Castles of Dawnstone is a deck building and worker placement game for 1 or more players where you are trying to destroy your opponents village. Everyone starts with the same deck of 10 cards, but through individual village development and hiring mercenaries from the general pool you hopefully muster a better army than your opponent. In a turn, the active player plays all 5 cards in his hand and gains their benefits. Some cards may produce income to purchase mercenary cards or pay them off to retire so your opponent can't hire them. Other cards will allow you to attack your opponent outright. Some may increase the attack strength of your attacking cards. Others will allow you to build better buildings in your village, or worship at the alter of your Gods to give you the upper hand. There are lots of combinations for you to discover. Once you have played all of your cards, move any idle workers in your village to the designated area and leave the ones still working where they are. Then discard the cards you played and draw a new hand of 5 cards. Now your opponent takes their turn. That's it. Super simple rules with a complex strategy and high replay ability.
—description from the designer