What a way to start the summer! We returned to Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH after a few years away and were greeted with warm smiles from eager gamers.
The quiet before the rush.
When the hall opened on Thursday morning there was a steady stream of attendees getting their first look around the hall and we even had a few beeline straight to make their Bears! Trail Mix’d purchase. This expansion to our fast-paced, dice-pairing game Bears! doesn’t officially release until June 24, but we had a stash of advance copies and people weren’t shy about snagging one of their very own.
We had a lot of interest in The Dark Titan expansion to Castle Panic and kept that demo table running regularly most of the weekend. There were many Castle Panic first-timers sitting down so they got to experience the true panic the expansion brings to the game. The ratio of wins to losses was pretty evenly matched and everyone seemed to actually enjoy the anxiety brought by the new Monsters and Agranok.
Edgar taught a 6-player group how to fend off Agranok in this Castle Panic and The Dark Titan demo.
There was a heightened interest in Dead Panic so we cracked open a copy for the second demo table and that one stayed full most of the weekend as well. We had a fantastic play through with a young gamer and her dad. She was a boss at taking out zombies with her chain saw and there were a lot of smiles in that apocalypse.
Our favorite zombie apocalypse survival team of the weekend.
The best thing about doing game conventions is all the familiar faces and the new friends we make, and this year’s Origins Game Fair was no exception. We want to thank everyone who came by the booth to say hi, pick up the latest promos, and take a copy of a game home with them.
New game promos included a 6th Level Agranok card for The Dark Titan and an Alarm Clock for Bears!
If you missed out on the 6th Level Agranok promo or the Bears! Alarm Clock, don’t worry, we’ll have them at other shows this year. Check out our Calendar for future appearances.
We hope to see many of you in July at GenCon in Indy. (We’ll have The Village Crone on the table there, as well as a special promo you’ll want to be sure to pick up.) We’ll be in booth #1949.
We are returning to Origins Game Fair this year! We invite you to stop by our booth (#839) to check out the latest games and promos, get in a demo, and update your game collection with our new releases.
The Dark Titan released in April and has been very popular among Castle Panic fans. (Did you know you can combine it with The Wizard’s Tower as well for maximum panic?!) Bears! Trail Mix’d doesn’t actually release until late June so you can score an advance copy at the show!
We have special promos for the new games as well, so you’ll want to be sure to come to booth #839 to pick up the latest game swag to make all your friends jealous.
Kris and Maureen were on location this past weekend at Who’sYerCon in Indianapolis, IN to share The Dark Titan and kick-off recruiting for our new volunteer corps, The Torch Program*.
We arrived on Friday afternoon and found the con already in full swing with the game library hopping and the open gaming area full. We saw several familiar faces and met lots of new friends.
Agranok tried to scare us up some Torch applicants and managed to hypnotize a few fans of our games that first night. We moved to the open gaming room around 8pm and played games until 11, giving some new players a chance to tackle The Dark Titan.
Saturday morning came and after scavenging for breakfast we headed back to the Wyndham Indianapolis West to meet some more gamers, recruit some more volunteers, and play some more games. We got to tell a bunch of people about the Panic Line and saw our games coming and going from the game library all day. That evening we played some Dead Panic as well as Castle Panic with The Dark Titan.
Who’s Yer Con is a free gaming convention that is open to anyone who wants to play. It has a very friendly, laid-back vibe and every one we met was a having a great time. We hope to get a chance to get out and do this con again in the future.
*We’re working on a web page for The Torch Program, so if you are interested in volunteering and teaching Fireside Games games to others stay tuned as we bring the application process to a computer near you! Also feel free to ask about the program when you see us in person at events coming up this summer!
We had representatives on the ground at two additional events for International Table Top Day this year. We’re excited the growth of the company has provided us the additional staff so we can play games with more people in more locations on more occasions in the future.
The Flame Hat made its debut at The Malted Meeple for International TableTop Day. Pretty swank, huh?
