Year: 2015

How to Play The Village Crone – Videos!

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village-crone-horizontal-logo

The Village Crone releases next week (September 30) in Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) everywhere in the US. We invite you to immerse yourself in the medieval town of Wickersby and learn about the gameplay with our Official How to Play videos!

Not only do we have a general gameplay overview video, but we also have some break-out videos on casting Spells, moving Familiars, and Witch’s Schemes. Check them all out on our YouTube Channel. You can share the entire playlist for The Village Crone, or just video you think your friends will find useful.

Want to know what different Spells you’ll be casting in The Village Crone? Check out this video that teaches you what the Spells do, what you need in Ingredients to Cast them, and the special incantations you need to give voice to your witchy desires!

What happens when too many Familiars congregate in one place? Watch the video on Movement & Scattering, to see what happens to Villagers and Familiars when the party gets too big! You can even use Scattering to your advantage if you are clever.

Check out our Something Wicked Tour in the New England area if you want to learn to play from the designer, Anne-Marie De Witt. And be sure to visit the game’s webpage for the FREE 3D Printer Files for all the components if you want to add minis to the game!

If you order directly through our website you get the exclusive Silver coaster promo you can use in the game, or ask at your FLGS, they may have snagged a few of this promo at a recent show!

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As you prepare to get your very own copy of The Village Crone, be sure to download the Book of Spells patch for the Unbinding Spell error in the first printing.

Happy Spell-Casting!!

Ghosts, Witches, and a History Lesson – Tour Schemes Completed

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Bewitched statue in Salem

Riding with ghosts, witnessing history, and exploring the paranormal… just a few of the objectives Justin and Anne-Marie had to complete to score the first seven points of the Something Wicked Tour meta game. Let’s take a look at the Schemes they were following and whether they accomplished them or not!

1 Point: Ride with the Damned – take the Trolley of the Doomed (Boston, MA) – COMPLETED

Our first scheme “Ride with the Damned” took us on a dark and spooky ride through historic Boston. We visited Copp’s Hill burying ground, saw the home of the last victim of the Boston Strangler, spent some time with the occupants of the Granary Burying Ground and more. The city is crawling with ghosts and we survived our encounter to score our first Witch’s Scheme!

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Copps Hill Tombstone: This 3 part tombstone is a sad marker of 3 untimely deaths. George Worthylake’s tombstone is on the left, his wife’s on the right and their young daughter’s in the middle. The three were drowned while returning to Boston Lighthouse at Beacon Island where George was keeper. Strangely enough, George’s replacement was found drowned days after taking up the position, giving rise to the legend that the lighthouse was cursed. To this day, a phantom lightkeeper can be seen shining his lantern on the island and climbing the lighthouse stairs. Locals believe it to be George Worthylake, which means this is a photo of the grave of an actual ghost!

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Franklin Grave: Wow, the actual grave of Benjamin Franklin! . . . is in Philadelphia. This monument is where his parents are born.

Paul Revere grave and memorial
Paul Revere grave and memorial

Paul Revere Grave: The large marker in the center is a monument to the famous rider. The tiny tombstone on the bottom right is where he is actually buried.

2 Points: Pay Respects to the Accused – visit the Salem Witch Museum & Memorial (Salem, MA) – COMPLETED

What witch focused tour would be complete without a visit to Salem, MA? We took some time to absorb the history and tragedy of the Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692.

The Witch Trial Memorial is a somber place to remember what happened here. It’s a simple, but touching memorial with stone benches bearing the names of those who were hanged for witchcraft.

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Actual quotes from the accused are carved into the stone threshold of the memorial.

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A plaque at the memorial recaps the trials and lists the names of all the hanged victims.

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The Salem Witch Museum has a retelling of the events that surrounded the hysteria of the trials as well as a look at witches through history.

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On a lighter note, there is a cool statue of Samantha Stevens from Bewitched in the middle of town. Anne-Marie loved this show growing up and later episodes were actually filmed in Salem.

What’s the Score?

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At this point Anne-Marie and Justin have scored 3 points total towards the 13 they need by the end of the Something Wicked tour in October. We’ll be sharing their first 3-point scheme soon, so stay tuned!

Have you visited any of these places? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!

Knight Moves Cafe, Pandemonium Books, & Compleat Strategist Boston

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The Village Crone in play at Knight Moves games

Over the weekend Anne-Marie and Justin made the first two store visits for the Something Wicked Tour.

Knight-moves-cafe-logoWe have started this tour in Boston and the surrounding boroughs and our first stop was at Knight Moves Cafe in Brookline, MA. Knight Moves is a game cafe that focuses on providing a friendly hangout for gamers (both new and veteran) to have a snack, a drink, and a good time playing games together.

