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Better Bot Project v5

What is this? The “Better Bot Project” aims to provide playable bots for all factions and modes (competitive, cooperative, solo) in Root. Bots that take quick and simple turns while simulating the behaviour and impact of the various factions. This is the rulebook and reference for the bots. PS: Thanks to Leder Games for the amazing game!

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Game Modes Competitive When playing with other players you can freely add any number of bots to replace unused factions. There are no changes to the gameplay.

Cooperative

Bots as team

Select one or more bots to battle. If any of the bots reaches 30 points before all players do, the bots win. When facing off against multiple bots they don’t consider each other hostile and therefore only attack the human players.

When bots don’t consider each other hostile, they will not battle each other, they won’t count the other bots’ pieces as “enemy pieces” when prioritizing clearings, and when targeting players (e.g. highest score) will ignore other bots.

Solo You can play both competitive against multiple bots that will attack each other, as well as face of against a single bot, or even multiple bots as team (if you dare). Multiple bots that don’t consider each other as hostile are very challenging if not impossible to beat.

There is no immunity though as each bot will strife to maximize their score. Effects like “Revolt” from Automated Alliance might still end up removing pieces of an ally.

Setup How to setup The setup is identical to the standard game of Root in all aspects. Select your faction(s) and the faction(s) for the bots. Follow the setup instructions and orders on the player boards. Each bot has a dedicated player board with step by step instructions for individual setup. The instructions are similar but different to the player factions. Make sure to read them! The Spy cards from the Solo Mode (Riverfolk expansion) have no effect and are not used. There are alternative Spy cards that can be used in all game modes as variant. The Dominance cards have no effect in solo and cooperative mode. In competitive mode with at least 2 players they can be used, but the bots will not utilize them. They can be left in the deck and utilized for their suit only for convenience. There are alternative Dominance cards that can be used in all game modes as variant.

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Variants Difficulty settings There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Default, Challenging, Nightmare. The default difficulty is a good starting point for your first game and you can then adjust the difficulty as needed. If you haven’t played many games of Root yet, you might want to switch to easy difficulty after the first game. Each bot has 3 Difficulty cards (Easy, Challenging, Nightmare) and only one card can be used at a time. In addition to this each bot has 4 Trait cards. Traits increase the difficulty by modifying how the bots work making them more complex, but also adding more variation and replay value. You can use as many Trait cards at the same time as you like, but 1 or 2 at a time should be sufficient. You can also combine Trait cards with Difficulty cards. For the ultimate challenge you can face a Nightmare bot with all 4 Traits active.

Ambush Cards (reduced difficulty) Ignore the “Hates Surprises” ability bots have. You may play Ambush cards against bots when attacked. This will reduce the difficulty as the bots will still not use Ambush cards.

Spy Cards (reduced difficulty) Shuffle the Spy Cards into the deck at the beginning of the game. Spy cards can be discarded from your hand to prevent a bot from crafting an item on a card with a matching suit. They can also be played on your turn against a bot. The next time this bot has to reveal or draw a card, this card is used instead. If you use the Spy card this way, you draw an additional card at the end of your turn.

Dominance Cards (increased difficulty) Remove the standard Dominance Cards in the deck and shuffle the new ones in. Whenever a Dominance Card enters the discard pile place it next to the board instead. Players cannot interact with the Dominance Cards. If a bot ever fulfils the victory condition of any of the Dominance Cards the bot immediately wins the game and all players lose the game. The cards can be used in competitive mode with multiple players.

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Gameplay Clearing priority Each clearing has a number assigned (see maps on the right). 1 is the highest priority, 12 is the lowest priority. Generally, the bots will break ties by highest clearing priority unless mentioned otherwise. If you have to take multiple actions that may have different outcomes based on the order in which they are taken, take them in order of highest to lowest priority. An example would be moving from two connected clearings. The bot could move from clearing A to clearing B and then from clearing B to clearing C, ending up with most warriors in clearing C. However, if the bot moves from clearing B to clearing C first, and then from clearing A to clearing B, there will be less warriors in clearing C. If you ever have multiple options for which clearing a bots action selects and you can’t figure out how to decide, you can pick the highest priority (lower number) to continue the game.

Opponent priority When a bot targets an opponent, it may refer to setup order. This is the final tie-breaker to decide between two opponents that both fulfil all other conditions to be the target of an action. The setup order is printed on the back of all player boards. A is highest priority. A. B. C. D. E. F. G.

