Please note, we (well James) has especially relied on the mighty fine help of Claude AI for updating our WCL website via Github.

A look back at the tournaments and events we’ve run over the years.

Leders of the Imperium: Twilight Imperium Tournament, October 2026

10 October 2026 Bristol Independent Gaming

Our October 2026 Twilight Imperium tournament, Leders of the Imperium, took place at Bristol Independent Gaming, starting on Saturday 10 October with a huge turnout of 54 players across 9 tables of 6 on Day 1.

Day 1 at Bristol Independent Gaming, with (nearly) everyone in the room and the nine tables numbered.

How it worked

Each Day 1 table winner went through to the Grand Final. Everyone else carried on in the Runners-Up games, seeded by score, initiative and home system control: six games of 6 players, plus a final 5-player game. Two of the nine Day 1 winners couldn’t make it to the Grand Final, so it was played with 7 players.

Every Day 1 table winner took home an Infantry trophy. On Day 2, each game was played for a ship trophy: the War Sun for the Grand Final, then the Flagship, Dreadnought, Carrier, Cruiser, Destroyer, Fighter II and Fighter I for the Runners-Up games.

For more game statistics and in-depth analytics, see the full tournament on Akamar.

Day 1: Table 1

Trophy: Infantry

Six players fought it out across the galaxy on Table 1. Nik took the win with 10 points, the only player to reach the full 10, and did it despite losing a home planet. Kirk finished one point behind on 9. Josh, Filip and Chris all ended on 8 points, with the tiebreak decided by initiative order, and Maciek completed the table on 7.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Nik (winner)	10	Lost one	6
2	Kirk	9	All held	8
3	Josh	8	All held	0
4	Filip	8	All held	3
5	Chris	8	All held	5
6	Maciek	7	All held	1

The Table 1 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Players gathered around Table 1

The galaxy mid-game

Table 1 in full swing

Fleets across the galaxy

Table 1 from another angle

A closer look at the player areas

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 2

Trophy: Infantry

Kayure took Table 2 with 10 points while holding all their home planets, the only player at the table to reach the full 10. Horst and Rafal tied on 8 points, with Horst taking second on initiative. Mark and Michal tied on 7, and the same tiebreak put Mark ahead. Brendan completed the table on 6.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Kayure (winner)	10	All held	8
2	Horst	8	All held	2
3	Rafal	8	All held	6
4	Mark	7	All held	1
5	Michal	7	All held	3
6	Brendan	6	All held	5

The Table 2 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Rafal, Michal, Kayure, Mark, Brendan and Horst

Table 2 from above

A low-angle look at the galaxy

The full Table 2 spread

Table 2 mid-game

Players studying the board

Table 2 from the other side

A close-up of the action

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 3

Trophy: Infantry

Table 3 came down to the wire, with three players finishing level on 9 points. Jo won on the tiebreak playing The Firmament, ahead of David on initiative, while Adam’s Yin Brotherhood took third after losing a home planet. Fin was next on 8, with Joe and James both on 7. Joe edged fifth place on initiative.

Joe and Jo tended to follow each other in the initiative order every round, so the table quickly took to calling them Jo #1 and Joe #2.

Joe’s Keleres took Mecatol Rex in Round 1 and kept the agendas coming, with plenty of action phase agendas through the game. The table was playing on Adam’s copy of the game, and got to appreciate his flagships along the way.

Thunder’s Edge was another talking point. Adam’s Yin took it and held on to it for the entire game, despite a brave attempt by James’s Clan of Saar to take it off him. Adam also very nearly handed it to James through the Colonial Redistribution agenda, with the planet sitting in an asteroid field, before the rest of the table put a stop to that. Saar hobbled up to 7 points.

The big gamble came late on. Sitting on 9 points, Adam rolled for the Yin’s Silver Flame, going for the win, but it didn’t pay off: he stayed on 9 and lost a home planet. Watch the roll on YouTube.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Jo (winner)	9	All held	5
2	David	9	All held	8
3	Adam	9	Lost one	7
4	Fin	8	All held	1
5	Joe	7	All held	2
6	James	7	All held	6

The Table 3 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: James, Fin, David, Joe, Jo and Adam

Joe's Keleres take Mecatol Rex in Round 1

Table 3 getting stuck in

Players, spectators and a phone camera

Adam's amazing flagships, Round 3

The scores in Round 4

Yin on 9 points, before the Silver Flame roll

Yin still on 9 points, after the Silver Flame roll

The Firmament wins on the tiebreak

Handshakes all round

More handshakes at the end of the game

The galaxy at the end of the game

Table 3 from above

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 4

Trophy: Infantry

Table 4 went the distance, reaching Round 6, which is typically a round or two longer than expected, and the scores made for a close end game. Rory took the win with 10 points and every home planet intact. Conrad, Adam and Ashley all finished on 8: Conrad took second with all his home planets, while Adam and Ashley had each lost one, with Adam ahead on initiative. Tristan and Will finished on 7. Everyone was still on cordial terms after the game.

Rory sadly couldn’t play on Day 2, so missed out on the Grand Final.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Rory (winner)	10	All held	1
2	Conrad	8	All held	4
3	Adam	8	Lost one	3
4	Ashley	8	Lost one	7
5	Tristan	7	All held	2
6	Will	7	All held	8

The Table 4 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Adam, Conrad, Tristan, Ashley, Will and Rory

Players studying the board

The galaxy mid-game

Table 4 from above

The whole of Table 4 laid out

Table 4 from the side

Objectives and the score track

A look at the Federation of Sol's player area

Player areas and the galaxy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 5

Trophy: Infantry

Alex took the win on Table 5 with a full 10 points and every home planet intact. Behind them it was a tight race: Conrad, Edward and Truan all finished level on 9 points, with initiative order deciding second to fourth in that order. Pete finished on 8, and Sam completed the table on 6 after losing a home planet.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Alex (winner)	10	All held	0
2	Conrad	9	All held	2
3	Edward	9	All held	3
4	Truan	9	All held	4
5	Pete	8	All held	1
6	Sam	6	Lost one	5

The Table 5 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Truan, Edward, Sam, Pete, Alex and Conrad

A fun end-of-game photo

Conrad concentrating on the board

Table 5 from above

The galaxy on Table 5's wooden board

The final galaxy position

The final scores

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 6

Trophy: Infantry

Table 6 was the quickest finish so far: Chris won the game in Round 4 with 10 points and every home planet intact. Phillip and Ben tied on 7, with Phillip taking second on initiative, and Daniel, Charlie and David all finished on 6, placed in that order by initiative. Nobody at the table lost a home planet.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Chris (winner)	10	All held	1
2	Phillip	7	All held	0
3	Ben	7	All held	8
4	Daniel	6	All held	3
5	Charlie	6	All held	6
6	David	6	All held	7

Ben kindly recorded how many Support for the Throne notes each faction controlled at the end of the game:

Faction	Supports controlled
Barony	1
Naalu	0
Naaz-Rokha	2
Deepwrought	1
Argent	1
Ral Nel	0

The Table 6 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Phillip, Chris, Daniel, Charlie, David and Ben

The galaxy on Table 6

Table 6 from above

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 7

Trophy: Infantry

Table 7 ran to Round 5, and Adam took the win with a full 10 points, despite losing a home planet along the way. Will finished one point behind on 9. The table also had two tournament winners at it: Gavin, our October 2025 champion, and Luke, who won the Leeds TI4 Tournament in September 2026, where they played Twilight’s Fall. The pair tied on 8, with Gavin taking third on initiative. James finished on 7 and Neil completed the table on 6.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Adam (winner)	10	Lost one	8
2	Will	9	All held	6
3	Gavin	8	All held	2
4	Luke	8	All held	7
5	James	7	All held	3
6	Neil	6	All held	1

The Table 7 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: James, Gavin, Will, Luke, Adam and Neil

Luke making a move

The whole of Table 7 laid out

Table 7 from above

The galaxy mid-game

Fleets across the galaxy

Another view of the galaxy

Objectives and the score track

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 8

Trophy: Infantry

Oakley took the win on Table 8 with a full 10 points and every home planet intact. Sam finished one point behind on 9, while Francesco and Rory tied on 8, with Francesco taking third on initiative. Michael finished on 7, and Richard completed the table on 6 after losing a home planet.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Oakley (winner)	10	All held	1
2	Sam	9	All held	8
3	Francesco	8	All held	2
4	Rory	8	All held	3
5	Michael	7	All held	7
6	Richard	6	Lost one	6

The Table 8 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Rory, Michael, Oakley, Sam, Richard and Francesco

Richard studying the board

The galaxy from above

Table 8 in play

Another view of Table 8 from above

Table 8 mid-game

Table 8 from the side

Objectives and the score track

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 9

Trophy: Infantry

Rich took the win on Table 9 with a full 10 points and every home planet intact. Brent finished on 8, and then Oscar, Ghazi and Alex all ended on 7: Oscar took third and Ghazi fourth on initiative, while Alex placed fifth after losing a home planet. Anthony completed the table on 3 points.

A big shoutout to Oscar, who was playing his first ever Twilight Imperium 4th Edition game at our tournament and did really well as the Ghosts of Creuss.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Rich (winner)	10	All held	7
2	Brent	8	All held	1
3	Oscar	7	All held	3
4	Ghazi	7	All held	8
5	Alex	7	Lost one	4
6	Anthony	3	Lost one	6

The Table 9 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

The Table 9 players

Players deep in discussion

Table 9 from above

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 8

Trophy: Fighter I

The Fighter I game was a five-player table and, by all accounts, a friendly and relaxed one, right up until the final round. Marc took the win with 10 points, with Anthony one point behind on 9 and Matt on 8. James and Richard both finished on 7, with James placed ahead on initiative.

The Federation of Sol gave the Titans of Ul quite the beating, spamming out infantry with their breakthrough. The Ral Nel Consortium then brought 7 or more ships to the fight, and with Imperial in hand they only just took Mecatol Rex off the Titans. Meanwhile, a sneaky Sardakk N’orr relished all the fighting and clinched the win by attacking the Vuil’raith Cabal in their home system. Good game, all!

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Marc (winner)	10	All held	8
2	Anthony	9	All held	6
3	Matt	8	All held	1
4	James	7	All held	2
5	Richard	7	All held	4

The Table 8 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Matt, Anthony, Richard, Marc (with the trophy) and James

Table 8 and its friendly, relaxed game

The battle for Mecatol Rex

The Ral Nel Consortium kick the Titans off Mecatol Rex

The scores and the galaxy

The score track

Sardakk N'orr strike the Vuil'raith Cabal's home system

The final galaxy position

The final scores

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 7

Trophy: Fighter II

The Fighter II game was a six-player table, and it came down to a tense final round in which almost everyone had a plausible route to victory. David took the win with 11 points, with Neil and Will both on 9 and Neil placed ahead on initiative. Alex finished on 8 and Brendan on 7, while Ghazi’s Clan of Saar were eliminated in the closing moments.

Saar had taken an early point lead, so the rest of the table piled in: everyone took their planets, destroyed their last space dock and isolated them on Mecatol Rex. That is no small feat, as Saar are especially difficult to eliminate with their immunity in asteroid fields. The Ixthian Artifact was in play, but it failed to blow up and handed out technology instead. Keleres then tried for Mecatol Rex and lost a tragic number of ships in a gravity rift, before the Barony of Letnev sent in a fleet of around 15 ships. They won the space combat but only just failed to win the ground combat, leaving two damaged mechs alive.

Near the end of the round it was clear that Neil’s Argent Flight would reach 10 points with Diplomacy before David’s Mahact could get there with Warfare. David had a plan to use the Mahact hero to move the huge fleet out of Argent’s home system, but it was risky. Then Alex spotted that Saar and Argent had swapped Support for the Throne, so eliminating Saar would also stop Argent reaching 10. David used the hero to clear out the Barony’s massive fleet, finished off the Clan of Saar, and took the win. Good game, all!

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	David (winner)	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	11	All held	6
2	Neil	Argent Flight	9	All held	2
3	Will	Barony of Letnev	9	All held	3
4	Alex	Council Keleres	8	All held	8
5	Brendan	Yssaril Tribes	7	All held	7
6	Ghazi	Clan of Saar	0	Eliminated	—

The Table 7 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Brendan, Will, David (with the trophy), Neil and Alex

Table 7 and its six-player game

The galaxy in the final round

Closing in on the Clan of Saar

The Clan of Saar's board and reinforcements after their elimination

The score track and the Mecatol Rex system

The final galaxy position

The final scores

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 6

Trophy: Destroyer

The Destroyer game was a long, tense six-player affair that went on for about nine hours, and it came down to a quiet win in the status phase. Michal’s Argent Flight took the victory on 10 points, with Joe’s Ghosts of Creuss just behind on 9 and Ben’s Empyrean third on 8.

Michal’s game did not start well. He received the Naalu alliance and Support for the Throne very early via Mindsieve, and enjoyed Joe leaving Judicial Abolishment on top of the agenda deck so that he and Naalu could not see the next card. His secret objectives were less kind: Prove Endurance, then Occupy the Seat of the Empire with Sardakk N’orr taking Mecatol Rex and massing next door, then Adapt New Strategies, which left him stuck on three techs of one colour. In round 3 he sent a big fleet into the Fracture to grab relics just before Naalu could, picking up some good combat relics and Junior. Meanwhile Naalu’s push for Styx was slowed by a war with the Ghosts, which started when Naalu took Tempesta in the Ghosts’ slice and ended with the Ghosts in Naalu’s home system.

Round 4 saw Michal deal with Sardakk and take Mecatol Rex, turning Prove Endurance into Dictate Policy and drawing Destroy Their Greatest Ship. The Empyrean locked most of Naalu’s forces in the Fracture with a Void Tether, then released them in exchange for Gift of Prescience, letting Naalu take Styx and the shard. In round 5, Michal kept his word to the Empyrean and took Leadership so they could have Imperial, while Sardakk took Construction for the stage 2 objective. The action phase brought the game’s big moment. Michal had Lightwave Deflector in play and fought for Styx, but the Empyrean attacked with a huge force, then used Fleet Logistics, the Codex and Overrule to reach 8 points holding Mecatol Rex with Imperial still unplayed. The rest of the table orchestrated a response: Michal killed the Empyrean flagship with just enough force (quietly scoring an action phase secret that Joe had correctly called), Yssaril’s Tristan softened the ground, and the Ghosts came in with a large force and won the ground combat on good rolls.

With the Empyrean stopped, everyone’s forces were depleted, and Michal was sitting on five structures that nobody was looking at too closely. Imperial gave him a better secret, Hoard Raw Materials, which he could score without doing anything. The Ghosts took Naalu’s home system and the shard, which put them on 9 with an unscored secret, and Michal made a weak, desperate-looking attack on their home to make his own secret look unscoreable while he reinforced his PDS with mechs. The last threat was Yssaril, who had one tactic token left, but they went after undefended planets to finally score their six-planet public objective instead. Michal scored his secret in the status phase for the win. Good game, all!

