Game Review – The Castles of Burgundy

The Castles of Burgundy
Number of Players	2 - 4
Play Time	90 minutes
Ages	12 years and up

If you are looking for a territory management game that is easy to learn but is complex enough to keep most armchair strategist entertained, The Castles of Burgundy may be the game for you.

The Castles of Burgundy is a territory development game that plays 2 – 4 players.  The theme is that the players take the roles of aristocrats that are each in charge of a territory in Burgundy during the Medieval period.  They are required to develop the regions of their territories in order to become the most power aristocrat in Burgundy.

The players start with a hexagonal territory where each side of the hex has six small hexes on it and the play space is filled with hexes as well.  The hexes are divided into six different terrain types that are grouped together into different regions of the same terrain type.  While there are player boards where the regions are set up exactly the same, we played with boards that had varied layouts.

Players develop their territory rolling a pair of dice and using the results of each die to select improvements from options on the board.  There are ways to modify the results of the roll so the random element does not prevent the player from doing something that can help them improve their position.

Each terrain type has a limited selection of tiles that can be placed in it.  This mean that each player must plan a number of turns ahead in order to make sure they get certain improvements before the other players do.  The player who can develop their lands and trade the best wins the game.

One of the things that I like about The Castles of Burgundy is that there is more than one path to victory.  However even after you choose your strategy you still need to be mindful of the other ways that the game can be won in order to slow the other players’ progress.

The Castles of Burgundy is also one of the few territory development games that appears to avoid the rich getting richer problems that many of this type of game has.  The leaders do not get so far ahead of the other players during the game that it becomes deterministic and everyone goes through the motions for the last quarter of a game.  In The Castles of Burgundy the score is close enough throughout the game that anyone could win.

If you are a person that likes to play economic, territory management, or worker placement games, then you should definitely try out The Castles of Burgundy.  I find it much more enjoyable than games like Agricola and Puerto Rico because you do not have to commit so much time to them and the rules are so much simpler to grasp so you do not feel like an idiot when learning the game from experienced players and can be playing your own position well within the first few turns.