Castle Combo Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Hachette Board Games UK, this has not affected our opinion.
We have been totally and utterly spoilt with great card games in recent times. You only have to look at some of the recent entries into my Hall of Fame to see that card games can be brilliant! Castle Combo has the same publisher as Faraway, one of my absolute favourite card games. So, I jumped at the opportunity of giving it a whirl when the opportunity arose. I’m equally excited to share my thoughts on this smaller box card game…
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Setup
Players start with fifteen coins and two keys. The two decks of cards with grey and brown backs have to be shuffled separately to form two draw decks. The grey deck is placed above the brown. Then, three cards from each are drawn to form an open market. The wooden knight token is placed next to the bottom row of cards.
You are pretty much good to go now!
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Gameplay
Over the course of the game players will be creating a 3 x 3 tableau in front of them with the aim of scoring the most points. On their turn, a player will draft one of the three face up cards from the row that the wooden token is beside. While the first card can be placed anywhere, future cards have to be placed orthogonally adjacent to another.
Every card you buy will score you points and this is usually based on the colours of the shield on each card and their location within the grid. Some cards that have a purse on them allow you to place coins on them, each purse has a coin limit but offer scoring opportunities too. Without these, coins have no value other than being a tie-breaker.
Each card gives the owner a one-off bonus or ongoing discount on cards as well, this will often result in gaining more coins or keys.
Some keys have a triangular symbol on them that will move the Shetland pony-riding noble between the two draw piles, this is obviously accompanied by that player making a clippety-clop sound that the rulebook forgot to make mandatory!
Once per turn, if a player doesn’t like the cards in the row they can optionally spend a key. This action allows them to either move the wooden token to the alternative row, or discard all cards from the current row and redraw three new cards. This can be super beneficial, but keys are worth a point each at the end so the benefits need to be weighed up.
Another option available is to not purchase a card for its coin cost, but to take it and flip it to its reverse side instead. This will gain the owner six coins and two keys but they will forgo any scoring opportunities from that card.
Once players have placed nine cards in front of them, the game ends and scores are worked out to find out who is the King or Queen of Castle Combo.
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What it’s like
Castle Combo is a breeze to teach and super satisfying to play. It’s simplicity of onboarding new players isn’t reflected in the gameplay itself. I find there are plenty of things to think about to make this card game enjoyable to play. Of course, it isn’t super strategic but I like the weight and how it plays a lot.
Optimisation is definitely the key of Castle Combo and looking for card synergies is the way to gain high scores. Scoring, purses, keys, or a particular colour shield can all yield great results. Although this is not guaranteed and so there is an element of the luck of the draw. Equally, though there is plenty of opportunity to hate draft and take key cards that your opponents would like if that is how you like to play! You’d never catch me using these underhand tactics of course!
The winner of Castle Combo is often the person who has managed to follow a strategy and the cards have allowed this to be followed quite stringently. Obviously this tactic doesn’t always work as there are a lot more cards in the deck.
It has been good to play with the family as they can all fully grasp it. The age of ten plus on the box feels pretty accurate for competitive play, but younger players used to modern card games will probably be fine. It sits 2-5 players and it does work well at all player counts. I prefer it at three or four players as you can have a bit more planning and influence around the table, but also keeps the market naturally refreshing.
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Table Presence
The artwork of Castle Combo gives me mixed feelings. I really like the backgrounds, card backs, clear symbology and quality of the cards. However, the character faces have not grown on me at all. I think they remind me of cartoons I didn’t like as a child or something and I am not a fan. Art is subjective though and the faces may not bother you at all as you build your nine card tableau.
One nice addition is that the card frequency per row is documented on the back of the rulebook. This shows how many cards are in each deck and helps work out some probabilities to those people cleverer than me!
The game comes with clear instructions and a handy score pad which you can use, although Board Game Stats App has a digital scoresheet for it already too. The coins and keys are plentiful and are nice quality, although punching the tiny loop out of the three key chain was a bit of a faff. All of this fits in the box without any provided baggies, but it works nicely as a storage solution of a sensible size.
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What the kids thought
Max (9): It’s really good! I like the fun cartoony artwork. I find it quite easy to play but it can be tricky to remember what cards need to go where for scoring.
George (13): I think it’s a good game and enjoy it! I’d like to play it more.
Harrison (16): I quite like the artwork but all the characters have really weird noses. I really like how the cards score with their shields and trying to make these work together. I enjoy deciding between choosing a card for its immediate bonus or endgame scoring. Overall, its really good for its weight and time.
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Final thoughts on Castle Combo
The publisher of Castle Combo, Catch Up Games, has been on fire with its releases over the last couple of years, After Us and Faraway reside in my Hall of Fame and I have been loving playing friends’ copies of Courtisans too. While Castle Combo may not quite sit shoulder-to-shoulder with those, it also doesn’t disappoint and works well in this lineage. This card game is a super satisfying tableau builder that we have really been enjoying.
For me to be entering Castle Combo into the Hall of Fame despite reservations on the artwork shows how much I enjoy the gameplay.
With games lasting around half an hour this is a brilliant option to leave within easy reach for a fun time with friends and family after lunch and dinner. It’s a brilliant card game!
Key Facts
Number of players: 2 to 5
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 10+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 10+
Playing Time: 25 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 1 minute
Designers: Grégory Grard and Mathieu Rousseld
Publisher: Catch Up Games / Hachette Boardgames UK
RRP: £20.00
Summary
I can see Castle Combo being a really popular card game for many people and so it is an easy game to recommend. Be sure to give it a try if you get the chance!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Easy to teach
- Smooth and refined gameplay
- Picking the optimum card and placing it
- Keeping an eye on other players offers some interaction
- Available digitally on Board Game Arena
Cons
- The cartoon characters
- Some luck of the draw
- Spending a key and not improving your options
- No solo option
Need more games?
If you already own Castle Combo and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
Buy Castle Combo
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Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Hachette Boardgames UK. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
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