CASTELL

Hey there! Have you ever heard of Castell? It’s a cool tradition in Catalonia where people build human towers. As you travel through different regions, you’ll learn how to build the best human towers and improve your skills along the way. It’s all about strategy – choosing the right skills and completing performances that will give you an edge.

Get ready for some fun! The game lasts ten rounds. Can you build the best team and do it quickly? There’s only one way to find out – let’s play!

SETUP

Board Setup

Here’s how you set up the game. First, grab all the Castellers and put them in a cloth bag. Give the bag a good shake to mix them up. Next, place a certain number of Castellers on each of the seven regions on the board. If you’re playing with four people, put five Castellers in each region. If there are three players, use four Castellers per region. And if it’s just you and one other person, use three Castellers per region.

When setting up the game board, start by placing the skill wheel on the right side. Make sure to have the All Regions side facing up. Advanced players can use the No Regions side if they prefer. Just remember to position the Advanced Regions towards the north.

The next step is to organize the festival location tiles into two categories, based on their backs. Take all of the “I” tiles and shuffle them face down. Then, place one face up on each “I” space on the festival calendar. Repeat this process for the “II” tiles, placing them on the corresponding “II” spaces. Finally, shuffle the size tokens and distribute them, facing up, below each festival location tile.

Alright, let’s finish setting up the board by scheduling the local performances. We need to shuffle the local performance tiles and deal two face-up tiles to each row in the local performance area on the left side of the board. If there are any remaining tiles, just put them back in the game box.

Now it’s time to set up the players.

Each player will receive a player board and a player aid. They also get a player pawn, a score marker, seven special action tokens, and five player skill tiles in the color they choose. Put the special action tokens on the icon of the player board. The score markers go on the star space of the board’s score track. Lastly, each player will draw seven Castellers from the bag.

Alright, let’s get this game started! The first thing we need to do is place the round marker on the round track. This helps us keep track of the progress of the game. The player who has most recently visited Catalonia will be given the first player marker. Now, we’re all set to begin!

GAMEPLAY

Now, it’s time to dive into the gameplay! The player with the first player marker will go first, and then we’ll continue clockwise around the board. There are four different actions you can take, and you can do them in any order you like. Remember, each action can only be completed once per turn.

One of the actions you can choose is to move your pawn to a different region. Just look for a region that is right beside the one you’re currently in. It can be connected by a line or just touching another region. When you make your first move, you can choose any region on the gameboard to place your pawn.

Hey there! Let me tell you about some of the cool stuff you can do in this game. First off, you have the option to recruit up to two Castellers from the region where your pawn is. This brings them into your player area, ready to join in on the action.

If you wanna level up your skills, you can choose the Training option. The skill wheel will show you what skills are available to you at that time. In a normal game, you can pick the skill in your pawn’s current region or the skill in the All Regions slot. But in an advanced game, you can only choose from your pawn’s region. So, keep that in mind as you make your moves.

Now, let’s talk about special actions. You can do one of these if you have a special action token. If you choose this action, you have three options. First, you can recruit one Casteller from your pawn’s region. Second, you can move your pawn to another region. And lastly, you can build a tower that meets the requirements of one of the local performance tiles in your pawn’s region.

So, there you have it! With these options, you’ll be well-equipped to make strategic moves and have a blast while playing the game.

Once you complete a special action, remember to place the special action token on the local performance area of the board. Put it in a space that corresponds to the region where your pawn is located.

Constructing Towers

When building towers, there are three rules you need to follow. First, each level of your tower must consist of Castellers that are all the same size. Second, every level built on top of another level must be made up of Castellers that are smaller in size than the last level. Finally, you can have a maximum of three Castellers on each level. It’s important to note that you have the option to dismantle towers in order to construct new ones for different events.

Abilities

So here’s the deal. The skill track on the board determines how good I am at a particular skill. The higher the rank, the more times I can use it in my tower. And when I practice a skill, its rank goes up by one. Simple, right?

Now, when I choose a special skill, I have to do something special right away. But here’s the cool part – I don’t always have to use a special action token.

Let’s talk about balance. This skill lets me build a level in my tower that has the same number of Castellers as the level right below it. It’s all about keeping things even and stable.

And then there’s the base skill. With this one, I can have a level in my tower that can hold as many Castellers as I want. But any levels above it still have to follow the width restriction. Gotta keep things in check, you know?

Let’s talk about some cool moves you can make in the world of Castellers!

Mix: With this skill, you can have Castellers in the same level who are different sizes. The difference can’t be too extreme – it can only vary by one number.

Strength: If you choose the strength skill, you can have one level in your tower that supports Castellers who are one size larger than normal.

Width: Are you ready to widen your tower? The width skill increases the whole tower’s width restriction by one.

Local Performances

Now let’s talk about local performances. These happen in different regions depending on where you place your tile. There are two types of local performances: tower shapes and skill exhibitions.

In tower shapes, you have to build a tower that looks exactly like the picture. You can use your Castellers and skills to do this.

In order to complete skill exhibitions, you need to construct a tower that fulfills two specific conditions. These conditions are outlined on the local performance tile. The tower must have a number of levels equal to the point value of the card, and it must incorporate all the skills indicated on the card.

Once you have finished the local performance, take the local performance tile and move it to your player area. Additionally, gather all special tokens that are located in that region of the board and place them in the corresponding region on your own board.

Festivals

During rounds three to ten, festivals take place. Before you can participate in a festival, you must meet three requirements. First, your pawn needs to be in the same region as the festival. Second, your tower has to contain Castellers that match the size tokens for the festival. Lastly, your tower must have four levels.

Calculating your tower score is quite simple – just count the number of levels your tower has and add one point for each Casteller that matches a size token for the festival. If this is your highest tower score, make sure to mark it down.

Once all tower scores have been calculated, it’s time to hand out prize tokens. Consult the prize chart to find out how many tokens will be given out.

At each festival, there are size tokens available. The player who has the most Castellers that match the size token gets to claim it. Put the token directly onto your player board in the corresponding region.

THE GAME ENDS

Guess what happens when I finish the tenth round of the game? Yup, the game is over! But it’s not all gloomy because now it’s time for some scoring fun. There are five categories that we need to evaluate separately. Let’s start with the tower score because that’s super important. The position of your score marker on the score track shows your best tower score.

Ready for the next step? Now we calculate your region variety bonus. This is where things get interesting. The more regions you’ve earned things in, the more points you get. It’s like a reward for being adventurous! Check this out: if you’ve earned things in just one region, sorry, no points for you. But if you’ve earned things in two regions, you get one point. Three regions? Three points! Four regions? Woo, you get five points! Keep going and at six regions, you’ll earn yourself a cool ten points. And if you’ve been busy in seven regions, prepare to be amazed because you’ll get a whopping fourteen points!

To begin, let’s take a look at how the prizes you’ve earned are calculated. Each trophy you’ve won will give you five points, each medal three points, and each ribbon one point. Let’s not forget about the size tokens. You’ll earn two points for each different-sized token you have and one point for each token of the same size.

Next, we’ll tally up the points you’ve earned from the local performances. Simply add up the points listed on the local performance tiles you’ve claimed. You’ll also earn one point for each special action token you collected during these performances.

Once all the points have been added up, we’ll have our winner. The player with the highest total score will be crowned the winner!

Once all the points have been added up, we’ll have our winner. The player with the highest total score will be crowned the winner!