Marquise de Cat / Mechanical Marquise 2.0 The Eyrie / Electric Eyrie Woodland Alliance / Automated Alliance Vagabond / Robot Raccoon Vagabond #2 / Robot Raccoon #2 Lizard Cult / Clockwork Cult Riverfolk Company / Otter Overlords

Token priority When bots are attacked and have to assign hits, they always assign to warriors first, then to non-building tokens, then to buildings. For example, of the Automated Alliance has a warrior, a sympathy token and a base in a clearing and is dealt 2 hits, it will remove the warrior and the sympathy token. If there are multiple buildings in the same clearing, choose one at random.

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Playing against the Mechanical Marquise 2.0 Overview

Changes to the official bot

Each turn a single order card is drawn that decides which clearings the MM2.0 acts in. If a bird card is drawn then each action is slightly modified.

Example Turn In Birdsong you reveal the top card of the deck. This is now the order card which defines the behaviour of the bot. In this example it’s the fox card for Root Tea on the right. Given that the card shows an available item, gain the item (Root Tea) and 1 VP (even though the card shows 2 VP). Do not discard the card.

The key differences to the official Mechanical Marquise are: ❖ The bot doesn’t start with items for sale but crafts them during the game. ❖ Scoring depends on buildings placed instead of warriors in a clearing. ❖ There is no Schedule of Orders (row of 5 cards). ❖ When pushed back too much the Escalate action will kick in and provide double turns making it difficult to keep the MM2.0 down.

In Daylight start by battling in all clearings matching the order card, in this case Fox clearings. If the order or battles would matter for any reason, battle in order of clearing priority (first 1, then 2, … with 12 last). The defender is the opponent with the most pieces, if tied the higher score and if tied then it’s setup order printed on the back of the player boards (B before C) Then recruit 4 warriors spread out evenly across all clearings matching the order card that you rule, in this case Fox clearings. If you don’t control 4 Fox clearings, prioritize the remaining warriors by most enemy pieces and then clearing priority. If you control 3 Fox clearings, then you recruit 1 warrior in each fox clearing and the last one is placed into the clearing with the most enemy pieces. If there is a tie for most enemy pieces, then pick the highest priority clearing for the 4th. If you rule only a single for clearing, then place all 4 warriors into it. If you rule no Fox clearings or there are not enough warriors in your supply, gain 1 VP for every 2 warriors that could not be recruited. Next, build a matching building – in this case a Sawmill – and place it into the clearing with the highest number of your warriors, and if tied higher clearing priority. Note that this does not need to be a Fox clearing. Move any warriors in excess of 3 from Fox clearings. Move the warriors into adjacent clearings with most enemy pieces, and if tied higher clearing priority. Finally, check for Escalate. If no Sawmill could be placed (due to no available free slots) and there are less than 4 Sawmills on the board, you trigger escalate. Reveal a new order card to replace the Fox Root Tea card and repeat Daylight in in full. In the Evening you score 1 VP per Sawmill on the board – or based on the new order card in case of Escalate. Then discard the order card. 5

What to watch out for When a bird card is revealed as an order card, then the actions are slightly different and more powerful. ❖ Battle is declared in all regions. ❖ Recruit places 2 warriors into each of the 2 clearings with the lowest priority. ❖ Move works the same; but after moving all pieces also battle in all clearings into which you moved. In addition to that the following rules are easily missed: ❖ When the bot crafts a card, it ignores the VP value on the card and always scores 1. ❖ Only Escalate if there are less than 4 building of the matching type on the board. ❖ Buildings are placed into any clearing, disregarding the order card.

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Playing against the Automated Alliance Overview

Changes to Woodland Alliance

The Automated Alliance will place either 2-3 sympathy tokens or a base and a sympathy token each turn. Both Outrage and Guerrilla War have been changed and work slightly different.

Example Turn In Birdsong you reveal the top card of the deck. This is now the order card which defines the behaviour of the bot. In this example it’s the fox card for Root Tea on the right. Given that the card shows an available item, gain the item (Root Tea) and 1 VP (even though the card shows 2 VP). Do not discard the card.

Both Outrage and Guerrilla War have been replaced by the following: ❖ Automated Ambush In battle as defender with at least one warrior, deal +1 Extra Hit. ❖ Automated Outrage When a human player removes sympathy or moves any warriors into a sympathetic clearing, that player must discard a matching card from his hand. Gain 1 VP if they can't.