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Michal (winner)	Argent Flight	10	All held	1
2	Joe	Ghosts of Creuss	9	All held	3
3	Ben	The Empyrean	8	All held	0
4	Michael	Sardakk N’orr	8	All held	4
5	Tristan	Yssaril Tribes	5	All held	2
6	James	Naalu Collective	5	Lost one	5

The Table 6 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

The Table 6 players with the Destroyer trophy

Table 6 and its six-player game

The galaxy and the table mid-game

Table talk

The score track and objectives

Objectives, relics and the score track

Late in the game

The table in the closing stages

The final galaxy position

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 5

Trophy: Cruiser

Rafal took the Cruiser with 10 points, holding all of his home planets and the first initiative slot. Adam, our March ‘26 TI4 Champion, finished second on 9 points, edging out Phillip, who also had 9, on initiative order.

Luke and Mark both finished on 8 points, with Luke placed ahead on initiative, and Ashley rounded out the table on 7. Playing Council Keleres, Ashley picked Mentak’s system as her home and lost Moll Primus, the only home planet lost at the table.

Place	Player	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Rafal (winner)	10	All held	1
2	Adam	9	All held	3
3	Phillip	9	All held	8
4	Luke	8	All held	4
5	Mark	8	All held	7
6	Ashley	7	Lost one (Moll Primus)	2

The Table 5 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Luke, Ashley, Adam (our March '26 TI4 Champion), Mark, Rafal (with the trophy) and Phillip

Table 5 and its six-player game

The galaxy and the table mid-game

The galaxy and the score track

A closer look at the galaxy

The galaxy from another angle

The galaxy from above

The final galaxy position

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 4

Trophy: Carrier

Francesco’s Naaz-Rokha Alliance took the Carrier with 10 points, holding all of his home planets and the first initiative slot. It was a fine result in the face of repeated rulings during the game that weakened the Naaz-Rokha’s super mech.

Behind him it was extremely tight, with Chris’s Xxcha Kingdom, Filip’s Barony of Letnev (Filip travelled from Belgium to join us!), Conrad’s Mahact Gene-Sorcerers and Gavin’s Argent Flight all finishing on 8 points. Initiative order separated them, with Chris in second, then Filip, Conrad and Gavin. Horst’s Arborec finished on 7 points, but with a heroic effort, building a war sun as the Arborec.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Francesco (winner)	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	10	All held	1
2	Chris	Xxcha Kingdom	8	All held	3
3	Filip	Barony of Letnev	8	All held	4
4	Conrad	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	8	All held	6
5	Gavin	Argent Flight	8	All held	8
6	Horst	Arborec	7	All held	2

The Table 4 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Chris, Gavin, Conrad, Francesco (with the trophy), Horst and Filip (from Belgium!)

Table 4 and its six-player game

The galaxy and the table mid-game

The galaxy from another angle

Horst's Arborec war sun

A closer look at the galaxy

The score track and objectives

The final scores

The final galaxy position

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 3

Trophy: Dreadnought

Josh’s L1Z1X Mindnet took the Dreadnought with 10 points, holding all of his home planets. Adam finished second on 9 points.

Sam, Fin and Pete all finished on 8 points, separated by initiative order in that order, with Brent on 6. Every player held all of their home planets at the end of the game. Pete had to dash off as the game ended, so he missed the photo.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Josh (winner)	L1Z1X Mindnet	10	All held	6
2	Adam	Ral Nel Consortium	9	All held	8
3	Sam	Yin Brotherhood	8	All held	1
4	Fin	The Winnu	8	All held	2
5	Pete	The Empyrean	8	All held	3
6	Brent	Argent Flight	6	All held	7

The Table 3 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Brent, Sam, Josh (with the trophy), Adam and Fin. Pete had to dash off as the game ended

Table 3 and its six-player game

The galaxy and the table mid-game

The galaxy from another angle

The score track and objectives

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 2

Trophy: Flagship

Truan’s Crimson Rebellion took the Flagship with 10 points, holding all of his home planets. Will’s Naaz-Rokha Alliance and David’s Xxcha Kingdom both finished on 9, with Will placed second on initiative order.

Edward’s Empyrean finished on 8 points, while Kirk’s Vuil’Raith Cabal and Conrad’s Titans of Ul both ended on 6, with Kirk ahead on initiative. Every player held all of their home planets at the end of the game.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Truan (winner)	Crimson Rebellion	10	All held	2
2	Will	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	9	All held	1
3	David	Xxcha Kingdom	9	All held	8
4	Edward	The Empyrean	8	All held	4
5	Kirk	Vuil’Raith Cabal	6	All held	3
6	Conrad	Titans of Ul	6	All held	7

The Table 2 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Left to right: Kirk, Ed, Truan (with the trophy), Conrad, David and Will

Table 2 and its six-player game

The galaxy and the table mid-game

The galaxy from another angle

The table in the closing stages

A closer look at the galaxy

The score track and objectives

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Grand Final

Trophy: War Sun

The Grand Final brought together the seven winners from Day 1, all vying for control of the galaxy. Alex’s Nomad took the War Sun with 10 points, after one of the most explosive turns of the weekend.

Nik had to rush off at 7pm, so Conrad (aka DarkAura, from Table 2) stepped in to play the Naalu Collective, but he never got a turn. Alex’s Nomad, on 6 points, scored 4 in a single turn, taking three actions by combining Fleet Logistics with the Thunder’s Edge ability:

1. A tiny space combat to kill one of Muaat’s destroyers and score Betray a Friend (with Fleet Logistics).
2. A tactical move into the L1Z1X home system, scoring the Unveil Flagship secret objective in space and then taking control of [0.0.0] (with the Thunder’s Edge ability).
3. Imperial on initiative 8, to score Conquer the Weak.

The Naalu held Coup d’État to try to stop the Imperial, but Alex’s Nomad had Sabotage, which made the whole combo virtually unstoppable.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Alex (winner)	The Nomad	10	All held	8
2	Adam	L1Z1X Mindnet	9	Lost one ([0.0.0])	6
3	Kayure	Deepwrought Scholarate	8	All held	1
4	Chris	Arborec	8	All held	3
5	Nik	Naalu Collective	7	All held	0
6	Oakley	Embers of Muaat	7	All held	2
7	Jo	Sardakk N’orr	7	All held	7

The Grand Final galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Our Day 1 victors, left to right: Chris, Kayure, Oakley, Alex (with the War Sun trophy), Jo and Adam

The Grand Final underway, with the War Sun trophy on the table

The War Sun trophy looking on as the final plays out

The final galaxy position

The galaxy from another angle

The final scores and objectives

↑ Back to all tables

Root Summer Tournament, June 2026

13 June 2026 Excelsior Games, Bristol

On Saturday 13 June 2026, our seventh Root tournament took place at Excelsior Games on Merchant Street, our first with the new Homeland expansion! Three games of Root were played over the day, with a few people squeezing in a fourth “fast and loose” game between Round 2 and the finals, and for several players it was their very first Root tournament.

How it worked

We used the latest HOOT Standard Ruleset with a few modifications:

• All content was included (including Homeland), except Hirelings and Clockwork, with games intended for 4 players.
• Each table rolled for one of six maps (Autumn, Winter, Mountain, Lake, Gorge or Marsh), and chose between the Exiles and Partisans and the Squires and Disciples decks.
• Tables could add 0 to 2 landmarks, and choose whether to include one 🦝 Vagabond or the 🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood in the draft.
• The 🐦‍⬛ Crows had three plots of each type, and coalitions were banned.
• We no longer used Despot Infamy for the Vagabond, partly because of its terrible win rate in our tournaments, and partly because the wider Root community no longer uses it.

After Round 1, players went into the winners’ or losers’ bracket for Round 2, before a Final and a Runners-Up Final on the Mountain map.

The champions

Congratulations to Katie, our new Champion, who took the Final with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company! Congratulations too to Hol, who won the Runners-Up Final.

The stats

The new Homeland factions made quite an entrance, with the 🐸 Lilypad Diaspora the most played faction of the day (11 games) and winning 3 of them. The 🐈 Marquise de Cat had the best win rate, winning 4 of their 7 games, and the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds won 4 of 8.

A big thank you to everyone who came, to everyone who brought their copies of Root, to Excelsior Games for hosting us, and to all of our organisers for running the day. Several first-timers said it was a phenomenal atmosphere, and we hope to see them back for more!

Katie, our new Champion, with her certificate

The finals under way at Excelsior Games

All smiles during the finals

One of James’s games on the Gorge map

Another of James’s games

The Gorge map in full swing

Round 1

Round 1 saw games across the Gorge, Autumn, Marsh and Winter maps. (The results of Games 3 and 10 weren’t recorded on the score sheet.)

Game 1 (Gorge map): won by Joshua P with the 🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Rob	🦎 Lizard Cult	11
2	Joshua P (winner)	🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood	30
3	Alex R	🦦 Riverfolk Company	23
4	Dan M	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	29

Game 2 (Autumn map): won by Nick S with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick S (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Aidan	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	22
3	William	🐁 Woodland Alliance	20
4	Todor	🦦 Riverfolk Company	21

Game 4 (Marsh map): won by JT with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	JT (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	Erika	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	16
3	Dino	🦎 Lizard Cult	14
4	Nick L	🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood	27

Game 5 (Winter map): won by Katie with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Katie (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	Lisa	⛏️ Underground Duchy	22
3	Joshua O	🦡 Keepers in Iron	26

Game 6: won by James C with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Tom D	⛏️ Underground Duchy	20
2	Tom O	🐁 Woodland Alliance	24
3	Alex G	🦡 Keepers in Iron	18
4	James C (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Game 7 (Winter map): won by Cameron with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ruby	🦎 Lizard Cult	17
2	Damian	🦡 Keepers in Iron	20
3	Cameron (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
4	Max	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	23

Game 8: won by Matthew with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Hol	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	20
2	Matthew (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
3	Christopher	🦎 Lizard Cult	16
4	Tom S	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	18

Game 9 (Gorge map): won by Peter with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Peter (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Craig	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	24
3	Dan F	🦎 Lizard Cult	29
4	James B	🦡 Keepers in Iron	16

Game 11: won by Rich with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Niall	🦡 Keepers in Iron	16
2	Rich (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30
3	El	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance (failed)
4	Gareth	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21

Game 12: won by Dan S with the 🐸 Lilypad Diaspora.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Levi	🦎 Lizard Cult	19
2	Joe	🐈 Marquise de Cat	16
3	Barnie	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	22
4	Dan S (winner)	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	30

A Homeland draft, with the 🐸 Lilypad Diaspora on offer

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Winners’ bracket

The last game standing was Katie’s, and everyone gathered round to watch. The other players pleaded with the ⛏️ Moles to cluster up in one clearing to stop the 🦦 Otters getting their second trade post down for an easy win, but the proud Duchy knew all was lost and went for a respectable points finish instead.

Winners’ game 1 (Winter map): won by Dan M with the 🐸 Lilypad Diaspora.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	JT	🦇 Twilight Council	29
2	Joshua P	🦦 Riverfolk Company	21
3	Nick S	🐁 Woodland Alliance	26
4	Dan M (winner)	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	30

Winners’ game 2 (Marsh map): won by Dan S with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Peter	🐈 Marquise de Cat	29
2	Rich	🦦 Riverfolk Company	21
3	Max	🦝 Vagabond (Cheat)	25
4	Dan S (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Winners’ game 3 (Gorge map): won by Tom O with the 🐸 Lilypad Diaspora.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Dan F	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	27
2	Tom O (winner)	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	30
3	Nick L	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	18
4	Joshua O	🐁 Woodland Alliance	20

Winners’ game 4 (Mountain map): won by Katie with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Cameron	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	27
2	Katie (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
3	James C	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	17
4	Matthew	⛏️ Underground Duchy	25

Losers’ bracket

Losers’ game 1 (Lake map): won by Hol with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Lisa	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	28
2	Rob	🦡 Keepers in Iron	18
3	Levi	🐈 Marquise de Cat	23
4	Hol (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Losers’ game 2 (Winter map): won by Damian with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Niall	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	18
2	Todor	🦦 Riverfolk Company	29
3	Damian (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Losers’ game 3 (Winter map): won by James B with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ruby	⛏️ Underground Duchy	12
2	Gareth	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	23
3	James B (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
4	Erika	🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood	19

Losers’ game 4 (Winter map): won by Dino with the 🦎 Lizard Cult.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	William	🦇 Twilight Council	20
2	Tom D	🐁 Woodland Alliance	24
3	Craig	🦡 Keepers in Iron	23
4	Dino (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30

Losers’ game 5 (Winter map): won by Alex R with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Alex R (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Christopher	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	8
3	Joe	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	9

Losers’ game 6 (Winter map): won by Barnie with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Barnie (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
2	Tom S	⛏️ Underground Duchy	19
3	Alex G	🐸 Lilypad Diaspora	29
4	Aidan	🦨 Knaves of the Deepwood	14

Everyone gathered around for the last game standing in the Round 2 winners’ bracket

The board the turn before Katie took it with the 🦦 Riverfolk

↑ Back to all tables

The Finals

Final

Katie, Dan M, Dan S, Tom O and Barnie met in the Final on the Mountain map, where Katie led the 🦦 Riverfolk Company to victory. (The other factions and scores in the Final weren’t recorded.)

Runners-Up Final

Hol, Alex R, Damian and Dino played the Runners-Up Final on the Mountain map, finishing in that order.

Katie, Champion

↑ Back to all tables

Leders of the Imperium: Twilight Imperium Tournament, March 2026

28 March 2026 Tobacco Factory, Bristol

Our March 2026 Twilight Imperium tournament, Leders of the Imperium, took place at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol over the weekend of 28 and 29 March, with 48 players across 8 tables of 6 on Day 1. Players travelled from all over the UK, and even from Italy, to take part.

To top it all off, here is (nearly) everyone!

How it worked

Each Day 1 table winner went through to the Grand Final, which was played as a single 8-player game. Everyone else carried on in the Runners-Up games on Day 2, seeded by score and initiative: six games of 6 players. A few players couldn’t make Day 2, so our reserve Matt and organiser James stepped in to fill the gaps.

Every Day 1 table winner took home a supersized Infantry trophy. On Day 2, the Grand Final was played for the Galactic Emperor trophy, and each Runners-Up game for a ship trophy: the Flagship, Dreadnought, Carrier, Cruiser, Destroyer and Fighter.

