We’ve all heard of Robin Hood. Most likely. You’ve probably either heard of the legendary outlaw who ran around Nottingham, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, who was incredibly skilled at archery and had a band of merry men who assisted him. Or you know him as a Disney fox. There are a number of board games which feature Robin, in both human and fox form. He appears as a fate card for Prince John in Disney Villainous and numerous Lorcana sets, or as part of the story told in The Adventures of Robin Hood, or even hunting Bigfoot in Unmatched. Now there’s a newer game, published by GMT Games, which takes two players in a battle against each other as Robin or the Sheriff of Nottingham, trying to secure the Shire (not that one) in the favour of Order or Justice. Welcome to A Gest of Robin Hood.
Running through the glen
A Gest of Robin Hood is a lighter entry into the COIN (COunter INsurgent) system. Both players take on a role as either Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham, each with their own goal. Robin is trying to settle the Shire towards Justice, by stealing from the rich carriages and travellers, inciting revolts, and setting up camps through the county. Meanwhile, the Sheriff is trying to claim taxes, suppress the revolting peasants and disrupting Robin’s plans by arresting his followers.
The gameplay is taken over a series of rounds, which generally follows the following sequence:
We’ve all heard of Robin Hood. Most likely. You’ve probably either heard of the legendary outlaw who ran around Nottingham, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, who was incredibly skilled at archery and had a band of merry men who assisted him. Or you know him as a Disney fox. There are a number of board games which feature Robin, in both human and fox form. He appears as a fate card for Prince John in Disney Villainous and numerous Lorcana sets, or as part of the story told in The Adventures of Robin Hood, or even hunting Bigfoot in Unmatched. Now there’s a newer game, published by GMT Games, which takes two players in a battle against each other as Robin or the Sheriff of Nottingham, trying to secure the Shire (not that one) in the favour of Order or Justice. Welcome to A Gest of Robin Hood.
Running through the glen
A Gest of Robin Hood is a lighter entry into the COIN (COunter INsurgent) system. Both players take on a role as either Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham, each with their own goal. Robin is trying to settle the Shire towards Justice, by stealing from the rich carriages and travellers, inciting revolts, and setting up camps through the county. Meanwhile, the Sheriff is trying to claim taxes, suppress the revolting peasants and disrupting Robin’s plans by arresting his followers.
The gameplay is taken over a series of rounds, which generally follows the following sequence:
Event Reveal, Choose Initiative then Take Actions. The actions available differ depending on the position on the initiative track. Each character has a list of Plots and Deed actions that the players can use. The plots and deeds are fully outlined on the character help sheet, so I wont go into too much detail about those here. If you choose to go first, you can take a single plot action. Going second lets you trigger the event in relation to your role, and going last means you can take a full plot and deed action. Alternatively, you can choose to pass, taking a single shilling if you’re Robin or 1-3 shillings if you’re the Sheriff, depending on which spot you take. The turn order for the next turn depends on where you place yourself, so going early means you get to choose first next turn, so it’s a gamble, but might give you some pretty sizeable advantages. Some of the actions can involved the deployment or robbing of carriages carrying money and goods for the Sheriff, recruiting Henchmen or Merry Men and deploying them around the board, or dealing with the townsfolk in some way.
Ah yes, I said “generally.” There are three cards which trigger something else. Two Royal Inspection cards and one King Richard’s Return. These trigger an inspection, and in the case of King Richard’s Return, the very end of the game. The inspection has five phases:
· Unrest – Check the number of submissive parishes and move the Royal Favour track towards Justice or Order depending on the number.
· Mischief – Robin gains a shilling for each camp in the forest and then may make a single Rob Plot followed by a Donate Deed.
· Governance – The Sheriff gains a shilling for every Submissive space, then remove half (rounded down) of the Henchmen in each Revolting space. Finally set any Revolting Parish where Henchmen still outnumber Merry Men to Submissing for free.
· Redeployment – The Sheriff removes any Henchmen in Revolting Parishes and Forests to Submissive spaces and may move them to Nottingham, and returns Used Carriages to Available Forces.
· Reset – Shuffle the Traveller discard pile back into the Traveller deck, set Robin’s eligibility cylinder to First Eligible, the Sheriff to Second Eligible and start a new round.
If at the end of the Unrest phase, the Royal Favour cylinder is at 5 or more on the Justice/Order track in either direction, the game ends immediately with a victory for Robin’s player if it’s Justice or the Sheriff if it’s Order. If it’s the King Richard Return’s card which triggered the inspection, then the winner is whomever has the Royal Favour cylinder on their side of the track.
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Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
75%
