BORDER REIVERS
Stealing a march
Designer: Ed Beach | Publisher: GMT Games
It is not news that the English and the Scottish have not always got along. In truth, much of this is a grand political struggle from the view of various English kings who wanted to extend their power and the Scottish who fought for their own independence. It’s also true that on a more personal level of the ScottishEnglish border, neighbours kept stealing sheep and locking up cousins.
And it’s on this slightly more direct level of feud that we’re working with, in Border Reivers.
The game sees you take control of one of the border marches and attempt to bring prosperity to the people that you are the Warden of, by amassing herds of livestock, capturing the enemy and becoming the most notorious in the region. Which is to say, in cardboard terms, stealing other player’s sheep and cattle (money) meeples and tokens, their raiding cubes, and making sure no one else gets above you on the notoriety tracks.