Designer – Shawn Hescock
Publisher – Geek Collaborative Gaming
CasTiles and Armies is meant to be a fast-paced tile-based Castle and Siege strategy game for 2 players. Players will build a castle wall, reinforce it as needed, and attempt to defeat the enemy Monarch with their troops.
CasTiles and Armies consists of 2 phases. The Construction Phase and the Combat Phase.
The Construction Phase:
Starting with Player #1, the players will take turns placing castle tiles (dark grey) to construct their Castle Wall until it is 5-tiles wide. After placing a tile, the player may choose to discard one tile, placing it in a Rubble Heap, and then draw back up to 5 tiles in their hand. The Rubble Heap is a separate mass of tiles which can no longer be brought back into the game.
After the 5th tile is placed, 2 more tiles (a total of 6 additional tiles after the Gatehouse) may be placed in the Army Reserves Zone and/or the Offensive Line Zone. Be considerate of the numbers on the tiles during placement, the numbers all mean something! Once the castle is fully constructed, the final step in this phase is to calculate the strength of the wall. The Gatehouse icons count as wild cards and will conform to the number placed adjacent. We recommend placing dice at each of the 4 wall junctions with values that represent their strength. Dice make it easier to track damage on the castle wall. You will likely need a range of dice from D4s to D20s.
Tile placement is a key consideration! Your strategy during this phase of the game will determine your success as a defender or conquer. Tiles must be placed so they read left to right or top-facing-right (from the player’s perspective). See the possible scenarios below to determine how to calculate the strength. The higher the number, the stronger the wall. Once a tile is down it is down.
The Combat Phase:
With the castle wall now complete and total strength calculated and marked on the playing field, it is now time to start combat!
Each player should still have 5 tiles in their hand. At this time, ALL army tiles (gold-ish) in their hand can be placed in either the Army Reserves Zone or Offensive Line Zone, starting with Player #1. Hopefully, you didn’t discard them all during the last phase. Then discard or draw tiles as needed to keep only 3 tiles in your hand. Like the wall junctions, place a die on the arrow side of the army tile to indicate the strength of the army.
Component
Additional Component Required