Is The Castles of Burgundy Fun?

With the recent 20th Anniversary Edition reprint (and unfortunate redesign) of The Castles of Burgundy, it's high time we took a good, critical look at the original board game.
Want to support original content like Find the Fun? Head up the effort on Patreon!
/ nightsaroundatable
Buy your own copy of The Castles of Burgundy using the link below, and we'll receive a small commission:
amzn.to/2OFe6ab
And here's a link for the 20th Anniversary edition:
amzn.to/2UD5Ong
Check out The Castles of Burgundy on Board Game Geek:
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8...
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.
Email Ryan: nightsaroundatable [at] gmail (dot) com
Follow us on Twitter: / roundatable
Like us on Facebook: / nightsaroundatable
Visit our Website: nightsaroundatable.com
Dance La Bourgogne: • Anonym - La Bourgogne

[@longchampe]

Love this video series. A lot of reviews don't really address whether a game is actually fun or not which is the most important part to me.

[@Davidesonar449]

Such a good idea for a video series. I've not seen any other youtuber doing this. Also your description of the new edition of burgundy was so funny :D

[@landrygi]

One of my favorites two (2) players games.

[@the_luggage]

Really liked this video's layout and style, good job! Still haven't ever played this CoB. I think the theme and artwork would put my game group off and don't often have the chance to play with anyone else.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

They're not wrong. It's deadly dull-looking. But almost paradoxically fun!

[@MrMalchore]

At the 1:42 mark - A good solution to organize most board game tiles/cards/meeples is to make use of plastic tackling storage containers, like the kind you'd see fisherman use in their tackle box. There are lots of shapes and sizes and can fit neatly inside the game box. Best of all they tend to be cheap.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Good tip! i use one for all the nonsense packed into my Agricola box, but haven't employed tackle boxes anywhere else, for some odd reason. BGG sells a set of separate drawstring bags for each tile type, which also seems like a good solution. That way, you don't have to worry about stacking any tiles face-down, which is the tedious part.

[@Arjay82]

I really like the redesigned art. I have enough drab, boring euros that look like they go out of their way to look unappealing(that people call "elegant"). An actual colorful boss is a nice change of pace.

[@pierrewhite2062]

Great video.more like this please.

[@carlatate7678]

This is a wonderful 2 player game. A steadfast favourite.

[@catherinetaylor2014]

One of my favourite games. I agree completely about the buildings etc. Not being very distinguishable. And hey Castles of Burgundy is on my 10 x 10 challenge. The app is great too - all the little farm animals are animated - it’s really cute 😁

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Cool! It’s February... how many in the can so far? We’ve done 2!

[@catherinetaylor2014]

Nights Around a Table - coughs awkwardly - none so far 😬 but half term is coming up 🤞

[@NightsAroundaTable]

@@catherinetaylor2014 (we're behind too... Q1 is hard)

[@catherinetaylor2014]

Nights Around a Table sure is

[@hanseathl]

One of my wife's all time favorites and I also like it a lot - still and after all these years😁 I even like the new printing. Looking on your collection behind you I would say: hope over and have a long fulfilling game day .... or a week. Unfortunately Geography comes in the way...

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Are we talking train or boat?

[@hanseathl]

@@NightsAroundaTable it would have to be boat or plane 😉

[@caseypeterson5827]

Love castles. Also like your videos

[@MightyfireflyAndme]

Maybe you can redo the castles of burgundy tutorial with the new released versions with all of the modules.....??? Please....

[@osirisgolad]

One small correction: the 2020 re-release actually didn't end up including all 10 of the previously released expansions; it has 7¾ if I remember correctly. Also, the art is a definite functional improvement when you look at it in real life, and it fixes that "big differentiating feature" thing you mentioned for the building tiles. The art for each building even includes a distinct visual feature that depicts the action the building allows you to take, such as blue and green accents if you can take a blue or green tile with that building. Much clearer than burritos.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

i guess "Includes 7¾ of the previously released expansions!" makes for a clunky marketing callout. i definitely wouldn't kick the 2020 release out of bed if it was comped to me, but neither do i feel compelled to rush out to the store and spend my exceedingly rare Canuck-bucks on it.

[@osirisgolad]

@@NightsAroundaTable Definitely not worth the money if you already own the older edition, no. There are some things I would've done differently in the new version, but at least it's somewhat of an improvement that will keep the game in print at a reasonable price into the future.

[@cammy1273]

I got the 20th edition a few months ago. Really enjoying it but it kind of needs a legible player aid for new players as the cardboard one that comes with it takes an hour to decipher, I scanned and printed out a all the monastery and building tiles from the manual so my group could quickly see what they all did . I'm a bit nooby though.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

i did something similar with Race for the Galaxy because i was tired of thumbing through four different rulebooks to figure it all out.