Then attempt to Revolt. If the Fox base matching the order card is not in play (still on the faction board), and there is at least one Fox clearing with a sympathy token a revolt takes place. Revolt in the clearing with the most enemy pieces, breaking ties by highest priority order (1 first, 12 last). Remove all enemy pieces in the clearing and place the base. If you can’t revolt for any reason, instead place sympathy once or twice. This is decided by the sympathy track: If 4 or less sympathy tokens have been placed so far, place 2 sympathy tokens. If there are 5 or more sympathy already on the board, only place sympathy once. For details on how to place sympathy see Daylight. In Daylight place one sympathy. Take the left-most sympathy token from the track and score the points shown beneath it. The clearing to place the token in is decided as follows: If there is a clearing adjacent to a clearing with a sympathy token matching the order card, place in the matching clearing. Multiple options are decided by first prioritizing clearings without 3 warriors of a single opponent, then highest clearing priority (1 before 12). If there is no adjacent matching clearing, then place in the highest priority clearing with the highest priority, again avoiding clearings with 3 or more warriors of a single opponent if possible. This means on the first turn with he Root Tea order card above, the bot will place 3 sympathy in the clearings 1, 5, and 2. It will start by matching clearing priority (1, 6, 8, 12) and pick the one with the highest priority (1), then there is no adjacent fox clearing so it will go by highest priority (5, then 2). If the keep is in clearing one it would change to 6, 2, and 5.If there is no sympathy left on the track, the bot will score 5 VP each time it has to place sympathy. In the Evening check all bases in play to see if they organise. If any base has 3 warrior, remove the warriors and place sympathy once more. Then recruit a warrior in each base and discard the order card. 7

What to watch out for When a bird card is revealed as an order card, then the actions are slightly different and more powerful. ❖ Revolt happens at the end of Daylight instead of in Birdsong ❖ When placing the base, pick the clearing with most enemy pieces for which a base is still available to be placed. ❖ Place Sympathy places sympathy tokens into the lowest priority clearing adjacent to a clearing with sympathy. There’s no other condition. In addition to that the following rules are easily missed: ❖ The Vagabond is not a warrior and does not trigger Automated Outrage ❖ Automated Outrage is not triggered by other bots ❖ Sympathy is always placed! Matching clearings are prioritized, but sympathy can be placed in any clearing. ❖ Always double check if 1 or 2 sympathy tokens are placed if base can’t be placed during Revolt

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Playing against the Electric Eyrie Overview The decree is sorted by suit and not by action. Each turn a single card is added into the matching column in the decree, then the decree is resolved. If no roost can be placed, then the Electric Eyrie goes into Turmoil.

Example Turn In Birdsong you reveal the top card of the deck. In this example it’s the fox card for Root Tea on the right. Add it to your decree into the matching column, in this case the Fox card column. Given that the card shows an available item, gain the item (Root Tea) and 1 VP (even though the card shows 2 VP). Do not discard the card. In case there are no roosts on the board place a roost and 4 warriors into the highest priority matching clearing, Fox in this case. In Daylight resolve the decree left to right for each action. For each column with at least one card you will take actions. In this example this will be the Fox column containing the Root Tea card, and the Bird column containing both Viziers. During recruit for the Fox column, place one warrior into a Fox clearing with a roost. If there are multiple options break the tie by most enemy pieces, then by least of your warriors and finally by lowest priority (12 before 1). If there is no roost in a Fox clearing, don’t place any warriors. For the Bird column, place two warriors into any clearing with a roost. Ties are broken the same way. During move for the Fox column, find the Fox clearing with the most of your warriors (breaking tie by lowest clearing priority). Move all warriors from the clearing, but leave behind enough to rule the clearing and a minimum equal to the cards in the matching column. So, if there are no enemy pieces in the Fox clearing with the most warriors, move all but 1 warrior (1 card in Fox column). The destination for the move is an adjacent clearing prioritized as follows: First consider clearings with no roosts, then least enemy pieces, then lowest clearing priority (12 before 1). For the bird column find the clearing with the most of your warriors, which could be a clearing in which you just moved with the move for the Fox column. Given that there’s 2 cards in the column, you would leave a minimum of 2 warriors behind. During the battle action battle in matching clearings. Prioritize targets as follows: Clearings with no roosts before other clearings, then any defenceless buildings, and then lowest clearing priority (12 before 1). The columns with the most cards (could be shared between multiple columns) deal an Extra Hit in battle. In our example this would be the battle for the bird column. After resolving the decree see if a roost can be placed. The bot has to rule a clearing with a free building slot and without a roost to place one. Place in the highest priority clearing. 9

In the evening start by going into Turmoil if no roost was built this turn. If so, discard all cards in the decree (keeping the Viziers) and lose 1 VP for each bird card in the decree (a minimum of 2 for both Viziers). Then score 1 VP for each roost in play.

