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Castle Combo
You could earn
2599 Victory Points
with this purchase
Castle Combo is a fast-paced and deeply satisfying card game, published by the creators of Faraway. In this tableau-building experience, players will spend coins to draft nine cards from two open markets on the table, known as the Lower and Upper Cities. Through drafting, each player assembles a unique 3×3 grid of characters who interact with one another to trigger immediate effects and valuable end-game bonuses.
Every turn, you’ll add one character to your tableau. This straightforward action requires some forward-thinking choices, as each new addition can drastically shift your strategy.
Gold is required to purchase the characters you want, while Keys influence the Messenger pawn, which controls which characters are available for recruitment from two different areas – peasants and nobles.
Selecting the right characters is crucial to maximising their immediate effects and the points they will contribute at the game’s end. Finally, carefully arranging these characters on your 3×3 board is key to unlocking their full potential.
Player Count: 2-5
Play time: 10+ mins
Age: 10+
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Description
Castle Combo is a fast-paced and deeply satisfying card game, published by the creators of Faraway. In this tableau-building experience, players will spend coins to draft nine cards from two open markets on the table, known as the Lower and Upper Cities. Through drafting, each player assembles a unique 3x3 grid of characters who interact with one another to trigger immediate effects and valuable end-game bonuses.
Every turn, you’ll add one character to your tableau. This straightforward action requires some forward-thinking choices, as each new addition can drastically shift your strategy.
Gold is required to purchase the characters you want, while Keys influence the Messenger pawn, which controls which characters are available for recruitment from two different areas – peasants and nobles.
Selecting the right characters is crucial to maximising their immediate effects and the points they will contribute at the game's end. Finally, carefully arranging these characters on your 3x3 board is key to unlocking their full potential.
Player Count: 2-5
Play time: 10+ mins
Age: 10+
Small box delights
Everyone needs a few filler games in their collection, small box games that take less than 30 minutes to play and can be taught easily. These are good if you have limited time to play something, say after dinner before heading out, or as a digestif after a big epic 3 hour complicated game extravaganza where you need to wind down. Ideally these filler games should be quick to set up, quick to teach and not be too taxing. Castle Combo certainly seems to tick the boxes, and persuaded me to purchase it based on its short rules, quick setup and playtime and small box and for me it has the gameplay to keep me pulling this off the shelf as my new filler game of choice.
Solid foundations
In Castle Combo, the winner will be the player with the most points after each player has completed a 3×3 grid in front of them. Scoring will be based on each card in your grid and will score based on a number of different conditions such as placement, number or lack of a certain type of shield or coins on the card. There are also two types of resources in the game, coins and keys. Coins can be used to purchase cards, and are not in themselves worth points at the end of the game and keys (more on that in a bit) are worth points in the end.
To set up the game, give each player 15 coins and two keys. There are two decks in Castle Combo, a villager deck with a yellow back and a castle deck with a blue back, that need to be shuffled and the top three cards of each deck are placed out for purchase. The messenger is placed next to the villager deck and then it’s the turn of the first player, so setup will take you less than a minute!
On your turn you will take up to four actions. The first is optional and the remaining three are mandatory. Firstly you may spend one of your keys to do one of two things, either move the messenger to the other section of cards and you would do this because at the next step you can only purchase cards from the row next to the messenger, or discard all three cards next to the messenger and refresh that row. You can only do one of these two options and not both. Secondly is a mandatory purchase, you must purchase a card from the row next to the messenger for the cost in the top left of the card or if you cannot afford a card you can flip one and gain keys and coins but no points and it must still be placed into your grid.
Once you’ve placed a card you apply that card’s ability which could be gaining coins or keys based on matching symbols in your tableau, noting that at this points cards you’ve just placed count themselves, or gaining an ongoing discount for future purchases and these do not apply to the card you’ve just purchased. Each card will also have end game points printed on the bottom which will usually be based on conditional placement or numbers and combinations of shields or banners or similar. Finally if a messenger icon appears on the card purchased you must move the messenger to the other row, refill both rows and then play moves to the next player.
A Knight to remember?
The whole game plays in under half an hour and turns are quick. Building your tableau is fun and conflict is low between players, other than a player taking the card you’ve been eyeing up or moving the messenger to the other row and you realise you have no keys to move it back. However, games are quick so even if one game doesn’t go your way, it is an easy game to set up and play again.
