cathedral travel game

• Strategy & Thinkers
• Moderately Thinky

Cathedral Travel

• Mayfair : 1
• Bayshore : 1
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• South Milwaukee : 2
• last updated 2024-04-14 09:00
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• Description
• Current In-Store Inventory | Pickup & Delivery

You are a land owner in medieval times. Remove all the buildings from the walled city playing surface and divide up the pieces by color. In turn, position the largest of your pieces on the board.  If you are able to surround an opponent's piece, it is removed from the board and given back to your opponent to play. The goal is to put back more of YOUR pieces than your opponent as a players unused pieces are deducted from their score.

Conceived by Robert Moore, a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, this travel version of the original Cathedral game features magnetized pieces and playing surfaces to keep pieces in place while on the move. Victory goes to the landowner who can position more of their buildings within the game board walls, thereby capturing space, points and blocking the opponent from placing their pieces.

Includes one 6.75 x 6.75 x 1.75 inch detachable wooden carry case with magnetic playing boards, 29 magnetized wooden buildings, instructions.

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Cathedral Wooden Strategy Magnetic Portable Travel Game

• The Cathedral Game is a multi-award-winning strategy game that has been popular for over 30 years
• This version of the game is a portable travel edition that can be played anywhere
• Players must strategically place their castle building pieces and block their opponent's moves to claim the most territory
• The game board and wooden game pieces are beautifully finished
• The game is suitable for players aged 8 and up and requires strategic thinking

Recommended Age: 8 Years and Up

WARNING: Choking hazard - small parts

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Description

Cathedral Classic

A medieval game of strategy and skill.

A multi-award-winning strategy game that has been a favourite world wide for over 30 years. Played within a medieval walled city, Cathedral is a top notch strategic game of power and position where rivals strategically battle to place all of their buildings on the gaming field and lay claim to their territory. Victory is your goal.

This go-anywhere travel version of the popular Cathedral Game is played within the borders of a medieval walled city represented by the game board. Two rivals battle to gain the most territory, using strategy to position their castle building pieces and block their opponent's moves.

The player who is the best at outmaneuvering the other will claim the victory. The lid of this clever travel case is detachable, revealing the game board and the beautifully-finished wooden game pieces.

This game of strategy will keep you thinking, and provides enjoyment for players ages 8 and up.

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Board Game Guys

Brief History and Background Information

Cathedral is a two-player abstract strategy board game in which two factions (“dark” and “light”) vie for territorial supremacy within the bounds of a medieval city. The game was invented between 1962 and 1979 by Robert Moore, a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who was inspired by Christchurch Cathedral and its environs in Christchurch, New Zealand. From the air, Moore was fascinated by the way the cathedral and neighboring buildings intricately fit together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. He conceived of a game involving players trying to build interlocking buildings around a cathedral.

Why the Game is Popular or Significant

Cathedral is a popular game because of its simple rules, quick gameplay, and strategic depth. It is often compared to chess, scrabble, and monopoly. The game is significant because it challenges players to think spatially and strategically, and it has been enjoyed by players of all ages for over 40 years.

Game Components

Wooden board divided into a 10×10 grid29 small abstract building piecesOne building piece painted grey to represent the Cathedral14 dark building pieces14 light building pieces

The board is enclosed by turreted walls and represents a medieval city. Players alternate placing their buildings on the board, with the exception of the Cathedral, which is placed in the center of the board by the player with the dark pieces. The player with the light pieces goes first.

Gameplay Mechanics

Players take turns placing their buildings on the board, with the goal of surrounding the opponent’s buildings and capturing territory. Buildings can be placed adjacent to each other, but not diagonally. The Cathedral cannot be surrounded on all four sides. Players can move their buildings once they are placed on the board, but they cannot move the Cathedral. The game ends when one player cannot place any more buildings on the board. The player with the most territory at the end of the game wins.

Game Objective

The objective of Cathedral is to capture territory by surrounding the opponent’s buildings with your own.

Player Experience

Cathedral is a quick and easy game to learn, but it offers a lot of strategic depth. Players must think spatially and plan ahead to outmaneuver their opponent and capture territory. The game is also visually appealing, with the abstract building pieces fitting together like a puzzle on the board.