First up, we started the day in Hudson, OH with Kris and Maureen on location at The Malted Meeple, a gaming cafe that offers a wide variety of snacks and beverages (craft beers and sodas, and hand-crafted milkshakes!) as well as an extensive game library. Kris debuted the Flame Hat in her intro video for the event. You can watch it in action below:
The Malted Meeple main gaming area. This area was packed all day!
We got set up in an event space off the main room around 11 AM and there were already several gamers at other tables enjoying games. We were set up to handle demos of Castle Panic with The Dark Titan, as well as Dead Panic and Bears! Partway through the day they broke out a copy of Munchkin Panic to show a few gamers how they were different and get a couple more demos underway.
We were running multiple demos all day. Our tables were always full!
Aside from the event room we had copies of the games out at tables in the main room among the throngs of people who kept the staff at The Malted Meeple hopping all day with milkshake orders and lots of snack prep! There was rarely an empty table and the place stayed full well into the evening. Maureen even played a couple of raucous games of Bears! right at the bar!
A rare moment you could actually see the bar, they were so busy all day and even had to call in extra staff!
It was great fun to see our games making the rounds and meet some big fans who came out specifically for Castle Panic swag. We even got to see our Troll coasters all over the place with each drink order!
Image courtesy of The Malted Meeple. Our Troll coasters in action!
Next up, a few hours later and entire time zone away, Edgar and Gabby were at Dragon’s Lair Comic & Fantasy in Austin, TX for their in-store event!
They ran several demos of Castle Panic with The Dark Titan as well as a few with Castle Panic and BOTH The Dark Titan and The Wizard’s Tower expansions! Edgar also ran some people through some exciting games of Bears! They ran out of space and time as the tables remained full all day, but managed to talk to a lot of people about the upcoming Bears! Trail Mix’d expansion to Bears! as well as the forthcoming The Village Crone, expected out this fall.
Image courtesy of Dragon’s Lair Austin Edgar giving the Castle Panic + The Dark Titan + The Wizard’s Tower demo
Dragon’s Lair is an awesome store and they planned a big event with several game companies represented and lots of open gaming happening. The staff there was very accommodating and supportive and the event attendees were great fun. There were even a few people who survived The Dark Titan! It was a long day full of fun, Castle destruction, and awesome people.
We look forward to future events at Dragon’s Lair and hope to see more of the Austin gaming community out at events like this. Thanks to the folks at Dragon’s Lair and The Malted Meeple for helping us have such a successful International TableTop Day!
Kris & Maureen will be back at The Malted Meeple later in the month as we are in their Publisher Spotlight this month. So if you are local in Ohio and missed TableTop Day you get a second chance at the fun. Check our calendar and watch our Facebook for information on the next visit.
You’ll be seeing more of Edgar as well as he heads up our new volunteer corps, The Torch Program. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for Fireside Games, we are currently actively recruiting for the Austin area as well as for GenCon 2015. Contact us for more details.
Anne-Marie and Justin took a whirlwind trip to LA to attend the flagship TableTop Day event at Geek & Sundry’s secret Headquarters in Burbank. The day started off early with people lining up to get in. The “secret” headquarters weren’t so secret with giant, inflatable G&S logos everywhere, so it was pretty easy to find.
Justin and Anne-Marie got there early and were able to see the place while it was still empty. Geek & Sundry has a pretty sweet soundstage to work with!
Since we were sponsors of TableTop Day, we were given a VIP table where we could show off The Dark Titan. We had help this year from local game gurus, Eric Burgess and Devi Hughes. These two were awesome, running demos and keeping players entertained all day long. We couldn’t have done the event without them! Plus Eric brought famous strawberry donuts from The Donut Man, which of course Justin had to try.
Before long, the doors were open and gamers came flooding in! Tables were filled and many games began. People were excited to try The DarkTitan, but a lot of the people that came by the table hadn’t played Castle Panic yet at all. They soon realized they were getting a special treat when the designer of the game taught them how to play!
