Fireside Games Castle Panic 2nd Ed. Board Game for 1 to 6 Players, Ages 8 and Up

Très bon jeu coopératif, immersif, et qui est agréable aussi en solo. Le matériel est joli et de qualité (un bon point pour le château en 3D!), la mécanique du jeu est fluide, intégrer les règles n'est pas compliqué, et l'équilibre échec / réussite est bon: il n'est ni trop difficile, ni trop facile de gagner. Après plusieurs parties épiques - pas le temps de s'ennuyer durant la partie -, je pense que la rejouabilité est bonne, mais je conseille quand même l'extension The Wizard's Tower, qui renouvelle le jeu et lui apporte de la profondeur. Ravie de mon achat! Les règles étant en anglais, si vous maîtrisez mal cette langue, cherchez la traduction illustrée des règles en français, elle existe en pdf sur le net.

Castle Panic is a co-operative board game where everyone plays on the same team against the board, thus providing a relief from friends confronting each other and potential disputes. The game can be played by 1-6 players who are in a castle attacked from all directions from goblins, orcs and trolls swarming from the surrounding forest. These monstrous foes can be dispatched by playing archer, knight or swordsman cards depending on far away the monsters are. After each go, the monsters advance ever closer to your castle ...... The castle consists of six towers and six walls. The walls can be rebuilt by playing a combination of two cards, while towers are removed permanently if destroyed. If all six towers are destroyed, the monsters have won, and if all the monsters are killed (depicted by tokens which are drawn at the end of each turn), all players are victorious. The feeling of everyone either loosing or winning together adds a great sense of team feeling, and everyone shares the panic when they see the castle surrounded by a flood of monsters. The co-operative element comes from players having the option to trade cards to stop as many monsters as possible, or build a wall, each go. In our household, we have two other co-op games; The Lord of the Rings Board Game [With Dice and 105 Cards and 44 Tokens and 3 Game Boards ] board game and Pandemic . Of these three, I would recommend Castle Panic for younger players as it is the simplest (this game is played by our 4 and 7 year old children) or to introduce the concept of co-op board games. We had a great 6-player game with player ages ranging from 4 to 65 and it was a close exciting game, just barely winning with only one tower left standing. The older players, who were only used to the Monopoly-type games liked the co-op aspect and seeing the children helping each other, with obvious tides of excitement ebbing and flowing throughout the game. Players do not have roles, such as in Pandemic (suggestion for an expansion?) which really adds to the co-op element of the game, but Castle Panic does have a Master Slayer competitive element, where the player who kills the most powerful monsters is crowned the 'Master Player', effectively becoming the winner, but only if the Castle still remains standing. It will count for nothing if the monsters have won. So this can add some hidden agendas in thinking how to help the team be victorious while thinking about personal achievements. Only with the solitaire version does it feel that in some games there is no chance of winning. Otherwise, the game is well balanced, with most games being close. The difficulty of the game can be tweaked by suggestions in the rules and at the Fireside Games website. Watch you don't fold the board the wrong way, as it can cause the board to easily split. Otherwise all game components are well presented and durable. There's really only educational value to younger players who can benefit from team work and starting to think a step ahead in anticipating what cards to play once the monsters have advanced. In summary, an excellent game that can bring the family together.

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Genial juego cooperativo, muy divertido y que mantiene la tensión todo el rato al ver cómo se acumulan los monstruos. Las expansiones lo hacen todavía mejor.

This is a fantastic COOPERATIVE board game for friends and/or family. My ten year old daughter grasped it just fine and I feel that children 7 and up should handle it well. The gameplay is simple enough to learn, however there are so many different pieces to the game that it really keeps gameplay interesting. For example, there are many different cards, each with their own abilities, and there are two types of "monster tokens" (monsters and monster effects) within which there are many different tokens, each with their own abilities. There is an exciting video game aspect to this game as well...there are four "boss" monsters, in addition to the "normal" thee monsters that attack the castle (trolls, orcs and goblins). Regarding the "normal" monsters, trolls are the hardest, orcs are medium and goblins are the easiest of the three because they have the least amount of health. My family prefers to play this game as a straight cooperative game where there is no "master slayer" so we are always supporting each other. If you play the standard game, the player with the most points is the "master slayer." All players still work together, but there may be some competition to become the "master slayer." The straight cooperative option is to simply not have a master slayer. That's what we do. I wanted to also point out a potential component issue: The box states that there should be 49 monster tokens. My box came with 50. After viewing Fireside's website and speaking with Fireside customer support, as well as cross-checking my game components, it was determined that my box shipped with an extra "discard one card" monster token. Before calling Fireside, even Fireside's website was incorrect with what the game should include for monster tokens. In speaking with the person that does the website, she stated should would correct it right away. Therefore, if you do not have 49 monster tokens, check Fireside's website and find the bag of monster tokens that you can buy. There you will see the breakdown of what monster tokens you should have and compare it with your box to ensure that you have the correct tokens. If you like cooperative games, you will surely like this game. It appeals to men, women, boys and girls alike. You can also play solo, and there is also a variation for one person to play as the monsters (called "Overlord"). With so much variation in the game, it is a sure pleaser. For sleeves for this and the expansions (Wizards Tower and Dark Titan), I got these: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00EBH3LJU.