Castle Panic review

Fireside Games | Fantasy co-op | £34.99 | 1-6 players | 60 minutes | www.firesidegames.com

Castle Panic sees a team of monster slayers work together to defend their cardboard castle from an onslaught of goblins, trolls, and orcs. Players win or lose together as a team, winning the game if they defeat every monster in the bag and losing if the monsters manage to topple all six castle turrets.

The board is divided into six coloured segments - two red, two blue, two green - and enemies advance from the forest edges where they spawn toward the central castle through a series of rings. Each ring allows different cards to be used to defeat them - archers, knights, and finally swordsmen at the closest quarters. At the end of each player’s turn any undefeated monsters on the board advance one ring closer and new monsters are spawned into the numbered segments around the board by rolling a dice.

During each round players work together to decide how best to defeat the hordes of enemies bearing down on their castle by trading, discarding and playing cards. Only cards of the correct colour and ring can be used against an attacking monster so some strategy is key in order to allow the current player to deal as much damage as possible, while setting up subsequent players with cards that will eventually be of use to them. That is of course until an unexpecting plague kills off all the knights, or the Healer appears and restores all the injured monsters in play back to full health.

Castle Panic is a quirky game that tows the narrow line between being simple enough that even very young players can join in, yet also requiring enough strategy to keep experienced gamers interested. The result is a fun game that all the family can join in with and enjoy. (Sophie Brown)

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