A
fantastic Eurogame that anyone can enjoy.
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| boardgamegeek.com |
Background
In 1873, King
Ludwig II of Bavaria spent his fortune
constructing some of the most elaborate and extravagant castles ever built to
glorify the Bavarian culture. To this day, his castles are a giant tourist draw.
His personal castle, Neuschwanstein
was the inspiration behind Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle” which remains a
Disney icon to this day.
In The Castles of Mad King Ludwig board game, each player plays an aspiring builder; attempting to construct the castle that impresses both the world and the King the most (I.E. get the most points). The castles are built room by room and come into various categories. Rooms earn bonuses or penalties based on their proximities to other types of rooms. For example, putting a bowling alley next to a bedroom is a terrible idea for obvious reasons. Castles of Mad King Ludwig was designed by Ted Alspach, designer of the very well–regarded Suburbia. In fact, the game is quite similar to Suburbia only with much broader appeal and less bookkeeping.
In The Castles of Mad King Ludwig board game, each player plays an aspiring builder; attempting to construct the castle that impresses both the world and the King the most (I.E. get the most points). The castles are built room by room and come into various categories. Rooms earn bonuses or penalties based on their proximities to other types of rooms. For example, putting a bowling alley next to a bedroom is a terrible idea for obvious reasons. Castles of Mad King Ludwig was designed by Ted Alspach, designer of the very well–regarded Suburbia. In fact, the game is quite similar to Suburbia only with much broader appeal and less bookkeeping.
Rooms also give immediate benefits when all of the
room’s “doors” are connected to the castle (or closed off by another wall).
Completed corridor rooms grant additional corridors, activity rooms grant extra
points, gardens extra cash, food rooms give a free turn, and so-on. There are also additional rewards for
building the most of what the King likes, which varies game to game, and
additional private rewards from bonus cards (which each player keeps separately). One game, you might get extra points for
every corridor. Another, you may earn points for every 10,000 you have. Finally,
at the end of the game you also score points for each “depleted” room type.
Like Suburbia, rooms have variable prices and get cheaper over time. Unlike Suburbia, the base cost of each tile is determined by “The Master Builder” who changes each round. Any money spent to build a room goes to the Master Builder and serves as a major source of income. This mechanic provides an interesting challenge to the Master Builder. They want other players to buy expensive items so they have to pay them more, but they don’t want to price things so high that the other players simply pass or settle for the cheapest building.
Like Suburbia, rooms have variable prices and get cheaper over time. Unlike Suburbia, the base cost of each tile is determined by “The Master Builder” who changes each round. Any money spent to build a room goes to the Master Builder and serves as a major source of income. This mechanic provides an interesting challenge to the Master Builder. They want other players to buy expensive items so they have to pay them more, but they don’t want to price things so high that the other players simply pass or settle for the cheapest building.
So, what kind of player is this game for? Just about
anyone really. That’s the beauty of the game. Mad King Ludwig is approachable
to players who aren’t quite as big into complex, abstract Eurogames.
Simultaneously, it contains enough complexity and elegance that the game is
still enjoyable to the wooden cube loving eurogame fanatics who got bored of
Settlers 15 years ago.
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| boardgamegeek.com |
For example the mechanics are superficially very similar to Suburbia, only with
a lot less pointless bookkeeping. At the end of each turn in Suburbia, your
population (score) grows by an amount equal to its reputation. However, as the
population grows it crosses various lines which reduce income and reputation,
which can go into negative numbers. It’s possible to drive yourself so far into
debt that you can’t really play any cards, which isn’t very conducive to game
play. Finally, almost every building has its own special rule text, many of
which have global affects based on how many of the buildings is in your town.
This results in a player having to check every tile they’ve played every time
they play a tile to make sure they aren’t missing some affect, and can get
quite confusing and discouraging in the late game.