[@alexandralee9359]

Spot. On. Love this game, will always play it, hate the clean up and the boring graphics. New version even fuglier.

[@elphez]

I found using small coloured cloth bags for the tiles that need randomising sped up the set up and tear down substantially. Thoroughly recommend buying some if you play it a lot.

[@omnitheus5442]

Good insightful review. Games like Pulsar 2849 fired CoB from my shelf. Have never missed it.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Did you recommend Pulsar 2849 to me in another comment?

[@omnitheus5442]

@@NightsAroundaTable dont remember that... Wouldnt surprise me if someone else did though as it is a brilliant dice placement game. The turn order mechanic is top shelf.

[@carlatate7678]

@@NightsAroundaTable I can recommend it. Very good game.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Thanks, gang! This isn’t the first time it’s come up. i’ll have to remember to try it out!

[@ANAKHA8]

Yes

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

The theme is great imo

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Then what’s your favourite 12th century illuminated manuscript?

[@timstimbre9762]

@@NightsAroundaTable rumor has it he´s still looking for it down in the cellars.

[@NiMa-1629]

Thanks for the video, this game is one of my favorites. I totally agree with you on all the fun and unfun things. But I have a question, If the game was released in 2011 why was the 20th anniversary released in 2019?

[@NightsAroundaTable]

i wondered that too! i actually panicked when the video was all finished and i finally did the math. i think it’s supposed to be the 20th anniversary of alea, the publisher - not the game!

[@NiMa-1629]

Yes, that makes more sense. Thanks a lot.

[@testoftetris]

I got this game for Christmas and I've played it 2 or 3 times. I can appreciate what it does well, in particular the way it sets players up to achieve big cascading scoring opportunities. I don't mind the art being beige, but the inscrutability of the building tiles is pretty unforgivable in my opinion. And having to basically go through the full setup process at the start of every round ended up being kind of a deal-breaker for me. I do think Castles is satisfying, but I just don't really want to play it again because the ratio of "fun decisions" to "cross referencing charts and tediously laying out options in the depots" really just skews too heavily to the latter for me.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Fair points. i do find it goes better if you conscript the other players' help in refilling those depots every phase.

[@testoftetris]

@@NightsAroundaTable we have a sneaky solution where we lay out the tiles in stacks. One face up tile with 4 face down tiles beneath it. Then at the start of a round you just discard the remaining faceup tiles and flip over the top tile on each stack. It definitely helps but I can still feel the entire game grind to a halt when it happens. Having that experience be guaranteed to happen four times throughout the game is really offputting

[@NightsAroundaTable]

@@testoftetris Aha! Smart solution. Though it does sound like a bit of a pain to set up. Do you find yourself missing any? Last game, there were a couple of rounds where we realized no one had replaced a certain unwanted yellow tile.

[@testoftetris]

@@NightsAroundaTable heh. It is a little bit of an extra pain. But the official setup rules are no picnic either, so it doesn't bother me too much. We played w/ 3 people, and agreed to keep the game to 4 rounds instead of 5 for the sake of time. With those constraints, we had plenty of tiles. But if you're playing a full 5 round game with 4 people, your mileage may vary

[@NightsAroundaTable]

@@testoftetris You can buy drawstring bags on the BGG Store (or make your own), which also makes a whole lot of sense.

[@fabiorr3234]

Very nice video! Can you review like this other euro-games..? such as Marco Polo 1 and 2, Concordia, Puerto Rico..

[@NightsAroundaTable]

Why, yes! Concordia has been on my todo list.

[@fabiorr3234]

@@NightsAroundaTable can’t wait for the “Concordia fun/notfun” video then..

[@ryanbrown9102]

Thanks for the video. Invited by you to leave a comment: What are your thoughts of the newer (anniversary) edition ?

[@NightsAroundaTable]

i haven’t yet played it, but it LOOKS absolutely garish. i’ve wondered about combining it with bits from my original, but i don’t know if they’re compatible? i’m interested in playing the solo mode on a stream, but the publisher hasn’t responded to my request for a review copy.

[@tabestorm5339]

3:06 Hopefully this trend won't pull through. I also see it happening with base games and then the expansions. Sometimes the expansion really have to make the game solid -.-.

[@NightsAroundaTable]

i see it happening with Kickstarter games too. That initial spate of backers are essentially the playtesters, and the second iteration has all the problems fixed.

[@diamondmeeple]

Small Engine Gamers Channel.