Truthfully, castles are certainly not the focus of "The Castles of Burgundy." Still I am easily drawn to this fantastic game and find myself longing to play another round after every game.
Goal of the Game
Players are trying to collect the most victory points by trading, livestock farming, city building and scientific research. The player with the most points, at the games end, has developed the greatest estate and may claim victory.
Components / Set-up
There are a lot of components that come with this game. While the board is of very nice quality, I'm not that impressed with the cardboard quality of the rest of the components. But, this is not an expensive game so I can understand that to a certain extent. I would be willing to pay more for better quality components.
There are 164 six-sided tiles. There beige buildings, light green livestock, yellow knowledge, dark green castles, grey mines, and blue ships. There are also these tiles with black backings. Other tiles include the 42 goods tiles in six colors, 20 silverlings, 30 worker tiles, 12 bonus tiles, 4 victory point tiles, and 8 playing pieces (2 in each for the 4 player colors).
The game also comes with 9 dice (2 in each player color and one white dice), the game board and six paper player boards.
To set the game up place the silverlings, worker tiles, and white die next to the game board. Sort the 164 six-sided tiles by color of their backs and place them in separate face-down piles next to the board.
Now, shuffle the 42 goods tiles face down. These are then separated into five face-down piles of five tiles each. Place one of the piles on each of the five phase spaces lettered A through E on the game board. Give each player 3 random goods tiles from the remaining tiles. The rest should be placed back in the box.
The 12 bonus tiles should be placed on their correct space on the board.
Now, each player takes one player board. These are all double-sided. There are six of the boards. Four are marked number 1, and there are one each of numbers 2-9. Start with the side labeled 1 for your first game. Then take one dark green castle and place it face up onto the dark green middle space of the board (it has a value 6).
The 3 random goods should be placed face up on the three goods spaces on the player board. Tiles of the same color may be stored together. Each player also takes the dice of their color, one playing piece of their color to be put on the 0/100 space on the game board. They also receive 1 silverling that should be visible to all players.
Players should now roll one dice to determine the starting player. The player who rolls the highest becomes the first play and receives one worker tile and places onto their player board. The next player in clockwise order receives two worker chips, the third player three, and the fourth, four worker chips. The second player pieces are used to mark the just determined player order. The start player takes the white die.
Game play
The game last for five phases (A through E). Each phase consists of five rounds.
Phase Set-up
At the start of each phase, the following set-up is carried out: remove all six-sided tiles remaining on the board and return them to the box. The ship, mine, and castle tiles may be left in space because they are all the same. All remaining goods tiles are also left on the board.Next, randomly draw new six-sided tiles and place them face-up, onto the matching colored spaces in the six numbered depots.
In a two player game only the spaces marked with 2s are used, in a three player games only the spaces marked with 2s and 3s, and in the four player game all 24 spaces will have tiles placed on them.
In the three player game only, there is an exception for the dark green space in the number 6 depot. In phases A, C, and E a castle is placed onto it as normal, but in phase B and D a mine is placed there instead.
Now, randomly draw black-backed, six-sided tiles, and place them, face-up on the black depot in the middle of the board. Two to eight tiles are drawn depending on the player number. Take the five goods tiles for the current phase and place them, face-up onto the five spaces below the phase spaces.
The Five Game Rounds
After the phase setup, five game rounds follow, each is carried out in the same manner.
First, all players roll their two dice, with the start player also rolling the white die. Then all players place their dice in front of themselves so that all players can see them.
With this, the white die's function for this turn is complete; it cannot be used by the start player to assist him on his own turn (and can never be adjusted via worker tiles).
Next, the start player carries out his turn. Play then moves to the next player in turn order (moving from right to left on the turn order track and from top to bottom in a given tower).
Once each player has had a turn, a new round begins, etc.
As 5 goods tiles are added each phase and since one tile is added to a depot at the start of each round, it is easy to tell which round the current one is and how long the current phase and the game will last.
A Player's Turn
A player's turn consists of carrying out two actions, one per die. Once a die has been used, it is placed onto the used die storage space in the upper right corner of the player's board.
Worker Tiles: These tiles may be used at anytime. Once it is used it is returned to the general supply. The tiles are used to adjust your die's result up or down by 1. Changing a die's result from 1 to 6 or from 6 to 1 is also permitted and also costs one worker tile. Players may use multiple tiles to change a die's results multiple times.
The Actions
A die is required for each action. The two actions per turn may be carried out in any combination and order (including carrying out the same action twice.)
