I know, there are already many reviews of this game. That`s why I hope to give some personal angle to this subject and not just another rulebook summary with comments.
I will break this review in sections and tie it all together in the end with some pros and cons.
One thing I would especially address is this atmosphere that lies over gaming table as you are playing a game designed by Stefan Feld. I will tell you more about that later. Let`s begin with the overall impressions and what comes in the box.
Box and insert
Game comes in Alea-Ravensburger big box with a layout in line with the other games of the series. Box art pictures French rural landscape with castles and a couple of noble renaissance-clothed fellows on the front.
To tell you the truth, I find this cover art so ghastly that I would rate it in the same place as the Harem-card in Dominion if you know what I mean ). If I didn`t know anything else about this game I wouldn`t buy it on the base of the box art. That is because I tend to give a great amount of stress for the atmosphere and visual side of the game. But as you say, never judge the book by its cover.
The insert holds everything in place and has enough sections to accommodate the bits and pieces. I think that this insert is generic Alea design but it doesn`t make any point to say that it was issue. I hold my components in zip lock bags and throw them in the box anyway. All the boards (including the spielbox-expansion boards), rulebooks and the actual game board fit snuggly under the lid. So no problems with the insert.
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Rulebook
The rulebook explains the game clearly and in logical order. There are many pictorial explanations and even a summary of the every rules section on the right paragraph to make it easier to refresh your memory if you happen to forget a rule. everything is there and in fine working order. Even so, I had hard time to understand the different phases and how some rules work in real life. Maybe it was the building-tiles and science tiles with all their symbols and bonus actions but it really took an mighty effort before I got the hang of it. On the other hand, when you start playing the game, it all just becomes crystal clear. Maybe I should have learned the rules by playing it simultaneously and not by reading the rulebook alone. Other reason might be that even I consider myself a fluent english-speaker and even teach it in elementary school, it still ain`t my mother tongue.
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Boards and components
At the first glance of the game board you can say that there is a lot going on. There are seven sections to place hex-tiles, places for the trade goods, bonus tile slots, first player track and around the board goes the victory point track. This game board is like a common supply or a store where you go shopping, and where all the book keeping takes place. Colour palette is very toned down with lots of beige and pastell colours. It ain`t pretty but does its job. The hexes should have brighter colours so they would pop and they would be easier to tell apart from each others. There is no text anywhere but symbols which tell you if you can buy a tile or if you must use a dice action to get what you need. I wouldn`t say it is in any means unattractive board, but only very suttle and dulce.
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Bits and pieces enclose a common die, personal dice for each player, two wooden markers for each player to do book keeping and a load of cardboard tiles. There are landscape tiles, bonus tiles, silverlings, worker tiles, trade goods tiles and discs to mark that you have collected over hundred vp.s. Nothing really great here. Tiles could be larger so they were easier to handle. Colors are toned down here too, symbols are small and can`t be comprehended without the rulebook. Symbolism isn`t exactly idiot proof so it is good that at least the player boards have pictorial references of the tile-symbols.
Oh yes, the player boards. There are lots of player boards with different layouts so you have to change your main strategy to fit the area placements of the individual board. Colours are brighter, there are player aids around the board so you can check some details without the rulebook (after you have taught yourself what the symbols mean). Boards are thin and flimsy so it might be a good option to laminate them to increase sturdiness. Overall, the best part of the game components is the player board and it is a good thing because you are going to stare at it a lot during the game.
Setting up the game is a cumbersome task at first but I made a habit to store all the matching tiles in their own bags and draw them on the board straight from the bags. It also shortens the resupply phases during the game.
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Gameplay
The Castles of Burgundy is an tile laying game with dice driven action selection mechanism. It allows 2-4 players and one game lasts around 25 to 30 minutes per player. I am usually forced to play this with two players but it is no problem because this game works fine with two. Many people even recommend CoB mainly for this player number.
The goal of the game is to win. You win if after five phases you are the won furthest on the victory point track. Victory points are mainly collected by two ways:
Purchasing and laying hex-tiles on your map and completing areas of certain color..
(Some hex-tiles also give you instant vp.s , others give you cumulative vp.s ( animals on fields) and some of the yellow tiles give vp.s at the final scoring.(
Collecting and trading away goods
Completing all the areas of the certain color from your map for a bonus tile that is worth points
As I told you there are five phases in the game. Each phase starts the same way: hex tiles are placed on the slots that match with the player abount. And trade goods of the phase are dealt on the round track from the phase track.
