Designers: Serge Laget & Bruno Cathala
Publisher: Days of Wonder
Year: 2005
Players: 3-7
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 60-90 Minutes

The Idea
In Shadows Over Camelot players take the roles of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as they fight to protect the kingdom from evil. The players will work together to successfully complete quests such as the Quest for the Holy Grail, jousting against the Black Knight or defending against the invading Saxons.

As quests are completed, twelve spaces on the Round Table are filled up with white swords (if the players were successful) or black swords (if they fail the quest). What complicates matters for the knights is that there is the chance that one of them is actually a traitor and is secretly working against them to foil their efforts…

For the players to win they need to work together to fill all 12 spots on the Round Table and have the majority of the swords white. Unfortunately there are also 3 ways to lose the game which are having 7 or more black swords on the Round Table, having 12 siege engines surrounding Camelot or the death of all of the loyal knights.

In the Box
As with all Days of Wonder games the quality of the production is superb. All of the pieces are of excellent quality and fit perfectly into their custom made insert. The game requires a reasonably large space as it comes with a master game board and three smaller double sided quest boards which are placed around it. All of the boards are beautifully illustrated and show a top down view of Camelot and the various quest areas.

You also get 30 plastic miniature pieces which represent the knights, the Saxons, the Picts, siege engines and three powerful artefacts (Excalibur, the Holy Grail and Lancelot’s Armour). All of the pieces are good quality sculpts and could be easily painted if you wanted to do so. The pieces are well packaged and ready to use straight from the box. The swords which are laid on the Round Table are of good thick quality card stock and come pre-punched and again ready for immediate play.

Each knight has a “Coat of Arms” sheet which details that knight’s special power which breaks the standard rules of the game in some small way. In addition the Coat of Arms acts as an excellent reference card throughout the game as it summarises the sequence of play, the victory and loss conditions and the powers of the three artefacts. Each knight also receives a wooden 6-sided die in a colour which matches his piece and Coat of Arms. The die is placed on the Coat of Arms and is used to track their life throughout the game. There is also an extra 8-sided die which is used for one of the quests.

Also included are 168 cards which are split into a white deck (representing the forces of good), a black deck (representing the forces of evil) and 8 green backed Loyalty cards. Most of the white cards are numbered cards which are used to make various sets required to complete quests. Others are special cards which can achieve a variety of effects during the game. Most of the black cards are matched to the various quests in the game but some are special cards which will have very ill effects for the knights. Amongst the 8 Loyalty cards there are 7 Loyal cards and 1 Traitor card.

Finally there are two booklets. The first is a 20 page Rules Booklet which details the basic rules of the game. It is well illustrated and clearly written so you needn’t be intimidated by the thought of 20 pages of rules. It’s a pretty quick and easy read. It also contains suggestions for making the game easier or harder and allowing players to join mid-game. The last booklet is the Book of Quests which details the individual quests in more detail. It’s a good idea to read the entry for each quest as you come to them during your first game. After that you’ll only ever really need to refer to it occasionally if you forget any particulars.

On the back of the rulebook is an added bonus. You’ll find a registration number which will allow you six months of access to the online play on the Days of Wonder website. Here you can play some of Days of Wonder’s other games including Ticket to Ride and Gang of Four. It’s a nice little bonus.

Again, everything in the game is well made and should last a long time and many, many plays.

A Brief Game Play Summary
After laying out the board and cards (clearly illustrated and explained in the Rules Booklet) each player randomly draws a Coat of Arms, takes the appropriate knight piece, coloured die and checks their special power.

The eight Loyalty cards are then shuffled and one dealt to each player. You need to keep your card secret and the remaining cards are put back into the box without being looked at. It’s worth noting that there will always be at least one Loyalty card left over so there is always the chance that everyone is loyal. The fewer players there are the more likely it is that everyone is actually loyal. But there is never a guarantee! For me it is the tension created by the possibility of a traitor that makes this game really work. It creates a healthy dose of suspicion in this cooperative game.

It should also be noted here that this is a cooperative game with players needing to work together to beat the game. However the way players can communicate is somewhat limited. Communication must be general in nature rather than specific and should be spoken in a knightly fashion. So “Bah! ‘Tis a puny dragon which stands before us!” is fine but “I just put down a five” isn’t. This actually adds a lot to the flavour of the game and it is strongly recommended that players get into the spirit of the game and the theme.

On each player’s turn, that player will perform two actions. The first action will involve the “Progression of Evil” and is a choice of drawing a black card (which will likely affect one of the quests) place a siege engine around Camelot (the twelfth of which means defeat for the knights) or lose one life from your total. The second action will be a “Heroic Action” which helps the knights to fight the forces of evil, often by completing quests.

Each of the quests is a bit different but generally involves collecting specific sets of cards and then moving to a quest to gradually play the cards one at a time to the game board. Some quests must be performed alone while others may be attempted as a group. The most notably different quest is that of fighting the siege engines around Camelot which involves discarding a number of cards and then rolling the 8-sided and getting a result that is less than the sum of the cards put down to defeat the engine.

Turns can go fairly quickly as players are usually able to plan their actions ahead of time. Most decision making during a turn often comes down to choosing one of the choices for the Progression of Evil. So there usually isn’t too much down time between turns and the cooperative nature of the game means that offering advice during other players turns keeps everyone involved in the game most of the time.

This has only been a brief overview of game play. Days of Wonder have the rules available for download on their website so they can be read there if you’re interested in more detail.

Who Would Like It?
The game is quite thematic so if you’re interested in the old Arthurian legends then you’ll probably get a kick out of this game. Both the production style and elements of the game play are quite evocative of the theme.

The cooperative nature of the game also makes this game great for less competitive groups (such as families) who would rather work together than compete against each other. This is a great game for getting people talking (even if it is in a knightly manner).

This could also be a great game for role-players who can enjoy working together and getting into the characters in the game. The Arthurian theme is also likely to be engaging for most role-players.

And finally if you’ve played and enjoyed any of the other games from Days of Wonder then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this one. The quality of a Days of Wonder game always makes it very playable.

Where to From Here?
If you have played and enjoyed Shadows Over Camelot then there are a few options for your next step. The first is the Merlin’s Company expansion for Shadow’s Over Camelot. Merlin’s Company adds in seven new Knights, more cards (including a new Travel deck), a Merlin character figure and the possibility to play with eight players and to have two traitors!

If you enjoyed the cooperative nature of Shadows Over Camelot then you could try playing other cooperative games like The Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror and Battlestar Galactica (from Fantasy Flight Games) or Pandemic (from Z-Man Games). Battlestar Galactica has the added bonus of also having a Traitor in the game similar to Shadows Over Camelot. Of these, Pandemic is the closest to Shadows Over Camelot in complexity.