Castle Panic Review (Fireside Games)
Castle Panic by Fireside Games really came out of nowhere for me. The game was already out and released by the time I started to hear a little bit of buzz on various websites I frequent but the buzz that I heard was pretty positive so I started to dig a little bit deeper to really see what this game was about. Two of the first things I noticed was the price which is a MSRP of $34.99. As I feel $34.99 is the new $19.99 from a few years back I was excited. The next thing I noticed was it allowed for solitaire play. I am personally a big fan of solitaire games just because when I’m sitting around with little to do I find more enjoyment out of learning and playing a baordgame system than watching TV or playing a video game (though I will admit I do enjoy both of those activities). When I’m looking for something a little more mentally engaging though I typically turn to some sort of boardgame.
Castle Panic I heard plays much like a Tower Defense Game. I’ve only played one round of one game that would be considered a TD Game, but I’d say that is an accurate description. The game comes with a board, six wall sections, six tower sections, a heap of monster tokens, a deck of cards and a six sided die. Your six tower pieces are set up in a circle in the center of the board with your wall sections forming another circle around the tower. Radiating out from those circles are three more circles that show what defenders are able to attack monsters in those sections (Swordsmen, Knights, Archers). Beyond that is one more circle which is the Forest section and is where the monsters are coming out of to storm your castle. These rings of circles are further divided into six sections much like the very best Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Pies are divided into six sections with pairs of pie pieces divided up further into red, green and blue colors.
Game play is simple where players first draw up their hand of cards, discard one card and draw one, trade up to one card with another person, play cards, move the monsters and then draw more monsters. Many of the cards are simple cards like Blue Knight or Red Swordsman or Green Archer - Basically when you play a card like one of those a chosen monster in that specific area takes a hit. There are some other special cards like colored heroes which allow you to hit a monster in any of the ranged, or there are defender types that allow you to hit a monster in any section - For example a colorless archer which would allow you to hit a monster in any color archer area. In addition there are some other special cards like the mighty Berserker which kills off any one monster no matter the area, or a card that allows you to draw two extra cards, or a card that lets you reinforce a wall, in addition to a few others.
After giving the game a first solo play I realized that cycling your hand of cards was the key to this game. Planning ahead really is not that big of a factor because that typically means you are holding onto cards instead of cycling your hand trying to obtain cards that will cause damage that turn. The last game that Deacon and I played, I was dealt cards which would allow me to rebuild a destroyed wall in my initial hand and I held onto them cutting out a third of my hand from play and that just started a snowball effect where the monsters were coming out quicker than we were able to fight them off. By the time I had a chance to rebuild a wall I actually had three choices available to me because in one turn three walls came down. We proceeded to lose that game by the way.
So the strategy to the game is fairly straight forward: Cycle cards, strike early, strike often. That did disappoint me to some extent but after a while what I realized was, this game reminds me of old Nintendo games. Those games that you’d just sit down to play when there was some time to blow and TV or outdoor activities just didn’t sound appealing. Games where you had them down so well that you fully expected to beat them or games that were difficult yet still enjoyable to play. Games like those keep popping into my head when I play Castle Panic. I will admit that in the past I have held it against games that were like this which are ways to pass the time instead of being tactical or strategic or thought provoking and I will admit I did have my head up my ass for a brief period. This game is a heap of random but that is not a bad thing as long as the company you keep as well as yourself had a good time. For me Castle Panic delivers that good time. Overall the game is fun and light and plays quickly, but it isn’t that deep or strategic of a game.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
