Random Duchies in Castles of Burgundy: Reading a New Board

Welcome to Level 3. Until now, you have probably played duchy 1 or 2, like the rulebook suggests for a first game. You know their shapes by heart. The rulebook’s suggestion for experienced players changes that: each player gets a random duchy, chooses which side to use, and chooses which dark green space gets the starting castle. Agree before you start whether those choices happen at the same time or in turn order.

Tournaments work the same way. At the World Boardgaming Championships, every table gets an assigned board, and players choose their castle positions in turn order before the tiles for phase A go out, according to the 2026 event preview. Reading a board fast is an advanced skill, and this lesson gives you a routine for it.

Step one: count the colors

Go color by color and count spaces and regions. You are looking for two things.

Colors you can fill. The first player to fill every space of a color takes the large bonus tile, and the second the small one. Small colors are the realistic races. On duchy 1, for comparison, there are 3 mine spaces, 4 castle spaces counting the start, 6 each of river, pasture, and monastery, and 12 of town. A random duchy may have more or fewer of each.

Big regions and small ones. Small regions close fast and pay most in phase A. Big ones hold their value to the end. List the regions of 1 or 2 spaces; they are your early targets.

Step two: look at the numbers

Colors tell you what to build. Numbers tell you when you can build it. Your first tile must go on one of the six spaces next to your castle, so the numbers on those six spaces decide how often your first rolls are useful.

If the spaces around a castle show only 2 different numbers, a plain roll of two dice hits one of them about 56% of the time. With 4 different numbers, about 89%. With all 6, every roll fits. Workers raise all of these, but a castle with varied numbers around it saves workers from the very first turn.

Check the colors of those neighbors too. A castle beside a mine space, a small town, and a river has three useful first moves. A castle beside three spaces of one big pasture has fewer.

Step three: choose the castle

Most duchies offer several dark green spaces. Score each candidate quickly:

• Variety: how many different numbers and colors touch it?
• Small regions nearby: can you close one or two regions within a few tiles?
• Room to grow: a castle near the center opens paths in every direction; one at the edge has fewer neighbors and can leave a corner of the board hard to reach.
• Color races: does it start you toward a color you can fill?

The castle you place also counts toward filling dark green. A castle space surrounded by other castle spaces can put you well ahead in that race.

Step four: choose the side

Each duchy has two sides. When you get to choose, run the same quick count on both. Prefer the side with more small regions and a castle space with varied neighbors, unless the other side offers a color race you are sure to win.

Step five: plan phase A

Now draw a rough plan, not a full one:

1. Two small regions to close in phase A.
2. One income source to reach early: a mine space, a monastery space, or a town space for a boarding house or bank.
3. One color race to keep in mind.

That plan will bend once the depots fill. Its job is to tell you which numbers and colors you will be glad to see.

When choices happen in turn order

If players choose one after another, the later players see the earlier choices. Use that. If two neighbors set up for the same color race, a third player might avoid it entirely. Going first means picking the best castle space for your duchy; going later means picking the best plan for the table.

Practice it

Set out a random duchy at home, without playing, and run the routine in five minutes. Then compare with a friend who read the same board. Doing this a few times makes the routine fast enough for a real game.