UPDATED!! The Castles of Burgundy Special Edition | Rahdo's Prototype Thoughts

[@Orochi_001]

I was kind of relieved when I found out about this after the last video. I love acrylic tiles, but it was going to be another $60-ish to upgrade all the chits. The text is such a great idea that I want to support it as much as possible

[@KMReviews]

Glad to see you post the updates. I think you are the only reviewer to point out that text stuff with acrylic

[@nirszi]

Oh great to know about the text. Glad I ordered the normal tiles.

[@Mentat1231]

Aw man! I got the acrylic tiles, but I also liked the idea of the text on the back. Oh well.

[@garylaframboise2721]

As always, a great video! I went all in during crowd funding and I don't think the acrylic tiles without text is a problem. The game has been played for many years without the text. I also had the opportunity for testing the new solo mode and it is excellent. I would like a video with you playing the solo mode, especially with your final thoughts. Take care.

[@stephenfarrell8587]

Text on tiles: there are comments on the campaign page complaining that everyone will be receiving the cardboard tiles whatever their pledge level which will suit any who want to use the text tiles as a glossary alongside their acrylics or miniatures. Cheers

[@RobertGerman]

Maybe some stickers for the acrylic tiles for those that want them? Could be an easy diy

[@rahdo]

yup i expect those will be on boardgamegeek to download before too long :)

[@KMReviews]

They said they won’t do them but I’m sure someone on Etsy will

[@Kraeye1]

A sticker late add-on?

[@rahdo]

this is alreayd such an insanely huge beast of a production, i can't imagine then wanting to add even more complexity (which could lead to issues down the road during production).

[@kieranthompson779]

Already have the stickers ready for when I get the game 😁

[@redsybil7468]

It looks great! And the text would be really helpful. I may have to add this to my wishlist. I bought the anniversary edition because it is much easier to play for my colour-blind partner, who struggled with the colours on the original boards.

[@nickadams8460]

Great news about the dice. I think this is a clever move. It didn’t stop me backing it as the production looks so amazing and its Feld - but it was an area of concern.

[@wallyvdb87]

Pfff... not having the text on the acrylic isn't even mentioned on the Gamefound page... I am regretting my upgrade to the acrylic tiles now (Royal pledge)... i hope they include both the acrylic and 'text' tiles so it s possible to choose which set to play with (depending on who's playing along)... EDIT: I found in the Comment on the Gamefound page the official Awaken Realms answer that they will both be included in the pledge👍

[@rahdo]

yup, i was just going to say that! i'm a little slow this evening!! also, the description for the acrylic tiles on the gamefound page is a big weirdly worded, but it is intended to indicate there's no text on the acrylic tiles "This product is language-independent and does not involve the Monasteries rules on the back of the hexes."

[@hunorheim2766]

"Extra set of high-quality acrylic hex tiles for all the content in Special Edition and Unlocked Stretch Goals. This product is language-independent and does not involve the Monasteries rules on the back of the hexes."

[@wallyvdb87]

@@hunorheim2766 @Rahdo my bad indeed. It is stated on the page, but not as clearly as it should imo 👍

[@Flip5ide]

I'm at Royal Pledge, I'm not worried about no text on the acrylic tiles, someone on Etsy will be making clear plastic stickers, you can guarantee it. The dice are being changed. The goods tiles colours aren't final so hopefully we will see an improvement of colours there. As for a goods bag, again someone on Etsy will probably make one that matches the new bags and a bag is easy to find space for in the box. I will upgrade the workers to acrylic if they confirm they will fit in the main box.

[@rahdo]

ooo, clear plastic stickers. i didn't even think of that. that will be brilliant! :) i didn't know people were complaining about the lack of a goods bag, but that makes no sense to me. goods are for the most part only handled during setup to create the goods stacks, and you wouldn't be able to use a bag to do that because you'd accidentally reveal what goods are in each stack while you draw from the bag, and you're not suppose to know what goods are coming. so a goods bag would actually be bad for playability. plus it's very likely that it wouldn't fit in the final box anyway since it's going to be a fancy multi-tray tightly packed thing. but the heart wants what the heart wants i guess...

