2025 · Medieval
The White Castle Duel
Two clans vie for influence in the White Heron’s court following early Portuguese contact, competing over trade, technology, and prestige. Players take lamp tokens each turn to gather resources and activate actions: buy and upgrade influence cards, place clan seals on gardens and training grounds, move a courtier among circles of influence, or trade with Portuguese merchants. Collected icons — flags, katanas, kabutos, and origami figures — form engines that generate points and additional effects. The player with the most points at game end wins.
- Players
- 2
- Playing time
- 20–40 min
- Age
- 10+
- Complexity
- 3 / 5
About the game
- Publisher
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
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Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 80
- Plays logged
- 93
- Players
- 46m 42s
- Average play
- 64
- In collections
- 12
- On wishlists
8.3/10
from 11 Ludoya reviews
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
How many rounds do we play, and what's the difference between the Outgoing and Return rounds?
The game is played over two rounds: the Outgoing round (where players place lantern tokens and perform placement actions) and the Return round (where players collect lanterns and resolve their rewards and maintenance); see the round and turn sequence rules (p.10–12).
Do Lantern cards give rewards when I place a lantern token or only when the lantern is activated?
Lantern cards stack on their spots when gained, but you only collect the visible rewards when that lantern is activated (collected) in the Return round — placing in the Outgoing round does not immediately pay those stacked rewards (p.8, p.11–12).
If a lantern token sits between two action spaces, can I take both actions?
Yes — when resolving the lantern-associated action you perform the two actions adjacent to that lantern token as described in the lantern action rules (p.13).
How do I buy an Influence card and when do I flip it to the next part?
Influence cards are bought by paying their cost and then you follow the card's purchase steps to flip and reveal its next section; cards have parts A/B/C that are revealed/used in sequence as you buy/activate them (p.9).
Can I use Daimyo Seals as resources, and what does a slash (/) on an action mean?
You may discard 2 Daimyo Seals to gain 1 resource (explicit exchange rule), and when an action or icon shows two options separated by a slash you must choose one of the options (the slash denotes a choice, not both); see resource and slash-choice rules (p.6–7).
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play The White Castle Duel with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.