For my birthday this year M. gave me Shadows Over Camelot, a card based board game produced by Days Of Wonder, and I’ve been totally thrilled with it. A review over at Board Game Geeks will give you an explanation of the game play, but let me add my experiences for good measure.

Things I liked:

This game is hard, I’ve played three times and haven’t come close to beating it. Even with such a slim chance of winning I find it incredibly fun. The cooperative game play element is refreshing, keeping everyone playing invested in the game, while the element of a traitor keeps you on your toes. The turns are quick and everybody’s luck is the same - because it’s cooperative nobody ‘wins’ while everyone else loses.

Things I don’t like:

The first time set up takes a long, long time. This is balanced by the quick game play, but when you’re introducing a new player (or worse, a group of them) it can be a task to explain the rules and get everybody up and running. I would like explanation to take less than ten minutes. Also, with only one positive action per turn I feel its hard to get things done. This might be a problem in the strategy we’ve been using, but it seems that it is too easy to lose quests. But maybe thats what keeps it fun, I’m still debating this point. My last complaint is the figurines and their somewhat low quality. I’ve got a couple who don’t stand up straight or feel a little delicate, but this is a minor complaint.

Overall I think the game is quite a bit of fun, challenging, well made and its certainly going to provide many more enjoyable hours of game play.

To help speed up the re-familiarization process with the rules I’ve compiled an abbreviated list, the quick play set of rules (see below the cut)

============  Quick Rules for Shadows Over Camelot  =================

Purpose of the Game
———————–
Earn 7 white swords out of 12 by completing quests, etc.

Ways to lose the game
———————–
 - If 12 Siege engines appear
 - or 7 black swords are on the round table 
 - or all knights dead

Setup
———————–
 Every player receives 
  - 1 Merlin card
  - 5 white cards

Round progression
———————–
Phase 1: Progression of Evil
 - Draw a black card
 - or place a siege engine
 - or lose a life point 

Phase 2: Heroic Action
 - (if in Camelot) draw 2 white cards
 - or (if in Camelot) fight siege engines
 - or move to a quest or back to Camelot
 - or play special white card
 - or play a card related to a quest you are on
 - or discard three of the same card and heal on life point
** a player may choose to lose one life point to perform one additional
   DIFFERENT heroic action per turn.

Quests
———————–
 Saxons/Picts
  - to win quest a series of cards, 1-5, must be played before 4 Saxons/Picts 	arrive
  - This is a group quest, cards remain when players leave.
  - When the quest is won or lost it is cleared and is started again.

 Black Knight
  - make two sets of matching cards with a point value greater than the four cards
    of the black knight.
  - This is a solo quest. If the player leaves the cards played are discarded.
  - When the quest is won or lost it is cleared and is started again.

 Lancelot’s Armor 
  - Same as black knight, but requires a set of two and a set of three. 
  - This is a solo quest, when the knight leaves the cards are discarded.
  - When the quest is lost the armor is removed from the game, the board is flipped 	over
  - and the Dragon’s Quest is started.

 Excalibur
  - Any white card may be discarded to move Excalibur to the near side of the lake.
  - This is a group quest, Excalibur’s position does not move when knights leave the quest.
  - When Excalibur reaches the far side of the lake it is lost forever and is removed from the game. 	Flip the quest over and follow the instructions.

Holy Grail
  - Grail cards are placed from light to dark side. When seven grail cards are on the quest card 	the grail is won. 
  - If a Despair card is drawn it is played from dark side to light. To remove a 	dark card a light card 	must be played to clear the spot. A new grail card  must the be played to fill the spot.
  - This is a group quest. Grail cards remain on the board if a knight leaves the quest. If the grail is 	lost it is removed from the board and is out of play.

Combat
——————
Siege Engines:
 - A knight plays his/her fight cards and rolls the d8. If the knights fight points 
   are less than or equal the die roll the knight loses.
 - A knight may play a Merlin card a remove a siege engine instead of playing
   fight cards.