Devi gets some players started on a game of Castle Panic with The Dark Titan.
Felica Day kicked things off with a quick speech and was there all day playing games with people and shaking hands. Geek & Sundry had a library where players could check out games, as well as a merchandise booth where you could get a drink or pick up some sweet G&S swag!
While Eric and Devi taught some demos, Justin and Anne-Marie went out into the crowd to visit with fans and take in the whole event. We found some Bears! players, and Anne-Marie was able to teach the game to them, but she didn’t get the highest score that game!
There was a photo op with a couch and cutout of Felica Day that got a lot of attention that day as well as a Loser’s Couch. Here our buddy Patrick from Crash Games poses with a group of players that were defeated.
It was a great time with a great feel to it. Justin took this panorama shot standing in the middle of the soundstage, which kind of gives you a little bit of the feel of the whole thing.
Click to enlarge
The event was so large, they had to extend it out of the soundstage and into a tented area in the parking lot. And it was NEVER empty.
We also encountered a group of Munchkin players diving into the world of Munchkin Panic, so we stopped to talk with them. Once they realized they were talking with the designer of the game, they wanted to get their photo taken with Anne-Marie. It was a lot of fun to meet fans of our games at this event, since so many of them are new to gaming they are very passionate and very excited to meet the creators in person.
There were also 3 food trucks at the event providing Hawaiian shaved ice, Japanese-style hotdogs and gourmet grilled cheese. The lines may have been long, but it was worth it.
Later in the afternoon, Wil Wheaton arrived and thanked everyone for coming. It’s fun to see how drawn to him people are, and he really does make a great ambassador for gaming. He was running a live stream on Twitch that should be available shortly, and we’ll let you know once we have access to that.
We ran a bunch more demos and made a lot of players happy. Even if Agranok did crush their towers, players still left with smiles on their faces.
Eventually though, 6:00 rolled around, and it was time to close down the event. Wil and Felicia gave a very nice closing speech reminding everyone that this hobby brings us all together like nothing else and also pointing out that this year TableTop Day was celebrated on every continent on the planet, including Antarctica! It was really great to be a part of something so big, and we hope everyone had a blast playing games with old friends and new ones. Thanks to everyone that helped organize an event, or just joined one to make it more fun!
We are honored to be the featured publisher for The Malted Meeple’s Publisher Spotlight in the month of April.
The Malted Meeple is a new game café that recently opened up in Hudson, OH, not too far from where our Marketing Manager, Maureen, is based. The Malted Meeple is owned by the fine folks who also own and operate Ravenwood Castle in New Plymouth, OH.
The Malted Meeple offers snacks, hand-crafted milkshakes, and craft beers alongside their selection of board games you can play on-site with your party. This is a family-friendly environment and they encourage gaming for all ages. We are really enjoying this growing trend of game cafes and encourage you to seek one out in your neighborhood for a fun dining/gaming combo experience.
In honor of our spotlight, The Malted Meeple is showcasing some of our games this month and Kris and Maureen will be heading out to their location on International TableTop Day on Saturday, April 11 to play games with patrons and hand out some fun promos.
If you are in the area we invite you to join us on April 11 for a fun day full of games, milkshakes, and good friends!
We met the Malted Meeple/ Ravenwood Castle team last year in person after email correspondence and fun social media banter. They have grown to be fast friends of ours. We are happy to be able to participate in their new endeavor and to welcome another great place to get together and play games to our growing list of game stores around the country.
Ravenwood Castle (New Plymouth, OH) is run by the same family. A great place for a getaway and some gaming in a real castle!
This year for International TableTop Day we are spreading the love of gaming around by participating in several TableTop Day events.
Justin and Anne-Marie got called up to the big leagues, folks! They will be in Burbank at Geek & Sundry’s flagship party to teach Castle Panic fans all about The Dark Titan. It will be our first time at the TableTop studios and we’re excited for this opportunity.
