A Gest of Robin Hood

The Game

The first thing I learned from this game is a new word. Gest. It means story or adventures. This is a COIN game - counterinsurgency. Normally these are set in modern day or close to modern day situations. Seeing this applied to a medieval era scenario is certainly refreshing. This is a two-player game, one playing Robin Hood and the other the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin fights for justice, while the sheriff wants control and order. This is a tug of war. In the game there is a track for justice vs order. The players try to pull the marker towards their end of the track. When the game ends, the position of the marker determines who wins. 

The map shows the town of Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, and the surrounding regions. Each of the seven regions can be obedient (blue) or rebellious (red). Robin tries to instigate rebellion while the sheriff wants to keep things calm. However the sheriff will force people to pay tax, and that makes people rebellious. One thing which the sheriff does is to fill a carriage with taxes and then escort it back to Nottingham. If the carriage reaches Nottingham, the sheriff gains order and money. If Robin manages to rob the carriage, Robin gains justice and money. Yes, everyone wants money. The tricky part is a carriage might be a trap set for Robin and his gang. It might be better armed than expected and Robin's team might all get captured if they can't defeat the guards. 

Robin is the red piece. In the computer implementation he is presented this way to the Robin player. In the actual game, Robin is a green piece just like any of the merry men. You can tell him apart only by the icon on it. The merry men pieces can be face-up or face-down. When face-down, it means they are hidden, and it also means the sheriff doesn't know which one is Robin. To be able to capture the merry men, the sheriff needs to first expose them. The grey triangular pieces are the sheriff's henchmen. 

The game uses a simple initiative system. The first player picks one of the three action spots, and then the second player can only pick from the remaining two. The actions are then performed from left to right, and the initiative for the next round is also determined by whoever has his token on the left. The first action spot only allows one action. The second spot allows executing an event. A different event is drawn every round so this action changes every round. The third spot allows two actions. This basically means if you want to do more and do the more powerful actions, you will likely go later in the next round. 

The Robin player has a selection of actions to choose from, some called Plots and some called Deeds. The sheriff has a different selection. Many actions require spending money. Robin needs to rob either the carriages or some other poor travellers to maintain a decent cash flow. The sheriff too needs to collect taxes. If you run out of money, you will become very restricted in what you can do. 

The success of robbery attempts depends on several factors. The number of merry men vs the number of henchmen is one. Whether the region is rebellious or not is another. You need to roll a die to determine the outcome, so there is some luck. When robbing a traveller, you can decide whether to take a higher risk for a higher reward. 

The number of merry men and henchmen is limited. You can't recruit if there no more in the supply, so you need to manage your people well. 

The Play

This is very much a cat and mouse game. I played Robin Hood. I had to recruit merry men and cause trouble. The challenge was whenever I robbed, my merry men would be exposed, and we would be at risk of getting caught. I needed to quickly move and hide ourselves to stay safe. I needed to go about inciting revolt, because having the people supporting my cause was helpful. Carriages was something I could not ignore, even if I suspected they were traps. I was caught in such a trap unfortunately. I did not have a big enough group and we were captured. Things went downhill very quickly for me. I didn't have enough men, and I was arrested several times myself. Robin could always sneak out of prison, but doing all this took time and actions. Playing Robin Hood was not at all fun and adventure. It was very much about spending money wisely, gathering support from the population as much as possible, and keeping the pressure on the sheriff and his henchmen. You need to be a military strategist specialising in guerrilla warfare, not an action hero. Our game was rather short, Han as the sheriff achieved an instant victory because he reached more than 5 on the Order track when there was a royal inspection. Robin Hood's little gest was cut short significantly. 

Lots of event cards add colour, story and flavour to the game. 

At one point most of the merry men and Robin Hood himself was thrown in prison. What a disgrace!

The Thoughts

A Gest of Robin Hood is a serious wargame. Not a complex one among wargames, but it is a serious take on the folklore, very much unlike what I remember of the Disney animation movie. This is not a simple game and it takes some effort to learn. It is interesting to see the COIN mechanism applied to this setting. Too bad I was a lousy outlaw and I didn't really experience the full game.