We arrived early and the shop was relatively quiet. That would change as the night went on when it was standing room only and we got in several games of The Village Crone and earned some new fans for the game
The owner, Devon, was very helpful and kept directing gamers to our tables as well as serving delicious drinks and snacks all night long.

Their demo library is made of multiple bookcases that are literally overflowing with games. If you want to try out a game in the Brookline area, this is the place to do it!

While they don’t sell games at Knight Moves Cafe, they do work with Eureka Puzzles & Games, a game store down the street, to promote gaming in the Brookline area.

 

pandemonium-books-logoOn Sunday evening they ventured to the Harvard University area to visit Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge.

We played with all the local board game night attendees, squeezing in 4 games over the night.

The first game of the night had a tremendous finish with one player scoring all three of his Witches Schemes on his last turn in an amazing combination of spellcasting!

Thanks to all who came out!

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On Tuesday night we visited the Compleat Strategist in Boston.

Unfortunately we lost the video for this event, so we only have a few photos we grabbed while we were there. Must have been some of those ghosts we met earlier on the Trolley Tour!

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We met some local gamers and showed them what it takes to become The Village Crone. They were pretty good at being witches as it turns out since Justin got trounced soundly!

Up next is our visit to Sarge’s Comics in New London, CT on Friday (6–10pm) and then we will be visiting the legendary New York store of the Compleat Strategist this Saturday from 1pm to 5pm!

Special Tour Schemes for Justin & Anne-Marie!

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Witches scheme tour cards

doomed-trolley-Tour-Witches-Scheme

Join Justin & Anne-Marie on the Something Wicked Tour, and immerse yourself in the spirit of the tour with a little meta-game.

Follow along as they try to complete their own set of Tour Schemes over the next few weeks. Similar to your goals in The Village Crone, they will have to achieve the objectives on the Scheme Cards to score those points. Will they be able to score a total of 13 points before the last tour date? Stay tuned and see as we share these little extras with you!

The first set of Schemes Justin & Anne-Marie need to complete while they are in the Boston area!
The first set of Schemes Justin & Anne-Marie need to complete while they are in the Boston area!

Up first is a series of schemes in the Boston area. If you see them out and about, say hi, but don’t distract them from their purpose, they want to WIN this tour!

Schemes on Deck:

1 Point: RIDE WITH THE DAMNED – Take the “Trolley of the Doomed” Ghost Tour

1 Point: CONJURE A FAMILIAR – Spot a Familiar in the Cambridge Village Green

2 Points: PAY RESPECTS TO THE ACCUSED – Visit the Salem Witch Trials Memorial & Visit the Salem Witch Museum

3 Points: MARRY MAGIC & MAYHEM – View Phineas Gage’s Skull, Cross Harvard Bridge, & Visit Boston Neck Gallows

They will be providing proof of their Schemes on social media with photos and videos, so watch our YouTube Channel, Facebook Page, and Twitter & Instagram accounts for details.

(For bonus points, you can play along… share your experiences with any of the events/situations on their scheme cards – or make up your own! – through social media. Tag your posts using #SomethingWicked!)

something-wicked-tour-map

 

Get ready for The Village Crone! Releasing September 30

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Best laid plans often find themselves at the mercy of fate, and a customs hold on our shipment of The Village Crone has put us a bit behind so we are sliding the release date to September 30.

We have confirmation it has been released by customs and is in the warehouse. We need some time to get it logged into inventory and prepped for outgoing shipments, but we will definitely make this new release date.

In the meantime, we invite you to view our How to Play video for The Village Crone, and put in your pre-orders with us or your Friendly Local Game Store.

You may also want to meet up with us on the road as we start the Something Wicked Tour this weekend in Brookline, MA at Eureka Puzzles & Knight Moves Cafe on September 19. You can see the entire tour schedule with dates and venues in our tour announcement blog or by viewing our Calendar.

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Don’t forget you can download the 3D printer files for the game components and make your own minis on your personal 3D printer, and if you pre-order through our website, you will get the exclusive Silver promo coaster! (Ask at your FLGS, as they may have gotten a few of these at recent retailer shows.)

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We’ll be sharing more game play videos and game reviews as they come in and stay tuned for fun updates from the Something Wicked Tour!

Casting the Spell

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What fun would a game about witches be without spell-casting? Don’t worry, The Village Crone, is chock full of this kind of fun!

You main objective in The Village Crone is to score 13 points first by completing Witch’s Schemes. To do so, you will be sending out your Familiars to harvest Ingredients you need to cast a variety of spells to achieve the objectives on your Witch’s Scheme cards.

