Cooperative Games Have Got Me Down

These days Shadows Over Camelot routinely leaves the kingdom in shambles, the world is festering with disease and pestilence whenever the CDC leaves us in charge with Pandemic, even the lost treasures of antiquity rarely make it off of the Forbidden Island. Forbidden Island is a kid’s game! It’s for children! I used to think that cooperative games were great for bonding with my fellow gamers, but now they just leave me feeling hollow inside.

I don’t mind losing a game to friends. In fact, it happens all the time. I usually play games with a smart and savvy group and wins are distributed fairly evenly amongst us all. It’s losing to a game mechanic that I hate. And I don’t mean losing a game because of some sort of rule technicality, I mean when the game is actually the winner. Cooperative games have really got me down these days. We just seem to rarely win, and the silent gloating of the victorious game pieces looking up at me is almost more than I can bear. Whether it’s the stack of black cubes surrounding Mumbai and Tehran, or the hordes of siege engines massed in front of the castle makes no difference to me.

Recently four of us were playing Shadows Over Camelot and we were doing really well. We had won the Grail Quest and several others and basically just needed to keep the siege engines at bay until the game ended. Two of our braves knights had returned to Camelot to do battle with the belfries and catapults of our foes, and they got mangled. Not just defeated, but really embarrassed. On three consecutive rolls the enemy rolled an eight (on a d8) and both knights were killed in successive turns. Undermanned, the remaining two were quickly overwhelmed and the kingdom was plunged into darkness. It was heartbreaking. The next time we played we were dead men walking. We didn’t stand a chance. Our fragile mindset, so recently elevated as we were on the cusp of victory, doomed us from the beginning. We overreacted to threats, jumped around the board like novice squires and bickered with one another. We had lost the psychological game to a non-entity, literally something that had no brain or psyche had gotten inside our head.

What I need to do is play more Castle Panic. That game is absurdly easy, maybe that’s why people seem to like it so much. Because they always win. But therein is the problem. If a game doesn’t present much of a challenge for the group than it’s not a very good game, it makes me feel a little bit like a bully. But if it’s too challenging and we just lose all of the time we feel like doormats. True, it does make victory all that much sweeter, but I’m beginning to forget what it tastes like at all.

Shadows Over Camelot: Session Review

I’ve mentioned before that when it comes to cooperative games our group has really been struggling of late. I’m not sure why this is, but one game that has been a particular thorn in our collective side is the otherwise excellent Shadows Over Camelot . We have a lot of fun playing it, yet in the end the ominous clouds swell over the Round Table and reign supreme as Camelot falls. Perhaps that makes it seem a bit dramatic, but it’s the truth. One thing I will say is that we’ve gotten slightly better each time we’ve played it. We had the four person crew the other night, strapped on our plate mail, and decided to give it another shot. Going in we realized that helping each other out and behaving like gentlemanly knights was the path to success, we made that our primary strategy. No one would be running off on foolish quests for glory while the kingdom crumbled. We randomly drew knights as follows; I was Sir Percival, Katie was the Saracen Knight Palamedes, Mike the valiant and pure Sir Galahad, and Nick was King Arthur. We were ready to go.

In the first couple of rounds Percival and Arthur joined forces to defeat an army of invading Picts, earning some cards and our first white sword. That will teach those barbarians! Throughout the game we all frequently used the ability to sacrifice a life to take an extra action, usually when moving to a new area and then to immediately play a card. It’s very helpful. Knowing that if you defeat a challenge you will earn more life lessens the blow of the heroic sacrifice. Our victory was followed by a brave display of arms by Sir Galahad in the Black Knights Tournament, besting him soundly (despite the presence of what Mike deemed, in knightly speak, “a combatant of Jet Li type prowess”). In the meantime Palamedes was struggling by himself to save Exaclibur. Two other issues had arisen as well; the Lancelot Quest was bordering on being unwinnable due to the accumulation of several cards for Lancelot and none for us, the Grail Quest seemed extremely dire as well. The Dark Forest card came into play shortly after the victory in the Tournament. This card prevented any knight from playing a Grail card until a quest was successfully completed. At this point we were not even close to winning any, having just completed two. Plus, the Grail cards were piling up. The Grail Quest is sort of a big deal, it’s worth three swords for either side and a ton of white cards if the knights win it. This was where we really came together as true Knights of the Round Table. We all hustled to over to Excalibur to lend support to Palamedes and save the legendary sword. With the four of us working together on it we saved the sword from plunging into the murky depths of the lake. Fittingly it was Sir Palamedes who earned the sword (fitting because he has been there for a while and prevented it from being lost). Not only did we earn more white swords but we were now able to continue the quest for the Grail since the Dark Forest card was now out of play.

