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We love the Castles of Burgundy in our house. It is one of those beautiful amalgamations of an easy ruleset intertwined with a constant stream of meaningful decisions that we really find entertaining. I will not talk too much about the base game and its rules in this review though. This is the Castles of Burgundy 2nd edition review, dubbed the 20th Anniversary Edition but weirdly not an anniversary for Castles itself but the 20th Anniversary but the publishers. Which is just strange. This shiny new edition comes with loads of extras, expansions, promos, boards and a slight graphical redesign to one of the greatest and most loved games of all time.
Is That A Mine In Your Duchy?
My gameplay overview will be brief, if you've never played Castles of Burgundy, you should, it’s one of the classics. You roll two dice and use these dice for various actions. Your goal is to build your Duchy using different tiles. Your Duchy is a map filled with hexes that you can build various buildings on. You can use your dice to buy buildings from the shared pool, use them to place tiles on your board. You can even use them to sell goods you acquire or buy workers that enable you to alter your dice rolls and help you fill your Duchy even further.
Points are scored for all sorts of shenanigans, selling goods, filling sections of your map with similar titles, and raising animals. Castles of Burgundy is an addictive, smooth gaming experience and everyone I have shown it to from my young kids to my mother, really enjoys what it offers. It makes you feel great by giving you just enough freedom to build winning strategies, without overwhelming you with a torrent of fiddly rules.
One thing Castles of Burgundy was always marked down for was its art style and graphic design. Before this edition, I have only really played the app but I have seen the original game. I kind of agree with what the masses think but I also have a soft spot for these older looking euro game art styles. To me, they have a warm, hearty look and I do like the hand-drawn, soft images they include. Let’s see if this newer version improves on the original.
Components
So what do you get in this snazzy edition on Castles of Burgundy? You get the base game, with redesigned components, eight, yes, eight expansions, one of which is new to this edition, a single-player mode, team mode, new boards, tiles and so, so much cardboard. Having only played the standard game before this I was itching to see what else was in the box and what new things it had to offer me.
Let’s talk about the design and art style first. The board has been redesigned, has have a lot of components. They are brighter, more detailed while but skill keep that old-school art style. It does look a lot more up to date but looking at the boards next to each other, the new one does look a little busier. The different goods actually have different items on them now, instead of them having the same bland artwork on. This is a welcomed change. The buildings look a lot more detailed and one thing I really appreciated is that the new artwork for the buildings have actually been designed to help you remember what they do. There is a clue in each piece of art that lets you know it's function.
For example, the special building that allows you to take to pieces of silver actually has two silver turrets. It's a brilliant idea as now I always know which building gives me two silver. After a few games, due to this brilliant bit of thinking, I no longer had to refer to the rulebook or hint cards to remember the function of each city tile.
That’s A Lot Of Cardboard?
One of the things I did not like too much with this edition of Castles of Burgundy is how thin the player boards are. I understand that there are so many in the box that they needed to be thin. However, I would have liked them to be a bit thicker. It’s a small thing but I thought I would mention it anyway. Also, a few of the special ability tiles iconography is rather small. Not too much of a problem for me personally but if you have poor eyesight, it could be an issue. I am nitpicking slightly. These are very small issues but I am struggling to find too many bad things to say. Definitely a good thing!
Expansion Extra’s
Most of the expansions are extra tiles for the main game. There’s one that allows you to use the neutral white dice for an action, there’s a new type of cattle that act as a wild, there’s wild buildings that increase the number of points gained for each section you complete, and even tiles that allow you to use any special building ability. Once you know the game you can just lob them in with the main game without any extra rules overhead. We never play without them now.
You also have new trading track tiles. These tiles add a little extra spice when selling goods. Normally you just get a bit of silver and some points, you may have a tile that nabs you extra points at the end but that is about it. These new tiles give you a track above your Duchy that you fill in as you sell goods. If you sell the correct colour goods, you get an extra bonus. There are also powerful shield tiles, these shields give you a bonus ability when you roll a double. However, to keep these tiles in your Duchy you must pay upkeep. We played one game with these tiles and it gave the game a slightly different feel.
The new boards that are included give you different starting Duchy’s, a team-based game, and a solo map. These new maps and modes do add a little extra. But in my opinion nothing beats a standard game of head to head with another player. Some of these boards do add a little new rule where you connect towers across your map, this gives you extra points and something additional to think about when planning your moves.
Final Thoughts
I don’t think you can far wrong with this all-in-one package. It’s quite inexpensive by today’s standards, has lots of content and the base game is a brilliant starting point. You have a lot of extra content. Lots of boards, and some interesting redesign choices that do make remembering some of the tiles a lot easier. If you want to play Castles of Burgundy, I see no reason to not buy this version over the original. While not to everyone’s taste art-wise, you do get a lot for your cash. New tiles, boards, and new little rule changes that can be added in as and when you see fit will keep the game very fresh for many plays into the future. Now, what are you waiting for? Go and build fill your Duchy with wondrous buildings and cattle.
