, and you are the first to reach 4 points on the score track.

You take the hireling marker from the "4" point space and put it under your faction board. Now that you've taken this hireling marker, no one else can gain a hireling by reaching 4 points.

Example

You just finished Evening. As reminded by your hireling marker, you get to take one hireling card from the supply, so you take the Forest Patrol. You roll the control die and get one red pip and one gold pip. You only count the one gold pip since you have the most victory points, so you place one control marker on the Forest Patrol card.

Finally, you flip your hireling marker to remind you what to do on your following turns.

Hirelings lose motivation over time. At the end of your turn, you must remove one control marker from each hireling that you control, except for hirelings that you just took from the supply.

Example

It is your next turn, and you just finished Evening. You remove the one and only control marker from the Forest Patrol.

And they eventually switch players. When you remove the last control marker from a hireling, you must immediately give its hireling card and hireling marker to any other player. That player puts the hireling marker below the last step of their Evening as a reminder, and then immediately rolls for control, just like described before.

Sidebar: Players who are not in the lead will tend to control hirelings for longer than players in the lead. Hirelings keep moving from player to player until the game ends!

Example

The Forest Patrol has no control markers now, so you must give it to another player. Even though you're tied with the Eyrie Dynasties for the most victory points, you decide they should get the Forest Patrol. You give the Forest Patrol card and the hireling marker to them, and they immediately roll the control die. They roll two gold pips, so they put two control markers on the Forest Patrol card.

Using Hirelings

You do not score points when hirelings that you control remove enemy pieces. Mostly this means you won't score when your hirelings battle and remove enemy buildings and tokens, but some hirelings have an action that removes pieces without battling.

Hirelings you control add to rule. While you control a hireling, you treat all its pieces as your own for rule.

Example

You are the Eyrie Dynasties and control the Forest Patrol. You have one Eyrie warrior and one Patrol warrior in a clearing, and the Lizard Cult has two warriors there. You have a total presence of two, and they do as well. But you are the Lords of the Forest, so you rule on ties for presence.

Hirelings have various abilities and actions they can take:

• When-Hired Action: When they gain control of the hireling, the controlling player must take this action.
• Ability: Abilities are always active, though some say when they happen.
• Start-of-Birdsong Action: At the start of their Birdsong, the controlling player must or may take this action, as the action describes.
• Once-Per-Daylight Action: Once in their Daylight, the controlling player may take this action.

Example

You gain control of the Spring Uprising, so you take its When Hired action that says, "If no Uprising warriors are on the map, roll the uprising die and place an Uprising warrior in a matching clearing."

Some hirelings give actions or abilities to their controlling player. These say "Controller:" at the start.

Example

The Bluebird Nobles, the Demoted side of the Last Dynasty, has an ability that says "Controller: You rule clearings when tied for presence." This ability works just like the Eyrie's Lords of the Forest.

Common Hireling Questions

Are hirelings considered enemy pieces? If you control them, no! But hirelings you do not control, even if they're still in the supply, are enemies. For example, if you used Favor of the Foxes, you would not remove hireling pieces you control from fox clearings, but you would remove hireling pieces you did not control.

Can I add hireling warriors to my own warriors when moving or battling? Nope! They're completely separate.

Do hirelings count as my faction pieces? Nope! For example, you couldn't treat them as Duchy pieces in order to sway a minister, and you could not treat them as Keeper warriors in order to delve a relic.

Can I play an ambush card if someone is battling my hireling? Nope!

Can I take actions with my hirelings in ways outside the hireling's card? Nope. For example, you couldn't move hirelings using the Advance the Warlord action of the Lord of the Hundreds, the Move action of the Eyrie's Decree, or the Move action on the Cobbler card. Even if you're the Vagabond and you're Allied with a faction, you cannot move their hirelings.

Can my hirelings use my abilities? Almost never. For example, you could not move relics with hirelings by using the Devout Knights' ability of the Keepers in Iron. Likewise, you could not use the Anoint action to replace a hireling warrior if you are the Lord of the Hundreds. The only exception is abilities that affect rule, such as Lords of the Forest, since you treat hireling pieces as your own for rule.

Any weird things I should know about? Yes! Some abilities say they happen "when a player moves" or "when a player removes," such as the Alliance's Outrage and the Ferry from the Underworld Expansion. In these cases, the ability triggers even if a player moves hireling warriors or uses hirelings to remove something. For example, you could move hireling warriors you control using the Ferry, and you would draw a card, but you could not move any warriors on the Ferry later on the same turn.

Advanced Setup

Advanced Setup is a fast, flexible way to set up that is designed for experienced players. This expansion includes setup cards for all the factions in the core game of Root as well as the Riverfolk, Underworld, and Marauder expansions, along with a summary aid card. Here are the main differences in Advanced Setup...

Players choose their starting hand from five cards. At the start of setup, everyone will draw five cards. At the end of setup, everyone will keep three of them and shuffle the other two back into the deck.

Players choose factions from a limited pool. Instead of choosing from all the factions, you will deal out a small set of faction setup cards that players will get to choose from.

