Last night was the first time in a while that A, J, M, and I were all able to play a game together. J brought the Royal Collector’s Edition of Castles of Mad King Ludwing. A, J, and I had played this before, though it had been years ago; it was M’s first time.
Such editions are typically referred to as the “big box” version. This is certainly appropriate in this case.Each player starts with a small amount of coins and a foyer tile. The goal of the game is add more tiles and earn points.My tableau near the beginning of the game. You can see that all tiles must connect to some previously-laid tile. Each tile can be worth a certain number of points (upper left of the tile), plus additional points depending on other tiles in the layout (center of the tile).The central board near the start of our game. Every round, the first player pulls room cards (upper middle left; square with vertical line on back) that determines which tiles are available for purchase. The number on the back of the tiles are the square footage of the tile; this can have some effect on end-game scoring. The circular medallions on the lower left, randomly selected during game set-up, represent end-game victory points; for example, the player with the most round rooms gets eight points at the end of the game.My tableau near the end of the game. I focused on an “underground” strategy; this is, I obtained as many tiles as I could with the “downstairs” icon (the descending staircase in the lower left of the tile).My tableau at the end of the game, including my additional end-game victory points. For example, I received 2 victory points for each small 100-square-foot tile in my tableau.The central board at the end of the game. We made several mistakes while playing. One of them was that we thought the game didn’t end until all tile were used up. Actually, the game was supposed to have ended when the room cards were exhausted. All of us gained more than 100 points (“going around the board”). You can see that green came in second; that was me. Yellow won. Who played yellow?If you guessed M, you are correct! In additional to planning well as she constructed her tile layout, she also had an end-game victory-point card (not shown in the picture) that gave her a tremendous boost in her score. Her substantial victory was all the more impressive since it was her first time playing the game.
It was a fun game night! Due to family obligations and the holiday season, it may be a while before we’ll meet again. I look forward to our next session, whenever it may be.
