A Gest of Robin Hood from GMT Games – Action Point 6

As you know, I love the COIN Series and anything associated with it. This new Irregular Conflicts Series is considered COIN adjacent and shares some of the same elements. The 2nd volume called A Gest of Robin Hood is a 2-player game that is set in the world of literature but based on actual events of the time as it covers the bandit known as Robin Hood as he patrolled the Sherwood Forest around Nottingham and attempted to relieve the evil Prince John of the money that he stole from the peasants and give it back to them. The game is very much asymmetric as each of the sides has different goals and objectives but also have different actions, called Plots & Deeds, that can be used to great effect to change the landscape of Nottinghamshire and plant the seeds of insurrection or pacify the locals and keep them paying those juicy taxes. We have played the game a few times now and have really enjoyed what is it that we are seeing and experiencing. The game is a great entry point into the world of asymmetric gaming and also teaches some of the basic principles of the COIN Series mainly focusing on the Sequence of Play, card assisted framework and diverging player sides with vastly different focus. The game is very approachable but also has a lot of meat to it and is really an interesting experience.

In Action Point 1, we took a look at the Game Board, which is absolutely stunningly beautiful yet very functional, and discussed the different areas including Prison, the Justice/Order Track and various other spaces. In Action Point 2, we investigated the 2-player Initiative (Sequence of Play) Box to understand what makes this process unique. In Action Point 3, we looked at the menu of Plots & Deeds for the Sheriff. In Action Point 4, we looked at the menu of Plots & Deeds for Robin Hood and his Merry Men and did a bit of compare and contrast. In Action Point 5, we discussed the different types of cards in the game including Event Cards, Fortune Event Cards, Traveller Cards and Royal Inspection Cards. In this Action Point, which is the conclusion to the series, we will take a look at some points of strategy that will help you get into the game and give you some guidance on how you should attack your opponent.

Strategy Points

Before we get too far into this one, the first point that I wish to make is that I don’t consider myself an amazing tactician. In fact, I struggle at games the same as everyone. But I do believe that all games can be a bit more enjoyed if you follow some basics of strategy. There are always things that the players should be focused on and remember as they play that will help guide their decisions and give them a greater chance at victory. These points that I am sharing for A Gest of Robin Hood are such guiding principles.

Understand the Sequence of Play and Use it to Your Advantage

One of the greatest strategy points that I can offer about this game is to understand and use the Sequence of Play to your advantage. The key to the design of A Gest of Robin Hood is the process of determining eligibility, which in other words is the play order for each round in the Chapters. This eligibility is determined based upon the actions that were taken during the previous round by each of the players and their relative positioning on the Initiative Track at the end of the round. This Initiative Sequence is very different from traditional COIN Series games and more akin to the sequence found in The British Way designed by Stephen Rangazas. The concept of Eligibility is important as the first player who can act in a given round is called the First Eligible Player and then the next player is referred to as the Second Eligible Player.

The First Eligible Player’s choice of what actions they can take during the round will ultimately end up limiting what actions the Second Eligible player has access to. Furthermore, these choices will then be used to determine the order of eligibility for the next card. This system works really well and creates some very interesting strategic choices for the players as they decide how they want to go about reaching their goals while also preventing their opponent from reaching theirs.

One of the most important and key decisions though for the player in relation to the Initiative Track is what to choose and whether to pass or not. As mentioned previously, there is a direct correlation to the location of the space chosen on the Initiative Track by each player and their designation as First Eligible or Second Eligible at the start of the next round. The First Eligible player chooses one of these options, places their eligibility cylinder in the appropriate space on the Initiative Track and then takes the listed action. The Second Eligible player then chooses from either of the remaining options, also placing their eligibility cylinder in the appropriate space on the Initiative Track and then taking the listed action. 

If players want to do as much as they can with each turn, they can choose to place their cylinder in the Plots & Deeds box. If they want to bide their time and only take 1 Plot while they either await a better event or are trying to time their actions to maximize their options they can place their cylinder in the Single Pot box. If the current Event Card is good for them, or conversely really good for their opponent, they can choose to take the Event and place their eligibility cylinder in the Event box. Also, each player needs to keep in mind that they can choose to pass and place their eligibility cylinder in any available space on the Initiative Track and simply pass instead of performing the listed action. This will provide the benefit of blocking their opponent from taking that action, such as a really juicy event, but also can be a source of revenue. When a pass is chosen, the Sheriff player will gain the printed value of Shillings in the box or only 1 Shilling if Robin Hood.

