The Palace of Mad King Ludwig Review - with Tom Vasel

[@hypersapien]

I think I would enjoy this game, but to me it doesn't look different *enough* from Castles for me to own both. It looks like the trade off is Palace=Player to player interaction, Castles=individuality and expression. When I play castles, I really enjoy the theme of each player having their own castle and imagining what they would actually be like. In one game my friend ended up with all the 'scary' rooms like the dungeon and bottomless pit. I ended up with all the fancy ballrooms and such, which gave my castle a very different feel. That was amusing to joke about between us, and in the end it didn't really matter who won because we had an enjoyable time discussing what it would be like to visit each castle. I can't see myself having that discussion in Palace where you're all building the same structure.

[@TheMrE]

Ted Alspach should have looked into “camouflage” and why it should be avoided in this type of game. The pattern of the water and the greenery makes me dizzy.

[@Tennethums1]

Hmmm, with a little effort you could probably modify CoMKL to play in a somewhat similar way? Close enough you don’t need to buy this anyway. Maybe instead of everyone building their own castles they are building one large one in the center of the table. The round plays the same, buying rooms, etc. you’d have to get some player markers though to represent each color. In this way the person who adds a basement tile will score points any time someone adds a room of the appropriate type (those that have played CoMKL know what I mean). I might have to try that actually....

[@Hemlock2323]

Love Castles and I'd give this a try.

[@XRay44]

Holy cow does this look fiddly. :o

[@kjerins]

Love the hammer! Game looks fun, but I agree the water should've looked differently.

[@writeheroics7490]

At our home, we got rid of Castles because of the low or zero player interaction (the bidding is barely player interaction). We didn't like playing a "solitaire" game. This one is coming in the mail, so maybe we'll enjoy Palace more. I do like in Castles how everyone's castle is completely different than everyone else's. But it simply wasn't enough for us to keep it.

[@jameskrolak]

This game looks like it might be just a bit unnecessarily complicated. Like, there was just 1 or 2 rules too many.

[@hypersapien]

I think it's entirely intentional. My copy of Castles of Ludvig had a sticker on the packaging that was some kind of Mensa award, and I assume it's due to the multifaceted scoring system that is a challenge to wrap your mind around.

[@jameskrolak]

I've got Castles and I like it a lot, but this one just seems like there is 1 or 2 aspects that could have been simplified without taking anything away from the game.

[@Chrstphr88]

Remind me to never buy second hand games from Tom.

[@HenryRSeymour]

Why?

[@JosephFlemming]

if this was the third game what was the first in the trilogy?

[@otteydw]

Joseph Flemming - Tom mentioned Suburbia as the first. It’s 3rd in the designer’s tile laying games, not in Mad King Ludwig.

[@BeyondTheLineProductions]

This or castles?

[@Straddllw]

Everyone forgets about Subdivision.

[@jd5iron]

Palaces would be the fourth in the set. Once again Subdivision gets forgotten.

[@Tia29451]

Hope that hammer doesn’t damage the table lol

[@Patronux]

Again, another game that seems like tons of fun, but poor graphic design choices make it a pass for me

[@Tennethums1]

Looooooove Castles of Mad King Ludwig. One of our top 10 games. Would much rather play that than Carcassonne (actually, sold Carcassonne). I will say one things about Bezier games, specifically CoMKL...WHO DESIGNS THIS STUFF?? I don’t mean the creator of the game but the creator of the layout (which may be the same person, I don’t know). They have the absolute DUMBEST component layout of any game ever created. The triangular pieces, the angles...it just doesn’t make any sense at all and in the case of CoMKL, you take up half the play space with the board/s layout and...get this...ITS A TILE LAYING GAME THAT NEEDS LOTS OF SPACE!. Other than that small (but HUGE) issue...love the games Bezier 😇

[@Aikuchi.]

I hate the name of this game, I was so looking forward to this game thinking it was going to be a stand alone expansion to Castles and it isn't. I wish he had kept Mad King Ludwig games separate and themed this game something else. It feels like false advertising, to the point I won't touch this game.

[@winnie666]

Expansion to Castles? It hasn't even in its title the word 'Castle' Isn't it necessary,? Without it it would be a real false advertising. It's called a sequel. Or follow up.

[@Aikuchi.]

winnie666 castles and palaces are so similar that that isn't a big enough differentiator, it will confuse some people. All people will see is it is Mad King Ludwig and think they are similar.

[@EclecticCamel]

It’s amazing what people choose to get butt hurt over.