Sherwood Bandits Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Board Areas
• Merry Men Cards
• Wagon Cards
• Game Setup
• The Merry Men
• Game Turn Sequence
• STAKEOUT Phase
  • Positioning and Lady Marion
  • Guards
  • Little John
• AMBUSH Phase
  • Assault
  • Robin Hood
  • Result
  • Loot
• SHERIFF Phase
  • Rumble
  • Friar Tuck
  • Arrests and Bribes
  • Riches and Clean Up
• Game End
• 2 Player Game
• Summary of the Game
• Merry Men Cards: Effects
  • Lady Marion
  • Little John
  • Robin Hood
  • Friar Tuck
• Special Wagons
• The 5th Player (Expansion Special Wagons)

Components

• Game Board
• 42 Wagon Cards
• 16 Merry Men cards (4 per character)
• First Player Token
• 16 Dice (4 per color)
• 4 Score Markers (1 per color)
• 4 Gang Leaders (1 per color)
• 16 Bandits (4 per color)
• 53 Loot Tokens
• 13 Village Coin Tokens
• 4 +2/-2 Tokens
• 4 X Tokens
• 4 Treasure Chests

Game Board Areas

The Game Board represents the Sherwood Forest Trail and the entrance to Nottingham Village. On it you will find these areas:

1. Stakeout Spaces (X)
2. Pickpocketing Spaces (Circle)
3. Attack Spaces
4. Wagon Card Spaces
5. Drawbridge
6. Prison
7. Score Track
8. Pickpocketing Spaces for the 5th Player Expansion

Merry Men Cards

These cards represent the effects that Robin Hood, Little John, Lady Marion, and Friar Tuck will use to help players: each card shows the Character and the Effect.

Wagon Cards

These cards represent the Wagons that the bandits will assault during the game. Each card shows:

• the Defense Value range
• the Defense Value
• a Merry Man card exchange (a Merry Man shown in the foreground)
• whether it is a Special Wagon (red text on a dark shield)

Game Setup

To be ready to play, follow the steps below:

• The player who last attacked a valuables carrier, or the last one who cheated in a board game, takes the First Player Marker.
• Then, each player chooses a Gang Leader who will represent him in the game, and all the materials of the same color: 4 Bandits, 4 Dice, and the Score Token. Finally, everyone also takes a Chest.
• Place the Game Board in the center of the table, and the 53 Loot Tokens next to it, all face down, being careful that nobody peeks.
• Keep all the Village Coin Tokens you have available, 4 +2/-2 Tokens, and 4 X Tokens, but do not mix them with the Loot Tokens.
• Shuffle and place the 4 decks of Merry Men cards and the Wagon cards face down next to the Game Board.
• Place your Score Token on the Game Board's Score Track on the value 0.
• Turn over one Merry Men card per Character, placing them near the Game Board, and you are ready to play.

The Merry Men

During the game, each of the Merry Men will be present (represented by his or her card) and your Gang Leader will be able to call on them by using their current cards to assist you. These cards will change as the game goes on, thereby changing the type of assistance they can offer. Each of them can be used at a specific step during the Turn; just place your Leader on it (if it wasn't previously captured by the Sheriff or already placed on another Merry Men card). Your Gang Leader may only be used once per game turn, so choose wisely. Each Merry Man affects a specific zone on the game board, indicated by that character's face printed on the Game Board.

Game Turn Sequence

The game takes place in 4 turns. Each turn is divided into three phases, each of which requires you to perform some steps in order. Your Bandits (the small meeples) will be placed on Stakeout spaces (with the help of your dice rolls), or on Pickpocketing spaces, to steal the king's treasures. Your Gang Leader (your large meeple) will be used on Merry Men character cards to assist in your Assaults on the king's Wagons (as long as they are not in prison, of course).

STAKEOUT phase

1. Positioning and Lady Marion
2. Guards
3. Little John

AMBUSH phase (repeat this phase for each of the Wagon Cards on the Game Board)

1. Assault
2. Robin Hood
3. Result
4. Loot

SHERIFF phase

1. Rumble
2. Friar Tuck
3. Arrests and Bribes
4. Riches and Clean Up

At the end of the fourth game Turn, proceed to the End of Game calculations.

STAKEOUT Phase

This is the time to check how many and which Wagons are passing on the road that winds through Sherwood Forest. Position your bandits along the way and get ready. Lady Marion and Little John will be close to you.

Positioning and Lady Marion

The first player places a number of covered Wagon Cards equal to the number of players (up to a maximum of 4 Wagon Cards), face down on the appropriate spaces on the Game Board.

