The White Castle Matcha is the first expansion set of the game The White Castle about the court and surroundings of Himeji Castle. In this sleek and elegant game about Japanese aristocracy, of course a tea ceremony cannot be missing. And not just any tea: matcha!
In The White Castle, each turn players choose and use one of the available dice from one of the available bridges, and those dice can be used by players in multiple ways. Players can place the dice at various locations on the game board or in their “personal domain” (as in their personal player board). With the dice, players perform actions and try (among other things) to climb higher on the social ladder in the court.
The basic game is elegant, streamlined and played fairly quickly. In fact, there are a limited amount of dice and rounds, so players have to build their strategy efficiently. For many players, this was a big advantage. A complex game with a short game length. Some players just missed that extra turn or round to complete their strategy.
Matcha adds an extra playing area where players can exert influence, as well as an extra color bridge with associated dice. This provides some extra variety but also a longer game length. Matcha is easy to integrate into the base game and otherwise proceeds very intuitively, not requiring players to make too many changes mentally, but provides that extra game time that some players desired.
