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    DEVICE 6

    DEVICE 6

    Games and Book

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    ** Winner of Apple Design Award 2014 ** A surreal thriller in which the written word is your map,...

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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets in Tabletop Games

Oct 27, 2021  
Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets
Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets
2018 | Economic, Medieval
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Tabletop Game Rating
In the expansion review series, we take a look at a game expansion to discuss whether it is a necessary purchase/addition to one’s collection.

This breakdown is for the excellent bidding and castle building game Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and the expansion is named Secrets, from Bezier Games.


This expansion includes new starting Barbicans, Moats, Reference tiles, Swan tokens, Secret Passages, and a bunch of new Room tiles, all shown below.
Secrets adds several new large border tiles (Barbicans and Moats) that are somewhat the main features of this expansion along with the actual Secret Passages and Swans. The Barbicans replace the starting tiles, so each player begins the game with a fancy new drawbridge and foyer. The Moats, however, will be purchased during game play for 5000 marks and joined to the Barbican to begin creating a border within which the normal castle Room tiles may be placed. The Moats award three VP once built, and bonus VP for the number of rooms already built within the player’s castle.

The Secret Passages allow two rooms to be connected that otherwise may not have been. They are able to connect these ONLY at entrances to the rooms, and each player is given a set of them at setup.

Swans are present on the expansion Room tiles, and when they are added to the main contract bidding board a Swan token is placed upon it. The winner of the Room tile containing Swans collects the tokens and they can be used as money or as VP at the end of the game.

Is it necessary to own? Absolutely not. Castles of Mad King Ludwig is an amazing game without its expansion. However, if your games are getting a little samey or old (I don’t see how) then throwing in this expansion will certainly liven it up for you. Adding the components (which can fit in a medium sized baggie) is a breeze and they are mostly intuitive with their accompanying rules.

Official Recommendation: I love Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I also love the Secrets expansion. I think the expansion adds a few new and exciting layers to an already-kinda-crazy game that throws in much more strategy. As if connecting all those oddly-shaped Room tiles wasn’t strategic enough! I recommend you pick this up if you are a completionist, a true fan of the game, or are no longer finding the base game exciting.
  
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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Elementos in Tabletop Games

Aug 6, 2019  
Elementos
Elementos
2015 | Abstract Strategy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Tabletop Game Rating
I am going to be honest. I am typically not a fan of abstract strategy games unless they have some kind of interesting theme on them: Azul (a Golden Feather Award winner), Patchwork, Reef, Onitama, Hive. These are all in my Top 100 of All Time, but they also have some sort of theme working for them to help me digest the immense calculating nature of most abstracts. So when I tell you that Elementos has also now breached my Top 100 with a very loose theme, I’m kinda shook myself.

So the winner of Elementos is the player that can get their wand (the wooden stick) to one of the three squares on the opponent’s side of the board (a la American football). This is accomplished by moving the element discs down the board and overtaking discs using the game’s elemental weakness wheel: fire burns trees, trees drink water, water douses fire. Movement can be made to any space obliquely, straight forward, or forward diagonally, unless the piece being moved is carrying the wand. Those wand-carrying pieces can only be moved straight forward.

Undoubtedly players will find themselves wanting to enter a space containing an opponent’s disc. Following the movement rules and elemental wheel described above, the attacking piece can overtake the opponent’s space and remove the opponent’s disc from the board. Easy, right? Let me explain the kicker here. The discs are double-sided and have different elements on the flip-side. So for an action (instead of moving) a player can simply flip any of their discs to the other side – perhaps to block movement, or setup a takeover on the next turn. As you only have one action to use on your turn you may not flip and move on the same turn. The other allowable action on a turn is to pass the wand to another friendly piece, observing movement rules for wand movement as well. The benefit with this is that the wand-carrying discs can neither attack nor BE attacked. Need to protect your tree from that fire ahead? Pass it the wand and be safe.

The rule sheet states that at any time you may peek at what element is on the flip-side of any piece at any time, but there is a variant described where you play the game without peeking, and we found that to be a more enjoyable way to play. You just never know if the other side of your tree is a fire or a water, and it sometimes results in turns where you effectively shoot yourself in the foot. Yes, it diminishes the tactics of the game, and if you would rather plan your moves well ahead of your turns like a Chess Grand Master, so be it. I kinda like the chaotic nature of not knowing what’s on the other side.

Components. So this is a clam shell wooden box that pulls double duty as the game board and storage for the other components. It is of good quality, and is reminiscent of the keepsake boxes one might find at Hobby Lobby or the like. The discs are painted and silk-screened plywood discs with a hole in the middle to accept the wand. The wand itself is a length of wooden dowel. All of these components are of good quality, but I wish a different finish was applied to the wood. The finish on the copy I was sent for review isn’t really conducive to sliding pieces on, so I suggest you pick up the pieces (any Average White Band fans here?) and place them where they need to go. Do as I say, not as I do.

Overall this is a really great game that I know will see lots of play in my house. My wife likes abstracts a lot and I predict she will enjoy this one as much as she adores Blokus (which she adores a TON). For the ease of teaching, play, and that itch to play just one more time, we at Purple Phoenix Games give this one a no-peek 9 / 12. If you are a fan of Chess, Checkers, or any of the other abstract strategy games I listed earlier, you should really check this one out. It’s a little different and a lot fun.