Castle Panic (Fireside Games)

Cooperative games are one of my favorite games to play with my family. For one, I am part of an overly competitive family, so it is a nice break from trying to crush each other and work together. And for two, it means I can let younger family members play, because even though they will need a little help, it's not like I am helping them to win at my detriment, I am helping them to win for the good of us all. With all that said, I would like to tell you about one of my favorite cooperative games - Castle Panic. Castle Panic is a game for 1 to 6 players, ages 10+. It has three expansions for it - The Wizard's Tower, The Dark Titan, and Engines of War, which raises the age to 12+ but keeps the player count at 6. As opposed to telling you about the setup and game play, I want to tell you about what the base game contains and what each expansion adds to it.

Castle Panic Base Game
6 Towers
6 Walls
2 Fortify Tokens
1 Tar Token
49 Monster Tokens
49 Castle Cards

The Wizard's Tower
1 Wizard's Tower (Replaces one of the Walls from the Base game)
49 Monster Tokens (19 New Monsters, 18 Imps, and 6 Mega Bosses)
10 Castle Cards (Supplements the deck from the Base game)
22 Wizard Cards (Forms a new deck to draw cards from
12 Flame Tokens (Burn the monsters or have your Castle burned)

The Dark Titan
1 Agranok Token (Ultimate Boss)
5 Agranok Cards (Decide your difficulty level for the above boss)
3 Support Tokens (Deal damage, build walls, or draw cards)
1 Cavalier Token (Roaming piece who will fight monsters for you)
17 Monster Tokens (New monsters to kill)
5 Castle Cards (Supplements the deck even further)

Engines of War
1 Keep Token (New building placed in the center of your Towers)
1 Catapult Token (Weapon to mount on your Keep)
1 Ballista Token (Weapon to mount on your Keep)
2 Spring Trap Tokens
2 Pit Tokens
2 Barricade Tokens
1 Engineer Tile (Used to build all the goodies listed above)
16 Resource Cards (New deck to build the goodies above)
11 Monster Tokens

Game Review of the Base Game
Castle Panic by itself is a fun game for the whole family. The rules and mechanics are simple enough that kids and adults can easily pick up the game, even younger than age 10 (the recommended age). The board is also colorful and both boldly and clearly labeled, which adds to the easy learning curve. The castle and wall pieces are simple cardboard standees, but it adds an visually appealing 3-D element to the game and is devastating to watch them be destroyed and removed from the game board. What I really love about this game are the monster tokens. For starters, when you have to draw a new one, you hope you don't become overwhelmed by a powerful one or too many in one region. It is also just so much fun rotating the monster's health down to zero. Again, this is a simple mechanic, but so rewarding. I know I used the word simple a lot in my review, but I mean that as nothing but positive, because even though a game may have beautiful simplicity it can still present a challenge to defeat.

Review of the Expansions
The Wizard's Tower adds a very powerful ally to the game - Thalgar the Wizard. In exchange for one of your towers, you construct his tower instead and with it a formidable deck of spells (as long as his tower still stands). You will need all his tricks too, because in addition to a horde of low level Imps, (which can be summoned by other monsters), you have many new monsters to deal with...some of which cause fire damage. You also have six Mega Bosses added to the game (only playing with three per game), which have non-predictable movement and devastating abilities.

The Dark Titan adds the ultimate villain - Agranok. Agranok comes with several difficulty cards, so you can pick how difficult you want him to be or randomly choose and let the fates decide! There are also some support tokens and a Cavalier who will ride around to help you defeat monsters approaching your castle. As powerful as Agranok is, you also have to watch out for the Elite Monsters he brings with him. These monsters require you to roll a die before attacking them. If you roll a 1 or 2, you fail and waste the card you were going to play. Hope you have lucky dice rolls, because a one in three chance you'll fail is very high.

Lastly, Engines of War provides you with physical tools to defeat your enemies. Instead of having resources randomly mixed in your Castle Deck, you now have a very small Resource Deck and an engineer who can fortify a crumbling Castle, attach weaponry to a Keep, and lay out some strategics devices to slow and cripple your enemy. However, if you focus too heavily on the resources, you will find they quickly dwindle and you disappear, perhaps when you need them most. However, don't think that you have the upper hand now, the Monsters have their own barbaric weapons including battering rams, siege towers, and war wagons.

Final Review
The base game of Castle Panic is truly a family game. It is not winnable 100% of the time, but it is an easier game and a more forgiving game. I would describe it as the quintessential family cooperative game. Yes, there are variants - 1. Most monsters killed is ultimate winner, 2. One person plays as the monsters, and 3. Starting with fewer castles, but even with all these, it is still just a family game, and more serious gamers will bore of the game quickly. Thankfully, the expansions elevate this game to a real gamer's game. They add depth, replay value, and new difficulties. They also are great in that you can mix and match them. Want to just fight Agranok? Only add The Dark Titan. Want the full experience? Add them all and see if you can survive. Castle Panic has been around eight years, but in the past two years has added two expansions. I'm curious if this is the end of the line or if there will be more in the pipeline. Either way, it is a game that has a proud place on my shelf and one I still look forward to playing whenever someone suggests it.

