Review: Rescuing Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham has flexed his power again this time he has captured the one and only Robin Hood. In Rescuing Robin Hood the players will band together to defeat the Sheriff's guards and rescue the townsfolk. As your Merry Band only has 5 days (Turns) to rescue Robin Hood from the castle and defeat the Sheriff. Lets take a look at this jolly game of rescue.

Rescuing Robin Hood is a game that's set during the classic Robin Hood setting that is now around 700 years old. The take on the classic story in this game is chalked full of fun jokes and puns peppered throughout the game. There is a booklet that has backstories for all the characters in the game and you can read all about Oliver Deplaice the Explorer.

Each player picks a leader(these are the people you have heard of before) for their merry band and then 8 cards of villagers are delt to each player. Each turn consists of 2 rounds. A round consists of playing 4 cards drawn from you merry band deck. All the villagers will add attributes to your pool. The four attributes are Wit, Stealth, Brawn and Jolliness. Some of the villagers and Leaders will also provide a skill token in addition to all the attributes.

There is a booklet that has backstories for all the characters in the game and you can read all about Oliver Deplaice the Explorer.

You may now use your jolliness and skill tokens to buff your 3 other attributes. You are probably wondering now what you do with these attributes. Well when the game is setup initially there are setup cards that represent all 5 days you have to complete the rescue. The set up for each of the first 4 days is similar in that there will be a spread of face down guard cards of increasing amounts or difficulty (There are red guards and blue ones). You have to defeat all of the guard cards in a row to rescue the villager that is being held by them. There are three ways to do this.

The first way to attack the guards is with your Wit. This is a press your luck style attack where you reveal cards until you feel that you will not have more wit than the guards if you reveal another card. Secondly you can attack with brawn and that is an all or nothing attack on a single row of cards. You think that your brawn total is larger than the row of guards. You then reveal the total brawn score of the guards and if you have more then you best the guards and rescue the villager. The third and final way to bead The Sheriff of Nottingham's guards is to use your stealth. In a stealth attack you pick the cards that you will attack and reveal them all together, sum them up and you if beat it you win and the guards are discarded.

...the towns folk can be drafted in to the merry bands...

Since this is a Co-Op game you can help the next person who takes their turn by passing on your unused brawn and Jolliness. If you used only stealth or wit this could be a big help to the next player. Manage you resources carefully because you want to rescue as many townfolk as possible and you only get two attacks per player to get the guards clear. When you rescue the townsfolk then after the all players have made their two attacks the towns folk can be drafted in to the merry bands starting with the first player. After the 2nd and 4th turns you tune your deck and must discard back down to 8 cards.

Rescuing Robin Hood is a quick feel good cooperative game. If your into Co-Op games and you dont want a heavy theme like Pandemic then Rescuing Robin Hood is for you. Although when we played through the game we found it fairly easy to get to the end and rescue Robin Hood there are some cards that come with the game that sufficiently make the game difficult to meet the more advanced player who is looking for a challenge. So If you interested in this I recommend buying it this week so you can get it in time for the holidays and check out the sale at Castillo Games (20% off)

Designed by: Bryce Brown

Players: 1-5

Published by: Castillo Games

Year Published: 2021

Recommended Ages: 10+

Time to Play: 30 minutes per player