The rooms in Suburbia are clearly marked with points. Most rooms either give or subtract points based on what kind of room is next to them. The strategy for placing them primarily involves the bonus tiles and scoring rules, rather than specific exceptions on the cards. Once a player understands those basic rules, it becomes much easier to figure out how many points a given room is worth and how many points they earn at the end of the turn. It may still take novice players a while to get their score correctly, but usually they can figure it out after 2-3 games.
The theme also makes the game much more palatable to less experienced gamers as well. “Hey, want to play a board game about a Mad King who builds crazy nonsensical castles?” sounds a lot more appealing than “Hey, do you want to play a board game about the establishment of the German Postal System?” It’s good that designers are starting to realize that, while theme doesn’t make a game good, it is still useful. Not everyone gets excited at the mention of a game with wooden cubes designed by Reiner Knizia.
The theme combines with the mechanics does a surprising job of creating a player-driven narrative. We had almost as much fun trying to justify the weird design of castles as we did actually playing the game. After several games, I noticed a pattern would develop for each player after a few turns. Either the player would develop a particular weird theme (“man, my builder must have weighed a ton! He’s obsessed with food!” or they form into this weird combination of rooms that has the player creating their own stories to explain how the hell that happened.
The rooms in Suburbia are clearly marked with points. Most rooms either give or subtract points based on what kind of room is next to them. The strategy for placing them primarily involves the bonus tiles and scoring rules, rather than specific exceptions on the cards. Once a player understands those basic rules, it becomes much easier to figure out how many points a given room is worth and how many points they earn at the end of the turn. It may still take novice players a while to get their score correctly, but usually they can figure it out after 2-3 games.
The theme also makes the game much more palatable to less experienced gamers as well. “Hey, want to play a board game about a Mad King who builds crazy nonsensical castles?” sounds a lot more appealing than “Hey, do you want to play a board game about the establishment of the German Postal System?” It’s good that designers are starting to realize that, while theme doesn’t make a game good, it is still useful. Not everyone gets excited at the mention of a game with wooden cubes designed by Reiner Knizia.
The theme combines with the mechanics does a surprising job of creating a player-driven narrative. We had almost as much fun trying to justify the weird design of castles as we did actually playing the game. After several games, I noticed a pattern would develop for each player after a few turns. Either the player would develop a particular weird theme (“man, my builder must have weighed a ton! He’s obsessed with food!” or they form into this weird combination of rooms that has the player creating their own stories to explain how the hell that happened.
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| wikipedia.org |
In one weird game, I had a staircase down, then up and down, the up and down again from my Coach House, which had a horse and buggy that could move about 2m out of the gate
before it ran into a castle wall. Another player had a “guest” bedroom with
once exit… leading down into a bottomless pit and a dungeon. Either that guest
has VERY weird tastes or is going to have a very unfun stay. Another player had
a maze of activity rooms (and nothing else) and said they were building
Disneyland. Another player cackled insanely on their turns and proceeded to
hunt up all the supervillian themed rooms (the Dungeon, the Secret Lair, the
Panic Room and of course the Torture Chamber).
The desire to see the castle get built, regardless of who wins, allows Mad King Ludwig to appeal to a very broad audience. The elegant euro strategy elements are meaty enough to pique the interest of your boardgamegeek.com obsessed uber–gamer snob, while the theme, design and simplified book keeping make it a great opener for the party crowd. It’s a great opener.
Components
The Castles of Mad King Ludwig has a fairly nice, if not exceptional component box. The tiles are pretty enough, with detail that differentiates the individual rooms (while the easily coded color groups are simultaneously easy to identify as well). I particularly liked the castle shaped assemblable board. The box art (shown above) does justice to the famous castle it depicts, in my opinion.
The desire to see the castle get built, regardless of who wins, allows Mad King Ludwig to appeal to a very broad audience. The elegant euro strategy elements are meaty enough to pique the interest of your boardgamegeek.com obsessed uber–gamer snob, while the theme, design and simplified book keeping make it a great opener for the party crowd. It’s a great opener.