Variations and Expansions (if applicable)

There are no official variations or expansions for Cathedral, but players can create their own variations by changing the rules or board layout.

Cathedral can be purchased online from various retailers, including the official Cathedral website and Redbery Books.

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What are the differences between a cathedral and a caverna?

A cathedral is a grand and ornate religious building, while a caverna is a natural underground chamber. Cathedrals are man-made and often serve as places of worship, while cavernas are naturally formed and are often explored for their geological formations. Those who love adventure can explore the caverna cave system .

Cathedral is a two-player abstract strategy board game that challenges players to think spatially and strategically. The game is easy to learn, but it offers a lot of strategic depth, making it enjoyable for players of all ages. The game’s simple rules, quick gameplay, and visually appealing design have made it a popular game for over 40 years.

We are supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, at no extra cost for you.  Learn more .  Last update on 25th April 2024 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API .

Michail, a seasoned tabletop enthusiast, dives headfirst into worlds of fantasy and strategy. Whether commanding a party of adventurers through perilous dungeons or engaging in tactical showdowns on the board, Michail is the maestro of the tabletop realm. Michail's gaming table is a realm where the clatter of dice and the shuffle of cards create a symphony of strategic chaos.

Hobby: Miniature painting guru, turning pewter into masterpieces Preferred Game: Dungeons & Dragons, but always up for a board game brawl

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• Game Overview

Basic Game Rules

Buy cathedral, other games, cathedral fan site.

Created by: Robert P. Moore, S. Mattusek

Published by: Brightway Products Ltd, Falomir Juegos, Family Games, Inc.

Alternate Names: Castle City, Catedral, Cathedral: World, Kathedrale, Monumental Moves

Description:

Cathedral is a middle ages themed land grab strategy game. Two players compete to place their different shaped buildings within the city's stoned-in walls. One wins the game by acquiring the greatest portion of the city's land.

In Cathedral, each player has a set of pieces of a different color. The pieces are in the shapes of buildings, covering from one to five square units.

The first player takes the single neutral Cathedral piece and places it onto the board. Players then alternate placing one of their buildings onto the board until neither player can place another building. Players capture territory by surrounding areas that are occupied by at most one opponent or neutral building.

A captured piece is removed and captured territory becomes off-limits to the opponent. The player with the fewest 'square units' of buildings that can't be placed wins.

Cathedral is an all-wood game. Blocking your opponent's ability to place pieces is part of the skill required to successfully predominate.

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Cathedral game rules.

• 28 various shaped wood pieces
• Game board with grid markings.
• Game instructions

Object of the Game

To position all of your buildings within the perimeter walls while preventing your opponent from doing the same.

Decide who will play the "Light" buildings and who will play the "Dark". Distribute the 28 buildings accordingly, placing them in front of the corresponding player.

The Light player starts by positioning the Cathedral anywhere on the playing area, always respecting the grid squares. The Dark player makes the first and each alternate move …

Cathedral Game

Cathedral Portable Travel Board Game

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Product Key Features

• Gender Boys & Girls
• Age Level 8-11 Years, 12-16 Years, 17 Years & Up
• Game Type Board Game
• Game Title Cathedral
• Recommended Age Range 8+
• Min. Number of Players 2 players
• Type Game Board
• Award Games 100
• Theme Strategy
• Weight 1.5 pounds

Cathedral strategy game

Very good product, is made of wood! small and easy to store and transport, the colors look like the picture, in fact the game is very entertaining a mix of tetris and territory conquest.

A Great 2 player , quick time game. My only problem is it should come with a picture to show you how to store it.

its a present for my cousin

Easy to setup and play

Strategy Family Board & Traditional Games

Strategy family game contemporary manufacture game boards games, university games strategy family board & traditional games, mayfair games strategy family board & traditional games, strategy travel board & traditional games, stratego strategy family board & traditional games.