The expansions were provided to me for free by Fireside Games in exchange for an honest review.

Bears! and Here, Kitty, Kitty! (Fireside Games)

This week Indianapolis, Indiana is hosting the biggest gaming convention in the United States - Gen Con! Tens of thousands of people will flock to Lucas Oil Stadium to play and buy games. I, unfortunately, will not be going and will be instead a member of GenCant. But just because, I can't go, doesn't mean I can't play games with friends and tell you about some fun games for the whole family. Today, I am featuring two games from Fireside Games (makers of Castle Panic and located at Gen Con Booth #743). The games are entitled Bears! and Here, Kitty, Kitty! Let's start with Bears!

Bears! is a push your luck dice rolling game for 2-4 people ages 7+ and retails for about $20.

Setup - Setup is super-easy.
1. Place five Camp Dice (white dice) per person in the middle of the table, also known as the Campsite.
2. Give each player five Player Dice (black dice).

Game Play
1. Now, you simply roll the Camp Dice and then have each player roll their Player Dice. Then, the mad scramble begins.
2. You try and make one of three possible combinations with your Player Dice and the pool of Camp Dice. - Gun and Bear, Runner and Bear, or Tent and Sleeping Bag. (Note: You can only claim one Camp Die at a time, but you can re-roll you Player Dice as many times as necessary until paired.)
3. The round ends and is scored when the last tent or bear dice is removed and someone yells, "Bears!"
3. Scoring is as follows: Gun and Bear = 1 point. Runner and Tent = 2 points. Sleeping Bag and Tent = Five points if there were only tents dice left at the Campsite or -2 points in there were only bears left at the Campsite. Unpaired Player Dice = 0 points. Improperly paired Player Dice and Camp Dice = -1 point. (As you can see, your best reward is Sleeping Bag and Tent, but it could come back and bite you if you're wrong, and by it I mean the bears.)
4. First person to 100 points wins the game.

Review
There a few games out there, which are similar to Bears!, but this one is better (in my opinion). For starters, all players are acting simultaneously. Other press your luck dice rolling games, involve one player rolling and then another. That creates a lot of down time and gets more boring the more players you add. You don't have to worry about down time here, if you are going to slow, you'll find others are safe in their tents, but your campers got eaten. I also like the fact that you can accumulate points safely, but occasionally gamble. In other games, your greed will completely hinder you and get you no points. With this one, there are ways to for sure score points, and there is only one way that will give you a big reward or a big loss. Lastly, the game is infinitely scale-able. (Okay maybe not infinitely, that'd be a lot of dice), but for every game you own, you can play four players. So if you want to play with eight players, just get two copies of the game. Easy! If the game ever gets too easy for you, pick up the expansion die Bears! Trail Mix'd and it will change the way each round is scored to give you an ever-changing game.

Here, Kitty, Kitty! is a cat-collecting game for 3-6 players age 10+ and retails for about $25.

Setup
1. Give each player a Property card.
2. Place all 40 Cats in the center of the table. This represents the Neighborhood colony of cats.
3. Remove all Instant cards (red border) from the deck and shuffle the remaining cards. Deal three to each player, except in a 6-player game, where players are dealt two cards.
4. Shuffle the Instant cards back into the deck and place the deck in the center of the table next to the Neighborhood.

Game Play - First player is given to the player who owns the most cats.
1. Perform two of the following actions (knowing that you can perform the same action twice:
a. Move one cat - Cats can be moved one space for one action
b. Play one card - Instant cards must be played instantly when drawn, but the player gets to draw a replacement card once the action is resolved. Standard cards require using an action to gain the card's effect. Defensive cards offer protection against the other two types of cards.
c. Discard one to three cards from your hand.
2. After you have performed your two actions, draw back up to three cards (two in a 6-player game).
3. The end game triggers when the last card is drawn. Everyone then gets one final turn.
4. Scoring is based on who has the most cats in the different locations, who has the most of each color, etc. Highest score wins.

Review
We all know someone in our life who would be classified as a crazy cat person, be it neighbor, friend, or family. In Here, Kitty, Kitty!, you are that crazy cat person, and that's a pretty fun theme. What really makes this game is the miniature cats. There are 40 cats in four different colors and three different poses, and they really make the game pop. At first blush, this game looks like a silly little filler, but there's some area majority, set collection, and "Take that!" elements to it. So if you are looking for a fun, quick game where you can hoard cats without that awful smell, check out Here, Kitty, Kitty! It's good fun for adults and kids.

These games were provided to me for free by Fireside Games in exchange for honest reviews.