CHENNAI: What you notice first about Dragon Castle is how good it looks when it’s set up. Before beginning the game, players need to construct the titular castle out of these Bakelite-like tiles that are inspired by those found in Mahjong — they’re not only lovely to look at, but they’ve got a satisfying heft to them as well. Once that’s done, players take turns drawing tiles from the castle and placing them on their personal boards. As you’d expect, there are quite a few restrictions and rules involved but all you need to know is that you’re trying to create sets of matching colours on your board; the bigger, the better.
When you score a set of tiles, you take the points and flip them all face-down so that you can now build on top of them — and building upwards as well as outwards is central to victory in Dragon Castle, because you can place shrines on top of completed sets when you score them but they’re worth more the higher they are.
A turn, although simple in theory, is rarely straightforward. Sure, you can probably see a good option for right now; but, like so many other abstract or semi-abstract games, the ability to think a few moves ahead of your opponents will likely have a significant impact on the outcome of the game. Complicating matters is the fact that not all of the six suits in the game are created equal — some will let you put down two shrines instead of one, while the Dragon suit earns you bonus points to boot.
Played with just the basic rules, Dragon Castle is incredibly accessible to just about anybody. However, you should absolutely add in the optional advanced modules as soon as you feel comfortable because they really kick it up a notch. Each game, you’ll select a Spirit card and a Dragon card at random from their respective decks. The spirit card gives the players access to a special rule-breaking power that they can use at a cost, but which might be enough to dig themselves out of a hole should they need it. Meanwhile, the dragon introduces a new bonus point-earning opportunity for the end of the game; which, once again, is open to all players to pursue or not, as they wish. Small additions, but they hugely improve upon what was already a very good game.
I did give it away in the opening paragraph, but it really does need to be reiterated — the tactile nature of board gaming is one of its biggest weapons and simplest pleasures, and Dragon Castle is a glorious example. You always do want some substance to go with style, though, and fortunately this game has nothing to worry about on that front either. The sheer variability granted by different combinations of spirit and dragon cards alone ought to keep you coming back for more. Overall, this is a very easy game to recommend and deserves a spot in just about any collection.