OK, maybe it's a bad pun, but I just HAD to get your attention to tell you how good this game is!!!!
Castles of Burgundy is a wonderfully complex game that is surprisingly addictive. You build your estate with tiles obtained from a main board (sort of like Puerto Rico), earning Victory Points along the way. Your basic turn consists of rolling a pair of dice and then taking one action (out of four possibilities) for each die. The four possible actions are:
1. Take a six-sided tile from the main board and place it into your holding area.
2. Place a six-sided tile from your holding area onto your estate.
3. Sell goods
4. Take two workers from supply.
An optional third action can be taken on your turn. This extra action is to pay two Silverlings to buy one of the additional special tiles in the center of the gameboard. These tiles cannot be selected via dice rolls, and are available ONLY to be purchased.
Doesn't sound very complex, does it?
Ah, but therein lies the beauty of Castles of Burgundy - you have what appears to be very few options, but each option opens up many possibilities. The different types of 6-sided tiles each give you a different benefit, so you have to plan for getting the tiles that will give you the greatest benefit when you need it most. For instance, placing ship tiles in your estate will allow you to move up in turn order and add goods to your supply from the main board. This effect is negated if you don't have room to store the goods. Likewise, if you know that there are other people with ships ready to be placed in their estates, if you place yours too early, you'll move up in the turn order, and likely end up moving back down quickly when other players place their ships.
Beside ships, the six-sided tiles include buildings, knowledge, castles, mines, and animals - each having their own benefits. There are 8 different buildings and 26 different knowledge tiles, each having their own benefits. You'll have to consult the rule book for explanations of the different kinds until you're familiar with the iconography used.
Of course, the randomness of the dice rolls can make it difficult to realize your best-laid plans. While there are workers that let you manipulate die rolls a bit, you must use them wisely as they are often in short supply. Likewise, Silverlings can be tough to come by unless you regularly sell goods, or place mines and/or banks into your estates.
But in the end, it's the Victory Points that ultimately matter, and this game has lots of ways to score them - LOTS of them. Some yield a few points at a time, others give less frequent - but bigger - blocks of points. Endgame bonuses could be big enough to make a difference, too.
What DON'T I like about the game? Some very minor quibbles;
- It can be an arduous task to set up or break down - almost as bad as Puerto Rico, but not quite.
- The player mats are somewhat flimsy.
- Six-sided tiles should be a little bit bigger, making it easier to discern buildings and knowledge tiles. I'm thinking that the size of the `Suburbia' tiles would be ideal, but it would probably add to the cost of the game.
- The plastic insert is pretty useless and generic. You'll need to augment it with a ton of small baggies if you want to keep tiles separate (a must if you want to expedite game setup).
- There should be a player reference sheet to explain the 26 different knowledge tiles instead of having to look at the rule book. (The 8 buildings are explained -by iconography - right on the player mats).
And speaking of player mats, they are six two-sided player mats. Four of them are identical on one side, and can be used if all players want identical estates. There are also 8 unique estate setups that can be chosen (or randomly passed out). This gives the game even more replayability and variety.
There's a lot to do (and many ways to do it) in this game, but only 25 turns to do it in. So don't be fooled by the simple mechanics of this game. There's plenty of deep, rich strategy that makes this a "thinking man's" game. All in all, my wife and I really enjoy this game, and can't wait to play it again, as well as to teach it to others.
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From the manufacturer
Ravensburger The Castles of Burgundy Board Game
Description
The Hundred Years’ war is over and the Renaissance is looming. Conditions are perfect for the princes of the Loire Valley to propel their estates to prosperity and prominence. Through strategic trading and building, clever planning, and careful thought, players add settlements and castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, farm livestock, and more in this classic Stefan Feld Eurogame.
Reviews with images
The euro-game picture in the dictionary
Castles of Burgundy is the euro-game picture in the dictionary. The theme and art won't be the reason you'll love it, but if you like any kind of strategy, once you play you'll be hooked. You will get a lot of points; everything you do will give you points or get you on the way to getting points. You'll be rolling dice to allow you to perform actions; placing tiles, shipping goods, and jockeying with all the other players for the best options on the shared board. Castles of Burgundy is a great example of how fantastic game mechanics can trump art style, no matter how boring the art is.PositivesIn Castles of Burgundy, even if your dice roll is not what you were hoping for, you will always have something to build, gain, or otherwise improve your score. There are options all over the board, and many of the options will allow you to "chain" moves together. It's a lot of fun to figure out a play that creates three or four further moves, or to land that perfect tile, ready to rack up the points in the next round.At first glance of the board, Burgundy seems to have an overwhelming amount of choices available each turn, but the dice roll restricts the amount of plays that can be made and streamlines each turn. After games of Catan, Agricola, or Dominion, where you always need resources to purchase what you need, it's refreshing to have the only requirement be to roll a certain number. You won't get the feeling that you're "never going to roll that five I need" like it often happens in Catan, since you can adjust the roll as you need to, and you're only rolling for a 1 through 6.There are a lot of interesting strategies to use; some players will take a route that gets a lot of up front points, whereas another might build a strategy that is rewarding more at the end of the game. Often in our games someone will be up by thirty or forty points, until a late push by someone else would close the gap right at the end. This is not a game where you will struggle for points; just about everything you do will create something. The trick is finding the moves that don't just get you some points, but get you a lot of points.NegativesThe game boards are small, and the tiles smaller and sometimes hard to read. The artwork is drab, though serviceable, and doesn't really tie to what some of the tiles do. The looks alone are probably a reason that those on the fence won't give it a chance. Once you get all the pieces out, the tiles don't easily shuffle without flipping over to the wrong side, and it takes some time to get all the pieces set on the board.Some of the "knowledge" tiles makes sense based on the icon graphics, but many do not. You'll play your first several games with the instruction book handy to look up what each of the tiles do. With four players, it can drag on a bit, especially with new players. We played a four player game with two new players and it took over 2 1/2 hours.Final ThoughtsThere are a lot of different ways to score points in Castles of Burgundy. However, sometimes it feels like the scores are tethered together and that everyone will land at about the same final score if they are the same skill level. Everyone will be picking up just about the same bonuses, albeit at different points of the game. In these games, sometimes a random knowledge tile picked up in the middle of the game can sometimes swing the balance. Many times, all players will have wildly different scores throughout the game, when right near the end they'll somehow end up with similar scores. An experienced player will nearly always beat a newbie, but it's generally always close when two players of similar skill level square off.Once you get a few rounds in you'll start to appreciate the gameplay design. Everything does give you points, but there is definitely a strategy in figuring out the most efficient way to get points, or what type of points to go for at which stage of the game, keeping everyone else's gameboard in mind to deny them the tiles they are looking for. This elegant design is what makes Castles of Burgundy currently one of our favorite mid-weight games.Note: full review of this game, including gameplay descriptions, bad puns, and a lot more pictures available at playbegins.com
Top reviews from other countries
Leandro C
Juego de mesa espectacular de 2 a 4 jugadores.
Reviewed in Spain on August 8, 2016