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Castles of Mad King Ludwig
#233BGG7.5RATING
Updated Jun 5
1–4
PLAYERS
—
MINUTES
4
BEST WITH
2.6
MEDIUM
ERRATA2
Corridor completion reward is optional, not mandatorydesignerpublisher
- RULING
- "It is not the intent of the game/rules to force the Corridor reward on a player in this case. The Corridor Reward should always be a 'may' not a must, and not having it mentioned in the rules was, like the omission of plastic bags in the box (grrr), simply an oversight."
4-entrance foyer tile side is for the Moats expansiondesignerpublisher
- RULING
- "The 4 opening side is really for use with the Moats expansion, though you can use it if you want." The base game rulebook does not specify which side to use; the 3-entrance side is the standard for base-game play.
AUTHOR: jodokast4 (Nathan McKeehan, designer+publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(5 replies)DATE: 2024-08-20
DESIGNER CLARIFICATIONS6
Sleeping room reward cannot target stairs or hallway stacksdesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- The 1st edition text did not explicitly exclude stairs and hallways from the Sleeping Room Completion Reward, causing ambiguity. Ted added the exclusion in the 2nd edition.
- RULING
- "Completion Reward: Look through any stack of Room tiles of one size (except stairs or hallways) and place 0, 1, or 2 of those Room tiles face-down on the Room card deck."
Outdoor fence edge rule applies to all rooms, including downstairsdesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- A player asked whether downstairs rooms are exempt from the outdoor fence edge adjacency restriction.
- RULING
- No room of any type — upstairs or downstairs — may be placed adjacent to the outdoor fence edge. "No rooms may ever be placed so they are adjacent to this edge, and these rooms may not be placed if this edge is adjacent to any part of another room (touching corners is okay)."
AUTHOR: toulouse (Ted Alspach, designer+publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(3 replies)DATE: 2015-01-11Same-type hallways can connect; upstairs and downstairs hallways cannotdesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- The rulebook states "Downstairs and regular Hallways may never have their entrances adjacent to each other," which players interpreted as prohibiting all hallway-to-hallway connections.
- RULING
- "You can't connect a hallway directly to a downstairs hallway." [On the follow-up question:] "Yes, you can connect hallways to each other, and you can connect downstairs hallways to each other."
AUTHOR: toulouse (Ted Alspach, designer+publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(10 replies)DATE: 2014-11-25External Entrances scoring counts all outside exits regardless of floordesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Players disagreed on whether downstairs room exits and corridor entrances count toward the External Entrances King's Favor and Bonus Card.
- RULING
- "For both the External Entrances favor and the External Entrances Bonus card, entrances that lead to the outside edge of your castle count. It doesn't matter if those entrances are upstairs or downstairs." Corridor entrances do not count for the Favor or Bonus Card scoring, but they do count for the tile-placement legality rule: "Corridor entrances qualify in this case (there's no exception regarding Corridor entrances on that rule as there are for Favors and Bonus cards)."
AUTHOR: toulouse (Ted Alspach, designer+publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(18 replies)DATE: 2014-11-13Living Room re-score reward applied to a downstairs roomdesignerpublisher
- CONTEXT
- When completing a 2nd/4th/6th downstairs room, a player may choose the Living Room completion reward (re-score a room). This clarifies what "re-score" means when applied to a downstairs room.
- RULING
- "if you choose the Living Room completion reward when completing a downstairs room that makes you eligible for a reward, you re-score the just-completed downstairs room again... It's easy to remember if you think about the word 're-score', as you are simply getting the exact same number of points as the room is currently worth."
AUTHOR: toulouse (Ted Alspach, designer+publisher)SOURCE: boardgamegeek.com(9 replies)DATE: 2014-11-18Discarded bonus cards cycle to deck bottom in player orderpublisher
- CONTEXT
- Players questioned why the rulebook requires discarding bonus cards in turn order when the cards are face-down and secret.
- RULING
- "The unselected Bonus cards are placed on the bottom of the Bonus card deck. These discarded bonus cards could come into play again, especially if a large number of activity rooms are in the game. You should put the discarded Bonus cards on the bottom of the deck in order, though it doesn't break the game if you do not."
Q&A6
King's Favor ties: split points rounded downdesignerpublisher
- QUESTION
- How are King's Favor points distributed when two or more players tie for a position?
- ANSWER
- "If one or more players tie for a place, the tied players get the points for that place plus the next one(s) divided by the number of tied players (rounded down)."
End-game depletion bonus counts both hallway stacks as onedesignerpublisher
- QUESTION
- For the end-game room-depletion bonus, do the two hallway stacks and the stairs stack each count separately?
- ANSWER
- "Each player receives 2 points for each room they have from each depleted stack of rooms, including Hallways (all Hallways/Downstairs Hallways are considered a single stack) and Stairs (even if a room from that stack remains below the Contract board)."
Living Room completion bonus re-scores all current pointscommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- When the Living Room (purple) is completed, does the re-score include all current bonuses and penalties from adjacent rooms, or just certain point types?
- ANSWER
- When the Living Room is completed, you re-score its full current point value — both the upper-left placement points and the center icon bonus based on current neighbors, including any applicable negative effects from adjacent activity rooms. You score the room exactly as if you had just placed it at its current position with all current neighbors. Adjacent rooms are not re-scored.
Simultaneous downstairs completions: choose only one rewardlinked official source
- QUESTION
- If two downstairs rooms are completed simultaneously on the same turn, does the player receive a separate completion reward for each?
- ANSWER
- No. The player receives one completion reward and chooses which of the simultaneously completed rooms to apply it to. Per the 1st edition rulebook (parenthetical omitted from 2nd edition): "if 2 or more Downstairs rooms were completed at once, they choose which of those to take the reward on."
"Connected" means direct entrance-to-entrance contact onlycommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- Does "connected" mean any rooms reachable through a path in the castle, or only rooms whose doors directly touch?
- ANSWER
- Two rooms are "connected" only when their entrances (doors) directly touch. A room is connected to its neighboring corridor, not to rooms on the other side of that corridor. "Adjacent" (sharing a wall face) is a separate mechanic with a distinct icon.
Incomplete hallways count for Incomplete Rooms King's Favorcommunity high-engagement
- QUESTION
- Do incomplete hallways count toward the Incomplete Rooms King's Favor?
- ANSWER
- Yes. Corridor rooms are only excluded from specific scoring bonuses that state so explicitly (e.g., "Small Rooms" bonus card, "Unique Sizes" bonus card). There is no general exclusion of corridor rooms from King's Favors or other bonuses unless the text specifically says so.
Last researched: 2026-05-07
CATEGORIES
Post-Napoleonic·Puzzle
MECHANICS
End Game BonusesHidden Victory PointsI Cut, You ChooseIncrease Value of Unchosen ResourcesPattern BuildingSet CollectionTile PlacementTurn Order: Progressive
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