Components
The Castles of Mad King Ludwig has a fairly nice, if not exceptional component box. The tiles are pretty enough, with detail that differentiates the individual rooms (while the easily coded color groups are simultaneously easy to identify as well). I particularly liked the castle shaped assemblable board. The box art (shown above) does justice to the famous castle it depicts, in my opinion.
Overall
I am always looking for games that are both fun to play and easy to introduce to novice players, and this one certainly qualifies. I can’t say for sure whether or not I will be playing this continually, but even after I get tired of it, I expect to dust this game off every few months whenever I need to introduce some new players to Eurogames. Highly enjoyable, this belongs in the collection of every serious boardgamer.
I am always looking for games that are both fun to play and easy to introduce to novice players, and this one certainly qualifies. I can’t say for sure whether or not I will be playing this continually, but even after I get tired of it, I expect to dust this game off every few months whenever I need to introduce some new players to Eurogames. Highly enjoyable, this belongs in the collection of every serious boardgamer.
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| wikipedia.org |
Tips
When choosing initial bonus tiles, don’t keep ones that duplicate an imperial favor. For example, if the emperor is going to reward the person with the most bedrooms, it’s probably a bad idea to take a “bedrooms” bonus tile because everyone else will be going after that one. Pick something else instead.
Function rooms (which give bonus tiles on completion) are EXTREMELY valuable at the start of the game, because they you can adapt your playstyle to get rid of them.
Activity rooms are good to stack together. The penalties never affect each other.
Remember that tiles in demand (that run out during play) are worth 2VP each. If there’s only one staircase left and you already have 4, it might be worth it to build one just to get the 2 VP.
Food tiles give free turns. It can be useful to keep these unfinished until late game, or maybe when you are the master builder so you pay minimal cash to an opponent.
Your first or second turn should probably be spent building a staircase. Underground rooms come up infrequently and are highly sought after. It’s extremely amusing to be a master builder and have the only staircase: unless your opponent completes a food room, you can put the underground room at the lowest cost and grab it easily.
Avoid corridors like the plague, if possible. They are almost never worth it unless you are truly desperate for entrances to the castle.
Keep an eye out for what your opponent is building, particularly if you are the master builder. An inexperienced MB once needed some cash and let me have the Armory Room (+2 per Activity Room). The thing is, I had 6 activity rooms. Worse, I completed the room and chose to score it again as my bonus, soring something like 36 points.
Eurogame – Complex abstract strategy games with low player interaction, lots of complicated multifaceted strategies, and wooden cubes, usually from Germany.
By Marc Thompson
#KeepitNerdy
When choosing initial bonus tiles, don’t keep ones that duplicate an imperial favor. For example, if the emperor is going to reward the person with the most bedrooms, it’s probably a bad idea to take a “bedrooms” bonus tile because everyone else will be going after that one. Pick something else instead.
Function rooms (which give bonus tiles on completion) are EXTREMELY valuable at the start of the game, because they you can adapt your playstyle to get rid of them.
Activity rooms are good to stack together. The penalties never affect each other.
Remember that tiles in demand (that run out during play) are worth 2VP each. If there’s only one staircase left and you already have 4, it might be worth it to build one just to get the 2 VP.
Food tiles give free turns. It can be useful to keep these unfinished until late game, or maybe when you are the master builder so you pay minimal cash to an opponent.
Your first or second turn should probably be spent building a staircase. Underground rooms come up infrequently and are highly sought after. It’s extremely amusing to be a master builder and have the only staircase: unless your opponent completes a food room, you can put the underground room at the lowest cost and grab it easily.
Avoid corridors like the plague, if possible. They are almost never worth it unless you are truly desperate for entrances to the castle.
Keep an eye out for what your opponent is building, particularly if you are the master builder. An inexperienced MB once needed some cash and let me have the Armory Room (+2 per Activity Room). The thing is, I had 6 activity rooms. Worse, I completed the room and chose to score it again as my bonus, soring something like 36 points.
Eurogame – Complex abstract strategy games with low player interaction, lots of complicated multifaceted strategies, and wooden cubes, usually from Germany.
By Marc Thompson
#KeepitNerdy
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