Castles of Burgundy Monastery Tiles: Which to Take and When

There are 26 different monastery tiles in the base game: 20 with yellow backs and 6 with black backs. Each one is unique, and each one is a small rule just for you. That makes them the hardest tiles to judge. A monastery that wins one game is dead weight in the next.

The way through is to sort them. Every monastery does one of three things, and each kind has its own best moment. Numbers here follow the current rulebook, which changed tiles 6, 15, and 26 from the first edition.

Kind one: rule changers

These change how the game works for you, every turn, from the moment you place them.

• 1: more than one building of the same type in a town.
• 6: buy one tile per turn from any depot, not just the black one, paying with silver, workers, or a mix.
• 8: a worker may change a die by 2 instead of 1.
• 9: change the die by 1 for free when placing a building.
• 10: the same, when placing a ship or livestock.
• 11: the same, when placing a castle, mine, or monastery.
• 12: the same, when taking a tile from the board.

When: early. A rule changer placed in phase A works for 20 rounds or more. The same tile in phase E works for a handful of turns. Tiles 6 and 8 in particular reshape every turn that follows.

Kind two: income tiles

These pay every time you do a certain thing.

• 2: a worker for each mine at the end of each phase, on top of the silver.
• 3: 2 silver per sale instead of 1.
• 4: a worker with every sale.
• 5: a ship takes goods from an adjacent depot too.
• 7: 1 extra point for each livestock tile that scores when you place animals.
• 13: 1 silver with every take-workers action.
• 14: 4 workers instead of 2 with every take-workers action.

When: early, and only if you will do that thing often. Tile 2 with three mines is a worker pile every phase. With no mines, it is nothing. Count how many times it will trigger before you take it.

Kind three: end-game scorers

These do nothing until final scoring.

• 15: 2 points per type of goods you sold at least once. Six goods colors, so up to 12.
• 16 to 23: 4 points per building of one named type in your duchy.
• 24: 4 points per type of livestock you placed.
• 25: 1 point per goods tile you sold.
• 26: 3 points per bonus tile you own, large or small.

When: whenever they fit, but they must be in your duchy at the end. A scorer sitting in storage scores nothing. Since they pay the same whether placed in phase A or E, a scorer is often the right monastery to take late, when a rule changer would barely get used.

How to judge one in the moment

Ask three questions:

1. How many times will it pay? Count rounds left for a rule changer, likely triggers for an income tile, or likely points for a scorer.
2. Does it fit my duchy? Tile 24 wants pastures. Tile 2 wants mines. Tile 26 wants a color you can fill first or second.
3. Can I place it soon? Monasteries go on yellow spaces. Duchy 1 has six, in two regions of three. If your yellow spaces are far from your built tiles, the monastery may wait in storage for a long time.

Remember that a monastery is also a yellow tile toward closing a region and filling the color. Sometimes a weak effect on the right space is worth more than a great effect on the wrong one.

A worked comparison

Say it is round 2 of phase B, and depot 3 holds tile 8 and tile 25. Tile 8 placed now works for the rest of this round and the 18 rounds after it. Every time you need to move a die two steps, it costs one worker instead of two, and a three-step move costs two instead of three. Over 18 rounds, those savings add up to many dice you control. Tile 25 pays 1 point per goods tile you sell, so its value is simply the number of goods you expect to sell from here on.

Unless your plan is built around selling, tile 8 is usually the stronger take this early. Ask the same question again in phase D, and the answer may flip. That is the whole skill: the same tile is worth different amounts at different times.

Expansion monasteries

The current box adds monastery 27, the Bridge, which keeps your turn piece on top of any stack, and 28, which lets you buy 2 workers for 1 silver. The White Castles add monastery 29, another building scorer like 16 to 23. The expansions lesson covers when to add them.