Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Let's start with the cons: it is a really complex game to learn. I recommend it more to board game geeks than to casual players. On the plus side it has a unique and interesting game mechanic which it inherits mostly from Between Two Cities. While I love collaborative games often the most experienced player ends up giving out instructions and playing almost alone. This is not the case with BTCoMKL, since here everyone only collaborates with their immediate neighbours. Also, there is a single winner in the end, so the game has a strong competitive element too. The game is well designed, and the rules encourage creating castle designs that are truly hilarious. If you liked Between Two Cities but would like to have a more challenging version of that, this game is a perfect choice.

Now one of our favorite games to play. Best played with four or five people. Even if you have an off game, it's always fun to see what rooms end up in your castle. Make sure you place the in-law suite at the top of the tower. In all seriousness, a fun game that can be as competitive or not as you'd like it to be.

I've played this in the two-player variant and with a gaming group of seven, so far, and either way it was an absolute blast. Our group has played both Between Two Cities and Castles of Mad King Ludwig before, which was very helpful in getting the hang of the rules (it's much more like Between Two Cities, but more complex and more entertaining thanks to the unique room tiles). I think it's a very versatile game, hitting a sweet spot in terms of complexity: for people with some experience with board games, it has enough depth to hold your interest; for newer players, it might feel a little convoluted at first, but quickly becomes an engrossing challenge. I'd especially recommend it for board game enthusiasts looking for a semi-casual game with a flexible player count and potential for hilarious in-game discussions—we see it filling a similar niche to Seven Wonders for our group—but think it would appeal to a range of people. One other thing: as others have mentioned, scoring can be tedious; luckily there are a number of smartphone app aids for this specific purpose (just search for "Between Two Castles" on your preferred app store, or "The Mad King's Steward" on iOS).

Good party game overall. I like feeling of building up your own unique castles, and every time you play the game they are going to be very different. The scoring of the game is a bit complicated and it’s the least fun part of the game. At some of our games, no one wants to calculate the score at the end.

We play the Between Two cities game and found the Castles version an absolute delightful challenge. This one took much more time to learn and play, which was perfect for us. The art is stunning.

I had played the Castles of Mad King Ludwig with my sister and her husband and liked the game. I found this one on Amazon and decided to get it since it was a spin off of that game. My husband hates cooperatives and was skeptical about playing it but this game is different! While it is still similar to the original version in concept you have to work cooperatively with the people on each side of you to maximize your points on 2 different castles so there's no trying to screw anyone over since you are both trying to get the best amount of points possible as a team but since you are two separate teams it gets tricky trying to maximize both sides! It was a neat twist I hadn't played before with other games. I wouldn't say this is a beginners game though. We play a lot of Euro games so we were able to figure it out as we went but I can see people who are used to simpler games finding it more difficult since there's a lot of things you have to keep track of when playing.

I was a little worried when I first looked at the game that it was going to be complicated and confusing, especially the scoring. However, once we jumped in, it was easy to learn and very intuitive. It is a little crunchy at the end of the game but scoring was way easier than I thought it would be. My wife and I absolutely loved this game!

I've only been able to play once so far, but the group had a lot of fun. Each castle is a fun puzzle that you and your partner are trying to solve. While it is competitive, we had no clue which castle was winning and everyone seemed more focused on optimizing each castle, not trying to block or screw one of the castle build. Since you take the lowest score of your two castles and final scoring is unknown it is in everyone's interest to try to make their two castles the highest scoring.

Pieces were good quality. Box had nice storage or pieces. Fun, chill game.

juego sencillo y divertido

Disappointed that minimum no of players is 3. As bought for 2 to play this was a disadvantage. My fault but disappointing

Ein Spiel, das so richtig zu viert oder fünft Spaß macht. Viel Interaktion, relativ überschaubare Menge an Regeln und sehr schöne Illustrationen der Räume. KLEINES Manko: Die Abbildung der Siegpunktebedingungen auf den einzelnen Raumplättchen sind wirklich klein.

easier to learn if you'd played Between Two Cities