Then the first player places his first Bandit. Every other player in clockwise order does the same, continuing until all players have placed all their Bandits. Bandits can be placed in any of the Stakeout Spaces (represented by Crosses) or Pickpocketing Spaces (represented by Circles) not occupied by other Bandits, except for those on a stretch of road without a Wagon Card (if playing with less than 4 players). These spaces represent the bushes where the bandits hide to attack the Wagons (Stakeout) or the alleys where they hide to steal from the rich citizens (Pickpocketing).

Stakeout: the player can choose any of the four Stakeout spaces related to a Wagon, considering that the leftmost spaces are less risky, but confer potentially lower gains (see "Loot"). When all the Bandits have been placed, if there are Free Stakeout spaces between two Bandits, move the Meeples to the left in order to fill in all empty spaces in the row.

Pickpocketing: as soon as a player places one of his Bandits in a Pickpocketing space, he gets a Coin Token from the Village, equivalent to a "Coin" Loot Token (see "Loot"). Spaces indicated with a number 5 can only be used with the 5th Player Expansion.

Seek help from Lady Marion: before placing a Bandit, a player can declare to use the Lady Marion effect by placing his Gang Leader on the relative Merry Men card (see Merry Men Cards: Lady Marion).

Guards

Reveal all the Wagons on the Board! Skip this point if the Wagons have already been revealed. The shield at the top right of each card indicates the Wagon's Defense value. If the Wagon is a Special Wagon it will have a dark shield with red writing (see "Special Wagons"). For each Wagon Card showing one of the Merry Men in the foreground, replace that character's card in play with the top one of the corresponding character deck, discarding the previous one.

Little John

Starting with the first player, and continuing clockwise, each player can declare to use the Little John effect by placing his Gang Leader on the relevant Merry Men card (see Merry Men Cards: Little John).

AMBUSH Phase

Each Bandit will now be able to show his worth by collaborating or hindering others in an attempt to beat the Guards in defense of the Wagon.

Assault

The first player chooses a Wagon from those revealed and not yet assaulted; the Assault begins! Starting from the leftmost Bandit, each player rolls a Die and places it on the appropriate Attack Space below his Bandit, revealing the result. Continue until each Bandit placed has a corresponding Die. The aim is to beat the Wagon by exceeding its Defense value with the sum of the score obtained by all the dice (see Result).

Robin Hood

Starting with the first player, and continuing clockwise, each player can declare to use the Robin Hood effect by placing his Gang Leader on the relevant Merry Men card (see Merry Men Cards: Robin Hood).

Result

Starting from the leftmost die, add the results obtained until you have reached or just surpassed the Wagon's Defense value; in this case, the Wagon was beaten! All the remaining dice and the Bandits to the right return to the hands of their respective owners; these Bandits did not participate in the Wagon Assault, arrived too late, and will not be able to recover any Loot for their gang.

If the Defense of the Wagon is not defeated, that Wagon will manage to escape, and all the players will remain empty handed (each takes back his Dice and Bandits). Remove the Wagon Card from the Board and place it in the discard pile.

Loot

If the Wagon has been defeated, the players determine the Victory Points obtained from the Assault, and then they divide the Loot Markers found in it. The Victory Point count is kept by moving the players' Score tokens on the Score Track.

Victory Points: each player who still has Dice in the Attack Spaces scores 1 Victory Point for each of them. The owner of the rightmost die among those present scores 1 additional Victory Point. In addition, if the Bandit paired with the rightmost Die is lying down (due to the effects of Little John), that player gets 1 additional Victory Point (for a total of 3).

Loot Tokens: the owner of the rightmost Die draws a number of Loot Tokens equal to the number of Dice still present on the Attack Spaces for that Wagon (3 in the rulebook's example). After looking at them in secret, he keeps one by placing it concealed in front of him, and passes the remaining, concealed, to the owner of the Dice to the left of him. This is done until all Loot Tokens have been distributed (in the example, the last player passes the remaining Coin back to the first player).

Optional rule: Unveil Loot. Each player keeps Loot tokens in front of them always face up, so that other players can see the treasures accumulated by each until they are placed in the owners' Chests.

If there are still unassaulted Wagons on the Game Board, the Ambush Phase begins anew. When all Wagons have been attacked, the game continues with the Sheriff Phase.

SHERIFF Phase

The Sheriff is angry, shouting orders; ordering the bandits to halt, and ordering the Guards to capture everyone! In the confusion, some Bandits are captured and led to Nottingham prison. Maybe the good Friar Tuck can bribe the guards with some excellent malt beer.