-Action: "Take six-sided tile from the game board"
The player may take one six-sided tile of their choice from the depot whose number corresponds to the result of the die used to carry out the action. The chosen tile is placed onto an empty storage space in the bottom left hand corner (never into the estate.) Should all of the storage spaces be full, then he must first choose a prior tile to discard (thus removing it from the game) and subsequently place the new tile onto the newly-emptied space.
-Action: "Add six-sided tile to your estate"
The player may take one six-sided tile of his choice from the storage area in the lower left-hand corner of his board and add it to his estate. The die is chosen to carry out his action indicates which corresponding empty space he may place the tile onto. All newly-placed tiles must always lie directly adjacent to at least one previously placed tile. A tile's color must always match to color of the space it is being placed onto. The first tile can thus only ever be placed onto one of the six spaces surrounding the start castle.
Depending on what type of tile was placed, the following occurs immediately afterwards:
Knowledge (yellow): There are 26 different yellow tiles whose functions are described in detail in the rules book. One tile, for example, allows player to ignore the rule that only one building of each type may be allowed in a city. This allows the player to add as many buildings of the same type to their city as they wish. Another tile gives the player 1 victory point at the end of the game for each sold goods tile. Unsold goods tiles are ignored.
1. The player takes all the goods tiles on any one depot's goods space and adds them to the goods storage in the upper left hand corner of this board. It is important to remember the chosen depot is completely separate and independent of the die result that was used to place the ship.
Each player may collect up to three different types of goods (=colors) in his goods storage area. Tiles of the same color are always piled on top of each other; different colored tiles are placed next to each other. If, because of this restriction, a player cannot score all of the goods tiles present in the chosen depot, then he simply leaves behind any good he cannot store.
2. The player moves his playing piece on the turn order track one space to the right. Should this pace be occupied, then he places his piece on top of the other pieces. Should this result in him being start player for the next round then he also receives the white die.
If they already have an animal tiles with the same animal type they score all tiles with the same animal type again in addition to the newly-placed tile.
The animal tiles must be part of the same pasture but do not need to be immediately adjacent to newly-placed animal tile. Tiles with the same animal on them on other pastures are not scored.
Castle (dark green): Whenever a player adds a castle tile to his estate (which can occur up to 3 times), then he immediately carries out an additional action, of his choice, as if he had an extra die with any result he wishes, at his disposal. For example, they could add another tile to their estate.
Mine (grey): These tiles are (with the exception of a few of the yellow tiles) are the only ones without immediate effect when they are placed. This can occur up to 3 times. Instead, at the end of each phase, the player receives 1silverling from the supply for each mine in his estate.
One example of buildings are the Warehouse that allows a player to immediately, without having to use a die, sell one goods type of their choice out of their storage as if they had chosen the 'sell goods' action. Another example of a building is the bank which allows a player to immediately take 2 silverlings from the general supply and add them their own supply.Placing Buildings
When placing all buildings their additional powers are activated via their placement, a die result is not needed.
Should a player not be able to make use of a building's advantage the tile may still be added but the player loses the advantage.
The supply of worker tiles and silverlings is not intended to be limited. In the rare case that the supply is exhausted, please substitute other materials. This may happen, for example, if there aren't any more blue or light green tiles left in the numbered depots after having placed a market.
Additional Rules for Placing Six-Sided Tiles
-Whenever a player takes a six-sided tile from the game board, he must always first place it onto the storage space in the lower left-hand corner of their board. This is still the case even if he uses his second action to immediately add it to his estate.
-Six-sided tiles, once added to an estate, may never be moved or removed.
- As soon as a colored region, regardless of size, is completely covered with tiles, then that region is considered to be complete and scores victory points in two different ways:
1. Depending on its size (1 to 8 spaces), the completed region scores between 1 and 36 victory points which are immediately scored on the victory point track.
2. Additionally, depending on the phase, the region scores between 10 and 2 victory points. The empty space (A-E, in the upper right of the game board) for the current phase indicates how many additional victory points each completed region is worth, regardless of size. The first phase (A) it would be worth 10. During the last phase (E), it would be worth 2.
The first player, who manages to cover all spaces of one color in his entire estate with tiles, immediately takes the corresponding large bonus tile from the game board. They then immediately score victory points depending on the number of players. 5 VP with 2 players, 6 VP with 3 players, or 7 VP with 4 players.
The second player to finish covering up this same color takes the small bonus tile and the corresponding 2 to 4 VP. Third and fourth do not receive bonus tiles.
Note: As soon as a player reaches or exceeds 100 VP on the track, then he places his victory point tile on the board with the 100 side up and if they reach 200 points they flip the tile over.
