Bought Root recently and I've played 5 games: one 4 player one, one 3 player one, and three 2 player games with my girlfriend. I expected it to be very boring and unbalanced but its REALLY fun.

The first game we played was our introductory game, with the Marquis du Cat and the Eyrie, and it was quick. Not much happened: I played Eagles, she played Cats, I won by 10 points, but we had a nice time and got introduced to the mechanics.

Second game is where the fun truly began. We bought the Underground expansion and I played as Cats while she played as Moles. She LOVED the Mole playstyle and the game was very chess-like, with important decisions to be made: should I risk expanding territory and leave exposed buildings, or avoid moving and stay defending my current clearings until I see a better option? Same with her, she constantly was thinking on if she should expand territory and risk troops, wasting precious actions to refill her army, or spend turns doing little until she manages to recruit ministers and develop a crazy war machine. We ended 30-28, Cats favor.

Third game we included a bot: she was Moles, I was Crows, bot was Cats. Even more fun overall. She ended up winning 30-27, Cats got got to 21, but their presence on the board made the whole thing more fun.

It also helps that in lieu of the social aspect, as I said, aside from the game taking a more tactical approach, we spend the game making up little silly stories for all our conflicts, giving each team personalities and playing pretend the whole time. Its cute, its fun, and honestly, despite general opinion, I definitely recommend Root for two players if you know what it's gonna be like when you remove the social/political aspect.