OBJECTIVE OF A CASTLE FOR ALL SEASONS: The objective of A Castle for All Seasons is to be the player with the most victory points when the game comes to an end.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4 Players
MATERIALS: A Gameboard, 4 Story Cards, 23 Building Blocks, 28 Helpers, 4 Victory Pieces, 83 Resource Pieces, and Instructions
TYPE OF GAME: Strategy Board Game
AUDIENCE: Ages 10 and Up
OVERVIEW OF A CASTLE FOR ALL SEASONS
Workers are coming from all across the land to contribute to the construction of the new castle for the king. Each player is a master builder, making their own choices throughout the games. The victor will only be known at the end, when the points are tallied. Players will collect resources, money, and build the grandest buildings in all of the land.
SETUP
Firstly, place the board in the center of the playing area, ensuring that the side with the summer is facing up. All players should be able to easily access the board. For a two or four player game, place a taler on the first twelve spaces. During a three-player game, place them on the first fifteen spaces.
On the defense tower, place a clay slab, a silver bar, a stone block, a wooden beam, and a sand pile. The building tiles should be placed with the picture that matches. Players will then determine their color, choosing a point marker, six helpers, a set of cards, and a summary card that match in color. They will then collect three talers, a wooden beam, and a sand pile, placing them in front of them, creating the play area.
The rest of the stock are distributed and sorted in the four carts found on the bottom side of the game board. The rest of the talers create the bank, and they are placed beside the gameboard. The game is then ready to begin.
GAMEPLAY
The game is played throughout twelve rounds. Each one of the rounds consists of five phases. During the first phase, the first player will collect the starting player marker. The second phase, the players select their character card and place in the play area. Then, all of the players will reveal their played cards simultaneously. If a player reveals a worker card, they may equip it with resources. The cards are executed in a specific order.
During each round, the players will play a single card from their hand, placing it facing down in their playing area. If a player has chosen to play a worker, they can then add three resource pieces from the stock and place them on the cards. Each of the worker cards shows the three resources that it needs.
Cards are executed in the following order: messenger, trader, bricklayer, stonemason, worker, and master builder. If there is more than one player with the exact card, the execution begins with the first player and proceeds in a clockwise manner around the group.
When all of the cards in the round have been executed, the role of the first player rotates clockwise around the group. This player will also collect the taler that is found on the highest space. Gameplay continues in this manner for 12 rounds.
END OF GAME
The game comes to an end after 12 rounds of gameplay. Players will then tally their scores by tallying their helpers. The helpers that are in the carts are removed, as they do not score any victory points. The rest of the helpers are scored as stated below.
Scoring
The Keep: The player who owns the helper in the keep will score 3 points for each of the places in the castle that are not occupied.
The Tavern: The player who owns the helper that costed twelve talers scores one point for any helper who is in the castle when the game comes to an end. The player who owns the helper that costed six talers will score one point for every two helpers that are in the castle.
The Gates: The players who own helpers at the small gates score a victory point for each tower. The players who own helpers at the big gates score two victory points for each tower.
The Stable: The player who owns the helper on the 16th spot earns three points for each house. The player who owns the helper on the 12th spot earns two points for each house.
The Servants’ House: Players who own helpers in this house earn one point for each un-built building tile.
The Market: Players who own one helper in the market score one point for every two talers that they convert. Players who own two helpers in the market score one point for each converted taler.
The Palace: The players who own a helper in the palace can convert up to as many as five resources into victory points. If the player owns two helpers , they can convert as many as ten resources into points.
The Forge: The player that owns a helper on the 10th spot of the forge can score one point for each bar of silver that is present in the forge at the end of the game. The player who owns the helper on the 6th spot will score a victory point for every two bars.
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