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There are 8 different spell types you can cast, each requiring a different mix of Ingredients and a special incantation. We have provided incantations for you, but you are permitted to make up your own if you are feeling particularly witchy while playing.

Pages 4 & 5 of the rule book go into detail about each spell, giving examples of how they work and how they affect the Villagers, and possibly your Familiars.

Let’s take a look at a specific spell-casting scenario: Continue reading Casting the Spell

Reaping the Rewards – Harvesting Ingredients

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village-crone-ingredients

We’ve recently discussed the importance of using your Familiars to gather the Ingredients you need to cast Spells in The Village Crone. Let’s take a closer look at the Ingredients and how you will be using them.

There are five types of Ingredients: Fire, Flour, Silver, Soil, and Eye of Newt.

Fire is created at the Forge, Flour at the Mill, Silver is found at the Lord’s Manor, and Soil is harvested at the Farm. Eye of Newt is a wild card and can be used in place of any of the other Ingredients to complete your Spells.

Three Eye of Newt cards are shuffled into each of the other Ingredient decks at the beginning of the game. These will be drawn at random during the Harvest phase, so you may or may not end up with one.

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You receive 2 Ingredient cards from each location in which you have a Familiar. If you have more than one Familiar in the same location, you get 2 cards for EACH Familiar.

You receive Ingredients during the Harvest phase of a round. Remember, you only get Ingredients from locations in which you have a Familiar during the Harvest phase. If you do not have any Familiars in a location to receive Ingredients, you may take 3 Ingredients from the Tithe Barn as charity. There is also a rule that allows witches to trade Ingredients during the Move & Cast Spells phase, but the rate of trade is negotiated between players. You may be able to “buy” an Ingredient you need from another player, but it can cost you!

When you cast a Spell, you discard those Ingredients. If another player blocks your Spell with a Protection Spell, you still lose those Ingredients.

Don’t forget to consult your Book of Spells often to remember the Ingredients you will need to be collecting to cast the Spells on your Witch’s Scheme cards. And remember there are multiple ways to achieve some of your Schemes, so get creative and use your resources wisely!

Happy Casting!

Something Wicked Tour for The Village Crone

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something-wicked-comes-quote

There is a crispness in the air and something whispers on the wind. Fall approaches, as does the witching hour. We invite you to join us as we bring The Village Crone to game stores across New England with the Something Wicked Tour!

Our newest game is full of spell-casting and witchy fun, and releases in September. We are hitting the road to traverse the Northeast United States, teaching new witches how to play and visiting some spooky places along the way.

Anne-Marie De Witt (designer of The Village Crone) and Justin De Witt (co-owner of Fireside Games) will be making the following stops to demo The Village Crone, talk about game design, share promos for the game, and generally be enchanting! We hope to see you along the way.

something-wicked-tour-mapSept 19    5:30-6:30PM
Eureka Puzzles & More
Brookline, MA
Signing Event Q&A

Sept 19    7-11PM
Knight Moves Cafe
Brookline, Ma
Demo night

Sept 20    6-10PM
Pandemonium Books & Games
Cambridge, MA

Sept 22    4-8PM
Compleat Strategist
Boston, MA

Sept 25    6-10PM
Sarge’s Comics & Games
New London, CT

Sept 26    2-6PM
Compleat Strategist
New York, NY

Sept 27    12-4PM
Time Machine/The Portal
Manchester, CT

Sept 30    7-11PM
The UnCommons NYC
New York, NY

the-village-crone-box-3D-left-webOct 1 & 2    2-6PM
Brooklyn Game Lab
Brooklyn, NY

Oct 3        2-6PM
Dragon’s Den
Poughkeepsie, NY

Oct 4        12-3PM
Gamer’s Gambit
Danbury, CT

Oct 6        6-10PM
Quarterstaff Games
Burlington, VT

Oct 11        1-5PM
Crossroad Games
Standish, ME

Oct 13        5-9PM
Diversions Puzzles & Games
Portsmouth, NH

Getting Familiar with The Village Crone

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Beasts that Crawl, Fly, Slither, & Stalk

village-crone-familiars-all

What witch could succeed without the assistance of her Familiar breed? In The Village Crone, you command your Familiars to assist you in the completion of your Witch’s Schemes.

Each witch has their own set of Familiar tokens that represent their animal minions. The choices you have are cats, bats, rats, snakes, spiders, and crows. If you have a personal affinity towards a particular animal it may bring you luck!