Cathedral Review (Switch eShop)

What a wonderful night to have a curse

Version Reviewed: North American

• review by Mitch Vogel Thu 18th Feb 2021

About seven years ago, a Swedish developer named Eric Lavesson set out to build his own game engine, not knowing entirely where it might lead. As time passed and prototypes were made, a retro-style project began to coalesce which demanded more of his time and attention. That project was Cathedral , a new 8-bit style Metroidvania which acts as the inaugural debut of Decemberborn Interactive. Though it does little to set itself apart from the pack, Cathedral nonetheless demonstrates the developers’ strong understanding of this beloved era of gaming and stands as an enjoyable experience on its own.

Cathedral starts out pretty light on story, placing you in the shoes of a mute knight in red armour who awakens in a mysterious cathedral. After poking around a little bit (and suffering a boss fight or two) an impish little ghost shows you a door in the heart of the cathedral with five little notches in it. The ghost has a gem which fits into one of the notches, and your quest from then on mostly revolves around exploring the cathedral and surrounding lands in search of the remaining gems and hopefully the secrets of your past.

Cathedral is a Metroidvania release through and through, so the extent of your experience is spent fumbling from one area on the large world map to the next, picking up lots of collectables and upgrades, and backtracking to previous areas in search of new paths and secrets. It’s a formula that you’ve seen done thousands of times before, and to be entirely fair, it doesn’t really add much to it. That said, the mixture of difficulty, interesting level design, and the quick pacing ensure that Cathedral remains an enjoyable experience throughout.

One of the driving reasons for what keeps the adventure so thrilling is the relatively hands-free way that the player is treated. You’re given some good suggestions of where you should go next, but objectives are rarely spelt out for you, which ensures that the journey is player-led and dependent on where your whims take you. For example, we encountered one semi-secret area early in our journey that obviously is geared more towards your knight after a few upgrades have been acquired. We couldn’t explore all of it and died to several one-hit kills, but persistence rewarded us with a helpful upgrade that we probably weren’t ‘supposed’ to get until much later in the journey.

Regardless of what path you find yourself taking, the varied level design is sure to test your dexterity and keeps mixing things up to keep obstacles from getting too stale. One early upgrade, for example, is found at the bottom of an unusually tall and somewhat easily-traversed chamber. After collecting the upgrade, lava begins to rise from the floor, and you’re then tasked with running that same chamber in reverse as you desperately try to escape your impending doom. New environments are also keen to bring in new level gimmicks, which help to give each area its own sense of identity as you’re tasked with slightly altering your playstyle to match the fresh obstacles.

The difficulty remains rather stiff, too, not quite reaching Hollow Knight levels, but nonetheless ensuring that you’ll have to take a few attempts before properly mastering a boss or challenging set piece. Luckily, death is handled here in a way that keeps you on edge and makes each failure feel a little more impactful than simply restarting a checkpoint. Upon losing your life, your knight gets sent back to the last checkpoint and loses ten percent of his gold. In addition to this, you can potentially find yourself starting at half your max health, too, as there’s a sage back in town who can (for a fee, of course) double your health for the duration of that life.

While you’re in town, you can also spend your gold on helpful upgrades and consumables to give you an edge in the tougher parts of the map. The most helpful of these upgrades – such as an improvement to how much gold you retain on death – don’t come cheap either, which gives every death that extra bit of sting and conversely gives a nice sense of accomplishment when you’ve finally managed to hold onto enough loot to make that expensive buy.

The most interesting and useful upgrades always come from killing bosses and exploring obscure corners of the map, and these offer up a mixture of standard upgrades, like a dash manoeuvre, to something like a magnet for puzzle-solving. There are countless opportunities to step off the beaten path to find more of these, and if you happen to not be properly geared for a room, you can always leave a note of it on the map to come back to later. It’s little features like this map-marking function or the simple fast travel system that help to cut down on the grind of backtracking and make movement feel more purposeful overall.

It should take you anywhere from fifteen to twenty hours to see Cathedral through to its end, and all of this is backed up by some decent (but not spectacular) presentation. The visuals adhere well to the NES-style limitations, while there are some liberties taken to improve the experience, such as the extra smooth animations for most sprites. Still, little features like most bosses having an all-black background are a nice touch and go a long way towards selling the old-school aesthetic, even if it feels a rather played-out by this point.

