Shadows over Camelot
Today, I enjoyed playing my first game of Shadows over Camelot (aka Schatten über Camelot). The game is designed by Serge Laget and Bruno Cathala and published by Days of Wonder.
We played the game over at Shelak's place - he got this game as a birthday present.
A first frustration was to fight our way through the rulesbook(s). It is certainly not a game where reading the manual takes just 5 minutes. But once we had overcome this obstacle the game was really easy and a whole lot of fun. I liked it a lot. We were playing King Arthur (Lady J), Sir Galahad (Raven), Sir Tristan of Lyonesse (Shelak) and Sir Gawain (Naturelich). There was no traitor at the table although we somewhat thought Sir Tristan was playing a dubious role. But no one had the courage to publicly denounce him as such and in the end much credit has to be given to his accomplishments.
Sir Gawain won the quest to find Lancelot's Armor and was victorious in The Tournament against the Black Knight - which we had lost once before. Unfortunately we were neither able to fight off The Dragon. But at least Sir Gawain destroyed plenty of siege machinery which kept the battle for good and evil at balance.
Due to some very unfortunate circumstances (who again draw that card?), we lost the Search for Excalibur and the magic sword fell into the hands of Evil. But in a collaborative effort the long-lost fight for the Holy Grail was won by Sir Galahad, King Arthur and Sir Tristan. It was a true epic heroic deed. The quest succeeded because we were all fighting together against evil. Altogether Camelot was governed by mainly white swords and the people where cheering upon our return and a major feast was held at our arrival.
In my opinion this is a great collaborative game. It got very close and - if played with four players - the game seems rather balanced. It is a lot of fun and quite thrilling. Obviously, the game contains many elements of luck (good and bad) and you alsways have to expect the unknown. Another big plus is the game material. It is absolutely fabulous and one of the best game designs I have seen in a long time.
My recommendation is to: GO GET IT!