Shadows Over Camelot

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Shadows Over Camelot

a game situation
Players 3–7
Playing time 90 minutes
Skills required Cooperation
Bluffing

Shadows Over Camelot is an Arthurian-themed board game designed by Serge Laget and Bruno Cathala. The game was also published in French as Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde and in German as Schatten über Camelot. Players take on the roles of Knights of the Round Table (with the possibility that one player takes the role of traitor) and play the game by fulfilling quests. The game is cooperative in that a shared victory or loss is possible in the absence of a traitor, and a traitor does not benefit by revealing himself too early. The endgame with a revealed traitor is, by contrast, a competitive game of asymmetric teams.

The game was unveiled by the publishers Days of Wonder at the 2005 American International Toy Fair and was more widely released in May and June of 2005.

Contents

[edit] Cast

The Knights of the Round Table in the game are:

Additionally, an alternate character, Sir Bedivere, has been distributed in games trade magazines and at conventions as a promotional item.

[edit] Gameplay

Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative board game, a fairly rare genre in which players work together in order to try and defeat a game system which itself is moving the game toward defeat for all the players. However, there is a chance that one knight is secretly a traitor, plotting the downfall of the others loyal to Camelot. The existence of the traitor turns a fairly simple game system into a hotbed of paranoia and accusation.

Each turn a player must first suffer the "progression of evil". They either decrease their health, add a siege engine to those attacking Camelot, or draw a black card, which will usually make one of the quests harder to complete. After the progression of evil, each player takes a heroic action, which includes moving to or returning from a quest location, advancing a quest toward victory, playing a "special white" card, discarding three identical cards to gain one life point, or accusing one knight of being a traitor. In addition, while at Camelot, the player has the option of fighting a siege engine or drawing two white cards in addition to the normal heroic actions. Finally, each player may choose to lose one health point to perform a second, different heroic action. For example, a player may move to a quest, choose to lose one health point, and begin to advance the quest toward victory, a series of actions that would otherwise require two turns. Moreover, each player also has a "special power", which can be performed once per turn in addition to his or her heroic action(s).

The board of Shadows over Camelot depicts a number of locations, each with an associated quest. At the start of the game, they are: Camelot; the War against the Picts; the War against the Saxons; the tournament against the Black Knight; the quest for Excalibur; the quest for Lancelot's Armor; and the Grail Quest. The quests for the Grail, Excalibur, and Lancelot's armor can only be completed once, whereas the wars and the Black Knight tournament repeat. Once Lancelot's Armor has been retrieved or lost, the knights have the opportunity to defeat the Dragon. The success in all quests is determined by the playing of cards, mostly in various sets. For example, Grail cards are used to complete the Grail quest, a set of 1-2-3-4-5 in Fight is needed to complete the wars, and two pair of Fight are needed to complete the Tournament. Quests are completed with the knights' success, in which case white swords are added to the Round Table, or by their failure, which results in black swords being added to the table.

The game ends once the Round Table is filled with twelve swords; if there are more white swords than black, the knights win; otherwise, they lose. In addition, the loyal knights will lose if they cannot fill the round table before twelve siege engines surround Camelot, or if they all perish fighting the forces of evil.

[edit] Traitor

At the beginning of the game, a set of eight loyalty cards are dealt to the players. There are seven cards indicating 'loyal' and one card indicating 'traitor'. Since a game is played with at most seven players, not every game is guaranteed to have a traitor. Moreover, games of three players are often played without a traitor, since otherwise the game can become unbalanced. Should the players decide to play with the possibility of a traitor despite this risk, the rules recommend for each player to wait until after six turns before looking at his or her loyalty card. In this manner, the loyal knights will have a slight head start and will be less likely to be defeated immediately.

Players can accuse each other, which constitutes a heroic action. A correct accusation leads to white swords being added to the Round Table, whereas an incorrect accusation results in a white sword being flipped to a black sword. Further, if the traitor is not unmasked by the end of the game, two white swords are flipped to black at the end, which may result in an unexpected defeat.

[edit] Strategy

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Strategy broadly falls into two categories: strategy for the loyal knights and strategy for the traitor.

[edit] Loyal knight strategy

The ultimate object of the loyal knights is to ensure that there are at least seven white swords on the Round Table and that the number of siege engines around Camelot remains fewer than twelve.

[edit] Cooperative knights

As a cooperative game for the loyal knights, Shadows over Camelot offers incentive only for knights to work together with maximal efficiency. Nevertheless, the rules state that certain types of table talk are forbidden. One strategy is for the knights to choose quests one at a time and work at them en masse. In this fashion, quests will become completed quicker and various rewards can be used in subsequent quests.

[edit] Incompetent knights

Late in the game, if knights already have nine white swords without a traitor revelation or seven white swords with a traitor revelation, it may become useful to fail at quests. This is the case because quest completion -- whether defeat or victory -- adds swords to the Round Table, hastening the end of the game and staving off otherwise certain doom from siege engines.

[edit] Traitor strategy

The traitor wins when there are either seven black swords on the Round Table or Camelot is surrounded with twelve siege engines. A skillful traitor will utilize many of the following general strategies. (Note: Six swords are not sufficient for a traitor's victory since the loyal knights may successfully complete a quest that brings the total sword count greater than twelve. For example, the round table may have six black swords and five white swords present. If the loyal knights win a quest that provides two or more white swords as a reward, the game ends with a white sword majority and thus a win for the loyal knights.)

[edit] The warlike traitor

Placing one siege engine every turn is an obvious, but potentially degenerate, strategy for the traitor. This strategy is less efficient for larger numbers of players, as there will be more people to combat siege engines.

[edit] The inefficient traitor

A traitor can do a lot of damage by simply being inefficient. By heading back and forth to various quests, but taking a long time to complete them, the traitor can really disrupt the knights' goals in the game.

[edit] The incompetent traitor

The traitor can pretend to be confused by the game's rules and "accidentally" play damaging cards. "Forgetfulness" or just logic mistakes are also reasonable ways to approach this cover. For new players, it doesn't take a lot of bluffing to avoid suspicion.

[edit] The wasteful traitor

Traitors can easily make the game harder just by wasting useful cards or playing them at inopportune moments. This is easily done on the Excalibur Quest, where a traitor can discard many useful white cards. Since all white cards willingly discarded are discarded face down, the traitor can avoid suspicion.

[edit] The quiet traitor

A traitor can win by staying quiet, because if he remains undiscovered at the end of the game, two white swords flip to black.

[edit] The greedy traitor

A traitor who claims powerful items by completing quests is a force to be reckoned with. Acquiring the Grail or Excalibur prevents their use by loyal knights. Lancelot's Armor allows the traitor to draw two black cards and play the more devastating one, a strategy that can severely set back the loyal knights.

[edit] The suspicion-casting traitor

A traitor who convinces the loyal knights that someone else is the traitor is likely to win. A single incorrect accusation can quickly turn the tide of the round table, and if it is not the traitor who makes the accusation, it is even possible a counter-accusation will be made, furthering the traitor's goals even more.

[edit] Awards

[edit] External links

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