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REVIEW
The Castles of Burgundy - The Dice Game
Medium-bodied and Dry
Board game development is a bit like alchemy, isn’t it? Add a little bit of this substance, take a little bit of that one away – just like working in a secret laboratory. And if it all works out in the end, you get... Well, maybe you’ll end up with porcelain. Unfortunately, it’s never quite enough to actually produce gold.
I n the alchemical sense, board game publishers are in a fairly comfort- able situation. Some of them al-
ready have gold. Their alchemistic am- bition is to now turn gold into more gold. Some add something to the exist- ing substance and – poof! – an expan- sion is formed. Others take something away and – bam! – conjure up a travel version, a card game or a dice game from the hat. But real gold is also very hard to come by using this method. Sometimes you just end up with broken porcelain.
The Castles of Burgundy - The Dice Game fits into the still-new tradition of dice games in which one player rolls and everyone responds to that throw. And, of course, it fits into The Castles of Burgundy tradition. Christoph Tous- saint has managed to capture the char- acteristics of the different landscape types from the board game in an aston- ishing way, even though the entire pro- cess now takes place by marking up a piece of paper. Just like in the board game, city areas can easily be complet- ed in The Dice Game, while pasture hex- es offer you no in-game advantage, but plenty of points instead. Mines gener- ate silver, silver in turn generates extra moves. And so on. Even without a
board and tiles, fans will recognize their favorite game here.
I Small boxes and
even smaller symbols What the fans will have a harder
time recognizing is their own markings on the paper. In order to write numbers in small boxes and to encircle and then later mark off even smaller symbols, the game comes with pencils. Pencils, however, write in gray. As a writing ma- terial on drab paper that requires fine- point accuracy because it is so small, pencils are pretty much the worst choice after crayons, felt-tip pens or chunks of coal. If you plan on playing more than a few times, you should probably upgrade to ballpoint pen technology.
There must be reasons why the pad of paper is not twice as big (presum- ably, it has to fit in the small box) or why more suitable writing implements are included (presumably, this would exorbitantly increase the game’s price). But no one needs a game with limited functionality, not even die-hard Bur- gundy fans. As a player, I want to feel comfortable playing a game, and gam- ing comfort has reached unprecedent- ed levels these days. The cheap look of
Strategically, the game has clarity. In a lot of games aimed at this end of the market – so-called “gamers’
games” – complexity is achieved by building in lots of detail. There is so much going on that players are not sure where to start or what should
be their priorities. Keyper is not like that. Here, as in its predecessor, Keyflower, the aim is simply to build and then upgrade buildings. The buildings will do useful things and score points; in their upgraded form they will do those things more efficiently and score more points. Success will come from assembling a collection of buildings that work well together and then following a path that will make best use of them. The number and variety of the buildings mean that there are many such col-
lections and paths available. The Key series has built up quite a following over the years, and deservedly so. This latest is a worthy addition to the line. Among my personal favorites, I have it in equal first
place along with Keyflower.
Stuart W. Dagger
Title: Publisher: Designer: Artist:
Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Keyper
R&D Games
Richard Breese
Vicki Dalton, Rebeca Burgess
2–4
about 14+ years
about 60–120 minutes about 60 €
Reviewer Playing appeal
Stuart W. Dagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Christwart Conrad* . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Alan How. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
* There is a high pressure of keeping
a certain number of meeples for the next round, which is only slightly com- pensated by additional “laying down” actions. This weakens the incentive to join in, once the country boards have been taken in possession. Nevertheless, enriching a player’s turn with an accom- panying action that creates nice dilem- mas is a very original concept. Gets a bit weaker towards the end.
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