We will also have official representatives at two other locations around the country to celebrate this gaming holiday in style.
Edgar, our new Volunteer Program Coordinator, and several of our awesome volunteers will be at Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy in Austin, TX sharing our games and getting to know the local Austin area gamer community. If you are in or around Austin, be sure to stop by and say hi and welcome him to the Fireside family!
Kris and Maureen will be at The Malted Meeple in Hudson, OH. The Malted Meeple is a newly opened gaming café that serves fancy milkshakes and craft beer alongside gaming fun. They are featuring Fireside Games in their Publisher Spotlight for the month of April, so if you like our games and are partial to ice cream or beer, you should swing by and see what they have to offer. (Kids are very welcome, it is a family-friendly atmosphere.)
We will be showing off The Dark Titan, the brand-new expansion to Castle Panic. We’ll have other games in the Panic Line available as room and interest allow. Castle Panic was featured on TableTop in 2013. You can watch the episode if you haven’t seen it yet to get up to speed on the base game in preparation for this year’s events.
Our special Castle Panic towers are exclusive to International TableTop Day and are included in the retailer kits distributed before the event. Ask your FLGS about them and the other awesome swag included in those kits. We will also have our special Level 6 Agranok promo cards for The Dark Titan at the events we’ll be attending, so be sure to ask for one if you see one of our representatives.
We want to see what you’re playing and who you’re playing with! You can use the official International TableTop Day hashtags #GatherYourParty and #tabletopday to tag your photos, or tag us using @firesidegames, #CastlePanic, #TheDarkTitan, #DeadPanic, or #MunchkinPanic.
Let’s fill the world with fun on Saturday, April 11, 2005 and show everyone how awesome boardgames are!
It’s official, The Dark Titan is now available everywhere! Last Saturday, we headed out to local Austin store, Wonko’s to celebrate the release of this highly-anticipated expansion to Castle Panic.
We started up our first few games and then took a brief break to slice up another one of our now famous cakes! Jarred once again went above and beyond by creating a fabulous cake featuring the Dark Titan himself, Agranok, looming out of a Castle-shaped base. Agranok was chocolate-covered Rice Krispies, and the cake was chocolate with cherry filling. The towers were ice cream cones filled with cake, so the entire thing was edible. To top it off, Jarred placed two small containers in the cake that when filled with dry ice and water caused spooky smoke to flow out over the Castle, just like the cover of the game!
After being devoured in his delicious cake form, the Dark Titan came back for revenge in board game form! Game after game saw walls crushed and towers destroyed as players felt the wrath of Agranok!
Agranok was defeated in our first game and the Castle survived, but our next game wouldn’t fare so well. Once again our villain showed no mercy to children, as these excited young gamers were about to find out when he made his way into their Castle along with a few Heralds for backup.
As the afternoon went on, we started up new games to let players try their hand at the new expansion. Here, Anne-Marie gets a family up to speed before they dive in.
In between games, Justin and Anne-Marie signed copies of the base game as well as both expansions. Wonko’s could barely keep up with demand as they sold out of The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan was flying off the shelf! The day ended with many happy gamers going home with new games, promo cards, happy memories, and bellies full of cake. We wish all our fans out there the best of luck in taking on this newest challenge. Here’s to many more successful battles and saved Castles!
San Angelo is small town in West Texas that was founded in the 1800’s when the U.S. constructed Fort Concho in an attempt to defend frontier settlers from hostile attackers. It seems very fitting then that San Angelo would be the final stop of The Dark Titan Cometh tour. After all, here is where many brave defenders would make their stand against one very hostile, 8-point attacker and his army of monsters!
San Angelo also happens to be the home of Specialties Games, Toys, & Gifts, one of our favorite stores that we first visited back in 2013 during our West by Southwest tour. We arrived on Monday afternoon and were quickly greeted by owners George and Linda Bell and a crowd of enthusiastic players. After visiting for a short time, we set up a game of Castle Panic, The Wizard’s Tower, and The Dark Titan and the great battle began!