Adam (Beavs) won his Day 1 table with the Vuil’Raith Cabal, then took the Grand Final with the Last Bastion to become our new Galactic Emperor.

A big thank you to Katie and Alex Lane for helping with the setup, organising and takedown; to Ben (Jammy) for all the amazing photos; to loominmoosin for the last-minute spreadsheet that sorted out the Day 2 seating; to Nick for lending us his beautiful copy for the Grand Final and handling the financial admin; to Horst for the table extenders; and to Matt for being a very helpful reserve. Joe also recorded a series of episodes about the weekend on his Through the Wormhole podcast.

For more game statistics and in-depth analytics, see the full tournament on Akamar.

The Tobacco Factory, our home for the weekend

The Galactic Emperor trophy, waiting for its new owner

The trophy, with the Gorilla Glue on standby

Twilight Imperium and Thunder’s Edge, ready to go

One of the many copies brought along for the weekend

Fleets facing off across the galaxy

A close-up of the action on one of the tables

Ground forces and fleets clashing

A yellow fleet on the move

Politics in play

Celebrations at the end of a game

Day 1: Table 1

Trophy: Infantry

Table 1 finished their draft in record time, weeks ahead of the event, and their game was a close one. Francesco took the win with the Nomad on 10 points. Behind him, Will, Adam and Rafal all finished on 8, separated by initiative order, while Ben and Adam (Twitch) ended on 7. With two Adams at the table, the “Council of Adams” was quickly formed.

After the game, Will declared that he expected a Table 1 win from Francesco in the Grand Final the next day.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Francesco (winner)	Nomad	10	All held	6
2	Will	Naalu Collective	8	All held	0
3	Adam	Federation of Sol	8	All held	1
4	Rafal	Mentak Coalition	8	All held	7
5	Ben	Council of Keleres	7	All held	3
6	Adam (Twitch)	L1Z1X Mindnet	7	All held	8

The Table 1 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 1 getting stuck in

Table 1 from across the room

Deep in thought on Table 1

Francesco with his trophy

The Table 1 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 2

Trophy: Infantry

Table 2 was a truly international affair, with players travelling from Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent and even Treviso, near Venice, to take part. Marc, who turned out to be the only Bristolian at the table, took the win with the Nekro Virus on 10 points, just one ahead of Neil’s Titans of Ul. Michael and Mike tied on 7, with Michael ahead on initiative, then Daf finished on 6 and Michele on 5.

With three Mikes and a Marc at the table, the pre-game chat soon turned into the founding of the “cult of Mike”.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Marc (winner)	Nekro Virus	10	All held	1
2	Neil	Titans of Ul	9	All held	2
3	Michael	Argent Flight	7	All held	3
4	Mike	Yin Brotherhood	7	All held	8
5	Daf	Sardakk N’orr	6	All held	4
6	Michele	Xxcha Kingdom	5	All held	7

The Table 2 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 2 mid-game

Weighing up the options on Table 2

Table 2 in the evening, with the rest of the room in full swing

Table 2 in the closing stages

Celebrating Marc’s win

The Table 2 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 3

Trophy: Infantry

Chris took Table 3 with the Embers of Muaat on 10 points, crowned “our new Emperor Muaat” by Ryan at the end of the game. Mark finished one point behind on 9 with the Xxcha Kingdom, then Mike, Ryan and Joe all ended on 7, separated by initiative order. William completed the table on 5.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Chris (winner)	Embers of Muaat	10	All held	7
2	Mark	Xxcha Kingdom	9	All held	8
3	Mike	Naalu Collective	7	All held	0
4	Ryan	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	7	All held	1
5	Joe	Emirates of Hacan	7	All held	6
6	William	Ghosts of Creuss	5	All held	3

The Table 3 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Making a move on Table 3

Table 3 and its blinged-out galaxy

A closer look at the galaxy

Table 3 in full swing

The Table 3 players at the end of the game

Chris with his trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 4

Trophy: Infantry

Bradley ran away with Table 4, winning with the Mahact Gene-Sorcerers on 10 points, four clear of the rest. Rich and Horst tied on 6, with Rich ahead on initiative, followed by Dominic and Will on 5 and James on 1. Dominic stepped in at short notice, taking over a seat in the draft.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Bradley (winner)	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	10	All held	1
2	Rich	Titans of Ul	6	All held	3
3	Horst	Xxcha Kingdom	6	All held	8
4	Dominic	Federation of Sol	5	All held	2
5	Will	Firmament / Obsidian	5	All held	5
6	James	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	1	All held	4

The Table 4 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Thinking hard on Table 4

Table 4 mid-game

Gathered round the Table 4 galaxy

Contemplating the next move

Table 4 from across the room

Bradley with his trophy

Some of the Table 4 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 5

Trophy: Infantry

Charlie took Table 5 with the Last Bastion on 10 points. Chris and Sam tied on 7, with Chris ahead on initiative, then Dennis and Tim both finished on 6. Adam completed the table on 4.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Charlie (winner)	Last Bastion	10	All held	6
2	Chris	Emirates of Hacan	7	All held	3
3	Sam	Crimson Rebellion	7	All held	8
4	Dennis	Mentak Coalition	6	All held	1
5	Tim	L1Z1X Mindnet	6	All held	5
6	Adam	Barony of Letnev	4	All held	4

The Table 5 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

The Table 5 marker

A fleet on the move

Table 5 deep in thought

Player areas and the galaxy

Celebrating Charlie’s win

Table 5 in the closing stages

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 6

Trophy: Infantry

Table 6 came down to the final point. Peter took the win with the Emirates of Hacan on 10, just one ahead of Alex’s Deepwrought Scholarate on 9. Sophie and Ashley tied on 8, with Sophie ahead on initiative, then Tristan finished on 6 and Chris on 5. Tristan stepped in as a late replacement.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Peter (winner)	Emirates of Hacan	10	All held	8
2	Alex	Deepwrought Scholarate	9	All held	2
3	Sophie	Empyrean	8	All held	1
4	Ashley	Nomad	8	All held	5
5	Tristan	Firmament / Obsidian	6	All held	6
6	Chris	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	5	All held	3

The Table 6 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 6’s mascot keeping watch

Table 6 in full swing

Watching the board on Table 6

The Table 6 marker

Planning the next move

The Table 6 players at the end of the game

Peter celebrates his win

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 7

Trophy: Infantry

Adam (Beavs) took Table 7 with the Vuil’Raith Cabal on 10 points, the first step on his way to the Grand Final title. Gavin finished on 8, then Joanna, Fin and Ben all ended on 7, separated by initiative order. Alex completed the table on 6, with organiser James stepping in to play his seat for half the game.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Adam (winner)	Vuil’Raith Cabal	10	All held	8
2	Gavin	Federation of Sol	8	All held	3
3	Joanna	Deepwrought Scholarate	7	All held	2
4	Fin	Last Bastion	7	All held	6
5	Ben	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	7	All held	7
6	Alex	Winnu	6	All held	5

The Table 7 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 7 getting stuck in

A fleet in the thick of it

Making a point on Table 7

The Table 7 galaxy

Studying the board

Table 7 in play

Table 7 mid-game

Adam with his trophy

The Table 7 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 8

Trophy: Infantry

Lewis took Table 8 with the Embers of Muaat on 10 points. David finished on 7, then Chris and Conrad tied on 6, with Chris ahead on initiative. Mike and Adam M completed the table on 5. Adam M stepped in for a late dropout, and it was his first tournament.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Lewis (winner)	Embers of Muaat	10	All held	0
2	David	Ral Nel Consortium	7	All held	1
3	Chris	Naalu Collective	6	All held	3
4	Conrad	Titans of Ul	6	All held	4
5	Mike	Mentak Coalition	5	All held	2
6	Adam M	Sardakk N’orr	5	All held	8

The Table 8 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Taking a moment away from the board

Table 8 mid-game

Table 8 from the other side

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 7

Trophy: Fighter

Michele, who travelled all the way from Italy, took the Fighter trophy with the Mentak Coalition on 10 points. Chris finished one behind on 9, then James, William and Matt all ended on 8, separated by initiative order. Adam M completed the table on 7. Matt, our reserve, stepped in for a Day 2 dropout.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Michele (winner)	Mentak Coalition	10	All held	2
2	Chris	Clan of Saar	9	All held	1
3	James	Nekro Virus	8	All held	3
4	William	Universities of Jol-Nar	8	All held	6
5	Matt	Federation of Sol	8	All held	8
6	Adam M	Yin Brotherhood	7	All held	4

The Table 7 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 7 mid-game

The Table 7 players at the end of the game

Michele with the Fighter trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 6

Trophy: Destroyer

Tim took the Destroyer with the Nomad on 10 points, and did it without holding his home system at the end of the game. Will and Daf both finished on 9, with Will’s Naalu ahead on initiative 0, then Mike and Tristan tied on 8. Adam completed the table on 6. The game was played on James’s copy.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Tim (winner)	Nomad	10	Not held	1
2	Will	Naalu Collective	9	All held	0
3	Daf	Sardakk N’orr	9	All held	8
4	Mike	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	8	All held	3
5	Tristan	Council of Keleres	8	All held	7
6	Adam (Twitch)	Federation of Sol	6	All held	6

The Table 6 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 6 mid-game

The Table 6 players at the end of the game

Tim with the Destroyer trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 5

Trophy: Cruiser

The Cruiser game was the tightest finish of the weekend. Joe took the win with the Yin Brotherhood on 10 points, with four players right behind him on 9: Dominic, Ben (Blobbox), Conrad and Ben (B’hrian), separated by initiative order. Mike completed the table on 8.

Joe and Dominic later talked through the game, including threat perception, table politics and win slaying, on Joe’s Through the Wormhole podcast. Mike, playing the Crimson Rebellion, said afterwards that Joe had wrecked his game plan in round 1!

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Joe (winner)	Yin Brotherhood	10	All held	1
2	Dominic	Naalu Collective	9	All held	0
3	Ben (Blobbox)	Barony of Letnev	9	All held	2
4	Conrad	Nekro Virus	9	All held	3
5	Ben (B’hrian)	Sardakk N’orr	9	All held	6
6	Mike	Crimson Rebellion	8	All held	4

The Table 5 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

The Table 5 galaxy

Table 5 mid-game

Table 5 in the closing stages

The Table 5 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 4

Trophy: Carrier

Fin took the Carrier with the Last Bastion on 10 points, one ahead of Rafal’s Universities of Jol-Nar on 9. Horst and Ryan tied on 7, with Horst ahead on initiative, and Chris and Ashley completed the table on 6.

In the final round, the strategy cards were: Last Bastion with Diplomacy, Jol-Nar with Construction, the Crimson Rebellion with Technology, Sol with Leadership, the Nomad with Imperial and the L1Z1X Mindnet with Warfare.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Fin (winner)	Last Bastion	10	All held	2
2	Rafal	Universities of Jol-Nar	9	All held	4
3	Horst	Federation of Sol	7	All held	1
4	Ryan	Crimson Rebellion	7	All held	7
5	Chris	L1Z1X Mindnet	6	All held	6
6	Ashley	Nomad	6	All held	8

The Table 4 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 4 mid-game

A moment of relief on Table 4

Making a move

The Table 4 players at the end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 3

Trophy: Dreadnought

Sam took the Dreadnought with the Barony of Letnev, scoring on initiative 7 in the final round to reach 10 points and end the game before anyone else could score. James, Sophie and Chris all finished on 7, separated by initiative order, while Joanna and Michael ended on 6. James stepped in at the last minute after Adam had to drop out with an emergency.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Sam (winner)	Barony of Letnev	10	All held	7
2	James	Last Bastion	7	All held	3
3	Sophie	Nekro Virus	7	All held	6
4	Chris	Arborec	7	All held	8
5	Joanna	Titans of Ul	6	All held	1
6	Michael	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	6	All held	5

The Table 3 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

Table 3 mid-game

Table talk

Making a case on Table 3

Reaching across the galaxy

Making a move on Table 3

The closing stages

The Table 3 players at the end of the game

Celebrating Sam’s win, with the Dreadnought trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Table 2

Trophy: Flagship

Alex took the Flagship with the Nomad on 10 points, one ahead of David’s Clan of Saar on 9. Mark and Gavin tied on 8, with Mark ahead on initiative, then Neil finished on 7 and Will on 6.

The game was played on Mark’s blinged-out set, which got a special thank you from the table. Will reckoned Gavin’s Barony didn’t get enough credit for reaching 8 points with a tough faction, and wanted to know how much Gavin would have paid to stop the Nomad blowing up his PDS!

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Alex (winner)	Nomad	10	All held	3
2	David	Clan of Saar	9	All held	1
3	Mark	Yin Brotherhood	8	All held	4
4	Gavin	Barony of Letnev	8	All held	5
5	Neil	Deepwrought Scholarate	7	All held	8
6	Will	Firmament / Obsidian	6	All held	6

The blinged-out Table 2 galaxy

Dice and a fleet on a raised platform

A flagship on display

The initiative tracker

The initiative tracker and a fleet

A fleet in the thick of it

Planets and cards in a player area

Alex with the Flagship trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Grand Final

Trophy: Galactic Emperor

The Grand Final brought together all eight Day 1 winners for a single 8-player game. It was described as a slog of a game, but Adam (Beavs) took the Galactic Emperor trophy with the Last Bastion on 10 points, becoming our new Galactic Emperor. Bradley, Charlie, Francesco and Lewis all finished on 9, separated by initiative order, while Chris, Marc and Peter ended on 8.

The last round was played under Checks and Balances, so each player picked a strategy card and then handed it to someone else. Adam received the 2 from Sardakk N’orr. He tried to give them the 8, but the Yssaril Tribes played Public Disgrace on it. Sardakk tried to Sabotage that, and the Xxcha Kingdom cancelled the Sabotage with Instinct Training. Adam couldn’t risk Sardakk destroying their own destroyer before he could, so he gave them the 3 instead. The Xxcha ended up with the 1, and the Obsidian got the 8.

At the end of round 5, Sardakk had placed a destroyer in front of their own home system to score Cut Supply Lines, using Faunus, the new legendary planet from Thunder’s Edge, and Integrated Economy. With the first action of round 6, Adam scored Betray a Friend by attacking the Yin Brotherhood there, which won him the game. Bradley reckoned that the Yin, with 4 hazardous and 4 industrial planets, would have had the game wrapped up with favourable objectives.

