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

The Wizard’s Tower Description:

The Wizard’s Tower is an expansion for Castle Panic which is a tower defense board game. The Wizard’s Tower adds some bang to your forces, but also bolsters the monster hordes.

This review assumes you know the basic game play of Castle Panic. If you don’t, go here and read my review of Castle Panic. Then come back and see the new additions in The Wizard’s Tower expansion and how they change the game.

First as the title implies, you have a wizard’s tower. Your wizard’s tower allows you to play Wizard Cards. These cards can repair walls, help you draw cards, and damage or move monsters.

The monsters gain six new Mega Boss Monsters. They are really tough. The Mega Bosses have more health, a special ability that triggers when they are drawn and one that is in effect while they are in play.

Even the monster lackeys are tougher. Some move faster, fly or are immune to damage in a specific ring. Also added are Imps. These annoying one-hit creatures appear when you draw some of the other monsters. They are not part of the monsters you must destroy to win the game and do not count for victory points (if you are playing competitively).

Another new element is fire. Some monsters breathe fire or burst into flames when they are killed. You can also cast spells that catch monsters on fire. Fire damages monsters for one health per round. While a structure that is on fire is destroyed if it about to get a third flame token on it. Burning structures do not damage an attacking monster, but do catch it on fire.

The set-up for The Wizard’s Tower is different. You remove some of the monsters from the base game. And the game turn is slightly effected also. During Phase 2 (Discard and Draw) you may discard either Castle of Wizard cards to draw from the Castle or Wizard Deck.

You also get an awesome bag to draw monster tiles from.

A Quick Wizard’s Tower Review:

The Wizard’s Tower is the first expansion for Castle Panic and as you can see above it adds a good bit to the base game. The Wizard’s Tower expansion adds depth and choices to an already fun, but light game.

As before the components, rules and art are great. And as I stated above the bag to draw the monsters tiles from is just awesome.

The new monsters are tough but this is well-balanced by the new Castle and Wizard Cards. The Wizard’s Tower has not turned Castle Panic into an unbeatable experience. Nor has it made it a cakewalk.

Like I said this expansion adds more depth to the game and gives you more critical decisions. Even having some monsters be immune to damage in some rings while auto-killed in others will make you have to consider when to play certain cards.

The added complexity does add a bit to the length of the game, but there is a variant to keep it closer to an hour. The fire tokens can be a bit fiddly, but not overwhelmingly so. You will definitely want to keep the rules close for the first few plays as it may be hard to remember all the new elements.

If you enjoy Castle Panic (or think it is too light) than this expansion is a great addition. I like Castle Panic for its appeal to children and The Wizard’s Tower helps its appeal to adults. If you have kids and want to try a fun game with a bit more depth than the original, pick this expansion up. It will add more without making it too hard for children to play.

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