Rumble

All the dice still on the board must be moved to the Drawbridge, taking care not to change the results (discard all the X Tokens). Each player must place his dice on the Drawbridge spaces forming a column of his own color.

Example from the rulebook: by creating columns with any Dice remaining on the board, the Blue player obtained 7, Red got 14, Yellow got 11, and Purple got 6.

Friar Tuck

Starting with the first player, and continuing clockwise, each player can declare to use the effect of Friar Tuck by placing his Gang Leader on the relative Merry Men card (see Merry Men Cards: Friar Tuck).

Arrests and Bribes

The Gang Leaders who spent the previous turn on the Prison are recovered by the owners, then:

• If the sum of the dice of a column is greater than 10, the Leader of that player will be arrested for one turn and consequently cannot be used in the next Turn. Arrested Gang Leaders are placed in the Prison as a reminder not to use them. If this occurs during the last game Turn, the player whose Leader is arrested loses 1 Victory Point.
• If the sum of all the dice of a color is less than 5 (including no dice of that color), the player will receive a Loot token or 1 Victory Point (of his choice), as a reward.

Bribes: to avoid falling into the Sheriff's clutches, or to try to get the reward, each player can decide to discard a Loot Token from those obtained during the current Turn to remove his lowest value die from the Drawbridge, or discard 3 Loot tokens obtained during the current Turn to remove his two dice with the lowest values from the Drawbridge.

Examples from the rulebook: if things don't change due to the effects of Friar Tuck or Bribes, the Red and Yellow Gang Leaders will be arrested, ending up in Prison for the next Turn. The Yellow player decides to pay a Loot Token to eliminate his lowest die (the 2 Die) and thus obtaining a total lower than 10; the Yellow Gang Leader has escaped the sheriff's clutches! The Purple player has drawn Loot Markers that he does not like; he decides to discard 3 to eliminate his two lowest dice (1, 1) to score less than 5; he can get 1 Victory Point or draw a new Loot Token.

Riches and Clean Up

Each player must try to commit to memory the collected Loot Tokens he collects; then he will put them in his Chest, and he will not be able to see them again until the end of the game. The contents of the treasure Chest represent the riches stolen from King John, riches that will influence Robin Hood's choices on the best band of young Sherwood bandits.

Clean Up: at the end of the Turn the First Player Token passes to the player with the least number of Victory Points. In the event of a tie, the tied players roll a Die to decide who receives the First Player Token. Gang Leaders (who are not in Prison), Bandits, and dice are recovered by the owners. Discard the Wagon Cards on the Board to form a discard pile.

The Turn ends and the next one starts from the Stakeout Phase unless the one just played is the fourth Turn: in this case, move on to the Game End calculations.

Game End

At the end of the last game Turn, the score is calculated to elect the winner. Each player retrieves all the Loot tokens in his Chest and places them face up in front of him.

Everyone gets 2 Victory Points for each majority of the following in his possession: Rings, Bracelets, and Necklaces. In case of a tie, each tied player gets 1 Victory Point.

Each player gets additional Victory Points by spending his Loot tokens to make the following combinations (this means that a Loot token cannot be used to obtain two different combinations):

• 3 Rings of the same color = 6 Victory Points
• 2 Bracelets of the same color = 3 Victory Points
• 1 Necklace = 1 Victory Point
• A Ring, a Bracelet and a Necklace of the same color = 4 Victory Points
• Rings and Bracelets not used for any combination = each is equivalent to 1 Coin
• 3 Coins = 1 Victory Point

At this point, the player who has scored the most Victory Points is declared the winner of the game, and his band officially becomes part of the Merry Men!

In the event of a tie between two or more players, the player with the least Loot Tokens wins the game. If the tie persists, the winner is decreed by a roll of dice between the players concerned.

Optional Rule: Check the Chest! At any time during the game, each player has the freedom to check the Loot tokens accumulated within his Chest, being careful not to mix them with those obtained in the current Turn.

2 Player Game

In two-player games, Will Scarlet will join with his Gang as the third player. The game takes place as if it were played with three players following the additional rules below. The Red Gang will always be Will Scarlet's. Assign him all the necessary material as for a normal player. At certain events of a Turn, players will need to check the actions of the Will Scarlet Gang as shown below.

