Territorial Aquisition Game - Castles

Castles

Concept

Castles is a game of deception where players attack enemy forces to try and gain position to assassinate another players king. Players will place pieces face down onto the board and build their defenses with a range of different types of forces. Players will also gain extra forces or abilities for winning battles. If a player is the last king standing on the board they are the winner!

Beginning a Game

To begin a game each player will take a king from their barracks (envelope with pieces in it) and place it face up on one of the four corners of the board. This is the only type of piece that will ever be played face up. Different arrangements for the different amounts of players can be seen below.

                                                    4 players

                                                    3 Players

                                                    2 Players

To determine who goes first each player pulls a random piece from their barracks. The pieces in descending order of value are King, Pit, Bomb, Court Guard, Berserker, Horseman, Infantry, and finally Walls. This would mean that the King is the highest in value and a Wall would be lowest in value (see pieces for explanation of pieces). If this game produces more than one winner the tying players will repeat the draw until there is a winner. The order continues left around the board from there.

After the order has been determined the players will take 5 random pieces from their barracks to what is called the deployment zone. The deployment zone is where each player will hold the pieces that they are about to play. It can hold up to seven pieces and should be hidden from all other players at all times. 

Rules 

A basic turn in the game of castles can be explained in a series of phases. If you are not able to complete one of the conditions of one of the phases then it is skipped in the sequence. Once a phase has been ended you cannot return to a previous phase. The series of phases for one turn can be seen below.

Start Turn

Card Phase – If you have any cards that you would like to use you will play them now. Cards are outlined in the Cards section below.

Reinforce – Take one piece at random from your barracks and move it to your deployment zone

Place Forces – Choose a piece from your deployment zone to be placed onto the board. If there is an available square Place it onto the board in the available square face down. You can only place a piece into a square where a piece of your colour connects to it through either an edge or a corner.

 The red area is an existing piece that you have already played. The grey squares represent the squares where a piece is playable.

Battle Phase – If one of your pieces is in range of another players piece you may declare an attack. If an attack ensues both pieces are flipped and the victor is determined (see pieces section below to see hierarchy). The winner of the battle gains one battle token, which is represented as a clear piece of the same colour. The winner also destroys the losing piece and takes control of its square. If the winner is the attacker they repeat their battle phase. If the attacking player is the loser they enter card phase 2

The red area represents pieces that have been already placed by a player. The grey area represents the resulting zone of pieces where a player can engage a battle with another.

Card Phase 2 – If you have any cards that you would like to use you can play them  now. Cards are outlined in the Cards section below.

End Battle Phase (Optional) – If you have 3 battle tokens by the end of your battle phase you will be able to buy a card. The battle tokens will then be removed from the players’ bank and put back into their token envelope. A player can have as many battle tokens in their colour as possible. 

End Turn 

If a player battles with another players’ king and successfully slays them they will replace that king with a king of their colour. All of the defeated players forces will then be removed from play. The attacking players turn will be over  and they will receive a card for their victory. Also if a player is able to reach a corner that is not occupied by another king, they are able to place their own king claiming the spot as theirs and will receive a card for claiming the castle.

Cards

Throughout the game you will receive battle tokens for successful victories. These battle tokens can be used to buy cards that will give you an advantage in the game. Cards can be used in the Play Cards phase of your turn. When a card is played it is returned to the deck and the deck is shuffled. You may only hold 3 cards in your hand at any time. If you have 3 cards you must return one to the deck to purchase another.

Pieces 

Players can only have up to 7 pieces in their deployment zone. If a player can’t place another piece then they cannot withdraw more reinforcements from the barracks.

King [4] – Will beat everything except for standard infantry, cannot move, are the only piece that can be placed on the corners of the board

 

Court Guard [8] – Will defeat infantry, berserkers and other court guards. Will fall into pits, lose a battle to a king or horseman and must stop when they encounter a wall. They have the special ability to defuse bombs and if they are within the range of a bombs blast they will survive.

Berserker [8] – Will defeat infantry, horseman and other berserkers as well as tear down walls. Will fall into pits, lose a battle to a king or court guard and will blow up in a bomb blast.

Horseman [9] – Will defeat infantry and Court Guards; also will stop if a pit is encountered. They will explode in a bomb blast and lose a battle to kings or horseman as well as must stop when they encounter a wall.

Infantry [21] – Will beat a King and other infantry and are also able to tear down walls.

Walls [21] – will stop everything except for berserkers and infantry, cannot move

Bombs [6] – destroy themselves and every connecting piece in the surrounding area regardless of colour (8 pieces total if not connect to side of board), except for court guards and kings, cannot move

Pits [4] – if triggered will destroy everything except for horseman (destroy themselves when triggered), cannot move
 

Winning a Game

The winner of the game is the player who can manage to be the last king standing. If all other kings have been destroyed then the owner of the remaining king is declared the winner.  

Final Thoughts

Creating a territorial acquisition game was interesting as it was the first instance of a non linear board game that has been created in this class. This is extremely different as it changes the entire concept, design, layout and flow of the board game.

Thanks for reading and happy gaming!