The Grand Final was played on Nick’s copy, chosen for its beautiful ships.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Adam (winner)	Last Bastion	10	All held	2
2	Bradley	Xxcha Kingdom	9	All held	1
3	Charlie	Clan of Saar	9	All held	5
4	Francesco	Yin Brotherhood	9	All held	6
5	Lewis	Yssaril Tribes	9	All held	7
6	Chris	Sardakk N’orr	8	All held	3
7	Marc	Crimson Rebellion	8	All held	4
8	Peter	Firmament / Obsidian	8	All held	8

The Grand Final galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab:

The Grand Final galaxy

Making a move in the Grand Final

Fleets massing in the Grand Final

The galaxy in the thick of the action

The Grand Final galaxy from another angle

A green fleet on the move

Grand Final players around the board

Studying the Grand Final board

A close-up of the galaxy

A red fleet holding its ground

Fleets crowding the galaxy

The final moves

Watching the final moves

All eyes on the board

The Grand Final players, with Adam holding the Galactic Emperor trophy

↑ Back to all tables

Root Autumn Tournament, November 2025

8 November 2025 Excelsior Games, Bristol

On Saturday 8 November 2025, 26 Root fanatics journeyed to Excelsior Games in Bristol for our 6th Root tournament. We had players travel in from as far as the Netherlands, and one player whose first ever in-person game of Root was at this tournament (they went on to make the final!). As always, our contestants were friendly, competitive and brilliant Root players.

How it worked

Everyone played at least two games. If you did well in your first game, you went through to the winners’ bracket; otherwise you went into the losers’ bracket for a second game, just for fun. The three best players from the winners’ bracket went through to the final.

To spice things up, we made the 4th seat at the final table up for grabs for one player from the losers’ bracket: anyone who won a losers’ bracket game by dominance would go straight through, no questions asked. What we didn’t anticipate was the tenacity of your average Root player. Every. Single. Losers’ bracket game. Had a dominance play, and three of them succeeded! For a moment we were looking at a 6-player final, until one of our winners’ bracket players couldn’t stay for the final, taking it back down to five. Long story short: give board game players a loophole and they will exploit it 9 times out of 10!

The champion

Congratulations to Alex, our Grand Champion, who miraculously won a 5-player final with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy, with the 🦝 Tinker and the ⛏️ Moles in play too!

Raising money for Bristol Mind

WCL also sold raffle tickets on the day for the mental health charity Bristol Mind, raising £145 and bringing the total we raised across the autumn to over £600.

The stats

Nick once again tallied up the post-game statistics. The 🦦 Riverfolk Company had the best win rate and the highest average points, while the 🦎 Lizard Cult were the most played and most successful faction, with 3 wins from 10 games.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along and created such an enjoyable atmosphere, to everyone who brought along their copies of Root, to Excelsior Games for hosting us, and to Nick, James, Katie and Dan for working away behind the scenes. You can also see the original Sway presentation.

Round 2 under way at Excelsior Games

Deep in the woods

Another game in full swing

Tin’s t-shirts from the previous tournament, proudly worn

A 🦦 Riverfolk Company Trade Representative raising money for Bristol Mind

Group photo!

Round 1

Seven games kicked off the day.

Game 1 (Winter map): won by Ed S with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Chiz	🦡 Keepers in Iron	13
2	Liam M	🦎 Lizard Cult	21
3	Toby	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	8
4	Ed S (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Highlight: 6-point 🦡 Badgers turn, and 🐀 Rats taking out 5 gardens in 1 turn.

Game 2 (Lake map): won by Maddie with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Casper	🐈 Marquise de Cat	20
2	Maddie (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
3	JT	🦡 Keepers in Iron	22
4	Katie	🦎 Lizard Cult	23

Highlight: Whether the 🐦 Eyrie won on the last round came down to whether she could kill two of her own using Eyrie Emigres right before she recruited.

Game 3 (Mountain map): won by Joe M with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ruari	🦎 Lizard Cult	21
2	Elena	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	16
3	Joe M (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30

Highlight: Tit for tat between the 🐦 Birds and 🦎 Lizards.

Game 4 (Winter map): won by Barnie with the 🦎 Lizard Cult.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Bill E	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance (failed)
2	Barnie (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30
3	Jack	⛏️ Underground Duchy	Dominance (failed)
4	Alex C	🦦 Riverfolk Company	26

Game 5 (Autumn map): won by Dino with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	David M	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	29
2	Dino (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30
3	James B	🦝 Vagabond (Harrier)	24
4	Rory	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance (failed)

Highlight: Too many 0-0s! Dino King making politics, and the ⛏️ Moles down to 1 warrior.

Game 6 (Lake map): won by Zac with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Rich M	🦎 Lizard Cult	15
2	Zac (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
3	Leo	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	14
4	El	🦡 Keepers in Iron	16

Game 7 (Autumn map): won by Nick L with the 🦎 Lizard Cult.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick L (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30
2	Harvie	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	5
3	Tom S	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance (failed)

Highlight: The 🦎 Lizards saving up their acolytes for a huge coin-crafting turn!

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Winners’ bracket

Winners’ game 1 (Winter map): won by Joe M with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Maddie	🦝 Vagabond (Harrier)	27
2	Nick L	⛏️ Underground Duchy	28
3	Liam M	🦎 Lizard Cult	25
4	Joe M (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Highlight: Joe won, but sadly couldn’t stay for the final.

Winners’ game 2 (Mountain map): won by Alex C with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Alex C (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
2	Dino	🦎 Lizard Cult	27
3	Barnie	🐁 Woodland Alliance	28
4	Ruari	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	9

Highlight: The 🦎 Lizards scored 11 VP in one turn (Murine Broker and 2 teas).

Winners’ game 3 (Autumn map): won by Ed S with the 🦝 Vagabond.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Katie	🦎 Lizard Cult	11
2	Zac	🐁 Woodland Alliance	28
3	Ed S (winner)	🦝 Vagabond (Adventurer)	30
4	David M	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	25

Highlight: The 🦝 Vagabond sneakily won when no one saw it coming, through some lucky quests.

Losers’ bracket

Every losers’ bracket game had a dominance play, and Tom S, Rich M and El all won by dominance to earn a place in the final.

Losers’ game 1 (Mountain map): won by Tom S with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat by dominance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Toby	🦝 Vagabond (Arbiter)	29
2	Leo	🦡 Keepers in Iron	29
3	Casper	⛏️ Underground Duchy	26
4	Tom S (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance victory!

Highlight: 🦡 Badgers crafting 5 points in 1 turn… and our real dominance victory!

Losers’ game 2 (Lake map): won by Rich M with the 🦎 Lizard Cult by dominance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	James B	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	Dominance (failed)
2	Rich M (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	Dominance victory!
3	Jack	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance (failed)
4	Harvie	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	5

Losers’ game 3 (Winter map): won by El with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat by dominance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	El (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance victory!
2	Bill E	🐁 Woodland Alliance	12
3	Chiz	🦝 Vagabond (Thief)	16

Losers’ game 4 (Winter map): won by JT with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Elena	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	20
2	Rory	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	19
3	JT (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Highlight: Killing so many 🐦 Birds that it helped them out.

↑ Back to all tables

The Final

The final was a surprisingly short 5-player fight on the Mountain map, with the Tower replaced by the Lost City. Finalist Rich (⛏️ Underground Duchy) remembers the fight for woodland supremacy like this:

For the first few rounds there was little direct conflict in the woodland. The 🦝 Vagabond adventured and aided the 🐦‍⬛ Crows while they plotted (including some good extortion of the Moles). Meanwhile the 🐦 Birds and ⛏️ Moles made an alliance to carve up the board and slowly spread out. The poor 🐁 Alliance took knocks from multiple sides and got hemmed in by the Crows’ tactically placed snares!

As the game progressed, the Moles and the Woodland Alliance fell behind the pack as they struggled to get their engines online through lack of cards. The game turned more violent as the Moles, Birds and Crows chipped away at the Vagabond’s items, the Crows and Moles conspired to turmoil the Eyrie, and the Birds and Moles removed the Crows’ plots. This, however, all fed the Crows’ Coffin Makers…

As the game entered the endgame, the Woodland Alliance struggled to spread due to martial law, and the Eyrie’s turmoil made them easy pickings for the nimble Vagabond and Crows. The Vagabond made a good effort but couldn’t get over the line. The Moles were set to win on their next turn, but the Crows made a daring play to attack the Mole base, which gave them just enough points to win!

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Alex C (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	Ed S	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21
3	Tom S	🐁 Woodland Alliance	9
4	Rich M	⛏️ Underground Duchy	28
5	El	🦝 Vagabond (Tinker)	21

↑ Back to all tables

Leders of the Imperium: Twilight Imperium Tournament, October 2025

18 October 2025 Bristol Independent Gaming

Our October 2025 Twilight Imperium tournament, Leders of the Imperium, took place at Bristol Independent Gaming over the weekend of 18 and 19 October, with 48 players across 8 tables of 6 on Day 1, and 37 dedicated souls returning for Day 2.

The tournament sheet, complete with the SS Great Britain flagship, HMS Bristol destroyer and the Bristol Beaufighter.

How it worked

Saturday was made up of 8 games of 6 players, with randomised seating and the same six slices at every table, but randomised factions. Nevertheless, it was a Battle of the Brothers, as the Yin Brotherhood appeared in 5 of the 8 games! Our reigning champion Duncan, who had piloted Sardakk N’orr and the Federation of Sol to the Galactic Throne in previous campaigns, defended his title as the Nekro Virus.

Each Day 1 table winner took home a supersized Infantry trophy and went through to an 8-player Grand Final on the Sunday, played for the War Sun trophy. Everyone else was seated into Runners-Up games by their Day 1 points, then initiative in the final round, then their faction’s win rate. The winners of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place games took those places overall, along with the Dreadnought, Carrier, Cruiser and Destroyer trophies. A sixth game was played with the Discordant Stars expansion.

Final standings

1. Gavin: Galactic Emperor, winning the Grand Final with the Ghosts of Creuss after taking Table 3 with the Argent Flight on Saturday.
2. Peter: Galactic Vice Chancellor, winning the 2nd place game with the Empyrean after coming extremely close with the Naalu Collective on Saturday.
3. James: Deputy Vice Chancellor, winning the 3rd place game with the Embers of Muaat in a very clutch final round, after a middling game as the Ghosts of Creuss on Saturday (spent kingslaying poor Liam’s Yin Brotherhood).
4. Lawrence, who also clinched it with the Embers of Muaat, after playing as the Clan of Saar on Saturday.
5. Conrad, winning as the Mentak Coalition and generously sharing his victory with Eli of the Emirates of Hacan, who not only covered a last-minute dropout but was playing Twilight Imperium at just 12 years of age. Kudos!

The Discordant Stars game was won by Chris H, who piloted the Florzen Profiteers to victory after playing the Clan of Saar the day before.

A big thank you to everyone who came: it was great to see everyone and to have eight games of Twilight Imperium being played under one roof. Big thanks also to Nick and Katie, without whom the tournament couldn’t have been organised, and to Ellen, Jim and the rest of the team at Bristol Independent Gaming for a great venue. You can still view the original Day 1 and Day 2 Sway presentations.

For more game statistics and in-depth analytics, see the full tournament on Akamar.

Day 2 under way at Bristol Independent Gaming

The Day 2 seating plan, worked out on the Saturday evening

Day 1: Table 1

Trophy: Infantry

Rúadhán took Table 1 with the Yin Brotherhood on 10 points, one ahead of Peter’s Naalu Collective on 9. Ben M and Charlie tied on 8, with Ben ahead on initiative, and Conrad and Ben S completed the table on 7.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Rúadhán (winner)	Yin Brotherhood	10	All held	8
2	Peter	Naalu Collective	9	All held	5
3	Ben M	Sardakk N’orr	8	All held	3
4	Charlie	Clan of Saar	8	All held	6
5	Conrad	Titans of Ul	7	All held	1
6	Ben S	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	7	All held	7

The Table 1 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 1 galaxy at 09:48

The Table 1 galaxy at 10:51

The Table 1 galaxy at 11:45

The Table 1 galaxy at 13:24

The Table 1 galaxy at 14:42

The Table 1 galaxy at 15:53

The Table 1 galaxy at 17:12

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 2

Trophy: Infantry

Adam J-B took Table 2 with the Federation of Sol on 10 points, one ahead of Joseph’s Argent Flight on 9. Luke finished on 8 as the Nekro Virus, Truan and Neil tied on 7, and Duy completed the table on 5.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Adam J-B (winner)	Federation of Sol	10	All held	5
2	Joseph	Argent Flight	9	All held	8
3	Luke	Nekro Virus	8	All held	1
4	Truan	Naalu Collective	7	All held	0
5	Neil	L1Z1X Mindnet	7	All held	6
6	Duy	Mentak Coalition	5	All held	7

The Table 2 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 2 galaxy at 09:48

The Table 2 galaxy at 10:51

The Table 2 galaxy at 11:45

The Table 2 galaxy at 13:26

The Table 2 galaxy at 14:43

The Table 2 galaxy at 15:54

The Table 2 galaxy at 17:12

The Table 2 galaxy at 17:27

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 3

Trophy: Infantry

Table 3 came down to the wire. Gavin took the win with the Argent Flight on 10 points, the first step towards becoming our Galactic Emperor. Behind him, Chris S, David and Marc all finished on 9, separated by initiative order, then Ross finished on 8 and Eli on 6.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Gavin (winner)	Argent Flight	10	All held	1
2	Chris S	Yin Brotherhood	9	All held	2
3	David	Barony of Letnev	9	All held	3
4	Marc	L1Z1X Mindnet	9	All held	7
5	Ross	Xxcha Kingdom	8	All held	4
6	Eli	Sardakk N’orr	6	All held	8

The Table 3 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 3 galaxy at 09:48

The Table 3 galaxy at 10:52

The Table 3 galaxy at 13:26

The Table 3 galaxy at 14:44

The Table 3 galaxy at 15:55

The Table 3 galaxy at 17:12

The Table 3 players before the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 4

Trophy: Infantry

Connor took Table 4 with the Empyrean on 10 points. Adam M and Dariel both finished on 9, with Adam ahead on initiative 0, then Duncan, Lawrence and Rafal all ended on 7. Duncan, our reigning champion, defended his title as the Nekro Virus but couldn’t make it through to the final this time.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Connor (winner)	Empyrean	10	All held	1
2	Adam M	Emirates of Hacan	9	All held	0
3	Dariel	Yin Brotherhood	9	All held	8
4	Duncan	Nekro Virus	7	All held	3
5	Lawrence	Clan of Saar	7	All held	4
6	Rafal	Naalu Collective	7	All held	5

The Table 4 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 4 galaxy at 09:50

