Sanity Test for Of Kings and Castles

70/100
Final Score
A novel game with good theme integrated throughout. Fairly clear rules, but there are many typos.
Completed May 19, 2017 by CrassPip

Rules 57/80

Structure 7/9

The overall structure is good. The main thing missing is an overview section. There are also several places that refer to things that have not yet been described. These will be explained in more detail below.

Requirements 3/3

Yes.

Introduction 3/3

Excellent.

Overview 1/3

The introduction gives a sense of the main objectives of play, but a specific overview section would be good to add. It will have a brief summary of play and the win condition, e.g. "On your turn, dump out the contest of your bag. The way the tokens land determines where your king will attack and how many actions you get. With your actions you can... etc."

Component List 5/5

Excellent. Counts given, good pictures of components including both sides of cards.

Component Pictures 2/3

Good.

Setup 8/10

Overall, it's pretty good. A couple places could have more information.
You could mention the colored slots at the top of the board for aligning the cards. Otherwise it's not clear how they should be laid out without looking at the picture.
It's not clear why we're taking and placing resource tokens. A brief statement as to why this is happening would help.
It would be good to reiterate that the armies are the cubes.
What do we do with the other large shields and the gold coins?

Setup Pictures 5/7

One good picture.

Game Play 10/15

The summary at the start neglects to mention you taking player actions. (It just says your King acts before you do. Then play passes.)
Determining attacking and attacked territories: You she mention again that ties are decided by the active player. If I'm reading this right, the territory with the most of your armies take precedence for determining battle location. (So even if there is a very weak opponent in another place, I'll attack based on where I have most.) That might be spelled out.
You might also add something about attacking neutral territories/those with no armies. Presumably you just move all your armies in?
Build Castle: The part about drawing the top card could be moved up since it is a decision the player could make at the beginning.
If you give a gold coin to another player, do you physically take their resource or just gain the ability to use it like in 7 Wonders?
This section should mention that you can only have one of each of the basic types.
If you already have a walls, for example, can you build a new one to replace the existing one?
Removing card types from the game: "Once all players have built one of the basic card types..." is ambiguous. It could mean that I build walls, you build a tower and entries. You should also forward reference the information on the next page.
Do you go through the deck and remove them or just when they come up? Presumably you replace removed cards from the display.
Produce a resource: "No more than two resources can be produced on a territory at a time.": Does that mean you can produce more on a subsequent turn, or it can only hold two total?
How do we as a player get the resources? Or do you spend resources off the board from placed you control? If a land is conquered, do the resources change owner?
Increase tensions: At some point it is possible that you've used all your own tokens. Does that mean you can't take this action anymore?
Special actions: These cards should be described somewhere. As it is, we have no idea what they do.
Examples of some of the sections would be a welcome addition.

Game Play Pictures 2/7

The pictures are not that useful. For example, the movement should show that the territories are controlled by the same king. The resource should show a physical resource being placed on the territory, and the increase tensions should show shields being exchanged.

End Point 6/6

Overall, it is good.
You should consider moving the castle card layout earlier in the rules, perhaps after the components, since several other rules depend upon knowing its information.
The note about having any number of purple extras should be moved up into the main text.
The game ends when the first player builds a complete castle [worth at least the minimum number of points.]
If you get a special action card worth points, I assume that could also put you over the limit.

Overall Comprehension 3/4

A few small questions but nothing major.

Clarity 0/3

There are too many typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
Some examples: Page 4: "...indicates the color of that player[']s armies and bag."
"...players will takes[sic] turns..."
"Resource tile[s] must be placed..."
etc.
Also, choose whether to capitalize names of components and be consistent.

Presentation 2/2

Very good. The gold of the titles may be a bit much.

Shop Presentation 13/20

Ad 2/3

It's not very exciting.
Somewhere you should mention the novel mechanism of using the bag to determine the king's actions. It's similar to a bag-builder like Orleans, but it is different and unique.

Backdrop 1/1

Pretty good. It's a bit plain and the castle seems too low. You could add a picture of the game board in the center/left.

Logo 1/1

Good.

Action Shots 5/5

Very nice pictures. I'm giving it 5 stars for the quality of those existing, but I would also really like to see close-ups of a card or two and a picture of the game in play with everything laid out.

Description 4/5

The thematic intro does a good job of giving a basic summary of the game, but the description lacks any mechanical details. As mentioned, it would be good to describe the unique bag mechanism. You could also tell what actions the player has available. Right now the last paragraph is repetitive and could just be eliminated.

Video 0/5

None.


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