SHERWOOD BANDITS
⭐ 7/ 10
👥 2-4 players
🕗45 minutes
👨👩👧👦14+
GAMEPLAY
In Sherwood Bandits you are a young band leader, wanting to join the band of Robin Hood. You are going to rob wagons with tax-money on it, to give it back to the people.
There are maximum 4 wagons – depending on the number of players- that can be robbed. A wagon has a range of numbers on the back, and each band leaders places their people in the bushes to rob these wagons. When all the meeples are on the board, the wagons are going to be robbed. The wagon card is turned around, and it shows the number of hits that needs to be thrown with the dice.
This is where the unique gameplay of Sherwood Bandits is; you handle the wagons from left to right. The player who is on the most left spot throws a die and places is on the board. Next the player on the second spot throws his die, etc. This continues until the number on the wagon is met or exceeded by the sum of the die.
The player who places the final die, collects a loot token and two Victory Points. On these loot tokens are several types of loot. Like a ring, bracelet or neckless, in different colors. The other players who placed a die also take a loot token and 1 VP.
When all the wagons are resolved the next round is played. You play the game over four rounds and the player with the most points wins the game. At the end of the game, you also score points with your loot. There are several combinations of loot that score you extra VP.
Review
Sherwood Bandits is a fun game with a high dependence on luck. You need to place your meeples on spots near the wagons without knowing if you are going to score points. Your score depends on the value of the dice of the players in the same row, before you.
We have never played with this mechanism before and we liked it. It is sometimes frustrating and sometimes very satisfying.
The quality of the game, components and the artwork is very high. We like the look and feel of the game, the components feel really solid and the treasure chests and dice tower are beautiful on your table and really add in game experience.
But; here is also a big minor of the game. You need to assemble the components every time you play the game. This costs time and the chests and dice tower are made of cardboard and good get damaged. Also, the dicetower does not add anything in the gameplay, because you throw one die at a time. So it looks great, but is not very practical in the long run.
Also, the dependence of luck is very high. It is a guess where you place your meeples and it depends on the sum of dice that need to be thrown.
Next, you collect loot. You randomly take tokens from the bag, choose your token and pass the other tokens to the second player at that wagon. This means you have some choice in which token you put in
your chest and you need to remember the pieces that are already in your chest, but you also need to be lucky to take the right token and score the bonus VP’s at the end of the game.
So, in short; Sherwood Bandits is a quick and fun game, with a very strong theme and a great way of using dice in a game. If you like dice game with a strong theme you are really going to like this game. It is fun with less experienced players or as a filler game. The quality of the artwork and components is good and rules are easy to read and understand.
If you search a tactical game with a lot of dept, this is not your game.
End Score
✔️ strong theme
✔️ good quality
✔️ original use of dice placement
➖ Large amount of luck in this game
➖ assembling the components is not very handy.
