Every once in a while, we like to look beyond consoles and controllers for cooperative gaming experiences. Board games are a fine alternative to video games in many cases; there are plenty of people, perhaps your own friends and family, who would never sit down for a session of Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, but they might be convinced to check out a new board game. The board game under consideration today, Castle Panic, is ideal for casual gamers, particularly for groups of mixed ages.
The gameplay in Castle Panic is similar to that of the tower defense genre. The object of the game is to work together with other players in order to defend the towers of the castle from a relentless horde of monsters. The board is circular, divided into six sections, two of each color, with concentric rings in each section. Monsters enter the board from the outer ring, representing the forest, and advance inward at the end of each player's turn. Hardy trolls, steadfast orcs, and lowly goblins are most common creature among the various monster counters, but several bosses as well as special events can be drawn as well. A roll of the die determines which sector a freshly drawn monster is placed in, and on most turns, two new monster counters will enter the field. The goal of the invaders is simple: knock down the walls and destroy the castle towers, at all costs.
So what are the poor inhabitants of the castle supposed to do? Luckily, all sorts of adventurers can be called on to defeat the monsters and save the day. Each type of adventurer is represented by a deck of cards players draw from. Archers send a rain of arrows to damage monsters on the outermost ring, knights ride forth to attack those in the middle, and swordsmen are the last line of defense as the foul creatures make their way to the castle walls. Heroes are more rare, and quite valuable, able to hit a monster in any ring save the forest. Each type adventurer is color-coded, so a blue archer, for example, can only hit monsters in section 5 or 6. "Wild", any-color defenders are very useful, too, and the greatest of all is the Barbarian, who can slay any creature, anywhere on the board, with one strike, whereas other adventurer's hits merely remove a single life point.
Though the basic game system of Castle Panic itself is very simple, defending the castle is most certainly not. As the monsters advance, steadily, towards the center of the board, there is a growing sense of unease as you frantically plan the best way to play your cards. This is where the cooperative elements come in. The rulebook advises players to keep their cards face up at all times, to aid in teamwork, and you can exchange one card to any other player once on your turn. This keeps the dialogue going, as you think about trading cards that are less useful at the moment to a friend, who can use them to great effectiveness later. Trading a swordsman away to the next player in return for a knight is just one illustration of the tremendous power that trading provides, if players are wise enough to work together and plan ahead.
You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? It's certainly true in Castle Panic too. Just when you and your friends think you've got it all worked out, one of the event counters might come up and wreck it all. Boss monsters are particularly difficult: the Goblin King brings three more monster tokens with him, and the Orc Warlord moves every other monster in his sector forward an extra space. Or, you might draw a plague of archers token, forcing players to discard all archer cards. In the blink of an eye, a warm, fuzzy feeling of security is replaced with a sense of... well, panic!
The co-op elements really make Castle Panic work well. There are a few variant rule sets that introduce competitive elements, such as a version where each player scores points for each monster slain, the victor being crowned as master slayer. Another interesting variant, which we've yet to try, allows one player to control the monsters. There are many educational elements in Castle Panic, too, that will make any parent happy. Kids can learn critical thinking, problem solving, and even basic math skills without even realizing it! Castle Panic is quite similar in feel to Pandemic, and has a more generally appealing theme that make it a good choice for gaming novices. Castle Panic is definitely worth playing for any fan of co-op.