What to watch out for The following rules are easily missed: ❖ All actions but Build use lowest clearing priority instead of highest priority for selecting clearings. ❖ Viziers aren’t discarded during Turmoil, but VP are lost for Viziers. ❖ When moving from the clearing with the most warriors, you may end up moving no warriors. In this case the move action for the suit has no effect.

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Playing against the Robot Raccoon Overview

Combat Track

Each turn a single order card is drawn that decides which actions the Vagabond bot takes. Unlike a human player, the bot doesn’t track relationships. Robot Raccoon don’t care. The bot will mercilessly focus on the player with the highest score acting as a balancing force. The bot also treats all items as wildcards, thus they can all be exhausted for all actions.

Given that all items are wildcards without specific functions, the bot has a different way of tracking how many Hits can be rolled in battle.

Example Turn In Birdsong you reveal the top card of the deck. This is now the order card which defines the behaviour of the bot. In this example it’s the bird card Arms Trader on the right. Given that the card shows an available item, attempt to craft it. If the bot has at least 1 item that can be exhausted, gain the item (Sword) and 1 VP (even though the card shows 2 VP). Do not discard the card. If the bot has 2 or less undamaged items, it slips into the forest with the highest priority (A before B) and skips Daylight.

Items placed into the Combat Track aren’t available to exhaust for actions. ❖ Starting Value A maximum of 1 Hit in battle. ❖ 6th Item The 6th total item is placed into the Combat Track increases the maximum Hits in battle to 2. ❖ 9th Item The 9th total item is placed into the Combat Track increases the maximum Hits in battle to 3. ❖ 12th Item The 12th total item is placed into the Combat Track grants 1 Extra Hit when attacking.

In Daylight follow the Path of actions to the right based on the order card. In this case (bird) it will be: Explore, Quest, Aid, Battle. Skip actions that can’t be completed in full. To explore calculate the cost to move to the closest ruins (break ties with highest clearing priority) and exploring them. The cost is 1 per move (0 if no move needed) and 1 to explore. If there are enough available items to pay for the action, exhaust the items, move to the clearing and gain the item from the ruins. Note that if playing with a second Vagabond that no effort is made to take half the items: The bot will happily take all 8 items and e.g. both hammers straight away if the second Vagabond is too slow. To quest calculate the cost to move to the closest clearing matching the active quest card and to complete the quest. The cost is 1 per move (0 if no move needed) and 2 to complete the quest. If there are enough available items to pay for the action, exhaust the items, move to the clearing and gain 2 VP. Then discard the active quest card and draw a replacement. The Aid action comes in two parts. First, exhaust items to trade for all available items from opponents with pieces in the clearing. Given that the bot gains an item each time it trades, a single unexhausted item can be used to trade for all available items. Player opponents draw 11

a card from the deck for each item traded, while bot opponents gain 1 VP per item. The Robot Raccoon also gains 1 VP per item traded. Second, if the player with the lowest VP has a piece in the clearing, that player draws a card (potentially after already being traded) for items or that bot gains 1 VP. In this case the Robot Raccoon gains 1 VP as well. To battle calculate the cost to move to the closest clearing with the player with the highest score (tie broken by setup order). The cost is 1 per move (0 if no move needed) and 1 to battle. If there are multiple closest clearings pick the one with the most building tokens, and if still tied then least warriors, then highest clearing priority. For each piece of your opponent that you remove as Attacker, gain 1 VP. Whenever the battle action is taken, repeat it as many times as possible but increase the cost to battle to 2. In the Evening rest by refreshing 4 items and if there are no damaged items refresh an additional 2 items. Then repair (and refresh) 1 item, or all items if the bot is in the forest. Then discard the order card.

What to watch out for The following rules are easily missed: ❖ Special abilities on the character cards are only used when the action “Special” is

used! ❖ Each time an item is gained via Craft or Aid, count the total number of items to ensure the Combat Track is kept up to date. ❖ You gain 1 VP per piece removed in battle as Attacker, but not as Defender.

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Playing against the Clockwork Cult Overview

Outcast Pile

The actions of the Clockwork Cult are defined by the Outcast Pile instead of by an order card. Players can control the future actions of the bot by strategically playing and discarding cards.

The Clockwork Cult has an Outcast Pile replacing both the Lost Souls pile as well as the concept of the Outcast suit. If any opponent discards a card it goes into the Outcast Pile up to the maximum (default: 4). Any cards beyond the maximum are normally discarded. It is important to keep the order of cards in the Outcast Pile as the oldest card is discarded each turn.

