In Castle Combo, each player recruits 9 characters and places them in their 3 x 3 cards tableau.

All 78 Character cards come from 2 places: the Castle and the Village, and the Messenger pawn's position indicates the location one can recruit characters from.

Each character grants you an immediate ability and, at the end of the game, scores points depending on their card's conditions.

After everyone has played 9 turns (i.e. everyone has 9 characters in front of them), the player with the most points in their tableau wins the game.