After both players have chosen their actions or passed, the leftmost cylinder on the Initiative Track will be moved to the First Eligible box and the remaining cylinder in the Second Eligible box. This process has now determined the First player in the next round as the new Event Card is drawn and placed faceup for each player to see. And then the process starts all over. This use of this Initiative Track is simply beautiful. It works so well in pitting the players against each other and creates a very fast paced and meaningful decision space for the players. I think that in these COIN adjacent games, players tend to not think about their choices with the Initiative Track and simply try to take as many actions as possible. And, this is not all together a bad approach as the more actions you can take the more work you can get done and the closer you will technically get to reaching your victory conditions.

But, I will encourage you to try to look at this process as a game in and of itself. Maintaining eligibility gives the player in the First Eligible spot all of the power. They get to act first and can take the action that they truly want. But, it also creates a key decision point. Do you want to try to maintain your eligibility and deny your opponent an event? Or keep them from doing both the Plots & Deeds waiting for your moment to strike or gain a key advantage? I believe that this is the real beauty of what is used here and I really, really like it. Mastering this aspect of the game is very important and players should carefully consider their options and how their choices affect their opponent.

Don’t Ignore the City of Nottingham

More or less located in the center of the Game Board is the urbanized city of Nottingham. The city is represented by a circle with a daunting castle drawn inside located at the top of rolling green hills. Here the Sheriff protects, or more appropriately attempts to protect, the treasury as his numerous Carriages laden with gold and silver return from the Parishes to the bank to be used by the Sheriff to enforce Order in the land. This space is definitely a target for Robin Hood and a wily Robin Hood player will try to spread out, while retaining a sizeable presence in the nearby Forests, to attempt to lure the Sheriff’s Henchmen out of the city to leave it lightly defended. If a Rob Plot is taken in Nottingham and is successful, it will gain the player 2 rewards. The first is simple; 2 Shillings gained to be able to fund future Plots but the 2nd is a bump on the Favor Track toward Justice.

I also try to make sure to never leave Nottingham empty as the Sheriff. Always keep at least 1 Henchman in the space to offer resistance and to not encourage Robin Hood from trying anything funny. Remember that the defense value of Nottingham is 0 so having at least 1 Henchman (preferably 2) there will increase that to 1 and make the attempt at least a bit more difficult. Remember that the Rob in Nottingham is a bit harder for Robin Hood though as they will use the white die and it has only 2 good results out of 6 in a +1 and +2 but 4 negative or neutral results with a 0, 2 -1’s and a -2. Conversely, as Robin Hood, there is little else that will cause the Sheriff more consternation as a few hidden Merry Men who have infiltrated the city and are just sitting there and biding their time. This will cause the Sheriff to have to react by moving Henchmen back into the city, leaving alone those Merry Men in the Parishes and Forests unmolested to sow their deceit and treachery.

Use the Forest Spaces

The Forest spaces of Shire Wood and Southwell Forest are key locations for the Merry Men as they keep them hidden and make it much more difficult for the Sheriff’s Henchmen to find them and arrest them. These forests are all considered to be adjacent to the city of Nottingham but are not populated by peasants. This means that the forests will never be considered either Submissive or Revolting. Each of these Forest spaces can contain one Camp and any number of Henchmen, Merry Men and Carriages. There is 1 Event Card that will allow for the Robin Hood player to place a 2nd Camp in a Forest space. The Robin Hood player must use the Forest Spaces as their main location of the Recruit Plot to gain their Merry Men pieces. Remember that one of the requirements to be able to Recruit in a space is that it is currently Revolting or is a Forest space. And also remember that a Forest can never be in Revolt or Pacified so are always a haven where you can recruit without worrying about the status. Money will always be a problem for Robin Hood and being able to recruit in the Forests without trying to change their status is just more money that can be kept in their pocket to spend on other Plots & Deeds.

The Patrol Plot provides the Sheriff the opportunity to move Henchmen to adjacent spaces and reveal Merry Men. If the Patrol Plot is taken in a Forest however it is much harder for the Sheriff. When a Patrol Plot is taken in a Forest, then just 1 Merry Man will be revealed per two Henchmen there as compared to 1 to reveal 1 Merry Man in any other Parish. Use this to your advantage to Recruit in the Forests and then move out to Raid, Turncoat and Sneak to gain advantage into the adjacent Provinces. The Forests are not impregnable though and you must be aware of the Sheriff and the location of his nasty Henchman.

Carriage Placement and Planning for Raiding

One thing that needs to be pointed out are the various roads that lead into the city of Nottingham. These are the roads that the Carriages must follow in order to make it into the city to the safety of the King’s Treasury and you can see that they wind their way through both the Shire Wood and Southwell Forest, which is the domain of Robin Hood and his band of thieves known as the Merry Men. The Sheriff player will be placing these Carriages into the outlying Parishes, trying to focus on placing them as closely to their end goal as possible to ensure they have a short and uneventful journey. But there are requirements to place them and that is that the Parish in which they are placed is Pacified and that it must then be changed to Revolt as the peasants are upset about their pockets being picked. This will limit your choices of where you can place these Carriages and also will keep you busy in re-establishing Order in these unruly Parishes once the Sheriff has relieved them of their gold.