If anything, that point really acts as the greatest criticism of Cathedral: it feels played out. The eShop is positively swamped with Metroidvanias and 8-bit style platformers by this point, and Cathedral has a hard time escaping the long shadow those other releases cast. All the key elements of a good, engaging action-platformer are here, but nothing especially stands out as being exceptional or otherwise above the bar. That being said, this is very much the equivalent of video game comfort food, and those with a deep affinity for this kind of game will doubtless glean plenty of enjoyment from it; just don’t come into Cathedral expecting to be blown away.

Cathedral is a well-made and enjoyable action-platformer that’s sure to please fans of the genre, as it showcases lots of strong level design, tough difficulty, and plenty of rewarding secrets. Even so, there’s a sense that something is missing here to take the experience a step higher, as it’s the epitome of ‘just’ another entry in an already crowded genre. All the same, we’d give Cathedral a recommendation to anybody who enjoyed Shovel Knight (or its many imitators) and is looking for something to hit that same appeal. Cathedral very likely won’t be your favourite action-platformer, but it’s got more than enough going for it to be worth your time and money.

About Mitch Vogel

Mitch has been a fan of Nintendo ever since he got his start on the GBA in 2005. When he's not busy playing games or writing, you can find him down at his local MMA training facility learning how to punish the unrighteous.

• Author Profile

Comments 16

• Thu 18th Feb 2021

Not my kind of game but i can see where people would like this.

• Serpenterror

I'm getting tired of seeing 8-Bit inspired games like this flooding the eShop, hopefully this would be the last one. I may still check this out but this is 8-Bit too many, just a while ago we just had Cyber Shadow as well and while that is a decent game would had love to see that in 16-Bit instead.

I'm a fan of retro graphics and I really don't have a problem of indies doing it. But I'm guy that grew up with Game Boy, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, etc, so it's a nostalgia piece for me.

• John_Deacon

"All the key elements of a good, engaging action-platformer are here" "this is very much the equivalent of video game comfort food"

Well, I'm a sucker for Metroidvanias and this is all I had to know. Let's add the map bookmarking option to it, and that's it. I'm buying it

• Kiwi_Unlimited

@Ghost_of_Hasashi

I actually feel sorry for this developer, as it was apparently a seven year journey. Who knew seven years later that one's idea and project would be buried by a bunch of similar projects? At which point, scrapping it would just feel terrible.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi This is definitely a 16 bit inspired game. The NES wouldn't come close to being able to pull this off. The color palette, the number of sprites, the number of hardware sprites per line. This looks like just a SNES game to me.

• diegoarthur

@Ghost_of_Hasashi I really hope it is not the last one

@MrSparkle As mentioned in the review, while this is going for the NES look, it's doing things a NES couldn't do. But it's certainly not a SNES-level game, at least in my opinion. There's not enough colour variation and the music is very 8-bit in tone.

• aaronsullivan

If there were not so many well-reviewed metroidvanias in my backlog already, I'd play it. Maybe I'll catch up. I like the 15 to 20 hour game length and see that as a feature.

I do wish the pixel art appealed to me more. Shovel Knight wasn't just great because it harkened to the look of NES games, it was also truly exceptional pixel art inside that limitation — and also had pristine, fun, challenging gameplay and modern sensibilities towards the player.

So... now I will daydream about a Metroidvania SNES-style Shovel Knight.

It seems like this game basically wants to be Shovel Knight.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi I'm on the flip side. My formative gaming years were during the NES, so these games coming out now are less nostalgia and more just that era continuing on for me.

I like everything about this game...I love Metroidvanias, and I love retro-inspired visuals when they're well done. But I do not like the protagonist design. I get that some developers like to make the player character some kind of blank slate that players can project onto, but this one isn't for me. Could have gone for something a bit less generic.

• chewytapeworm
• Sat 20th Feb 2021

Is there a reason why the logo for this game is remarkably similar to that of the legendary doom band Cathedral? If there isn’t a hint of plagiarism then it’s quite the coincidence.

