Between Two Castles: Essential Edition

Here is a general overview of how to play the game:

Setup

1. Sit around a table with equal space between players, placing one throne room tile and a wooden castle token between each pair of players where the castles will be built (p. 2).
2. Give each player a player aid (p. 2).
3. Place the small yellow tray containing the specialty rooms and royal attendants in the middle of the table, making sure not to mix them in with the regular room tiles (p. 2).
4. Place the large red tray and the purple tray in the middle of the table, which hold the regular room tiles, extra tiles, ballroom tiles, and room type tokens (p. 2, 18).
5. Shuffle the bonus cards and place them as a face-down stack in the small tray (p. 18).

How a Turn Works

The game is played in 2 rounds, with players conducting steps simultaneously on each turn (p. 3, 13). At the start of each round, players draw a hand of 9 regular room tiles secretly (p. 3, 13).

Each turn consists of the following steps:

• Choose: Secretly and without communicating about the game, choose 2 tiles from your hand to play, and place the remaining tiles face-down underneath the castle token to your left (p. 13).
• Reveal: Once all players have chosen their tiles, everyone simultaneously reveals their chosen tiles (p. 13).
• Place: Openly discuss strategy with your partners to determine the best location for your chosen tiles (p. 15). You must place one of your selected tiles into the castle to your left, and the other into the castle to your right (p. 15).

When building your castles, your throne room is at the ground level, and castles are "side-view" structures that can expand up and out in all directions (p. 19). All tiles placed above ground level must be supported by a tile below, and all tiles must share an edge with at least one other tile in the castle (p. 3, 19).

How the Game Ends

After round two is over, each castle is scored, and each player calculates the score for the castle to their left (p. 1). Your personal final score is the lower of the scores of your two castles, and the player with the highest final score wins (p. 1).

If there is a tie, winners compare the scores of their higher-scoring castles, and the player with the higher score wins (p. 1). As a second tie-breaker, winners compare the total number of specialty rooms among their two castles, with the highest total winning (p. 1).