Castle Panic: Finally At The Table

A lot later than expected, and just a quick posting but I finally managed to get a game of Castle Panic in, and well it was awesome.

When I sat down to read through the rules, I knew that my first run through, tonights session, would be a solo affair and the rule book promised me quite a challenge. It wasn't kidding! The monster descended upon the walls of the castle pretty damn fast but despite the horde, all was was going reasonably well until I lost close to half of my walls and towers within the space of a couple of turns.

To say it was looking bad was an understatement.

Thanks to a couple of lucky draws, it didn't take too long to turn the tide of battle though, and a few turns later I had replaced all of the lost walls. Just a shame that I couldn't do anything about the lost towers.

The game kept pace from then on in up until a point where I had most of my walls wiped (again) with monsters continually being thrown into the same couple of arcs in some weird twist. Whilst this wasn't too bad from a strategic point of view, it did result in just under a third of the draw deck being useless for the better part of the game. Maybe that'll even out over time though.

This kind of flow, along with a fairly consistent pace (save a couple of surges) meant that victory came rather easily, but I can't help but think with how easily all of those walls fell early on into the game, combined with the fact that I only had two walls (one of which was reinforced mind) and one tower remaining, that this game has a lot of challenge left in it.

It's certainly no Elder Sign.

If you don't own it, buy it! Like Settlers, this is one title that should be in EVERY gaming collection.

Alchemy Bytes #29: Even More Catan!

Although I would be one of the first to admit that I am no fan of Catan ( I haven't even sat down to a game yet), I have developed a thick and fast appreciation of Wil Wheaton's Tabletop, as I am sure you are all becoming more than aware of with my recent posts.

As much as I am really digging the videos on this great channel, this one did leave me a little flat. It certainly wasn't for the best efforts of the guests though. Catan just doesn't seem to be all that interesting. An opinion that I know that other people also share.

There has to be a reason Catan is so popular though. I just don't see it!

So what do you guys think? Catan, yay or nah?

Alchemy Bytes #28: Wood You Like Fries With That?

With all the recent talk of The Settlers of Catan that seems to be going around, I really couldn't not post this could I? ;0).

Crossovers #2: Unsettling Times In Catan

A Nuclear War Card Game / The Settlers of Catan Crossover created by Rick Loomis. Edited and re-posted here by me.

You are playing The Settlers of Catan as normal, with the following exceptions:

• Create a draw pile using all of the basic cards from the Nuclear War Card Game.

• On your turn you may discard any two resources in order to draw a card from the "Nuke Deck".

• You may also discard the following combinations of Nuke cards for the following benefits:

A Secret Card = One Resource of your choice.
A Top Secret Card = One Resource of your choice.
A Special Card = One Resource of your choice.
Two Propaganda Cards = One Resource of your choice.

• When you have a combination of either a Bomber or a Missile and a Warhead that can be fitted to it, you may use them to destroy any City or Settlement on the map.

• If attacked that player may opt to shoot down that Bomber or Missile if they have the appropriate Antimissile. If they do so, the attack is canceled and play immediately passes to them.

• If the Bomber or Missile is not intercepted then you spin the spinner. Missiles fail to affect their intended target on a spin of "Dud Warhead", Bombers on "Bomber Runs Out Of Fuel" and, blasts of only a 10 Megaton yield on Bomb Shelters. Anything else destroys the target and a marker should be placed on it's smoldering ruins. Nothing else may be built there for the remainder of the game but, for all purposes within the rules there is considered to be no Settlement there.

• If you used a Bomber to drop a Nuke and did not spin the result "Bomber Runs Out Of Fuel",and it has not dropped 50 Megatons worth of explosives, leave the bomber face up in front of you. It may be used to drop further Warheads in the future.

You can read the original text here or, order your copy of the Nuclear War Card Game here.