Haha, forgot about this thread!
Only actually played Flash Point and Castle Panic but some quick thoughts for you guys on both!
Castle Panic
Game setup and packaging is superb here - lots of tokens for the monsters but nothing to punchout! Plenty of space for everything after it's all opened and probably enough space inside for the expansion too!
All the important rules are printed on the board - mostly this applies to the various boss monsters you have to take down and how they affect the fight.
Monsters are assigned to 1 of 6 zones by die roll which makes planning hard work but can make for some super tense moments. Sometimes you don't just draw monsters though - there are a few giant boulders that pop out which can mess you up along with a few plague cards too. Fun but also feels like the monster tokens are spying on you
Very high luck component to the game but you can try to plan around it. I've only played it as a 2 player game which leads to easy planning until the game stabs you in the back
Of the 3 games we've played the stats stand at 1 win/2 losses - it's not always an easy game! Good fun but very light - a good introduction to co-op games I'd say!
Flash Point
Quite a lot of punching out to do for this game and the default storage in the box doesn't really contain the components very well. I got around this by flipping the insert over to double the storage and then bagged up all the tokens by type.
I've only played the basic game on the 'easy' side of the board thus far and they give you a suggested layout to begin with although you can randomise it if you wish.
Usual turn order cards show all the actions you can perform: Move, move through smoke, extinguish flames, clear smoke, move with a survivor etc.
The basic setup has 'Points of Interest' (survivors) starting in the same place but as they get rescued or killed a new POI shows up in a random location by die roll. The whole game is played on a grid and you get a d6 and a d8 to determine your fate.
The fire spreads in much the same way (random die roll) which doesn't seem very thematic but at least gives you a fighting chance. Until you roll the same location where the fire already is causing an explosion! This can also turn into a shockwave and begin destroying walls if you become unlucky!
Victory conditions are rescuing at least 7 survivors. Lose conditions are 4 or more dead OR the building collapsing from damage to the walls which you cannot repair.
Good fun but can be a bit random and occasionally unbalanced but worthy of a purchase I would say.
Do watch out for explosions and shockwaves though - in the first game we killed a cat! So sad!
