![]() You’ll consider the probabilities when you move or when you fight and you’ll try to make the right call, but that’s about it. That said, the greatest weakness of The Adventures of Robin Hood is that it’s very light and, mechanically speaking, a bit repetitive. The game leverages its board art to up the challenge There’s a variety of other objects that can mix up your decision making during the game. The bow, for example, lets you fight guards from a distance while the ever-useful bag of gold allows you to take an extra turn. The latter also offer an extra reward of items that you can trade-in for bonuses. Hope sinks constantly and will sink your game if you don’t keep it up by voluntarily tackling guards and nobles. Even if you do decide to take the chance, the need to get places fast must be balanced against the need for white cubes in the bag for inevitable combat.Īnd it’s not just inevitable because sometimes you’ll get captured. Every turn is a risk versus reward decision of whether you dare stay in the open after working out the simple probability of the next disk being red. Time pressure is constant and the gaps between the shadows are large. Visual clues from the board will help you complete your objective (Image credit: Future (Matt Thrower))Īt the same time, these accessible systems give the players plenty of decisions to make and excitement to enjoy. It makes things much more clear and serves as a handy reference. Learning it all as you play makes it easier to take in, although it’s a good idea to ignore the stricture on the rulebook and give it a flick through after your first game or two. The less you move, the more energy you have for taking out the enemy. You escape detection by keeping to the clearly marked shaded areas. You move via physical paths on the board, avoiding obstacles. One of the great delights of The Adventures of Robin Hood is how neatly, simply, and intuitively everything fits together. Stick to the shadows printed on the board and you’ll stay out of sight. A red disc will also cause a character to be captured, and have to fight if they’re in a clearing with a face-up guard. Run out of time entirely and you lose the scenario. To counterpoint these with white cubes, you’ll need to not use all three of your movement pieces: if you move less, you’ll fight better.įinally, drawing a red disc makes time advance and lessens the amount of hope, which can cause you to lose further time. Meanwhile, drawing a violet disc can cause enemy pieces to move and adds more violet cubes to the bag. One of the great delights of The Adventures of Robin Hood is how neatly, simply, and intuitively everything fits together Fighting involves drawing up to three cubes from the bag until you get a white one - if you don’t, you lose and miss your movement next turn. This is either to interact with a numbered board space or to fight an enemy. Each turn you draw a disc from the bag, move the corresponding character, and then take an action. You then add some cubes in a mix of red and violet. The game comes with a cloth bag into which you throw coloured discs corresponding to the characters in play, plus red and violet for bad stuff. So if you visit the blacksmith’s wife in the village, say, you’ll find her number in the book, check the relevant paragraph for the scenario you’re on, read it out to the group, and then flip over her piece on the board. As well as progressing you through each scenario in the campaign, the book also has numbered sections that correspond to the numbers on the board pieces. There are a couple of hundred such doors, each with its own number, making the whole thing look all the more like an oversized Christmas novelty.Īt the bottom of the box is a lovely hardback book that takes you through the remainder of how to play after starting your first adventure with some introductory text to set the scene. They change frequently during play, giving the board state a real sense of dynamism as the people of Nottingham go about their daily business. Most have a different illustration on the back and some have a reward underneath. The sleeve is to ensure they all stay in place. Once you slide it out, you’ll see why: it’s covered in advent calendar-like doors that you can pop up, flip over, and fit back in. Speaking of which, the map itself comes in an unexpected sleeve. The game's movement system is truly unique (Image credit: Future (Matt Thrower))
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