Compiled below you will find the tenth through twelfth installments of an ongoing design diaries series from Border Reivers designer Ed Beach. (The previous installments can be found here.) He regularly publishes new design diaries and other updates on the “Reivers and Reformers” Facebook group, so if you would like to read those as they are released you can do so here. Enjoy! -Rachel
Border Reivers Design Diary #10: Historical Events
We analyzed the strategy for the Summer card drafts with the previous diary. Now it’s time to look at the transitional season of the reiver year: Fall.
The fall harvests are represented in the game by verifying that each player has sufficient economic yield to support their stockpiles. That check is performed by reviewing a column on each Family Sheet which itemizes the Horses and Held cards allowed based on the number of Sheep you have in play on the map. Any excess must be discarded. The same column also lists the income (in Cattle) each player receives.
Next players draw three random Historical Events to see what the political situation on the borders holds this turn. Each event serves as a once-per-game opportunity to boost your chance of success in the upcoming winter attacks. Since the twelve-card event deck is randomly ordered each game, and three events will not appear at all, you’ll see a unique combination in pretty much every game. We’ll go through the three types of events below.
Seven of the events in the deck are Battles, one per March plus the unique battle, Rising of the North, which occurs off map to the south. Let’s start by examining the battle in 1513 that serves as the launching point for the game, the Battle of Flodden Field (which we first discussed back in diary #2 when we talked about the successful charge led by Thomas, Lord Dacre). Flodden was the largest battle to occur in the Borders during the 16th Century with over 50,000 troops engaged. Dacre was warden of the English West March when he led his riders into the battle; Lord Hume, the warden of the Scottish East March, also brought border cavalry to the fight. And that’s exactly how battles are resolved in a Border Reivers game: one family from each side (English and Scottish) may send troops to the battle to serve as one of their two attacks that they are allowed to make each Winter. Each participating player scores VP for any unblocked hits, with the number of VP awarded ranging from 3 to 5 depending on the size of the battle. And the side with the most unblocked hits is the one that gains reputation for their battlefield prowess, either 2 or 4 Notoriety (again depending on the size of the battle) in the March where the fight occurred.
Fans of Virgin Queen will remember the 1569 Rising of the North (an event in that game when the Catholic Earls of Northumberland rise up against Queen Elizabeth). As our unique, off-map battle, Rising of the North makes another appearance in Border Reivers. Many of the border leaders forgot about their usual feuding and went off to fight in that uprising, each supporting their preferred religion. So in the game any two families may send forces to this conflict, even two different families from the same side of the border (as occurred historically).
The second type of event represents an extended royal presence in the Borders, such as Henry VIII’s Rough Wooing campaign of the 1540s or Mary Queen of Scots’ visits to the borders in the 1560s. In those rare times where the Borders actually became a national priority the reiver lords would align themselves with national interests and one side of the border usually suffered very badly. These protracted campaigns are represented by providing dice to reroll combat misses, ensuring that in these times one nation has the upper hand. Since players are allowed to raid targets on their own side of the border, these events represent the perfect time to “pile on” and focus your attacks on the nation in distress at this point in time.
Finally there are three events that provide additional incentives to consider specific types of attack for this winter season. A good example is the Ill Week card which encourages the players to Feud (historically this was the week after Elizabeth’s death when the Borders saw one last round of devastating feuding before James could finally restore order). Other cards provide incentives for Gaolbreaks (Ballad of Kinmont Willie) and a slight reduction in Raid effectiveness (Border Beacons).
NEXT TIME: The Fall is over and finally the winter raiding season is upon us. The best Reiver always carefully maps out his strikes. Let’s see how you formulate your plans at the start of winter, taking full advantage of the historical events we’ve just been discussing.
Border Reivers Design Diary #11: The Well-Rounded Reiver
Last time we discussed the Historical Events that are drawn each Fall to provide special attack opportunities during the winter combats. This time we’ll discuss your other main consideration when setting up attacks: trying to show proficiency across the entire spectrum of activities expected from the head of a successful reiver clan (also known as a heidsman).
Why is this important? Well it’s because the heidsman had a number of roles to play. As the saying goes, they were a Reiver first, committed to family second, and loyal to their nation a distant third. And if they were serving as the Warden of a March, they had to enforce the Border Laws somewhere in the middle. Thus Border Reivers asks players to consider all four of these roles and provides players a set of Target cards that are the tools needed to excel in all four areas. So how exactly do these Target cards work?
As we’ve mentioned before, each game takes place across three turns with attacks coming in the Winter Phase. Each family attacks twice each Winter for a total of six attacks per game. To ensure that the players consider all of these roles and spread their attacks against a number of different opponents, they must expend a different Target card (out of their initial hand of six) for each attack.
