Stats:
No. of players: 1-6
Amount of time to play: 90 minutes
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

The Dark Titan is the second expansion for Castle Panic. It adds Agnorak (the Dark Titan), elite monsters, support tokens, the cavalier and more.

The Dark Titan Rules Description:

Castle Panic is a tower defense board game. If you have never played it you can read my overview and review to get an understanding of how the game plays. This post is going to focus on the new elements introduced in the Dark Titan expansion.

The Dark Titan expansion can be played with or without the Wizard’s Tower expansion. In either case you alter the setup from the original base game.

Agnornak is the Dark Titan and he enters the board once three heralds have been pulled from the monster bag. These three heralds re not added to the board. Instead they are added to Agnorak’s card and trigger a different effect. After the third herald is pulled, Agnorak is added to a forest as usual.

Agnorak has eight health and once down to two health he must be dealt two damage in one hit to destroy. Cards that normally slay a monster just do four damage to the Dark Titan and are removed from the game. You can ramp up the difficulty of the game by using a different Agnorak card. At levels two through five just being on the board has detrimental effects on the players.

Other new monsters are introduced too. The Boom Troll is rigged with explosives and does extra damage when hitting a castle structure. And the Dark Sorceress forces players to discard a card and reduces their hand size while she is in play. Elite monsters are similar to the regular goblin, orc and troll. The difference is that after you play a hit card on and elite unit you roll the die. If the result is a one or a two, the attack misses.

But it is not all bad news for the players. Some new castle cards and support tokens have been added. Boiling Oil is a card that deals monsters in the matching color’s swordsman ring for one point of damage. The cavalier is a heroic token that you can move around the board to destroy monsters.

Support tokens are pulled from the monster bag and added to the board like monsters. You may discard cards to move the support token on the board. If the card you discard matches the color of the arc the support token is in, you may move it two spaces. If a support token moves into a space with a monster, both units take one point of damage. Once the support token reaches the castle you gain its bonus.

A Quick Review Castle Panic The Dark Titan Expansion:

The new things added to Castle Panic in the Dark Titan expansion add a bunch of replay value. It is fun and the new elements are different from those introduced in the first expansion. And though it adds some new rules and mechanics, they are easy to add and blend smoothly in the game.

The components for this game are very nice. They are on par with the other components in the series and look great. The rules are easy to read and follow too.

Being able to adjust the difficulty of this game by using a different level Dark Titan is great. It lets you cater the experience to your game group and their level of experience with the game. This is especially helpful if you are playing with kids.

It is really nice that this expansion works well with the first expansion. This is another way you can customize the gaming experience. Using the Wizard’s Tower requires more changes when setting up the game, but it can help you alter the difficulty of the game.

If you enjoy Castle Panic you will enjoy the Dark Titan expansion. If you have The Wizard’s Tower expansion you’d still like this expansion. And since you can play with both there is no reason not to give this one a try.

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 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6