Forget everything you think you know about Robin Hood. That classic tale of heroic outlaws and a bumbling Sheriff? Bin it. HOOD: Troubles in Sherwood, the new asymmetric strategy game from designers Mateusz Dąsal and Łukasz Sasuła and published by PHALANX, plunges us into a far darker, more cynical vision of medieval England where the fight for Nottingham is a four-way knife fight.
This game, recently tearing up the crowdfunding charts is promising to be a heavyweight in the asymmetric camp, and here’s why you should be paying attention.
A Land Divided: The Four Forces of Sherwood
HOOD is an area control game, yes, but it’s defined by the fact that the four factions playing have completely different rules, victory conditions, and priorities. This isn’t just a different starting setup, it’s four separate games running on the same board, colliding constantly. Here is a short overview of each:
· The Outlaws/Robin Hood: Masters of the shadows, they strike fast and vanish, turning simple coin into legend and drawing new followers to their rebellious cause.
· The Sheriff of Nottingham: They build their empire in broad daylight. The Sheriff focuses on visible authority, marching Guards through villages, and tightening his iron grip on the land.
· The Bishop of Hereford: A builder of faith and stone. The Bishop uses resources (and sometimes fear) to construct his towering Cathedral, cementing his spiritual and physical dominance.
· The French Nobility: Weaving plots from overseas, they spread influence through spies and noble knights, raising fortresses and claiming titles to bind the local populace to foreign power.
The Genius of Three Actions
At the heart of the game’s tension is a brutal, yet brilliant, mechanism: players only get three actions per round.
In a big, sprawling strategy game, three actions feel almost cruel. This tight limit forces players to make agonising tactical decisions, demanding you perfectly balance expansion, economic development, and aggressive confrontation. You can’t just turtle up and build; every investment you make, creates an opening that the other three cut-throat factions are just waiting to exploit.
Clocking in around a snappy 90 minutes, HOOD promises a relentless, high-interaction experience where the modular board and constantly shifting player strengths ensure no two conflicts in Sherwood will ever play out the same way.
If you’re a fan of asymmetrical conflict, deep strategy, and the kind of game where every decision feels like a punch in the face (in the best possible way), then keep your eye firmly on HOOD: Troubles in Sherwood. The forest waits, and the game is about to begin.
