Review on 🏰 Ravensburger Castles of Burgundy Dice Strategy Game by Icehot Cleversley

INTRODUCTION: A fun and compact deck with lots of scoring options, the Castles of Burgundy deck doesn't disappoint. So far I've only had the opportunity to play single player games, but I've really enjoyed them. The games are always pretty close and sometimes you really have to use your thinking skills to get through to the next round. Overall this is a solid game and I'm hoping to try the multiplayer mode sometime in the near future. CUSTOMIZATION: At first glance, setup can seem quite complicated as there are many different types of cards. There are over 200 small cards (approx. 2 x 1 inch) total and many of these types only have 10-20 cards. However, once you play the game and get a feel for it, it all becomes second nature. I can complete the setup including shuffling and be ready to play in 2-3 minutes. It's great because I usually can't play just once :D. Essentially, setup consists of splitting all the cards into their respective decks, shuffling some of them, splitting some into two separate face-up decks (animals and goods), and giving each a project, estate, and camp card. Each player also receives a random animal, goodness, and silver. In solo mode, you also start with a worker and also deal 5 decks to an AI opponent (named "Aaron - almost a real opponent"), with these decks ranging from 3 to 7 action cards each. Also deal the "dice" reference cards, 6 action cards to each player, and you're almost ready to play. GAME: To be honest, I love the gameplay! There are so many options for each move, it's so satisfying for the strategy lover in me. At the beginning you draw 2 action cards from your stack of 6, choose one of them and decide which of the 6 actions you want to carry out. With these options, when you choose to buy or complete a project, you also have a choice of which 6 cubes to buy or which (up to) 3 to build in your project area. Again, there are MANY possibilities in each round. In the midst of all this, try to earn points by matching buildings in pairs of 3. Doing this will give you points equal to the value at the bottom of that set, ranging from 2 to 6 (most are 3 or 4). Each time you build a project/map, you also get a bonus action (unless it's a monastery/wildcard) printed on the map. Figuring out when and how to maximize profits from all of this is really the key to the game. You can also earn points by selling goods, collecting animals, being the first to complete a set of 3 buildings in each category, being the first to complete at least 1 building from all 7 categories, and selling cards that are multiples of 3 of your workers and cards /or silver cards. (There might be another option or two that I can't remember right now. LOTS of options = GREAT game). rolls because instead you draw cards that have already been rolled. With worker cards you can control your "throw" +1/-1. Silver cards can give you bonus promotions. There are several ways to get these cards, but you always want to have as many in your inventory as possible. The game, whether single or multiplayer, goes through 5 rounds, which are marked with AE. In addition, completing a set of 3 each round grants you a bonus from the options listed, with the bonus getting better the earlier the round starts. Each round consists of using all 6 of your action cards and after 5 rounds (for a total of 30 action cards) you score. Whoever has the most wins!* Note: In solo play (vs. Aaron) you reveal your deck at the start of each round, add up any points you scored from triplets, and at the end of the round up to advance to the next round , you must either draw or win. Whoever has the most points at the end of the final round (E) wins. FINAL THOUGHTS: Having never played the original, this was my first (though hopefully not the last) Stefan Feld game. And i really like it. It has enough difficulty for a single player card game. Not too strenuous, but by no means a gamble. As mentioned above, there are many ways to score points and manipulate dice rolls, giving you some control over your path to victory. Actually, I originally bought the CoB: Card Game based on the positive individual reviews I read. While I find the single player game very entertaining, I'm also looking forward to my first multiplayer game. I think this will add a nice defensive element to the game as you can try to buy projects just to keep your opponent from getting those three and scoring instead of constantly trying to increase your own score. All in all it's a very fun game at a great price, with good variety and lots of opportunities to earn points. So if that doesn't sound too difficult for you then I definitely recommend this game. That is quite satisfactory.