Castle of the devil is a game I’ve been after for a while. It’s gotten mixed reviews and a lot of reviewers have said that the resistance is superior. That’s fine. Being not quite as good as the resistance is still pretty good and opinions are like just that.
The first thing that struck me about the game is the size. It’s tiny. A little bigger than a desk of cards (60 cards or so).
The Second thing is the fact that it’s in both German and English just like Irish roadsigns (you know what I mean) but with the foreign language on top. It’s fine btw just takes a little bit of getting used to
The third thing is how long it takes to play. Usually USUALLY a small game takes a small amount of time to play. Not so in this case we rattled on for a full hour with this and it was back and forth to the last.
The game itself is not bad at all. Not out of This world but not bad. The whole game resolves around a coach trip (the horse type) where the passengers are secretly split into two factions the brotherhood of lies and the other lads who hate lies. Probably. One group is trying to secure three keys and the other is trying to secure three goblets for their respective teams. Note the word team. Now the fun bit is you start not knowing whom works for whom and it’s a race to deduce who’s who then a grab for the keys or goblets. Simple.
Each member starts with one random luggage object and a random profession which grants either a one off ability like poisoning someone, breaking up a fight or a not so powerful game long ability like being a good fighter or a bodyguard and so on
Professions are hidden until needed so there’s lots of HA HA! Moments in the game which I liked.
Each turn players swap items of luggage or in our case quite a bit stop the carriage and challenge each other to a duel at which point players in turn declare whom they are siding with and either assist the attacker or defend the victim. The winner in either case gets a sneaky look at who the loser works for or gets to half inch one of their luggage items.
The luggage items apart from the goblets and keys all have special abilities often triggered by trading them to another player. They might help a player in attack or defence. Allow a player to examine who they work for. Cause a player to break out in hives, not be able to drink apple juice and so on. I’m kidding and you get the idea
By a careful study of players actions and a series of judicious beatings you can figure out who’s who and to win all you need do is stand up and in a “I’m Brian and so is my wife” style declare whom you work for, that you have a key/goblet and so have those other guys that work with you…. get that wrong and you lose
It’s an interesting game. I think we over played it on Thur until there was no doubt of whom everyone was and then it was a tug of war to secure the goblets/keys. My team lost. Worst team ever.
We also played the first game objects only so we haven’t tested the whole game with all of the luggage. All and all it was good but not brilliant but I’ll hold fire until I’ve played it again and in full
Until that day Huzzah and safe home (to the castle of the devil)
Vic
Victor Gannon Games 
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