Castles of Mad King Ludwig
In the tile-laying game Castles of Mad King Ludwig, players are tasked with building an amazing, extravagant castle for King Ludwig II of Bavaria…one room at a time. Each player acts as a building contractor who is adding rooms to the castle he’s building while also selling his services to other players.
90m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 13+
12from1
This is currently my wife and my favorite two player game. We play with the 3-player setup, and it works fantastic. We get the satisfaction of "building" a castle, and most of our games have come down to just a few point swings. Admittedly, the game can suffer from analysis paralysis, and in 3 and 4 player games, there can be a lot of downtime between Master Builder turns. But, each turn, you are watching others build their castle, buy rooms that you want, and agonizing over under/overpricing something. The auction mechanic is neat, and the room variety is great. Add in the randomization of each set-up, and not knowing if you'll get what you want, and you have a very engaging board game experience. The only reason it's not a 10 in my book is the scoring track. Snake tracks aren't that great - but I don't have a solution otherwise. Great game - I'm always up for playing this.
ader314
December 2022 - 9 - 8+ plays + Love the building a castle feeling and seeing the crazy configurations after the game is done + To play well need to be aware of the opponents castles and what they might be aiming for + Fun decisions as the master builder setting the room prices - New players have a big disadvantage in setting room prices which can cause experienced players getting great rooms too cheaply - Can luck into a great hidden bonus while other players may not get as lucky causing potentially large point swings
aardball
Ignore those complainers who will tell you, "The box is too empty! The cardboard is too thin!" There's plenty of game here, with room in the box to hold future expansions. (Having said that, please bring on the future expansions!)