The first game got off to a terrifying start after losing the Wizard’s Tower to a boulder early in the game. Our players fought on through a roller coaster of last-minute saves and heroic comebacks, but in the end the ominous foreshadowing from earlier in the game came true as a Trebuchet knocked down the last tower right after our heroes had cleared monsters from the Castle ring. There was much sadness.
But not for long!
Our second group of players (and 1 returning player from the first game) took their places around the table and the battle with Agranok was begun again.
This time our players kept their wits and their walls up, and things went much better. At least for a while . . . Then the Wizard’s Tower was destroyed and the game took a turn for the worse. Agranok was destroyed shortly after entering the battle, but he brought back 3 of his Heralds before succumbing to our defenders blows. The sudden appearance of the Orc Warlord pushed 2 Heralds into the Castle ring, and despite the players best efforts, the final tower fell under attack from a Herald, and the land was cast into darkness.
That’s never something you want to see . . .
During all this medieval combat, we visited with our friend Rick Perez from Let’s Level Up as well as several other fans who we hadn’t seen since our 2013 visit. There were lots of games signed and cookies eaten as well. (Thanks to Linda for providing snacks!) It was a great afternoon and a fantastic way to finish off The Dark Titan Cometh Tour! We said our goodbyes, packed up the minivan, and headed out for a quick bite to eat before hitting the road for Austin and some well-earned rest.
With the tour ending, that means it’s your turn to finally face down Agranok! The Dark Titan will be officially available for sale on April 1st, and if you order it from our web store, you’ll receive the special promotional Level 6 version of Agranok that we’ve been handing out during the tour. This is an exclusive card that you won’t find anywhere else, so gather your friends and see if you can make your stand against the Dark Titan!
The second to last stop on The Dark Titan Cometh Tour was to one of our favorite stores, Game Depot in Tempe, Arizona. We first visited this great shop during our West by Southwest tour in 2013 and had a fantastic visit with a huge turnout, so we knew we were in for a good time. (Check out our blog post about that visit.) Sure enough, as we approached the store we could see our poster and postcards proudly displayed on the window and a huge crowd waiting for us inside.
We can’t say enough about the owners, Patty and David. They have turned their store into a community and never miss the chance to turn an event into a celebration. Patty even wore her WXSW button from 2013 and made an amazing wizard’s tower out of our games!
As soon as we walked into the store we were seeing familiar faces from our visit 2 years ago. Some of our smaller fans had gotten bigger and were now ready for the new challenges of the expansions. After hugs and hellos, it was time to get to fightin’ monsters! We set up 2 games ofCastle Panic with The Dark Titan and 1 game with Castle Panic, The Wizard’s Tower, and The Dark Titan and started filling seats.
One familiar face that we were glad to see again was our friend Noble Hess. He is our biggest fan in the area and acts as the Fireside Games unofficial ambassador at Game Depot. Just like back in 2013, he jumped right in and helped us out. We showed Noble how to play The Dark Titan, and he became our extra hand for the rest of the day, helping when we were too busy and answering questions that came up. Thanks again, Noble!
That’s Noble there in the middle on the right, working hard to keep that final Tower standing!
Agranok showed up throughout the day, varying in strength from level 1 to level 4, and even the promo level 6 for one brave group of gamers. (That didn’t work out so good for them, but they came close!) Some Castles survived and others were crushed, including one painfully classic moment where a player drew Draw 3 Monsters, Draw 4 Monsters, and the Goblin King all in one turn.
Through nail-biting victories and Castle-stomping defeats, everyone had a great time. It was nonstop Castle defending the entire day, with new games starting as soon as one game ended. We did have to pause every few minutes to sign a game or two for happy fans, which is always fun for us. It was great to see so many folks who enjoy our game come back years later to experience the next chapter in the story.
