I love a game with a great back story. One of my favorites is Castles of Mad King Ludwig, by Bezier Games. The game is based on the real-life King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Whether he was actually "mad" or not is debatable, but what isn't debatable is his absolute obsession with castle building. He's responsible for some of the most beautiful castles in all of Europe, including Neuschwanstein Castle, in modern day Germany, which served as the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Another thing I absolutely love is roll and write/flip and write games. These are games where you roll dice or flip over cards, choose one and mark it on a game sheet. Some games even include drawing shapes instead of simply writing in numbers or coloring in a dot. These games are particularly fun and have a Tetris-like feel.
So when the creators of Castles of Mad King Ludwig decided to make a flip and write version of their fantastic board game - complete with drawing Tetris-type polyominoes, I was all ears! Let me introduce you to one of my new favorite games: Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig!
In Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig, you’re designing your own castle using the shapes provided. Each different color is a different type of room and each room type has a special ability. Build one room type to allow you to add doors to another room. Or choose room cards with swans on them to collect enough swans to build a moat. The largest score equals the greatest castle and that person wins!
Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig plays 1 to 5 players and takes about 45 to 60 minutes.
What I love:
1.) The theme! - As I mentioned earlier, this is a fantastic theme! Each player is designing their own castle, using King Ludwig as our inspiration!
2.) The sketch sheets! - The game comes with fabulous sketch sheets for your castle. And what is absolutely amazing is that the sheets are actually see-through so that you can put the game card with the shape you're drawing underneath the sketch sheet and simply trace it if you'd like! Most of the shapes are simple and easy to free-hand, but a few are more complicated, and the tracing aspect is really handy and helpful! (I do wish the game came with more sheets than it does, but you can purchase extra drawing sheets and scoring sheet packs on the Bezier website HERE.
3.) The first player token! - Not only is the first player token castle-shaped, but it's actually an eraser! How brilliant is that!?!
Note: I promised myself I wouldn't use the eraser as an eraser because it's so cute, but I needed it in the very first game. I made a couple of mistakes. Haha! But you can also buy a pack of 4 erasers from the same link above.
4.) The colored pencils! - The colored pencils are pretty good quality! And each color actually has its corresponding room name written on it! That's just such a classy touch! So nice!
Note: Yellow was a little difficult to work with. - It colored very well, I just couldn't always tell if I had a doorway there during the game. So, my hubby and I decided to outline our rooms in black pen to make the rooms more visible in future games.
5.) The gameplay! - On each turn you choose a card from the display and draw the corresponding room on your sheet. As you complete rooms and do other tasks, you earn bonuses that help you throughout the game. There's a lovely cascading effect of decision-making that I really love!
Note: It does take a game or two to get all the options in your head. The first game can feel a little confusing trying to remember what your options are. But thankfully Bezier has included a handy reference card for each player to help them.
6.) The scoring! - There's nothing more frustrating than playing a wonderful game but knowing before the end that you aren't winning and there's no way for you to win. It's so frustrating! That's not a problem with Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig though. There are tons of ways to score and that makes it pretty difficult to know who has won until end game scoring is complete. It's a wonderful surprise and I really love that! You just have to focus on your castle and your plan.
Note: My hubby felt that there were too many ways to score. But he did say that his opinion may change after a few more playthroughs - and he definitely wants to play again. I think, once we play a few more times, the scoring won't seem like too much. I'll update here once we've played a few more games.
7.) The educational benefits! - Not only is this game fun and engaging, but it has lots of educational aspects. Discuss the science of architecture. Discuss the history of King Ludwig II and/or Bavaria. Discuss the importance of planning ahead and work on your spatial awareness. Practice math in the end-game scoring. So many educational aspects to indulge in!
If you love the idea of designing your own castle; if you love Tetris-type, puzzle-y games; if you like flip and write games, or if you just love coloring pretty papers, Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig just may be the game for you!
I received this game, free of charge from Bezier Games, in exchange for my honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment