This expansion includes 12 castle tokens. When playing with 2, 3, or 4 players, give each player 3 castles. When playing with 5 or 6 players, give each player 2 castles.
When you place a tile that completes a small city consisting of only 2 semi-circular segments, the owner of the small city chooses to either score 4 points as normal, or to place a castle on that small city instead.
When the owner places a castle, cover the small city that was just completed with a castle from your supply, and place the meeple that was in the small city on top of the castle.
Once placed, a castle remains on that small city until the end of the game.
A castle with a meeple is not yet completed.
When placing a castle, it does not matter whether your meeple is already on the first half of the small city before the castle is placed, or whether you place the meeple on the second half of the small city you just completed.
Placing a castle does not score you any points. Instead, you score points when a neighboring feature is completed in a later turn.
A feature is considered neigboring if it is on either one of the 2 tiles containing your castle, the 2 tiles to the right, or the 2 tiles to the left - a total of 6 tiles.
Only part of the completed feature needs to be on a neighboring tile for you to score points for it. Both you and the player who would normally score points for that feature score its full points. [15] Once you score points for a neighboring feature, your meeple is returned to your supply, but your castle remains on its place until the end of the game.
In this example: the tiles and spaces numbered 1 to 6 are neighboring your castle. You can score points when the following features are completed:
- The monastery on 1
- The road to 1
- The top city on 3
- The right city on 6
(The small city on 3 and 6 was scored before your castle was placed, and you cannot score points from it any more).
The following rules apply to castles:
- You must score points for the first feature completed on a tile neighboring your castle. You cannot forego scoring to leave your meeple for a later feature.
- Even if the first completed feature does not contain a meeple, you still score points from it if it is neighboring your castle.
- If you control both a castle and the next completed neighboring feature, you score its points twice (once for the feature and once for the castle).
- A monastery is only neighboring a castle if the tile with the monastery on it is in one of the 6 neighboring spaces.
- If a tile is placed that causes multiple features that are neighboring your castle to be completed at the same time, you decide which of them to receive points for. A castle can only get points from one single feature.
- Two or more incomplete castles may be standing next to each other. If one of them scores points, it will be considered as a completed feature for the adjacent castles. All the castle owners receive the same number of points.
- Castles separate fields, just like roads or cities.
In this example: the Blue player completes the city and scores 16 points. Because part of the city is neighboring your castle and is the first completed neighboring feature, you also score 16 points.
Final Scoring
At the end of the game, remove all the meeples still standing in a castle in the playing area before the final scoring. Nobody gets more points for them.
When determining the value of a field, castles are worth 4 points instead of 3, 5 points instead of 4 if there is a Pig.
