Carcassonne: The Castle
Encyclopedia
Carcassonne: The Castle is a two-player German board game. It is designed by Reiner Knizia
, although Carcassonne
series creator Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
is also credited. Like other games in the Carcassonne series, it is published by Hans im Gluck
in German
and Rio Grande Games
in English
.
Unlike other games in the series, The Castle is solely designed for head-to-head play. Although the main game mechanic of tile placement is retained, players are also additionally confined by the fixed board layout. The Castle is focused on the interior of a castle that is said to be situated in the middle of Carcassonne
, a medieval walled city in France
.
Like other Carcassonne games, each player, on their turn, must draw a tile and play it so that it is adjacent to an existing tile, or to a starting "tile" along the scoring track. Unlike other games, where all features must be contiguous, only paths need to be connected: other features such as fields, towers, and houses, may be placed adjacent to each other. If a tile cannot be placed, it is set aside and not used for the remainder of the game, and the player may draw another tile to place.
After a tile is placed, a player may elect to place a follower onto a specific feature of the tile. Like other Carcassonne games, followers claim ownership of the feature, and may not be placed on an already-claimed feature. It is legal (and perhaps encouraged) to place tiles so as to connect two features with followers together.
With the exception of fields, features are scored whenever they are completed. Roads are considered completed when they are terminated on every end with either a square (a feature found on certain tiles with roads on them - certain intersections do not have squares on them), a starter tile or the castle wall, or if it forms a closed loop. Roads score one point for each tile it spans over (counting a starter tile along the castle wall as a tile) - two points per tile if the road has at least one fountain (another feature found on certain tiles) along its path. Houses and towers are considered complete if they are surrounded on all sides by different features. Houses score one point for each tile they span over, and towers two points.
As with other Carcassonne games, if both players claim ownership of a completed feature, the player with the greater number of followers scores points for the feature. However, unlike other games in the series, if both players have the same number of followers, neither player scores.
Houses are also instrumental in determining the size of their keep: a player places a keep marker upon completion of their first house, and then moves the marker to every subsequent larger house that they score. If multiple features are completed, they may be scored in any order - the order of which, unlike other Carcassonne games, is significant.
The game ends whenever all tiles have either been placed or are out of play. At this point there are at least 16 vacant spaces on the board. The player with the largest keep (which may vary due to wall tiles which increase the value) increases their score by the largest number of contiguous empty spaces on the board. Followers on incomplete features (i.e. roads, houses, and towers which border a vacant space) are removed, or scored for reduced value if the player has the appropriate wall tiles.
Finally, fields are scored. Fields score three points for each market (a feature found on certain tiles) on the field (subject to normal scoring rules).
The player with the greater amount of points is declared the winner.
Reiner Knizia
Reiner Knizia is a prolific German-style board game designer. Born in Germany, he developed his first game at the age of eight. He has a PhD in mathematics, and has been a full-time game designer since 1997, when he quit his job from the board of a large international bank...
, although Carcassonne
Carcassonne (board game)
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English....
series creator Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Klaus-Jürgen Wrede is a German board game creator, the creator of the best-selling Carcassonne and Downfall of Pompeii....
is also credited. Like other games in the Carcassonne series, it is published by Hans im Gluck
Hans im Glück
Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH is a German board and card game publisher. Though many of their own games are language-independent they themselves publish only printings for the domestic market which include only German-language rules; English-language printings of their games have been published...
in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games.-History:...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Unlike other games in the series, The Castle is solely designed for head-to-head play. Although the main game mechanic of tile placement is retained, players are also additionally confined by the fixed board layout. The Castle is focused on the interior of a castle that is said to be situated in the middle of Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
, a medieval walled city in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Gameplay
At the start of the game, there are 60 tiles in a board of 76 spaces. The exterior of the board serves as a scoring track, and also denotes the places where players may begin the placement of tiles.Like other Carcassonne games, each player, on their turn, must draw a tile and play it so that it is adjacent to an existing tile, or to a starting "tile" along the scoring track. Unlike other games, where all features must be contiguous, only paths need to be connected: other features such as fields, towers, and houses, may be placed adjacent to each other. If a tile cannot be placed, it is set aside and not used for the remainder of the game, and the player may draw another tile to place.
After a tile is placed, a player may elect to place a follower onto a specific feature of the tile. Like other Carcassonne games, followers claim ownership of the feature, and may not be placed on an already-claimed feature. It is legal (and perhaps encouraged) to place tiles so as to connect two features with followers together.
With the exception of fields, features are scored whenever they are completed. Roads are considered completed when they are terminated on every end with either a square (a feature found on certain tiles with roads on them - certain intersections do not have squares on them), a starter tile or the castle wall, or if it forms a closed loop. Roads score one point for each tile it spans over (counting a starter tile along the castle wall as a tile) - two points per tile if the road has at least one fountain (another feature found on certain tiles) along its path. Houses and towers are considered complete if they are surrounded on all sides by different features. Houses score one point for each tile they span over, and towers two points.
As with other Carcassonne games, if both players claim ownership of a completed feature, the player with the greater number of followers scores points for the feature. However, unlike other games in the series, if both players have the same number of followers, neither player scores.
Houses are also instrumental in determining the size of their keep: a player places a keep marker upon completion of their first house, and then moves the marker to every subsequent larger house that they score. If multiple features are completed, they may be scored in any order - the order of which, unlike other Carcassonne games, is significant.
Scoring
Throughout the game, if a player scores so as to finish with exactly a certain number of points, they may take special "wall tiles", which allow players certain actions. Wall tiles, for the most part, allow for certain scoring bonuses at the end of the game. Certain wall tiles allow for extra turns, while others can be used to double the scoring of a particular completed feature.The game ends whenever all tiles have either been placed or are out of play. At this point there are at least 16 vacant spaces on the board. The player with the largest keep (which may vary due to wall tiles which increase the value) increases their score by the largest number of contiguous empty spaces on the board. Followers on incomplete features (i.e. roads, houses, and towers which border a vacant space) are removed, or scored for reduced value if the player has the appropriate wall tiles.
Finally, fields are scored. Fields score three points for each market (a feature found on certain tiles) on the field (subject to normal scoring rules).
The player with the greater amount of points is declared the winner.