• Tue 8th Jun 2021

This is one of the most insane difficult games I played in the last years. It is beyond frustration already on the level of madness. At first I thought it is a good idea to revive some old school 16-bit game style on my switch but when playing this one I got so annoyed and pissed off that I was close to dump the Nintendo switch console into the garbage. There is a reason why Nintendo is so successful with its games because they are on a playable level. This one is not. Never again I will buy a game from this company. Save yourself the worries.

• Sun 29th Aug 2021

@CritiCon9 Well... Some games are (thankfully) made for more experienced or stubborn players.

Nintendo makes games for everyone, adding some OPTIONAL depth and layers for experienced players. Appealing to everyone.

But sometimes you want a challenge, right away, not completing the "playable" base game to unlock the tough part.

I'm sure you feel the same way about games that are too easy for you

• JesseJames23
• Fri 2nd Dec 2022

I feel the need to tell potential buyers, that this games difficulty is wastly underplayed in the review. I bought this game thinking that it would be challenging, and that is fine, but the amount of time you have to put into it to solve puzzles that make no sense, and replay areas over and over again, ruins an otherwise fun game with tight gameplay. It's only for the very dedicated, not casual gamers.

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Cathedral Review

The mid 2010s was a great time to be an indie developer who aimed to craft retro style games based off childhood experiences from classics. Shovel Knight in particular was a break through for retro inspired indie games, and the floodgates were busted wide open after that.

There was Inti Creates and their indelible brand of different retro action platformers with the Mighty Gunvolt, Blaster Master Zero  and the Curse of the Moon spin-off of Bloodstained.  Wayforward had consistent success with their Shantae games, and Digital Devolver found success releasing many action platformers from developers from all over the world.

Pretty much everybody had thrown their hat into the ring and during this time. Decemberborn Interactive (also known as Decemberborn AB) was toiling away at Cathedral since 2014- around the time interest in 2D retro platformers were at their most popular. After its initial release in 2019 on PC, a Switch port has finally come. After all this time, has Cathedral missed its chance for glory?

Cathedral  Developer: Decemberborn Interactive Publisher: Elden Pixels Platforms: Windows PC, Nintendo Switch (reviewed) Release Date: February 18, 2021 Players: 1 Price: $14.99 USD

Like all indie retro style Metroidvanias, Cathedral wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. The protagonist is able to pogo-hop on threats and obstacles like Scrooge McDuck and Shovel Knight. He also has Samus’ map system, Simon Belmont’s sub weapons, and Link’s hearts. There is even a little bit of Ghosts ‘n Goblins in the enemy design.

Cathedral takes many elements from established classics, and stirs it all together into one big spicy hand-me-down curry. In a desperate chase to give lip service to the classics, the developer failed to implement their own creative spin. The result is a very safe Metroidvania, that has no real identity of its own and comes off as very generic.

It is too bad that there is so little of Cathedral that stands out, because the foundation of this game is very solid and polished. The balance is geared towards a much more challenging game than what might be expected. Some bosses have multiple forms that shake the action up and keep intrepid knights on their toes.

Despite its highly derivative nature, Cathedral ‘s few original concepts do make for some interesting moments. For example, the magnet acquired leads to some cheeky puzzles that will have the protagonist hopping all over a wide area to pull boxes around in a maze.

The protagonist is noticeably responsive and snappy for a squat guy in armor. The platforming challenges are the kind of precarious gauntlets that Mega Man would negotiate; the kinds with disappearing floors and electrical currents streaming in mid-air. Acquiring the double-jump is when the game’s level design truly shines and the difficulty doubles down.

There will be threats coming in from all directions and boss battles with diabolical patterns to memorize. Dying in battle carries the weight of depleting carried gold; used to buy different upgrades and perks. Being able to carry more health potions will be crucial, but also very expensive. Overall, most items in the shop at the town are pricy, and terrible players may have to grind.

The one design flourish that helps draw gamers into the setting is the way it guides them deeper into the game. Cathedral has a hands-off approach that is unobtrusive, and only has dialogue when necessary.

Rarely does the game spell it out clearly, and respects the player enough to figure things out on their own. This invites users to explore Cathedral ‘s nonlinear approach to level design, and means planning a route through some aggressive rooms to potentially get side-tracked by a secret area.

