What is Castles?

Castles has gone through 3 prototype phases and has seen extensive playtesting with various players who were experienced in boardgames, wargames, or videogames or had no prior knowledge of this type of board gaming.

Player feedback had been extremely valuable, making the game more fun and engaging, thank you again for any playtesters!

Castles is a 2-4 player Hex-Based strategy board game in which you build your village and castle and either secure victory points on the map or conquer other players.

Castles is highly modular, allowing to customize the playboard, starting conditions and even goals. There are many game modes possible some are presented as part of the rules, but it is encouraged to be creative yourself.

Important Aspects of Castles

Population

Population allows you to place all sorts of units on the board, from civilian units such as gatherers and scouts to military units such as spearmen, knights or catapults.

But you have to feed your population every turn or else units must be removed from the board.

Resources

You can gather eight unique resources, which all have their own important uses in the game. At the start of each player’s turn, you gain a set amount of resources gathered by your castles or gatherers adjacent to a gathering hub. There is no randomization in gaining resources, allowing players to plan ahead in what they require and were they have to get to.

Seasons

While playing Castles, you go through 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. At the start of each season,n a random event happens to each player, which can affect them positively or negatively. Additionally, the winter season is especially hard, as gathering food for your population has become more difficult.

Prototype 1

The first prototype was a paper prototype used to test the mechanics, size, movement, and setup of the game board. But it wasn't easy to play with it, as its production was rather cheap and quickly made.

Prototype 2

The second prototype was of much higher quality. While much of the artwork was still placeholder, the material itself allowed for much easier playtesting and usage.