Castles of Mad King Ludwig Review - with Tom Vasel

Tom Vasel takes a look at this game about building crazy castles from Bezier Games
00:00 - Introduction
01:21 - Game overview
09:49 - Final thoughts
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[@Tennethums1]

Got it yesterday and started playing last night for the first time (the GF & I usually set out a game and play it over the course of a few days as we find time to sit & play a round or two). So far we've both fallen in love with it! Were surprised at the amount of strategy involved. Obviously, setting room price is a big factor but it also became apparent that managing your money was pretty important as well; if you ended your turn with little/no money then your opponent will set their most desirable room at the lowest price because you can't buy anything. You have to think a couple of moves ahead at all times. Strangely enough we did get into the design of the castles. If you have half a brain you'll imagine the castle your building and what it might be like to walk through it. It's an amazing game.

[@adamheeley285]

Amazing review, you explain your biases perfectly and knew that we wanted a comparison. The gameplay looks super fun too.

[@Xhawk33]

Thanx for the review ! Very helpful. Definitely picking this one up very very soon.

[@jenniferhaar7934]

Thank you for this review! I was really looking forward to this one!!

[@charlenehalle4101]

Thank you Tom - I have watched many of your reviews and you are one of my favourite reviewers. Much appreciated :-)

[@paramnesic]

Thanks for the review! No Mad King t-shirt for this review? I'm a huge fan of Suburbia, very excited to try this out. The Master Building mechanic of pricing the rooms at the beginning is great.

[@Aratak711]

Another superb review. Thanks for all your efforts, Tom. You've been my go-to reviewer for some time and I should provide thanks to you far more often. Nice to support another Florida gamer.

[@Hemlock2323]

We just played this one over the weekend at Dragon Con. It confused us at first but once we understood the scoring we all really loved it.

[@taylorqualls4209]

If you were to recommend getting either this or suburbia, which would you recommend?

[@ISISMachoman]

Just bought this game. Looking forward to playing it.

[@nearandfarreborndolls7493]

I agree that the castle building aspect of this game is the best part. The rooms are interesting and inventive and it's fun to figure out how to piece them together. I also like the unique game mechanic of the rotating "Master Builder" role to get paid. However, I felt the game lacked "madness". For a game with "Mad King" in the title, I expected that there would be more random twists and turns. I expected I would have to fulfill strange requests and that those requests would constantly be changing based on the royal whim. I think adding this would take this game from good to great and improve replayability.

[@DavidClunie]

As a beta tester of this game, I have to say this game is A) Great Looking, and B) Fun as hell to play. There isn't direct player interaction but you certainly can effect other players choices. If I had to choose between this and suberbia I would choose this one, thankfully we don't have to choose, you can have BOTH! :D A great game and I'd highly recommend it! #MadKingLudwig #beziergames

[@TylerAlbers01]

We might have different definitions of direct, but to me, organizing buying options for other players, and having them pay you directly for it seems pretty interactive.

[@Belkan2087]

This is a great game. Just play it today and the four go for very diferent strategys, what make it more fun and competitive.

[@xenothonstelnicki597]

I think for me theme appeal: 1) Castles of MKL 2) Robots on the Line 3) Suburbia, but gameplay: 1) Tie albeit very different games- Suburbia, Robots on the Line 2)Castles of MKL. I'd like to build a castle, but I want a building game to be mostly focused on the building, not arbitrary or complicated scoring. I'm a SimCity 2000 guy, for reference. hah

[@suavecollects49]

If you like city building style games you should check out In Between Two Cities. Very fun and quick game.

[@Dungyfan007]

Would you say this or suburbia is an easier game to teach and play?

[@pjt30]

Looks great! The system reminds me of Vegas Showdown.

[@DeltaAirbusFlyer]

What is that plastic thing on top of Eldritch Horror on the game shelf??

[@thedicetower]

Tapple

[@lunargamer5261]

This sounds like a really fun game. It might have to be my next purchase.

[@CMvan46]

How is this game for 2 players?

[@MrStevo808]

Does every player build their own castle or do all build at one castle?

[@atjebb]

Everyone builds their own

[@spudslayer]

This game lists itself as a possible single player game. I wished you would of addressed how it plays best (number of players) and how you can play it by yourself. Otherwise a good review.

[@adlertag262]

This video makes me want to play Master Builder

[@apierc1]

I know it's not a new review, I've played the game once but have just bought it, it was quite distracting though through the video there was a tapping /clicking noise through the review.

[@GH-rd5cn]

bracing for the season of 'Out of Stock'

[@XShrike0]

The game ends at the end of the round that the draw pile empties? That pile doesn't look too big. You are drawing 7, or maybe just 4 to fill empty spaces, cards each round. It looks like game would only last three or four rounds.

