Description

Stefan Feld is a designer who is known for the ‘point salad’ style of game. That is, a game where there are lots of ways to get points, and all of them feel like they are viable for winning strategies. The Castles of Burgundy is not only his most well-known but arguably his best too.

The game sees you taking a player board full of hexes that make up the terrain you will be adding to. These hexes are in certain colours and have a numbered dice on. This dictates what type of thing you can build there, and what numeric value dice you must use to do so. In fact, pretty much every action is linked to the numeric value of the dice that you use. At the start of your turn you will roll two dice which will dictate what you can do. Of course, there are ways to mitigate this, but it creates a nice little puzzle for you to solve. You are never left with nothing to do, just things which might not be as optimal for you.

Around the board are six number areas when you can choose one of two randomised things to build, be it animal pens, castles, buildings, mines or upgrade powers. Each of these need to be placed on your board to activate but you’ll need another die to do that. If you specialise you could well fill out one of the coloured areas for bonus points and in typical Feld style more points are available, the earlier you do this.

Castles of Burgundy is, or should be, a modern classic. Although somewhat ugly, and with average components, the gameplay is rich and full of decisions and meat to go with that point salad.

Player Count: 2-4
Time: 30-90 Minutes
Age: 12+