The Castle

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Rio Grande Games	Nasza Ksiegarnia

Introduction

Originally released by Hans im Glück in 2003, Carcassonne: The Castle is an exciting tile-laying game for 2 players, ages 8 and up. Designed by Reiner Knizia. A Polish version, Zamek, was published in 2020 with new artwork and some feature changes, by Nasza Ksiegarnia.

"The imposing silhouette of the city of Carcassonne sits like a throne in the light of the setting sun. Knights guard the towers, the squires live in houses, merchants loudly tout their wares, and the heralds carry the news throughout the city. Over all this bustle, the high castle looms behind its impenetrable walls."

The Castle is based on many of the elements of Carcassonne, but it is not compatible with Carcassonne or any of the other Carcassonne spin-off games. It is also unique in that the game starts by building the castle walls (which form the scoretrack) with the game tiles being laid out within those walls.

WICA Notes

The following are based on the Rio Grande Games version of the rules. Additional comments and clarifications have come from various Carcassonne discussion forums (BGG, CarcC and CarcF).

Rules

Zamek (2020, 2022)

• Zamek Base Game
• Zamek: The Falcon - Released in April 2022.

The Castle (2003, 2015)

• Base Game
• Falcon - Released in 2015, it is available as a free print & play download from knizia.de/more. According to Reiner Knizia, Rio Grande Games originally planned to release the game in 2009. The Prince is growing and has taken up falconry, resulting in a large number of falcon nests in the castle. Also, religion has come to the castle, and there is now the possibility of building chapels in the castle.

Fan Expansions

• There are no known fan expansions for The Castle
• 100/200 Scoring Tiles are available to download from CarcassonneCentral

Accessories

If you prefer to draw tiles from a bag, this custom design is available from Artscow:

Drawstring pouch (large) for The Castle

Drawstring pouch (large) for Zamek

Reference

• Tile Reference

Endnotes

Artist: Christof Tisch (The Castle); Roman Kucharski (Zamek)