

Expand your games of The White Castle with Matcha
The tea ceremony is at the center of Japanese culture, as it embodies the most basic concepts of hospitality, respect and Zen philosophy. It is considered that tea, imported from China at the beginning of the 12th century, solved the health problems of the Buddhist monks who consumed it. Over the years, the tea ceremony evolved to offer samurai a space of calm, away from battles. Master Sen no Rikyu was influential in turning the tea ceremony into an element to show status and later into a cultural, religious and political negotiation space for Japan.
With this theme in mind, Isra and Shei, the authors known as Llama Dice, have designed The White Castle expansion. It is a setting that fits perfectly with the central objective of the game: gaining influence in the court of Himeji Castle. Players will have at their disposal new spaces on the general board (such as the Tea Fields or the Pond Overlook), new clan members (the geishas), a new resource (tea) and of course more game turns, thanks to the new bridge with its dice.
Since its launch, The White Castle has received multiple awards, such as the award for best complex game from The American Tabletop Awards or the most recent, third prize from the Deutscher Spiele Preis. Matcha arrives after numerous requests from players around the world, who wanted to continue exploring the rooms of the white castle with new and powerful combos.
In the artistic section, Joan Guardiet returns, giving life to the pond and the Tea House in the board extension. He has also illustrated the cover, which offers a perspective from inside the chashitsu, with all the characteristic elements of the tea ceremony.

The components
The Matcha box includes a ton of components: a center board extension, a green bridge, five green dice, 16 coins, 8 Water Lily tiles, 10 Ceremony tiles, 4 Training tiles, new personal mastery boards for players, 20 geisha meeples and 39 cards.
The extension of the board with the new game spaces fits perfectly with the central board of the base game, continuing with the background illustrations and creating a harmonious space that facilitates the gaming experience. The new elements integrate naturally, but they have their personality. For example, both the new bridge and the five dice are green, emulating the characteristic tone of matcha tea.
By including a new clan member (the geishas) and a new resource (the chasen), it was necessary to redesign the player boards, which now show four resource markers on the left and 4 spaces for clan members on the right. Geisha meeples, as with those of gardeners, courtiers and samurai, are carved with a characteristic shape, with a fan in their hands.
This expansion includes new starter, garden, castle and solitaire cards, which are added to the previous ones from the base game, and two new decks: the calligraphy deck and the floral arrangement deck, which are placed next to the Tea House. Regarding the tiles, in addition to the new training tiles, which are added to the previous ones from the base game, Matcha incorporates the Water Lily tiles and the Ceremony tiles, which will be placed in the pond and in the tea house and will go changing in each game.
On the other hand, inside the box of The White Castle: Matcha there is a small envelope with five loose cards. They should be used to replace their counterparts, which are found in the general card pack. This is a small error in the graphic section, which we have detected and have been able to resolve in time.

The game
Beyond the new components and gameplay elements, the main change that Matcha brings to The White Castle is a new turn in each round, so players will have more options at their disposal and more ways to get clan points to win the game.
As in the base game, players begin their turns by taking one of the dice available at the ends of one of the bridges and placing it on one of the available spaces on the central board or in their personal domain. Matcha brings two new locations to place the dice on the board expanse: the Outskirts of Himeji and the Tea Fields, as well as a new exclusive space for green dice in the personal domain.
On the Outskirts of Himeji, players can perform the actions of the two curtains that are aligned with the space in which the die has been placed in any order.

On the other hand, playing a die in the space of the Tea Fields allows you to carry out the action of the geishas, which, as occurs with that of the courtiers, has a double use. On the one hand, by paying two coins, players can take the geisha pawn furthest to the left of their personal domain to place it at the entrance of the garden. Additionally, with this same action, players can pay 2 or 5 chasen units to advance the geishas who are already in the garden by 1 or 2 steps.
From the entrance there are two paths available: to the left, the geishas can advance to the Pond Overlook, to the right, they go to the Tea House. If a player's geisha reaches the Pond Overlook, they can take the Pond action, which grants the 3 Water Lily rewards, or, by paying 3 coins, they can take the action associated with the Ceremony tile. If the geisha heads to the Tea House, at each stage the player get the benefit of the yellow and blue curtains of the new Calligraphy cards and Flower Arrangement. And if the geisha ends her journey in the Tea House, the player must choose one of the three rooms and perform the action associated with the Ceremony tile in that room. Each room gives a different reward of victory points at the end of the game, depending on the Courtiers, Warriors or Gardeners in the castle.

Points of sale
Are you ready to return to Himeji Castle and master the subtleties of the tea ceremony? Do you want to expand the experience of The White Castle? Do you want to discover the new design of Isra & Shei? Are you attracted to games with a Japanese setting? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, reserve your copy of The White Castle Matcha at your trusted store before it runs out. The copies of the first edition come with an exclusive promo, don't miss it!
- The White Castle: Matcha$29.99