This is Cathedral doing what it does best, and it becomes apparent why this game came so late compared to its contemporaries. Cathedral ‘s map is gigantic, much larger than most Metroidvanias, and the fast travel system becomes necessary when having to re-explore older areas. The developer clearly agonized over the level design and ensured it had an epic scope.

While the level design, placement of threats, and spacing of checkpoints has been carefully thought out; the same cannot be said for the art direction. Cathedral is not an ugly game, it is actually very artistically competent. It is however, a very generic and dull looking retro style platformer.

There is not a lot in terms of personality or creative character designs. Everything from the color pallet, enemies, protagonist, and even the bosses come across as very stock. Generic zombies, bats, and skeletons are the most played out kinds of threats in a game like this, and Cathedral features them with no irony or creative spin.

It is very of its genre, and all the effort put into the character and background animation are undermined by the milquetoast concepts. The music is thankfully riveting, with a surprisingly energetic yet haunting tune. It features melodies that sound like what you would expect for medieval sounding chiptune.

Like the NES games that inspired it, the story is not why you play something like this. There is a story, but it is very clearly an excuse to set players loose in a sprawling and interconnected super castle. The main objective is to collect orbs which are guarded by bosses. Defeating these guardians unlocks the path to fighting the big boss; Ardur.

There are other characters along the way, and Cathedral does make an attempt to flesh them out and give them some arcs, but it is only the barest minimum. One of the biggest driving questions to the story is the identity of the player-character, but the answer is no where near as interesting as the game would like you to believe. The knight is more compelling as a blank slate than anything the game’s author comes up with.

The main draw of Cathedral is the sense of exploration and air of mystery that older NES games tend to embody. The allure of the open-ended approach to making progress is very freeing, and it is refreshing to play a Metroidvania that eases up on the hand-holding in an era that is overzealous with directing player experiences.

As alluded to earlier, Cathedral can be very challenging. Many of the gauntlets are very tightly designed, and the huge wave of relief that washes over you when you open up a cheeky shortcut feels awesome. The knight will have to use everything at his disposal to survive, and the required dexterity will exclude grandma from playing.

Gamers will be put to the test; with long series of continuous pogo-hops on enemies, that will need to combo into double jumps, that transition to dashes across falling floors. Compounded with the constant threat of flying enemies in wave patterns, Cathedral rarely lets up.

This righteous difficulty curve is generous, but the game is also quite long in the tooth. The length of the main game and the constant demand for precision and reflexes can wear thin after extended periods. This can take over 20 hours to get to the final boss, making this veer closely to RPG lengths. Games this long require some down time, or a more gradual build up for higher difficulty.

What Cathedral needs is settings to adjust the image quality to better fit the retro aesthetics. The recent Cybershadow had wonderful picture options that gave it a very authentic CRT display, and even had a choice to give it a “bad wiring” filter to make the image look more haggard.

It is too bad that Cathedral does not fully embrace the retro style by incorporating these visual flourishes, since they do go a long way in added a bit of texture to the pixel art. The stock designs don’t do the game any favors, and having hazy CRT filters and scanlines could have helped the atmosphere of the experience in a big way.

Cathedral is unfortunately very late to the 2D retro revival party. If this had come out around the time before the indie market got saturated with games like this, it would stand out and probably be remembered as a classic.

After years of being spoiled by so many stylish and creative takes on the genre, Cathedral has very little about it to stand out. Cathedral ‘s lack of style or personality does not leave a lasting impact despite its rock solid foundation.

Cathedral was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a review code provided by Elden Pixels. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here .

The Verdict: 6

• Open-ended exploration with little to no hand-holding
• Challenging gameplay due to diabolical platform placement and boss design
• Useful fast travel system for a vast map
• Responsive mechanics and foundation that makes the experience enjoyable to play
• A generic "metroidvania", that fails to stand out in an ocean of a played out sub-genre
• Unusual long length overstays its welcome
• Boring visuals and protagonist design
• No CRT or scanline filters

About Fingal Belmont

A youth destined for damnation.