“Plan, trade, and build your Burgundian estate to prosperity and prominence.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84876/the-castles-of-burgundy
Playing Time: 30-90 minutes
Weight: midweight
Genre: Economic Dice Manipulation
Designer: Stefan Feld
Players: 2-4 players

Image from boardgamegeek.com – gorgeous special edition shown.

Many people consider The Castles of Burgundy to be Stefan Feld’s greatest game. I disagree – you’ll see him again on this list. But Castles is VERY good, especially if you can get your hands on the Special Edition And in particular, it’s one of the few eurogames out there that can handle 4 players but still excels (and by many accounts, is even better with just two).

Gameplay is simple. Players roll a pair of dice, and then take turns using those dice rolls to build their little duchys. The meat of the interactivity is using a die to draft different location types, either for you to build or deny to an opponent. Then another die is spent to place the die in their little vineyard, where the tile fires off special effects based on the location and/or is scored. Players are also trying to complete terrain types – filling in three connected water tiles gains you some victory points, as does completing all water tiles on your map, for example. These incentives encourage players to chase different play patterns to win and, remarkably, they all seem viable.

The result is very thinky and more interactive than you think, and yet the whole game can be taught in less than five minutes. As such, Castles of Burgundy is a constant reminder that sometimes, the simplest game designs are in fact the most elegant ones.