Those of you who have read the Border Reivers rules will know that 2 and 3-player versions of the game exist, even though the expected number of players is either 4 or 6. I’m trying to get the 4 and 6-player versions finished first, so even though I’ve experimented enough with 2 and 3-player to be confident they work, I had never finished a full game of either. Until today. And it’s a story worth telling.

First of all, thanks to Mark Greenwood for trying the 2-player game with me over email. He was a fantastic PBEM opponent: we exchanged 115 Cyberboard move files over the course of 9 days to get this one entirely finished. The action was fast and furious throughout and he’s picked up the nuances of Border Reivers strategy very quickly (this was only his third game). 2 or 3-player games are a bit tricky since you have to juggle the play of two different families (although that’s also what makes it fun; there are some cool ways to synergize between your two powers, one English and one Scottish).

So this morning I received Mark’s final email move (he had just made his final attacks of the game) and his note said simply: “My attacks slightly under expectations, I have us deadlocked going into your Feud. It would take a great effort by Carey to hold you off.” To add to Mark’s plight, he didn’t know I was saving two Border Ballad cards: Jock o’ the Side for 8 VP and Armstrong’s Goodnight for 4 VP. So I had a 12 VP lead and one Feud attack to make that could easily boost me further. The game was mine, right?

Well in the picture you can see my final attack. Two Kerr Reivers (indicated by the Horses) try to avenge a long-standing Feud with the Maxwells at Hoddom Castle.

I receive:

• 2 dice from my Horses
• 1 die from the Feud cube
• 2 dice from my Reiver, Richie Graham
• 2 dice from my Allied Clans (Graham and Johnstone)

… for 7 total dice, all with a +1 die roll modifier since I’ve been saving my “Family” role card for this final attack. I will therefore hit (for 3 VP each) on any die that rolls a 4 or higher.

Only Sir Robert Carey stands in my way. And he is only rolling 4 dice (looking at the gray half of his token since this is a town defense) and he needs to roll a 5 or higher (the first “6” he rolls is a hit on his own behalf scoring the defender 3 VP; any other hits he receives block one of my hits, knocking me down by 3 VP).

So what are the rolls? I roll: 3, 3, 1, 5, 1, 2, 4 for two hits, or 6 VP. Unless they get blocked of course.

Carey rolls: 3, 1, 5, 4. Just 1 block. I’m fine, right? I’ll score 3 VP and win by 15.

Well except for the fact that I’ve been reading P. F. Chisholm’s fine series of historical fiction about Carey’s years as a border warden. He was a gambling man, so when I was searching for a bonus for his Warden card I came up with the following (see the note “Roll his 4 defense dice…” below his RAID rating):

He gets to reroll any dice that miss! And so he takes 3 rerolls and they look like this: 6 (a hit on his own behalf), 1, 6 (a block of my other hit). Now he has a hit and he has successfully blocked all of mine. This is the rare case in a Feud where the defender wins and gains Notoriety. Now because we have the Ill Week event card in play, Feuds are worth +4 Notoriety instead of the usual +2. 

That’s enough to give the Maxwells (light blue Notoriety cube in the figure above) enough Notoriety to regain control of the Scottish West March, a 12 VP swing. Yikes, in this one attack I’ve lost 15 VP and the game. And it didn’t come down to the final roll of the game … it was even later … it was decided on the final REROLL of the game!

---