Castelune

Every round you look after two things: your castle and your army.

The castle stays home. A wall stands in front of it, and behind it you build up five buildings: a cannon that fires on attackers, a treasury, a forge, a war banner and a witch's cauldron. Each time one of them levels up, you choose one of three upgrades.

The army goes out. When the build phase ends, it meets a rival's army in the field, and the winner marches on the loser's castle.

Put too much into the castle and your army falls behind. Put too much into the army and the next siege hurts more than it should. Most of the decisions in a match come back to that.

Units, items and heroes

• 44 units across five rarities. Merge duplicates to level them up.
  
• The forge turns iron into items. You pay, look at three and keep one. Every unit has four slots: head, chest, feet and weapon.
  
• XP books level a unit up without needing a second copy. You get them from the banner and from treasure chests.
  
• At the start of the match you pick one of six heroes. Each one pulls your game in a different direction.

Synergies

Seven races and eight classes. The class decides what a unit does in a fight: warriors make enemies bleed, mages burn or chill them, hexers curse them and rangers mark targets for everyone else. Races help the whole group, each in its own way, from fast beasts to undead that leave skeletons behind. Your army only has so many slots, so sooner or later a good unit ends up on the bench because it doesn't fit.

How a match plays out

• The first three rounds are against monsters. After that you mostly fight other players.
  
• Treasure rounds put two armies on one field, with no walls and no castles. The last side standing opens the chest.
  
• A boss shows up every tenth round. Beat it and pick one of three power-ups that your army keeps for the rest of the match.
  
• From round 51 on, attackers get stronger every round until only one castle is left.

Your castle's health is your life total, and it doesn't come back between rounds. A broken wall stays broken too, until you pay stone to fix it.

2 to 8 players, or solo

Everyone builds at the same time, so nobody sits around waiting for their turn. Online it's a free-for-all with up to eight players.

Solo you play against AI that sticks to the same rules you do: no extra gold, no stat bonuses, no looking at your board. The four difficulty levels change how well it plays, and each opponent has one of six play styles, from early rushers to economy players. There's also no clock: the fight starts when you end your turn.

At a glance

• 44 units, 77 items, 6 heroes, 5 castle buildings
  
• 7 races and 8 classes
  
• Online free-for-all for 2 to 8 players, solo against AI on 4 difficulty levels
  
• English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese