Rules & FAQ – Stonemaier Games

Rules & FAQ

The Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig rulebooks (including a number of different languages) are available for download here.

You can also watch a full rules video by Watch It Played.

If you have rule questions, please post them in the comments on this page, create a thread on BoardGameGeek, or ask them in the Between Two Castles Facebook group.

Rule Questions

None yet!

General Questions

What are the card sizes and quantities?

20 cards at the 44x67mm size and 7 player aid cards at the 70x110mm size.

Does the insert fit sleeved cards? Does it have room for expansions?

Yes, the insert fits sleeved cards (that’s a standard feature for all Game Trayz inserts). And yes, we’ve included space for expansion content (an additional tray).

Is it language independent?

It’s about 90% language independent. The only in-game text that may need to be read is on the bonus cards. If you have 1 English speaker at the table, you’ll be fine.

Are Stonemaier Games and Bezier Games both the publishers for this game?

Stonemaier Games is the publisher. We licensed the Ludwig brand from Bezier Games, which was involved during the development of the game.

Is this game different than Between Two Cities?

Oh yes, quite a bit. While the partnership mechanism is the same, Castles has a lot more variation between tiles, and you’re not limited to a 4×4 grid. There are a variety of bonuses in Castles for placing the 3rd and 5th tile of the same type, a mechanism not found in Cities. Among them are special bonus tiles you can gain access to.

Are the icons too small?

I’ve played the final version of the game 6+ times with my group, and no one has every mentioned that the icons are too small. When you’re drafting tiles, they’re right in front of your face, so the icons are plenty big then. And the castles you need to look at are right next to you, so there isn’t a problem there either.

However, we have heard several reviewers say that they think the icons are too small. They seem to be trying to look across the table to see specific icons in other castles, which really isn’t ever necessary in the game. We would have needed to make the tiles and icons HUGE to make that possible (the icon size is constrained by the tile size, which is constrained by table size).

Why isn’t there an Automa (solo version) included with this game? Will it ever exist?

  1. We had too many projects going on, so we simply didn’t have the time.
  2. We thought that porting the Automa system from B2Cities to B2Castles would result in an Automa that was unwieldly.

Since then we’ve found a simpler way to make an Automa for the game and it’s included in the expansion.

Will the game be at Essen?

Bezier Games has a booth at Essen, so they will feature English copies there.

Will the game be released in other languages?

Yes! Our partners will announce their versions when they’re ready.

19 Comments on “Rules & FAQ

Leave a Reply to Jamey StegmaierCancel reply

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  1. Jamey, I just bought this game so maybe the rules have changed but in my rule book it says on page 11 that “You may play a downstairS roomS that (at the moment you place it) does not have any tiles above it, as long as it shares an edge with at least one other tile already in the castle” In Rodney’s video above he shows a downstairs room directly below the throne room which at the time played had a tile above it (the throne room). Or does it mean that the tile above it can’t have a second floor tile above it. It would be better in the rule book if there was an example of how you can’t do it like you do with other placements. The example on page 11 makes it look like you have to place a corridor below the throne room before you could place a downstairs room. Also wouldn’t it be possible for your first 9 tiles to have no corridors to play below grade but have downstairs rooms that then can’t be played. How should this be remedied? To be fair I haven’t played it, just reading the rules and this didn’t seem right.

    Also just to bring to your attention: This same text above on page 11 says “downstairs rooms”. This looks like it should be “downstairs room”

    Also on page 7 of my manual I see that the text refercences “(numbered 1 through 5)” but the picture doesn’t show those numbers or the symbols on the tiles. The rule book online is correct but the printed copy I received is wrong.

    1. Thanks for your question! Downstairs rooms can only be played below ground level (imagine a line below the throne room and extending infinitely in both directions). Of course, like any tile in the game, you can only play downstairs rooms orthogonally adjacent to another tile.

  2. We just played B2castles for the first time, and absolutely loved it. We had a group of 7, and the game worked perfectly. We sometimes have a larger group for game nights, and wonder if anybody has tried getting a second copy and playing with up to 14? By my math the mechanics would work the same, can anybody speak from experience?

    1. We have heard of people playing rather large games of Castles or Cities, maybe even bigger than that. It’s been a while, but I think there was a post on BoardGameGeek or the Cities (or Castles) Facebook group about it.

  3. I just picked up Between Two Castles.

    A minor question on the Bonus room tiles (the 21 leftover after filling the 14 regular slots with 9 tiles each). If you run out, rules say to shuffle all discarded room tiles. Would this include the discarded tile from round 1 or just the original 21 bonus tiles?

    Also, where can I get the extra promo cards/tiles? Are they available only on the open market?

    Thank you,

    David Billman

  4. Why do we hace three extra room tiles? the compartiments under the throne rooms are not suppossed to be elegible for the draft? It its to make the game variable in order thar not all the tiles are available? Thank you

    1. There are two slots in the insert that hold a number of extra tiles, as there’s a bonus you can get in the game to draw some tiles and keep one. The slots in the insert that hold exactly 9 tiles are configured differently than those two slots.

  5. Scratch my comment/question. We were not seated between the castles but had a castle directly in front of each player. Thanks for your time. “Between two castles” literally!!!!!

  6. In a four player game the lower scoring castle is the same for two of the players. Then the two other tie breakers are the same for those players as well. So is this not for four players? Or is it just always a tie for four players? Beyond that I love the quality of your games. Wingspan was my first and this one my second. Both impressive detail.

    1. In a 4-player game, let’s say that you and I share a castle with 55 points. But your other castle has 66 points and my other castle has 77 points. If 55 is the highest score, we would tie and then look at our second castle, in which case I would win thanks to my 77-point castle.

  7. For scoring purposes, would fountains be considered outdoor rooms? Our assumption is not, since even though they have a blue outline, they do not have a tree icon in the top left corner.

  8. Hi! I seem to have 3 extra regular room tiles that dont fit the storage tray. And it seems that this is intentional because the rulebook says 147 pieces and not 144 (which fit the tray)? So where do i store the extra pieces? Thanks.

  9. I am in my eighties and wear glasses – and I would appreciate the icons on the tiles being a bit larger.

    Now, I paid for early delivery and am I ever happy I did that. I run a Friday evening meetup and my copy came in on Thursday. The first Friday playing was so popular that I played a second time with other people – and everybody loved the game. I was at another Meetup on Sunday evening and the game got played another two times with everybody really liking the game.

    I can see needing at least one more pad of score cards one of these days.

  10. Suggestions for a future printing if any: Change the score of Anna Grace and Peter’s castle to a higher number (67 perhaps) to make it clear that the best castle in the game isn’t owned by the winner.

    The same suggestion applies to the original game but I can’t remember if the players are the same.

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