[@Flip5ide]

@@rahdo the idea for a goods bag is that you draw 5 goods at the start of each generation (I like generation as well 😁) then you use a marker on the board that you move to show what generation you are in, stops the need to have to shuffle the goods, that are now more difficult to shuffle because they are quite thick.

[@rahdo]

ah well, that's pretty clever and that would certainly work i guess. but it just means you're spending the same amount of time to handle the tiles spread over the entire game session rather than doing it all at once at the start. which sure, i can see that being attractive for certain folks (myself, i like big piles of stuff on the talbe, and it literally takes less than 10 seconds to ensure all of the goods tiles are face down and swooshed around... 10 seconds is not a big deal imo) plus, i'd bet it's still likely that the bag won't fit in the box because these super deluxe productions are usually super tightly packed, and as you said, the tiles are very thick! :) honestly, i had no idea this was an issue... i've been playing burgundy for over a decade and have played the special ed a few times as well, and i've never thought... "OMG i have to spend 10 seconds shuffling the tiles at the start of the game!". but since you and a couple other commenters mentioned this, i went and looked at what the AW plan is, as i understand it, they're going to have a goods tray, which means you have them all the goods tiles effectively "face down" at all times and you can just draw them blindly from the tray to ensure randomness. so again, i'm personally not seeing a problem here, but you've proposed a cool solution which increases production cost and makes them have to rethink their entire packaging approach, and they've come up with a different equally effective solution which doesn't have the knock on effects :)

[@rahdo]

oh, one more thing (after thinking about it a bit more)... i GUARANTEE that a lot of people would forget to update the round tracker with the proposed bag solution. the game is so deep and rich, and it's such a big deal with all of the new stuff is coming out in a new generation, that everyone's focus will be on "YES, that's the tile i was hoping for" and i promise you it will be a fairly common occurrence to forget to move from #3 to #4 on the new "what round is it?" track. having the tiles as individual stacks from the beginning (again, it takes the same amount of time to stack them at the start of the game as it does over the course of the game) is IMO simply smarter design as it ensures that players can't forget this very easy to forget step :)

[@Flip5ide]

@@rahdo to be honest, I don't mind either way, I can't wait to get my hands on this edition of the game :)

[@woosdom]

Not mad about the dice change

[@rlbonham]

Hey Rahdo . Have you tried the third party stickers available for your acrylics? You now CAN have your cake and eat it too!!!

[@rahdo]

unfortunately i can't because i gave my acrylics away!

[@nathansutterfield]

Thank you so for the updates they are super helpful

[@alfieboyyy376]

I thought the big update was going to be that you don't have an epic beard anymore lol

[@rahdo]

it says "i'll be back!" :)

[@TheFlymar]

It's Richards's twin brother Henry:)

[@mariuszkania9947]

Hey Rahdo. I am looking for your advice. Did you have a chance to play special edition with 3d terrain pack? Do you think it plays well? How does it look on the board when you place them. Do they block the visibility of the rest of board when placed or not?

[@rahdo]

nope, i only had the 3d castles, not the full thing. i can say that we didn't have any issues with those in terms of viewability, but i can't speak to all the extra stuff. considering the castles are taller than the other things, i assume it'd be fine...

[@HansJoachimMaier]

I really enjoy watching your enthusiasm :) I went all in with all miniatures (also the tiles). However, I have one big big problem with your update: Where is your beard????? ;)

[@rahdo]

all good things must come to an end!

[@swrenn]

Sponsered by Norelco? :p

[@kq76]

I was hoping to hear your thoughts on the whole no extra bag complaint or how the stacking towers aren't ships. I haven't played the game, but it sounds like pulling tiles from a bag when you need them would be so much better than mixing them around on the table (that's one of my biggest annoyances in the hobby), then making stacks, then carefully putting them all back. I was really looking forward to this, but I find myself trying to talk myself into it and so far it's not working.

