Moonlight Castle (2021)

About this game

Your goal in Mondscheinhelden, a.k.a. Moonlight Castle, is to rescue as many gems as you can from a wizard that's trying to pilfer them from a castle. Whoever ends up with the most gems wins! The gems are on tiles that are shuffled, stacked, and placed inside a cardboard castle. Using a plastic slider that goes under the bottom edge of the castle, players push out tiles to create a row of gems that the wizard is levitating away from the castle. Each player starts with four colored pebbles. On a turn, you move your figure to a new space on the path of tiles, paying a pebble of the color space to which you move. You then draw pebbles from the bag based on the space to which you moved. Finally, if you can pay pebbles exactly matching the number and color of the gems depicted on the tile, you claim that tile. (You have tricked the wizard into stealing pebbles instead of gems.) Reveal the bottom of the tile to see whether nothing happens, a number of new tiles are revealed, or you take another turn. Continue taking turns until the magic path tile is revealed from the castle. At the end of that round, count your gems to see who wins.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 4.
• Rules load. At 1.5/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 5 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.