Feb 3, 20233 min read

Preview: Chateau

Building a castle isn't easy. You need a great architect and a vision. Martin van Rossum's upcoming roll and write Château will put you in this role. This is the third game published by Rolling Rhino Games and Châteu will be coming kickstarter soon.

Château is a simple concept. Each player will have a castle and each castle has grid. As you progress through the game you fill in the grid and the first to finish filling in their castle wins. There is some twists and turns along the way that will keep players coming back for more.

In the base game there are 5 castles to choose from and 2 expansions that have 3 castles to choose from each. The Base game comes with Alhambra, Buckingham Palace, Castel del Monte, Château de Versailles, and Neuschwanstien. Each of the castles has a unique bonus when you play that castle. The fun thing is everyone can play the same castle or if you are feeling sassy everyone can play a different castle.

Château has players facing off to build their castles faster than the other players. The players actually start interacting with each other before the game starts. Before the first die is rolled players mark a 5 space shape (Think Tetris shapes) on to the opponent to their left's castle. This causes some tension in the game from the start.

I like the fact that player interact more with each other in this roll and write.

Two six sided dice are rolled each turn and the results are applied against a table. The table lets you know what shapes a player fills in on their respective castle. If a 1 is rolled this is handled first. and each player gets to mark a single space on the player to the left's castle. If 2-5 are rolled then each player fills in a shape from that number. 4 and 5 shapes can only be used once where 2 and 3 can be used any amount of times. Throughout the castles there are shapes in the squares and if a 6 is rolled a player may mark an item from the list and then fill in every square with that icon. While players are filling in their squares they may use the unique bonus move that comes with the castle. These are in some cases limited in use.

I like the fact that player interact more with each other in this roll and write. A lot of roll and writes do not have a lot of player interaction. Château also has a solo variant and that is almost as fun as playing with a group (the direct interaction is great). The solo variant has you playing against the clock (Turns to complete) to see how well you did.

Château is fun and quick roll and write that can be fun for the whole family. They have some suggestions in the rules to simplify things for the younger players. All you need is a writing utensil 2 six sided dice and a print our of your favorite castle to get going. There are also expansions featuring British castles and Scandinavian castles available. Sign up for the Kickstarter notification from Rolling Rhino Games to get Château.

Players: 1-99

Year Published: 2023

Recommended Ages: 7+

Time to Play: 15 minutes