The Castles of Burgundy

Game Overview

Players take on the roles of 15th Century princes in Burgundy, devoting their efforts to careful trading and building in order to lead their estates to prominence. Two dice set out the action options, but the players always make the final choices — whether trading, livestock farming, city building, or scientific research, many different paths lead to prosperity. Over the course of 5 phases of play, players collect victory points, and the player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner.
Core Mechanisms: Dice-driven actions, tile placement into colored regions of a personal estate, resource management (Silverlings, worker tiles, goods), and multi-path victory point scoring.

1. Game Components

The game board shows: 5 phase spaces (A-E), 5 round spaces, 6 numbered depots (1-6) each with four spaces for six-sided tiles and 1 large goods space, 1 central black depot, 12 spaces for the bonus tiles, 1 turn order track, and 1 victory point track (0-100).

2. Game Setup

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Place the 20 Silverlings, the 30 worker tiles, and the white die next to the game board. Sort the 164 six-sided tiles by the colour of their backs and place them as separate face-down supplies next to the board.

Shuffle the 42 goods tiles face down and separate them into 5 face-down piles of 5 tiles each. Place one pile on each of the 5 phase spaces (A through E). The remaining 17 tiles remain in a face-down supply. Place the 12 bonus tiles on the corresponding spaces on the game board.

Give each player:
- 1 player board, Number 1 side face up
- 1 castle (dark green six-sided tile), placed face up on the dark green middle space (die value 6) of their board
- 3 random goods tiles from the remaining 17, placed face up on the three goods storage spaces (same goods type/colour stored together, different types stored separately); any remaining goods tiles are returned to the box
- The 2 dice in their colour
- 1 playing piece in their colour, placed on the 0/100 space of the victory point track
- 1 playing piece to mark turn order
- 1 Silverling, placed in the appropriate storage space
- 1 victory point tile (with 100 / 200), placed next to their board

Determine a start player by rolling dice. That player receives 1 worker tile; the next player clockwise receives 2, the third receives 3, and the fourth receives 4. Each player uses their second playing piece to mark the determined order on the first space of the turn order track (start player's piece on top in the tower, last player's at the bottom). Give the start player the white die.

3. Game Flow

The game lasts for five phases (A through E), each consisting of five rounds (25 rounds / 50 dice actions total).

Phase Setup (at the start of each phase, except the first):
- Remove all six-sided tiles remaining on the board and return them to the box (ship, mine and castle tiles can be left in place as they are all the same; any remaining goods tiles are also left on the board)
- Randomly draw new six-sided tiles and place them face-up onto the matching-coloured six-sided spaces in the six numbered depots: in a 2-player game only spaces marked with 2s (12 spaces), in a 3-player game spaces marked with 2s and 3s (18 spaces), and in a 4-player game all 24 spaces
- Randomly draw black-backed six-sided tiles and place them face-up onto the black depot in the middle of the board (draw 2 to 8 tiles, depending on player number)
- Take the 5 goods tiles for the current phase and place them face-up onto the five square round spaces below the phase spaces

Note: In the three-player game only, for the dark green space in the No. 6 depot: in phases A, C and E a castle is placed as normal, but in phases B and D a mine (grey) is placed there instead.

Round Structure:
1. All players roll their two dice simultaneously; the start player also rolls the white die. All players place their dice in front of themselves so all can see them.
2. The start player takes the topmost goods tile from the round spaces and places it onto the goods space of the depot whose number matches the white die result. The white die's function for this turn is then complete; it cannot be used by the start player on his own turn and can never be adjusted via worker tiles.
3. The start player carries out his turn (two actions, one per die).
4. Play proceeds to the next player in turn order (right to left on the turn order track, top to bottom within a given tower). Once each player has had a turn, a new round begins.

End of a Phase: A phase ends after five rounds. Players with mines receive 1 Silverling from the supply for each mine in their estate. Some yellow "knowledge" tiles may also have an effect. The next phase then begins.

4. Player Actions

A player's turn consists of carrying out exactly two actions, one per die. Once a die has been used, it is placed onto the used die storage space in the upper right hand corner of the player's board. The two actions may be carried out in any combination and order (including carrying out the same action twice).

Worker Tiles (any time): A worker tile may be used at any time to adjust a die's result up or down by 1 (changing from 1 to 6 or 6 to 1 is permitted and also costs one worker tile). Multiple tiles may be used to change a die's result multiple times. Used tiles are returned to the general supply.

Action: Take six-sided tile from the game board — Cost: 1 die. Effect: Take one six-sided tile of choice from the depot whose number corresponds to the die result. Place it onto an empty storage space in the bottom left-hand corner of the board (never directly into the estate). If all storage spaces are full, discard a prior tile first (removing it from the game), then place the new tile.

