Untold Goose Tale - a tale of Robin Hood

“Ah, ‘tis you. Come in!  It’s a raw night out there, so shut the door and come join me.  We’ve a fire in the grate, a flagon of the goodwife’s best ale, and one of the landlord’s famous meat pies fresh from the oven (just don’t ask where the meat’s from, we don’t want a visit from the King’s Foresters).  I was just about to tell all another tale of the famous Robin Hood, and his outlaw band.  A tale of foul play over fowl…

It was a winter’s night much like this one, and Little John and Will Scarlet (in disguise of course) were taking an ale or two in a house at the foot of the castle rock in old Nottingham. Christmas was on the way and the Yule logs had been cut, and thoughts were turning, as they do at this time of year, to feasting and merriment.

Now it happened that one of the Sheriff’s men was also in that night, and well into his cups already. Telling all who would listen how his master had heard that farmer Oswald had the finest geese in the county, and how the Sheriff was partial to goose and had declared that he would have those geese on his table come what may.  Now that farm rightly belonged to Sir William, as fair a landlord as you’d find in those parts, but the Sheriff claimed it should be his, and had caused poor Sir William much grief over it.

“Well”, say Little John to Will, “this does sound a most fine chance to tweak the Sheriff’s nose!” And so, bearing a fresh flagon of ale over to the Sheriff’s man, they set about finding out all they can, before returning to Sherwood and Robin, to lay their plans…”

This Untold Tale was originally intended as a pre Christmas game, but we weren’t quite ready in time.  The Sheriff’s men had to try and drive the geese off their table edge, while the outlaws had to get them into the woods.  This could be done by chasing the geese or physical picking them up (although the geese would fight back).  The geese would also move randomly every turn, and we added some goose specific random event cards (such as ‘feather up nose’, ‘slip on goose poo’ and ‘very angry goose’).  The Not So Little Miniature (NSLM) took the outlaws, and I was the Sheriff’s men.

Some of the geese headed straight for the pond, as if they knew something was up!

Both leaders initially hung back as their fellows tried to round up the awkward fowl.

While a herd of sheep held up a frustrated Guy of Gisborne.

First goose to the outlaws, driven off into Sherwood.

A fair old skirmish develops in the middle centre over a group of geese

Tuck distracts one of the Sheriff’s men, “can I talk to you about our saviour, Jesus Christ?”

One of the soldiers about to get his goose

Until the traitorous bird runs to Little John.  A frustrated Sheriff decides to take matters into his own hands.

Having lost his goose, the soldier decides an outlaw head is the next best thing.  It doesn’t end well for him…

Gisborne has more success, cutting down a (not so) Merry Man.

But meanwhile, Friar Tuck saves another goose from the Sheriff’s table.

Gisborne corners Robin himself, and a frantic duel ensues.  Although on paper the better swordsman, luck is on the hero’s side and he manages to defeat the overconfident knight!

Is that another goose in the hands of the outlaws?

With most of his men defeated or captured, his Christmas feast now looking gooseless, and losing to a smelly outlaw, the Sheriff plays the only card he can!

A resounding victory for Robin Hood and the Merry Men!

All in all, we had a great time.  Rosa enjoyed it, and really got into character, as well as getting involved in ideas on how to tweak and refine the game.  For example, rather than rolling the same result in a fight resulting in a draw, she decided that the drawn dice should be rolled off again until we get a result -  which feels much more like a back and forth duel and far more appropriate. 

It look as if the next game will involve some sort of trade for the captured Gisborne.  Watch this space for another tale…

Knight Time!

 In August I hit the big half century, hooray….

On the upside, my sister bought me a box of the Wargames Atlantic foot knights as a birthday pressie (thanks Nikki!) and I’ve finally found time to assemble and paint a few.

I have to say it’s a very nice, versatile kit.  There are loads of Weapon and head options, and the assemble really easily.

My first few will play the role of Guy of Gisburne and henchmen, going up against Robin Hood.  The colours are a nod to the soldiers from the Robin of Sherwood TV series.  The kettle helmet is from the Frostgrave Soldiers kit as a bit of an experiment in compatibility.

I’ve also assembled and painted one to order for the big miniature.  This one will join her Viking and jousting knight on her bookshelf. The surcoat and helmet colours, and the wyvern charge on the shield were her requests - the Wyvern chosen as the symbol of Wessex, where I grew up.

