Ravensburger Castles of Burgundy Board Game | Engaging Strategy Game for Ages 12 & Up | Ideal for Family Game Night | 20th Anniversary Alea Edition | Rule The Realm Experience with Model:26925

very good

It arrived really fast, and the game itself is awesome, and I was surprised because it has some mini expansions and even a teamplay mode. It's not an easy game and you have to play a couple of times to understand it, however, is one of the best euros.

Gave this to my wife for Christmas and it has become one of her favorite games.

Great euro one of the best Felds

If you're reading this review to decide whether to get them game, yes, definitely do it. Its a classic for a reason. The premise seems super cringe (another European noble game?), but it doesnt matter. The gameplay is super fun, and its a perfect balance for a medium-lite heavy weight game. The restricted game play makes comboing up extra tile drafting or placement feel super satisfying. Also scoring is always a bit of a mystery until the end because of all the opportunities for end game points, so its always super competitive right up til the end even if it may seem like someone has a sizeable lead. Such a good blend of strategy and luck, plus the mechanics are fairly easy to pickup and the guides make it easy for folks like me who have terrible memories to keep track of what all the tiles do. We also recommend getting an organizer or custom insert for this game since it has many components. We have the Tower Rex one. We LOVE how it keeps everything, including all the expansion pieces,separate so setup is a snap. As for the quality from the seller, our copy did have a knick on the side seam of the box where it was likely cut with a box cutter after shipping. Other places usually sell this kind of copy as a dent and ding, even though the cut was small. Amazon did do a price adjustment for us to reflect that it was not in perfect condition (the cut will compromise the integrity of the box over the long term, but i can deal with taping it as that happens) which is enough for me to be satisfied. If we had wanted to return it for a refund, we were given that option, too. So if you NEED to have a pristine copy of a new game, know that they will take care of you if it isnt in mint condition when you receive it.

I rate this game 4/5, because while the game is good, the components could have been nicer, especially for an anniversary edition. The game consists of flimsy player boards, a lot of cardboard chits, and a rulebook. I could be very wrong, but I've paid less for more in other games. They also didn't spend money developing the game for this new production run, because it's already been developed. I guess if you consider the time you would have to spend to find all the expansions included in this edition, it's worth it...though the publisher has access to all that. So that's not really a production cost, but a cost of convenience.I just recently started expanding my board game collection. It started with Pandemic and The Little Prince...then 80 games later, I decided to try out Castles of Burgundy. I actually never played this game; I have only seen play-throughs of it online.There are two versions to chose from: the classic, bland version, and this newer, colorful version. This version has all the modules/expansions. But would that even matter to me if I end up not liking the game? I wasn't sure. I figured if enough people like the game it probably is a good game. A friend of mine also recently learned it and he liked it. He's in my game group, so at least one person would like the game!I got an Amazon warehouse deal on it, so I knew the box was going to be damaged. I HAD A WRETCHED TIME ENSURING ALL THE PIECES WERE THERE, but everything was fine. I wish the manual had pictures of the pieces so I could do a full account of the pieces. I ended up figuring it all out, but that was 1-2 hours of my life.I find it an interesting challenge to play the game just from reading the rules and not watching a video. I was frustrated more than once and I would put down the rulebook and do something else. This is where,"I didn't know what I was getting into."I thought this was going to be an easy game to pick up and learn in 10 minutes. I reread certain parts and was confused by the wording and I would need to read ahead to make sense of what was going on. I might have made a few mistakes, but I was able to learn the game and played the solo version just from reading the rules. I would like to add, that if you're going to try it solo the first time - read through the whole page. The solo goal is different. COULD THE RULEBOOK BE IMPROVED? Yes. The actions and set-up is NOT complicated, but the rulebook lacked diagramsI KNEW there was a goose tile because I had done the full accounting of all the tiles beforehand. If I hadn't done that and if I had played the tile, I might have just assumed it was like any other pasture tile - so it might be helpful to skim through the different tiles before playing if it's your first time.The player boards are flimsy cardboard and I can see that wearing out within the year. I wish it was nicer, especially since this is the 25th anniversary edition - there are tons of other games and they have way nicer player boards. The rulebook I know is going to get beat up and I wish that was nicer too, though it is on par with most board games.I have yet to play the game with other people and I expect the game will be a lot different. My current opinion of the game is that it's O.K. It's interesting that there is a lot of diversity in the tiles and each tile has a translation of what it means in the rulebook. There is a little bit of theme...in that you can't explore other areas unless you go by river, or you collect goods when you have a ship. Other than that, there isn't much theme to it.Super short summary of gameplay: One person rolls a white die that determines where a goods crate goes. Then in turn order, you roll two die. Then you have actions you can do based on the number on the die: pick up a tile, or place a tile from your storage area. Else, regardless of the number, you can spend the die to get workers or sell crates. You are limited by which tiles you can place, because you can only place tiles contiguous to each other and you are further limited, because you can only place tiles based on the number.I have lots of game at home and I probably would play those games first before playing Castles of Burgundy. I don't mind owning it, however. It is a "thinkier" game, lacks theme, takes more time, and has a lot of little pieces to set up. Set-up requires shuffling the tiles and put them face down, so there is a lot more set-up involved than I would like. Overall, I currently would rate this game a 7/10.

Great game!

My partner and I decided to finally buy a copy after playing CoB so many times on Board Game Arena. Was a little worried at first after seeing the 1 - 3 star reviews from some people who already got their copy.I was pleasantly surprised to see the copy that arrived to be pristine and complete! The amazon box was well packed to prevent the CoB box from getting dented or damaged. All the components were complete and are of good quality. Sure there are some missprints here and there but overall very usable! You wont ever notice the missprints anyway when youre thinking about your next move.I saw a previous review where the back of the tiles had the circle design but noticed they werent on the copy we had. Not sure if the manufacurer decided to cut it out of production due to alignment issues or what but that makes it all the better for my partner and I.Post pandemic copies of the game seem to be better built and sorted out compared to the ones purchased from 2019 - 2022. So if youre thinking about buying a copy then I highly recommend this one.Note: My partner's cousin owns the special edition and though its leaps better than the 20th anniversary version, its just a bit too heavy and unweildy to bring around. This copy will be used when we meet up with friends and play in cafes or similar use cases.10/10 would buy again