Root

Root is at its best when every faction feels as if it is playing a different game on the same map. By our assessment, that asymmetry is the whole reason people come to it: the Cats, the Eyrie, the Woodland Alliance, and the Vagabond each push a different economy, tempo, and style of control. The upside is real drama and a lot of room for table talk, because the board state changes fast and everyone has to watch everyone else. The downside is that the rules burden is heavy, and the game is much clearer after a few plays than on the first one. In practice it asks for attention to the whole table, not just to a personal puzzle, and that makes it sharper than many area-control games. It sits near the top of modern asymmetric strategy, especially for groups that enjoy negotiation, grudges, and shifting alliances. Root rewards people who like reading the table and do not mind learning several systems at once.