Example Turn In Birdsong start by performing conspiracies. If there’s at least one Acolyte perform Crusade and spend 1 Acolyte to battle. Battle in the clearing where the Cult has the most warriors and at there is at least 1 enemy building. If there’s an equal number of warriors break the tie by higher clearing priority (1 before 12). Target opponent is the opponent with the most buildings, and if tied by setup order (A before B).

Afterwards if there’s at least 3 Acolytes perform Sanctify and spend 3 Acolytes. The target opponent is the opponent with the most victory points that also has at least 1 building in play. Select the clearing where the opponent has the least warriors, breaking ties in favour of highest clearing priority (1 before 12). Remove a building of that player and place a matching garden in the clearing. Finally, for every two left-over Acolytes, spend 2 Acolytes and take the Convert action once. The target opponent is the opponent with the most victory points that also has at least 1 warrior in play. Select the clearing where the opponent has the most warriors, breaking ties in favour of highest clearing priority (1 before 12). Remove an opponent’s warrior in the clearing and place one of your warriors in the clearing. Skip Convert actions if you do not have any warriors in your supply. In Daylight flip the Outcast pile face-up, then resolve each card in order (oldest to newest). For each mouse, bunny and fox card recruit a warrior in a matching clearing. The target clearing should have a free building slot. If there is none, select the clearing with the most enemy buildings, breaking ties by clearing priority (1 before 12). If the Cult has control of the clearing after placing the warrior, also add a matching garden to the clearing. Then return the card face-down to the Outcast Pile. For each bird card move one of the bot’s warriors from a clearing to the Acolyte box. Select the clearing with the most of its warriors, breaking ties by clearing priority (1 before 12). Then discard the bird card. In the Evening score points equal to the suit with the most gardens in play plus 1. If there’s no gardens in play then no points are scored. If there is the maximum number of cards in the Outcast Pile (i.e. 4/4), then discard the oldest card in the Outcast Pile and if it shows an available item craft it for 1 VP. 13

What to watch out for The following rules are easily missed: ❖ If there’s no gardens in play the bot scores 0 VP.

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Playing against the Otter Overlords Overview

The Market

Most of the gameplay of the Otter Overlords takes places outside their turn. Both human and other bot players will have to buy their services to gain an advantage.

The Otter Overlords have a row of 4 cards visible to all players in front of them. Those cards can be bought by other players.

Example Turn

The order of cards has to be maintained and cannot be changed.

In Birdsong start by discarding the left-most card in the market. Then restock the market adding cards to the right until there are 4 cards in the market. The right-most card in the market is the order card for this turn and defines the actions. In this example it’s the fox card for Root Tea on the right.

Given that the card shows an available item, gain the item (Root Tea) and 1 VP (even though the card shows 2 VP). Do not discard the card. In Daylight start by placing a fox trading post (if available) into the highest priority (1 before 12) fox clearing without a trading post. Then recruit 1 warrior into each fox clearing that either contains one of the bot’s pieces or is adjacent to one of the bot’s pieces. So, if there is a warrior in clearing 7, you recruit in clearing 8. For this purpose, rivers connect clearings as if they were paths. Do not place a 3rd warrior into clearings that already have 2 warriors! If you recruited 2 or less warriors this turn also battle in all fox clearings. Target opponent is decided by most pieces in the clearing, then highest score, and finally setup order (A before B). In the Evening count the warriors in your payments box. For every set of warriors equal to the number of opponents gain 1 VP. For example, if it is a 3 player game with 2 opponents an there are 5 warriors in the payments box, score 2 VP (2 sets of 2 warriors and 1 left over). Then return all warriors back to their owners.

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What to watch out for Most of the Otter Overlords gameplay happens outside their turn: ❖ Each time a player doesn’t buy any of their services on their turn, move the marker on the export track one step to the right and the Otters immediately score the points now covered by the marker. ❖ Whenever a trade post is removed also reduce the export track by 1 step; but don’t score any points. ❖ Whenever services are bought, the cost is paid in warriors to the payments box. Services can’t be bought if there aren’t enough warriors available. ❖ The cost of service depends on the score of the buyer. 0 to 9 has a cost of 2, 10 to 19 a cost of 3, and 20 or more a cost of 4. ❖ All bots have a card that indicates when they buy services. These cards are also used when a human plays the Otters. In this case the human player also gets a card that indicates of how bots pay for services. ❖ Players can only buy services equal to 1 plus the number of trade posts in clearings in which they have a piece. ❖ Bots can buy any number of services without limitations.

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