Reaping the Rewards – Harvesting Ingredients

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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!

Bringing the Heat–How Fire Works in The Wizard’s Tower

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If you’ve been following this week’s blog series on The Wizard’s Tower expansion for Castle Panic, you know how to set up the game by removing certain Monsters and replacing them with new ones, swapping a Tower, and shuffling in the new Castle cards. You’ve also discovered the Wizard deck and all the wondrous magic it holds.

Today we are going to teach you about FIRE!

With this expansion you will encounter Monsters who breathe fire and can catch your Castle structures on fire! But don’t worry, there are ways to put the fire out and even use it to your advantage. You are now able to catch Monsters on fire as well! After all, Dragons are only flame retardant on the INSIDE.

Watch the video for a full explanation of the different ways fire will play a key role in your game play.

How to Set Monsters on Fire

Some of the Wizard cards allow you to set Monsters on fire. When on fire, Monsters will take 1 point of damage for each flame token on it during the Move Monsters Phase of a player’s turn. You can use this new mechanic as part of your strategy by catching Monsters on fire while they are in the Archer ring and letting them burn themselves out before reaching your Castle.

What Happens When the Castle Is on Fire

Among the new Monsters included in The Wizard’s Tower expansion are a few Monsters who can breathe fire and will catch your Castle on fire! Castle structures on fire are weakened and can be destroyed with no damage to the Monsters (they will not take damage when hitting a flaming structure) on that turn. However, a Monster knocking down a flaming Wall will take on that flame token and on his NEXT movement he will take fire damage.

Your Castle structures can handle up to 2 fire tokens and remain standing. However, the third fire attack by a Monster will destroy the Wall or Tower automatically. No Monsters are injured.

How to Put out Burning Castle Structures

Players are able to extinguish flaming structures by playing 1 Brick or 1 Mortar card on their turn for each flame token on the structure. If there are multiple flame tokens on a Wall, you will need multiple Bricks or Mortars to put out all the flames. You may also use the Fortify Wall card to extinguish all flame on a Wall, but you do not get to also fortify that wall.

For more details on how you will be interacting with Fire see pages 7 & 8 in the The Wizard’s Tower Rulebook.

You can also check our FAQs page for The Wizard’s Tower if you have questions about other mechanics and situations.

Can You Handle the Heat?

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So, you’ve been playing Castle Panic for a while now. You still have a good time, but you are wondering if there is more. Well, I’m here to tell you there is SO MUCH MORE! The Wizard’s Tower is the first expansion to Castle Panic and it really amps up the excitement and challenge of the game. There’s also the not-so-little matter of The Dark Titan, the second expansion that is due out in the Spring of 2015, which brings all new threats and some fun new twists.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Not everyone is ready to tackle the Mega-Bosses right out of the gate. It is a good idea to hone your Monster-slaying skills before taking the leap. If you need some help mastering Castle Panic, check out our How To Play videos in the How to Defend Your Castle post for some pointers from the designer, Justin De Witt.

“How do I know if I’m ready?” you may ask. We’ve put together this helpful guide.

How to Know if You’re Ready for The Wizard’s Tower:

1. You win more often than you lose (if you lose at all anymore), and you often have all or almost all of your Towers still standing.

2. Somebody in your gaming group says, “Castle Panic? Isn’t that a kid’s game?” and you want to shake them up a bit.

3. Fire has always held an allure for you and you want a fun way to play with it without actually getting burned.

4. You find yourself saying, “Oh, it’s just a 3-point Troll” when placing Monsters and long for more variety in your trophies.

5. You wish you had magical powers and have always wanted to face off against a mythical Monster such as a Dragon or a Chimera.

If any of these describe you, you may be ready for The Wizard’s Tower. But be warned, the forest is full of dark and dangerous things and the Castle will be depending on you.

Already playing The Wizard’s Tower? Tell us how/when you knew you were ready to advance. What is your favorite addition to the game from The Wizard’s Tower? Tell us in the comments.

If you are interested in purchasing The Wizard’s Tower, you can do so at your Friendly Local Game Store or through our web store.