26
Other Games / Re: Stefan Feld games
« on: May 06, 2013, 02:17:37 pm »So my club got a copy of The Castles of Burgundy (finally). It was ordered a couple of weeks ago and I'd been eagerly awaiting its arrival because I've wanted to give it a go for so long, and it turned up in time for our meeting on Saturday. I played it twice and it was great. Both games went pretty differently, with the first having a lot of jostling for start player but in the second, one player snapped up a load of ships early and rushed off into the lead retaining start player for the entire game until the very last turn when somebody else built a sixth ship, but only really for the completion bonus.
In both games I rolled highest and went first. First game I was stuck with very few workers for most of the game and struggled to do what I wanted to do most of the time and had to settle for my plan B. Second game I grabbed a couple of the buildings that give you 4 workers (orphanage?), and the worker +-2 knowledge tile and the game went much smoother from my perspective. In both games I got an early mine advantage (being start player) and had plenty of Silverlings.
Looking forward to playing it some more. I'd particularly like to experience the game from a non-start player perspective where the starting mines go before I can grab them. I imagine the game would play a bit differently starting with more workers but no easy mines.
This is part of what makes this game so fun - you can still win from non-first player seating, you just might have to adjust what you focus on. It is next to impossible to win every color and if someone sets their sites on sailing to remain in first, or mines to get the money, switch your focus to castles or knowledge or buildings. Not sure if you played with just the first player mats, but since there are 8 other unique ones, it really makes it different each time depending on the mats that you and your opponents are playing with.