Learn The Castles of Burgundy

Welcome to Burgundy

Fifteenth-century Burgundy. You are a duke building up your duchy: castles, towns, pastures, rivers, mines and monasteries, one hex tile at a time. Every turn you roll two dice and each die does one thing.

The player with the most victory points after 5 phases of 5 rounds wins. Points come from:

• Completed areas — the sooner, the bigger the bonus.
• Livestock, sold goods and bonus tiles for finishing a colour first.
• Monasteries that score at the end.

1–4 players (solo with its own duchy), about 30 minutes per player. Ready to set up? Open the setup checklist — it adapts to your player count.

The market and your duchy

• The game board is the market: six numbered depots of hex tiles and goods, the black depot in the centre, and the bridge that sets the turn order.
• Your duchy has 37 spaces in coloured areas. Each space shows a die number.
• Storage: three spaces at the bottom left. Every tile you take waits here first.

More: The game board and Your duchy.

Two dice, two actions

Everyone rolls two dice at once. In turn order, each player uses each die for one action:

• Take a tile from the depot with that number.
• Place a stored tile on a space with that number, matching colour, next to your tiles.
• Sell the goods type with that number.
• Take 2 workers, whatever the number.

Workers change a die by 1. Once per turn you may also buy a tile from the black depot for 2 silver.

More: The Four Actions.

Every tile does something

The moment you place a tile in your duchy, it acts:

• Ship — take all goods from a depot and move up the bridge.
• Castle — an extra action with any number.
• Mine — silver at every phase end.
• Livestock — points per animal, more in a herd.
• Building — one of eight effects: fetch tiles, workers, silver, a sale, points.
• Monastery — a lasting power or end-game points.

More: Hex Tiles and Buildings and Monastery Tiles.

Finish areas early

When you place the last tile of an area, it scores its size (1 to 36 points) plus the phase bonus: 10 in phase A, falling to 2 in phase E. The first player to cover a whole colour takes the large bonus tile, the second the small one.

After phase E add 1 VP per goods tile, per silver and per two workers, plus your scoring monasteries.

More: Completing Areas and Scoring. Then try Teach the Game to explain it to your table.