As the day wound down, we had our final victory and said goodbye to all the fantastic people that came out for the event. We enjoyed a late dinner with Patty, Dave, and Noble and then headed off for a well deserved rest. If you’re in the Phoenix area, or just passing through, you really owe it to yourself to visit Game Depot and say hi to the gang.
We’re headed to Specialities Games, Toys & Gifts in San Angelo, Texas (another store we fell in love with on the WXSW tour!), for an event on Monday, March 30th, at 4:00 p.m. that will be the final stop of The Dark Titan Cometh Tour!
Get a look at the bustling event at Game Depot in this video:
Thursday night was our last store visit in Utah, and we spent it at the Game Haven store in Tooele. (Pronounced “two-EL-uh” in case you aren’t from around here or haven’t spent weeks asking locals how to pronounce the names of their cities.)
We weren’t sure what to expect since Tooele is a smaller town outside of Salt Lake, but Riley, the store owner, did a great job promoting the event, and we were busy all night!
We had a fun group of fans show up who were excited to see the new expansion and meet The Dark Titan up close and personal. Our initial group included a first-timer, so we let them experience just Castle Panic with The Dark Titan to see what that is like.
Before they had even finished their first turns, a double boulder combination took out 2 Towers and left them on the defensive. The pulled together quickly and drove off the next few waves, even slaying Agranok before he could cause too much damage. Things got hairy for a while, but in the end the last monster fell with a tower still standing, and our heroes erupted into a furious hurrah.
Before we could even say goodbye and set up the next games, we had new players lined up and waiting to get their games signed. It’s always a treat to meet fans and hear their stories, and we had no shortage of that at this event. Once the ink was dry, we had games of both Castle Panic with The Dark Titan as well as Castle Panic with The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan up and running.
Our group of Castle Panic players fought bravely, but in the end Agranok and his army proved to be too much. Meanwhile, our team of defenders in The Wizard’s Tower combo started losing Walls quickly and a few Towers followed soon after. Things went from bad to worse, to not so bad, to very bad and back again. It was a nail-biter as our teammates lost Walls as fast as they built them, but in the end the last Monster fell with 2 Towers still standing and victory was theirs.
There may have been screaming involved.
We wrapped up the night with a few more signings and some talk about design, new games, and future plans. All in all, it was a great way to wrap up our time here in Utah, and we want to thank all the fans who came out to all our events or supported us online.
The Dark Titan will be in stores on April 1st, and if you pre-order it from our website right now, you get the Level 6 Promo card of Agranok that we’ve been giving away during this tour for free!
We’re headed to the GAMA Trade Show, which happens in Las Vegas next week, and we’ll be making some super-cool announcements. So stay tuned to our blog, Twitter, or Facebook for more info!
Take a look inside the Game Haven – Tooele store in this video:
Monday night we headed to Dragon’s Keep in Lehi, Utah. This was the second to last stop in Utah on The Dark Titan Cometh Tour.
The first game played was Castle Panic with The Dark Titan and our team of heroes trounced Agranok quite nicely, without having to Banish a single card and only losing 3 Towers on the way!
The next game included both expansions and definitely kept our players on their toes. Early in the game, a lucky boulder destroyed the Wizard’s Tower, leaving our players to face down the horde of Monsters with no magical aid. At one point, the Basilisk and Warlock were on the table together causing no shortage of chaos. Towers were lost and MANY Walls were rebuilt, but at the end of the battle 2 lonely Towers still stood and victory was claimed!
Overall, it was a quiet night, which gave us plenty of time to visit with our fans as well as with John, the store manager. We talked about the making of The Dark Titan as well as what makes Dead Panic and Munchkin Panic so different from Castle Panic before packing up and heading home for the night.
Our final stop in Utah will be at the Game Haven in Tooele this Thursday the 12th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. If you haven’t made it out to play The Dark Titan and grab a promo card, this will be your last chance in Utah, so we hope to see you there!
Take a look inside Dragon’s Keep in Lehi in Anne-Marie’s video of this visit:
A warm and sunny Saturday afternoon saw us headed to Provo, Utah. This time we brought The Dark Titan to Dragon’s Keep, not far from Brigham Young University.
