Castles of Burgundy Deluxe Edition Review
When I first played Castles of Burgundy, I quipped it should be named Castles of Beige. The board was so… beige, and the tiles were so… beige. I know this attribute is historically associated with Euro style games, but the first edition was arguably the epitome of the term!
The game was good, and so I invested in the refreshed ‘New Edition’, the looks of which were criticised by many. I grew to like it though. I played these early versions over a dozen times, so when a new totally blinged version was announced by Awaken Realms, I was invested, both in interest terms and financially during the crowdfunding campaign. I went heavy. Now the dust has settled on its delivery in 2023, I thought I would share my thoughts on this deluxe version of the classic.
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Setup
Lift the weighty box to the table, and unfurl the board (or unroll your fancy pants playmat if you got one), be sure it is on the correct side for the number of players. Allocate each player a colour, give them a board, a castle tile or miniature, two dice and three random market tiles, and place their scoring marker and turn order tracker on the relevant slots on the main board. Decide or randomly select the number of the player board insert. Also give each player an amount of worker tokens according to their position in turn order.
The main board needs stocking with the coloured tiles going on their spaces. Goods tiles need to be divvied up into five piles of five and stacked on the relevant places. One of these stacks then needs to be flipped face up and spread into the matching area. In addition, the bonus scoring tiles need to be organised and placed on the board too.
Put coins and workers in an easy to reach location and remaining tiles to one side ready for restocking on the next round. Each player chooses where to place their starting castle and you are pretty much good to go.
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Gameplay
The first player rolls the white dice and places a goods tile in that market on the main board. Then, everyone rolls their two dice so they can plan their move. The dice can either be used to buy tiles from the main board and place them in the holding area of their player board, or place a tile in this depot into their realm. Dice can also be used to sell goods, or gain two workers.
The pip value of the dice dictate where and what you can do. All land tiles, spaces and market tiles carry a pip value and you’ll need to match this to utilise whatever it is you want to do. Spending a worker allows you to modify the die value up or down by one.
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With your starting castle placed, all tiles need to be placed adjacent to tiles already placed, thus stemming from your original castle. Over the course of the game you will be gathering tiles and placing them in your kingdom to gain placement bonuses. You will also gain points for completing a region of the same colour tile, the bigger the region and the earlier you complete it the more points you will earn. If you complete all the regions of one colour you claim the associated bonus scoring tile too.
Each colour tile gives a different bonus, but you can discover what each of those do for yourself.
Points will also come from placing certain tiles, selling market tiles, as well as points for left over coins and workers.
The game is played over five rounds of five phases, with a variable turn order. The player with the most points at the end of the game, wins!
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What it’s like
Castles of Burgundy is an absolute delight of a game. You always have the luck of the dice to contend with, yet there are usually options available that will help, even if they aren’t ideal, plus there are ways of mitigating the luck with workers.
Although there isn’t much direct interaction between players, you will certainly be hoping others don’t take the tiles you want from the central pool. If you are that kind of player, there is often the option to hate draft. Sometimes, even if you aren’t that sort of player, you will want to snaffle something that is just too beneficial to your opponents. Of course, you would never see me stealing the cows wanted by another player if I didn’t need them myself – that would be mean!
One of my favourite things about Castles of Burgundy is how placing tiles can cascade actions, triggering these at just the right moment is satisfying and a key part of the game. I also like how there are many different strategies that can win.
There is some expansions in the box, including one entirely new one. I never play with any of these so you’ll have to look elsewhere if you want to know more about them! I just don’t feel like the game needs more.
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Table Presence
So while the original version was oh too beige, the second edition zinged things up a bit. It was more colourful, but faults with the size of numbers on the yellow temple tiles were almost impossible to see, and although I now wear reading glasses I know from other people’s feedback, it wasn’t my eyes that were the problem! It was a step in the right direction and I was fond of my copy. Yet it was perhaps not the wowsy improvement some fans were hoping for.
The Awaken Realms version certainly offers the glitz and glamour with optional extras dripping from the Gamefound crowdfunding campaign!
My only issue is that I blinged up everything, I went for the playmat, acrylic tiles and even the sundropped minis. All that was arguably a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, they are all gorgeous and I am contradictorily pleased I have them, so hear me out. The playmat is lovely, but it would’ve been lovelier if they could’ve found a home for this in the box. The acrylic tiles are stupidly satisfying, but don’t fit properly in the box either as it is designed for the cardboard tiles. They also make things like the yellow temple tiles very hard to distinguish with the naked eye (the cardboard versions have a description printed on the back).
Finally, the minis, these are splendiferous, especially if you don’t mind ignoring scale. Because if you mind your cows being the same size as your warehouses, then they are a little less perfect! There is also a rule that the brown building tiles can never match in a single region. Having the minis makes checking this rule ten times harder.
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So I guess my grumble is that it is all magnificent, BUT, they don’t actually make the game easier to play, and therefore it could be argued that they really aren’t necessary.
I rarely play with the minis and I have cobbled together a way the storage solution can kinda work, but it is far from ideal and I just feel if making the best-ever version, these things should’ve really been thought about more.
I say all that, but I still absolutely love, love, love how it looks on the table. The score markers, turn order markers, metal coins, are fantastic highlights to quash my quibbles.
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Final thoughts on Castles of Burgundy Deluxe Edition
Castles of Burgundy is one of my favourite games of all time. It is a total tour de force in the modern board game hobby. With the original version coming out in 2011, it holds up exceptionally well even by today’s standards and deserves its place in the Board Game Geek Top 100 games. The majority of the revisions made by Awaken Realms make this Deluxe Edition the one to have.
I love the amount of strategy that is available in the hour-ish play time. It gives the brain a good work out but isn’t still on the table three hours later like some others that offer similar strategy!
As I mentioned, it’s not quite perfect in terms of storage and could so easily have been, but I am delighted overall with how the game plays and looks on the table top. I mostly choose to play without the miniatures and without any of the expansions. Those therefore are not the main draw. My ratings and love are for the base game and that remains super strong.
If you have never played Castles of Burgundy, now is the time to do so. Please, it is a really good game! Some of my most memorable and happiest board gaming moments have come while playing this game!
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Key Facts
Number of players: 1 to 4
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 14+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 12+
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 5 minutes
Designers: Stefan Feld
Publisher: Alea / Awaken Realms
RRP: £164.99
Summary
While the deluxe edition has some minor flaws, it elevates Castle of Burgundy into a much more beautiful game and production. I absolutely love it, but I was a big fan of the game already!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Plays well at all player counts
- Good dice mitigation
- Combos possible
- Fantastic strategy
- New expansion
Cons
- Price tag is high
- Many of the deluxe components are superfluous
- Numbers on yellow acrylic tiles too small
- Storage solution could’ve been better for upgraded components
Need more games?
If you already own Australis and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- Rajas of the Ganges
- Spectacular
- The Druids of Edora
- The Artemis Project
Buy Castles of Burgundy Deluxe
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Reviewer’s Note
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