Tips castlesofburgundy

The Castles of Burgundy is not like chess where you can come up with an algorithm for each move, like "do X on turn one, do Y on turn two, do Z on turn three..." Don't concentrate on one certain type of tile, like buildings or animals or ships. Look at the available tiles and how they work together.

Complete areas: Decide where to start on your map. Focus on some places based on your starting location. Make especially large sections a priority, especially a yellow or blue section. You will have 5-8 empty tiles at the end of the game.

Gain yellow tiles throughout: Pick yellow tiles throughout the game so you can choose the related buildings to give you the best benefit. Don't start placing yellow tiles after the halfway point. Similarly, don't choose a board that doesn't let you place yellow tiles until halfway through the game. Yellow tiles that do not give points should only be obtained in round 1 or 2.

Be efficient: Choose buildings that let you do additional operations beyond the two actions per round. Target buildings that allow you to take extra actions that compliment your current strategy. Aim for making yourself able to play 3 or more tiles per turn.

Evaluate all options: When choosing what action to take, pay attention to the options you are leaving on the table. Example: say you want to place a castle, buy a building, place a ship, and sell some goods. When the dice have been rolled, find which of those you can do with your dice and which can you do as a free action by placing a tile and which you need to wait for another turn to do.

Keep spaces diverse: Avoid building your map to the point where all available spaces use the same numbers. If the buildings you want are in the two or three depot and you need a 6 to play your last beige or blue tile, that's not a good situation.

Mines and castles early: The sooner you can buy mines, the better. Buying tiles is a huge advantage. Don't waste Silverlings on buildings you don't want or need, because they do count in the final point tally.

Turn order matters: Akin to the above, going first in a round means you get first pick of the best tiles. Try to go first in most rounds, or at least until you get the tiles you need. That may mean keeping a ship tile around for a while.

Watch your opponent(s): Is your opponent being defensive or offensive? Which sections are they trying to finish? Which tiles do they want? Which tiles will they not buy? Block your opponent from gaining a yellow tile that will score them major points.

Animals like big pastures: Put animals in pastures of 4 spaces or more. Then fill that area with one type of animal (unless it's the end of the game and you want to complete that color).

Keep the storage area free: Don't clog up your build queue. If you can't clear your tiles in storage, you've locked yourself from getting new tiles and given your opponent free choice for as many turns as it takes to clear it. This works the other way too--gain tiles if you see your opponent's build queue is full. You don't want to miss a chance to gain 3 tiles (two from actions, 1 from the central depot) in one turn.

Use workers sparingly: Using workers makes your move cost about 1 ½ actions. Taking an action to gain 2 workers is not worth it--try to get them in other ways.