Overview of the board game Castle Panic

An army of orcs, goblins and trolls gathered on the horizon. They surrounded your castle and now it is your job to defend it. So close the hatches, prepare your archers and prepare the tar. This is a siege! Read the full overview of Castle Panic Board Game below.

Castle panic

It supports 1 to 6 players aged 10 and over for 60 minutes ...
Great game "gateway" for people who have not yet played board games ...
Fun for people who enjoy a less competitive experience

A brief overview of castle panic

Castle Panic is a cooperative tower defense game for two to six players . You, the castle defenders, are in charge of repelling the attacking crowd of monsters together.

In addition to playing cards to attack monsters, you have the ability to build defensive walls, reinforce them with weapons, and set traps that slow down your attackers.

You and your companions as a team win and lose, and you can only do this by working together and sharing resources. This means that in the end only one person can be appointed as the killer of the master ...

Variations and extensions

Castle Panic: The Magic Tower

This is a direct extension of the original game. If you add a Merlin-esque element to the theme, you will find yourself defending the Magic Tower with all the additional magical benefits that come with it. However, the monsters are also upgraded.

Castle Panic: The Magic Tower

supports 1 to 6 players aged 12 or over for 90 minutes of fun
adds new monsters, maps and mechanics that take the game to ...
builds on the benefits of Castle Panic (basic game) while ...

Castle Panic: Dark Titan

With that, he returned to your bog, non-magical castle. However, your old enemy, Agranok, has returned. He also brought a bunch of more powerful monsters with him. However, fortunately, there are also many additional goodies that you can equip your defense with.

Castle Panic: Dark Titan

It works with both castle panic and the wizard's tower
New monsters, maps and mechanics will challenge existing fans ...
Adjust the power of the agranok to match the abilities of the players and ...

Castle Panic: War Engines

This extension adds double-sided siege weapons to the game on both sides, including siege towers, catapults, and - everyone's favorite - rams. It can be mixed with one of the above extensions.

Castle Panic: War Engines

He needs castle panic to play
He represents a light economic mechanic
1 to 6 players

Unpacking the castle panic

Have you ever wondered what you need to defend your castle? See below:

1 board
49 Castle maps
49 monster tokens
6 walls with plastic stands
6 pillars
1 tar token
2 Strengthen the tokens
1 six-sided matrix
6 Order of playing cards

First of all, I always like to pay homage to a policy that has been well put together. Castle Panic ticks this box resoundingly, with a very clear and intuitive explanation of the rules of the game, along with a bit of personality involved. Thumb away from me.

The other thing that struck me, however, was how surprising a work of art is. There is nothing obviously wrong. But that’s all I can say about it. That's very ... okay. They seem to have games, books, etc. In the medieval period, very much the same feeling and I was disappointed to have tackled the same method. Nevertheless, I understand that this is obviously a family game , so there is only so creepy we really could go.

Also, the actual components are very suitable for their purpose, but they don’t go beyond that. Castle parts are probably the biggest risk as they have to stand upright. Even though they were made of cardboard, they felt durable enough.

The only minor exception to the trend of component suitability is the board itself, which I really liked. It had strong, bold colors (which matched slightly with the more ordinary cards), and it also contained helpful tips and reminders.

How to play Castle Panic

The goal of the game is to defend your castle from an army of monsters attacking you from the forest. It’s a collaborative game, so as a team you win or lose. However, keep in mind that in the end only one player will be crowned Master Slayer.

Board

The space for playing the board is circular, and in the middle is your castle. It is surrounded by five rings marked from the outside in: Forest> Archer> Knight> Sword> Castle. Walls can be built on the lines between the rings that defend your castle.

The circle is also divided into six bows, colored red, green and blue.

Setup

Your team starts with the towers in the center of the board and the walls that surround your castle. There are also six monster tokens on board - three goblins, two orcs and one troll. The rest remain inverted and mixed.

Players then get a number of castle cards, depending on how many players there are.

When turning

There are six phases to the player’s turn.

Assemble - if you don't have a perfect hand, complete it.
Discard - If you want, discard one card from your hand and replace it.
Trade - trade with other players if you want. If you have two to five players, you can only exchange one card. You can make a maximum of two deals in a six-player game.
Play castle cards - it's the fun part. Here you can play as many cards in your hand as you want. I will describe these shortly.
Move Monsters - All monsters that remain on board move one space forward. If they are in the castle, they move one space clockwise.
Draw two monsters - take two monster tokens and reveal them one after the other. If they are monsters, they add them to the woods - depending on the roll of the cube. You could also reveal a monstrous effect (explained below).

Playing cards

Attacking cards

Attack maps work in different ways. Most of them have to match both the color and the location of the monster ring. Some, such as the Archer, Knight, and Swordsman cards, damage all the monsters in their rings. Just Barbar, tar and take him back! maps can hit monsters that have come to your castle.

