As we don our women's slacks and prepare for another night around the Game Board, we look at Castles of Burgundy by the current golden child of board game design - Stefan Feld. Hexagonal tiles, rolling dice and building in the Medieval French countryside. Who could ask for more?
With Essen only a few weeks away and a whole bunch of new Eurogames ready to explode off printers' machines around the world, I've taken to looking through my collection and consider paring it down a little. Of course, as gamers, we know that this will never happen - it's true that I give away a fair few of the games that are sent to me, but the majority of them are absorbed into an ever growing stack that has recently begun to infect a third room in our house. The prides of the collection though? They all live in what is laughably referred to as our home's second bedroom, an area that could theoretically fit a bed, but nothing else would go in there. Instead, I have my tiny desk, my computer, and some precarious looking shelving units that hold my favourites.
As I've been gazing at them (and the list that is stuck to my wall of what I've written about here on EN World), it strikes me that I've not looked at anything by one of the most noted designers around today - Stefan Feld. This is a travesty and will be rectified today as we check out the ever wonderful Castles of Burgundy. As the kind of thing that you'd undoubtedly see on Game Board, it's the very definition of a high quality Eurogame, with a wealth of options at your disposal as you try to accrue the most points over the space of five rounds. If you are to win, you'll have to dip into almost every facet of the game, not just focus on one or two ways of scoring and hope to hit big. Castles of Burgundy rewards those who indulge a little in a lot of areas.
At the start of play, each player is given a board made up of thirty seven hexagonal spaces, that have been shaped into a larger hexagon that represents where you're trying to build. A central board is filled with tiles that are split into six groups and refreshed at the beginning at each of the game’s rounds. By rolling two dice at the beginning of your turn, you’re given the chance to use whatever you roll and pick up a tile from that area – so, roll a 2 and you get to choose something from the space marked with the same number. Of course, if there's nothing on that space, you're left with nothing.
Taking a tile doesn't see it added to your board immediately. Instead, you'll have to store it in one of the three spaces found at the bottom left of your playmat before using another of your dice to make it become a part of your domain. Plenty of planning is requires as each hex on your board also has a number from one to six, and while you may initially think that this is extremely limiting, there are ways around it. Players have worker tiles that can be spent to add or subtract from whatever you rolled, allowing for a bit of manipulation, but you'll also see that as the game progresses your opportunities increase too.
These tiles aren't just there to fill space, however. Each one grants the placing player a little in-game boost or way to permanently skew the rules in your favour. Grey tiles represent mines, giving you an extra coin at the start of each phase that can be spend on a selection of other tiles found in the centre of the central board. Yellows give powerful bonuses, screwing with the rules and hopefully giving you an edge. Greens are highly valuable farm animals whose points stack should you keep adding the same species to a single area.
The Blue tiles bring boats to your rivers, allowing you to take goods from the central board that can be saved or sold off; the more you collect of the same type and sell in one go, the higher the points return. The Dark Green Castles are incredibly powerful (essentially giving you a free action to do whatever you please) and should be used wisely, especially as you only have space for three of them on your player board. What you'll generally be using though are the Brown tiles - these offer the widest choice as each building represented gives you a different ability.
Some bestow money or extra workers on you, while others allow for the immediate grab of another tile from the board or the placement of extra ones to your play area. What you'll be looking to do is build a chain of these, each one triggering a different ability that will end up transforming your two standard actions into a barrage of extra moves, seeing you add tile after tile to your board while other players look on and wonder precisely how they let you get away with putting together such a ridiculous string of moves. Castles of Burgundy can prove incredibly satisfying...
Almost everything in the game can bring in those much needed points. Whether you're increasing your herd or selling off goods, finishing areas of land or just plain building up your funds, you'll need to multitask and keep track of everything that’s going on, not just on your own board, but also what's occurring on the central one. Pulling off this trick is key to success in the game, especially when you have two entirely different random elements to face - the dice rolls and the random allocation of tiles at the start of the round. To get through this, you'll need to become adaptable - a necessary requirement in pretty much all of Stefan Feld's releases - so if you find that one approach going well for you, don't be afraid to switch things up a little. Remember, it'll also keep your opponents on their toes!
Now, while there are many options in Castles of Burgundy and it may take a few games to get into, I'd still insist that it's not a game for everyone. There's not a huge amount of interaction - sure, you've got plenty of chances to steal tiles from under the noses of everyone else that they might have wanted, but it really ends there. Your focus is on your board, improving and increasing however you can while taking the best that's on offer in the middle of the table. Like all games designed by Stefan Feld, there always seems to be this reverential hush that descends over the table when we play around ours and players' gears start ticking away in their heads and they attempt to make everything work. However, you won't be able to do that - and the sooner you realise that, the better. Do your best. Make whatever you can work. That is all you can do in this brilliant, brain breaking game.