-Action "Sell Goods"
A player may choose to sell all goods of one type from his goods storage. The die chosen to carry out this action indicates which goods type (color) may be sold. All corresponding goods tiles in the player's goods storage are piled, face-down, onto the goods space on the player's board intended for this purpose. For doing this the player receives: exactly one silverling from the supply, regardless of how many tiles he just sold, as well as 2, 3, or 4 VP per tile. This is according to the number of players. Note: A player must always sell all tiles of a type when choosing the "Sell Goods" action, even if he would like to keep some in reserve.
-Action "Take Worker Tiles"
Finally a player may choose to use any die result to take 2 worker tiles from the general supply. In this case, the die result itself is meaningless.
The Central Black Depot
In addition to his two dice actions, each player may, once per turn, choose to buy one of the six-sided tiles from the central black depot. He may do this at any point during his turn. To accomplish this, the player must return 2 silverlings to the general supply and subsequently place the newly-purchased six-sided tile, as with any tile from the game board, onto an empty space in the lower left-hand corner of his board.
A phase ends after five rounds. Players with mines now receive the corresponding number of silverlings. Some of the yellow knowledge tiles may also have an effect. The next phase then begins.
Game End
The game ends after the fifth phase has been player through to completion. Final scoring follows, during which player's receive victory points for the following:
- each unsold goods tile: 1 victory point
- each remaining silverling: 1 victory point
- every two worker tiles: 1 victory point
- each VP-bearing yellow tile - points according to their function
My Thoughts
Mixing dice with eurogame type mechanics isn't a new concept, it has been used before in games such as Stoneage. I enjoy this mix a little bit of luck with thoughtful strategy. It's always fun to roll the dice, but a bad roll is not going to leave you trailing in "Castles of Burgundy." There is always a good option to take during your turn. It may not have been your optimal choice, but it can still be helpful. When my dice keep me from getting exactly what I want, I usually take worker tiles. These tiles can prove invaluable during the game. It's always wise to have a few extra on hand. I may also choose to take a tile I won't be able to use right away, but I can keep in my storage area. I never feel like I'm stuck with a bad roll.
I also like the fact that the complexity of the game is found in game play itself and not the rules. After a few rounds you understand the flow of the game yet understanding the strategy takes a longer time. Even after multiple plays I do not believe I could explain the best strategy, the perfect way to win, or how to complete the estate. I do feel like I can quickly explain the rules to a new player and be enjoying the game together, in a short amount of time. It means the game has a lot of replay value. The multiple estate lay outs also add to this value.
During the game I feel like I am actually building a small estate. It's the same feeling you get when building a ship in Shipyard or a farm in Agricola. Unlike Agricola, I don't feel like I'm always a step behind, getting through optimal game play. I like that in Agricola, and I like the visual farm created, but not having that feeling is enjoyable. I have never accomplished all I wanted to do in Castles of Burgundy, but I have come close. I have built a decent estate; raised some prize livestock, developed some thriving cities, and gained knowledge through research. The research tiles can certainly help improve your estate. In fact all the tiles are helpful and when used properly can lead a player to victory.
I'm still trying to decide if I like the game end conditions. The in-game timer means that no one can end the game earlier than you wish. You can plan out your moves according to how much time you have left, trying to make the last move your best. Sometimes you wish you could make the game last longer, or end earlier. Yet, it is also nice to know exactly have many moves you have left and make yourself plan accordingly.
My biggest complaint with the game is the quality. I know the game was very inexpensive, but I would certainly be willing to pay more for a better quality game. I think the game would be
even more popular, than it already is, if the components were better. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a better production copy. The components aren't bad, certainly the game board is better than some I've seen, but I worry that the paper mats will hold up over time and I certainly don't want to laminate them in fear that they would become too slippery. I also like the artwork and the colors. Yes, like many I wish the yellow was more yellow, but overall the game is beautiful.
Castles of Burgundy is a game that has found a permanent spot in our collection. I know I will be playing it in the years to come, hoping one day to completely cover my estate and build those beautiful castles from my childhood dreams.
Quick Stats
Designer: Stefan Feld
Artists: Julien Delval, Harald Lieske
Number of Players: 2 - 4
Playing Time: 90 minutes
Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Tile Placement
Photo Credits: Alexandru Stanuta (alex1326), Hilko Drude (HilkMAN), Cássio F. Lemos (verminose), Henk Rolleman (henk.rolleman), Carsten ◄► Wesel(Ceryon), Laszlo Molnar (lacxox), Daniel Indru (djdano), Victor (vthor), Daniel Indru (djdano),Victor (vthor), Forster (KingHeinrich), John Bandettini (JohnBandettini), nature morte (naturemorte), W. Eric Martin (W Eric Martin)
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