The Castles of Burgundy

About this board game

The Castles of Burgundy is a board game for 2–4 players that takes about 90 minutes to play, set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France. Each player is an aristocrat developing a small princedom by building settlements, raising powerful castles, trading along the river, exploiting silver mines, and using travelers’ knowledge.

Your princedom is represented by a player board divided into regions, with each region requiring its own type of settlement tile. Players take tiles from the game board and place them in their princedom, activating each tile’s function when it is added. Tiles must first be placed in a staging area before being positioned in the matching region next to a previously placed settlement.

The game unfolds across five phases of five rounds. At the start of each phase, the game board is stocked with settlement and goods tiles. At the beginning of every round, all players roll two dice, while the player currently first in turn order rolls a goods placement die that determines where a goods tile becomes available.

During a round, each player performs any two of four actions:

• Take a settlement tile into the staging area.
• Place a settlement tile from the staging area in its corresponding region.
• Deliver goods matching one of the dice.
• Take worker tokens to adjust dice rolls.

Players may also buy a settlement tile and place it in their staging area. This combination of tile placement, goods delivery, worker tokens, and dice management creates a constantly changing puzzle as each princedom takes shape.

After the fifth phase, players score unused money and workers, undelivered goods, and bonus victory points from certain settlement tiles. The player with the most victory points wins. The rules include both basic and advanced versions, allowing players to choose between two levels of play.

Released in 2011, The Castles of Burgundy offers a structured medieval development game built around dice-driven choices and careful placement.