Game: The Castles of Burgundy
Designer: Stefan Feld
Publisher: Alea & Ravensburger
# of Players: 2-4
Approx. Running Time: 90 minutes
Style: Euro Territory Building
Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Tile Placement
Publisher Description: The game is set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France. Each player takes on the role of an aristocrat, originally controlling a small princedom. While playing they aim to build settlements and powerful castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, and use the knowledge of travellers.
The game is about placing settlement tiles into the princedom. Every tile has a function that starts when the tile is placed. The princedom itself consists of several regions, each of which demands its own settlement tile.
The core game mechanism involves two dice. The pips show the kind of action the players are allowed to do (example: roll a 2 and a 5: using the 2 the player buys a watch tower and places it on a 5 city tile which triggers the function of the tower with additional advantages).
It is also possible to influence the dice, so the player is not completely subject to luck.
Scott’s Thoughts: The Castles of Burgundy title forms a nice middle ground between what board gamers have come to know as “Euro” and “Ameritrash.” While utilizing the charm and strategy of Euro style games, it also gives a small factor of randomness by relying on the use of dice. Thankfully, this randomness is mitigated by the wide range of choices you are offered as well as in-game mechanics that can broaden the effectiveness of your die rolls. There’s lots of iconography that can seem intimidating to new players, but trust me when I say that the vast majority of it is intuitive and easy to remember, even on your first play. The Castles of Burgundy has very solid strategy elements, and is a brilliant entrance into the world of euro games while still maintaining dice for those who love to roll ‘em.
BGG Entry: The Castles of Burgundy
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