Castle Combo Board Game Review

Written by Emma Garrett

I can’t stop playing this game. I’ll put it down for just long enough to tell you about it, but then I’m getting right back to it. Delightfully, it has appeared on Board Game Arena and started floating around in the BGG hotness list too. It’s frequently hard to put your finger on what makes a game special, but usually, you can feel the X-factor. Castle Combo feels like it has an X-factor. 

What is Castle Combo?

Let me introduce you to the colourful world of Castle Combo, where you’re not going to want to leave. It’s a big board game in a small box. There’s a whole medieval town of characters split into two main types: the village and the castle. The village is populated with lowly working characters like the beekeeper, beggar and doctor. The castle is filled with those of a higher calibre, kings, queens and princes. Players are tasked with making a three-by-three tableau of cards in front of them. You’ll recruit characters one by one from the current active row, either the village or the castle. Cards have a shield colour, or multiple colours, grouping them together in a suit. Every card has its own individual scoring criteria. They might score based on their position in the tableau, or how many coins are stored on the card, or the shield colours of other cards in their row. 

Why is this game so good?

What this game does so successfully is pack tons of theme, strategy and tough decisions into a small box. You can play the game easily within a few minutes, but learning to play it well takes really getting engrossed in the world. It’s a speedy game, you’ll only get nine turns so it’s important to pick your strategy early - and then hope useful cards are available on your turn. You’ll need to consider balancing the scoring possibilities, the way cards work together, the optimum slot to place it in, if the character will switch the active drafting location and what that means for the player after you. There are keys that allow you to manipulate the drafting options, but getting lots of keys usually means getting fewer coins. Coins are essential to entice high scoring citizens into your tableau, but they aren’t worth anything at the end of the game unless you have a card with a purse to store them in. Keys are always worth a point.

It’s the world building that I absolutely love in Castle Combo. The characters each have occupations and caricatures, so much thought has gone into the design of the cards, balancing the costs with the benefits, the instant pay-outs with the endgame scoring payoffs. The shields that group matching character cards together in suits are nicely thought out and based around sectors of people like nobility and military, that gives it a feeling almost like 7 Wonders where you build up different aspects of your kingdom. When you look at each character, they make sense. The Witch is a village card and she scores if the tableau includes no Faith characters, the Royal Guard scores for having Noble characters nearby. It’s just so neat! Everything about the cards is classy, considered and memorable. The artwork is fantastic. Each card’s embellishments are in its shields’ colours, as is their outfit. 

In short, I love the look and the feel and the gameplay. Get your medieval-themed game night feast at the ready, strike up the lute music, and join us in the castle! 

Play Castle Combo

We gave this game a must-play rating. 

This card game achieves so much with so little. It’s an open-drafting, tableau-building, strategy game with little learning time and big decisions. And it’s instantly addictive.

You should try Castle Combo if you liked Everdell. It’s not the same cute factor, but if you like strategically picking characters who fit well together to score you points, you’ll find yourself right at home in Castle Combo. 

About Castle Combo

Designer: Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel

Publisher: Catch Up Games

Time: 25m

Players: 2-5 

Ages: 10+

Price: £20