While I had the glue out I also had a bit of another kitbash, combining a Frostgrave soldier body with the arm and weapons from the Wargames Atlantic Einherjar sprue to make an irregular/ scavenger type. Paint job is quite basic, but I think it proves the can work.

Robin Hood and Little John Walking Through the Forest…

…Laughing back and forth at what the other has to say

Reminiscing this and that and having such a good time

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day!

A second outing for the Untold Tales of Robin Hood.  Our two fine heroes are walking in Sherwood when they spy two of the Sheriff’s Foresters and a soldier heading towards them.

It was all over pretty quickly thanks to Robin’s keen eye.  Poor Little John didn’t get the chance to hit anyone with a big stick!

Bragging rights to anyone who can identify the version of Robin Hood that provided the title of this blog and the first few lines.

The Untold Tales of Robin Hood

For a little while, in the background, I’ve been working on a set of rules for Robin Hood themed games. Specifically to play with the Not So Little Miniature.

It’s a simple system, aimed at being fast and simple, to tell fun stories rather than provide a simulation.  It’s also unashamedly biased towards the ‘Good Guys’.  Essentially it involves opposed dice rolls - with better characters rolling more dice and picking the highest results.  To add some extra flavour, there will be special cards that can be played to influence the game.  More on them another time,  but they have titles like ‘trick shot’, ‘Feat of strength’ - and ‘don’t just stand there, get them!’).

Our first outing saw Robin Hood walking through the forest when he finds his way across a river blocked by a giant of a man…

“Now stand back,” quoth Robin, “and let the better man cross first.”

“Nay,” answered the stranger, “then stand back thine own self, for the better man, I wot, am I.”

Robin managed to get the first blow in, and the two yeomen traded stout blows, pushing each other back and forth but, in the end…

Then Robin grew mad with anger, and smote with all his might at the other; but the stranger warded the blow, and once again thwacked Robin, and this time so fairly that he fell heels over head into the water, as the queen pin falls in a game of bowls.

So our game ended in the traditional way, with Robin taking a plunge in the river.  We swapped characters after the first game, ending up with the same result; which was good as it meant we both had a chance to win.

All the captions above are quotes from Howard Pyle’s retelling of the Robin Hood tales, which very much set up our modern image of the noble outlaw.

Models are Medieval Mayhem and Footsore Miniatures.

Men of the cloth

Priest and monks, formerly of Grenadier Models Fantasy Warriors range, now available from Forlorn Hope Games.

I wanted these chaps to have flagstone bases like my other ‘civilians’.  Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out a way of removing the cast on bases without compromising the feet and robes, so went instead with sculpting them out of milliput.  Not perfect, but not bad I think.

LEGO Jousting!

The miniature and I were left to our own devices a couple of weekends back while the other half had a night out with her sisters.  As well as introducing her to Star Wars (she wisely agreed that ‘Empire’ was the best, good girl!), I snuck in some gaming while she wasn’t looking. 

(I’ll confess I built the castle in my 20’s, when old enough to know better, it has a detailed interior and everything!)

For the joust I wanted to introduce a bit of decision making, so borrowed the scoring from the English Heritage jousts that we go to each year as a family, as she’s familiar with it.  We had three knights each - I was the ‘Lion shields’ and she took the Eagles.  Before each run, we chose one of the following:

• Head - 3 points; roll 1die
• Shield- 2 points; roll 2 dice
• Body - 1 point; roll 3 dice

If any dice rolled 4+ the relevant points were scored.  If we each got one success and rolled the same, it was a ‘barricade’ (crossed lances - no points, but it added some fun and flavour, and she remembered the concept from the jousts we've seen).

As you’d expect, she completely trounced my team!

The crowd were very impressed…

Archery next.  A similar system was used, but she was allowed a couple of extra dice as her character was Robin Hood in (a rather thin) disguise!

(Excuse the mess!)

Of course by the end, Robin was unmasked, and had to make a run for the forest, chased by knights - a series of events that were… less rules based, shall we say.  But a good time was had overall!

Old Stuff

Pretty sure we all have these ones - partly done models that have sat around for ages.  I’m trying to be disciplined and finish off some half finished projects in between doing ones from scratch.

First up, a Foundry (formerly citadel I think) crossbowman.  He’s likely to do duty at some point as a forester up against Robin Hood I think.

I’m struggling with the providence of this one, I’ve had him over 30 years!  Doesn’t really fit with any particular army or game.  Painted the cloak and tabard some years back as practice for trying to paint, shade and highlight white. Thought it was about time he had a little attention.