Munchkin Panic Review

Munchkin Panic is a game by Anne-Marie De Witt, published by Fireside Games. It is for 1-6 players. In this game, players will be working together to defend their castle from a horde of rampaging Munchkin Monsters. However they’ll have to be careful as their teammates will also be conspiring against them to try and rack up the highest point value in Monster Trophies. The player that is best able to do that and survive the onslaught with at least 1 tower standing will be declared the winner.

For this review, I will mainly be describing how to play the standard game. To begin, place the board on the table. Place all the walls and towers on plastic stands. You’ll then place the towers in each of the light colored spaces in the Castle ring of the board and the walls on the lines between the Castle and Swordsman rings. There should be 1 of each for each area. Place all the monster tokens into the bag and then randomly draw out 4 tokens. These are then placed in the archer ring by rolling the die to determine which location to put each token in. The tokens are placed with the highest number pointed toward the castle. Curses that are drawn at this time are placed back in the bag and redrawn. The treasure cards and castle cards are separated and shuffled separately. Cards are then dealt to each player in a number determined by the amount of players, from 6 castle cards and 1 treasure card for 2 players to 5 castle cards and no treasure cards for 6 players. The decks are placed near the board face down as well as the other tokens. The first player is chosen and play now begins.

On a player’s turn, they will follow the order of play. There are 6 phases. The first phase is discard 1 card (optional) and then draw up. A player can optionally discard 1 Castle card and then draw up to a full hand of those cards. The number drawn is based on the amount of players.

The second phase is to give charity. In this phase, players can only keep a certain number of treasure cards from 3-4 cards depending on the number of players. They must give away any treasure cards over that limit to the player with the lowest count of trophy points. This number is found by adding up the highest number on each monster that was killed by a player.

The third phase is to play cards, negotiate and get trophies. In this phase, a player can play any number of cards from their hand to help them attack monsters by using hit cards to boost attacks or even providing multiple attacks. They can also negatively affect their opponents with curse cards or even give themselves special abilities through the use of special cards. Treasure cards can also help out. Weapons can also be used along with hit cards to boost attacks. Potions can be used on monsters to affect them. Special cards are for lack of a better term, special. They help in unique ways. Once a player hits a monster, the monster is rotated clockwise to indicate damage. Once a monster has been killed, it is added to the player’s trophy pile. Treasure cards are then drawn and placed under that monster equal to the number of gold dots on it. Players can also negotiate with other players for help defeating monsters. However the player may only choose 1 player to take 1 card from for help.

The fourth phase is to add treasure to your hand. Any negotiations that were done in the previous phase are dealt with and resolved. Any treasure cards that were placed under monsters during the last phase are added to the player’s hand.

The fifth phase is to move the monsters. Each monster that remains on the board is moved 1 space closer to the castle. If it hits a wall or tower it takes a point of damage and that wall or tower is destroyed. Of course this is not something that you want to let happen very often.

The final phase is to place new monsters. This is done by drawing new monsters from the bag and placing them in the forest area by rolling the die for each one drawn. If a curse is drawn, it is resolved and another monster is drawn to replace it. The number of monsters drawn is determined by the number of players. Once this phase is finished, play passes to the next player.

The game can end in one of two ways. If all the towers are destroyed by monsters, the game ends and the players lose. Alternatively, if all the monsters have been killed, the players win. Players then add up their trophy points and the player with the highest point count is the winner.

COMPONENTS
This game has a lot of really great looking pieces. The Munchkin theme is very much a part of the look and design of everything from the towers and cards to the dice. The cards have that same style art and feel to them that I really enjoy. I really like the silliness and love the art. The towers, walls, glue and fortify tokens as well as the monster tokens are all thick cardboard and are really great looking. They have a great Munchkin feel to them. I love the warped look of the towers and walls. The die, as well as the monster bag have been branded with the Munchkin look as well. They are truly great looking. The board has a really good castle/forest look and feel. There’s even reference cards to help with playing the game. If that’s not enough, the game even comes with the More Munchkin Mini-Expansion included. This adds some more different cards to the mix. Seriously!!! I was blown away with the level of quality and the look and feel of all the pieces. Truly a work of art.
10 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook is really great. It has lots of great artwork throughout the book. Lots of examples on how to set up the game as well as a couple of pages of a sample game. There are several pages dedicated to cards and monsters and describing what each one does and how they work. There’s a page and a half on variations on game play, including how to add in the More Munchkin Mini-Expansion. All in all, I’m over joyed with how nice everything looks. It’s easy to read and understand. There’s nothing difficult at all. I really like what they’ve provided.
10 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
This is a really fun game. It brings the best of Munchkin and Castle Panic together. I really love the whole tower defense mechanic. It’s fun trying to come up with the best way to get rid of the monsters that are always approaching your towers and trying to keep your walls and towers standing. In the solo game this can be quite difficult as you have only your own cards to take the monsters out with. The multi-player game is a little bit easier but then you have to worry about getting harassed by your opponent/partner. It’s a real interesting concept. I really enjoy the way it all works together. The thing is that you’re going to lose walls and towers, you just have to prioritize which ones are the most important. This is a really easy game to teach. I really like that the phases of the game are written on each corner of the board so that you can refer back to them as needed. It’s about a 45 minute game which works out pretty well. I really enjoy it and look forward to playing it again.
9 out of 10

OVERALL
Munchkin Panic is a light game of tower defense that mashes up the best parts of Munchkin with Castle Panic. It’s a game that plays in an average amount of time. Most games usually lasting around 45 minutes or so. The artwork is really silly and fun just like in Munchkin. The game play is really great and can give you some tough choices on which monsters to attack. It plays great with others but also works as a solo game. This is a game that fans of both Munchkin and Castle Panic will love. It’s easy to teach and learn and is something that even younger players should be able to play with a little help. I highly recommend it. It’s really fun and something that I feel works great with family or friends. You’ll love it.
9 out of 10

For more information about this and other great games, please check out Fireside Games at their site.

http://www.firesidegames.com/