Once Upon a Castle: Review

Once Upon a Castle: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Roll and Write,  Bingo
Player Age: 6+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 20 Minutes 
Game Designer: Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc
Game Artist: Sylvain Aublin

Publisher: Blue Orange Games

Year Published: 2018

BGG Weight: 1.00
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

Your objective is to design a castle from the ground up. While doing this you will also draw in people to create a thriving castle. Once all the towers, donjon floors and walls are built for one players castle the game will end and the scoring will begin. In this review I am going to explain the advanced version of the rules. The easier version has less actions on the board and no special abilities on the guest cards.

Game Anatomy:

The game will consist of guest cards, personal player boards, and castle sheets.

Guests:

The guests cards are gained whenever a common floor is built. The guest will have points on the top left and will fit into one of the three categories; the crown, the hourglass and the lightning bolt (shown on the top right of the card). The crown will have bonus scoring at the end of the game, the hourglass will give the player bonus abilities throughout the game, and the lightning bolt will occur immediately when either the guest is gained, stolen or the bolt action on the player’s board is activated.

Personal Board:

Whenever a good is claimed from the dice the player will place a chip token covering one of these goods anywhere on the board. When a row or column is full the player can remove these tokens at the end of their turn to activate one or multiple abilities (one at a time). These actions may help build parts of the castle at different values, gain people, gain/ steal or reactivate guest cards.

Castle Sheet:

The castle sheet is made out of four walls, four towers, four floors, six windows (that can only be built inside pre-built walls) and can contain up to 26 people. There is also a cloud bonus for the first player to create all four donjon floors and a sun bonus for the player that ends the game. Your castle is a reflection of your own personal taste so let your creativity roam free when drawing these castle parts.

Setup:

- Give each player a board on the blue side, a pen or pencil, a castle sheet and chip tokens in one colour.
- Shuffle the guest deck with a blue back and reveal three cards faceup.

How to Play:

On a players turn they will roll two dice and gain what is shown on both dice, this will either be a good, two people, or a question mark that represents a choice. Players will also place chips on their board  to cover one of the visible goods seen on the dice or colour in two people. Other players will be able to choose one and only one of these dice to use during the active players turn.

At the end of your turn you can remove all the chip tokens covering a single column or row to perform the corresponding action. This can be done multiple times as long as there are chip tokens to be removed.

Play continues in this fashion until one player completes all 12 essential parts of the castle. Now each player will have the opportunity to remove chip tokens and perform the actions for any completed rows and columns. Each player will score the guest, the value at the right most covered section of people, all the castle parts, as well as any bonuses from clouds or suns.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Very child friendly aesthetics.
- Great combination of roll and write and bingo.
- Beginner and advanced versions of the game help to cater for different ages.

Cons:
- May look too childish for the amount of fun that can be enjoyed from the game.

This is a perfect introductory game for younger children as it let's their creativity fly when designing their own castle. It is also the game that will grow with them into a perfect family game as the advanced play is easy but holds enough decisions and variability to keep parents engaged. If you are looking for a child or family weight game then 'Once Upon a Castle' is heavily recommended.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Blue Orange Games
Once Upon a Castle on BGG
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