As the Sheriff, I like to place a majority of my Carriages in the following 3 Provinces: Mansfield, Tuxford and Blyth. These are the closest to Nottingham and will be the quickest journey to get that confiscated gold and silver back to the treasury! Just remember that these must be Pacified before you take the Confiscate Plot and once you do they will change over to Revolting. This will require you to go through a continual process of Hiring to place Henchmen in the Revolting Parishes and to change them back to Submissive and then Confiscating to start the process all over again. This is an involved process and will take some effort, planning and a little bit of luck.

I also like to drag along at least 1-2 Henchmen as each Carriage moves from Parish to Parish. They will offer greater protection to the Carriage, making Robin Hood’s Robbery attempts that much more difficult, but will also be a means of getting Henchmen into the Forests and back into Nottingham without having to spend your funds Riding or Patrolling. This is in essence a free move and you have to take advantage of it as the Sheriff to do well…or as well as you can!

It’s OK to Take Events

Contrary to many of the COIN Series entries, a lot of the time taking the event is a good move in this game. Part of the reason for this is that there are just 2 players and you will always be able to do something the next round as opposed to other COIN Series games where you do not get to act every round. Many of the events give very powerful effects, partly because they can be done out of order, or with ignoring certain limitations, and also give benefits in the tug of war over Order/Justice. Also, remember that events do not make you ineligible but will typically force a change in the initiative and who will go first on the next card.

There are 24 Regular Event Cards. I wanted to also give you a break down of the number of Carriages which can be moved by each as follows:

It is important to understand the makeup of the various Event Cards, including their possible effects, how they effect the Carriages in the game (more important for the Sheriff) and also which events give the best bonuses. Remember, that in COIN Series games and in Irregular Conflicts Series games, the Events can be somewhat fool’s gold. What I mean by this is that you cannot simply take every single event and hope to do well but have to analyze the situation and board state, playing the Initiative game and understanding what you are trying to do and more.

Shillings are Utterly Important

This strategy point is probably the most obvious but also one of the most important. Shillings are your lifeblood in the game. More so for Robin Hood, as Shillings are a bit harder to come by, but important for both sides nonetheless. Managing this resource is key to a winning strategy and players should measure out their expenditures by asking themselves “how does this get me closer to gaining more funds as well as closer to victory?” Running out of cash at the wrong time can spell disaster! Especially if you need to move to get to safety or to move to take advantage of revealed Merry Men. You just have to be aware of your current cash and how you are going to get more.

The easy answer for Robin Hood is to Rob with impunity! There will be multiple Carriages placed out in the first few rounds and you have to be setup and ready to pounce when they get to you by making sure you are Recruiting in the Forests and moving into position to make the strongest play. The Sheriff will gain most of their funds through Confiscating and delivering those Carriages to safety in the King’s Treasury in Nottingham. Put them out early and often and protect hem with Henchmen or you will suffer.

Also understand how you will gain Shillings during the Royal Inspection round at the end of each Ballad. Robin Hood will gain 1 Shilling for each Camp in a Forest or Ollerton Hill (that can be at least 3 if you have placed the maximum 1 Camp in each Forest but can be up to 4 if you have played the correct Event Card, such as Will Scarlet, to allow for the placement of an extra Camp in spaces)., The Sheriff will gain 1 Shilling from each Submissive Province so a maximum of 7 but more than likely 5-7 during the first Ballad, 3-5 during the 2nd Ballad and probably just 2-3 near the end of the game.

Keep in mind that I am by no means an expert at this game and have lost way more than I have won. But if the player keeps these simple tips and strategies in mind when playing, you will find that you are more successful than if not planning and abiding by these principles. I really have enjoyed playing A Gest of Robin Hood and have come to truly appreciate the design and its simple yet interesting mechanics. I hope that you also find enjoyment in the game and luck in the outcomes!

If you are interested, you can read our interview with designer Fred Serval at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2022/11/21/interview-with-fred-serval-designer-of-a-gest-of-robin-hood-insurrection-in-nottinghamshire-from-gmt-games/

We also shot a few videos on the game and you can check out our playthrough at the following link:

Or you can watch our review to get our further thoughts on the game:

If you are interested in A Gest of Robin Hood 2nd Printing, you can order a copy for $82.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1120-a-gest-of-robin-hood-2nd-printing.aspx

-Grant