Castles of Burgundy

Hello there, First name / friend! I hope you're staying warm. Playing games is the perfect thing to do on these cold winter nights. We've been playing a whole bunch of games these past few weeks. My husband had a birthday this week, which meant I used it as an excuse to add more games to our collection. 🙈 So we've been busy learning those. 

 

I'm sure I'll talk about some of them throughout the year, but this week my focus is on an old favorite. In fact, since we've bought this game, a new version has been released. The concept is the exact same, you'll just get updated graphics and expansions included with the new copy.

 

All that said, here is Castles of Burgundy. It's a medium strategy game for 2-4 players. A medium strategy game probably shouldn't be your first choice into “modern” games, but if you love games like Ticket to Ride and want something with a little more strategy to it, this is perfect. It takes about 75-90 minutes. Above is an example of my board at the end of the game. Now let's go through what you do to get there.

The left picture is my “princedom”. Each player will get their own mat and choose where they want to place their dark green tile. The one I'm using is the suggested mat for your first play. Notice the various colors and the dice symbols on the mat.

 

The middle picture is the central game board. Notice the hexagons have numbers 2, 3, 4 on them. This shows which hexes need covered with tiles to start each phase. The rightmost picture shows how we covered up all of the 2s. Now we are ready to start the game.

 

I don't want to throw too many details at you, as you can read those for yourself in the rulebook to gain more understanding. Let's just go over the basics.

On the start of your turn, you'll roll your two dice. Those dice will give you a few options. 

1. You can take a hex from the central board corresponding to one of your dice. That goes into your staging area, the 3 spots on the lower left of your board (shown on the right picture)

2. You can place a hex into your princedom that corresponds with one of your dice. Then you take any bonuses that may apply. Each color represents a different bonus.

3. You can deliver goods with a matching die. These are the orange, brown, and purple squares on the top left of my mat shown on the right. This gives you a bonus.

4. Or you can trade a dice in for 2 worker tokens. These let you adjust a die by +/-1. 

 

After you use your 2 dice, it will be the next player's turn. You'll make 5 rounds like this, then reset the board for the next phase. You'll play 5 phases and then the game is over. You'll add up any additional victory points and determine a winner. 

 

For a more detailed video from my favorite tutorial guy, check out Rodney here.

 

This is one of my favorite styles of board games. You have to make some decisions and go in with a strategy and hope it works out. Other players' moves will impact your decisions, but you are still playing your own game. It's a fun style to explore if you haven't yet. 

 

What have you been playing lately?

Happy playing!

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