Woodland Alliance

Start with nothing, fan the flames of revolt, and let your enemies' aggression fuel your rise.

Moderate

Background

The Woodland Alliance are the dispossessed common folk of the forest — mice, rabbits, and foxes who have had enough. Unlike every other faction, you arrive at the table with zero pieces on the map. Your revolution begins entirely in your hand of cards and in the quiet resentment of clearings that haven't yet chosen a side.

Your power is patience and indirection. You build supporters — a hidden stack of cards that fund your expansion — and you spend them to plant sympathy tokens across the woodland, winning over clearings one by one. Opponents who try to stamp out your movement will find that every attack hands you more fuel.

Once you have enough bases and officers in play, your military footprint grows and your scoring engine kicks into high gear. Getting there is the whole game.

How you win

Victory comes from blanketing the map with sympathy tokens. Each token you place earns you victory points immediately, and the rewards scale as your movement grows — your first tokens are worth one point each, but later placements are worth two or even three, making a widespread rebellion exponentially more valuable than a small one.

The road to 30 points is about spreading sympathy into as many clearings as possible, as efficiently as possible, while keeping your bases alive to sustain the officer corps that drives your military actions. Disrupting opponents early, hoarding supporters of the right suits, and timing your Revolts for maximum board impact will get you there.

How they play

Your turn is structured around three phases, each with a distinct purpose in the rebellion's rhythm:

Birdsong: You may Revolt — convert a sympathetic clearing into a base by spending two matching supporters, removing all enemy pieces there and placing warriors plus an officer. You may also Spread Sympathy — place a sympathy token in a clearing adjacent to existing sympathy by spending supporters matching that clearing's suit.
Daylight: Craft items from sympathetic clearings if you have the suits to pay. Then Mobilize by adding cards from your hand to your supporter stack, and Train by spending supporters to gain officers, which expand your Evening action count.
Evening: Take one military action per officer — move, battle, recruit, or Organize (place a sympathy token in a clearing where you have warriors). More officers means a bigger military turn.

Outrage is the invisible engine behind all of it: any time an opponent removes one of your sympathy tokens or warriors, they must give you a card from their hand matching that clearing's suit. Attacking you is rarely free, and often outright counterproductive for your opponents.

Strengths

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Outrage turns aggression into fuel — every time an opponent removes your sympathy or warriors, they hand you a card. The harder enemies push back early, the fatter your supporter stack grows for the next wave of expansion.
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With almost no pieces on the board at the start, you give opponents very little to attack. Other factions have to worry about each other while you quietly build a supporter stack and seed your first sympathy tokens in safety.
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The escalating point values for sympathy placement mean that once your network spans the map, each new token is worth significantly more than your early ones. A well-timed late sprint can close a large VP gap in just a few turns.

Weaknesses

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Losing a base forces you to discard every supporter of that suit and lose officers — gutting your action count and your ability to fund expansion in a single blow. A destroyed base can set you back several turns of careful buildup.
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You begin with no pieces on the board and no immediate scoring. While other factions rack up early points, you're spending your first turns assembling an engine that won't pay off until it reaches critical mass.
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Spreading sympathy requires supporters that match the target clearing's suit — if your stack is stacked with foxes but you need a mouse clearing, you're stuck. A bad run of card draws can stall your momentum entirely.

Tips & tricks

Tip
Every sympathy token must be placed adjacent to an existing one, so plan your network like a road — a connected chain of clearings reaches more of the map for fewer supporters than scattered islands.
Tip
Your bases are the most important pieces on your board — they anchor your officer corps and suit economy. Station warriors in base clearings and revolt into positions that are hard for opponents to reach or afford to attack.
Tip
Early in the game, consider placing sympathy in clearings where busy opponents are likely to move through — when they inevitably remove your tokens they'll be handing you the very cards you need to keep expanding.
Tip
Before you mobilize cards into your supporter stack, look at which clearings you want to spread into next and what suits they require. Feed your stack deliberately rather than dumping in whatever you've drawn, so you're never holding the wrong suits at the wrong moment.

Walk through a turn →

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