Game: Castellers

Thread: A kind of sort of review

2ndinBeautyContest — 2008-10-12T11:58:32+00:00

Castellers – Reiner Knizia

The Merce is Barcelona’s biggest festival. One of the centrepieces of the day is the appearance of the Castellers in the Placa Jaume. The square is jammed with people to watch groups from various parts of Barcelona build tall and shaky human towers. The great appeal of this event apart from the inherent drama of watching people doing something impressive, dangerous but essentially pointless (just like building a sixth room on your farm in Agricola) is that a human tower requires co-operation between many different types of people from the burly middle-aged men on the bottom holding up the lighter young men (everybody supports everybody by firmly grasping their buttocks – it is not an event for the shy) who hold the women who support the teenage girls who try to stay up long enough for the two children (certainly under ten and wearing crash helmets) to scramble up the backs of everyone to the top throw one hand in the air and then slip straight down – the record is ten or eleven levels which let me assure you is high. A second after it is completed a tower begins to rapidly and skilfully disassemble as those lower down the tower begin to shake violently with the effort of keeping it upright – only a successful ascent and descent counts as far as I can tell. All this is done to the accompaniment of drums and the ‘strange’ bagpipe like whine from an instrument I’ve never seen before that appears to form the basics of traditional Catalan music. I was there this year and I would strongly recommend it if you don’t mind crowds or seeing seven year olds plummet thirty feet to the ground when their tower collapses. Oh, come on. They’re young – they bounce.

So this is the starting point for Reiner Knizia’s Castellers.

Components and set up

A bag, sixty six wooden stickers showing Castellers from four different coloured teams – (they have various values from 1- fat men up to 7 – little kid with his hand in the air), sixty six wooden blocks and sixteen tower bases and a rule book. The components are impressive especially the wooden blocks. Set up takes a while the first time because you have to stick sixty six stickers on to the blocks but after that it’s instantaneous.

Rules

Typically simple

Put all the wooden Castellers in a bag. Shake well. Draw two each. The person with the lowest combined value of Castellers goes first.
They get to do two actions out of three in one turn (or you can do one of them twice):

1 Draw a Casteller from the bag.

2 Start or add a Casteller to a tower (any Casteller can start a castle but only one with a higher value – not necessarily the next highest - can be placed on top of him). A tower can be as wide or as high as you like and there are bonus points for the widest and highest on condition they are active (at least two levels high).

3 Take one Casteller from one of your opponents giving him a Casteller (or Castellers combined) in return of a higher point value. You must add the Casteller immediately to your tower.

That’s about it. The game finishes when one person has four active towers of at least two levels high one of which must contain eight Castellers (these requirements are for two they change for different numbers of players)

Then you score. Every started tower gives you a negative point but you get plus points for each Castellers in your tower – some are worth 2 (blue background) some are worth 1 (white). Only active towers score. 4 bonus points for highest tower. 4 bonus points for lowest tower. That’s it. Highest score wins and the winner receives the option of firmly grasping their opponent’s buttocks in classic Castellers tradition. All right the last bit was cut after a large number of sexual harassment claims during playtesting.

What do I think:

It’s light. It’s pretty fast. It looks good. The wooden pieces feel nice. It isn’t particularly groundbreaking e.g. minus points for starting a tower and the risk that you might not get a big enough tower to score positively (Lost Cities). Higher numbers on top of lower numbers but not necessarily consecutive (Lost Cities again). The twist is that the opponent’s hand of Castellers is open and therefore you can nick his stuff (for an appropriate price).

Typically I think most first actions are to draw a Casteller. But drawing a Casteller on your second action is more of a risk because your opponent might want it or you might want it and it might be taken away before you can do anything with it. But you might not now have the right Castellers to add to your tower so action two is out but you’re saving them up for later so you don’t want to overpay to take one of your opponents Castellers so action three doesn’t appeal so back to action one but...

Again this reminds me of Lost Cities and Schotten Totten – that unrivalled skill Knizia has for making you not want to do anything and still have to do something.

So that’s it. There isn’t that much there but there is something. It’s elegant, it’s clean, it’s possibly a 6 maybe just a 7. I suppose in the end my slight reservation here is because it’s Knizia – it’s the sort of game that someone with his talent could have invented on a wet Sunday afternoon. You get the sense he’s coasting along here. I don’t know - is it wrong to feel disappointed that in a time for boardgaming when the hobby is exploding into life with companies prepared to back ambitious, stretching, difficult, imaginative games - that while all this is happening arguably the most talented games designer whose ever lived is seemingly nowadays content to put out light fillers. I’m probably overstepping the mark here and will doubtless be considered ungrateful for the great games he has already provided but I will say it anyway - try harder, Reiner, try harder!

Thread: Re: Complete vs Active

lastalchemist — 2008-09-21T16:01:44+00:00

qzhdad wrote:
The rules say active towers score and I understand active, I think.

An active tower has a second row with as many castellers as the bottom row.
It's still active if the third (or higher) row doesn't yet have as many castellers as the base, right?

Yes, as long as the tower is 2x2 it becomes active. So if the base is 4, and you only get two castellers on the second row it is still active. Many times the player going for the largest base bonus will use this tactic.

qzhdad wrote:
Then in scoring it describes how to score complete towers, but it's not clear what a complete tower is. Is this the same as active?

Correct

qzhdad wrote:
And regardless of complete or incomplete towers, do I understand correctly that one is subtracted for each base tile? And that each tower has its own base tile?

Thanks in advance for answers!

Correct again. Every base, no matter if the tower became active, or not, is -1 to the the players score. If a tower never gets activated they total score for the tower would be -1. If a player had three towers going (one for 10 pts, one for 13 pts, and one that was not activated by the end of the game) their total score would be 20 pts.

I hope this helps.

