CASTLE: THE GAME

4.2

Exploring the basics

Your goal is to protect a castle against intruders, using brave defenders. These intruders try to occupy target fields at the back of the castle.

In order to do this, they need to enter and cross the courtyard. In doing so, they tend to avoid the defenders. Your defenders can challenge the intruders to a fight. If you use the right defender against a species of the intruders, the defender wins the fight. The game is over as soon as two intruders have occupied both fields of a target. It does not matter whether these two invaders belong to the same species.


Where it happens

“Castle” is a board game. The board shows circular fields in different colours. The castle yard has beige circles. The castle wall consists of dark brown circles. The entrance is marked with two even darker circles. On the left rear, you can see a yellow circle followed by three light brown circles. This is the passage through which new or recovering defenders are led step by step into the battle. At the top, the courtyard is closed by three pairs of fields in reddish brown. These are the target fields that intruders want to reach. The castle is surrounded by green circles. That is where the attackers will appear. The red line separates the outside from the inside. Attackers will try to cross it.

map of the castle with regions and buttons The game board representing the castle. Clockwise from the top: The “passage” includes the yellow circle and the three light brown squares. The target squares are the six reddish circles at the back. The castle courtyard is the square in the middle, which consists of beige fields. The circular green squares are outside the castle wall. The entrance to the castle courtyard (grey circles) allows access to the castle courtyard through the wall (dark brown circles).


Change the view

shield / mast cell Shield and mast cell: buttons to change the view.

On the right side of the playing area, you will see a shield. Click on it to switch from the medieval view to the medical view. Actors become cells of the immune system, the representations on the target fields change from bellows, armoury and dung heap to lungs, skin and intestine. Any medicines are also depicted differently. Switch back to the medieval view by clicking on the representation of the mast cell.


Starting to play: the characters

Defenders and intruders turn into different characters. Each character has its specifics when it comes to movement pattern, vincibility and the fields it can occupy. The intruders differ not only in terms of their target fields, but also in terms of where they enter the courtyard. Some fly over the wall, others crawl through the gate. You will find a comprehensive list of each game piece here.

When you start the game, you can first add to the defensive pieces that are already on the board. To do this, choose from a range of pieces by clicking on the one you want. You will then see the playing field, highlighted with the circles on which you can place the piece. Select one. After that, you will be taken back to the selection screen.

selection screen Selection panel: That is what you see when clicking on the guardroom button.

This view corresponds to the guardroom. You can select as many defensive elements as you like until there are seven of them on the board. However, you can also start the game with fewer defenders.

access to guardroom: Click this button to access the guardroom.

show range If you click on a defender you see where you can move it.

You then move your defenders across the board according to their range. When you click on one of your pieces, the green circles show where it might move. Click on the desired circle and your defender takes this place. You alternate moves with the attackers. Some of your interactions may count as moves even if you have not put a defender on a new circle.

Each attacker first appears on one of the bottom green fields. After your next move, the attacker hops to the next position. Only then will you see whether it wants to go over the wall or through the gate.

Try to beat an intruder even if you are not sure if your defender can overwhelm it. Once an attacker is in its target space, it is safe from all defenders. The attackers win the whole game as soon as two of them occupy the same target space. They do not have to be of the same species.

Lizenz

University of Basel