Action: Add six-sided tile to your estate — Cost: 1 die. Effect: Take one six-sided tile of choice from the storage area in the lower left-hand corner and add it to the estate. The die indicates which corresponding empty space the tile may be placed onto. All newly-placed tiles must lie directly adjacent to at least one previously-placed tile, and the tile's colour must match the colour of the space. The first tile can only be placed onto one of the six spaces surrounding the start castle. Immediate effects by tile type:
- Knowledge (yellow): 26 different tiles with various effects (see below).
- Ship (blue): Take all goods tiles on any one depot's goods space (independent of the die result used to place the ship) into goods storage (max 3 different types/colours; same colours piled, different placed next to each other; leave behind any goods you cannot store), AND move your playing piece one space to the right on the turn order track (if occupied, place on top; if this makes you start player for the next round, you also receive the white die).
- Animal (light green): Immediately receive victory points. Each tile has between 2 and 4 animals; score that many VP. If the player already has animals of the same type in the pasture (region of connected light green spaces) the new tile is added to, score all tiles with that animal type again in addition to the new tile. Tiles must be part of the same pasture but need not be immediately adjacent. Animals on other pastures are not scored.
- Castle (dark green): Immediately carry out an additional action of choice as if you had an extra die with any result you wish.
- Building (beige): Immediately make a single use of that building's advantage. Each of the 8 building types may only occur once per city (region of connected beige spaces). Depending on the estate, there may be between 2 and 6 cities of different sizes (1 to 8 spaces).
- Mine (grey): No immediate effect when placed. At the end of each phase, receive 1 Silverling from the supply for each mine in the estate.

Action: Sell goods — Cost: 1 die. Effect: Sell all goods of one type from goods storage; the die result indicates which goods type (= colour) may be sold. All corresponding goods tiles are piled face-down onto the goods storage space on the player's board. Receive exactly 1 Silverling from the supply (regardless of how many tiles sold) plus 2, 3 or 4 victory points per tile (depending on the number of players). A player must always sell all tiles of a type when choosing this action.

Action: Take worker tiles — Cost: 1 die (the die result itself is meaningless). Effect: Take 2 worker tiles from the general supply.

Extra Action: Buy from the central black depot — In addition to the two dice actions, each player may, once per turn, buy one six-sided tile from the central black depot at any point during their turn (before, between or after the dice actions). Cost: return 2 Silverlings to the general supply. Effect: place the purchased tile onto an empty storage space in the lower left-hand corner of the board.

Building Advantages (activated by placement, no die required):
- Warehouse: Immediately sell one goods type of choice from goods storage, as if choosing the 'Sell goods' action.
- Carpenter's Workshop: Immediately take one beige building tile of choice from any numbered depot (not the black depot) to an empty storage space.
- Church: Immediately take one mine, "knowledge" or castle tile of choice from any numbered depot (not the black depot) to an empty storage space.
- Market: Immediately take one ship or animal tile of choice from any numbered depot (not the black depot) to an empty storage space.
- Boarding House: Immediately take 4 worker tiles from the general supply.
- Bank: Immediately take 2 Silverlings from the general supply.
- City Hall: Immediately add a second six-sided tile of choice to the estate from one of the three storage spaces, regardless of colour (including all its effects).
- Watchtower: Immediately move playing piece on the victory point track forward by 4 spaces.

If a player cannot use a building's advantage (e.g., no matching tiles left in numbered depots), the building may still be added but the advantage is lost.

Additional rules for placing six-sided tiles:
- A tile taken from the game board must always first be placed onto a storage space, even if the second action immediately adds it to the estate.
- Tiles added to an estate may never be moved or removed.

5. Scoring and Game End

Completed Regions: As soon as a coloured region (regardless of size) is completely covered with tiles, it scores in two ways:
1. Depending on its size (1 to 8 spaces), the completed region scores between 1 and 36 victory points, immediately scored on the victory point track.
2. Additionally, depending on the phase, the region scores between 10 and 2 victory points: the empty phase space (A-E) indicates how many additional VPs each completed region (regardless of size) is worth — 10 in phase A down to 2 in phase E.

Bonus Tiles: The first player to cover all spaces of one colour in their entire estate takes the corresponding large bonus tile and immediately scores victory points depending on the number of players (5 VP with 2 players, 6 VP with 3 players, or 7 VP with 4 players). The second player to finish the same colour takes the small bonus tile and the corresponding 2 to 4 victory points. Third and fourth place receive nothing.

Victory Point Track: When a player reaches or exceeds 100 victory points, place the victory point tile on the board with the 100 side up in the upper right hand corner, next to the used die storage. When a player reaches 200 victory points, flip the tile over.

Game End: The game ends after the fifth phase has been played through to completion. Final scoring awards victory points for:
- Each unsold goods tile: 1 victory point
- Each remaining Silverling: 1 victory point
- Every two worker tiles: 1 victory point
- Each VP-bearing yellow tile

(Six-sided tiles remaining on the storage spaces of a player's board are not scored.)

The player farthest along on the victory point track is the winner. In case of a tie, the winner is the tied player with the fewest empty estate spaces. Should there still be a tie, the winner is the tied player who went later in turn order.