Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is published by Stonemaier Games as part of a collaboration with Bezier Games.
The king demands a castle! You are a world-renowned master builder who has been asked by the Mad King Ludwig to help design his castles. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with another master builder to execute your grandiose plans. Will your planning and partnership skills be enough to design the most impressive castles in the world?
Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a competitive tile-drafting game in which each tile is a room in a castle. You work together with the player on your left to design one castle, and with the player on your right on another castle. On each turn you select two tiles from your hand, reveal them, then work with your partners to place them.
At the end of the game, each castle is scored. Your personal final score is the lower of the scores of the two castles you helped design, and the player with the highest final score wins the game. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion between two castles.
Featured Components:
- 147 unique room tiles
- 83 other tiles
- 20 bonus cards (44x67mm)
- 7 player aid cards (70x110mm)
- 7 wooden castle tokens
- 1 full-color, double-sided, 100-sheet scorepad
- 4-piece Game Trayz custom insert
- 1 rulebook
Release Details
- Worldwide retail release on October 19, 2018 (MSRP: $45; SKU: STM506)
- Available digitally on Tabletopia (and on Steam)
Do you know the name of the new expansion already?
No, we haven’t picked a name yet. But even if we had, we won’t reveal such details until we’re much closer to the release, which won’t be until sometime in 2021.
I love this game, but the tiles are so small. I would like to play it with my old mother. Is there an edition with greater tiles? I have heard that the polish edition has greater tiles. Could you give a comment? Axel Brauns
There’s just one edition of the game, and the tiles are the same size in all languages.
Is there a reason my game can’t get this. IT is easy to get online but my FLGS can’t. It shouldn’t be this hard.
Anthony, I just answered this above (please look one comment above this one and reply to it).
This game is my favorite game of the year. I am glad you were able to help my store get a copy. I dont understand why more people dont talk about this game. It is fun, beautiful and plays 7 so nicely.
Why can’t my local store get this but it is so plenty online.
Your local store can get it whenever they want–we have it in stock, as do distributors. What’s your store’s name and location? I’ll give them a call.
Black Dragon Games Twin Falls. Sorry for the repost it didn’t show. Thank you.
Thank you. I’ll give them a call when they open in 90 minutes (I’ll report back here).
Thanks Anthony. I just got off the phone with them, and they confirmed what I suspected: They use a particular distributor that ordered way too few copies of the game, and for some reason they’ve been very slow to order more even though we have them in stock. I spoke to the store about the situation, and I’m now contacting that distributor directly to make sure they order some from us (we can’t force them to order, but we can strongly suggest it).
This is the first game like this that I have played. It is really fun and easy to play back to back! Awesome job and keep the great games coming. I will probably buy any game Stonemaier games publishes/develops. Still need to pick up Charterstone.
That’s awesome, Cory! I’m glad you enjoyed Castles. :)
This looks like a knock-out game already, I can’t wait to try it. I know Scythe is typically the favorite SM game, and I do love it (playing RotF campaign right now), but Between 2 Cities is my personal favorite. Pre-ordering today!
Are the rules English language only or are German language rules also available?
Scott: We offer the rules for download in 15 different languages (including German) here: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/between-two-castles/rules-translations-and-faq/
Soooo…will the Automa of Between Two Cities work with this game, please? I’ve not played Castles but have played Cities and I want to love this game because the art is phenomenal, but can’t justify the purchase if I can’t play it by myself. :/
I wish it did! If it did, we would have included it, but Castles has a much different decision space–it needs its own system. Morten and the Automa team are hoping to figure it out for the expansion, but currently Castles cannot be played solo.
Oh, rats! I shall wait for the expansion then. I send Morten and the team all my good solo vibes. 🤗
This is almost exactly like Dream home.
Completely different game, but you’re onto something–the artist of Dream Home also illustrated this box!
If I pre-order the game via Stonemaier Games, can it be EU-friendly shipping?
If you pre-order by September 6, yes, it’s EU friendly.
I have an idea for new game for you:
Azul Of Two Castles Of Mad King Ludwig
-OR-
Sagrada Of Two Castles Of Mad King Ludwig
=D
Olga – It is indeed a standalone game :-)
Cool. Keep me updated!
Love the Easter eggs in the artwork…a nice touch added to combine two great games!
If this announcement had gone out on April 1st, I would have totally fell for it, but it’s actually real!
How long will pre-orders be open for? Aside from that, this looks awesome! Rahdo gave it high praise, too.
Pre-orders are open through October 19 (the release date), and we’ll be shipping them out on an ongoing basis.
Nice Job!
this is fantastic! super cool idea, we just got and started playing Between Two Cities last month, but I can’t wait to try this out with my family
[…] on every room tile. Finally, I would encourage anyone who did not like the original to still give Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig a chance. A couple of friends who did not like Between Two Cities were surprised by how much they […]
Uh is this not in cooperation with Bezier Games? If not is this not riding their name coat tails?
Never mind I missed that line in the description. Sorry.
Yeah.
[…] can pre-order Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig on the Stonemaier website now. According to Stonemaier: If you pre-order it as Champion (the Stonemaier Subscription […]
Looks fab, really enjoy both CoMKL and BTC so definitely looking forward to this. I’m curious if you tested both this 2 player variant and an alternate version of the two player variant for Between Two Cities, and why you went with a scoresheet for this rather than the scoreboard of Between Two Cities.
Stephen: For the 2-player variant, the version we used tested so well that we went with it. As for the scoresheet, with so many rooms in each castle, they each require individual attention, and that adds time (and the risk of human error). By using scorepads, we were able to reduce both.
I’m in!!!
Can you play this without owning any previous King Ludwig games? I have the original and ithe 1st expansion but never purchased Palaces . So my question, so I’m clear, this is a stand alone game?
yes its stand alone :)
It’s going to have nothing but theme to do with any of the other Ludwig games. It’s just a re-implementation of Between 2 Cities, with a different theme on it, more or less. That’s why it’s being published by Stonemaier, instead of Bezier.
Not exactly Kent. It does use some of the mechanics from Castles of Mad King Ludwig, particularly concerning how rooms are scored, as well as the concept of room completion bonuses.
Ben is correct. This is neither a reimplementation of Between Two Cities or Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Rather, it’s a mashup of the two, with some shared/similar mechanisms and some new stuff, all designed specifically for this game.
Yes, it’s a standalone game. It’s a mash-up of two games – Between Two Cities and Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
Yes, it seems that way. It is a mash up of King Ludwig games and Between Two cities.
First thing it says in the video is that it’s standalone.
Interesting! Lovely looking!
sounds awesome