Have Fun Storming the Castle! – Castle Combo Review

One of the really common things about our Sunday game days, unless we are playing a couple of really deep games that take too much time, is to have 30-45 minutes left after the main game and then trying to decide if we should all go home or if we want to try something short and sweet.

There are so many great short and sweet games, that my choice is always to play one of those, unless everybody else wants to go.

One of the common ones, depending on who is there (since I don’t own the game), is Castle Combo.

This game hits the very definition of both options: short and sweet.

It plays in about 20 minutes and can play up to 5 players.

Which is also good on those odd days where we have a bunch of people.

Designed by Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel, with cute artwork by Stéphane Escapa, this game was published in 2024 by Catch Up Games.

This is the ideal filler because it’s easy, doesn’t take a lot of thought but does take some, and it’s really just a great cool-down after a brain-burning game like Civolution.

Castle Combo is a card-drafting game where you are drafting cards to build a 3×3 tableau of cards.

It’s the scoring combos that make the game interesting.

There are three castle (grey/silver) and three village (tan) cards in the market, with a Messenger marker telling you which row you can draft from.

All of the cards have scoring opportunities based on a variety of things: what other cards you have in your tableau, what other cards you don’t have in your tableau, where you’ve positioned this card in your tableau, etc.

It all depends on your tableau, that’s for sure.

All of the cards will also give you a benefit when you draft them, whether it’s additional gold depending on what you have in your tableau, or keys for the same, just letting you put 2 gold on each of your Purse cards, or maybe even future discounts.

Again, it all depends on your tableau. Or, for some cards, your opponents’ tableaus.

Don’t like what your options are in the Messenger row, or maybe you really like what’s in the row you can’t draft from?

That’s what keys are for.

Spending a key will let you either move the Messenger to the other row or will let you wipe the 3 cards in the current row and refill.

Unused keys get you a point each at the end of the game, and some cards will score massively if you’re conservative with your keys.

Placing a card is just a matter of putting it adjacent (not diagonally) to one of the cards in your tableau, keeping in mind that some really want to be in a certain row/column.

Or they’ll score you points for what else is in the row/column.

If you don’t like, or can’t afford, any card in the current row, you can always flip it face down to get you 6 gold and 2 keys.

There are some cards that will score if you have at least one face-down card, so sometimes you’ll do it even if the card could be useful to you as well.

That’s it!

The game ends after everybody has drafted 9 cards and then you total up the points for each card.

Nothing really to the game as far as brain power goes.

You’re not going to be taxing yourself on this one.

But sometimes that’s what you need after a 4-hour game of Dominant Species.

Castle Combo is super-lucky in that you’re at the mercy of the cards that come out.

Sure, you can spend a key to move the Messenger or wipe the row, but you can only do that once, and you can only use one of those two options.

You can’t do both.

If bad cards come out on the refresh, too bad!

And you only move the Messenger if there’s a card you really want in the other row, since you can’t wipe that row too.

It’s not like you’re chucking dice, but it’s still random as hell.

Cal would hate this game.

Or maybe not.

It’s 20 minutes out of your life, there are no major stakes unless you’re playing Death or something.

What’s a little randomness in a 20-minute game?

Ok, a lot of randomness, but still.

You also can’t really form a strategy since you don’t know what’s coming and there are only 9 cards.

For example, you get no points for gold left at the end of the game.

But some cards (the Purses) let you put gold on them at the end of the game (or even during the game if other cards let you do it) and get you two points per gold on the card.

That can be quite lucrative and the Purse strategy has won me a few games.

However, if no other Purse cards are viable for you (because either they don’t come out or because there are other cards that would do better for you), then that card’s just going to sit there.

It will get you a few points, depending on how much gold it can hold, but it’s still not a great strategic pick.

This is definitely a tactical game.

But what’s wrong with that?

It does scale really well, playing equally good at all 2-5 player counts (some people will complain there’s no solo mode, but those people really need to figure out how to play with other people).

Castle Combo is a great game for what it is: a nice way to end (or begin) a game day, maybe play on lunch sometime.

It’s relatively easy for newbies to pick up, though they won’t really understand the combos at first.

It’s attracted me enough that I have an ongoing game with a friend on Boardgame Arena (where it’s also really only a 10-minute game if you play it live).

Give it a try and see what happens.

The King commands it (though there is no King, actually).

(This review was written after 3 plays and many Boardgame Arena asynchronous plays)