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You will get 5 tokens displaying your Familiar’s likeness, you will place 3 of them on the board at the beginning of the game. In order to put the other two in play, you must use the Conjuring Spell.

The Familiars are placed on the board in various locations around the Village for several strategic purposes.

A vital function of your Familiars is harvesting of Ingredients you need to cast Spells. During the Harvest Ingredients phase of a round, you will receive two Ingredient cards for each Familiar you have in a given location. For instance, if you have one Familiar at the Lord’s Manor, you will receive two Silver. If you have two Familiars at the Farm, you will receive four Soil (two for each Familiar).

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You may also want to move your Familiars around using your Movement Phase if you need to change the Ingredients you have been gathering to cast different Spells. This strategy will depend upon the Spells required to complete your Witch’s Schemes.

There are spells that require a Familiar to be present in a location to affect that space, such as Summoning or Switching.

An overcrowding of Familiars can occur, triggering a Scatter effect and kicking Familiars out of a specific location. For more details on Scattering, check your rule book page 3.

Whether you prefer cat-like reflexes, a bird’s eye view, or the creepy-crawly vibe of an eight-legged friend, your Familiars will be a most valued resource as you vie to be The Village Crone!

 

 

Which Witch is Which? Look Inside the Book of Spells

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What is inside the Book of Spells?

village-crone-spell-book-covers

Each player in The Village Crone will choose a Book of Spells at the beginning of the game. You will use this as a privacy screen to keep your Schemes away from the prying eyes of the other witches and it acts as a handy reference guide for the Spells you will be casting and some of the rules for gameplay.

The book you choose determines which Familiar becomes yours to command. The image of your Familiar is displayed on the outside facing portion of your Book of Spells so the other witches know whose Familiars are whose.

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Inside the Book of Spells you will find a handy chart of the Spells you will be casting. The chart includes a description of what the Spell does, the Ingredients required to cast it, and the Incantation you must say to give power to your spell. You may also choose to make up your own incantations, which can lead to some really funny moments in the game!

There is also a reference guide for Order of Play when you are first learning to play the game or have new players joining you, and a helpful reminder list for some of the rules you will want to keep in mind without having to look them up in the rule book once you get going.

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Don’t forget to make sure you have the latest version of the rules with the correction to the Unbinding spell. You can also print out a patch for your Books of Spells Charts.

 

DragonCon, Here We Come!

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Dragon Con logo

It’s that time of year again already! Next week we will be heading to Atlanta, GA along with 70,000 other people for DragonCon.

This year the Exhibitor Space is in AmericasMart Building 2. We will be on the First Floor in Booth 1425.

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We will have copies of The Village Crone for advance sale, so you can take it home with you before it releases in stores in September. But we only have a limited supply, so be sure to come by early.

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DragonCon is a unique show and we get to see some pretty sweet costumes walk by the booth! If you are going to the show this year, stop by and say “Hi!” You can pick up the 6th Level Agranok card for The Dark Titan or an Alarm Clock for Bears!

Oh, and we’ll have these super sweet Deluxe Monster Draw Bags for Castle Panic for sale. We just got them back in stock!

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Scheming Witches: Anatomy of a Witch’s Scheme Card

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The main objective in The Village Crone is to be the first witch to score 13 victory points. You score points by completing Witch’s Schemes valued at 1, 2, or 3 points, depending on the difficulty level of the objectives in the scheme.

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In order to score a Scheme, all conditions on the card must be met in the same turn. Cards contain both Active and Passive Schemes. What’s the difference? Active Schemes must be completed by the Witch scoring the card, Passive Schemes may be met by conditions existing on the board or by the Witch scoring the card.

Let’s take a look at an example: Continue reading Scheming Witches: Anatomy of a Witch’s Scheme Card

Unbinding Unbound

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We want to extend a big “Thank You” to everyone who has been spreading their love for The Village Crone through your reviews, blogs, posts, and tweets.

As you are enjoying the game, we want to let you know about an error in the Unbinding Spell that affects the rulebook and Book of Spells. Binding a location requires 2 Soil cards, but the Ingredients required to Unbind a location should be 2 of the same of ANY ingredient, not just Soil.

Visit The Village Crone info page to download the latest version of the rules with the ingredient fix.

We have updated the rules PDF (which is available online), provided a small patch for the Book of Spells (which can be downloaded and printed), and will be including an errata sheet with all games purchased after the publication of this post.

Download and a print the patch sheet for the Book of Spells quick reference guide to update your game.

The Village Crone releases September 30, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more bewitching good times. Happy casting!

Welcome to Wickersby

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A look at the modular game boards in The Village Crone.