[@rahdo]

i didn't know people were complaining about the lack of a goods bag, but that makes no sense to me. goods are for the most part only handled during setup to create the goods stacks, and you wouldn't be able to use a bag to do that because you'd accidentally reveal what goods are in each stack while you draw from the bag, and you're not supposed to know what goods are coming. so a goods bag would actually be bad for playability. plus it's very likely that it wouldn't fit in the final box anyway since it's going to be a fancy multi-tray tightly packed thing. but the heart wants what the heart wants i guess. even if you'll have to dump all the tiles out of the bag, turn them face down, randomize them, put them in the stacks, and then put them back in the bag. again, makes no sense to me. re: actually ship miniatures, that makes no sense to me either. that track is a representation of your region's wealth due to trade, not an actual river that you sail down. the ships are on the actual tiles you build. plus since it's so important that you be able to stack markers on the wealth/turn order track, they would would be weird fat looking little cartooney boats without masts, and so not really fit the aesthetic of the rest of the game!

[@VampguyN85]

Yea I'm totally new to the CoB world and am figuring out which tier to back for my first experience. I see a lot of the noise on gamefound as; "wow people are really passionate about this game". I think one piece of the bag switch for some is to increase how much the box can hold. And someone suggested changing the river to castle walls and keeping the markers as is to better fit the theme. I honestly don't know. I'm brand new to the CoB world, and am looking forward to diving into it.

[@kq76]

@@rahdo Thank you for the response. I appreciate it. I'm not sure you understand how some people play the game. Here's how tiagosilva on gamefound put it, "you don’t pull the 25 from the bag at the beginning (where seeing it would be bad) you pull just the 5 for the current phase and get a marker to mark the current phase." It certainly sounds a lot less fiddlier that way. They are supplying 5 bags so I do wonder if people can't just use one of the bags for this purpose instead. It looks like one is used for the expansion so if you don't play with it, I guess you could use its bag. Regarding the ship/castle turn order track, I disagree. I think it does make thematic sense. Ships move, towers don't. Ships trade, towers don't. And whoever is in front with their ship is obviously getting somewhere first. And yes, someone could make ugly stacking boats, but someone else could also make pretty cool looking boats. Stackable boats have been children toys for a long time. Copy a good design. Those towers certainly aren't anything to write home about. I'm not even sure stacking is necessary, the busts don't stack.

[@rahdo]

the problem with pulling from the bag throughout the game and having a marker that keeps track of what phase it is would be that it would be INCREDIBLY easy to forget to advance the phase tracker, and get confused about "wait, which phase is this? are we in C or D? I don't remember, we forgot to update the tracker? or did we??? ARGH!!!" the current design (which has been fantastic for over a decade), where you set the stacks up at the beginning of the game is much better for playability because it takes that human error out of the equation. plus it takes less than 15 during setup to deal with the goods tiles, so making the game more prone to human error to save 15 seconds at set up simply makes no sense IMO and would be trada bad production choice. and the tower isn't a physical tower lumbering around the board... it's an abstracted representation of how successful you are due to trade, so it makes more sense than a literal boat (that would have no mast so it could stack, which would look weird)... why should a boat being further down a river mean that i'm a more powerful duke? the game is literally called the castles of burgundy... representing your growing power with the tower of a castle is just more thematic for the game. it's not called the ships of burgundy, after all :)

[@jankogo]

Great update, Rahdo!

[@thegamesninja3119]

New Magoo in Klingon! Rahdo needs to sign his old copy of the game and auction it off for charity.

[@rahdo]

unfortunately i sent my prototype off to MvM iirc (or maybe it was boardgameco) and i totally forgot to sign it! :)

[@thegamesninja3119]

@@rahdo in future, keep this in mind. You get to both declutter and do good. In the video you mentioned you were going to get rid of your old copy of Burgandy. When you do get the new one, do it with your old one.

[@rahdo]

most of the time games that leave my collection go to the dice tower west boardgame convention library so that people can enjoy them even more! :)

[@thegamesninja3119]

@@rahdo sign them! Publishers should send you more than one.