Now before we look at the cards, let’s quickly look at this table where I have mapped these four roles to possible combats in the game (Figure 2):
Notice that if you are acting for your family you have two different options, either initiating a Feud on another family or making an attempt to break one of your relatives out of Gaol. Similarly if you are serving in the capacity of Warden, you can ride out to defend against any of the attacks that target your March (basically anything except a national battle). And your role as an English (or a Scot) heidsman means serving in your nation’s army at a major battle.
To encourage players to adopt each of these roles, each participant starts the game holding three Target cards that specifically mention one of these roles: Reiver, Family, and English/Scot. These cards are especially powerful since they provide a +1 die roll modifier to each combat die rolled in one of your attacks. Later in the game when you might be rolling 8 or more dice per combat that makes these attacks exceptionally effective. All three are shown below (Figure 3):
The other three Target cards primarily support Raids and Battles but require that you distribute these attacks against different target marches.
And then finally each player starts the game with a seventh “one time use per game” card, the Warden card. Instead of playing this to set up an attack, players save it for a moment when their defense tokens are caught out of place. The Warden card then lets you move a powerful defense token into just the right spot to blunt that attack on your March.
NEXT TIME: All these attacks we’ve discussing provide half or more of a player’s final score. But another strong contributor (maybe 25% of your final score) comes from the Notoriety you build up in each of the Marches as your reiver reputation grows. The next design diary drills in on this reputation game.
Border Reivers Design Diary #12: The Notorious Reiver
Border Reivers is a game about becoming the most famous brigand along the English/Scottish border in the Sixteenth Century. A significant share of the Victory Points used to measure your success are accrued in those six attacks you make during the game that we talked about in the last design diary. But at least 25% of those points come from the “word on the street,” in other words your reputation in and among the towns of the border as measured by the competition you undergo for Notoriety.
This reputation-based game is actually an area control mechanic where each player’s reputation grows (and shrinks) in the six marches of the borderlands and in a seventh zone: the Debateable Land nestled between England and Scotland. Each player starts with 3 Notoriety in their Home march (see the highlighted black “3” space in the English East March track in Figure 1).
There are four ways to add Notoriety (as detailed below), two passively from Recruit cards and two from more direct actions. Victory Points are accrued to the players in first and second place in each March at the end of a Turn. Initially this is just 3 points for first and 1 for second, but those points are doubled on Turn 2 and then tripled on Turn 3. A player that controls the hearts and minds of three Marches at the end of the game can score 27 VP just from Notoriety, often enough to be the deciding factor in a game where the winning score is usually just over 100.
So what are those sources of Notoriety? Back in Diary #6 we went through two of them. First the Allied Families (such as the Dixons shown in Figure 2) who allow you to place Notoriety in a geographic region (typically either East, Middle or West Marches). And then if you want Notoriety in either England or Scotland, you gain it from Offices (such as the Bishop of Carlisle shown in Figure 3). These recruited cards net you Notoriety at the start of each Winter — a nice steady bump even if it is accrued passively.
However there are more active ways to take the Notoriety lead in a March. First, there are 12 Held cards that are played when it is your turn to place Notoriety at the start of Winter. Six of these allow you to directly bump up or down Notoriety totals in a favorable way (such as Day of Truce shown in Figure 4).
Secondly, your successful Feud and Gaolbreak attacks increase your Notoriety in a target March by 2 and reduce the Notoriety of the owner of that March by 1. Battles likewise net you Notoriety in the target March, this time a variable amount based on the size of that national struggle. So often a Notoriety leaderboard at the end of Winter when attacks are completed looks very different than it did during the Fall.
Is there anything else Notoriety buys you? In fact there is! Being in first or second place in Notoriety in a March means even more riders have heard your good name and are willing to support your activities there. First place means two extra dice for any combat in that March; second place gives you 1 extra die. Once again players are rewarded for careful planning. Picking the proper Marches in which to play the Notoriety game helps power up your attacks and should work to solidify your reputation on that side of the board.
NEXT TIME: We’ve discussed all the factors that go into combat but haven’t yet put it all together and shown how the combat dice rolled by the attacker and defender are computed. Let’s walk through that together, showing that these numbers are easy to compute and yet capture a whole lot of tactical nuances.
Previous Articles:
Border Reivers Design Diaries #1-3: The Marches, Anatomy of a March, and Defending Your March
Border Reivers Design Diaries #7-9: Play Cards, Hold Cards, and Summer Strategy Analysis
Author: Ed Beach
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