Each phase consists of five rounds. Round begins with dice rolls. Each player rolls two dies and the starting player rolls additional neutral die. The trade good of the round is moved on the slot with the same die value as in neutral die. Ok, so you have two dice, what can you do with them? Actually, almost anything! You can purchase tiles and place them in your personal supply, move them on your map from the supply, sell gods or trade a die for two workers that let you alter your die value. This is quite simple and easy to understand but there is a twist that makes this mechanism so elegant. If you place certain type tiles on your map it triggers an extra action. You can for example immediately place another tile, take trade goods from the game board, or even have an extra action of your choice. And if you have 2 silverlings lying around, you can once per turn buy an extra tile from the middle supply of the game board.
So five phases with five rounds each gives you of 25 turns and 50 basic actions you can perform. After the final round is over you turn your bonus-giving hexes and leftover resources into victory points and celebrate the winner. Easy, isn`t it?
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Review with pros and cons
There is something very intriquing in this game. You always have only two actions in your use but you are sometimes able to turn those actions into chain of combos. I wonder how it is even possible to create a mechanic so streamlined and minimalistic and at the same time very deep and complex. This game has layers. At first gkance it is extremely simple tile laying game but when you start to ponder your possibilities you enter the world of careful optimization. Every turn you have to balance between working towards your main strategy, seizing the opportunities and messing your partners game. Playing this game is more tactical than strategical in the sense that you must always pick the best moves at that given moment and it depends on your dice, amount of workers you possess, what your partners plan is and what kind of combos you can trigger.
Replayability is one of the strong points of the Castles of Burgundy. Random setup of tiles gives you different options to choose from, individual player boards make you chance your game style game to game, dice restrict your options and other players actions force you to do things that change also your plans in the midddle of the game. I told you that the dice restrict your choices but luckily there is a mechanism that lets you alter your dice values and I am talking about workers. If you spend a worker tile, it lets you change the value of a chosen die +1 or -1. More workers you can gather, the better chance you have to get what you want.
I am not the first to say this but CoB is an elegant game. You seldom play only one game but at least two in row. Even if you finish first you already start to think how you could have done even better. CoB is easy to learn and gets you hooked almost instantly. Phases advance forward like well greased mechanical pocket watch. It is hard to find anything bad to say of the game itself. It is so fun that you are happy to forgive its thematical dryness and horribly under the par artwork. This kind of games just are not about the theme but the gaming experience and the constant battle over every vp you can lay your hands on. I would be totally pleased if the components were bigger. Fiddling with these tiny cardboard pieces is somewhat clumsy.
The Feldian tension
I own two Feld games, Trajan and the Castles of Burgundy. Both have been instant hits and both have same kind of aura around them. From the moment you start to plan your strategy to the last possible move you will make you are sweating, you feel stressed, you fear, you hope, you plan, you pray. There is SO MUCH TENSION that at I am not comfortable just sitting around the table. Half of the game I am standing and trying to get the big picture. Room is so filled with suspension that you can cut it with a knife.
I don`t know how Stefan has achieved this but I am loving it. This is the experience and the rush I`ve always been looking for and basically the main reason I like to play board games. CoB makes you constantly ask yourself if you did the right move and fear if your adversary will mess your plans.
This tension must have something to do with this design philosophy where game is filled with different small races. In CoB there is a constant race for the best tiles, race to complete your areas before anyone else and a race for the place as a starting player. There are so many simultaneous competitions going on and you have to pick up where to fight and where to forfeit. Stefan Feld has created a formula that just clicks with my competitive instinct.
Pros:
- Immersive gameplay
- Elegant mechanisms
- Combo-actions that can be triggered
- Streamlined desing
- Tension and excitement
Cons:
-Aestethically under par
- Fiddly and tiny components give a feeling of low production value
cumbersome setup and supply phases break the flow of the game
- Theme is just a prop and doesn`t affect the gameplay
My rating for the Castles of Burgundy on BGG scale is 9 and I anticipate it to rise in the future. I still have to try this more to see how it stands the test of time. I recommend everyone to try this even once if you still haven`t. If you like it, you will know it instantly.
