Riding through the glen

 

I got this much anticipated game for my delayed birthday gift from Louise last year although we didn't play it until the New Year.  It combines wargaming-style measuring sticks for movement, a Fighting Fantasy-style book for revealing the story, Advent Calendar opening doors for removable/flippable tiles which are built into the beautifully illustrated game board, a bit of roleplaying and silly voices, and uniquely a single bag for all the various bits that need to be drawn out during the game.

The development of characters and flipping of tiles within the game board means it is a legacy game - but one that can be completely reset and played through again.  Encounters are different depending on whether you are playing for the first or subsequent times through, and there is a branching narrative so there are two pairs of scenarios within the nine that are encountered by a different decision at some point.

It is really clever and a lot of fun.  Kieron, Stuart, David and I had played the first two chapters ("Escape" and "A Safe Hiding Place") a couple of months ago, and last night, Andy took over the Will Scarlet character from David (slightly reluctantly as Andy wanted the green figures of my Robin Hood character!).

The game doesn't have a rulebook as such with additional rules being introduced as players progress through the scenarios.  This works well for getting you stuck into the game straightaway and letting the depth of the game emerge but it does rely on a bit of memory between game sessions.

Consequently, we had a bit of a challenge with scenario 3 "Gold for King Richard".  We ran out of time but we also had collected objects we didn't know how to use which would have helped immensely, so we decided to treat our concluding the game in the one further round we played as a success.

For next time:

• The objects we collected can be used to get extra turns, extra movement and other bonuses as outlined on the inside cover of the book.  They are not carried over to future scenarios at this stage.
• The "Hope" counter drops rapidly during the game and we need the Bard to sing our praises - so it's important to defeat Guards and (especially) rob Nobles to ensure the Hope is regularly topped up, allowing more time to complete the scenario.

With the above in mind, I think we shouldn't feel under quite so much pressure in our next game.