Ever tried out Castles of Burgundy yourself? How about any of Stefan Feld's other releases like Trajan or the excellent Bora Bora? Speak your brains here!
With Essen only a few weeks away and a whole bunch of new Eurogames ready to explode off printers' machines around the world, I've taken to looking through my collection and consider paring it down a little. Of course, as gamers, we know that this will never happen - it's true that I give away a fair few of the games that are sent to me, but the majority of them are absorbed into an ever growing stack that has recently begun to infect a third room in our house. The prides of the collection though? They all live in what is laughably referred to as our home's second bedroom, an area that could theoretically fit a bed, but nothing else would go in there. Instead, I have my tiny desk, my computer, and some precarious looking shelving units that hold my favourites.
As I've been gazing at them (and the list that is stuck to my wall of what I've written about here on EN World), it strikes me that I've not looked at anything by one of the most noted designers around today - Stefan Feld. This is a travesty and will be rectified today as we check out the ever wonderful Castles of Burgundy. As the kind of thing that you'd undoubtedly see on Game Board, it's the very definition of a high quality Eurogame, with a wealth of options at your disposal as you try to accrue the most points over the space of five rounds. If you are to win, you'll have to dip into almost every facet of the game, not just focus on one or two ways of scoring and hope to hit big. Castles of Burgundy rewards those who indulge a little in a lot of areas.
At the start of play, each player is given a board made up of thirty seven hexagonal spaces, that have been shaped into a larger hexagon that represents where you're trying to build. A central board is filled with tiles that are split into six groups and refreshed at the beginning at each of the game’s rounds. By rolling two dice at the beginning of your turn, you’re given the chance to use whatever you roll and pick up a tile from that area – so, roll a 2 and you get to choose something from the space marked with the same number. Of course, if there's nothing on that space, you're left with nothing.
Taking a tile doesn't see it added to your board immediately. Instead, you'll have to store it in one of the three spaces found at the bottom left of your playmat before using another of your dice to make it become a part of your domain. Plenty of planning is requires as each hex on your board also has a number from one to six, and while you may initially think that this is extremely limiting, there are ways around it. Players have worker tiles that can be spent to add or subtract from whatever you rolled, allowing for a bit of manipulation, but you'll also see that as the game progresses your opportunities increase too.
These tiles aren't just there to fill space, however. Each one grants the placing player a little in-game boost or way to permanently skew the rules in your favour. Grey tiles represent mines, giving you an extra coin at the start of each phase that can be spend on a selection of other tiles found in the centre of the central board. Yellows give powerful bonuses, screwing with the rules and hopefully giving you an edge. Greens are highly valuable farm animals whose points stack should you keep adding the same species to a single area.
The Blue tiles bring boats to your rivers, allowing you to take goods from the central board that can be saved or sold off; the more you collect of the same type and sell in one go, the higher the points return. The Dark Green Castles are incredibly powerful (essentially giving you a free action to do whatever you please) and should be used wisely, especially as you only have space for three of them on your player board. What you'll generally be using though are the Brown tiles - these offer the widest choice as each building represented gives you a different ability.
Some bestow money or extra workers on you, while others allow for the immediate grab of another tile from the board or the placement of extra ones to your play area. What you'll be looking to do is build a chain of these, each one triggering a different ability that will end up transforming your two standard actions into a barrage of extra moves, seeing you add tile after tile to your board while other players look on and wonder precisely how they let you get away with putting together such a ridiculous string of moves. Castles of Burgundy can prove incredibly satisfying...
Almost everything in the game can bring in those much needed points. Whether you're increasing your herd or selling off goods, finishing areas of land or just plain building up your funds, you'll need to multitask and keep track of everything that’s going on, not just on your own board, but also what's occurring on the central one. Pulling off this trick is key to success in the game, especially when you have two entirely different random elements to face - the dice rolls and the random allocation of tiles at the start of the round. To get through this, you'll need to become adaptable - a necessary requirement in pretty much all of Stefan Feld's releases - so if you find that one approach going well for you, don't be afraid to switch things up a little. Remember, it'll also keep your opponents on their toes!
Now, while there are many options in Castles of Burgundy and it may take a few games to get into, I'd still insist that it's not a game for everyone. There's not a huge amount of interaction - sure, you've got plenty of chances to steal tiles from under the noses of everyone else that they might have wanted, but it really ends there. Your focus is on your board, improving and increasing however you can while taking the best that's on offer in the middle of the table. Like all games designed by Stefan Feld, there always seems to be this reverential hush that descends over the table when we play around ours and players' gears start ticking away in their heads and they attempt to make everything work. However, you won't be able to do that - and the sooner you realise that, the better. Do your best. Make whatever you can work. That is all you can do in this brilliant, brain breaking game.
Ever tried out Castles of Burgundy yourself? How about any of Stefan Feld's other releases like Trajan or the excellent Bora Bora? Speak your brains here!