The Table 4 galaxy at 10:53

The Table 4 galaxy at 11:47

The Table 4 galaxy at 13:27

The Table 4 galaxy at 14:48

The Table 4 galaxy at 15:55

The Table 4 players before the game

A closer look at the galaxy

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 5

Trophy: Infantry

Chris N took Table 5 with the Universities of Jol-Nar on 10 points. Sam W, Phillip and Thomas R all finished on 8, separated by initiative order, while Barnie finished on 7 and Alex on 5.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Chris N (winner)	Universities of Jol-Nar	10	All held	8
2	Sam W	Clan of Saar	8	All held	1
3	Phillip	Titans of Ul	8	All held	4
4	Thomas R	Embers of Muaat	8	All held	6
5	Barnie	Xxcha Kingdom	7	All held	7
6	Alex	Emirates of Hacan	5	All held	2

The Table 5 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 5 galaxy at 09:51

The Table 5 galaxy at 10:54

The Table 5 galaxy at 11:48

The Table 5 players before the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 6

Trophy: Infantry

Rich B took Table 6 with the Xxcha Kingdom on 10 points. Avery, Thomas L and Richard all finished on 8, separated by initiative order, then Matt’s Vuil’Raith Cabal finished on 7 (with a well-fed gobble box) and Oliver D on 6.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Rich B (winner)	Xxcha Kingdom	10	All held	3
2	Avery	Universities of Jol-Nar	8	All held	2
3	Thomas L	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	8	All held	5
4	Richard	Naaz-Rokha Alliance	8	All held	8
5	Matt	Vuil’Raith Cabal	7	All held	1
6	Oliver D	Yin Brotherhood	6	All held	4

The Table 6 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 6 galaxy at 09:52

The Table 6 galaxy at 10:55

The Table 6 galaxy at 11:51

The Table 6 galaxy at 13:29

The Table 6 galaxy at 14:51

The Table 6 galaxy at 17:14

The Table 6 galaxy at 17:48

The Table 6 players before the game

The Vuil’Raith Cabal’s gobble box

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 7

Trophy: Infantry

Greg took Table 7 with the Argent Flight on 10 points, one ahead of Chris B’s Emirates of Hacan on 9. Joe and Rich D tied on 8, with Joe ahead on initiative, and Mark R and Sam H completed the table on 6.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Greg (winner)	Argent Flight	10	All held	2
2	Chris B	Emirates of Hacan	9	All held	8
3	Joe	Xxcha Kingdom	8	All held	1
4	Rich D	Titans of Ul	8	All held	3
5	Mark R	Council of Keleres	6	All held	4
6	Sam H	Federation of Sol	6	All held	7

The Table 7 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 7 galaxy at 09:55

The Table 7 galaxy at 10:58

The Table 7 galaxy at 11:52

The Table 7 galaxy at 13:30

The Table 7 galaxy at 14:53

The Table 7 players before the game

The Table 7 galaxy up close

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 8

Trophy: Infantry

It was all peace, love and bliss on Table 8 until the final round, when the objective revealed needed 8 ships in one system. The Barony of Letnev jumped for joy (most unlike them) when this was revealed, as their hero, Darktalon Treilla, was perfectly set up for it. The only thing stopping them was their initiative: the Yin Brotherhood held Leadership and the Barony held Diplomacy. Both could have stopped the other, but neither took any action.

So the Ghosts of Creuss had to step in. Using their advanced knowledge of wormhole technology, they moved the Yin’s Lodor system close to the Creuss homeland with Riftwalker Meian, moved the Ghost fleet next to the Darien system, and then, with Fleet Logistics, attacked the Yin in their home system, killing enough ships to stop them scoring with a fleet there. They followed up with an attack on the newly built Yin fleet in Lodor, led by the Hil Colish flagship. The battle started with the Yin being Dimensionally Spliced, and ended with the Creuss achieving total victory and winning over the Council by unveiling their flagship.

Meanwhile, the Arborec caught up in the eyes of the Council, taking Mecatol Rex with War Suns and scoring with the Imperial strategy card. The Clan of Saar were spent by this point, having fought tough battles over Mecatol Rex in earlier rounds and invaded the Arborec slice.

During all this, the Council of Keleres jumped for glee as they crept ever closer to victory. Oliver’s Barony of Letnev reached 10 points and won the game, but the leaders of the Yin Brotherhood and the Barony of Letnev were unable to continue the fight into the next day, so Rufus’s Council of Keleres, also on 10, went through to the Grand Final as the default winners of this wild game.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Oliver S (won the game)	Barony of Letnev	10	All held	2
2	Rufus (went through to the Grand Final)	Council of Keleres	10	All held	3
3	Liam	Yin Brotherhood	9	All held	1
4	Mark S	Arborec	8	All held	8
5	Chris H	Clan of Saar	7	All held	4
6	James	Ghosts of Creuss	7	All held	6

The Table 8 galaxy was drafted with TI4 Lab, with each player’s seat and faction listed underneath:

The Table 8 galaxy at 09:57

The Table 8 galaxy at 10:59

The Table 8 galaxy at 13:31

The Table 8 galaxy at 14:54

The Table 8 galaxy at 17:33

The Table 8 players before the game

The Clan of Saar on Mecatol Rex in an earlier round

The Arborec on Mecatol Rex with War Suns

The Barony securing the Stage II objective

The final scores (the Keleres were really on 10)

The end of the game: the Letnev win, but the Keleres go through

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Discordant Stars

Six players took on the Discordant Stars expansion, with its host of new factions. Chris H piloted the Florzen Profiteers to victory, after playing the Clan of Saar the day before. Final scores for this game weren’t recorded.

Seat	Player	Faction
1	Marc (speaker)	Mentak Coalition
2	Alex	Shipwrights of Axis
3	Ross	Monks of Kolume
4	Mark S	Sardakk N’orr
5	Truan	Universities of Jol-Nar
6	Chris H (winner)	Florzen Profiteers

The Discordant Stars game galaxy was drafted with a Milty Draft:

The Discordant Stars game in the early to mid game

The Discordant Stars galaxy, with the point leader on 3 VP

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: 5th Place Game

Trophy: Destroyer

Conrad won the 5th place game as the Mentak Coalition, and generously shared his victory with Eli of the Emirates of Hacan, who covered a last-minute dropout at just 12 years of age. Final scores for this game weren’t recorded.

Seat	Player	Faction
1	Thomas L (speaker)	Council Keleres
2	Conrad (winner)	Mentak Coalition
3	Mark R	L1Z1X Mindnet
4	Eli (shared the win)	Emirates of Hacan
5	Ben S	Yin Brotherhood

The 5th place game galaxy was drafted with a Milty Draft:

The start of the game

The early to mid game

The galaxy with the leader on 4 VP

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: 4th Place Game

Trophy: Cruiser

Lawrence won the 4th place game with the Embers of Muaat, after playing as the Clan of Saar on Saturday. Final scores for this game weren’t recorded.

Seat	Player	Faction
1	Neil (speaker)	Argent Flight
2	Lawrence (winner)	Embers of Muaat
3	Ben M	Empyrean
4	Rafal	Ghosts of Creuss
5	Duy	Naaz-Rokha Alliance
6	Rich D	Clan of Saar

The 4th place game galaxy was drafted with a Milty Draft:

The 4th place game in progress

The galaxy in the mid game

Players around the table

The Embers of Muaat’s corner of the galaxy

Fleets across the galaxy

Nova Seeding time

The galaxy late in the game

The end of the game

Lawrence of Muaat, our 4th place finisher

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: 3rd Place Game

Trophy: Carrier

Table 3 started off peacefully, with everyone developing, and even with area control objectives many people got to score. The Muaat let the Nekro take much of their slice, and the Nekro then purged their hero to net themselves Assault Cannon and 7 trade goods in rounds 2 and 3!

However, this peace could not last. The conniving Arborec planned a three-way support swap, then used the disjointed nature of it all to take the lands of one of their support buddies: the poor Muaat, who felt so betrayed they considered Nova Seeding them purely out of spite. Thankfully, with the co-operation of the Mentak Coalition, the Muaat were able to keep themselves in contention in the Galactic Council.

This led to an incredible final round. The Nekro Virus looked set to take the crown, with 17 infantry, their Alastor flagship and a support fleet patrolling their home world of Mordai II. They also had the Argent’s Destroyer II upgrades, so they needed to be fought with precision. With some clutch rolling, the Muaat Nova Seeding four of their destroyers, and a galaxy on edge, they were stopped just in time.

The galaxy now had to take the Nekro home world to safeguard everyone from the looming threat. The L1Z1X heeded the call, sending a plague to their home system that took out 11 of the 17 infantry before the attack had even begun. Led by the Helmsman, the L1Z1X sent the greatest fleet ever seen into battle, including their flagship [0.0.1], and decimated the remaining Nekro survivors in space, leaving Mordai II ripe for the taking. One home system wasn’t enough for the L1Z1X, though, and they soon took the Muaat home system as well!

The Muaat had reached 9 points in the round via Imperial, (barely) holding Mecatol Rex and satisfying a Stage I objective. A third contender was the Argent Flight, who with ingenious use of their hero, Mirik Aun Sissiri, spread to most of the galaxy’s empty spaces, the latest Stage II objective available. Holding the Diplomacy strategy card, they were unstoppable if the game reached the status phase.

However, with just one lonely destroyer defending Mecatol Rex while holding Imperial, and after spending all their possible actions, the Embers of Muaat were able to just about Prove Endurance and take the win! Such a close and fun end game. Big kudos to Phillip for commanding such a dominant L1Z1X, and to Luke for being such a potent threat as the Nekro Virus.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets
1	James (winner)	Embers of Muaat	10	All held
2	Matt	Argent Flight	8	All held
3	Joe	Mentak Coalition	7	All held
4	Charlie	Arborec	6	All held
5	Phillip	L1Z1X Mindnet	6	All held
6	Luke	Nekro Virus	0	Eliminated

The 3rd place game galaxy was drafted with a Milty Draft:

The 3rd place game

The Embers of Muaat’s perspective in the early game

The L1Z1X going for Mordai II

Near the end of the game

The L1Z1X holding Mordai II

The L1Z1X, having taken Mordai II, also take the Muaat home system

The L1Z1X dominant over the Nekro and the Embers

Proof of the Muaat victory

The Muaat are victorious

James, our Deputy Vice Chancellor

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: 2nd Place Game

Trophy: Dreadnought

Peter won the 2nd place game, guiding the Empyrean to victory after coming extremely close with the Naalu Collective on Saturday. Final scores for this game weren’t recorded.

Seat	Player	Faction
1	Adam M (speaker)	Winnu
2	Peter (winner)	Empyrean
3	Sam W	Federation of Sol
4	David	Titans of Ul
5	Joseph	Xxcha Kingdom
6	Chris B	Naaz-Rokha Alliance

The 2nd place game galaxy was drafted with a Milty Draft:

The 2nd place game early on

The 2nd place game galaxy

Peter, our Galactic Vice Chancellor

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Grand Final

Trophy: War Sun

The Grand Final brought together all eight Day 1 winners for an epic 8-player finale. Rufus drafted first, with the draft carrying on into the Sunday morning. After five rounds, a new Galactic Champion was crowned: congratulations to Gavin, who led the Ghosts of Creuss to victory on 10 points, having led the Argent Flight to victory the day before. Richard’s L1Z1X Mindnet and Rúadhán’s Nomad were right behind on 9, followed by Connor’s Mentak Coalition on 8.

Place	Player	Faction	Points	Home planets	Initiative
1	Gavin (winner)	Ghosts of Creuss	10	All held	3
2	Richard	L1Z1X Mindnet	9	All held	1
3	Rúadhán	Nomad	9	All held	2
4	Connor	Mentak Coalition	8	All held	8
5	Chris N	Nekro Virus	7	All held	5
6	Adam J-B	Council of Keleres	7	All held	7
7	Rufus	Federation of Sol	6	All held	4
8	Greg	Yin Brotherhood	2	All held	6

The Grand Final galaxy, with each player’s home position:

Near the start of the epic finale

The early game

The early game, from another angle

Round 2

Late in the game

Victory for the Ghosts

All bow down to the Creuss

The War Sun trophy

Gavin, our new Galactic Emperor

↑ Back to all tables

Arcs Mini Tournament, September 2025

27 September 2025 Excelsior Games, Merchant Street, Bristol

On Saturday 27 September 2025, we held our second Arcs tournament: a casual mini tournament at Excelsior Games on Merchant Street, running from 10am to 6pm.

How it worked

Twelve players signed up. Everyone was dealt one Leader and one Lore card, and played a first-round game. The four first-round winners then met in a 4-player Winners’ Final, with games for 2nd and 3rd place played alongside it.

The champion

Congratulations to Barnie, our Arcs champion, who won the Winners’ Final with the Warrior on 31 points! Barnie’s trophy has since been on quite the adventure, as the photos in the Final section show. Congratulations too to Katie, who won the 2nd-place game.

A big thank you to everyone who came along, and to Excelsior Games for hosting us.

Group photo!

One of the games in full swing

Rolling the dice

The “WINNER Arcs Sep 25” trophy

Round 1

The winner of each game went through to the Winners’ Final.

Game 1: won by Craig (Quartermaster) with 36 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
David M	Rebel	Predictive Sensors	9
Craig (winner)	Quartermaster	Signal Breaker	36
Anna	Mystic	Raider Exosuits	21

Game 2: won by Nick (Agitator) with 54 points. A 2-player game.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Katie	Overseer	Force Beams	35
Nick (winner)	Agitator	Mirror Plating	54

Game 3: won by Barnie (Rebel) with 30 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Barnie (winner)	Rebel	Hidden Harbours	30
Elliot	Corsair	Ancient Holdings	18
Toby	Demagogue	Tool Priests	16

Game 4: won by Tom (Noble) with 31 points. Tom won by a single point!

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Tom (winner)	Noble	Galactic Rifles	31
Dino	Warrior	Repair Drones	23
El	Feastbringer	Living Structures	30

↑ Back to all tables

The Finals

Trophy: The “WINNER Arcs Sep 25” trophy

Winners’ Final: won by Barnie (Warrior) with 31 points. Barnie pulled away with a 13-point final round.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Nick	Quartermaster	Living Structures	16
Tom	Anarchist	Gate Ports	12
Barnie (winner)	Warrior	Warlord’s Cruelty	31
Craig	Noble	Tool Priests	8

How the scores built up, round by round:

Player	After 1	After 2	After 3	Final
Nick	2	7	10	16
Tom	3	6	9	12
Barnie	7	11	18	31
Craig	3	8	8	8

2nd-place game: won by Katie (Mystic) with 41 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
El	Noble	Empath’s Bond	0
Anna	Rebel	Gate Stations	18
Katie (winner)	Mystic	Gate Ports	41

3rd-place game (the scores weren’t recorded).

