Goblins, orcs, and trolls are attacking the castle, and its up to you and your fellow generals to defend it! In the center of the board is a castle with six towers, bordered by six walls. Each wall faces a different 60-degree arc of the board, numbered 1-6 and colored either red, green, or blue. Surrounding the castle are four rings that determine distance from the castle, from closest to furthest: Swordsmen range, Knights range, Archer range, and Forest (which holds monsters and other baddies) range. Each player is dealt 4-6 cards (depending on the number of players). Each turn, players can discard, trade, and play cards. These cards allow players to draw additional cards, rebuild walls, or attack the monsters advancing on the castle. For example, if a goblin was in the green Archer range, a player could use a green archer card to attack it. At the end of each players turn, two things happen: all monsters advance towards the castle, destroying walls or towers if they are close enough, and two extra monster tiles are drawn and placed on the board. And when a special tile is drawn, like the Goblin King, a boulder, or the dreaded draw 4 more monster tiles, its time to panic! The goal is to make it through the entire deck of monsters without losing all of the castle towers.
Once you feel confident enough to fend off the hordes of enemies, you can try upping the difficulty with variantsincluding one that lets a single player become the dungeon overlord and control the monsters. A good amount of strategy and a whole lot of cooperation is key to ensuring your castles survival! The game is quite difficult at times (hence the name!), but can be enjoyed by anyone 8 and up. A perfect family/friends game for 1-6 players. ~ 60 minutes.