Castle Combo rules: how to play and how to score

Castle Combo quick rules

The goal

Each player recruits nine characters, one per turn, and lays them out in a three by three square. Each character gives an immediate ability when you buy it, and scores points at the end based on the condition on its scroll, at the bottom of the card. After nine turns, the tableau worth the most points wins.

The Castle, the Village and the Messenger

In the middle, two rows of three cards: the Castle on top, the Village below. The Messenger, a pawn, sits next to one of the two rows. You can only buy from the row where it is.

A turn

You may first spend a Key, just one. Then you must buy a card from the Messenger’s row, place it and apply its ability. If the card shows the Messenger icon, move the Messenger to the place shown; finally, both rows are refilled to three cards.

Keys and buying

A Key lets you move the Messenger to the other row, or replace the three cards of its row. A card costs the Gold shown in its top left corner, minus your discounts, which add up; a discount card doesn’t reduce its own price. You can always take a card for free, face down: you gain 6 Gold and 2 Keys, but it does nothing and scores nothing.

Placing your card

Each new card touches a card of your tableau along a side, never only at a corner. Never more than three cards in a row or a column, and a placed card never moves. Think about the cards that score based on their row, their column or their exact spot.

Abilities

The ability applies right after you place the card, and the card counts itself. Unless stated otherwise, you are the one who gains, counting only your own tableau. “Your opponents” means all the other players; a neighbor is, your choice, the player to your left or right. Most abilities count the six shields: Nobility, Faith, Scholarship, Military, Craftsmanship and Peasantry.

The end and the final count

When everyone has nine cards, the game stops. First place your leftover Gold on the cards with a purse, without going over their capacity. Then score each scroll, looking only at your own tableau, and add 1 point per Key. Face-down cards and Gold outside purses are worth nothing.

Beginner traps

Forgetting to move the Messenger when the card you bought shows its icon; forgetting to add up all your discounts; running out of Keys, and having to buy from the Messenger’s row even if nothing there interests you.

How to score Castle Combo

Cards

The total of the scrolls on your face-up cards, purses included. Face-down cards are worth 0.

Keys left

1 point per Key you have left.

Gold left outside purses (tie-breaker)

No points: on a tie, the most leftover Gold wins; otherwise the victory is shared.

Worked example

Emma has moved 8 Gold onto her purses and scores 47 points from her scrolls, purses included. She has 3 Keys and 4 Gold outside purses left: 47 + 3 = 50 points; her 4 Gold only matter on a tie.

Common mistakes

• Scoring Gold that isn’t on a purse: it’s worth nothing, it only breaks ties.
• Scoring before filling your purses: place your leftover Gold first, without going over each purse’s capacity.
• Scoring a face-down card: it’s worth 0 points.
• Looking at other players’ tableaus for a scroll: each condition counts only your own tableau.
• Forgetting your leftover Keys: 1 point each.

How to set up Castle Combo

Setup is the same for 2 to 5 players. Pick the first player at random, then play clockwise.