The art is delightful and the characters on the cards unique, with a nice chunky wooden messenger token and thick card for the coins and keys. The rules are also clear and concise and easy to teach new and experienced gamers. There are enough interesting decisions here to keep experienced gamers going back for more to explore different combinations of cards and scoring strategies and the fact that you will always be able to do something on your turn, even if it is flipping a card into your tableau for coins and keys means that all players will feel like they’ve been able to achieve something by the end of the game.
Castle Combo really is a fantastic little game that I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed and its low price and small box makes it a game I really think should make its way into your collection. I feel even after a large number of plays so far that I’m failing to get bored of the game and as mentioned at the beginning its time length and complexity mean that you always feel like you can make time to play it after or before a bigger game or if you just have a spare 20 minutes to fill.
I only have one minor criticism of the game and that is that there is only one double sided player aid, and yes once you’ve played it a couple of times most of the icons are clear and easily understood but for my first games or when I introduce this to new players, the sheet is getting regularly passed back and forth between players and it would have been really good to include enough for one per player. However, if this is my only criticism, it is a minor one against a game that I really hope you will enjoy as much as I do. Castle Combo really is up there alongside the best new games I’ve played this year and I can see it being played regularly for a long time to come. Finally if you’re looking for something like this but a little meaner Arboretum is great, or for something similar that is a little crunchier in the decisions I also really enjoy Village Rails.
As a second opinioner, I don’t need to explain how to play Castle Combo to you – that has helpfully and already been done by my fellow Zatu Blogger, Jacob. As such, I am allowed to luxuriate in the review zone for a little longer than usual. And, although Castle Combo is a small box which has already been shown a lot of love, I am going to add to the accolades with our own experiences of playing this wee tableau building card game.
Controversially, however, I am going to start with a difference! As a time starved gamer, the term “filler game” feels like an unattainable position. By that I mean, I wish I had time to enjoy an evening where a 30 minute game is just the warm-up. At the moment, 30 minutes is all the time we have (if we are lucky!), so the game we choose has got to be fun and fulfilling rather than the sample to tickle the tabletop tastebuds for what’s to come. There’s a particular joy in games that leave us wanting more, but the single game experience has got to scratch our cardboard itch right now.
Luckily for us, Castle Combo is doing just that! It’s brilliant in its own right and not just as an amuse bouche to the full feast. Of course, it can also fulfil the purpose of a traditional filler game. But I’ll probably have to wait for a planned (and much needed!) few days off until Christmas to find out!
From the same publisher as this year’s other small box runaway success, Faraway, Castle Combo is another game where you only play a few cards (9 in a 3 x 3 grid pattern in this case), but the decisions are fun and can leave you slapping your forehead when you realise you’ve missed an opportunity to score maximally.
And there’s more to balance than meets the eye. Because every card has a scoring condition as well as a value, you need money. You must buy and place that card each turn. Granted some are nil cost but you know they don’t have the jubby point opportunities you are looking for. Although you do start the game with some coins, they quickly run out. So you need cards that are going to generate you some buying power. But you might not want any of the available cards where the Messenger has settled. Well, that’s okay so long as you have keys you can spend to refresh the row or move the Messenger. So you need cards that will give you these. However, ultimately you want the scoring conditions on your played cards to succeed in terms of collected icons equalling VPs! And just to add to the deliberations, the money and key bonuses you get can depend upon what your opponent(s) have collected so far! Now then, you do have a nuclear option – you can add a facedown card into your tableau for an instant injection of coins and keys. But how many spatial scoring conditions is this intruder going to scupper by its inclusion? Oooh it’s a lovely dilemma!
Not that it forms the primary focus of our turns, we are not blind to the fabulous hate drafting opportunities either! Sometimes, there is a card in the row you aren’t in that will be perfect for your opponent. And whilst we could focus on selecting the action that will give us the most points in that moment, sometimes it’s just too tempting to invade the opposite row to mitigate the risk of opposition gain. It’s a flash of push your luck as you may not exploit that card to its maximum potential, but at least you’ll stop them doing it! And that’s a fun indirect interaction similar to the fact you can benefit from what other players are adding to their own tableaus without physically affecting them.
For a small footprint, modest length game, Castle Combo is a cracker. The rules lift is light, the components are lovely, and we have a thoroughly good time whether we are playing 2, 3 or more players. In truth, my first game of this was on Board Game Arena and I was hooked. And, like most games I love on BGA, it quickly made its way into our collection!
If you are looking for a colourful, clever, light card based game with some fun decisions to add to your collection, you would struggle to do better than Castle Combo. And if you haven’t already got the Faraway bug, check that one out too!
Zatu Score
You might like
- quick set up and tear down
- fast to play
- easy to teach
Might not like
- only one player aid
- some iconography not quite clear on first plays