Castles of Mad King Ludwig : Secrets
Expansion of: Castles of Mad King LudwigCastles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets is an expansion for Castles of Mad King Ludwig that will help you build even more amazing, crazy castles than ever before!
45m - 90m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 13+
Arkeas
Was hoping this would be to Castles as Suburbia, Inc. was Suburbia. Instead, it felt more like 5★. Swan tiles double the setup time of the game. The swans tiles themselves are somewhat interesting but their appearance is too predictable using the normal rules and don't justify doubling the setup time. We've found that mixing all of the tiles for a single stack together and discarding 3 at random makes them more unpredictable and keeps the setup time at its usual length. Not a big fan of moats as they're too restrictive for our style (considering we play 2-players with the components for 4 to make the game a reasonable length). Secret passages are neat to have for doubling the bonus from a room but we've found they're rarely used as the entrances never seem to line up, being either too close or too far apart. Was hoping we'd get new room types instead of new gimmicky mechanics.
Clatch
Honestly, I fail to see the need for the expansion. We never use it. Although, it's there for that rainy day.
bigmac33070
The big expansion for COMKL adds 4 modules, 2 of which must be played together. Those would be the Swans and the extra rooms. Either 1 or 2 swans are on each of the new rooms. When one comes out, add a random Swan token to the room. The swans come in 5 colors. Get the swans when you purchase the room. Swans can either be discarded for money during the game or saved for VP at the end of the game depending on sets of different colors you have. This is by far the best thing about the expansion and I would likely even teach this to new people. There are also the Moats. Each player starts with a Barbican, which is essentially the starting piece from the base game with a Moat. Moats can be added for $5000 when you buy a room. The moats will eventually make a square around your castle if you get the additional 3. This limits the size of the castle and forces a tighter build. Also, when moats are placed, they give 3 VP and a VP for each of most of the kinds of rooms in your castle. I could take it or leave it with this one. Meh.... Last and least are the Secret Passages. Each player gets the same 3 passage pieces. They can be connected to 2 rooms that are not already connected at any time. This will double the adjoining room scoring when placed. I didn't like these at all. I wasn't sure how the raised pieces went on the rooms. I am guessing you would mostly use these if you are using the moats. So overall, pretty average. The new rooms with the Swans are good but the other 2 pieces are decidedly mediocre, IMO.