Top 5 Arthurian and Robin Hood Games

Thinking about LotR has me wanting to maybe also game King Arthur and Robin Hood...thing is, I'm not too sure where to go here.

For King Arthur, I suppose there's Shadow's over Camelot and that Camelot Legends cardgame. I understand Legends has a bit too much to keep track of, so I may go with Shadows. Has that held up?

Robin Hood, there's that great AH wargame, but I'm thinking something more family friendly. What about that other AH Robin Hood game from the early 90s? Is there a good euro? That Sherwood Forest game?

Can there even be a top 5 for these settings? Top 3?

Well, there's Legend of Robin Hood...and then all of the others.

I haven't played the Knizia electronic King Arthur game, I'd love to...I don't think it was ever translated into English though, and it talks to you.

I've played Shadows Over Camelot multiple times this year and I think it's held up very well. The main complaint seems to be about the "themeless" poker hands that you play to complete quests. I think having the quests be something so basic and familiar helps players internalize the rules almost instantly. The main themes of the knights remaining loyal and all being equal in importance is successfully conveyed. Sussing out if you have a traitor in your mix is fun and skillful players will know what to look for. If the game has any problems it's with its pacing. Most games of Shadows start off strong and up to the mid game are very enjoyable. However, once the Grail and Excalibur quests are finished the game slows down into a slog against the catapults. I've seen many an overconfident group, with a majority of white swords, fall to those war machines time and time again. It's still incredibly tense, but it's not as fun as the questing early and mid game portions.

72 views and the only suggestions in all of board gaming are still Legend of Robin Hood and Shadows Over Camelot?

Guess this saves me some dosh...

I stil have this Robin Hood game from Laurin ( BGG link ). I haven't played yet, but it looks good at least.

From the description:
The game has several different scenarios. Each scenario has it's own prerequisites and targets. Sometimes the targets are different for each of the players in the same scenario. There are up to 6 different factions, Robin Hood, Sheriff of Nottingham, Guy of Gisbourne, Sheriff of Lincoln, Sir Richard of Leigh and The Church. Each faction has men and leaders with different combat values. Each faction has also a secret agent. Each event card can be used in two ways. Either you move a group (number of footprints on the cards) or you do the event which is shown on the card.

I bought Knizia's King of Arthur for my niece back then. If I remember correctly the electronics were more of a gimmick than an interesting game element.

Universal Head's redesign of tLoRH is top freakin' notch:
www.orderofgamers.com/games/legend-of-robin-hood/

Well worth the PnP effort.

I never got around to trying TSR's old Knights of Camelot. Has anybody here tried it?

Shellhead wrote: I never got around to trying TSR's old Knights of Camelot. Has anybody here tried it?

Ohhh...yeah. I recall someone talked about it around here a few years back and it sounded awesome. More on the RPG side of things.

schlupp wrote: I stil have this Robin Hood game from Laurin ( BGG link ). I haven't played yet, but it looks good at least.

From the description:
The game has several different scenarios. Each scenario has it's own prerequisites and targets. Sometimes the targets are different for each of the players in the same scenario. There are up to 6 different factions, Robin Hood, Sheriff of Nottingham, Guy of Gisbourne, Sheriff of Lincoln, Sir Richard of Leigh and The Church. Each faction has men and leaders with different combat values. Each faction has also a secret agent. Each event card can be used in two ways. Either you move a group (number of footprints on the cards) or you do the event which is shown on the card.

I bought Knizia's King of Arthur for my niece back then. If I remember correctly the electronics were more of a gimmick than an interesting game element.

I had this game for years and it looked like a great game in there, but it was in Swedish and only half of it came with a translation and that was poor. In the end player numbers in my area dropped drastically and when I could get people together I couldn't waste the opportunity on anything other than my favourite games, so it landed on my large sale/trade list ... let us know how it plays if you get it out.

Other Arthurian games include Excalibur and King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, both old-skool games from the 80s (same guy/company as Robin Hood above) but quite interesting by player comments at BGG. Once again I couldn't get people to play them and the 70s/80s small card counters also put people off, so they went as well.

Have a look at Kingdom if you can track down a copy
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14980/kingdom
To quote the subtitle: "A Game of Chivalry Magic and Adventure".

Set in Arthurian Britain, this game involves up to six players in a struggle to become king. The board consists of four interlocking parts depicting the southern parts of the UK. Unusually, the board is split into squares rather than the more traditional hexes. There are resource generating squares, mystical sites and castles. Players must manage these resources an fight battles to become the king of all England. The mystical sites contain guardians which must be fought in order to capture the holy grail. Riddles must also be answered correctly. Battles are dice and table driven affairs.

I hate to be that guy, but I couldn't bring myself to play a game rated 5.67.