Game Night – Castle Panic

by Carol2 Comments
Castle Panic Designer: Justin De Witt Manufacturer: Fireside Games Artist: Justin De Witt Year: 2009 Players: 1 - 6 Time: 60 minutes Ages: 10 and up The forest is filled with all sorts of Monsters. They watched and waited as you built your Castle and trained your soldiers, but now they’ve gathered their army and are marching out of the woods. Can you work with your friends to defend your Castle against the horde, or will the Monsters tear down your Walls and destroy the precious Castle Towers? You will all win or lose together, but in the end only one player will be declared the Master Slayer! We played this last weekend and it's a fun, light cooperative game. All the players work together to save the castle. However, at the end, there can be only one master slayer, so for me at least, there's some conflicting emotions while playing. Yes, I want to help save the castle,...
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Game Night – Steampunk theme

by Carol4 Comments
As you may know, vvB32 Reads has been hosting a SteamPink week. Since board games so often have themes very similar to books, genre-wise, I though I'd go on a search for steampunk games. Now, remember, I haven't played any of these yet, but they look cool. Edison & Co. Designer: Gunter Burkhardt Manufacturers: Rio Grande Games, Goldsieber Artist: Franz Vohwinkel Year: 1998 Players: 2 - 4 Time: 30 - 60 minutes Ages: 12 and up The players are inventors at the Edison Company where they work in teams of two to influence the outcome of driving tests for new vehicles. Players try to get their favorite vehicles to the high scoring spaces on the track at scoring time--so it's not a race, but more a question of timing since players must evaluate where they should be at a specific point in the game. With a unique movement system, each player controls only...
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Game Night – Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm

by Carol2 Comments
Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio, Luca Iennaco Manufacturer: Fantasy Flight Games Year: 2009 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 90 minutes Ages: 10 and up A few weeks ago I wrote about Kingsburg, a fun game where you build buildings, influence the king's advisors and defeat monsters. This is a great expansion. It adds variety and new strategies. Lately I've been feeling a little burned out on expansions, but this one really does help the game. It doesn't feel so much like an expansion for expansion's sake, as some do. Actually, the expansion is more a collection of 5 "modules" that can be used separately or in conjunction to change the base game, add a little something different. The first module is new province sheets. They have the original buildings, but add on two new rows. The second module is single strips of building that can be used over lines in the original province sheets or the new ones. When...
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Game Night – Shadows Over Camelot

by Carol2 Comments
Shadows Over Camelot Designers: Serge Laget, Bruno Cathala Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2005 Players: 3 - 7 Time: 60 - 80 minutes Ages: 10 and up Yesterday was the Read-a-Thon, so I put off my Game Night post until today. It's been a while since we've played this one, but I love the King Arthur theme. You are one of the Knights of the Round Table and evil forces are gathering around Camelot and you must all join forces to protect the land. You and the others go on a variety of legendary quests, such as the search for Excalibur, the Holy Grail, or Lancelot's Armor; the tournament against the Black Knight; and numerous wars against the Saxons and Picts. But watch out, there may be a traitor in your midst. This in at heart a cooperative game. The players must work together to defeat evil, but there may be one player in their ranks who is...
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Game Night – Caylus

by Carol1 Comment
Caylus Designer: William Attia Manufacturers: Ystari Games, Rio Grande Games Year: 2005 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 60 - 150 minutes Ages: 12 and up 2006 Spiel des Jahres winner, Special Award for Complex Game. This is a great worker-placement game. We've only played it twice, but it's one of those games you can just tell is going to be played over and over. The year is is 1289. King Philip the Fair has decided to have a new castle built in order to strengthen the kingdom's borders. Now Caylus is a humble village, but soon workers and craftsmen will be flocking to the town, attracted by the great prospects. Around the building site, a city is slowly rising up. The players are the master builders. By building the castle and developing the city around it, they earn prestige points and gain the King’s favor. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige wins...
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Classic Family Games

by Carol5 Comments
I ran across a mention of a board game in a book I'm reading this week, so I though I'd share. The next afternoon Harriet didn't get home until five o'clock. She had purposely Stayed away all day, first following her spy route, then playing Monopoly with Janie and Sport. The game had made her irritable because she hated to sit still for that long. Janie and Sport loved it. Janie had all sorts of systems worked out for winning, and Sport was so passionate about money that they were kept continually interested, but Harriet couldn't keep her mind on it. (pg. 135, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh) I can understand where Harriet's coming from . Monopoly can leave me irritated too. It can be such a long game, and I never, ever win. On the other hand, I do think it's a game that every family should own a copy of . There are just some classic games that are great...
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