Border Reivers

For two hundred years, war raged back and forth across the border between England and Scotland. From Stirling Bridge to Bannockburn, the battles are famous, as are the protagonists: William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Edward I, Hammer of the Scots. By 1482, the unfortunate town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, once the richest port town in Scotland, had changed hands thirteen times. By the time Henry VIII ascended the throne of England in 1509, the fifty-mile-wide stretch of rolling hills and stunning vistas that straddle the border had seen decades of hardship and atrocity.

 
Yet, the resilient families living on these frontier lands persevered. Unable to rely on crops surviving until the harvest, they primarily subsisted on the livestock they could shepherd in the fields near their homesteads. When supplies ran low, raiding to steal what they needed from their neighbors was often the answer. Perhaps no Border story is more famous than the wife who served her husband his spurs on a plate: a clear sign that it was time for him to go raiding if he wanted to see his supper.

 
Raids were often carefully planned operations with several border families uniting to steal livestock from a common foe in the dead of night. Cattle and sheep were the likely targets, often with hundreds of these creatures being stolen in a single raid. The reiver’s goal was to herd their quarry to safety before the retaliatory “hot trod” pursuit could catch up and force an engagement.

 
To combat this constant hostility, England and Scotland established the system of March Law. Each nation divided its borderlands into an East, Middle, and West March, with each of these six territories administered by a Warden responsible for keeping the peace. The Wardens were drawn from the most powerful families on the Borders, clans of great renown that could put upwards of a thousand men in the saddle in times of need. The March Law would have succeeded too, but for the fact that these same great families were usually the ones best equipped and most inclined to raid their neighbors. And thus the cycle of looting, raiding, and feuding among these families would continue for another century, throughout the reigns of both Henry VIII and his daughter, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth.

 
THE GAME: In Border Reivers, each player rules over one of the Marches as the leader of one of the six major riding families of the border: Grey, Fenwick, Dacre, Maxwell, Kerr, or Hume. Your goal is to increase the wealth and fame of your clan throughout the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth to end the century as the most famous Border Reiver of all time. Players gain Victory Points (VP) from successful combats, amassing large herds of livestock, and by elevating their Notoriety above the other players in the regions of the map.

 
Here are some quick facts about the game:

 
Number of Players: The game plays best with 4 or 6 players, though 2 and 3-player versions are also supported (where each player leads both an English and a Scottish family).

 
Playing Time: 2 to 3 hours. The shorter 2-hour time applies to the 2 or 4-player games where two of the Marches are out of play. No matter the number of players, most game activities are performed simultaneously to ensure a minimum of downtime.

 
The Map: The 22 x 34” game map depicts each of the six historical Marches and the no man’s land sandwiched between the two nations known as “The Debateable Land.” Each March is home to a major town (with Gaol for captured reivers), a player’s Family Castle, and four Farm Regions where

• Read more information at BoardGameGeek website .
• Players: 1-6
• Playing time: 120-180 min.
• Language: English
• Language dependence: HIGH
• Age: 12+