Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig

EvEvanstar3.5

This is exactly the game that I wanted Between Two Cities to be when I had picked it up a year or two ago. This game functions more or less the same, with the wrinkle of the tiles all having interesting abilities that key off of each other and their relative positioning, with bonuses for the third and fifth tile added to each structure of the same color. I very much like how this game turns hate drafting into love drafting by encouraging you to pass your partner the perfect tile to add to your shared castle with that player. Unfortunately, I still didn't care much for the core experience of building two castles with your neighboring players. There's too much uncertainty in terms of how to value each one, and I don't like the feeling of doing very well with one partner who then goes on to win, and doing very poorly with your other partner. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ☆ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★☆☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment