The inescapable expansion

Part of Castle Combo’s beauty is that it fits a pleasing thinky puzzle into nine swift turns, wrapping up in around 15-20 minutes. After which players will deconstruct the easy going beginning, consideration filled middle and then the regret filled end game where you realise where you went wrong before deciding to have another game because everyone agrees it’s very good.

This sleek design means it’s very easy to fit a game of Castle Combo in to most sessions, twenty minutes before you need to wrap up, ‘quick game of Castle Combo?’ Sure! So news of an expansion did leave a few wondering if it would spoil that svelte experience. I am however pleased to report that this is the perfect expansion, small and non invasive, it shuffles right in and appears sparingly so there’s a nice ‘ooh’ moment when a new card appears.

So what are these new cards and how do they change the game? The expansion contains twelve new cards, six for each deck, which function in very much the same way as the standard cards with different coloured shields and end game scoring criteria, which are slightly different here having the emphasis on the value of cards around it to define how many victory points it generates. 

There is however one main difference, the space displaying the action which triggers when a card is purchased has a padlock next to it, meaning that the action is initially locked and can be triggered when desired on a future turn, as opposed to automatically activating when you place the card in your tableau. 

This is a very slight difference but just adds another layer of consideration which if activated at the right time can spark lovely combos or get you out of a pickle. It really doesn’t upset the flow of the standard game and slots in perfectly. This isn’t one of the situations where you might sometimes decide to use the expansion and then in other instances take it out, once stirred into this medieval stew it’s staying there. 

Overall this is a lovely little expansion that sprinkles a little bit of extra spice into an already great game. So the decision as to whether you as a Castle Combo fan should purchase this expansion, well much like a real life Oubliette it’s something you can’t really get out of.