Thanks for reading this review. I hope that you enjoyed it.
-Tuomas-
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I will break this review in sections and tie it all together in the end with some pros and cons.
One thing I would especially address is this atmosphere that lies over gaming table as you are playing a game designed by Stefan Feld. I will tell you more about that later. Let`s begin with the overall impressions and what comes in the box.
Box and insert
Game comes in Alea-Ravensburger big box with a layout in line with the other games of the series. Box art pictures French rural landscape with castles and a couple of noble renaissance-clothed fellows on the front.
To tell you the truth, I find this cover art so ghastly that I would rate it in the same place as the Harem-card in Dominion if you know what I mean ). If I didn`t know anything else about this game I wouldn`t buy it on the base of the box art. That is because I tend to give a great amount of stress for the atmosphere and visual side of the game. But as you say, never judge the book by its cover.
The insert holds everything in place and has enough sections to accommodate the bits and pieces. I think that this insert is generic Alea design but it doesn`t make any point to say that it was issue. I hold my components in zip lock bags and throw them in the box anyway. All the boards (including the spielbox-expansion boards), rulebooks and the actual game board fit snuggly under the lid. So no problems with the insert.
Rulebook
The rulebook explains the game clearly and in logical order. There are many pictorial explanations and even a summary of the every rules section on the right paragraph to make it easier to refresh your memory if you happen to forget a rule. everything is there and in fine working order. Even so, I had hard time to understand the different phases and how some rules work in real life. Maybe it was the building-tiles and science tiles with all their symbols and bonus actions but it really took an mighty effort before I got the hang of it. On the other hand, when you start playing the game, it all just becomes crystal clear. Maybe I should have learned the rules by playing it simultaneously and not by reading the rulebook alone. Other reason might be that even I consider myself a fluent english-speaker and even teach it in elementary school, it still ain`t my mother tongue.
Boards and components
At the first glance of the game board you can say that there is a lot going on. There are seven sections to place hex-tiles, places for the trade goods, bonus tile slots, first player track and around the board goes the victory point track. This game board is like a common supply or a store where you go shopping, and where all the book keeping takes place. Colour palette is very toned down with lots of beige and pastell colours. It ain`t pretty but does its job. The hexes should have brighter colours so they would pop and they would be easier to tell apart from each others. There is no text anywhere but symbols which tell you if you can buy a tile or if you must use a dice action to get what you need. I wouldn`t say it is in any means unattractive board, but only very suttle and dulce.
Bits and pieces enclose a common die, personal dice for each player, two wooden markers for each player to do book keeping and a load of cardboard tiles. There are landscape tiles, bonus tiles, silverlings, worker tiles, trade goods tiles and discs to mark that you have collected over hundred vp.s. Nothing really great here. Tiles could be larger so they were easier to handle. Colors are toned down here too, symbols are small and can`t be comprehended without the rulebook. Symbolism isn`t exactly idiot proof so it is good that at least the player boards have pictorial references of the tile-symbols.
Oh yes, the player boards. There are lots of player boards with different layouts so you have to change your main strategy to fit the area placements of the individual board. Colours are brighter, there are player aids around the board so you can check some details without the rulebook (after you have taught yourself what the symbols mean). Boards are thin and flimsy so it might be a good option to laminate them to increase sturdiness. Overall, the best part of the game components is the player board and it is a good thing because you are going to stare at it a lot during the game.
Setting up the game is a cumbersome task at first but I made a habit to store all the matching tiles in their own bags and draw them on the board straight from the bags. It also shortens the resupply phases during the game.
Gameplay
The Castles of Burgundy is an tile laying game with dice driven action selection mechanism. It allows 2-4 players and one game lasts around 25 to 30 minutes per player. I am usually forced to play this with two players but it is no problem because this game works fine with two. Many people even recommend CoB mainly for this player number.
The goal of the game is to win. You win if after five phases you are the won furthest on the victory point track. Victory points are mainly collected by two ways:
Purchasing and laying hex-tiles on your map and completing areas of certain color..
(Some hex-tiles also give you instant vp.s , others give you cumulative vp.s ( animals on fields) and some of the yellow tiles give vp.s at the final scoring.(
Collecting and trading away goods
Completing all the areas of the certain color from your map for a bonus tile that is worth points
As I told you there are five phases in the game. Each phase starts the same way: hex tiles are placed on the slots that match with the player abount. And trade goods of the phase are dealt on the round track from the phase track.
