Crossbows and Catapults / Original Lakeside Edition / 1983

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Crossbows and Catapults / Original Lakeside Edition / 1983 House Rules and a Sample Game Publisher: Lakeside and others Designers: Ray Frigard / Henri Sala It has been a while since we brought out this gem. Vikings vs Barbarians clash in a deadly battle. Could there be a better way to whet a kids imagination? Iconic artwork on that cover sure captured things perfectly! I quite literally played this game to death as a kid ( I was 9 in 1983). We usually set it up on my parents 6 x 4 foot table tennis set. My friends and I explored all kinds of wacky rules but eventually settled on a few key ideas. We played two ways: alternating turns firing our caroms and a speed version where you shot caroms as fast as you could. We usually doubled up or tripled the elastics to increase the strength of each shot. But often the pressure was too great and the fragile parts would snap. My dad always had the two part epoxy ready for a fix. Smitten with the game, we even setup the flags and figures on my bathtub surround, firing the caroms off our legs using the crossbow,like you would in a shooting gallery. The sound of the carom bouncing off the tub likely drove my parents insane. But they seldom complained. The game had a slew of expansion sets, such as Castle Outposts, a Dragon, a Battering Ram, a Trojan Horse, a Shield Gauntlet, and finally a Minotaur and Cyclops set. Thanks to a super cool television commercial ad, deluxe kits such as the Master Set and the Sea Battle Set were released as well, but I don't recall seeing them here in Canada. I found the best expansion was the Castle Outpost, even if it did what the catapult already did. Having figures pop out of the top when the door mechanism was activated was always exciting. The other expansions often broke easily as the firing components were internal. My Minotaur and Cyclops are broken, unfortunately, and I don't think I will ever pay the current ebay costs to re-purchase. Their was a re-release at some point using Empire Knights vs Orcs, including some new expansion pieces, but it never really captured the magic of the old set (at least in my eyes). This video will cover our house rules and also a sample game. Thanks for letting us take you back to 1983! Music: Take Off and Shoot a Zero by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/stuntisland/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/Take Off and Shoot a Zero by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/stuntisland/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/