Dragon Castle Preview

Dragon Castle was an Essen 2017 release from Horrible Games, which will soon be released here in the UK. Horrible Game’s last partnership with CMON was the brilliant Potion Explosion – a game with fantastic table appeal and one that has been great for introducing new people into the hobby.

Dragon Castle appears to have that same visual appeal and high component quality, as well as a passing resemblance to an addictive app/computer game – this time, it’s the traditional Mah Jong.

The Gameplay

Much like in the PC game of Mah Jong, in Dragon Castle you create a three tiered pyramid of bakelite tiles. On you turn you need to identify two ‘free’ tiles that are matching and remove these from the pyramid. You then place these two piles onto your personal board, your Realm, connecting larger groups of matching colour tiles which you will score – with higher points awarded for bigger consolidated areas.

You should also place a number of shrines on the area of consolidated tiles, with shrines being worth more points, the higher up you can build them on the levels of you Realm.

With additional Spirit cards and Dragon objectives that you can add into the game to give unique player abilities and additional scoring objectives to your games, Dragon Castle seems to offer a whole ton of interesting puzzle elements. This, on top of the gorgeous art and fantastic bakelite-type tiles means that this game could be a classic abstract game for me.

Dragon Castle - Coming Soon

I love spatial puzzles and I love the quality that we are now seeing in some abstract games. Dragon Castle ticks both of these boxes and I can’t wait to see it on our gaming table! I think it will be a great hit at home, but will also maybe be another game I can bring to my parents after their recent addiction to Azul – another abstract game with gorgeous tiles.

Dragon Castle is currently due for release towards the end of May, 2018, and you can pre-order a copy here at Zatu!