Prototype | Castle Up
Designer: Martí Ganduxé, Oriol Ganduxé
Artist: Vitaliy Sandula
Publisher: Wolley Games
Story behind the scenes
In Castle Up, you take on the role of an ambitious city builder in the Middle Ages. Your goal is to establish and expand your city, competing for dominance and influence in a world where strategy is key. With all information about your opponents always revealed on the table, you will need to manage your resources wisely and improve your play to outsmart them. Get ready to test your wits and immerse yourself in the medieval surroundings of your castle.
Prototype thoughts
As big fans of Euro games, a card game must possess a special element to catch our attention. We believe a game does not necessarily need to be innovative to be special; it just requires an extra touch. For Castle Up, the medieval setting and resource management provided that special touch.
In addition to its medieval setting, we immediately appreciated the illustrations in Castle Up. We somewhat wished for the cards to be larger so we could appreciate the artwork more. On that note, Castle Up would also benefit from larger cards to improve accessibility. From a distance, some icons are not as distinguishable as they should be.
One aspect we enjoyed is how you can enhance your tableau. Given that you may only have 7 cards in your play area, you will feel the need to constantly modify your engine. This is not only to keep the card limit, but also to boost your scoring. As the game progresses through the 3 eras, each card potentially increases your victory points by the end of the game.
One downside is that you have no way of mitigating the bad luck of a poor lineup of cards in the market. You may end up struggling to acquire good cards that provide you with resources to start your engine during the first era. Even obtaining the first player token is not enough if the drawn cards are not that good.
The scoring system is simple, but you must remain vigilant at every turn. Your opponents will be ready to destroy your buildings, sabotaging both your engine and your scoring. Consequently, it is crucial to maintain a balance between attack and defense to protect both your castle and your chances of victory.
Fortunately, unless your opponents have a particularly strong attack, you can usually rebuild your damaged buildings after a battle. This helps to protect key buildings that will keep your engine running. Regarding the battle mechanics, we believe this game is better suited as a head-to-head 2-player game, rather than accommodating up to 4 players.
Wolley Games surprised us with Castle Up, a medieval city-building game compacted into a small box. If you are usually keen on quick-to-play card games, we dare to say that this game may be right up your alley.
Prototype ratings
Global rating: 7.3/10
Gameplay & Mechanisms: 7/10
Quality & Components: 7.5/10
Rules & Rulebook: 7/10
Art & Illustrations: 8/10
Theme & Story: 7/10
Final notes
A special thanks to Wolley Games for providing us with a prototype copy of Castle Up.
If you don't want to miss their crowdfunding campaign, you can follow their page on Kickstarter. The campaign is set to launch on April 16th 2024.