[@ricardp60]

Great review and update. I am happy to hear about the dice. I think the current design is awfull, hard to read especially your opponents. It is a good thing they are changing them. I also don`t like the completion bonus tiles. Thay are hard to read. They all look the same. I wish they would make them more unique. Finally, I wish they did something about the WORKERS. I can't believe they are just plain cardboard.....

[@GrischoSchluesi]

magic. how can you look younger at the end of the video than at the beginning

[@Carsten_de_1981]

Dice... those are no custom dice with individual symbols but regular 1 to 6... just take any of your 20.000 dice at home. It's not a deluxe dice ISS Vanguard bummer. Too bad with the text on the back of the acrylic. But sure it will work as in the old days with just iconography and details in the rulebook. I just want the minis. 🙈🤣

[@rahdo]

i imagine they'll still be nicer than average dice... just with a different design :)

[@Carsten_de_1981]

@@rahdo I agree. But if they would not be there is at least a super easy way to mitigate. :)

[@TheFlymar]

Well, for me the original was perfect. Just needed thicker boards tiles, more saturated colors and goods pictures are nice too. And the classic was with the insert! Unfortunately I gave it away and bought myself anniversary. Tiny tiny monastery pictures AND numbers. Too "busy" building drawings and stupid bridge player turn track. But at least the expansions are there.

[@vladycavret2886]

The main issue I had with original was colors, they almost solved the problem, except for yellow and beige that are still too similar. Minis are useless, even worst because it hides part of the board for others players.

[@rahdo]

we had no problem seeing over the castles. not really an issue irl, unless you're really short i guess (my wife is 5'2" and they didn't hamper her ability to see my entire board).

[@LenLindsay]

About removing the text on the back of Acrylics ... in your final thoughts you mentioned that the text was removed to be language independent... however, you didn't mention why the cardboard tiles could have the text remain on them ... language independent would apply to both cardboard and acrylic, wouldn't it? What are your thoughts on why they removed it on ONE but not on the OTHER? Thanks for all your great videos!

[@rahdo]

as i understand it, one of the main reasons for the decision is that including text on the acrylic tiles would _significantly_ increase the production costs (presumably because there's dozens and dozens and dozens of unique tile backs to produce instead of just a few, whereas when mass producing cardboard tokens, it's no big deal to have tons of unique tile backs). so with that in mind, they made the decision to go with language independent, which is of course the way burgundy has been for over a decade, and people who can't easily read english feel like there's something "for them" as well maybe? but i don't have inside info, so that's just my presumption :)

[@Sp4rc0]

I think the problem is the production side. While they will print based on demand a variety of languages other than english for the cardboard tiles (you can choose to pledge for a French or Spanish version for example). But they will make just 1 type of acrylic tiles, and no matter what language you choose the game in, those are the ones they are sending, so instead of forcing English to everyone (on the acrylic) they decided to keep those language independent. I wouldn't think anyone having the game in another language would prefer to have a blank acrylic back instead of a English one.. but whatever. The bright side is, even if you get the acrylic tiles, you still get the regular cardboard (with text).

[@shortydancer]

I miss the beard!

[@rahdo]

it will be back :)

[@shaparau]

Are the dices really "easy to read"??? Sorry, but this is not true. Stop watching on 2:27

[@rahdo]

you might want to skip ahead to the update at the end (14:16) which i mentioned :)

[@rahdo]

i think you'll be pleased :)

[@hunorheim2766]

I really don't like the texts on the back of the tiles. For me it' just ruins the clean overall look of the game. If we have a cool player aid, why we need texts on the tiles as well? Anyhow, I like that the acrylic tiles are completely language independent. Agree with the dice change.

[@VoiceofFox]

You don’t see the text unless you flip the tile over though? Not sure how that really spoils the look of the game?

[@Goldfinch241]

I like the text on the back of the tiles. It helps me to know what they do and helps when teaching new people. That is part of the reason I backed it. It will make for faster easier gameplay.

[@synnical77]

How does this ruin the clean look? The tiles are in a bag until drawn. Then they are displayed face up.