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.

Top

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.

Absolutely love this game! Like some others have mentioned, I searched and did research on a lot of different games for our Family Game Night... trying to find the perfect blend of fun, easy rules, and short on time... we've played a lot of different games, some can get competitive with the kids, and a game like Castle Panic where we play cooperatively to defeat the monsters was just the right ticket! Its very quick and easy to understand the rules, games last about 30 minutes to an hour max. Each game can be very different, depending on how the monsters show up, and every game we've played there's always been that nail-biting time when we thought we were going to lose the castle.... it's a very well-balanced game on victory conditions, never too easy or two hard IMHO. One other aspect, the game might be "too simple" for people seeking a deeper or more complicated game, and that's where the expansions come-in... currently three expansions out (I own two of them) they can be played all-together or you can mix and match the expansions for just the experience you want. Each expansion adds a little (or a lot) more complexity to the game, with corresponding length of play added to the game (start adding expansions, and play-time definitely increases)... the beauty is you can always go back to the base game for a quick match, or add varying expansions for longer more in-depth play... this adds a lot of replay value (my personal opinion, Wizard's Tower adds the most rules and most playtime to the game, Dark Titan is a little quicker and a little lighter on game time added... if you add BOTH, you get a very long in-depth game... I don't have the siege engines expansion so can't comment on that). One of the things I really enjoy about this game is how great and easy it is to expand on the base game out of the box... between the (currently) three expansions and other after-market support from places like Etsy and third-party manufacturers, there's a lot you can do to spice up this game... I'm adding some pictures, the castle in the picture does NOT come with the game... I wanted a better castle and found one made for the game on Etsy, it was a very nice and inexpensive addition to perk the game up (just search for "Castle Panic" on Etsy and you'll find things there for the game!)... also I added Papo Mini Tub Figure, Knights - 12 Pieces to replace the Cavalier unit, Mini Flame Markers (10) and a Broken Token Box Organizer for Castle Panic , also shown in the pictures below.