Right around this time we also discovered the great pairing that is Arthur and Galahad. Arthur has the power to, once a turn, give a card to another knight in exchange for a card. Galahad can, once a turn, play a special white card in his hand for no action point. Whenever Arthur had a special white he would pass it on to Galahad who could play it without the cost of a point. It worked out really well for all of us, especially since the special whites usually benefit the whole company it did not matter who played it. The net gain was several actions over the course of the game, which really goes a long way. The good knights were able to put their egos aside for the greater good of the kingdom.

At this point we had four white swords and two black ones, we could see how the end game was going to play out. To insure victory we needed to have seven white swords and last until the Round Table had a total of twelve swords. Galahad, Arthur, and Palamedes all went over to the Grail Quest to save the cup. Percival (myself) had nothing to contribute to the Grail Quest so I traveled to Camelot and began to battle the siege engines that were building up. The Knights had been unable to play any Grail cards for a while since the Dark Forest card was in play, so we had a bunch built up. The three of them were able battle the forces of evil and had the Grail on the verge of victory. Palamedes then played the Heroism card, which would earn us an extra white sword if we won. On the next turn Arthur saved the sacred cup and earned us four (!) more swords, bringing our total to eight! Victory would be ours if we could survive. With the Grail and Excalibur quests completed the siege engines were coming at a furious rate and Percival was being overwhelmed as the lone warrior defending the castle. The other knights joined him in defense, battling the invading forces. Palamedes fell in battle on the fields of Camelot, but was saved when Arthur, brave King that he is, sacrificed the recently earned Grail to provide him with new life. Such camaraderie.

We were in a strange position at this point. We had the game won once more swords were added to the table. However we did not want to leave Camelot to complete another quest because of all the siege engines, so we bided our time. Eventually the Black Knights Tournament was lost, placing a 12th sword on the Round Table. Sure, we were a bit ashamed to lose to such a coward, but the war was won! There was much rejoicing in the halls of Camelot that night.

I think that we took a big step forward in team tactics with this victory. Shadows Over Camelot is a game that really requires everyone to work together, the lone knight does not stand a chance. We also realized that it is very hard to win the game if the very difficult Grail Quest is not won. Seven black swords loses the game for the knights, and that quest alone provides three of them. I think that we did really well. At no point were we ever in serious danger. We recognized threats before they became mortal danger, cooperated, and helped one another. Perhaps we are actually ready to try the game with a traitor. And honestly the best part of this game is speaking in that bizarre Knightly vernacular that is encouraged by the game designers.

Shadows Over Camelot review

The siege engines gather in front of the gates of Camelot, the Holy Grail is threatened by evil forces, and a traitor lurks in the Round Table. Clearly, there are ominous Shadows Over Camelot. From the excellent minds at Days of Wonder comes Shadows Over Camelot, a cooperative game for three to seven players that will valiantly attempt to defend the Arthurian realm from invading forces. Each player assumes the role of a famous knight from Arthurian legend, such as Sir Galahad or Sir Percival, and performs various quests in conjunction with their knightly peers in an effort to save the realm from near certain doom. There is a ton to like about this game, so let’s get into it.

