When I look at my own history of playing board games and the number of people I’ve told, “It’s fun, I swear!”, I see a pathetic history of over-enthusiasm met with under-enthusiasm. When I first discovered Arkham Horror LCG and sat my sister down to play 12 hours straight, I assumed the tears in her eyes were of joy. The forced enthusiasm as I tried to make my in-laws memorize every symbol in Maracaibo was harder to explain away. And only when I finally sat my patient husband down to teach him Imperium: Horizons, did the words “This will probably take us about three hours….” die in my throat and make me take a hard look at myself. When did I become the annoying, nagging board game freak?
I don’t know how it feels to have a consistent board game group, but how it feels to not have a consistent board game group is that I need a board game for every occasion and every personality. I guess I’m in the stage of board gaming where I’ve explored most major genres, explored my likes and dislikes, and it’s not over but what is new and exciting is someone else’s “gateway game moment”. It would seem Arkham Horror LCG is not that game…
However, I’m happy to announce I have found the solution! Introducing The White Castle, the Euro short enough to redeem your relationships. Now that I’ve pushed away all my friends and family, what better way to pull them back in than with a DIFFERENT board game?
If you’ve seen other reviews, you will have heard repeatedly, “You only get 9 turns, that’s nothing!”, “9 turns, can you believe it!?”, “I’m just getting started!”. Yeah yeah, whatever. Go play a Lacerda game then. This is for us poor, sad gamers still trying to convert our loved ones. Now I don’t have to play Cards Against Humanity when I want a little social interaction. We’ve gotten 2-player just under an hour and really, under an hour is basically rounded down to 30 minutes so if you think about it, this game really only takes like 30 minutes. Say no more. Anyone can suffer for that long.
Jokes aside, I have played this at 1, 2 and 4 players many times. Each time, I’ve received positive responses and I like each player count for different reasons. The solo mode is a lot of fun. The bot consistently scored in the 80s on “easy”. I have yet to beat it but I have to assume the designers and playtesters could beat it regularly on “easy” at least. My highest score is like 57 so…I’m not that good at board games. I do love trying to beat my score each time, however. It’s short enough that I can develop a vision for my path through the game. I can’t do that with the longer Euros, where it all gets lost in the sauce for me.
Anyways, The White Castle is familiar. And the familiar is consumable. It tells us what we already understand. It makes us feel emotions we already know very well how to feel. And in a board game, I think that’s perfectly okay. Ultimately, I already grasp what’s underlying this and where it’s going for the next 60 minutes and that feels good. And what’s even better…it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’m not sure there’s a lot of room for yet another Euro, but if you put it in a tiny box and give me a short play time, I’ll dance around to all my estranged family homes proclaiming I have the cure to their disease (not liking board games).
Quick pros and cons list:
Pros
–Play time: wonderfully quick if you avoid the analysis paralysis trap of any Euro. Solo takes me about 40 minutes and 4 player was about 90 minutes.
–Solo mode: the bot is very quick so you can get back to your turn faster
–Beautiful artwork, very pleasing to look at and includes fun 3D dice bridges
–Combos feel very satisfying and you can get them going quickly
Cons
–9 turns (this is a pro for me but perhaps a con for others)-you’ve got to be mathy if you want to improve, especially against the bot
–Sub-mechanics can feel removed from the theme
–Rivalry in blocking others from taking specific actions (I see this as fun interaction but others may see it as vicious)
It was a very tight game. I played with 2 and 4p, and the times were very similar. Not only is it beautiful, it’s also excellent. On a side note, I also loved The Red Cathedral, by the same designer duo.