Castles of Mad King Ludwig Secrets by Bezier Games

Nice enhancement to an excellent game. This expansion adds a surrounding castle wall, potentially limiting the space you build in, and extra rooms, each marked with swans, of each of the room sizes. The new rooms are mixed into the existing room tile sets, at ratios determined by the number of players involved. Colored swan tokens, one or two selected at random, are placed onto the rooms as they are put up for sale. Whoever purchases the room gains the associated swan tokens and these tokens may be traded in to gain coins or kept until the end to score more points.Given that the point provided by the swans are based on how many sets of different colored swans you posses (the more colors the progressively more points), the swan tokens can easily determine winners or losers if people don't pay attention to the sets other players are gathering and simply use the tokens for extra coins.Overall, this varies the dynamics of the original game enough to provide a new approach towards how you play without drastically impacting the balance. Mostly, the best summary would be to say that it gives you more things to think about in an already interesting game.

First off, this is an expansion to the original game. My husband and I LOVE this game and play it regularly. After awhile game play can get a bit mundane so expansion options are nice to have. This one comes with quite a few options.We tried playing with all of them the first time and were a bit overwhelmed. So I would recommend using one or maybe at most two expansions when adding to the original game.When we first got it we had a bit of a hard time understanding the directions of how to play some of them. We just had a lot more questions and felt like the instructions didn't give enough examples or specifics. But we looked it up online and found answers. Just be aware you may need to do that.Great purchase though. And definitely keeps the game fresh.

This expansion adds a lot of fun to the base game. The addition to moats makes tile placement more challenging as it limits space within the walls, that is if you are the lucky player who completes the moat. With moat pieces being limited, it becomes a race to see which player can finish their moat first. The swans add a new twist for collecting bonus points at the end of the game or at anytime you can turn them in for money if you are broke. The secret passages and new rooms are fun.The one con is that you are suppose to swap out a certain number of the core rooms and mix in the new rooms with swans. To save time, my family just mixes the new and old rooms together without removing any. We all have enjoy this expansion, and I recommend it to everyone who owns the base game.

Very nice add on. I thought the moats would be too limiting, but when the game is played to the correct length there is just enough room inside the moat to fill it and score the max points. The swans really increase the luck factor since the color of the swans is important, but completely random. We really like the original game, and the extra rooms are a nice addition (no pun intended LOL). I like this game because there's alot to do when it's not your turn, so you can spend your downtime planning your next move.

I bought my husband the Castles of Mad King Ludwig base game as a birthday present, and it ended up being one of our favorite games, as it's able to be played with just two players (and still be fun!) Almost immediately after realizing how fun the base game is, I purchased the expansion. I was not disappointed at all! It adds lots more fun rooms and a few cool new features that enhance the overall fun of the game. I'd highly recommend this one!

So, I bought the base game, the Expansions, and this...It turns out if you have the Expansions you don't need this, at least as a part of the 2nd edition, which is what I got.If you have the second edition, then the artwork won't match up, the 2nd edition is a little bit darker, and the Secrets version is lighter.If you bought the 2nd edition base game, then all you need is the 2nd edition Expansions. They are both designed to fit into the same box, and have compatible looking artwork.On the other hand, if you want some left over parts to supplement missing pieces this might be a cheaper alternative, but the room tiles will stick out like a sore thumb.

A must have addition to Castles! We don't play the original castles anymore unless we are introducing someone new who doesn't play board games. This expansion adds secret passageways, moats, and swans which improve the gameplay enormously in our opinion. Castles has always been a house favorite, now it's an indispensible house classic. Adds so much depth and another level of sophistication that makes it endlessly repeatable. Definitely get this!

If you liked Castle, you might not want to get this. It is a tad pricey, and it doesn't add a lot to the game in my opinion. Save your money and continue to enjoy the base game.If you really want to get it though, it does add a lot of new rooms, which is good. That is why, overall, I gave it five stars.

Great expansion for the base game, adds extra stuff to have to consider each turn and fits in nicely with the rest. No complaints all round. Just be prepared that you dont get a box or anything with this, you just get the sheets of cardboard with the punchout pieces and the new instruction sheet.I love the game, so will buy it...lol. But could be a bit cheaper considering you dont physically get a whole heck of a lot for your money.

Thank you. Quick shipping and such a fun addition to the game.

The base game is awesome. This expansion is great in that it adds a bunch of cool extra rooms. The mechanic of most of the additional game-play elements is a bit weak. I like moats, I'm indifferent to swans, and I love the concept of secret passages, but I've found them less useful in application.

Super awesome fun game