LA

Thread: Complete vs Active

qzhdad — 2008-09-21T15:08:32+00:00

The rules say active towers score and I understand active, I think.

An active tower has a second row with as many castellers as the bottom row.
It's still active if the third (or higher) row doesn't yet have as many castellers as the base, right?

Then in scoring it describes how to score complete towers, but it's not clear what a complete tower is. Is this the same as active?

And regardless of complete or incomplete towers, do I understand correctly that one is subtracted for each base tile? And that each tower has its own base tile?

Thanks in advance for answers!

Thread: Re: PDF to make stickers for backs of Castellers now in File Section

lastalchemist — 2008-09-20T16:02:30+00:00

And I posted that file here so that no one would need to go to another site to get what they needed. Isn't that the point of the site, to be the most comprehensive game, and game related, website out there?

If you checked the file, I got approval for posting this here. It had been something I had asked Devir about since I bought my copy.

And agreed, you can play the game without the backs, but the backs make seeing what you have already played much easier. It's something nice to have.

LA

Thread: Re: Unanswered query

skeletodoc — 2008-09-19T15:34:30+00:00

That was my thinking but if you read this from the rules........."First build the lowest level. This level may consist of one or
more castellers, all placed next to one another directly on the base tile. As soon as you start the next level by placing a
casteller on top of one casteller on the lowest level, you can no longer add castellers to the lowest level..." You can see that it does not say that you cannot place a piece above a single base piece though!

Thread: Re: Unanswered query

lastalchemist — 2008-09-19T03:31:13+00:00

Hey David,

I actually thought I replied to your original query. But, a legal castle is 2x2. You can not build up unless you have at least two castellers as your base.

LA

Thread: Unanswered query

skeletodoc — 2008-09-19T02:58:45+00:00

If anyone has played this game,does "2 complete levels" consists of atleast 4 castellers in a single column of 4, or 2 castellers in a row over 2 castellers? It says in the rules that a row can consist of one or more castellers, so which is it?

Thread: Re: PDF to make stickers for backs of Castellers now in File Section

skeletodoc — 2008-09-18T16:23:54+00:00

In the first edition of the game Castellers is included only one set of sticks, so if you can stick just one side, the game is perfectly ok.
If you really need more sticks you can download them:
http://www.devir.es/producto/tablero/castellers/docs/castell...

Thread: PDF to make stickers for backs of Castellers now in File Section

lastalchemist — 2008-09-17T15:54:17+00:00

2nd printing of this by Devir will include these stickers, but for those of us who bought the 1st printing, you can make your own now.

LA

Thread: what constitutes 2 complete levels?

skeletodoc — 2008-09-13T16:57:14+00:00

I am confused as to whether 2 complete levels consists of atleast 4 castellers in a single column of 4 or 2 castellers in a row over 2 castellers? It says in the rules that a row can consist of one or more castellers, so I would think that the first scenario would be acceptable.

Thread: Re: Castellers - now available in the US

eknauer — 2008-08-27T20:55:20+00:00

Nice chunky bits! Any chance of the rules being made available?

Thread: Castellers - now available in the US

KatyFace — 2008-08-27T20:51:22+00:00

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note that this game is now available through DEVIR US's Miami office. It arrived in a shipment today and will be available for purchase immediately.

For more information on pricing or shipping questions please contact me:

Katy Hewitson
DEVIR US
www.devir.com
206-764-9499

Thread: Re: Castellers available from DEVIR in 2 weeks time!

lastalchemist — 2008-08-18T20:30:38+00:00

Just watch your towers if you ever play with Katy, she has a tendency to to talk and then slowly slide your high point value tower over to her side of the table.

I got a chance to play both this and Espana 1936 this weekend and I have to say that Katy and Juan were my two favorite demo sessions that I had at the whole Con. Just always remember to bring your own dice if you are ever playing a wargame with Juan. *mumbling* lucky SOB.

Seriously though, Devir ran a great booth considering they were only showing off two games, and Castellers was especially a pleasant surprise. I usually despise Kinizia games.

LA

P.S. More stickers!

Thread: Castellers available from DEVIR in 2 weeks time!

KatyFace — 2008-08-18T19:47:57+00:00

Hi everyone,

This is Katy from DEVIR US. I just attended GenCon where I was fortunate enough to meet a bunch of fun people with whom to demo this game.

The response from players was great and we sold out 2 days before the end of the con!

There's another shipment of this game on it's way to our Miami warehouse as we speak. I estimate it will arrive in about 2 weeks time. (Sept 2008). It's not a big order so please contact me to reserve a copy for yourself or contact your local retailer so they can place an order. It's a 2-4 player game recommended for players at least 8 and up. I demoed it with younger kids and it was a little too complicated for anyone younger than 7 or 8 years old.

After playing it at least 40x over the course of 4 days I'm still itching to buy a copy for myself. This is a great game and if you have any reservations about the game or any questions - just let me know! I'd be happy to explain the rules or give a recommendation for it.

I've only got a limited supply on this game so please email me at my work email if you have questions or want to reserve a copy:
katy.hewitson@devir.pt

Thanks!

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Er Murria — 2008-08-03T20:07:13+00:00

Creative "and alternative" position

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Er Murria — 2008-08-03T20:04:09+00:00

Hands gamers

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Er Murria — 2008-07-03T10:54:12+00:00

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Er Murria — 2008-07-03T10:52:47+00:00

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Oersted — 2008-06-26T18:14:55+00:00

A finished castle, worth 12 points.

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Oersted — 2008-06-26T18:14:04+00:00

The huge and wonderful castellers meeples, before and after properly dressing

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Oersted — 2008-06-26T18:13:00+00:00

Knizia's Castellers out of the box

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acatalan — 2008-05-21T17:17:47+00:00