With a great selection of games, comics, and all sorts of goodies, it’s no surprise that the place was hopping. We had gamers lined up and waiting for us, and it didn’t take long to get our first game of The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan fired up.
Our friend Matt who led his team to victory at Blakfyre Games came by to get his games signed by Justin and to take another stab at The Dark Titan. Sure enough, with some great teamwork, they were able to keep most of their Towers standing, even if it meant losing the Barbarian and Wizard’s Quake in the process of defeating Agranok.
Meanwhile, Anne-Marie got another group started on the base game with The Dark Titan. Here she is explaining how there are 5 levels of Agranok in the game.
Before long we had another pair of players show up and we added them to the game, giving our heroes some reinforcements.
They fought bravely, slaying Agranok and most of his minions, with only a few Towers out. But a devastating combination of the Healer and the Troll Mage late in the game proved to be too much to overcome, and the last 2 Towers fell as the Castle was destroyed from inside and out.
Not to be deterred, our players switched tables to see how The Dark Titan expansion changes Castle Panic when you include The Wizard’s Tower. Many Towers were destroyed in both games, but we actually had our first player victory over the promotional Level 6 Agranok! So the day ended on a high note!
Our next stop will be at the Dragon’s Keep in Lehi, Utah, Monday, March 9th, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’ll be your second to last chance to catch us before we head off to the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas!
Want to see what the inside of the Dragon’s Keep looks like? Check out Anne-Marie’s video of our store visit:
The skies finally cleared over Salt Lake City as we made our way to Game Night Games for an evening of monstrous fun. Game Night Games not only features a great selection of games but they have a really nice gaming area in the back, which we promptly filled with players anxious to get a look at the newest addition to Castle Panic!
Faster than you could say “8-point Monster” We had our first game up and running. Our first group of fans wanted to try the base game with the new expansion, and they got off to a great start, clearing the board early and keeping the Monsters well under control.
While the first group fought on, Anne-Marie was busy giving overviews of the game to some interested gamers and a third game of just Castle Panic got underway to help some new players get a feel for the game before jumping into the expansion.
Before long, we had another game going and our teams fought on. The Cavalier was definitely the MVP of the night, and more than 1 player agreed that he may be their new favorite addition to Castle Panic.
And it’s a good thing our first group was using him a lot too. Take a look at this.
The Dark Titan expansion introduces a new mechanic called Banishing that removes cards from the game. Slay cards that are used against Agranok only cause 4 points of damage to him and are Banished. There are other ways you can have cards Banished, and the first group ended up losing all the cards shown here during the game.
Imagine having to fight off the Monsters without using any of these cards!
Thanks to some REALLY lucky draws and carefully planned moves, our team did more than fight off the Monsters. They stomped them flat, losing only 1 Tower when the dust settled.
After the second group survived their game, we started up a combined game with The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan. This time our heroes would lose all but their last 2 Towers (including a rebuilt Wizard’s Tower), but still claim victory.
We signed some games while we chatted with our players, and then spent some time talking with Mike, the store manager. It’s always great to talk some business as we get to know all the great stores that help spread the love of our hobby.
Our next stop on The Dark Titan Cometh Tour will be an afternoon event this Saturday, March 7th, at Dragon’s Keep in Provo from noon to 4 p.m.
Check out how nicely laid out this store is! It is well-arranged for customers to easily find exactly the right game to take home.
Our store visit to the Game Haven in Bountiful, Utah, just happened to coincide with one of the bigger Winter Storm Warnings we’ve seen on this trip. The rules for The Dark Titan don’t say that Agranok has any weather-control abilities, but we’re starting to have our doubts. We loaded our gear into the store as the snow began to fall and dried off before getting set up.
