Small Game that Packs a Punch: No Burgers Sold at this White Castle

Welcome to this week’s gaming post! This week I’m discussing one of the hottest euros from last year. So without further ado, let’s jump into the recent highlights.

I recently picked up The White Castle during this past Nerdz Day sale and had the chance to get it to the table for a few plays (it also made its debut as the first game in my upcoming unboxing series on Instagram). The game is played over a series of three rounds with each player having three turns during a round. On a player’s turn, they draft one dice from one of the three colored 3D bridges corresponding to the color of the dice, and then the player places that die on a worker placement spot to carry out the associated actions. If a player places their die on one of the five spots in the castle, then the player will carry out whichever actions on the card correspond to the color of the die placed. 

Since each player will only get nine turns during the course of the game, it’s important to try to maximize your turns. This leads to a very satisfying puzzle and creates plenty of opportunities to combo actions together. For example, say I place a die on an action that allows me to place one of my gardeners on one of the six cards next to the bridges. I then decide to place my gardener on a card that allows me to spend money to take an additional action in the garden. This is just one of the many examples of how you can pull off satisfying combos that ultimately allow you to accomplish more than just nine actions during the game.

There’s not a ton of player interaction in The White Castle, but what interaction there is feels impactful. First off, there’s an influence track that determines player order. Since there are limited dice and worker placement spots, if you’re not going early in player order, then you’re going to have a tough time.

Next up is the mechanism for selecting dice which is probably one of my favorite parts of the game. There are three different colored bridges corresponding to one of each of the three colored dice. On your turn, you’re only able to select a die from either the left or right side of each bridge (effectively either the lowest or highest number die on each bridge). It’s important to play high numbered dice on the worker placement spots because each spot on the board has a number and you either receive or pay the difference in money between that number and the number on the die you just placed. For example, if I play a two die on a four numbered space on the board, I’d have to pay two money to do so. Therefore, you ideally want to select higher numbered dice. However, if you select a die from the left side of a bridge (the lowest number on the bridge), then you also get your lantern bonus which allows you to receive some resources depending on the cards you’ve collected during the game. Where the player interaction comes into play is evaluating which die to select because once you select one, if there’s a die in the middle of the bridge (not available to be selected), then it will then replace the die you just chose. For example, say I selected a one numbered die and the next lowest number die in the middle of the bridge is a five, then that five now slides to the left and is now available for another player to choose. By doing so, I’ve not only allowed another player to select that high number die, but also allowed them to receive their lantern bonus in the process.

The final bit of player interaction comes from the worker placement spots. Other than three spots on your individual player board, the rest of the worker placement spots are shared between all of the players. In a two-player game, only one die can be placed on each available spot, again making it important to go first in player order. In a three- or four-player game, one die can be stacked on top of another one to mitigate some of the competition over spots with higher player counts. However, say I place a one numbered die on top of a five numbered space, then I have to pay the difference (four money) to do so. The next person to play a die on that action now treats that spot as a one, since that’s the number on the die that’s showing. So in this scenario, I’ve effectively made it cheaper for an opponent to use that action.

There isn’t a ton of variability in terms of what you will be doing each game, as there are three main actions and you will be doing some combination of each game. However, I found that because of the dice, initial setup, the cards that come out, and other players’ actions, it allows for a fair amount of variability from game to game. Even though you’ll effectively be doing some combination of the three main actions each game, how you you’ll be triggering those actions and the combos you create will vary from game to game. For example, in the most recent game I played, because of the cards that came out, I found it incredible difficult to get food, and I didn’t end up placing any of my gardeners out, focusing more on the other two. This results in the feeling that each game is a slightly different puzzle that you have to solve.

Finally, one of my biggest praises for the game is its play time. I’ve finished two-player games of The White Castle, including setup, in roughly 45 minutes with experienced players. Even teaching to new players isn’t that difficult and doesn’t add too much time to the length.

I don’t have too many negatives to discuss with The White Castle, but if I were to nitpick, I really wish the box was a bit bigger. My shelves appreciate the small box, but even after removing all of the extra rulebooks in the other languages, it’s still a jigsaw puzzle to get everything to fit, and even then, there’s a slight bit of lid lift. Also, I appreciate that there’s a solo mode, but I really feel like this game is much better played multiplayer because of the interactive elements I’ve discussed above. While easy to pilot, the solo AI takes turns that are effectively random, and I found even on easy mode, it’s very challenging and requires a bit of luck to beat. Finally, while the artwork and 3D bridges are nice, the theme of 18^th century Japan does not really shine through.

Overall, I didn’t find The White Castle to truly be innovative in any one area. However, the game feels very streamlined, and one of the biggest positives of the game is its length. I can’t think of too many medium weight euro games that provide as much crunchy decision making in this length of a game. If I’m looking for a satisfying euro with plenty of opportunities to combo actions, with some interesting player interaction, then I can easily see The White Castle becoming a favorite of mine and a go-to.

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s gaming highlights! I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned, future content, or format in the comments section below. Happy gaming!

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