Positioning and Lady Marion. After the two players have placed their Bandits, the first player, in turn, places a Bandit for Will Scarlet as follows:

• The Bandit must be placed in the Stakeout Space on the open space furthest to the left relative to the Wagon Card containing the least number of Will Scarlet's Bandits.
• In the event of a tie, the Bandit must be placed at the Wagon showing the lowest range of Defense values.
• In the event of a further tie, the Bandit must be placed at the Wagon Card with the fewest Stakeout Spaces occupied.
• In the event of a further tie, the Bandits are placed in the first free Stakeout Space starting with the Wagon Card farthest to the left on the Game Board and proceeding to the right.

Assault. The player who owns the First Player Token rolls the dice for Will Scarlet's Gang.

Loot. Perform this step as normal, but ignore Will Scarlet's Dice; only the Dice of the players are taken into account for the drawing and the division of the Loot Tokens. Then, the player who owns the Starting Player Token draws without looking at them a number of Loot Tokens equal to the Will Scarlet Dice present in the Assault Spaces, and places them in Will Scarlet's Chest.

Riches and Clean Up. Perform this step normally. The First Player Token is alternated between the players at the table, regardless of their Victory Points. Will Scarlet never gets the First Player Token.

End Game. Calculate the Victory Points totaled by Will Scarlet's Gang normally, spending his Loot Tokens as best as possible. If Will Scarlet has scored more points than the other players, both players lose the game, and Robin Hood takes in no new bandits! Otherwise, the player with the most points wins.

Summary of the Game

The game takes place in 4 turns. Each turn is divided into 3 phases divided into a few steps, to be played always in this order:

STAKEOUT Phase

• Positioning and Lady Marion: a number of face-down Wagon Cards equal to the players are placed on the board. Starting with the first player, place your Bandits one at a time on the Stakeout or Pickpocketing Spaces. Before placing your own Bandits you can activate the effect of Lady Marion with your Gang Leader.
• Guards: all Wagon Cards on the Board are revealed.
• Little John: starting with the first player, you can activate the Little John effect with your Gang Leader.

AMBUSH Phase

• Assault: the first player chooses a Wagon not yet attacked on the game board. Starting from the leftmost Bandit on the Stakeout spaces, and continuing to the right, the owner of this Bandit rolls a Die and places it in the Attack Space under it.
• Robin Hood: starting with the first player, you can activate the Robin Hood effect with your Gang Leader.
• Result: starting with the Die on the left, and continuing to the right, the results shown on the Dice are added up to equal (or just overcome) the Wagon Defense; the remaining Dice are returned to the owners.
• Loot: the Gangs share the Loot tokens obtained from the successful Assault on the Wagon.

Repeat this Phase until all the Wagon assaults on the Board have been resolved, then go to the Sheriff Phase.

SHERIFF Phase

• Rumble: the Dice still on the board are moved to the Drawbridge without changing the result. Each player's Dice must be placed to form a column of a single color.
• Friar Tuck: starting with the first player, you can activate the effect of Friar Tuck with your Gang Leader.
• Arrests and Bribes: the owners recover the Gang Leaders who spent the Turn in the Prison. Players may then Bribe the Sheriff with Loot Tokens to remove Dice from the Drawbridge, then Gang Leaders who have a sum of Dice higher than 10 on the Drawbridge are arrested (placed on the Prison). Gangs that have a sum of Dice values on the Drawbridge of less than 5 gain a Loot token or 1 Victory Point.
• Riches and Clean Up: each player takes the Loot tokens collected during the turn, and places them in his Chest, then the player with the least Victory Points takes the First Player Token; Gang Leaders (who are not in prison), Bandits, and Dice are recovered by the owners; Wagon cards are discarded from the Game Board.

If the Fourth Game Turn has just ended, move on to the End Game calculations. If the fourth Turn is not finished, play the next Turn starting from the Stakeout phase.

End Game. End Game calculations are performed and the Winner of the game is elected. Majority: +2 Victory Points each (Rings, Bracelets, Necklaces). Combinations: 3 same-color Rings +6, 2 same-color Bracelets +3, Necklace +1, Ring + Bracelet + Necklace of the same color +4, 3 Coins +1 (Rings and Bracelets not used count as 1 Coin each). In the event of a tie between two or more players, the player with the least Loot Tokens wins the game. If the tie persists, the winner is decreed by a roll of dice between the players concerned.

Merry Men Cards: Effects

Lady Marion

(Used during Positioning and Lady Marion.)