[@achbrent]

I just played last night with 3 players, and we probably played around 10 rounds. Typically, only 2 or 3 cards were needing replaced each round, and the deck for 3 players includes 33 cards. We really enjoyed it!

[@Tennethums1]

Ok, so we don't get why you remove rooms for fewer players. Well, we GET it but...mechanically, it's just not necessary. In fact, it can be a downright game killer. Example, We randomly drew Food from the king's requirements and...call it bad luck...ended up removing just about every food room in the beginning (we only found one the entire game). We also ended up removing most of the corridor rooms (again, bad luck). Play with all the rooms and corridors/stairs! But do only use the suggested number of room cards (11 per player). In this way you'll still only play the same game, length wise, but not get screwed by having eliminated needed rooms.

[@TylerAlbers01]

This sounds like sage advice. Thanks!

[@Smagmander]

Tennethums1 you remove one scoring aspect from the game if you do not remove the number of rooms indicated in the rules when playing with 2 or 3 players

[@JayChampagne]

Hooray! You lost the horrible Facebook robot devil music at the end!

[@MrJenssen]

Okay so this game looks REALLY cool, but... is it just me, or does it seem that - beyond how you place tiles to price them accordingly as the master builder - there's virtually NO actual player interaction throughout the game? I'm a bit afraid that the game might end up just being four-five people sitting around a table building their own castles, and then you count it up at the end and one is the winner, without the other players really having all that much they can do about it. ... Or is that just me?

[@christophersmith8316]

Players are competing over what rooms to buy each turn, as they can only get the 6 or so the master builder lays out. Seems to be a lot of Euros have a similar level of interaction when you place meeples on spots of the map, blocking others or some such,

[@MrJenssen]

Michael Arnold But "five people sitting around a table, playing the same g ame, laughing, talking, and having fun" isn't interaction that this game specifically brings to the table. You don't even need a game to sit around a table and laugh and talk and have fun, so that point is kind of moot.

[@MrJenssen]

Michael Arnold I'm not disagreeing with you on that, but my point is that it's hardly an argument for why you should buy the game. Because ANY game will do it. So why not just buy ONE game then, and never another, if all you intend to do is talk and laugh and "have fun". My question wasn't really concerning how good the game is, but just a general question regarding the player interaction. And then, the specific interaction that the game offers. Not the interaction that players will need to make up on their own because the game itself completely lacks it.

[@yes4me]

Michael Arnold There are board games where everyone can interact/play even when it is not their turn. Based on this video, the scoring is horrible to keep track. This one is not for me.

[@Tennethums1]

Actually, when we played, a sort of wagering/bluffing system arose. It's not in the rules but it was a nice touch. Basically, as the time came for each player to determine the value of the rooms, they would look their opponent in the eye and slide the room up and down the money track trying to glean a reaction (bit of a poker-esque move) but also asking, "hmmmm, would you buy this room for 6k??". The opponent might say nothing or might try to bluff , "I wouldn't give you 4k for that room because I don't want it" (when they might actually want it most of all). Add a lot of that to the game and it ramps up the intensity quite a bit. In fact, it becomes down right vicious!

[@YakovPetrovich]

I am so conflicted about this game. On one hand, it looks fantastic, but Suburbia is already a very solid game (as Tom said) and I'm not sure I need another game that shares so many characteristics with it. However, this game seems to have fixed (maybe) the only problem I had with Suburbia, which was if you don't focus on money first, you will probably spend half the game in crippling debt as other players fly ahead of you (this is especially the case for new players). The whole Master Builder mechanism is a fantastic design choice that lets all players make money based on their own gauge of each other's desires. Awesome. Definitely a try before you buy for me.

[@pierreluc5382]

you pay to the Master Bator?

[@aldensawtell]

Jokes about classical musicians on shrooms in a board game review. Every day is an adventure.

[@ashphillips4753]

got this game for a comrade who loves this kind of thing. It was pretty fun.

[@javierper3z]

I'll buy this because I'll never care about winning, just about building the castle I can't build in real life. Does that mean that SUBURBIA = SIMCITY ; MAD CASTLES = THE SIMS ?

[@williamtcox1]

PANAMAX!!!

[@Arbie812]

I'm pretty sure I read him being mad was something his jerkbag relatives and ministers came up with to get him off the throne. Dude just loved swanky castles and, let's be fair, who doesn't?

[@ashphillips4753]

yes, pretty much.

[@TylerAlbers01]

He might not have been mad, but he did spend an ungodly amount of money on building castles, instead of managing his kingdom. This was during the late 1800's, when medieval castles weren't of any strategic or economic importance.

[@LordSzabonight]

Saddest game I've ever seen.

[@blueclouds315]

you dropping all the stuff on the ground with a complete lack of organization kills me every time, and not in a good way