How to Teach The Castles of Burgundy

The Castles of Burgundy has a reputation as a hard teach. It is not hard. It is wide. There are six tile colors, eight buildings, and a stack of monastery powers, and a host who explains all of them before the first roll loses the table by the second building.

The fix is to teach what a die does, then let the overview boards carry the details. Here is a script in the order you would say it, with the moments to stop talking. Print the Castles of Burgundy teach sheet and put it where everyone can see it.

Before anyone sits down

Set up first, so the teach starts with the game ready. Everyone gets the same duchy board; number 1 is a fine first choice. Castle on the center space. Goods stacked on phases A to E. Depots filled for phase A. Overview board at every seat.

Roll for start player before you begin, and hand out the workers: 1, 2, 3, and 4 going clockwise. Every expansion stays in the box.

Minute 1: the goal

Say: “We are dukes building out these boards. The game is 25 rounds. You score for finishing regions, raising animals, and selling goods. Most points wins.”

Point at the duchy board. “See how every space has a color and a number? That is the whole game.”

Minutes 2 to 4: what a die does

Hold up your two dice. “Every round you roll two. Each die is one action, and the number says where.”

Then walk through the four actions with a real roll.

1. “I can take a tile from the depot with my number. It goes here, in storage. Never straight onto my board.”
2. “I can place a stored tile on my board, on a space of the same color with my number, touching a tile I already have.”
3. “I can sell all my goods of the color matching my die.”
4. “Or I can take 2 workers, whatever I rolled.”

Then the combo that makes it click: “So with a 4 and a 2, I could take a tile from depot 4, then place it on a 2 space.” Do it.

Stop here. Ask: “Questions on the dice?”

Minutes 5 and 6: workers and silver

Hold up a worker. “Each one changes a die by 1, up or down. A 6 can become a 1. Spend as many as you like.”

Hold up a silver coin. “Once on your turn, you can pay 2 of these for any tile in the black depot in the middle.”

Minutes 7 and 8: the tiles

Point at the overview board, and teach four colors fully:

• “Castles give you an extra action, any number you want.”
• “Ships grab all the goods from any depot, and move you up on this bridge, which is turn order.”
• “Mines pay 1 silver at the end of every phase.”
• “Animals score their number, plus matching animals already on that pasture.”

Then the other two, in one sentence each: “Buildings do the thing on their icon, once, when you place them. Only one of each kind per town.” And: “Monasteries have special powers. When you take one, we will read it together.”

Minute 9: scoring

“When you fill the last space of a region, you score for its size.” Point at the chart on the overview board. “Plus a bonus that shrinks every phase: 10 now, 2 at the end. So finish things early.”

“First player to fill every space of one color gets this big bonus tile. Second gets the small one.”

Minute 10: start

Say: “Everyone rolls at once. The start player rolls the white die, which just puts goods on a depot. Then we go in bridge order.” Then roll.

Teach the rest when it happens

• A full storage area. You must discard a stored tile to take a new one. Mention it when someone has two tiles waiting.
• The three-color goods limit. Explain it at the first ship.
• One building of each type per town. Remind the table the first time someone holds a second market or bank.
• A new phase. Walk through the reset the first time: clear the hex tiles, refill the depots, new goods.
• Final scoring. Explain leftover goods, silver, and workers during phase E.

What to leave out

• Every monastery power. Read each one when it first comes up.
• Strategy. Let people find their own first game.
• Random duchies and the expansions. They are for later games.

Coaching during the first game

Help with the puzzle, not the choice. “Your 3 could take from depot 3, or place that ship on a 3 space” is helpful. “You should sell the goods” is playing for them.

The first game runs long while players learn. Since everyone rolls at once, encourage players to plan during other turns. Our guide to analysis paralysis has gentle ways to keep turns moving, and how to teach a board game covers teaching habits that work for any game.