Castelnuovo 1539 - Come Whenever You Dare!

From Draco Ideas:

Summer of 1539. Facing an Ottoman fleet of over 50,000 men and 200 ships, the Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo (modern-day Herceg Novi, Montenegro) refuses to surrender to Admiral Barbarossa, sealing its fate with the legendary phrase: “Come whenever you wish!” The resulting battle was a brutal siege lasting more than 22 days of fighting, skirmishes, and assaults.

Dive into one of the most epic and dramatic feats of the 16th century with Castelnuovo 1539 – Come Whenever You Wish!, a tactical wargame inspired by the historical Siege of Castelnuovo in 1539, where a small Spanish Tercio faces an overwhelmingly superior Ottoman army.

In this 2-player game, one player takes the role of the Spanish side, defending an outdated fortress with limited resources, aiming to inflict such heavy losses on the enemy that their victory loses strategic value. The other player commands the powerful Ottoman forces, tasked with capturing key bastions without suffering unsustainable casualties.

Key Features

Full asymmetry: each side has different objectives, forces, and playstyles. The Spanish must make every card and movement count, while the Ottomans enjoy numerical superiority but must carefully manage their losses.

Dynamic card-driven system: the card engine drives every turn, creating constant tactical decisions and maintaining tension until the very end.

History on your table: recreate a desperate defense lasting nearly a month of combat, where every decision can change the course of the battle.

High replayability: the combination of cards and maneuvers ensures that no two games are the same.

Game System

The map is divided into areas where troops, cannons, walls, bastions, and trenches are deployed. Combat is resolved using dice and a card system that allows players to issue orders, enhance actions, dig trenches, and trigger special events, keeping the game fast-paced and free of downtime between turns.

Cards are the engine of the game: they activate units to move and attack and enable special actions such as the feared encamisadas of the Spanish player. There is no fixed number of turns; the Ottoman player has time to prepare the siege, while Sarmiento’s Tercio works tirelessly to disrupt those plans.

The game ends when the Ottoman player captures three fortress objectives or reaches 12 casualties. Players alternate turns and replenish their hands even during the opponent’s turn, chaining attacks and counterattacks that narrate the historical progression of the battle.

There are two types of turns:

Siege turns, representing several days of preparation and limited fighting, with hands of 4 cards.

Assault turns, representing decisive attacks over a single day, with hands of 7 cards and much higher intensity.

The Ottoman player controls the pace of the game, but each Assault turn increases their casualty track, adding pressure and limiting their operational capacity.

Player Turn

Unit activation is carried out through Command and Action cards, which allow units to move or attack. Although this is a siege game, cavalry units are present and enjoy greater mobility; however, when assaulting walls or fighting inside the fortress, they act as dismounted infantry.

Combat follows a historically inspired sequence based on unit types. Cavalry attacks first, dealing damage before the defender can respond, unless pikemen are present, which negate this advantage and force cavalry to act at the end of the sequence. Arquebusiers receive combat bonuses for their use of firearms, while infantry units (azabs, pikemen when no enemy cavalry is present, dismounted cavalry, and janissaries) resolve damage simultaneously.

In addition, the defending player may use counterattack orders during the opponent’s turn, activating their own units (even if they are not the ones being attacked) and launching immediate strikes against the enemy.