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Dino	Archivist		–
David M	Elder		–
Elliot	Quartermaster		–
Toby	Anarchist		–

The Winners’ Final board

The trophy’s adventures: guarding a sleeping dog…

…in the oven…

…in the toaster…

…in the bin…

…and caged by the window

↑ Back to all tables

Root Spring Tournament, May 2025

10 May 2025 YHA Bristol, Harbourside

On Saturday 10 May 2025, West Country Leders hosted our 5th Root tournament. 34 Root fanatics met up on the sunny Harbourside in Bristol for an all-day competition to see who could claim the title of Forest Champion! We were joined by Root players from all across the South of England, and a couple of our friends from Canada even crafted Boat Builders to make the trip across the Atlantic.

There was a lot of really competitive play from everyone, and a fantastic energy from players who won and lost their games with good grace and excellent sportsmanship.

How it worked

Everyone played a first-round game, then moved into a winners’ or losers’ bracket for Round 2. The four Round 2 winners’ bracket winners met in the Winners’ Final on the Autumn map, while a Losers’ Bracket Final was played on the Lake map.

The champions

Congratulations to JT, our new Champion, who won the Winners’ Final with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company! It was an extremely tense game, with plenty of table talk: the 🐦 Eyrie went for a bunny dominance and, had JT not pulled off the win with some crazy card draws at the death, the Eyrie may well have won it that way. Congratulations too to Zac, our Losers’ Bracket Champion, also with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company. The Otters won both finals!

Prizes

Leder Games kindly provided $200 of Leder store vouchers, split between the finalists. Our brilliant team also put together a collection of smaller prizes: Jarred grew plants for the finalists, Katie printed custom faction board name tags, Nick printed Root meeples for everyone who won a game, and Tin brought custom t-shirts (as well as designing our poster).

The stats

The 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds did really well this time, with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company a close second on overall win rate. There were no ⛏️ Moles in either final, which Liam (who had lost to the Moles twice that week) was very happy about!

A big thank you to everyone who came along, particularly those who brought their own copies of Root for us to use, and to the organisers who put in so much work beforehand and on the day. You can also see the original Sway presentation.

Round 1 under way at YHA Bristol

A room full of Root

Deep in thought

The prize table: name tags, plants and the framed poster

Nick’s printed Root meeples, one for every game winner

A close-up of the action

Group photo!

Round 1

Nine games opened the day, including a 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds dominance victory for Annie, and a win for Ruari, back for his second tournament, with the 🐀 Rats.

Game 1 (Autumn map): won by Ruari with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Liam M	🦡 Keepers in Iron	19
2	Rowan	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	20
3	Ruari (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Game 2 (Winter map): won by Alex C with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick S	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	29
2	Terence	🦡 Keepers in Iron	28
3	Alex C (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
3	Tom S	⛏️ Underground Duchy	23

Game 3 (Autumn map): won by JT with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Li	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	20
2	Maddie	⛏️ Underground Duchy	19
3	JT (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
4	Joe M	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	16

Game 4 (Mountain map): won by James B with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Toby	⛏️ Underground Duchy	24
2	Joshua	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	23
3	James B (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
4	D’Arcy	🐁 Woodland Alliance	22

Game 5 (Winter map): won by Jess with the 🦎 Lizard Cult.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Erika	🦝 Vagabond (Harrier)	27
2	Gareth	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21
3	Niall	🐁 Woodland Alliance	21
4	Jess (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30

Game 6 (Autumn map): won by Hunter with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Katie	🦎 Lizard Cult	21
2	Chiz	🦦 Riverfolk Company	17
3	Sammie	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	25
4	Hunter (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30

Game 7 (Mountain map): won by David M with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ronan	🐈 Marquise de Cat	28
2	Zac	🦦 Riverfolk Company	28
3	David M (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
4	Leo	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	12

Game 8 (Autumn map): won by Annie with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds by dominance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick L	🦝 Vagabond (Ranger)	16
2	Alex C	🐁 Woodland Alliance	11
3	Louis	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21
4	Annie (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance victory!

Game 9 (Winter map): won by Bryan with the 🦝 Vagabond.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Sam	🦎 Lizard Cult	24
2	Bryan (winner)	🦝 Vagabond (Tinker)	30
3	Aiden	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	13

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Winners’ bracket

Winners’ game 1 (Lake map): won by Sam with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Alex C	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	27
2	Sam (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
3	Ronan	🐈 Marquise de Cat	27
4	James B	🦝 Vagabond (Harrier)	29

Winners’ game 2 (Mountain map): won by JT with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	JT (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	Erika	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	22
3	Sammie	🦎 Lizard Cult	9
4	Ruari	🐁 Woodland Alliance	18

Winners’ game 3 (Lake map): won by Hunter with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick S	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	29
2	Toby	🐈 Marquise de Cat	18
3	Hunter (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
4	Jess	⛏️ Underground Duchy	Dominance (failed)

Winners’ game 4 (Winter map): won by Annie with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Bryan	🦦 Riverfolk Company	24
2	David M	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	22
3	Annie (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
4	Louis	🐁 Woodland Alliance	22

Losers’ bracket

Losers’ game 1 (Autumn map): won by Joshua with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joshua (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
2	Li	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	14
3	Terence	🦡 Keepers in Iron	21

Losers’ game 2 (Autumn map): won by Nick L with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick L (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	D’Arcy	⛏️ Underground Duchy	21
3	Rowan	🐁 Woodland Alliance	23
4	Maddie	🦦 Riverfolk Company	21

Losers’ game 3 (Mountain map): won by Joe M with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joe M (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30
2	Chiz	🦡 Keepers in Iron	11
3	Liam M	🦎 Lizard Cult	16
4	Aiden	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	22

Losers’ game 4 (Lake map): won by Katie with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Niall	🦦 Riverfolk Company	13
2	Alex C	🐁 Woodland Alliance	19
3	Katie (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
4	Leo	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	29

Losers’ game 5 (Lake map): won by Zac with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Zac (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30
2	Tom S	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance (failed)
3	Gareth	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	Dominance (failed)

↑ Back to all tables

The Finals

Trophy: A share of $200 Leder Games vouchers and a home-grown plant

Winners’ Final

JT (🦦 Riverfolk Company), Hunter (🦡 Keepers in Iron), Annie (🐦 Eyrie Dynasties) and Sam (🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy) played a very close Winners’ Final on the Autumn map. Annie’s Eyrie went for a bunny dominance, Sam’s Crows snuck up the scoreboard in the most Corvid-like way, and JT got it over the line with some crazy card pulls at the very end.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	JT (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
2	Hunter	🦡 Keepers in Iron	18
3	Annie	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	Dominance (failed)
4	Sam	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	26

Losers’ Bracket Final

Joshua (🐈 Marquise de Cat), Katie (🐀 Lord of the Hundreds), Zac (🦦 Riverfolk Company) and Nick L (🦡 Keepers in Iron) played the Losers’ Bracket Final on the Lake map, with Zac taking the win.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joshua	🐈 Marquise de Cat	19
2	Katie	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	22
3	Zac (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
4	Nick L	🦡 Keepers in Iron	17

The finals line-up on the whiteboard

The Winners’ Final on the Autumn map

The Winners’ Final, early on

The Winners’ Final, mid-game

The Winners’ Final, later on

The Winners’ Final, nearing the end

A bunny dominance play by the 🐦 Birds!

The final board

JT, our new Champion

The Losers’ Bracket Final on the Lake map

The Losers’ Bracket Final, early on

The Losers’ Bracket Final, mid-game

The Losers’ Bracket Final, later on

The Losers’ Bracket Final, nearing the end

Zac’s 🦦 Riverfolk take the Losers’ Bracket Final

A printed 🐦‍⬛ Corvid meeple prize

A printed 🦦 Otter meeple

↑ Back to all tables

Arcs Tournament, January 2025

26 January 2025 Excelsior Games, Bristol

On Sunday 26 January 2025, West Country Leders held our very first Arcs tournament, at Excelsior Games in Bristol. 18 players came along to battle it out across the Reach, only a few months after the game was released.

How it worked

To fit everyone in, we ran two 9-player competitions side by side. Everyone played a 3-player game in Round 1, and the winner of each game went through to their competition’s final, so the day ended with two finals and two champions. Players who didn’t make a final stayed on for a second, more casual game.

The champions

Congratulations to our two champions, Hugo (Affectionate Isopod) and Art (BioTech), both from the Bristol University board games society! Each took home one of El’s 3D-printed Arcs trophies and £15 of Excelsior Games vouchers. Hugo said his final came down to a single dice roll, where any of the three players could have won it.

A big thank you to everyone who came along to our first Arcs event, to Excelsior Games for hosting us, to Nick and Liam for running the day, and to El for making the trophies.

Round 1 under way at Excelsior Games

Plotting across the Reach

Deep in thought

The board up close

Thumbs up from one of the tables

One of El’s 3D-printed 1st Place trophies

Round 1

Each player had a Leader and a Lore card. The winner of each game went through to their competition’s final.

Competition A

Game 1: won by Nick S (Overseer) with 34 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Kit	Quartermaster	Mirror Plating	29
Craig	Archivist	Raider Exosuits	27
Nick S (winner)	Overseer	Ancient Holdings	34

Game 2: won by Hugo (Elder) with 41 points. The game went to 5 rounds.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Chiz	Corsair	Tycoon’s Charm	27
Nick L	Quartermaster	Seeker Torpedoes	30
Hugo (winner)	Elder	Sprinter Drives	41

Game 3: won by Dan (Anarchist) with 28 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Dino	Noble	Keeper’s Solidarity	13
Autumn	Feastbringer	Predictive Sensors	24
Dan (winner)	Anarchist	Signal Breaker	28

Competition B

Game 4: won by Mark (Archivist) with 43 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Toby	Warrior	Tycoon’s Ambition	18
Mark (winner)	Archivist	Tyrant’s Authority	43
Nicky	Agitator	Predictive Sensors	29

Game 5: won by David (Overseer) with 33 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
El	Feastbringer	Repair Drones	21
Harry	Elder	Hidden Harbours	5
David (winner)	Overseer	Cloud Cities	33

Game 6: won by Art (Warrior) with 32 points. The game went to 5 rounds, and Art edged it by a single point.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Liam	Overseer	Hidden Harbours	18
Erika	Demagogue	Tool Priests	31
Art (winner)	Warrior	Gate Ports	32

Six games running at once

One of the Round 1 tables

↑ Back to all tables

The Finals

Trophy: El’s 3D-printed Arcs trophy and £15 of Excelsior Games vouchers

Final A: won by Hugo (Anarchist) with 43 points. It came down to a final dice roll, where any of the three could have won.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Dan	Warrior	Warlord’s Cruelty	18
Nick S	Upstart	Seeker Torpedoes	35
Hugo (winner)	Anarchist	Gate Ports	43

Final B: won by Art (Agitator) with 36 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Art (winner)	Agitator	Keeper’s Trust	36
David	Warrior	Gate Stations	24
Mark	Archivist	Raider Exosuits	25

Final A under way

Tension builds in Final A

Everyone gathers for the prize-giving

One of our champions with his trophy and vouchers

Vouchers and a trophy for our other champion

Hugo’s trophy in its new home

↑ Back to all tables

Second games

While the finals were on, everyone else sat down for a second, more casual game.

Casual game 1: won by Autumn (Demagogue) with 34 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Nick L	Corsair	Hidden Harbours	10
Autumn (winner)	Demagogue	Railgun Arrays	34
Kit	Quartermaster	Tyrant’s Authority	19

Casual game 2: won by Toby (Anarchist) with 31 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Liam	Agitator	Galactic Rifles	12
Harry	Noble	Railgun Arrays	4
Toby (winner)	Anarchist	Warlord’s Cruelty	31

Casual game 3: won by Dino (Corsair) with 34 points.

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
Craig	Quartermaster	Cloud Cities	13
Dino (winner)	Corsair	Hidden Harbours	34
Chris	Fuel Drinker	Gate Ports	29

Casual game 4: won by El (Warrior) with 54 points. El’s 54 points was the highest score of the day!

Player	Leader	Lore	Points
El (winner)	Warrior	Galactic Rifles	54
Nicky	Shaper	Tool Priests	10
Erika	Archivist	Mirror Plating	11

↑ Back to all tables

Root Autumn Tournament, October 2024

19 October 2024 YHA Bristol, Harbourside

On Saturday 19 October 2024, more than 30 forest fanatics arrived at YHA Bristol on the Harbourside from across the UK (one even made the trip from Kent!) for the fourth Root tournament hosted by West Country Leders. Some had only learned to play Root recently, while others had hundreds of games under their belt, but everyone brought a really positive and welcoming energy to the day.

How it worked

Every game used the Exiles and Partisans deck, Advanced Setup and randomised clearings, with Despot Infamy for the Vagabond. Your score was the total of your points across your games, with a failed dominance attempt worth 10.

• Round 1: nine games across the Winter, Mountain and Lake maps.
• Round 2: the Round 1 winners and runners-up played four winners’ bracket games, while everyone else played four losers’ bracket games.
• The finals: four players went through to the Winners’ Final on the Winter map, and four more played a Losers’ Bracket Final on the Autumn map.

Final standings

Congratulations to Terence, our Tournament Champion, who won all three of his games: with the 🦝 Vagabond in Round 1, the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy in Round 2 and the 🦡 Keepers in Iron in the final, for a perfect 90 points! Terence and Annie were at their very first tournament, and Terence was the only player all day to win with the Vagabond, despite it being picked 14 times. Congratulations too to Dino, our Losers’ Bracket Champion with the 🦦 Riverfolk Company.

Place	Player	Total points
1	Terence	90
2	Joe	85
3	Leo	85
4	Alex	82
5	Dino	81
6	Ben	75
7	Autumn	67
8	Steve	60
9	El	59
10	Joshua	59

The stats

Nick once again totalled up the statistics from every game. The 🦡 Keepers in Iron were one of the most played factions, with only the 🦝 Vagabond picked more often. The 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy had the best win rate (2 wins from 3 games), despite being one of the least played factions of the day, and the 🦦 Riverfolk Company scored the most points on average. Compared with our previous tournament, the ⛏️ Underground Duchy didn’t win nearly as often. Perhaps we’ve all learned to hit them nice and early!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and brought such great energy: the success of these events is always led by the people who attend. Thank you also to El, Dan, James, Joe, Liss and Nick, who helped run the event or crafted our homemade prizes, including the Root Tea trophy, the cross-stitch and the framed finalist posters. The original Sway presentation has more photos from the day.

Group photo at the end of the day

Terence, our Autumn 2024 Root Champion

Terence’s handcrafted prizes: the framed poster, the champion’s cross-stitch and the Root Tea trophy, with meeple replicas around its base

The champion’s cross-stitch, now hanging on Terence’s wall

JT’s tournament lizard, painted afterwards to match the game art

Round 1

Nine games kicked off the day. Highlights included nine-year-old Ruari’s 15-point swing to win with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance, and Terence starting his perfect day with the 🦝 Vagabond.

