Phases, Rounds and Turns

The Castles of Burgundy's game board and duchy, the five phases, refilling the depots, a round with the white die, a turn with two dice, workers, the bridge and turn order, end of a phase and the 2- and 3-player board.

The game runs for 5 phases (A–E) of 5 rounds each: 25 rounds, and in each one every player takes a turn with two dice — 50 die actions in all. The player with the most victory points after phase E wins.

The game board

1. Victory point table — what a completed area scores by its size.
2. Phase spaces A–E — a stack of 5 goods per phase; the empty space shows the current phase bonus.
3. Round spaces — the 5 goods of the current phase, one placed per round.
4. Numbered depots 1–6 — four coloured hex spaces and one goods space each.
5. Black depot — 8 black-backed tiles to buy with silver.
6. The bridge — the turn order track.
7. Bonus tile spaces — a large and a small tile per colour.
8. Victory point track, 0–100 — around the edge.

Your duchy

Your duchy has 37 hex spaces in areas of six colours: dark green castles, blue rivers, light green pastures, beige towns, yellow monastery spaces and gray mines. Each space shows a die number from 1 to 6.

1. Duke portrait — put each die here once used.
2. Starting castle — the dark green 6 in the centre of duchies 1 and 2.
3. A town of size 3 — one building of each type.
4. A pasture of size 1 — even one space is an area.
5. Storage — three spaces for hex tiles you have taken.
6. Goods storage — three spaces, one colour each.
7. Sold goods — sold tiles go here face down.
8. Silver coins.
9. Workers.

Other duchies

The box has 4 copies each of duchies 1 and 2 and one each of 3–10, plus the boards of the expansions (11 Border Posts, 12 Team Game, 13 Solo). The older New Player Boards 10a–10h are extra duchy layouts with no rules of their own: play them like duchies 3–10.

Five phases

Each phase space A–E holds a face-down stack of 5 goods. When a phase starts its stack is laid out, so its space is empty and shows the phase bonus: what every area completed during that phase adds — 10 in A, 8 in B, 6 in C, 4 in D, 2 in E (Phase bonus).

Before each phase

1. Remove every hex tile still on the board and return it to the box — skip this before phase A. Goods tiles in the depots stay.
2. Fill each hex space of the six numbered depots with a random face-down tile of that colour and turn it face up.
3. Fill the black depot with random black-backed tiles.
4. Lay the 5 goods of this phase face up on the 5 round spaces.

A round

1. Everyone rolls their two dice at the same time, and the starting player also rolls the white die. All dice stay visible so everyone can plan.
2. The starting player moves the first goods tile from the round spaces to the depot whose number the white die shows.
3. Players take their turns in bridge order.

The white die’s job is then done: no one may use it for an action, and workers cannot change it. Because one goods tile leaves the round spaces each round, the tiles left show how many rounds remain in the phase.

The white die

Only the starting player rolls it, and only to place goods. With the White Castles it also gives actions.

Your turn

You take two actions, one per die, in any order — the same action twice is fine:

Action	Die decides	Page
Take a hex tile from the board	Which depot	Take a hex tile
Place a hex tile in your duchy	Which space number	Place a hex tile
Sell goods	Which goods colour	Sell goods
Take 2 workers	Nothing	Take 2 workers

Once per turn, at any moment, you may also buy one tile from the black depot for 2 silver. Used dice go on the duke portrait.

[Shields] With the Shields, a double may be traded for a shield instead of both actions (Taking a shield).

Workers

Return a worker to the supply to change a die by 1 up or down. 6 and 1 wrap: a 6 becomes a 1 and a 1 a 6. Spend as many as you like, at any time in your turn.

The bridge

The bridge is the turn order track. At setup all pieces stack on space 1, starting player on top.

• Whenever you place a ship in your duchy, move your piece one space toward the city centre. If pieces are already there, yours goes on top.
• At the start of each round, the piece furthest along plays first; a stack plays top to bottom. Whoever will play first next round takes the white die.
• No other piece moves, and pieces never reset.

End of a phase

After the fifth round, each player gets 1 silver per mine in their duchy. A few monastery tiles also act now (monastery 2 adds a worker per mine). Then the next phase starts.

[Shields] First every player pays 1 silver tribute per shield (Tribute).

Two and three players

Flip the board to its back. At 2 players only the inner 12 hex spaces of the depots and 4 spaces of the black depot are used. At 3 players add the eight spaces marked 3.

Sold goods also score by player count: 2, 3 or 4 VP per tile (Sell goods).