One of the best Euro games is Stefan Feld’s Castles of Burgundy. PERIOD. Not up for debate; the awards, accolades and flat out rating speak for itself. It’s rated an 8.1 out of 10 and sitting at 15 of the top 100 overall boardgames for 10 years on boardganegeek.com, 10 years!! Castles of Burgundy is a tile-laying game with a dice rolling mechanic for 1-4 players from Alea and published by Ravensburger.
In castles, players are Dukes in 15th Century France and are attempting to make their province (duchy) the best and earn the most victory points. Castles is played in a series of 5 rounds over 5 turns per round. Players use dice to acquire land, buildings, ships, and mines to add to their duchy, completing regions and earning points. At the end of the fifth round, the player with the most victory points, wins.
To start, place the mainboard out on the side that matches the player count. Next, take all of the tiles, and separate them by their colored backs into face-down stacks. Take the goods tiles and place them all face down. Next, build 5 stacks of 5 goods tiles and place them in the A-E spaces on the board. Take the 5 goods tiles from the A space and place one in each space of the turn area.
Give each player a player mat, making sure all players use the same side, 2 dice, 2 markers in their color, 1 silverling, and 3 random goods from the remaining good tiles. Once each player has 3 goods, return the remaining goods to the box. Each player takes one castle and places it in a castle space on their player mat. Determine the first player and give them two workers. The first player will take the white die and place a marker in the first space of the bridge on the main board. The second player will take 3 workers and place his marker on top of the first players on the bridge and so on. The player whose marker is first or on the bottom will be the first player for the next turn. Certain tiles can affect the player order on the bridge. Each turn, the first player will roll the white die and set the next good for that turn to the matching storehouse.
From the face-down piles, take one tile and place one in each space of each warehouse on the game board; placing the black tiles in the center area. The first player will roll their dice and the white die. The player will take the good from the first turn space and place it in the warehouse matching the number on the white die. Then place the white die aside. From the player’s roll, they may take one action per die.
The actions are; purchase a tile from the warehouse corresponding to the die roll, place a purchased tile into their duchy, gain workers or sell goods. They can also spend 2 silver to purchase any tile from the center black tiles. When a tile is purchased, it goes into the storage area on their player mat. A player can only have 3 tiles at a time in their storage area. To place a tile, they take a tile-matching the number and color on their player mat. Black tiles can go on any space matching the color. A tile must be placed adjacent to another tile already on their mat. For example, when the game starts, the only tile a player has is their castle, so their first tile can be placed in one of the six spaces adjacent to their castle.
Tiles can either be fields, buildings, mines, ships, or monasteries. When a player places a tile, they earn a bonus based on the color and type. There are several types of bonuses and can be referenced in the rule book. When a player completes an area of colored tiles, they also earn a bonus based on the round and the number of tiles the area is. Certain tiles, like a mine, can provide a continuing bonus, like an extra silver each round. In addition, if a player completes all of the colored tiles on their mat, they earn additional bonus victory points based on the player count.
At the end of each round, all remaining tiles and goods are removed, and the next set of five goods are placed and refill the tiles with new ones from the stack. In addition, each player receives one silver for each mine they have. The game continues until the end of the fifth round when the final scoring is done. Each unsold good, silver coin and two workers remaining earns 1 victory point,
Workers either add 1 or subtract one from a die roll, changing a six to a one or a 3 to a 4. Players can use more than one worker to modify the dice roll. This reduces the randomness of dice rolls and gives players a way to modify a roll.
Planning and using the tiles provided, is a big part of the strategy in this game. The dice can be modified using workers so the real challenge is working with the tiles that are available. Players should not just focus on one color or tile type, but build their duchy on their die rolls and workers. Having a steady source of silver gives players the ability to buy the black tiles, which can be a critical part of completing an area.
There is a reason that this game has earned all of the awards and high ratings on Board Game Geek. It is a great blend of dice and strategy. The special 10th-anniversary edition, released last year, includes the expansions as well as the upgraded colored board and player mats. This game has proven the test of time and provides a wonderful and challenging gaming experience for both new and seasoned gamers. It is certainly one Euro that deserves space on your shelf.
Written by Ed Carter
Even Conroy
Ron Peterson