Game 1 (Winter map): won by Steve with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Steve (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
2	Liam	🦝 Vagabond	26
3	Tasha	⛏️ Underground Duchy	Dominance attempt (failed)

Game 2 (Mountain map): won by Joe with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ben	🦡 Keepers in Iron	20
2	Matthew B	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21
3	Joe (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30
4	Elio	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	28

Game 3 (Lake map): won by Terence with the 🦝 Vagabond.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Terence (winner)	🦝 Vagabond	30
2	James B	🦡 Keepers in Iron	23
3	Ruth	🐁 Woodland Alliance	15
4	Autumn	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	14

Game 4 (Winter map): won by El with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	El (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
2	Annie	⛏️ Underground Duchy	17
3	Raymond	🦝 Vagabond	15
4	Alex	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	28

Game 5 (Lake map): won by Ruari with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	JT	🐈 Marquise de Cat	15
2	Matt K	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	19
3	Ruari (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30
4	Nick	🦡 Keepers in Iron	23

Game 6 (Winter map): won by Zac with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Zac (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
2	David	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	15
3	Gareth	⛏️ Underground Duchy	22

Game 7 (Lake map): won by Freddie with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Phil	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	21
2	Doak	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	22
3	Erika	🦝 Vagabond	24
3	Freddie (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Game 8 (Winter map): won by Joshua with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joshua (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Toby	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	11
3	Oscar	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	19

Game 9 (Mountain map): won by Leo with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Leo (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30
2	Paul	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	26
3	Dino	🦝 Vagabond	21
4	Craig	🦡 Keepers in Iron	16

El, Annie, Raymond and Alex

Leo, Paul, Dino and Craig

David, Zac and Gareth

Doak, Phil, Erika and Freddie

Nick and JT on the Lake map

The 🐀 Warlord leading the Rats

🐈 Cats and 🐀 Rats on the Winter map

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Winners’ bracket

Winners’ game 1 (Lake map): won by Steve with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joe	🦝 Vagabond	28
2	Steve (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
3	Nick	🦎 Lizard Cult	24
4	Elio	🐁 Woodland Alliance	16

Winners’ game 2 (Lake map): won by Terence with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	El	🦝 Vagabond	29
2	James B	🐁 Woodland Alliance	16
3	Liam	🦡 Keepers in Iron	25
4	Terence (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30

Winners’ game 3 (Mountain map): won by Leo with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Leo (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
2	Paul	🦡 Keepers in Iron	14
3	Ruari	🦝 Vagabond	8
4	Zac	🐁 Woodland Alliance	7

Winners’ game 4 (Autumn map): won by Alex with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joshua	🦝 Vagabond	29
2	Freddie	🦝 Vagabond	15
3	Erika	🐁 Woodland Alliance	24
4	Alex (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30

Losers’ bracket

Losers’ game 1 (Lake map): won by Raymond with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Raymond (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
2	Tasha	🦦 Riverfolk Company	28
3	David	🐁 Woodland Alliance	20
4	Matt K	🦎 Lizard Cult	24

Losers’ game 2 (Autumn map): won by Dino with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Toby	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance attempt (failed)
2	Ruth	🦝 Vagabond	21
3	Dino (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
4	Doak	🐁 Woodland Alliance	23
5	Gareth	⛏️ Underground Duchy	27

Losers’ game 3 (Mountain map): won by Ben with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Ben (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Oscar	🦎 Lizard Cult	25
3	Craig	🦡 Keepers in Iron	19
4	JT	🦝 Vagabond	28

Losers’ game 4 (Autumn map): won by Phil with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Autumn	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	26
2	Matthew B	🐁 Woodland Alliance	18
3	Phil (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
4	Annie	🦝 Vagabond	24

El showing off a meeple tray

A 3D-printed 🦝 Vagabond in action

↑ Back to all tables

The Finals

Trophy: Root Tea trophy, cross-stitch and framed finalist poster

Winners’ Final

Terence (🦡 Keepers in Iron), Leo (🦝 Vagabond), Joe (🦎 Lizard Cult) and Alex (🐦 Eyrie Dynasties) met in the Winners’ Final on the Winter map. It was a very competitive game, and Terence reached 30 to complete his perfect day and become our Tournament Champion.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Joe	🦎 Lizard Cult	27
2	Terence (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
3	Leo	🦝 Vagabond	25
4	Alex	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	24

Losers’ Bracket Final

Tasha (🦡 Keepers in Iron), Ben (🦎 Lizard Cult), Dino (🦦 Riverfolk Company) and Autumn (🐀 Lord of the Hundreds) played the Losers’ Bracket Final on the Autumn map, with Dino taking the win.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Tasha	🦡 Keepers in Iron	19
2	Ben	🦎 Lizard Cult	25
3	Dino (winner)	🦦 Riverfolk Company	30
4	Autumn	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	27

The Winners’ Final under way

The Winners’ Final on the Winter map

Tasha, Autumn and Ben in the Losers’ Bracket Final

Terence receives his framed finalist poster

Leo, finalist

Joe, finalist

Alex, finalist

Dino, Losers’ Bracket Champion

↑ Back to all tables

Twilight Imperium Tournament, May 2024

26 May 2024 Excelsior Games and Replay Bristol

Our May 2024 Twilight Imperium tournament took place in Bristol over the late May bank holiday weekend, with 36 players across 6 tables of 6. Day 1 was played at Excelsior Games on Sunday 26 May, and Day 2 at Replay Bristol on Monday 27 May. With negotiations starting before the tournament did (there was plenty of debate over whether the Milty Draft should have 9 or 7 factions alongside the 7 slices to pick), it was clear we were in for plenty of diplomacy!

How it worked

Sunday was made up of 6 games of 6 players, each with its own Milty Draft. The winner of each table took home a gold medallion and went through to the Final on the Monday, played for the Gold War Sun. The players who came 2nd went on to the Silver Starlights game, played for the Silver Flagship, and those who came 3rd went on to the Bronze Buddies game, played for the Bronze Dreadnought. Where someone couldn’t make the Monday, the next player from their table took their place.

Final standings

1. Duncan: Tourney Champion, winning the Final with the Federation of Sol after leading a fleet-less Sardakk N’orr to victory on Table 4.
2. Maciek: winning the Silver Starlights game and the Silver Flagship with the Universities of Jol-Nar, after coming 2nd on Table 5 with the Vuil’Raith Cabal.
3. Rich B: winning the Bronze Buddies game and the Bronze Dreadnought with the Naaz-Rokha Alliance, after playing the Xxcha Kingdom on Table 3.

A big thank you to everyone who came: everyone was super friendly, welcoming, organised and considerate, and made the event very easy to run. Thank you to Liss, Ollie and the lovely team at Excelsior Games for hosting us on the Sunday, and to Melinda, Imray and the great team at Replay for having us on the Monday, and for streaming the Final too. You can still watch the (unedited!) footage of the Final. Thank you to El, not only for joining at the last minute, but also for making the fantastic Gold War Sun, Silver Flagship and Bronze Dreadnought trophies, and the six gold medallions for the winners of each Day 1 game. Thank you also to everyone who shared their photos, many of which are below.

Day 1 under way at Excelsior Games

Six galaxies in one room at Excelsior Games

Another view across the room on Day 1

Day 1 at Excelsior Games

Day 1: Table 1

Trophy: Gold medallion

The leaders of the Cqaark were no match for their competitors, with Rich’s Yssaril Tribes taking over the Galactic Council. Matt’s Council Keleres managed to maintain their sway on Mecatol Rex, albeit now subservient to the Guild of Spies. Miriam’s Barony of Letnev, battered and bruised, had to bow even lower than the Keleres, despite taking their home world and having unlimited fleet capacity in the final round.

This Galactic Council were also big fans of War Suns: every time one was built, a giant round of applause was given to the dock workers who made it happen. However, the real winner was Brian, the Destroyer of Worlds, otherwise known as the cute yellow rubber duckie.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Rich (winner)	Yssaril Tribes
2nd	Matt (Positron)	Council Keleres
3rd	Miriam	Barony of Letnev
4th	Cory	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers
5th	Fay	Naaz-Rokha Alliance
6th	Alex L	Emirates of Hacan

The Table 1 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The galaxy with the leader on 5 points

The board state with the leader on 5

The battle for Moll Primus

The Yssaril Tribes attack the Naaz-Rokha

The Naaz-Rokha counter with a War Sun

Mentak on Mecatol

Brian, the Destroyer of Worlds, chilling

The end of the game

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 2

Trophy: Gold medallion

This galaxy had a different result, with Ben’s Council Keleres achieving supremacy, Callum’s Titans of Ul as their second-in-command, and Luke’s Ghosts of Creuss under them.

An extra round of applause goes to the Titans for managing second place even after their home planet of Elysium was conquered in the first round by Lee’s Argent Flight, who braved a gravity rift to get there.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Ben (winner)	Council Keleres
2nd	Callum	Titans of Ul
3rd	Luke	Ghosts of Creuss
—	Matt (Zero)	Yssaril Tribes
—	Lee	Argent Flight
—	Alex E	Nomad

The Table 2 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

Round 1 at Table 2

Elysium falls to the Argent Flight in round 1

Elysium recovered

The board state

Negotiation time

The board state, later on

The diplomatic duck

The diplomatic duck, keeping the peace

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 3

Trophy: Gold medallion

Here Katie’s Argent Flight showed off the power of their destroyers and their eagle-like mobility, taking the Galactic Throne. Dariel’s Vuil’Raith Cabal devoured all but them, and had to bend the knee. Amid all the chaos, Patrick’s Empyrean became the third most prominent faction on the Council.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Katie (winner)	Argent Flight
2nd	Dariel	Vuil’Raith Cabal
3rd	Patrick	Empyrean
4th	Mark R	Universities of Jol-Nar
—	Rich B	Xxcha Kingdom
—	Mike	Mentak Coalition

The Table 3 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

Battle time

The board state

Talking time

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 4

Trophy: Gold medallion

Readying for the emergence of a new empire, Duncan’s fleet-less Sardakk N’orr took over the Galactic Council and formed the new N’orr Empire, with their Commanders leading them to greatness all across the galaxy. Rafal’s Naalu Collective attained secondary influence under the Sardakk domain, and Neil’s Embers of Muaat achieved tertiary command.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Duncan (winner)	Sardakk N’orr
2nd	Rafal	Naalu Collective
3rd	Neil	Embers of Muaat
6th	Will	Xxcha Kingdom
—	Liam	Ghosts of Creuss
—	Peter	Nomad

The Table 4 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The board state

A happy Xxcha

Thinking time

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 5

Trophy: Gold medallion

Thousands of light years away, the Naalu Collective, led by David, formed the new Galactic Empire, with Maciek’s Vuil’Raith Cabal as their second-in-command and Marc’s Xxcha Kingdom as their third.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	David (winner)	Naalu Collective
2nd	Maciek	Vuil’Raith Cabal
3rd	Marc	Xxcha Kingdom
—	Matt P	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers
—	Sam	Argent Flight
—	Conrad	Nomad

The Table 5 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The board state

The Table 5 players at work

↑ Back to all tables

Day 1: Table 6

Trophy: Gold medallion

Hidden away in the corner, James’s Federation of Sol snuck to dominance, first by stopping Jon’s Winnu from a 5 to 6 point swing, as they held Mecatol Rex, held Imperial, and hadn’t yet used their hero. With Mecatol so well defended, Sol’s Advanced Carriers advanced on the Winnu home planet instead, and stopped them qualifying for any of the public objectives issued by the Council.

Not long after, Tom’s Argent Flight were 1 resource away from victory, and Simon’s Naalu Collective one home planet away from glory. El’s Mahact Gene-Sorcerers traversed the whole galaxy to take Maaluuk, and both El and Omar’s Naaz-Rokha did what they could to starve the Argent of the resources they needed to win through Imperial. That left the Federation, with its all-encompassing technology and recently researched Space Dock II, able to sway the Council into forming an Empire under its leadership, with Simon’s Naalu second and Tom’s Argent third.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	James (winner)	Federation of Sol
2nd	Simon	Naalu Collective
3rd	Tom	Argent Flight
—	El	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers
—	Jon	Winnu
—	Omar	Naaz-Rokha Alliance

The Table 6 galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The board state

The board state, later on

Slaying the Winnu

The end of the game

The Table 6 selfie

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Bronze Buddies

Trophy: Bronze Dreadnought

Plenty of betrayals, home world occupations (even by support partners) and complete chaos were the name of this game. In the end, Rich B’s Naaz-Rokha Alliance clinched the final points, even while holding the 7 initiative, to take home the Bronze Dreadnought.

His subtle manoeuvres seemingly eluded his foes, who were busy decimating each other: Mark’s Sardakk N’orr took their own support partner’s (Peter’s Hacan) home planet, Neil’s Keleres Grand Fleet was decimating its foes, and Alex L’s Ghosts of Creuss were causing havoc with their hero and wormhole technology.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Rich B (winner)	Naaz-Rokha Alliance
—	Neil	Council Keleres
—	Marc	Titans of Ul
—	Mark R	Sardakk N’orr
—	Alex L	Ghosts of Creuss
—	Peter	Emirates of Hacan

The Bronze Buddies galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The galaxy taking shape

The galaxy in the mid game

The galaxy with the leader on 6 points

The galaxy late in the game

The Bronze Buddies at the table

The Bronze Buddies game at Replay

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: Silver Starlights

Trophy: Silver Flagship

Those just below the finalists vied to become their second-in-command. Not even a hangover could stop Maciek taking the win, as his technologically advanced fishies of the Universities of Jol-Nar pushed forward and took control of the Council amid all the fighting throughout the galaxy, earning the Silver Flagship.

Place	Player	Faction
1st	Maciek (winner)	Universities of Jol-Nar
—	Rafal	Federation of Sol
—	Miriam	Barony of Letnev
—	Luke	Nekro Virus
—	Patrick	Yin Brotherhood
—	Tom	Embers of Muaat

The Silver Starlights galaxy from its Milty Draft, with each player’s home position:

The Silver Starlights at the table

The Silver Starlights galaxy

Mid-game at Replay

The diplomatic duck makes another appearance

The Silver Flagship trophy

Maciek with the Silver Flagship

↑ Back to all tables

Day 2: The Final

Trophy: Gold War Sun

The six Day 1 winners converged on one galaxy for complete control of the universe. Duncan is a human Twilight Imperium encyclopaedia, and it showed: he picked Politics twice (making his neighbour, Rich’s Naalu Collective, speaker for free), then took it himself in the penultimate round so he could take Leadership and beat David’s Xxcha Kingdom, sitting on 9 points with the Peace Turtles holding Imperial, to become the Supreme Galactic Emperor.

