The customer is always right, even when he's a crazy monarch with the worst ideas about architecture, as is the case in Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This Android game simplifies the mechanics of the original tile-matching board game, letting you focus on having fun, but its lackluster graphics and awkward design detract from the experience.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is available in Google Play, and it can be played on either Android tablets or phones, and there's an iOS version, too. In my testing, I used the Google Pixel C. The game is moderately expensive at $6.99, but digital versions of board games are often higher than those of other Android games. The physical version of Castles costs $40, so $7 isn't bad.
A Little History
In 1864, King Ludwig II ascended to the throne of Bavaria, only to die under mysterious circumstances in 1886. The story of the years in between is one of secret desires, political plots, accusations of madness, and staggering works of fanciful architecture. The last of these have proved to be Ludwig's most enduring legacy, in the form of fairy-tale castles across the Bavarian countryside.
You may already be familiar with some of his more famous creations. Neuschwanstein Castle is easily the most recognizable, with its turrets soaring above a massive building squatting precariously atop a mountain. It's appeared in films, countless photographs, and its influence can be seen in another fantastical fairyland: Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
These are the elements of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, a board game that challenges you to build the best, most ostentatious castle under the direction of your royal patron. At your disposal are a variety of differently shaped tiles representing rooms. Each room costs a certain amount of gold and is worth a certain amount of points. Some rooms get bonuses for being next to other kinds of rooms, and completing a room—that is, connecting other room tiles to each of its doorways—earns you additional boons. Completing a hallway, for example, earns you another hallway.
Things are a little more complicated than that, however. Each player begins the game with secret cards that will earn them additional points at the game's end. I might have a card that gets me two points for every bedroom I build, which means my castle will likely be a very sleepy place. Or three points for every Garden card, which will entice me more towards the horticultural tiles.
The complexity is compounded by requests from the mad king himself. Depending on the number of players, you receive a certain number of royal orders. These are additional rewards, given at the game's end to whoever meets the conditions. As his royal moniker implies, the mad king's requirements don't always make sense. One request may reward the player who builds the most underground rooms, while another request might reward the most unfinished rooms in a castle.
The Mad King's Android App
The digital adaptation of Castles stays very true to the original. It's not quite as slavish an adaptation as Star Realms, but the orientation of key features and the experience of placing tiles has an enjoyable manual feel to it.
Available tiles appear across the top. Tap one to see an enlarged version that reproduces the art of the original game exactly. I love the whimsical rooms in the game, like the Fungus Room or the Secret Lair, all of which are preserved in the Android app.
Unfortunately, the board game designers seem to have been more artistically adept than the team that created the app. The castle-themed interface feels clunky and looks very dated. If you can recall the lifeless animation and flat colors of early Flash cartoons, you'll recognize the look of this app. It also overuses a particular brick pattern in menus, which is so ugly and so filled with lines that details are get lost when tiles are set against it.
The blandness of Castles is particularly disappointing when there are so many other excellent adaptations of board games. Small World 2, for example, preserves the visuals and __play of the original, and it looks great, too.
Play is much like that of the app version of Carcassonne. You tap and drag tiles from the top of the screen and fit them together on a faux-wood table below. Rule-abiding tile orientations are marked with a green halo around the tile, and illegal ones with red. You can reposition and rotate to your heart's content before passing __play to the next player.
The combination of different rooms, fitting them together, and the various score modifiers mean each game will be different. They also mean that the physical version of the game is packed with fiddly little pieces that need to be arranged just so each time you want to play. Not so with the Android app, which takes care of that for you.
The game is also devilishly difficult to score. Points are earned immediately after a tile is placed, and they need to be frequently recalculated. Various bonuses, such as that for the completion of rooms, add to your score and also trigger additional boons. Completing a bedroom, for instance, lets you pick which rooms will be available next turn. It's easy to forget or mess up any of these elements, but the Android app keeps track of everything. The current score, and castle, of each player is always visible. When you place a tile, the app shows the score breakdown for that move before you accept it. The physical version of Carcassonne is also extremely difficult to score and its iPhone version takes care of the work; I like that Castles learns some of the lessons from that app.
The downside is that the app hides some important information. The physical board game includes a handy card for each player that describes what you receive for completing each kind of room. To find this in the Android app requires going through two different menu screens. This really annoys me, and I don't understand why the designers didn't place this critically important information within easy reach.
I like that the app completely automates the tricky and tediously explained Master Builder aspect of the game. This role is passed from player to player each round. The Master Builder goes last that round, but decides the prices of available tiles. While the app makes this role far easier to execute, it's also easy to miss. Several times I thought I was taking a turn when actually I was changing prices. Whoops!
Welcome to My Palatial Home
The app lets you play by yourself against one to three computer players, or with any combination of four human and computer players. You take turns by passing the Android device back and forth among players. Other games with this mode, such as Lords of Waterdeep, require that each player sit through a recap of the previous turns, but not this one. I actually like that the app keeps the game brisk.
That said, I dislike that players can't look at the same screen at the same time, lest they spy each other's secret cards. Part of the fun of a board game is watching what the other player does. You can divine some element of their strategy, and maybe even learn something about the game. It's also just more interesting than staring at the back of a tablet while they take their turn. The most interaction you can have in-game is tapping to view the castles of other players after they've taken their turns.
The cooperative game Forbidden Island, for all that it's tablet version is problematic, can be placed in the center of a table and seen by all. I prefer how Lords of Waterdeep handles secret information; hiding it until it needs to be seen.
Alternatively, you can play in Campaign mode. In this mode, you play against computer players across a map of Bavaria. You encounter different scenarios and arrangements of pieces, each a puzzle to be completed. This is a surprisingly robust single-player campaign, and something I haven't seen in other board game adaptations.
Don't get your hopes up about playing against your would-be architect friends in distant lands, however. Castles is a decidedly off-line experience, and includes no online multiplayer or no LAN multiplayer modes. That's a real shame, because one of the attractions of digital board game apps is being able to play with friends who are far away.
Also missing is the Secrets expansion pack. Only the core game is available, at least for now. The excellent iOS version of Carcassonne has done a great job of bringing out that game's numerous expansions. But for a truly dynamic experience, you'll have to look outside board game adaptations and explore the fully digital Hearthstone. This digital card game is constantly being tweaked by developers at Blizzard and offers numerous ways to play—nearly all of which are free.
Brick by Brick
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a wonderful real-world game, and its Android app equivalent does an excellent job of capturing the complex, endlessly variable gameplay of the original. It greatly simplifies scoring the game and makes sure you get each reward you earn. Perhaps best of all, it's a fraction of the size and cost of the physical version, and you'll never lose the pieces. But the app fails at, well, being an app. It lacks a multiplayer mode, and it hides critically important information. Perhaps worst of all, it's a real eyesore.
Fans of the original Castles will have no trouble dishing out $7 for the Android version, and it's a welcome addition to any digital board game night. But if you're just learning the game, you're better off sticking with the original.
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