The White Castle DUEL Announced – Everything We Know So Far!

The White Castle was one of the games of 2023. The limited turns and in-depth game play meant it made it onto many of the content creators top ten games of the year. Since then, an expansion (Matcha) has been released, and seemingly to celebrate the game breaking into the top 100 on Board Game Geek, Devir have announced “an intimate experience with The White Castle” will be coming to shelves in 2025.

In their Instagram post, Devir writes “The White Castle Duel retains the essential mechanics of the original, maximizing them and doubling the intensity as you and your opponent compete to influence the court and the Daimyo’s lands.” Over on BGG, a little more detail has dropped. “Following the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan, daimyos competed for control of foreign trade and technology. Himeji Castle, a symbol of feudal power, became a strategic centre for clans seeking to gain influence.

In The White Castle Duel, two clans will compete to exert their influence in the White Heron's court, managing resources and building engines. In each turn, you will use their lamp tokens to obtain resources and activate actions.

Among the actions available, you can buy and upgrade influence cards, place clan seals on gardens and training grounds, move your courtier between circles of influence, or trade with the Portuguese. These actions will allow you to accumulate a series of icons (flags, katanas, kabutos, and origami figures) that will reward you with victory points. And whoever has the most points at the end of the game will win.”

At present, that’s about all the information we have on the game, but expect more dice placement, and tricky combos when we see The White Castle Duel land later this year.

Published 11th Feb 2025.