The Adventures of Robin Hood Board Game Review

We are always looking for games to play with our 9 year old son Lochlan. He is pretty good at learning and tackling games that are above his age range, but he also really loves to play things that are cooperative.

When I saw that Kosmos had a new expansion for The Adventures of Robin Hood, I decided I really wanted to review the original. Lochlan loves to read, and loves narrative adventures, so The Adventures of Robin Hood seemed like a good game to play with him. Let’s take a look at the game, and whether it has been a hit in our home!

When you get the game out of the box, it does look like there is a lot going on. There are different player pieces, a ton of different coloured cubes and discs, and a hardcover book. The board is massive, taking up a good portion of our table. That being said, the large detailed board plays well into the gameplay mechanics, and once you get going, it all makes sense.

All around the board you will find little tiles that pop in and out of the board. These tiles generally represent characters that appear to chat with you during your adventures. With this being a campaign game experience, you will use the same board to play a number of different story missions. So it makes sense that certain elements of the game board need to be flipped over and hidden for some stories, while visible for others.

The system works to a degree, but I wonder how long before the tile edges become worn out because of how often you are taking them out, flipping them over, and reinserting them into the board.

The gameplay is fairly simple, and while we will touch on some elements during this review, please don’t treat this as a learn-to-play guide! The game comes with a velvet bag that you will be throwing cubes and discs into.

There is a disc for each character tossed into the bag, as well as a red disc for events, purple disc for other enemies in the game, a grey disc that allows one player to take an additional turn, and a white disc that allows all players to take an additional turn. Each round is played by first pulling a disc from the bag. If it’s a player disc, they can take their turn, moving and performing actions. If it’s a red or purple disc, players will consult the book to see what happens.

A player’s turn involves moving their character and interacting with a person, item, or attacking. To move, players use their movement pieces (two medium and one large) to create a continuous line of pieces from their player piece to where they want to go.

Once all the pieces have been used, a player has moved their maximum distance. When your player piece lands on a tile with a ? on it, you can interact with it, and read a section form the book that will provide story elements. If you land on a soldier, you can fight!

Fights are resolved by drawing cubes from the same bag you are drawing discs from. Over the course of the game, you will be throwing purple and white cubes into the bag. When you engage in combat, you can pull up to three cubes from the bag. If you pull a white cube out, the enemy is defeated. But if you draw three purple cubes without a white being drawn, you will lose the combat.

The entire game focuses on the text you will read in the book, which will outline your goals, what people say to you, and more. You can also earn specific items that will be useful during your adventures.

We’ve played through 5 of the stories so far, and have been loving every minute of the game. This was a great way to introduce our 9 year old to cooperative story based games, and it won’t be the last. Stay tuned as we will be reviewing the expansion containing Friar Tuck soon!