Reach is not used. Reach is an older way to choose viable faction mixes. It is still included in the Law of Root, and each advanced setup card shows the faction's Reach in the bottom-right corner. You can use Reach if you want to help inform your faction mix, but Advanced Setup does not use Reach.

Advanced Setup will make your game wilder and more variable. Because of this, we do not recommend using Advanced Setup if you have a new player in your game unless they're prepared for it.

Advanced Setup in Detail

Step 1: Seat Players and Set Up Map. Determine the seating order and the first player at random. As a group, decide which map and deck you want to use. Place the ruins on the map, set up the item supply on the map, and collect the two dice nearby.

Sidebar: The first player in turn order will do things last in setup. The last player in turn order will do things first in setup.

Step 2: Draw Cards. Each player draws five cards, not three!

If you're playing with hirelings (page 12), set them up between this step and the next step.

Step 3: Deal Setup Cards. Shuffle all the militant faction setup cards (red name with sword) and deal one out. Then, shuffle the remaining militant faction setup cards together with all the insurgent faction setup cards (grey name with no sword), and deal out faction setup cards equal to the number of players. In total, there will be one more card than players.

If you're playing with two players, remove all of the insurgent faction setup cards before dealing out any.

If the last faction setup card dealt out is an insurgent, turn it sideways to show that it is locked. It cannot be chosen unless at least one militant faction has been chosen.

If a Vagabond setup card is dealt out, also deal out one random Vagabond character card next to it face up. If a player chooses this Vagabond, they must use this character card.

Step 4: Choose Factions. Starting with the last player in turn order and going counterclockwise, each player chooses one faction setup card from the pool, sets up the faction immediately as described on its setup card, and places their faction's score marker on the "0" on the score track.

Sidebar: Don't use the setup instructions or order on the faction board backs.

Step 5: Choose Starting Hands. Each player chooses three cards in their hand to keep and puts the other two cards face down on the shared deck. Shuffle the shared deck.

The Law of Root (Appendix A) and the aid card for Advanced Setup also have steps for setting up other Root products such as the landmark cards and Clockwork bot factions.

Homelands and Map Edges

When setting up, most factions will prompt you to choose one or more homeland clearings. You cannot choose a homeland that another player has already chosen as a homeland, or where you cannot place all the pieces prompted by the setup card.

Sometimes, you will be required to choose a homeland that is not adjacent to enemy homelands. If you cannot do this, you can choose a homeland that is adjacent, but it still cannot be the same clearing as an enemy homeland.

Likewise, you might be required to choose a homeland that has at least two clearings between it and enemy homelands. If you cannot do this, you must choose a homeland that is not adjacent to enemy homelands if you are able to.

If you are prompted to choose a homeland on the map edge, you can interpret this intuitively. It's any clearing that is touching the border art surrounding the map.

Rules Tweaks

Root has grown so much over the years! The original game wasn't designed with hirelings or some of the new faction designs in mind, so we've made a few tweaks to old wording and added some new terminology to help clarify interactions between old and new products.

Starting Clearings. We created Advanced Setup (page 17) to handle tons of faction mixes, and we recommend it as long as your players have played Root before. But if you want to use the setups on the faction board backs, there are two things to know.

First, the Keepers and Hundreds setup rules use the term starting corner clearings. This refers to the corner clearings that have the Marquise's keep, the Eyrie's starting roost, the Cult's starting garden, the Duchy's starting tunnel, or the Keepers' starting warriors. Second, older factions now use similar terminology in the Law. For example, the Eyrie set up their roost in a corner clearing opposite from another player's starting corner clearing if possible, rather than opposite from the Marquise's keep specifically. If you're using five or more factions with corner starting clearings, you'll need to use Advanced Setup.

Faction Pieces. We now use the term faction pieces to refer to the warriors, pawns, buildings, and tokens owned by a faction, listed on its faction board back. Notably, items, hirelings, Riverfolk mercenary warriors, and pieces of the Vagabond's Allied factions are not your faction pieces. Many rules in the Law of Root, such as the Vagabond's Aid action, the Corvids' Exposure ability, the Keepers' Encamp action, and the Hundreds' Oppress action, now refer to "faction pieces," "faction warriors," or other similar terms.

Force and the False Orders Card. We now use the term force to describe when you can make another player do something. The False Orders card, included in the Exiles and Partisans deck, should use this terminology: "In Birdsong, may discard this card to force an enemy to move half their faction warriors (round up) from a clearing you choose to a clearing you choose, ignoring rule." This updated wording works exactly the same, but it now uses the "force" term and the "faction warrior" term introduced above.

Extra Pieces

We've included some extra pieces so you can update your game. You might find them handy if you have early printings of Root and its expansions!

First, you'll find score markers for all of the earlier factions that use faction faces rather than "VP."

Second, you'll find an extra set of Underworld Expansion relationship markers to account for games with two Vagabonds.

Suggested Faction Mixes

Gap: the booklet prints the suggested mixes for two, three, four, and five players (with two optional hireling mixes for two players) as faction icons only, with no text. They are not reproduced here. See page 20 of the printed booklet.

The publisher's replacement-parts and product web links at the foot of page 20 are omitted as publisher boilerplate.