Stats:
No. of players: 1-6
Amount of time to play: 30 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: 5 min

Castle Panic Rules Description:

Castle Panic is a competitive cooperative game. Monsters are assaulting the castle, can you and your friends defend it? And who will earn the title of Master Slayer if you do?

Castle Panic ends when you kill all 49 monster tokens that come in the game or when the monsters knock down your last of six towers. The board is divided into three colors (red, blue and green) and each color is divided in two. These six sections are where monsters enter the board and correlate to your six castle towers. Lastly each of these regions has five ringed sections (forest, archer, knight, swordsman and castle).

In front of each castle tower you have a wall. This wall can be rebuilt or even fortified.

You setup the game by randomly placing three goblins, two orcs and one troll in an archer section. There are six monsters and six archer sections so each begins in its own.

Each round you will draw cards, discard a card and draw another, trade a card, play cards, move the monsters and draw 2 new monsters.

Drawing cards is just that. You have a hand-size based on how many people are playing. At the beginning of your turn you draw up to your hand-size.

Next you may discard a card to draw a new one. This helps with some of the randomness and is optional.

You may also trade one card with one of your fellow players. This is also optional.

Now comes the meat of the game, playing your cards. You may play as many as you are able but don’t have to play any. To attack monsters you must play a unit that is the correct color. So if there is a goblin in the red knight section, you must play a red knight card to hit him.

Hitting a monster does not necessarily kill it. Goblins will die with one hit as they only have one hit point. Orcs have two and trolls have three. In order to show hit points you simply turn the monster token to show the current value. You keep the monster tokens you slay.

There are also other cards; brick and mortar are played to rebuild walls, the barbarian can auto kill any monster on the board, and scavenge lets you take a card out of the discard pile to use again. These and the other special cards help give you a chance against the approaching horde.

Moving the monsters is just that. You move each monster one space closer to the castle. If they hit a wall or tower they knock it down. (no one keeps these tokens) In the process they inflict one point of damage on themselves. Once in the castle ring they move clockwise, knocking down towers as they go. Monsters in the castle ring can only be attacked with special cards.

The last thing you’ll do on your turn is draw two new monsters from the pile. Each section is numbered one to six. When you draw a new monster you roll a six-sided die. You place the monster in the forest of the section number that you rolled.

There are boss monsters that aid the monsters, boulders that kill all monsters in their path until they knock down a wall and tokens that make you discard or move the monsters again.

If you are able to defeat all 49 monsters you total your score. Goblins are worth one point, orcs worth two points, trolls three and bosses are worth four points. If you have the highest point total you are the Master Slayer. Ties are won by the player with the most tokens.

There are also rules for total cooperative play, solo or one overlord player vs the others. Three variants are included for more panic or less panic, allowing you to adjust the difficulty.

A Quick Review of Castle Panic:

Castle Panic is very fun, very easy to teach and learn and plays pretty quick. The art and components are great and really add to the theme. I love that it can be played solo but scale very well to six players.

Justin De Witt has created a beautiful and enjoyable game that you can play with a variety of ages. If you are looking for a cooperative game that isn’t too complex but is a lot of fun, buy Castle Panic. You won’t be upset with the decision.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6