A tale as old of time, Maid Marian and her love for a man who chooses a life of crime. Follow Robin of Locksley and his merry men as they adventure through Nottingham and Sherwood Forrest.
Spider: It's interesting. This is a four on a scale of one to four, and it if it were a scale of 5, it would still be a four. It was a fresh new mix of ingredients that we haven't had in a game: the tile flipping, the bag building, the story book aspect the game could look entirely different depending upon how you play. The woods, the town, the opponents, everything could look different. I imagine that it had good reviews, but I didn't really read too much before I got it. The instructions and mechanics were very straightforward because I was really familiar with the Robin Hood theme. I thought they nailed the story and the theme. There was nothing extra. No Alan Rickman, No Kevin Costner. There wasn't anything new to the story and it could have been less clunky.
The tiles peeled a bit after flipping a few times through the campaign, but it is just that. It's a campaign. It seemed when it got really going it was the final adventure. We were ready for take off and then it stopped. It was really fun. Even some of the adventures were kind of anti-climactic. It felt brief sometimes. The setup wasn't for a brief type of game. So we would usually play multiple chapters in a sitting.
I didn't feel invested in the characters, but I was invested in the story. I love the Robin Hood mythos. It didn't feel like role playing, but more of unlocking the story and seeing what happens to Robin Hood and his merry men. You can't be mad about following the story, you had to think, " I'm just playing a rewritten story." Nothing you do will change the core story; your choices just change the timing a bit.
I loved how analog it was. The movement system was so much fun and how it determined what would happen was so great. The discs, the meeples, the cubes it was so fun. I loved setting the bag and how you just couldn't pick a fight in the beginning. We were outgunned by the troops and Guy of Gisborne, we couldn't just walk out and battle. We needed to get supplies and sneak around. Having the threat of the red disc made the consequences more daunting. We needed to question the choices we made.
Thematically, everything fit really well. I remember the feelings reading the book when I was a kid. I have a vivid memory of an arrow sticking out of the ground where Robin was to be buried. The inevitability of being chased and making the narrow escape. The creators of this game had it right.
I loved the Guy of Gisborne character, he was always on our trail. It really related to the theme of Robin Hood. We had to sneak around the shadows and if his disc was pulled then hopefully it was when you were setting up a distraction so he would follow the side character and not the main person.
Cat: I have always been a huge fan or Robin Hood; I've loved the story since I was a little kid. I watched the Disney version, the Errol Flynn version, the Kevin Costner version, Men in Tights. I grew up with the lore. I felt this game in the very same places. This was perfect.
The bag builder aspect definitely built the luck of the draw feeling and that emulated battle with the king's guard and the Sheriff! I played Maid Marian through all of the chapters and loved the randomness in pulling the discs from the bag. The creators of the game really figured out how to build the exciting aspects of being on an adventure into the game. There was the bag builder, the seals, the discs. All of of it fit so well together.
I enjoyed flipping the tiles. I enjoyed how the placement of the guards and noblemen changed each round and as the seals were pulled. I really enjoyed the bow and arrow mechanism when it came into play. The whole campaign was so much fun. This is one of my favorite games to date.
Overall Scoring:
Pros:
Thematically perfect
Engaging
Fun mechanics
Cons:
Too short
Spider: Four Spiders
Cat: Four Cats
