The White Castle
The heron flies over the Himeji sky while the Daimyo, from the top of the castle, watches his servants move. Gardeners tend the pond, where the koi carp live, warriors stand guard on the walls, and courtiers crowd the gates, pining for an audience that brings them closer to the innermost circles of the court. When night falls, the lanterns are lit and the workers return to their clan.
In The White Castle, players will control one of these clans in order to score more victory points than the rest. To do so, they must amass influence in the court, manage resources boldly, and place their workers in the right place at the right time. The authors are Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero, the duo known as Llama Dice who also designed the successful The Red Cathedral with Devir. In this case, we leave the Moscow of Ivan the Terrible behind to explore the most imposing fortress in modern Japan, Himeji Castle, where the banner of the Sakai clan flies under the orders of Daimyo Sakai Tadakiyo.
Number of players: 1 - 4
Game duration: 34 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
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Play The White Castle and 1205 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
Game Overview
Players take turns placing dice, the round ends when each player has placed 3 dice. At the end of the game, most points wins!
On Your Turn
Play is resolved in this order.
- Choose a die from either end of any of the bridges and choose the location to activate with that die.
- If you used a die with a value lower than the space, you will need to pay the difference of pips as coins. If you used a die with value higher than the space, you will get the difference of pips as coins.
- If you took the (lower) die from the left end of a bridge you also get your lantern effects. (These are the effects on your board to the right of your lantern.)
- Then, perform the effect of your die placement.
Placement Areas
Castle
You may place your die on the first level or second level of the castle (in any of the 5 spaces). You get the effects of the rows that match the colour of the die you placed there -- typically gaining resources and/or performing a Gardener, Courtier, or Warrior action.
Outside the Walls
You may place any colour die on the spaces at the bottom right and take one of the adjacent principal actions (Gardener, Courtier, Warrior).
Personal Domain
For a row on your board, gain the resources of all revealed spaces, then perform the effect on the card to the right that lines up with the row.
Well
If need be, you can always place your die in the well (the space is always considered to be 1). Take a Daimyo seal + other resources.
Principal Actions
In addition to getting resources, some die effects let you take a Gardener, Courtier, or Warrior action. These can give additional benefits, possibly even additional actions.
Gardener
Choose a garden card without one of your gardeners (left of the castle) and pay the cost in food to place and activate the effect on the card. This card will activate again if there is a die left above it at the end of the round (but not the end of round 3).
At game end, each Gardener scores points equal to the point value on their card.
Courtier
You can pick one or both in either order: Pay 2 coins to place a courtier in the courtyard, AND/OR Pay 2 or 5 mother of pearl resources to move a courtier up 1 or 2 levels.
If your courtier ends on the top level of the castle, gain the rewards in your lantern section and place your courtier on an empty bonus space.
Otherwise on level 1 and 2, move the personal domain card on your board to your lantern section (it will boost your future lantern actions), and replace it with the card next to the courier you moved. Then do one of the light banner actions on the new personal domain card.
At game end, each Courier scores 1 / 3 / 6 / 10 if at the gate / floor 1 / floor 2 / top floor
Warrior
Choose any yard (top right corner) and pay the iron resource costs to place a warrior and gain the rewards.
At game end, each Warrior scores points equal to the number of Couriers you have in the castle (not at the gate), and Warriors at the most expensive yard count double.
Free Daimyo Actions
- You can exchange 2 Daimyo seals for any resource
- You can exchange 1 Daimyo seal for a coin
End of Round
Turn order will adjust based on who is furthest right and top down on the Passage of Time (Stork) track.
For any gardener whose bridge still has at least one die, the player may reactivate the action the gardener is on. (Though this doesn't happen at the end of round 3.)
Re-roll the dice and proceed to the next round, or proceed to end of game after round 3.
End of Game Scoring
Score Remaining Resources:
- For every 5 coins and/or Daimyo Seals you have, 1 Clan Point is granted (rounded down).
- For each Resource that you have between 3 and 6 units remaining, 1 Clan Point is granted. If you have 7 units of a Resource left, you get 2 Clan Points.
Score the Passage of Time:
If your Influence marker has reached the second season, you get 3 Clan Points. If it ends up in the third season, then you get 6 Clan Points. Once you reach the fourth season, you are granted the score indicated on the space that your token occupies (which is between 10 and 15 Clan Points).
Score Clan Members:
- In the Castle: Each Courtier that is in the Castle grants Clan Points depending on the location they are in:
- 1 Clan Point at the Gate.
- 3 Clan Points if they are on the first floor (Stewards).
- 6 Clan Points if they are on the second floor (Diplomats)
- 10 Clan Points if they are on the third floor (Daimyo).
- In the Training Yards: You gain Clan Points for the Yard by multiplying the total value of your Warriors in this location by the number of Courtiers that you have inside the Castle (not at the Gate): Each Warrior has the value indicated in the Yard they occupy based on these icons.
- In the Gardens: Each Gardener grants their Clan as many Clan Points as is shown on the card they are on.
Whoever obtains the most Clan Points wins the game! If there is a tie, whoever is higher in the order of turns wins.