One of the many fun features of The Village Crone, is the modular game board. In this game, the play area is comprised of six (6), 9×9 boards that each represent a different location in the medieval village of Wickersby.

The layout of the boards is changeable each time you play. For standard play, we recommend you lay them out on a standard 3 x 2 grid; however, if you would like more complexity in your game you may choose to offset the boards, creating new pathways that must be maneuvered when moving Villagers and Familiars from location to location to achieve your Schemes.

With this added flexibility in the game, you will discover new challenges to your strategy each time you play. The “best” path from the Forge to the Mill will change each time you lay the tiles differently, adding a simple, yet meaningful, twist that keeps the game feeling fresh even after repeated play.

You can pre-order The Village Crone on our site or at your Friendly Local Game Store. It officially releases in stores everywhere September 30. To read the full rules, visit the information page about The Village Crone and click on the PDF download link under the How to Play header.

GenCon 2015: Post-Show Wrap-Up

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Another Gen Con has come to an end. We came, we played, we conquered.

This year had record attendance, according to the official count from Gen Con, and the sea of people around the booth indicated they all made it through the exhibit hall at some point. Things went very smoothly for us this year, thanks to our awesome volunteers and staff!

Our demo tables stayed full with barely a lull. Players were scrambling to get in one more round each night at closing time and were snagging chairs minutes after the hall opened each day. Many thanks to everyone who came by to play with us, you made the con such fun for us!

The calm before the storm…
The booth in full swing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Village Crone debuted at this year’s Gen Con and we are thrilled so many people came by to demo, get an overview, and take an advance copy home with them. If you missed Gen Con this year, never fear. It is now available for pre-order on our website or through your Friendly Local Game Store. If you need help finding a game store near you, check out our Store Locator Map.

Some serious spell-casting going on in The Village Crone

You can also download the special 3D printer files we created for The Village Crone components on the product information page. They are FREE to download until the end of the year, so get them now and use them later!

Anne-Marie De Witt, designer of The Village Crone, signs a couple copies for fans

We are already brainstorming about how to make next year even better and we have several new games that will be coming your way in 2016. So, go get some sleep. Recuperate and rest assured there are big things coming your way at Gen Con 2016 and we invite you to join us for the fun.

Dead Panic got a lot of love this weekend as well. Who says zombie games aren’t still popular?

What were your favorite moments from GenCon? Tell us in the comments below!

The Dark Titan Review Round Up

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It’s been a few months since Agranok returned from banishment and invaded the Castle Panic towers with his army of Elite Monsters. Now that The Dark Titan expansion has hit table tops around the country (and world), let’s take a look at what people are saying…

Ryan Morgenegg of Deseret News says, “For fans of Castle Panic, the purchase of The Dark Titan expansion is a no-brainer. For a relatively small price, the game offers a bunch of new content  and the toughest challenge yet.” You can read his full review on the Deseret News page.

For those of you new to Castle Panic, check out PostPostModernDad’s review. He introduces new players to the joys and woes of defending your home in Castle Panic and gives a great overview of what this expansion adds to the game, without overwhelming you with the nuances of adding the first expansion, The Wizard’s Tower, as well.

His verdict? “The Dark Titan enhances and underscores Castle Panic‘s inherent cooperative play making it a fantastic addition to the game. Buy it.” Well, we can’t argue with that, now can we?

The Opinionated Gamer (aka pastor guy) states, “fans of the game will find new challenges and interesting twists that don’t overwhelm the sold engine of the base game.”

And Rick Teverbaugh of the Herald Bulletin believes this expansion will remind you why you loved Castle Panic in the first place and encourages you to get it back on the table. There’s no reason your Castle should be gathering dust in your game library!

“I can virtually assure all gamers there will be moments of panic when it seems all might be lost – and with the challenges put forth, that might really be true,” says Teverbaugh.

Still need some convincing of the amount of drama and panic held in the small expansion box? Check out the dramatic retelling of a play through of The Dark Titan in The Dice Tower video review by the fine fellas at Boardgame Corner (click HERE to skip straight to the epic story time!).

Randy and Mark of Boardgame Corner both agree the expansion “is a blast to play” with Mark really loving the 5 different levels of difficulty for Agranok.

“It goes from manageable to completely insane,” Mark says. We’re pretty sure that is what Justin (De Witt, designer of Castle Panic and its expansions) was going for!

If you still haven’t tried The Dark Titan expansion for Castle Panic, we invite you to check out our How to Play videos, including a video on how to play with both expansions. For more information on The Wizard’s Tower expansion, visit our webpage.

Ask for Castle Panic and its expansions at your Friendly Local Game Store!