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Shadows Over CamelotList Price: $60.00
 
from 13 customer reviews
Product Awards:
Games Magazine Awards
Advanced Strategy Game Nominee, 2006
Spiel des Jahres
Special Prize for Fantastic Play, 2006
International Gamers Awards
Best Strategy Game Nominee, 2005
Deutscher Spiele Preis
7th place, 2005
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Shadows over Camelot is a unique collaborative game featuring a malevolent twist! As the incarnation of the Knights of the Round Table, you join forces against the game itself in an attempt to protect Camelot.
Your victory hinges on the successful completion of legendary Quests, such as the search for Excalibur, the Holy Grail, or Lancelot's Armor; the tournament against the Black Knight; and numerous wars against the Saxons and Picts.
But beware... all is not as it seems among these noble Knights. One of your number might yet turn out to be a traitor-in-waiting, biding his time while sowing havoc and destruction from the Shadows!
I resisted this game for a long time. I purchased a much hyped cooperative game several years ago and was extremely disappointed. I like the fun of competing anyway, so I wasn't sure that any such game would interest me.
This game is a blast. The aspect of a traitor in your midst, gives an uneasy feeling. That is, if there is a traitor... Going on quests, sacrificing for the good of Camelot and your fellow knights. Do I leave Camelot and try to complete the quest to fight the Saxons, when if one more Saxon shows up I'll get the brunt of it.
Should I lose a life point rather than risk drawing a despair card that will deprive us of the Holy Grail and put three black swords on the round table. Somebody better get rid of those siege engines.
Days of Wonder seems to be consistent in putting some of the best games on the market.
Shadows Over Camelot
Shadows Over Camelot is one of the best thematic games on the market; this is the perfect board game for role players. It is an unusual co-operative game, where players work together, not competitively, by Bruno Cathala (Queen's Necklace, Mission: Red Planet and many more) and Serge Laget (Mare Nostrum, Castle and many more). Produced by Days of Wonder (Ticket to Ride, Fist of Dragonstones, Pirate's Cove and the much anticipated Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, among other titles), this game is absolutely gorgeous, and the artwork and high quality components do much to inspire the game to become the pleasure it is to play. Full credit must be given to the artist, Julien Delval (Shadows Over Camelot, Citadels, Fist of Dragonstones and many more), whose talents are truly on display in this game.
Shadows Over Camelot is a very different sort of game, it requires the players to work together against the game, and at this it works brilliantly. Added to the fun and tension is the additional possibility that one of the knights (the players) may actually be a traitor, secretly working to bring Camelot to destruction and ruin. This additional tension makes the game a riotous experience, and great fun, any simple mistake, any action that even looks slightly dodgy will get the other players looking at you with the question in their eyes ‘are you a traitor?’
Shadows Over Camelot is a brilliant game for people who enjoy the human aspect to board gaming; with rules about the ways in which Knights can communicate, the game also inspires a fair share of role-playing, and can be extremely tense. In order to enjoy the game properly players need to make an attempt to play the game the way it is designed to be played, this includes communicating according to the rules of collaboration as laid out in the rule book and playing within the spirit of the game.
Shadows Over Camelot does much to invoke the style and theme of Arthurian legend, the players are knights faced with the challenge of many quests, many of them extremely dangerous. These quests, if won by the knights, do much to restore faith in the legendary round table, if failed they cause yet more faith to be lost. The good and bad faith (as I like to see it) is represented by white and black swords, which are placed about the round table during the game, and form the scoring mechanism at the end of the game. If the knights have managed to get more white than black swords (and haven’t all died, or allowed Camelot to fall), then they win the day, if black swords number as many or more than the white, then the legend of glorious Camelot is cast down and faith in the brave knights is forever broken.
Shadows Over Camelot is one of the most enjoyable and interesting games I have played, it is not a tactical gem in the style of ‘Go’ or ‘Tigris and Euphrates’ (although good tactics must play a part), it is a game to be enjoyed, savoured, and experienced. If you believe that games should be played so that a group of friends can sit down and have a great time, then Shadows Over Camelot is for you. This is one of the best games I own, and certainly one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences my game collection can provide.
Anyways, Shadows over Camelot, believe it or not, it's not as dorky as it might sound (okie, still pretty dorky). If you've played the game and understand the rules, you can explain it to someone in about 10 minutes. I know 10 minutes is still a pretty steep amount of time, especially if you have friends like mine.
The game is undoubtedly one of the best co-op games I've ever played, and I've played a few in my time let me tell'ya. The game is extremely rich in components, the little siege engines to the knights themselves. The board is layed out in a great way that is managable as long as you have a table that is about 2 and a half foot by 2 and a half foot.
The game requires that players play in a type of secrecy about their cards and actions, other-wise it's extremely easy for the knights to win. The only downside I see to this game is that after perhaps 30-40 games it can be predictable, but hey, I've played it perhaps 20 times now, and it's still fun.
- L.T.
