CALLING ALL MONSTER SLAYERS, ORC WARRIORS, AND GOBLIN GETTERS!!!
These ruffian creatures are hiding in the shadows of the forest surrounding the castle and it is YOUR JOB to gather your army and put up a defense. You will defeat the monsters together or be defeated together in a cooperative Panic to save the castle!
Players work together to defeat all 49 monsters by trading cards and developing a battle strategy to stop the monsters (and stray boulders…) from smashing the castle, and the player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the Master Slayer, making Castle Panic both cooperative and competitive.
The goal of the game is to protect the castle walls by defeating the monsters with attack cards.
Each monster has a number of hit points. As the monster is “hit” with attack cards, it is rotated to show its remaining hit number. When the creature has received the required number of hits, it is defeated and removed from the board. The challenge is to defeat all monsters BEFORE they reach the castle walls! With new monsters constantly coming into play and old ones moving steadily closer, it’s a suspense- filled race!
On each turn, players take 6 actions:
- Draw Up – replenish hand
- Discard and Draw 1 card – optional to give players a chance to switch out cards
- Trade Cards – optional to help players improve their hands on their turn
- Play Cards – players can play as many as possible to attack, slow monsters down, rebuild walls, or draw more cards
- Move Monsters – monsters all move 1 ring closer to the castle
- Draw 2 New Monsters – place new monsters on the board
Working together with other players is the only way to win. Warriors must stick together by trading cards and planning ahead together to come up with the best battle strategy.
There are a variety of card types in the deck:
- Attacking
- Slaying
- Slowing
Each card has an ability to help the knights protect their castle. Some of them can only be played in specific locations on the board and others can be played anywhere.
They key is to plan and use the cards collectively to keep the monsters at bay!
Some monster tokens give the monsters special effects, so watch out for those! Some tokens are just a plain old bad guy to place on the board, but others:
- allow monsters in certain colored regions to advance
- move the monsters clockwise or counterclockwise around the board
- force players to discard all of one type of card in their hands
- draw extra monster tokens
Castle Panic has a lot going on with all the monsters and monster tokens and attack cards, it’s nice for players to be able to work together and help each other. The monsters advance quickly, so winning is a challenge! The stakes are high and the panic is rising!!
Castle Panic is a great family/party/solo game for 1-6 players, ages 10+, in about an hour. (Defeating 49 monsters is not a quick job!)
The Gameschooling applications are endless! We used this game to supplement a study of rocks and will also use it in future architecture, geology, and medieval history units. And just for fun in between!
Thanks to Fireside Games for sharing this excellent cooperative board game with us!