Each phase consists of five rounds. Round begins with dice rolls. Each player rolls two dies and the starting player rolls additional neutral die. The trade good of the round is moved on the slot with the same die value as in neutral die. Ok, so you have two dice, what can you do with them? Actually, almost anything! You can purchase tiles and place them in your personal supply, move them on your map from the supply, sell gods or trade a die for two workers that let you alter your die value. This is quite simple and easy to understand but there is a twist that makes this mechanism so elegant. If you place certain type tiles on your map it triggers an extra action. You can for example immediately place another tile, take trade goods from the game board, or even have an extra action of your choice. And if you have 2 silverlings lying around, you can once per turn buy an extra tile from the middle supply of the game board.
So five phases with five rounds each gives you of 25 turns and 50 basic actions you can perform. After the final round is over you turn your bonus-giving hexes and leftover resources into victory points and celebrate the winner. Easy, isn`t it?
Review with pros and cons
There is something very intriquing in this game. You always have only two actions in your use but you are sometimes able to turn those actions into chain of combos. I wonder how it is even possible to create a mechanic so streamlined and minimalistic and at the same time very deep and complex. This game has layers. At first gkance it is extremely simple tile laying game but when you start to ponder your possibilities you enter the world of careful optimization. Every turn you have to balance between working towards your main strategy, seizing the opportunities and messing your partners game. Playing this game is more tactical than strategical in the sense that you must always pick the best moves at that given moment and it depends on your dice, amount of workers you possess, what your partners plan is and what kind of combos you can trigger.
Replayability is one of the strong points of the Castles of Burgundy. Random setup of tiles gives you different options to choose from, individual player boards make you chance your game style game to game, dice restrict your options and other players actions force you to do things that change also your plans in the midddle of the game. I told you that the dice restrict your choices but luckily there is a mechanism that lets you alter your dice values and I am talking about workers. If you spend a worker tile, it lets you change the value of a chosen die +1 or -1. More workers you can gather, the better chance you have to get what you want.
I am not the first to say this but CoB is an elegant game. You seldom play only one game but at least two in row. Even if you finish first you already start to think how you could have done even better. CoB is easy to learn and gets you hooked almost instantly. Phases advance forward like well greased mechanical pocket watch. It is hard to find anything bad to say of the game itself. It is so fun that you are happy to forgive its thematical dryness and horribly under the par artwork. This kind of games just are not about the theme but the gaming experience and the constant battle over every vp you can lay your hands on. I would be totally pleased if the components were bigger. Fiddling with these tiny cardboard pieces is somewhat clumsy.
The Feldian tension
I own two Feld games, Trajan and the Castles of Burgundy. Both have been instant hits and both have same kind of aura around them. From the moment you start to plan your strategy to the last possible move you will make you are sweating, you feel stressed, you fear, you hope, you plan, you pray. There is SO MUCH TENSION that at I am not comfortable just sitting around the table. Half of the game I am standing and trying to get the big picture. Room is so filled with suspension that you can cut it with a knife.
I don`t know how Stefan has achieved this but I am loving it. This is the experience and the rush I`ve always been looking for and basically the main reason I like to play board games. CoB makes you constantly ask yourself if you did the right move and fear if your adversary will mess your plans.
This tension must have something to do with this design philosophy where game is filled with different small races. In CoB there is a constant race for the best tiles, race to complete your areas before anyone else and a race for the place as a starting player. There are so many simultaneous competitions going on and you have to pick up where to fight and where to forfeit. Stefan Feld has created a formula that just clicks with my competitive instinct.
Pros:
- Immersive gameplay
- Elegant mechanisms
- Combo-actions that can be triggered
- Streamlined desing
- Tension and excitement
Cons:
-Aestethically under par
- Fiddly and tiny components give a feeling of low production value
cumbersome setup and supply phases break the flow of the game
- Theme is just a prop and doesn`t affect the gameplay
My rating for the Castles of Burgundy on BGG scale is 9 and I anticipate it to rise in the future. I still have to try this more to see how it stands the test of time. I recommend everyone to try this even once if you still haven`t. If you like it, you will know it instantly.
Thanks for reading this review. I hope that you enjoyed it.
-Tuomas-