The components of the game are among the best that I have ever seen, for both the aesthetics of them as well as the functionality and their relation to the actual game. The board itself has a lot going on and one of the criticisms is how big it is, I hope you have a large gaming table to accommodate it. But everything on the board serves a function so it is at least not wasted space. Some of the quests (The Holy Grail, Lancelot and the Dragon, and Excalibur) are even double sided, so when they are completed they flip over to reveal a new addition to the board. All of the knights are represented not by generic pawns but by very nice figurines, each of which is unique and has a nice colored base for easily identifying your character. The Picts, Saxons, and siege engines also have figurines. Well done. There are two decks of cards (White and Black) that are high quality and, I must say, shuffle very nicely.



Components are nice and all, but a game is really made with the mechanics and game play and in this area Shadows Over Camelot does not disappoint. Despite all of the pieces and length of the rulebooks (yes, there are two of them) the game is surprisingly easy to figure out, though winning is pretty difficult. Like all cooperative games there is a negative element to each turn. In Camelot each player has a choice at the start of their turn; lose one life point, place a siege engine in front of Camelot, or draw a Black card from the deck. All of these options stink, which I suppose is the point. After choosing one of these dreadful options the knight then gets to do something heroic, like moving. There are several options available to the player (moving, performing a quest related action, playing a Special White card) but the difficult part is that a knight can only perform one action a turn. A second action can be performed but it costs a life point to do so as the knight extends himself to heroic lengths, and it can’t be the same action that was performed initially. Many of the quests require multiple cards to complete and the limited actions make it hard to do so and really reinforce how the knights must work together to complete quests, rather than splitting up and tackling separate adventures. Play progresses very quickly, which is nice, since there are only two actions on each players turn.

The Quests are good. They are different enough from each other to make them stand out, but also similar enough in how they work that everything sort of flows. It’s not like learning new rules for each segment of the game. Just about all of the quests involve playing cards down on the board in an effort to beat the enemy in that area (cards are gained in several different ways, the most prominent being a return to Camelot). Several of them are making what is essentially a poker hand of Fight cards. Example, to defeat the Lancelot quest the knight must put down a full house (three of a kind and a pair) and have the total face value be higher than that of Lancelot. Each Quest has a reward for completing it successfully, and a penalty for losing it. Most of the time white swords are placed around the Round Table for victories, while black swords are placed around the table to show the spread of treachery and chaos throughout the land.

The final wrinkle to the game is that one of the brave knights of the realm may actually be a traitor. At the start of the game each player draws a loyalty card. Seven of them have the knight as loyal to Camelot, while the eight is a traitor to the cause. The traitor will be secretly working against the others and trying to cause the downfall of the kingdom. The identity of the traitor is unknown to the other players and it is the job of the traitor to remain secret for as long as possible, sowing dissent from the shadows. There are a couple of things that I really like about this. One is that not only is the traitor unknown, it is not even certain if there is a traitor in the game at all. With eight loyalty cards and a maximum of seven players there is no guarantee that there is a traitor present, which sort of keeps everyone guessing. Players can accuse another of being a traitor, but if they are wrong they must suffer the ill effects of a fractured Round Table. Another aspect that is very cool is how the rules are structured to support a hidden agenda and mystery. All discards are placed face down, which allows a traitor to potentially discard valuable cards without anyone knowing. Also, players are forbidden from expressly talking about cards in their hands or cards they have placed face down on the board (usually to be battled by a knight at some point). However, players are encouraged to hint at the value of cards and to do so in a bizarre, corny knight talk (which is actually quite fun). Such as, “Clearly the Black Knight has sent a scrawny squire to this years tournament” which would allude to the value of a face down card in the Black Knights Tournament Quest as being of low value, and thus easily defeated. Or, “The Dragon on the far side of this bridge is known throughout the land for his voracious appetite” would mean that the Dragon card is of a high value.

Shadows Over Camelot is also a very difficult game. We’ve only played a couple of times but we are yet to win, and to be honest it hasn’t even been close. There is one way for the player to win, to have a majority of white swords around the round table when a 12th sword is placed. There are multiple ways to lose; 12 siege engines around Camelot, a majority of black swords at the round table, or for all knights to lose their life points. Throw a traitor into the mix and the games becomes that much more difficult. I’ve read a couple of reviews that state that the game is actually on the easy side, so maybe we just need to figure out better strategies. Either way the game is a lot of fun and highly recommended.