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Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig- Secrets and Soirees: Review

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig - Secrets and Soirees: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Tile Placement, Drafting, Teamwork
Player Age: 10+ 
Player Count: 1 - 8 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: 2021
BGG Weight: 2.25
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

The mad kings' castle has been expanded with the addition of two new room types (secret and activity), a new mode of playing (solitaire) and now enough components for eight players, there is plenty more to explore in the castles of the Mad King. 

Secrets:

Secret rooms can be placed anywhere in your castle and they will copy the room that the pictured arrow is pointing to. These will count towards reaching the three and five-room bonus of the new room that it is mimicking.

Activity:

Activity rooms will score one point for each adjacent room. The catch is that there is a room type that you don't want to place the activity room next to, if that happens you will only score one point no matter how many rooms surround the tile. 

If you place three activity rooms anywhere in the castle then you will gain a ballroom as a bonus. When you get a ballroom you draw three and pick one to place in your castle. From them you will score one point for each tile that matches that type in the castles to your left and right.

Insert:

The expansion comes with a brand new game tray that fits snuggly with the game trays from the base game. This makes everything fit perfectly into the base game box. For people like me that want to condense game boxes, the system of fitting the insert easily into the base game is essential and I hope Stonemaier keeps this trend with future games.

Variant Game Mode:

The new game mode has players focusing on just one castle, their own. In this mode you are drafting one tile for yourself and one for either the player to your left or right depending on the round. This mode makes for a great tile placement game for two players. In the base game, it wasn't too enjoyable as a two-player game but this is changed by this game mode, now it is going to get played much more.

Change in Player Count:

The game can now be increased up to eight players and there is now a solo mode for players to explore.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:

- Two new room types.

- Increased range of player count.

- The new content fits perfectly in the base game.

- New variant play mode.

Cons:

- If you aren't interested in the change of player counts, then the new content isn't too much in this expansion.

My favourite part of this expansion is the variant play mode, as between two castles was a great multiplayer game and an ok two-player game to begin with. Now, with the variant it is a great two-player option as well. The two new room types also add more variability between games. The secret rooms are my favourite new type of room as they can be used to copy other rooms that are scoring you a large number of points. This has made the base game even better and is an easy expansion to recommend especially if you wanted an even wider player count than what the base game offered.

Click...feed the addiction: 

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