Castle Combo

The Game

Castle Combo is a simple tableau game. You take turns buying cards from a market to place in your own 3x3 grid. The cards score points in different ways and also have various powers. You try to create a combination that works well together. You start with some money, and you will spend money buying cards. Some cards help you earn money. At game end, leftover money may help you score points if you have the right cards. The game ends once everyone has his 3x3 grid filled. 

The market at the centre of the table consists of two rows. Cards from each row come from their own deck. One row is characters living inside the castle, like the nobles and the soldiers, and the other is those living outside, like the farmers and the labourers. There is a messenger next to one of the rows. You can only buy cards from the row he is located. If you want to buy a card from the other row, you need to pay a key to move the messenger. Some cards when purchased move the messenger. 

When you buy your first card, you don't need to decide yet where exactly in your grid you want to place it. As you add more cards, you just need to ensure you don't go beyond the 3x3 grid. Cards have various powers. Some generate income, some give you discounts for future cards. Every card scores points based on a specific criteria. You may score points based on how many of a certain icon that you have, or if you don't have a specific icon, or where the card is positioned in the grid, or what kind of cards you have in the same row or column. Everyone's collection of cards is public information, so you can look at what your opponents have and tell what kind of cards will be useful to them and what will not be.

The game ends once everyone has nine cards.

The Play

This is a simple tableau-building game. You do your best to collect a set of cards which together score many points. You have to pay some attention to your components and try not to leave good cards for them. Most of the time you probably want to take care of your own scoring. You can work on denying your opponents, but if you are too busy trying to deny everyone you are probably not maximising your own score. Money can be tight. There was once I could not afford any card and I had to spend that turn taking a face-down card. A face-down card has no abilities. It just lets you take some money and keys. 

At game end some cards let you to store money to score points.

The Thoughts

This is an introductory tableau-building game. It won't be interesting for seasoned gamers, but it can work for non-gamers as a gentle introduction to modern hobby games.