How to Play The Castles of Burgundy: Dice, Tiles & Five Phases
The Castles of Burgundy is played across five phases. Each round you roll two dice and normally use each die for one action. Workers can modify die values, turning random rolls into a planning constraint rather than a fixed result.
Researched edition guide. Checked September 20, 2026 against Ravensburger/alea’s current edition and instructions. Included expansion modules and solo material have additional rules; this page teaches the base game.
Roll two dice; each die powers one action
At the start of a round, all players roll their two dice. On your turn, spend both dice one at a time. A worker can change a die by +1 or −1, with values wrapping between 1 and 6 under the worker rules.
Action 1: take a hex tile
Use a die to take one hex tile from the numbered depot matching that die and place it in an available storage space on your player board. Storage is limited, so a tile can become awkward if you cannot place it soon.
Action 2: place a stored tile in your estate
Use a die matching the number of an eligible empty hex in your estate. The placed tile must be adjacent to an already placed tile under the normal placement rule and must match the hex color/type. Resolve the tile’s effect immediately.
Buildings, ships, livestock, mines, castles and knowledge/monastery tiles each create different benefits. Completing a connected colored region also awards a region-completion bonus based on its size and how early in the game it was completed.
Action 3: sell goods
Use a die to sell all goods of the matching numbered type from your storage. Gain the money/VP benefits specified by the rules and keep sold goods in your personal sold-goods area for effects that reference them later.
Action 4: take workers
Instead of using the die value directly, spend a die to take worker chips. Workers let you modify future dice and are one of the main ways to preserve flexibility.
Silverlings buy black-depot tiles
During your turn, you can spend Silverlings to buy an eligible tile from the central black depot according to the base rules. This purchase is separate from your two normal die actions and can open a third development opportunity.
Five phases create 25 rounds
The game progresses through five phases, each with five rounds. Phase setup refreshes the depots and goods as directed. Mines and some knowledge tiles create phase/end-game benefits, so phase timing matters.
Final scoring
Add the points already scored during play to end-game points from remaining relevant resources/tiles and yellow knowledge tiles according to their text. The current edition contains many included modules, so use the exact rulebook section for any module-specific scoring. Highest VP wins.
Continue learning
Sources and scope
Checked September 20, 2026. This teaches the current edition’s base game; included expansion modules have additional setup and scoring.