Cardholm
| Rank | Player | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | ||
| 170 |
About Cardholm
Cardholm is a turn-based card city builder set on a small pixel-art island. Every turn you play a card from your hand — a house, a wheat field, a mill, a road — pay its gold cost and place it on the isometric grid. The island answers back: houses pay for neighbouring houses, bakeries feed off a ring of homes, mills double every harvest next door, and lumberyards clear the forest while turning trees into coin.
Space is the real currency. Fields only pay when you complete a cluster of four, roads earn nothing themselves but boost every connected building by half, and piers reclaim fresh land from the sea when the island gets tight. Population unlocks stronger cards — stone houses, quarries, trade posts — and at one hundred citizens the Castle card appears. Build it and the run is won; run out of playable cards and gold, and the island keeps your savings.
Every placement is previewed before you commit, so the economy is readable from the very first turn. Runs are seeded and deterministic — a loss is always a plan that didn't hold, never bad luck alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I win a run of Cardholm?
Reach 100 population and the Castle card goes straight into your hand. Play it on a free grass tile for 20 gold. The faster you manage it, the bigger the speed bonus on your final score.
What do roads actually do?
Roads earn nothing by themselves, but any building standing next to a road network that connects back to your starting cottage gets +50% on all its payouts. Bridges carry the network across water, and Trade Posts pay per building type connected to the same network.
How do I get better cards into my deck?
Two ways: harvests add cards (a completed wheat cluster earns a Bakery, hops earn a Tavern), and population thresholds at 15, 30 and 50 shuffle piers, quarries and stone houses into your deck. At 100 population the Castle card goes straight into your hand.
What happens when I run out of cards?
The Market sells the three cards shown next to it, at a price that rises with every purchase up to 6 gold. You can also DISCARD a card you can't use to draw the next one from your deck, and a placed Tavern can trade your whole hand for a new one. The run only ends when nothing in your hand is playable, you can't afford the Market and your deck is empty.
