Castle Combo

^{review by K}

Castle Combo is a very quick card-drafting and tableau-building game for 2-5 players and has a playing time of 10-25 minutes. In this game, players are taking turns drafting cards from one of two decks - the castle and the village. The castle deck and village deck are set up in separate rows, with a messenger token representing the active row that can be drafted from during that turn. However, drafting certain cards can move the messenger, or players can use their keys to move the messenger or replace cards in a certain row. Each player starts off with 15 coins and 2 keys. Coins/money in Castle Combo do not score any endgame points, but keys do.

When players start drafting cards to their tableau, the cards they draft are locked in place and cannot be moved around. Once you draft a card, you immediately reap the benefits of the card, and then you can gain more points by scoring combos with other cards that you draft to your castle tableau. The tableau is configured in a 3x3 square, for 9 cards total. Each card has different scoring mechanics, so pay attention to what cards can do when you draft them and choose wisely to draft the best combos! Cards can grant points based on where they are placed in the tableau, their proximity to other cards with matching symbols, among other scoring methods!

The scoring can be complex due to just how many combos a player can make, so this part might be the most time-consuming portion of the overall gameplay. The game itself is quick enough that you can play through the entire game multiple times in one game night, or have the game serve as a lower complexity strategy card game for your game night! You also don’t need a lot of table space to play, and it comes in a small box, making it easy to travel on a plane with, or to throw it in your bag to bring to a cafe to meet a friend to play.

Castle Combo is available now from our webstore.