Stonemaier Games

Between Two Castles Essential Edition

Between Two Castles Essential Edition - Main image
$35.5 $50 In stock

Category: board game

Between Two Castles Essential Edition is a competitive drafting, tile-placement game for 1-8 players designed by Ben Rosset and Matthew O'Malley. It plays in about 45-60 minutes.

The Essential Edition combines the original game and the Secrets & Soirees expansion.

    "I love Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig." --Dave Banks, GeekDad

    The king demands a castle! You are a world-renowned master builder who has been asked by the Mad King Ludwig to help design his castles. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with another master builder to execute your grandiose plans. Will your planning and partnership skills be enough to design the most impressive castles in the world?

    Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a competitive tile-drafting game in which each tile is a room in a castle. You work together with the player on your left to design one castle, and with the player on your right on another castle. On each turn you select two tiles from your hand, reveal them, then work with your partners to place them.

    At the end of the game, each castle is scored. Your personal final score is the lower of the scores of the two castles you helped design, and the player with the highest final score wins the game. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion between two castles.

    Customer Reviews (4.6 / 5 · 5 reviews)

    Sebastian O. ★★★★★

    The two-castle mechanic forces you to share points with a rival each round, which makes every tile pick feel like a real negotiation. We finished our first game in about 50 minutes and immediately set it up again.

    Thomas ★★★★★

    I expected chaos with eight of us at the table but the drafting kept everyone moving, no downtime at all. We finished our first game in just under an hour and immediately dealt another round.

    Scarlett Z. ★★★★★

    Played this with five people and it still moved fast, we finished in under an hour. The shared-castle scoring is what sold me, you're forced to help the player next to you while still trying to beat them. Works surprisingly well solo too.