It turned out to be a quiet evening because of the storm with only 1 full demo played, but we got to meet several fans and even make a few new ones while we were at the store. The Game Haven in Bountiful is a pretty cool shop with tons of tables for playing, a demo game library that is literally overflowing with games to try, and even a full coffee bar that sells food. The coffee shop is named Battle Grounds, which we found quite amusing. Check out the video Anne-Marie shot for a cool tour of the place.
When players did arrive we were able to get a full game of 6 players started, and they jumped right in to The Wizard’s Tower–The Dark Titan combo game. Things started out good with a few quick slays and lots of wounding, but before too long a lucky boulder took out the Wizard’s Tower itself. Our heroes were left with just a few Wizard cards in hand and no chance of rebuilding the Tower. Still, our group was unphased.
“We’re not scared! Well, maybe just a little.”
They made great use of the Cavalier and even managed to use the Phoenix to light a ton of other Monsters on fire. Arrows flew and swords clashed, but when a Level 4 Agranok, the Dark Sorceress, and the Necromancer all appeared at once, it was too much for our heroes. The last Tower fell under the thundering assault.
A well fought battle, but the enemy is triumphant.
We stuck around and talked with several other customers after the game wrapped up. Justin even signed a few copies of Castle Panic for fans both new and old. It made for a fun evening before braving the snow and heading home. Special thanks to Charity for making us feel so welcome during our visit!
Your next chance to catch The Dark Titan Cometh Tour will be Wednesday, March 4th, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Game Night Games in Salt Lake City!
It was a cold, snowy Saturday evening when we arrived at Game Haven in West Jordan. We wondered if the dark weather would be an omen for what was to come during our demo games that night. As soon as we were set up for our event, we jumped into a game of both The Wizard’s Tower and The Dark Titan with 2 excited fans.
We put up a good fight, dropping several big threats early on, but then a combination of Mega Boss Monsters, a wave of Imps, and an early showing of Agranok had us on the ropes.
I’m sure this will all work out just fine.
This is one of the more impressive uses of the Wall of Force Wizard card we’ve seen in a while. It definitely bought some time, but even that wasn’t enough to save the Castle. In a few turns, it was all over.
Hooray for Wall of Force!
Luckily, that meant we had lots of time left for new games! We reset The Wizard’s Tower–Dark Titan combo for a new group and started a game of Castle Panic with one of Anne-Marie’s friends from college and her family. They had never played before, and it wasn’t long before they were engrossed in trying to keep their Towers standing.
Sadly, the Monsters proved too much for our friends, but that just made them excited for their next chance to try again. We reset the game to include The Dark Titan for a new group that was made up of both experienced fans and first-time players.
Never a dull moment when you’re about to be crushed by rampaging monsters!
Some expert coaching and a few lucky rolls kept them in the fight as the new players got familiar with the game and before long they were a monster-fighting machine!
Meanwhile, the group that had been battling with The Wizard’s Tower–Dark Titan combo weathered wave after wave and despite losing the Wizard’s Tower, they eventually slayed the last Monster with 1 Tower still standing. Luckily, that’s all it takes and that gave Game Haven its first victory of the night!
Our last game of the night would see the team fresh off their win in Castle Panic with The Dark Titan jumping in to the dual-expansion combo. They were confident as the first Monsters came out of the forest, but once the Chimera and a Flaming Boulder showed up, things began to look bad.
That is entirely too much fire.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, after the fires were extinguished, Agranok showed up at Level 5 and proceeded to cause even more chaos as he drove other Monsters forward. The Cavalier was bravely sacrificed to finish off Agranok, and Wizard’s Quake had to be used to give our heroes some room to breathe. In the end, the Wizard’s Tower would even be destroyed and rebuilt in order to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but their efforts paid off in a nail-biting win!
This could be bad . . .
We stayed around for a while after the event, talking about game design, playtesting, and all sorts of fun things before we packed up and said goodnight. It was another great time, and we’re already looking forward to our next one on Monday, March 2nd, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Game Haven in Bountiful. As always, don’t forget that you can check out our calendar to see where we’re headed next!
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