The Castles of Burgundy

The game is set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France. Each player takes on the role of an aristocrat, originally controlling a small princedom. While playing they aim to build settlements and powerful castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, and use the knowledge of travelers. The game is about players taking settlement tiles from the game board and placing them into their princedom which is represented by the player board. Every tile has a function that starts when the tile is placed in the princedom. The princedom itself consists of several regions, each of which demands its own type of settlement tile. The game is played in five phases, each consisting of five rounds. Each phase begins with the game board stocked with settlement tiles and goods tiles. At the beginning of each round all players roll their two dice, and the player who is currently first in turn order rolls a goods placement die. A goods tile is made available on the game board according to the roll of the goods die. During each round, a player may perform any two of the four possible types of actions: take a settlement tile and place it in the staging area on their player board take a settlement tile from the staging area and place in the corresponding region for the type of tile and adjacent to a previously placed settlement tile, deliver goods with a number matching one of their dice take worker tokens which allow the player to adjust the roll of their dice. In addition to these actions a player may buy a settlement tile and place it in the staging area on their player board. The game ends after the fifth phase is played to completion. Victory points are awarded for unused money and workers, and undelivered goods. Bonus victory points from certain settlement tiles are awarded at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points wins. The rules include basic and advanced versions.

{
  "game_id": 84876,
  "name": "The Castles of Burgundy",
  "core_verb": "spend dice to take/place tiles",
  "decision_shape": "mixed:probabilistic+spatial",
  "reward_schedule": "mixed:immediate+delayed",
  "aesthetics": [
    "Challenge",
    "Discovery"
  ],
  "core_loop_pitch": "Roll two dice; use each to take a tile from a numbered depot, place a tile of matching number into your estate, ship goods, or buy workers to shift pips.",
  "mobile_translation_difficulty": "Easy",
  "translation_difficulty_reason": "Digidiced cross-platform port works great; dice-as-actions and tile-fitting are quintessentially touch-friendly.",
  "direct_digital_port": "The Castles of Burgundy (Steam/iOS/Android, Digidiced)",
  "closest_loop_translation": "none yet",
  "primitive_tags": [
    "dice_to_numbered_slot",
    "tile_region_completion_bonus",
    "worker_pip_shift",
    "personal_polyomino_estate",
    "depot_refresh_phase"
  ],
  "confidence": 0.9
}