If you overthrow a monster to no avail, then you keep its token as a trophy.

Other action cards

There are also various other measures. For example, building defensive walls, fortifying with weapons, or pouring tar on monsters to slow them down. There is even a Scavenge card that allows you to discard any card after the pile.

Monsters & Monster Effects

In this battle you will encounter 49 monsters, among which are the main goblins, orcs and trolls. However, there are also Boss monsters like Goblin King and Orc Warlord that are much harder to kill and have special powers to launch.

You can also draw monstrous effects. These affect multiple monsters or players on the board. For example, you can move forward each monster in a blue bow one space. Things can suddenly start to become very sticky, very quickly.

Win or lose

When the monster enters the Castle Ring and is in the Tower area, the tower is permanently destroyed. The next move, if the monster has not been killed, progresses around the Castle Ring another space. If all the towers are destroyed, the players lose the game.

To win, you have to hold out long enough to kill all 49 monsters.

Master killer

At the end of the game, if they win, the players add up how many victory points they earned by killing the monster (4 points for the boss; 3 for the troll; 2 for the orc; 1 for the goblin).

Whoever has the most points is called Master Slayer!

Your first castle panic game

It is worth mentioning that Castle Panic charges between two and six players (there is also a solitaire version , for one daring lone castle defender!). However, this game works best with four players, as otherwise it can become very difficult.

In your first Castle Panic game, I recommend focusing on group victory rather than the Master Slayer aspect. It’s a tough game, and even if you can’t help but plan your Master Slayer coronation ceremony in advance, remember that all of this will be pointless if monsters flood your castle in the end.

In the same vein, don’t be stubborn and stick to your best cards if it will improve your team’s chances of winning if you want to swap them. You will probably end your death pretty quickly if you do!

When it comes to strategy, watch out for all the monsters on the board and the cards in the hands of other players. One awkward monster effect can leave you in a very precarious position if you don’t have the cards ready to respond to it. Be loud with your team and recommend trading, even if it’s not your turn.

Advantages disadvantages

Advantages:

An amazing cooperative
Surprisingly strategic
Good for all ages

Weaknesses:

Not many monsters
Limited repeatability

First of all, I really like the fact that this cooperative is really this - a cooperative. There are many opportunities for strategy here, but it all focuses on effective communication between players and ensuring they work in the same direction.

For those who enjoy greater social engagement and play based on appropriate group effort, this will certainly stimulate discussion if played properly. Similarly, when we found ourselves overwhelmed by the Monster Chief and their friends, I loved how we could all get together and try to make a breakthrough.

Even though it’s a relatively basic game in the big scheme of things, there’s still a lot of potential for strategy and foresight here. You need to consider where the monsters will be in two or three turns to avoid attacks. If you can, try to create an accumulation in one type of space and prepare your teammate for a killer blow. If you ask me, this is the perfect level for beginners.

The Master Slayer element sometimes seemed a bit confusing to me about priorities. I didn’t always know if my teammates were playing for the title, and whether that influenced their decision-making or not. Or they didn't care at all. However, this did not seem to me to be a problem. As the Trolls approached, the collaboration won out and we completely forgot about it - in the end it would just turn out to be a nice surprise.

When it comes to things I didn’t like so much, I think it would be possible to put a little more effort into the theme or mixing monsters. Other than the bosses, I got a little tired of the not-so-well-animated hordes of Orcs and Goblins.

Similarly, there is not much repeatability here either. Like many tower defense games, there are strategies you can work out over time that greatly increase your chances of winning. Although there are random elements in the game, the seasoned Castle Panic player can do a lot to make it easier.

Fire games contain differences in the main rules, along with a few additional house rules options, but only add a limited amount of time before this is done.

TL; DR

Castle Panic is a super-cooperative tower defense game that confronts you, the castle defenders, with a multitude of goblins, orcs and trolls determined to break down your castle walls.

By working together and trading cards, your task is to defeat an army of monsters before they destroy all your towers. It’s not the most complex co-op, but the social and interactive element makes Castle Panic an incredibly fun group game.

Conclusion: a verdict?

After playing defensive tower games on the Miniclip for many years of my youth, it was wonderful to be able to use my revision in a table space. Castle Panic brilliantly recreates the genre, and it was especially fun to take over the format as part of a band rather than alone in my underwear in a darkened room at midnight.

It’s not the most complicated collaboration, so I think it would be a fantastic introductory game for new or younger players. You will definitely have fun the first few times as the elements of teamwork will really shine here.

Nevertheless, over time, as the game becomes more familiar, you may find that it becomes somewhat tried and tested. But before you get to that point, it will take many hours of play. So, unless you’re particularly concerned about the hour-to-dollar ratio, I think this is a good investment for anyone who needs an accessible introduction to the world of co-op games.

Castle panic