Katie’s Mahact Gene-Sorcerers tried to interfere, sending the Xxcha’s second-biggest fleet on a suicide run into the Naalu Grand Armada, before James’s Argent Flight came in to take Quann and remove three of the space cannons in David’s vast array.

However, nobody could stop Duncan’s Federation of Sol as they traversed the gamma wormholes to defeat Ben’s Arborec in a space battle in Everra’s nebula, then took two of the Naalu’s industrial planets to score Corner the Market and Monopolize Production, clinching him the well-deserved title.

Place	Player	Faction	Points
1	Duncan (winner)	Federation of Sol	10
2	David	Xxcha Kingdom	9
3	Rich	Naalu Collective	8
4	Katie	Mahact Gene-Sorcerers	8
5	Ben	Arborec	7
6	James	Argent Flight	5

The Final was drafted with a Milty Draft, and you can still view the Final draft online.

The start of the Final

The finalists at work

The galaxy during the Final

The galaxy, mid game

Nearing the end of the game

The end of the Final

The final scores

The Gold War Sun trophy

Our six finalists

↑ Back to all tables

Root Spring Tournament, March 2024

23 March 2024 Excelsior Games, Bond Street, Bristol

Our third Root tournament, and our biggest so far, took place on Saturday 23 March 2024 at Excelsior Games on Bond Street. Tin (The Foil) designed a brilliant poster for us, and with sign-ups promoted on Reddit and beyond, only four places were left the day before.

How it worked

Everyone played two games, using Advanced Setup with the Exiles and Partisans deck, all ten factions, and a random map (Autumn, Winter, Lake or Mountain). After two games, the highest scorers went through to the final, with points awarded as follows:

• 4 points for a dominance win
• 3 points for a win
• 1.5 points each for the winners of a coalition
• 1 point for coming second (0 for the other players)

House rules included an Advanced Setup redraw if the whole table agreed, Despot Infamy for the Vagabond, and three plot tokens of each type for the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy (12 plots in total). Three-way coalitions were banned! The day ran from 10:30 to the final at 19:00, with time for lunch and dinner in between, and everyone taking part got 10% off in Excelsior.

Prizes

Leder Games kindly provided store vouchers for the top four: $75 for 1st place, $55 for 2nd, $45 for 3rd and $25 for 4th. Everyone who won a game also went home with a little jar of algae!

The champion

Congratulations to Dan, who achieved greatness by winning all three of his games: the 🦎 Lizard Cult in Round 1, then the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds in Round 2 and again in the final, which he won on 30 points ahead of Tom M (21), Rich M (17) and David M (15). He even went home with a laminated Champion certificate!

A big thank you to everyone who came: it was our biggest Root tournament so far, and it was lovely to see everyone playing, chatting and hanging out. Thank you to Liss and the team at Excelsior Games for hosting us (and for saying how clean and tidy we left the space!), to Tin (The Foil) for the poster, to Leder Games for the prizes, and to Liam, Nick, James, Rick and Joe for organising the day.

32 people playing Root at Excelsior Games

Our four finalists with their certificates: David M, Rich M, Dan (our Champion) and Tom M

Everyone gathers round to watch the final

The 🦝 Vagabond sets sail on the Lake map

The tournament guide: welcome, and a little about West Country Leders

The tournament guide: venue, prizes, schedule, scoring and house rules

The tournament guide: Advanced Setup and house setup rules

Round 1

Nine games ran in the first round, including two failed dominance attempts in Game 6 alone!

Game 1: won by James B with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Stephen S	🐈 Marquise de Cat	15
2	James B (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
3	Jarred R	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	7

Game 2: won by David Mo with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	David Mo (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Nick S	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	29
3	Joe M	⛏️ Underground Duchy	13

Game 3: won by Rich M with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Katie	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	27
2	Tom K	🦦 Riverfolk Company	25
3	Tom J	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	27
4	Rich M (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Game 4: won by Sam D with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Doak	🦦 Riverfolk Company	26
2	Sam D (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
3	JT	⛏️ Underground Duchy	23

Game 5: won by Norah C with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Norah C (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30
2	Tobiah S	🦝 Vagabond	16
3	Dino	🦦 Riverfolk Company	16
4	Liam K	⛏️ Underground Duchy	21

Game 6: won by David M with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Matthew S	🦡 Keepers in Iron	Dominance (failed)
2	Raymond	🦝 Vagabond	22
3	Mitchell G	🦦 Riverfolk Company	Dominance (failed)
4	David M (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

Game 7: won by Dan with the 🦎 Lizard Cult.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Liam M	🦦 Riverfolk Company	25
2	Dan (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30
3	Daniel O-U	🐈 Marquise de Cat	Dominance (failed)

Game 8: won by Tom M with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	El	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	17
2	Cory	🐈 Marquise de Cat	20
3	Tom M (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
4	Rick F	🦝 Vagabond	22

Game 9 (Winter map): won by Nick L with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Sammie	🐁 Woodland Alliance	11
2	Li	🦦 Riverfolk Company	19
3	Elena	🐈 Marquise de Cat	9
4	Nick L (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Game 1 (Winter map): won by David M with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	James B	🦡 Keepers in Iron	22
2	Liam K	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	22
3	David M (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30
4	Li	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	19

Game 2 (Autumn map): won by Liam M with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Liam M (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	David Mo	🐈 Marquise de Cat	19
3	Tom M	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	23
4	Mitchell G	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	9

Game 3: won by Katie with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Norah C	🐈 Marquise de Cat	14
2	Sam D	🦎 Lizard Cult	16
3	Katie (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
4	Raymond	🦦 Riverfolk Company	8

Game 4 (Winter map): won by Dan with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Nick L	🐈 Marquise de Cat	20
2	Cory	⛏️ Underground Duchy	18
3	JT	🐁 Woodland Alliance	22
4	Dan (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Game 5 (Autumn map): won by Elena with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	El	🦡 Keepers in Iron	27
2	Dino	🦎 Lizard Cult	28
3	Joe M	🦝 Vagabond	28
4	Elena (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30

Game 6 (Mountain map): won by Matthew S with the 🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Matthew S (winner)	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	30
2	Stephen S	🦡 Keepers in Iron	12
3	Tom J	⛏️ Underground Duchy	20
4	Rick F	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	Dominance (failed)

Game 7 (Lake map): won by Tom K with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Tobiah S	⛏️ Underground Duchy	21
2	Nick S	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	27
3	Tom K (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30
4	Jarred R	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	24

Game 8 (Lake map): won by Sammie with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Sammie (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30
2	Rich M	🐁 Woodland Alliance	27
3	Doak	🦦 Riverfolk Company	24
4	Daniel O-U	🐈 Marquise de Cat	17

↑ Back to all tables

The Final

Trophy: Leder Games store vouchers and a laminated Champion certificate

Dan, David M, Rich M and Tom M met in the final on the Lake map, where Dan’s 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds took the win, and the title.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Dan (winner)	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	30
2	David M	🦝 Vagabond	15
3	Rich M	🐁 Woodland Alliance	17
4	Tom M	🐈 Marquise de Cat	21

↑ Back to all tables

Root Casual Tournament, August 2023

28 August 2023 Hen & Chicken, Bedminster (North Street Games Day)

Our second ever Bristol Root tournament took place on the August bank holiday, Monday 28 August 2023, back at the Hen & Chicken as part of Craig’s North Street Games Day. We had a turnout of 21, with players travelling in from far and wide, including Andreas, who flew back from Berlin to defend his title!

How it worked

Everyone played two rounds, with five games running at the same time in each (four games of four and one of five). A win earned 2 tournament points and second place earned 1, with ties broken by turn order (the player who went later getting the edge). The top five went through to a 5-player final, playing for prize vouchers kindly provided by Leder Games.

All 10 factions were played at some point, with lots of interesting mixes, and the 🐁 Woodland Alliance proved the faction of the day, winning 4 of its 7 games. There was also an amazing 🐈 Marquise de Cat dominance play from Aaron, who had never played a game of Root before, that came very close to winning his second game!

Final standings

1. Fabio: Champion, with an explosive 🐁 Woodland Alliance burst to 30 points in the final, after winning his second-round game with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy.
2. David M: just one point behind with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties, who looked to have the final won until a last sneaky Rat ambush.
3. Andreas: our returning champion, with the 🦝 Vagabond (Ronin) on 22.
4. Nick: with the 🦎 Lizard Cult on 19.
5. Rick: with the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds on 15.

A big thank you to everyone who signed up and came along, jumped with both feet into factions they hadn’t played before, won graciously and lost in good spirit. Thank you to Craig Andrews, whose North Street Games event we were piggybacking on, for giving us even more space than we asked for; to Frank of FrankBeanMarket for the keyrings handed out on the day; to James for helping organise from the start and securing the prizes from Leder Games; to Liam for running the day; and to Nick, who darted between tables keeping track of factions and scores, and produced all the stats below.

Round 1 under way: four games of four and one of five

The final begins

Victory for the Woodland Alliance

Round 1

Five games ran at the same time in the first round, one of them on the Lake map.

Game 1: won by Liam with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Zac	🐈 Marquise de Cat	22	0
2	Charlie	🦝 Vagabond	21	0
3	Liam (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30	2
4	Nick	⛏️ Underground Duchy	26	1

Game 2: won by Andreas with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Charles	🦎 Lizard Cult	24	0
2	Max	🐦‍⬛ Corvid Conspiracy	26	0
3	Fabio	🦦 Riverfolk Company	27	1
4	Andreas (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30	2

Game 3: won by Liron with the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Heath	🦝 Vagabond	13	0
2	Leif	🦡 Keepers in Iron	12	0
3	Liron (winner)	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	30	2
4	Matthew	🐁 Woodland Alliance	16	1

Game 4: won by Rick with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Aaron	🐈 Marquise de Cat	18	0
2	Rick (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30	2
3	Andrew	⛏️ Underground Duchy	23	1
4	Jon C	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	9	0

Game 5: won by David M with the 🦎 Lizard Cult on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	David M (winner)	🦎 Lizard Cult	30	2
2	Jace	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	22	0
3	Steve	⛏️ Underground Duchy	26	1
4	Lucas	🦝 Vagabond	21	0
5	Tim	🐁 Woodland Alliance	21	0

Round 1 under way

↑ Back to all tables

Round 2

Round 2 brought five more games, including one on the base map. Charles took his game with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron, despite Aaron’s 🐈 Marquise de Cat coming very close to a dominance win.

Game 1: won by Charles with the 🦡 Keepers in Iron on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Aaron	🐈 Marquise de Cat	10	0
2	David M	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	16	1
3	Charles (winner)	🦡 Keepers in Iron	30	2

Game 2: won by Max with the 🦝 Vagabond on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Charlie	🦡 Keepers in Iron	19	0
2	Rick	⛏️ Underground Duchy	24	1
3	Max (winner)	🦝 Vagabond	30	2
4	Heath	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	10	0

Game 3: won by Fabio with the ⛏️ Underground Duchy on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Lucas	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	14	0
2	Fabio (winner)	⛏️ Underground Duchy	30	2
3	Andrew	🐁 Woodland Alliance	27	1

Game 4: won by Nick with the 🐁 Woodland Alliance on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Tim	🦎 Lizard Cult	12	0
2	Jon C	🐈 Marquise de Cat	10	0
3	Liron	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	15	1
4	Nick (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30	2

Game 5: won by Andreas with the 🐈 Marquise de Cat on 30 points.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score	Tournament points
1	Liam	⛏️ Underground Duchy	17	0
2	Matthew	🦦 Riverfolk Company	25	1
3	Andreas (winner)	🐈 Marquise de Cat	30	2
4	Steve	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	13	0

↑ Back to all tables

The Final

Trophy: Leder Games prize vouchers

The final was played on the Mountain map between David M, Andreas, Fabio, Rick and Nick. Liron finished third after the first two rounds but couldn’t stay for the final, so the next player on the standings took his place.

David M’s 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties had a great opening and took a huge hitting, and the whole table was convinced it was their game. In the closing moments it looked like the Eyrie might close it out, and if not the 🐁 Woodland Alliance were looking very strong. Fabio played an excellent game, only being recognised as a threat when it was far too late: huge amounts of supporters from plenty of outrage kept the machine going, and he burst to 30 points to take the title, with the Eyrie just one point behind.

Turn	Player	Faction	Score
1	Andreas	🦝 Vagabond	22
2	Fabio (winner)	🐁 Woodland Alliance	30
3	Rick	🐀 Lord of the Hundreds	15
4	Nick	🦎 Lizard Cult	19
5	David M	🐦 Eyrie Dynasties	29

A blurry photo of the finalists starting the grand final

The closing moments: can the Eyrie close it out this turn?

Fabio’s Woodland Alliance takes the win

↑ Back to all tables

Root Casual Tournament, May 2023

1 May 2023 Hen & Chicken, Bedminster (North Street Games Day)

Our very first tournament was a casual Root tournament on the May Day bank holiday, Monday 1 May 2023, held at the Hen & Chicken as part of Craig’s North Street Games Day. It all started in the Discord channel a fortnight earlier, with a hope that we could find at least 8 players to make it work, and plenty of lively debate about the best format: points for wins (and half or a quarter of a point for coalition wins), a knock-out with a losers’ bracket, or round-robin games feeding into a final.

On the day, a handful of us brought along every copy of Root and its expansions we owned (with print-and-play sets as back-up), and by half past two there were three games on the go. Games were played across several maps, with landmarks left up to each table and hirelings saved for any three-player games.

The final kicked off at around 8pm with the 🦎 Lizard Cult, the 🐀 Lord of the Hundreds, the 🐈 Marquise de Cat and the 🐦 Eyrie Dynasties on a very crowded board. As James predicted, whoever crafted Coffin Makers would win, and so it proved: congratulations to Andreas, our first ever tournament winner, who led the 🦎 Lizard Cult to victory!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and brought their copies of Root, and to Craig Andrews for putting on the North Street Games Day and for many of the photos, as well as Charles, Nick and everyone else who shared theirs.

An early game on the Winter map

One of the three games going in the afternoon

All smiles at the start of a game

Afternoon sunshine at the Hen & Chicken

Another game under way

Our youngest spectator joins the table

Mid-game on the Winter map

Players happy to be photographed mid-game

A second-round game in the late afternoon

Plenty of 🦎 Lizards in play

A cheerful game on the Autumn map

The Autumn map late in the game

And it begins: the final, with the 🦎 Lizards, 🐀 Rats, 🐈 Cats and 🐦 Birds

Whoever crafts Coffin Makers wins…

The end of the final

The finalists after the game