Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Review

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Tile Placement, Drafting, Teamwork
Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 2 - 7 Players

Time to Play: 40 - 60 Minutes 
Game Designer: Matthew O'Malley, Ben Rosset

Game Artist: Laura Bevon, Agnieszka Dabrowiecka, Bartłomiej Kordowski, Noah Adelman

Publisher: Stonemair Games

Year Published: 2018

BGG Weight: 2.25

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
BGG

Objective:

You have been set an assignment of building two castles, however, these castles are not built by one person alone.  Instead, every player will build a shared castle together with the player on their left and right. You will draft tiles over the course of two rounds to create these two castles and you must be efficient in both as your castle with the lowest end score will be your victory points. The player with the most points will be the winner.

Component Anatomy:

Regular Room Tiles:

There are seven types of regular tiles which are represented by colour; food (yellow), living (purple), utility (orange), outdoor (green), sleeping (blue), corridors (white) and downstairs (black). The tiles can also have four types of wall hangers on the top right of the tile (swords, mirror, frame, torch).  Each of the tiles have different methods of scoring which appears on the bottom of the tile. These can range from surrounding the tile in particular areas, surrounding with a certain wall hanger/ tile type, or simply having certain tiles as a part of your castle. At any point if there is three tiles of the same room type (colour) then a bonus tile (red) is rewarded. When a fifth tile of a colour is played, the castle will receive a bonus specialty room tile of the players choice. Both of these bonuses will only occur once per regular tile type and will award victory points.

Specialty Room Tiles:

There are three specialty tiles; the towers, grand foyer and fountain. These are placed by gaining the bonus of certain regular tiles (sleeping, corridors and outdoor rooms) or by placing the fifth tile of the same type.

Throne Rooms:

This is the starting location of each castle, there is also a scoring opportunity of two or four points for each throne room that is awarded if you place a chosen tile type in a specific location next to the throne room.

Royal Attendants:

Each castle can have two of these tokens and they will score one point per wall hanger matching their type in the castle.
These will be built as a bonus to living rooms or downstairs (with the downstairs tile you can choose the bonus).

Bonus Cards:

The utility room tile has a bonus of these cards. The bonus cards will add an alternative means to gain points from the castle that will be detailed on the card.

Setup:

- Have the small game tray ordered with all the special tiles and cards
- Shuffle all regular tiles and place them in the larger game tray in sets of 9
- Deal a throne room between every two players (there should be throne rooms equal to the number of players)
- Give a castle token to each player, these will sit on the tiles until they are ready to be chosen
- Deal 9 regular tiles to each player along with a player guide

How to Play:

The game is played in two rounds each consisting of four turns. During each turn you will choose two tiles from your hand, one for the castle on your left and one for the castle on the right. Once everyone has chosen their tiles the hand will be passed to the left (to the right in round two) and will be placed under the next players castle token until the next draft phase is ready.

Once everyone has chosen their tiles, all are revealed and placed onto the castle it was chosen for (this will be expanded on soon), the players can openly discuss at any point what should be drafted or where it should be placed, after all, to have a successful castle the builders need cooperative planning. This continues until one tile remains, this tile is then discarded and the second round will begin. At the end of the game, after the second round of drafting has concluded, each castle is  scored and whoever has the highest score out of their lowest castle is the winner. The scoring is tallied using a handy scoresheet.

Tile Placement:

When placing a tile there are three factors that need to be discussed. Firstly, each new tile needs to connect to another tile’s side when placed. Secondly, the new tile cannot be placed above a tile with a blue border as this is essentially the roof of that column. Lastly, there are certain areas where a tile type can be placed e.g. the downstairs tile must be placed underneath the throne room, corridors and grand foyers can be placed anywhere, and all other tiles must be placed level with or above the throne room.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Great player range
- Multiple strategies to pursue
- Great components/storage solution
- Expands on the unique concept of between two cities with more unique scoring tiles and the added bonuses
- Plenty of variability
- 2 player variant

Cons:
- Scoring can take a while
- Can be hard to develop a strategy for the first few tiles drafted

When 'Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig' is first played it can appear daunting to wrap your head around. Unlike other drafting games, you are not just focusing on one scoring pile, instead you must successfully design two castles which will vary in design. This version of the game may also appear more complex then its earlier version 'Between Two Cities' as there are more choices of scoring possibilities throughout the tiles. Both of these factors, however complicated, aid in excelling the game to its high level of enjoyment and satisfaction. The unique drafting mechanic leads the player to cooperate with opponents in order to end on a decent score. Furthermore, the added elements of the bonuses cards/tiles and the unique regular tiles help create more planning and scoring opportunities for the castles. These features, along with the versatile player range, help create a wide array of replayability to keep the game fresh and engaging. This game will be added to my collection for many more plays and has earned a Silver Seal of Approval.

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