• Gossip: It can be activated before placing your own Bandit. Secretly look at two of the Wagon Cards on the Game Board.
• Insider: Swap your Bandit's space position with that of an opponent occupying the same Stakeout space on another Wagon (first, second, third, or fourth space). Lie your Bandit down to indicate that he cannot be affected by this effect again.
• Brotherhood: It can be activated before placing your own Bandit. Place a second Bandit after placing the first.
• Shove: Swap the position of your Bandit with that of an adjacent Bandit. Lie your Bandit down to indicate that he cannot be affected by this effect again.
• Spy: It can be activated before placing your own Bandit. Discard a Wagon Card and replace it with the first top Wagon Card in the deck. The newly placed Wagon Card cannot be targeted by Spy again (place an X token to indicate this).
• Really close: Lie your Bandit down and move your Bandit one Stakeout Space to the left, so that it shares it with the Bandit currently present in it. During the Wagon Assault, the Dice that will occupy the Attack Space relating to the two Bandits are rolled together and count as one dice. If these Dice are still present in the "Loot" step, you will get the Loot Token, while the owner of the other Bandit will get the Victory Points.

Little John

(Used during the Little John step.)

• Friendly Guards: It can be activated before placing your own Bandit. Secretly look at a Wagon Card on the board and decide whether to place a +2/-2 counter on it deciding which value to use; The Wagon Defense value will be changed accordingly once the card is revealed. No more than one of these markers may be placed on the same Wagon Card.
• Fast work: Move your Bandit from a Stakeout Space to a free Pickpocket space, and immediately gain a Village Coin Token. Place one of your dice with result 2 in the Attack Space for the newly moved Meeple.

Robin Hood

(Used during the Robin Hood step.)

• Down the head!: Add or subtract 2 to one of your Dice; a Die cannot score less than 1 or more than 6.
• Second Chance: Choose a Die (even another player's) and throw it again. Target die cannot be affected again by this effect (place an X token to indicate it).
• Look beyond!: Choose a Die (even another player's); all the Dice to the left on the Attack Spaces of the same Wagon are turned to obtain the same result as the chosen Die. Dice affected by this effect can no longer be modified by this effect (place an X token to indicate it).
• Look here!: Choose a Die (even another player's); all the Dice to the right on the Attack Spaces of the same Wagon are turned to obtain the same result as the chosen Die. Dice affected by this effect can no longer be modified by this effect (place an X token to indicate it).

Friar Tuck

(Used during the Friar Tuck step.)

• Come on boy!: Remove one of your dice from the Drawbridge.
• Barter: Draw a Loot Token and add it to those gained during this Turn; then, discard one of the other Loot Tokens obtained during this Turn.
• Here we go to the market!: Discard one of the Loot tokens obtained during this Turn to get 1 Victory Point.
• Where's the beer?: Choose a Die from each of the opponents that are present on the Drawbridge. Increase its result by 2 (a die cannot score more than 6).

Special Wagons

There are six Special Wagons (red text on a dark shield) that hide among the normal Wagons to be attacked. For each of these Wagon Cards, its specific rules must be followed:

• War Wagon: 33? What an absurd number, this Wagon is simply unbeatable.
• Royal Wagon: Instead of using the normal rules, players who must obtain Loot Tokens from the Assault on this Wagon draw two of them starting from the owner of the rightmost die on the Attack spaces.
• Gypsy Wagon: The Defense value of this Wagon is equal to that of the Wagon with the highest Defense value among those currently on the Board.
• Beer Wagon: The Defense value of this Wagon is equal to that of the Wagon with the lowest Defense value among those currently on the Board.
• Sheriff Wagon: As soon as this Wagon is revealed, all the Gang Leaders of the assaulting gangs that are not already placed on a Merry Men Card are placed on the Prison.
• Festival Wagon: This Wagon must always be resolved first during the "Assault" step. Roll three Dice and place them on the Wagon Card. The sum of the dice results becomes the Wagon's Defense value. The owners of the Dice on the Wagon Card recover them after the Assault.

The 5th Player (Expansion Special Wagons)

The "5th Player" expansion adds three Special Wagons to those in the base game. For each of these Wagon Cards, its specific rules must be followed:

• King John Wagon: The players who must obtain Loot Tokens from the Assault on this Wagon, starting from the owner of the rightmost die on the Attack spaces, reveal the available Loot Tokens and choose which one to take, instead of drawing it randomly.
• King Richard Wagon: As soon as this Wagon is revealed, all the players take back their Gang Leaders from the Prison. During this Turn, no Gang Leader will be placed on the Prison during the Arrests and Bribes step.
• Alan-a-Dale Wagon: If this Wagon is among those revealed during the Guards step, all Wagons on the Game Board are discarded without applying its effects (this one included). Replace them with new Wagons and reveal them.