Dominion Strategy Forum

Miscellaneous => Other Games => Topic started by: GendoIkari on April 18, 2015, 10:15:54 pm

Title: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: GendoIkari on April 18, 2015, 10:15:54 pm
Finally played this, though I've had it since last year's BGG.con. It was great! Very simple in rules and mechanics; very complex in strategy and tactics. Lots of calculations to do on almost every turn.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: eHalcyon on April 18, 2015, 10:17:29 pm
How do you think it compares to Suburbia?
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: GendoIkari on April 18, 2015, 11:56:16 pm
I've neither played nor heard of that one.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: eHalcyon on April 19, 2015, 12:46:32 am
I've neither played nor heard of that one.

Really?  It's very well known.  When Castles (of Mad King Ludwig) was released it was mostly compared against Suburbia because they are both tile-laying games where you build something (castle vs. a city suburb) and they are both by the same designer, Ted Alspach.  Maybe you would recognize the cover?

(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1418335_t.jpg)

I've played Suburbia once and enjoyed it.  I want to try Castles at some point as well.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: GendoIkari on April 19, 2015, 01:10:53 am
Well I looked up Ted Alspach after you asked, because I figured you were probably asking because they were by the same designer. Found out he also made One Night, which I like a lot.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: eHalcyon on April 19, 2015, 02:37:12 am
Well I looked up Ted Alspach after you asked, because I figured you were probably asking because they were by the same designer. Found out he also made One Night, which I like a lot.

That, and the two games are very similar superficially.  I think two key differences are that Castles features oddly shaped pieces (rather than uniform hexes) and that Castles uses a unique auction mechanism whereas Suburbia has a sliding cost track.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: Eevee on July 03, 2018, 07:27:50 pm
I got to play five or six games of this yesterday and today, would recommend anyone giving it a try - we all liked it a lot, it was one of the most fun new games (for me) I remember trying in a while. Not sure how it would hold up to continuous playing, we were all first-timers, but I think it probably would.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: GendoIkari on July 03, 2018, 09:40:47 pm
I'm a big fan of the expansion, specifically the moats add-on.
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: Donald X. on July 03, 2018, 09:43:44 pm
I recommend Isle of Skye, which has the "name prices" thing, only everyone prices things at once, and uses their money to do it (if no-one buys the thing, you buy it with the money you set aside).
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: GendoIkari on July 03, 2018, 11:00:16 pm
I recommend Isle of Skye, which has the "name prices" thing, only everyone prices things at once, and uses their money to do it (if no-one buys the thing, you buy it with the money you set aside).

Yeah but it uses that horrible "each game uses a different subset of tiles to tell you which things score points this game".  ;)
Title: Re: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Post by: Twistedarcher on July 05, 2018, 01:50:21 pm
I really enjoy isle of skye, I think it’s got a lot of interesting decisions while still flowing really nicely.

Has anyone tried the expansion? I almost bought it, but I’m worried it adds too much to the game and will take away from the flow of the game, and haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.