CATsle Builders
CATsle Builders is a trick-taking game for 3-5 players.
Players aim to build a more robust castle by aligning five types of buildings as planned. The structures that will be built will change depending on the ranking of the battles held during each round.
Adjust your ranking while predicting your and your opponent's hands, collect cards according to the blueprint, and aim to become the best castle builder!
Number of players: 3 - 5
Game duration: 14 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play CATsle Builders and 1280 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
CATsle Builders is a trick taking game for 3players to 5players players. It's played with a deck of 60 cards divided into 5 Suits with Values ranging from 1 to 12. The 5 Suits are Walls(white), Gables(green), Gates(red), Bridges(yellow), and Moats(blue).
The game consists of 3 Rounds, in each of which players aim to fill their players areas with a number of cards without surpassing the respective card limit.
Setup
Each round is set up identically, with each player being dealt a hand of cards depending on the player count. In a 3players player game, the 12 Moat cards are removed from the deck and are not used.
| Player count | Deck size | Hand size |
| 3 | 48 | 11 |
| 4 | 60 | 14 |
| 5 | 60 | 12 |
In the 1st Round, the first player is selected randomly, and each subsequent Round starts with the player next in turn order after the previous Round's first player.
Gameplay
A round consists of a sequence of tricks played until all players are out of cards in their hands. During each trick, each player in turn order plays a card from hand. The leading player may play an arbitrary card, but the others must play a card of the same Suit, if possible.
After each player has played a card, the players' rating is determined by comparing the cards' Suits and Values. The leading Suit beats all other Suits, and higher Values beat lower Values. When comparing two cards of non-leading Suit and same Values, the card player later in the trick is stronger.
After the rating is determined, staring from the highest rank, a number of players take 1 or 2 cards from the trick. The number of cards taken is affected by the player count:
| Player count | 1st rating cards | 2nd rating cards | 3rd rating cards |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | - |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | - |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
When a player takes a card, it must be added to one of the 4 columns under the player's board. If there is already a card of the same Suit in one of the columns, the new card must be added to the same column. Otherwise, it can be placed in any of the empty columns.
Each column has a limit of cards that can be added to it without receiving a penalty. The card beyond that limit are turned sideways when added to a column. In a 4players+ player game, the boards include an additional column with a limit of 0.
After all required cards are taken, the next trick starts with the player who took 2 cards in the current trick. If this was the last trick of the round, the game proceeds to scoring.
Round Scoring
The score gained by players after each round is determined by the number of cards in each of their board's columns. It's gained/lost from these 3 sources:
- ⚒ If the number of cards in a column is within the limit, the score from that column equals to the number of cards in it
- ⚒ If the number of cards in a column is above the limit, the score from that column equals to the negative number of sideways cards in it
- ⚒ Additionally, the perfect score bonus is awarded according to the number of columns in which the number of cards is exactly equal to the limit (except that column 0 is never considered perfect)
| Number of perfect columns | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Bonus score | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
The resulting round score is the sum of all these scores. If the sum is negative, the player scores no points.
Game End
After the end of the 3rd Round, the player with the highest total score is declared winner. If there's a tie, the winner is the player with the most perfect columns during the last round's scoring.