Castle Panic 2nd Edition | Cooperative Board Game for Adults and Family | Ages 8+ | for 1 to 6 Players | Average Playtime 45 Minutes | Made by Fireside Games

We love this co-op game. It is such a nice change from competitive games. If you have a child or children that have difficulty with competitive games, this game is a winner. It allows all players to partake in decisions and strategies. In essence, a great team building and strategy game. We have played the game nearly every night since opening, and have plans to get the expansion packs.The game in general is very good quality. Thick cardboard tokens/pieces that should last a long time under normal wear. The board, cards and tokens are printed clearly and the colors are aesthetically pleasing. I will say, I am worried about the thickness of the cards as they are thin (I wish they had the thickness of One Piece TCG cards). When first starting it will take longer than an hour for first play through- your still learning the mechanics and rules. Once you have mastered the rules and mechanics it is roughly a 60-90 minute game. The age range on the game states starting at age 8, but I feel if my child it would have been difficult to partake and understand the game.What is great about this game is that each play-through isn’t the same, and the outcomes can be completely different. For example, our last game, we had one tower standing with zero walls. The only saving grace was to pull a barbarian card (which was already in the discard pile). We had nothing in anyone’s hand to kill the orc that was one move away from entering the castle ring and destroying our lone tower. We had all come to terms with a defeat for this play-through. Lo and behold, our child draws a special card called Scavenger that allows the player to look through the discard pile for any card of his/her choice. In excitement, our child immediately finds the Barbarian and throws the final blow. Our lone tower still standing, and our child throwing the winning blow for a game we thought for sure was a loss - It was a very epic ending.

This is a perfect family game! It's challenging enough that my husband and I enjoy it, but also easy enough that our 7 year old has mastered it. And we all enjoy that it is cooperative so we are working together against the monsters - usually we win, but not always!! We really enjoy playing it together, and once it got to be a bit repetitive (after playing probably about 50 times), we bought one of the expansion packs which has completely livened it up again. Highly recommend this for anyone looking for cooperative games to play with kids that are also fun for adults!

Absolutely love this game! Like some others have mentioned, I searched and did research on a lot of different games for our Family Game Night... trying to find the perfect blend of fun, easy rules, and short on time... we've played a lot of different games, some can get competitive with the kids, and a game like Castle Panic where we play cooperatively to defeat the monsters was just the right ticket! Its very quick and easy to understand the rules, games last about 30 minutes to an hour max. Each game can be very different, depending on how the monsters show up, and every game we've played there's always been that nail-biting time when we thought we were going to lose the castle.... it's a very well-balanced game on victory conditions, never too easy or two hard IMHO.One other aspect, the game might be "too simple" for people seeking a deeper or more complicated game, and that's where the expansions come-in... currently three expansions out (I own two of them) they can be played all-together or you can mix and match the expansions for just the experience you want. Each expansion adds a little (or a lot) more complexity to the game, with corresponding length of play added to the game (start adding expansions, and play-time definitely increases)... the beauty is you can always go back to the base game for a quick match, or add varying expansions for longer more in-depth play... this adds a lot of replay value (my personal opinion, Wizard's Tower adds the most rules and most playtime to the game, Dark Titan is a little quicker and a little lighter on game time added... if you add BOTH, you get a very long in-depth game... I don't have the siege engines expansion so can't comment on that).One of the things I really enjoy about this game is how great and easy it is to expand on the base game out of the box... between the (currently) three expansions and other after-market support from places like Etsy and third-party manufacturers, there's a lot you can do to spice up this game... I'm adding some pictures, the castle in the picture does NOT come with the game... I wanted a better castle and found one made for the game on Etsy, it was a very nice and inexpensive addition to perk the game up (just search for "Castle Panic" on Etsy and you'll find things there for the game!)... also I added Papo Mini Tub Figure, Knights - 12 Pieces to replace the Cavalier unit, Mini Flame Markers (10) and a Broken Token Box Organizer for Castle Panic, also shown in the pictures below.

This is one of my favorite board games! It is easy to learn and great to play in a mixed-age group. It is a cooperative game where the players are working together to defeat all the monsters (ogres, trolls, etc.) before their castle is destroyed. I’ve both won and lost several times, and you can adjust the difficulty level to fit your group. Everything came in good condition and it was easy to assemble a few pieces that had two parts. The cards and pieces are high quality and have detailed illustrations, and I can tell the game will last a long time. This is a great game for team-building or a fun family game night!

Played this game with my wife and 2 sons (5 and 8). Easy to learn and quick enough game time that it kept both boys' attention. Challenging for our 8 year old yet easy enough that our 5 year old could do his turn independently. Fun trying to beat back the monsters as they tried to storm the castle. We will definitely look into the expansions for added challenge, but the base game as is has good replayability.