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About The Castles of Burgundy
The Castles of Burgundy is a Stefan Feld design about building a princely estate from hex tiles. You roll two dice each turn and every action is gated by them, but the game gives you so many ways to bend a roll that it rarely feels random. Twenty-five rounds of small, satisfying optimisation later, someone wins by four points.
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Is The Castles of Burgundy Right for You?
Best for
Castles of Burgundy is a mid-weight classic that plays beautifully at two and three, and it is a good bridge for a group moving from gateway games into real euros. The dice keep it moving, the decisions are small but constant, and a game runs comfortably inside ninety minutes. It is also one of the more forgiving heavy-ish euros to teach.
Maybe skip it if…
The presentation is dry even by euro standards and the original edition's iconography is dated and cramped. Players who want theme or drama will find it arithmetic with tiles.
How to Play The Castles of Burgundy
Setup
Give each player an estate board and starting tiles. Fill the central depots with hex tiles according to the round.
On Your Turn
- Roll your two dice. Each die may be spent on one action.
- Take a tile from a numbered depot matching a die, place a tile from your stock onto a matching space on your board, sell goods, or take workers.
- Workers let you adjust a die by one, which is how you escape a bad roll.
How to Win
After five phases of five rounds, score completed regions, shipped goods, remaining resources and bonus tiles. Highest wins.
💡 Strategy Tips
Take workers more often than feels productive. A die you cannot use is worth nothing at all.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Hoarding tiles in your stock. Tiles held are points not scored, and the end of the game arrives faster than new players expect.
- Ignoring the region completion bonuses. Finishing a region early in a phase scores substantially more than finishing it late.
- Never taking workers. Two workers turn a useless roll into exactly the roll you wanted, and it is the main skill in the game.
- Filling your board without a plan. Adjacency and colour matching determine everything, and a scattered estate scores poorly.
Advanced Strategy
- Prioritise the depots that will not refill this phase. Availability is more constrained than the board suggests.
- Silver mines and workers are the two engines that make a bad roll irrelevant; secure one early.
- Watch the phase-end bonuses and time your region completions to land inside them.
- At two players the depots turn over slowly, so plan two turns ahead rather than reacting.
Variants & House Rules
The 2019 and 2022 editions
Later editions clean up the iconography considerably and bundle expansions. Worth seeking out over the original printing.
The included expansion boards
Alternative player boards with different space layouts, which change the opening substantially.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Castles of Burgundy is a genuine classic that has aged better mechanically than visually. The way workers and silver defuse the dice means the randomness never feels unfair, and the constant small optimisations are quietly compelling. Buy a recent edition rather than the original if you can.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it too random because of the dice?
No. Workers let you adjust dice and there are always several uses for any roll. It is a dice game where you rarely feel stuck.
Which edition should I buy?
A recent one. The 2019 and 2022 editions improve the iconography significantly and include expansion content.
How does it play at two?
Very well, and it is one of the better two-player euros of its weight. Four is the loosest count.