Let's Talk: Tower Defense board games

I love tower defense video games, with my favorite being the first Defense Grid. The second one didn't grab me nearly as much. The notion of this genre being translated to a video game isn't new, and is very appealing to me. There are at least 3 (!) Kickstarters going on right now for tower defense board games. One of them is even an official Defense Grid game, but my brief look at it didn't thrill me. The new one from Devil Pig (Age of Towers, groan) actually looks better to me.

I know of at least a few existing games as well... Castle Panic, Xenoshyft, and Orcs Must Die! (also a cool video game). I have never played any of these.

So my question to you all, is does a great tower defense board game already exist?

Orcs Must Die! has a lot of issues in terms of misprints and such. It sounds like it was rushed.

Castle Panic never appealed to me, but I didn't get a chance to try the expansion.

Isn't STRONGHOLD a Tower Defense game? Not like, tower-tower-tower vs guys on a path, but the same gist. One side is defending a known goal, the other is attacking it.

Tower defense is one of my least favorite genres but I randomly picked up Star Trek Panic at the FLGS and that's a pretty enjoyable, solid B+ game. I never played Castle Panic, though, so I can't speak to the differences from the original.

jeb wrote: Isn't STRONGHOLD a Tower Defense game? Not like, tower-tower-tower vs guys on a path, but the same gist. One side is defending a known goal, the other is attacking it.

No, Stronghold is a siege game. And really cool. But not tower defense.

charlest wrote: Orcs Must Die! has a lot of issues in terms of misprints and such. It sounds like it was rushed.

Thats a damn shame. It is such a good videogame.

Castle Panic is good, albeit simple. Highly recommend the Wizard's Tower expansion right out of the gate. In fact it really doesn't become super difficult or exciting until you throw all the expansions in, which mostly add more interesting monsters. Once you've got all that you've got a pretty big buy-in though.

Off-topic, I apologize, but DEFENSE GRID is great, and KINGDOM RUSH is even better if Tower Defense is your bag. That game is amazing, as is the sequel. There might be a third one now? But I don't see a need to get that too.

I think there are actually 4 Kingdom Rush games now.

Screw Tower Defense. Tower Offense is superior.





well-of-souls.com/tower/index.html

Kingdom Rush is alittle rough on the edges, but my favorite traditional Tower Defense game. (Nothing has topped Iron Brigade).
Kingdom Rush Frontiers does everything you want a sequel to do and is solid through and through.
Kingdom Rush Origins is terrible. Pacing is different, towers are weaker so you have to play some maps certain ways, and the pay to play heroes are stupidly overpowered and costly, but it is the prettiest.
Kingdom Rush 4 is slated for Q2 this year.

Edit:
Dark Tower has a really good android app. But it is not as cool as having the tower talk to you.

I have now researched several tower defense board games. Turns out there are quite a few, although the majority of them seem to really be stretching the definition. So far I haven't seen a single one that really made me say THAT'S IT!

Sylvion's not bad. It very light, though, and solo.