Castle Panic (Second Edition)

A tower defence game played entirely with cards, in which the towers are the bit you keep losing.

Monsters come out of the forest at the edge of the board and walk inwards. Your castle sits in the middle with six towers, and the game ends when either the monsters are dead or the castle is not. Everyone plays from a shared hand economy, trading cards across the table to get the right colour into the right ring at the right moment, and the second edition brings new artwork and a custom die without touching the rules that made it work.

The trick is that it is co-operative but not solved: cards are scarce, monsters move every turn, and there is always a wall you could have saved if somebody had traded a red archer two turns ago. It is one of the few co-ops that a family of six can actually all play at once, and it survives losing — you lose reasonably often, and that is the point.

Perfect for: families who want to be on the same side for once, and can cope with the castle occasionally falling over anyway.

1–6 players | About 45 minutes | Age 8+

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📖 New to the style? What Is a Cooperative Game? — how co-ops work, and which ones to start with.