Ravensburger Castles of Burgundy

Product Information

It really is like a puzzle, but where you have specific aims – to complete a region, gain bonuses, finish your estate first and of course score points. There are no lost turns or dead ends; you can always achieve something every turn. You are very much in control of the game, and unlike with many other dice games there’s not too much randomness. If it is the first animal tile of that type placed in the pasture then the tile simply scores points for the number of animals on that tile. If another tile or tiles with that animal on it is already in the pasture, the player scores the tile they have just placed along with all of the same type of animal tile already placed in the pasture.

But, don’t focus on one area to the exclusion of all others. Sometimes, the dice rolls just won’t be right for what you really want. Don’t forget you need to build your estate and get most points to win. So whilst you may want to focus on getting a few small areas done early on, don’t do this to the exclusion of all else. Otherwise, you may find that you run out of turns to build some of the larger areas of tiles on your board. Remember, these are worth a lot of points too. The game turns are somewhat simple in The Castles of Burgundy. At the start of each round, each player rolls 2 6-sided dice. The numbers that come up will let the player know which numbered supply they are allowed to pull resources from that turn. Each die counts as 1 action. After each player has used both of their dice, their turn ends and the next round begins. As much as I love high-res and gorgeously detailed artwork there are certain games where it really isn’t necessary, and The Castles of Burgundy is one of them. It’s all those lush hexagons forming your (possibly) glorious estate that make it a joy. Church – the player may take a grey mine, yellow knowledge or dark green castle tile from any numbered depot and add it to their supply; Depending on the number on the card, the player will perform one of six actions. It is then the next player’s turn. After all players have completed a turn, the turn ends. Each player will draw the next action card, so that they have two cards in their hand. Play continues like this until the last turn of the round.Each player then takes a player board. If this is your first time playing, it is recommended that all players use the boards marked with a one. If you have played a few times you may want to mix things up by using player boards two to nine. Each player takes a dark green castle token. On board number one this is placed on the dark green space with a six in the centre of the board. If you are using one of the other boards you may choose which dark green space to place your castle tile on. Play in 2-player teams. Team members should sit next to each other. All rules from the original game apply except for the following changes:

In addition, depending on which phase the region completed in, players will earn bonus points. A region completed in phase A will get 10 bonus points, whereas a region completed in phase E will get 2 bonus points. There are different bonuses associated with placing tiles of different colours. These are set out further below. The cover art is perfectly reminiscent of medieval France and definitely has that familiar Euro game feel about it. The artwork within the game may be simplistic but it’s certainly vibrant – every time I photograph my plays it just pops. Take worker tiles. A player can grab 2 worker tiles from the supply. Worker tiles are helpful because they allow a player to alter the rolls of his action dice. Usually + or – 1 number. Helpful if you rolled a 5 and you really wanted a 6.My only criticisms really are the same as in the original version. The iconography on some of the tiles is a) tiny, and b) hard to decipher. Sure, once you’ve played it a few times, there’s no problem, and they’ve made a huge improvement by adding player aids which explain them better. For those first few games though, keep the rule book to one side to refer to it. Most of the expansions are extra tiles for the main game. There’s one that allows you to use the neutral white dice for an action, there’s a new type of cattle that act as a wild, there’s wild buildings that increase the number of points gained for each section you complete, and even tiles that allow you to use any special building ability. Once you know the game you can just lob them in with the main game without any extra rules overhead. We never play without them now. There’s a lot of game in the box. The expansions really are mini-expansions that only change small things in the core game, but they do add new hexes and mechanics. There are also so many double-sided player boards in the box that it’s impossible to create a strategy that would cover all of them. I’ve owned the original since it was released, and I still play it, and I still enjoy every game, regardless of it being two, three or four players.

Had my regular Cthulhu Wars crew over today. We usually try to start with something else (we've been playing a fair amount of Tiny Epic Crimes lately) and when talking about a couple other games, I... You each start with silver and workers, with the amount depending on start player, and you’re good to go. The game consists of five phases over five rounds. Each phase, all players roll two dice of their chosen colour, with the start player rolling the white die as well. This die indicates the depot where the goods on the phase spaces will go.It is important to remember that you can only have three types of good on your board at any one time. If you cannot store all of the goods from the chosen depot, as you do not have space on your board; you simply leave any goods you cannot store on the depot space.