Burgen Land
Burgen Land Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 board
- 1 "Crown"
- 2 figures (black and white)
- 7 dice (1 black, 1 white and 5 red)
- 57 cards (in three colors: each has 4 great towers, 3 houses, 3 little towers and 9 walls)
Preparation
Lay the board between the two players.
Place the crown on the great-tower symbol space of any color (the printed space symbol is the pointed-roof tower). Place the black and white figures on the zero space of the score-track.
Sort the cards by color and type and arrange them next to the board in twelve face-up stacks of walls and buildings. Put the five red dice on the large crown space in the middle of the wall-hanging.
Each player takes the die matching the color of his figure. They also each take a red, a yellow and a blue wall and arrange them in front of you so that further castle parts can be added on either side (see illustration below). The game is started by the player whose name sounds more archaic.
Game Play
On your turn, you roll your die and move the crown clockwise by the number rolled. The space on which the crown ends its move indicates which card or how many red dice you can take.
If the crown ends its move on a wall space, you can take a wall card of the same color and add it to your castle of that color. Alternatively, you can take 1 red die, which is the number corresponding to the value of the card.
If the crown ends its move on a building space (tower or house), you can add the corresponding building to your castle of the same color – so long as this complies with the building regulations (see next paragraph). Alternatively, you can take red dice, equal in number to the value of the card: 2 for a little tower, 3 for a house and 5 for a great tower.
Building regulations: The first card added to the initial wall piece in a castle can be any card of that color. Castles can only be extended at their left and right ends (except filling in a hole but this only happens at later game and is explained further on). A building card can only be placed next to a wall card and not next to another building. Wall cards can always be placed. You cannot take a card unless it can be placed immediately.
Red dice: Instead of adding a card to your castle, you may take red dice, equal to the value of the building/wall that would have been taken (i.e. 1 die for a wall, 3 dice for a house, etc.). If there are not enough dice on the board, you take the remaining dice from the other player. If he/she has none left, you cannot take any more.
When you roll your die you can choose to roll also one or more of your red dice. You then choose one of the dice for moving the crown. The red dice go back on the board, regardless of whether you used them or not.
Two of the spaces for each color have crowns shown on them. If the crown ends its move on one of these, a scoring may, or will, take place. On the crown-space, a scoring must take place, but on the wall/crown space, you decide whether there will be a scoring, or taking a wall or a red die instead. When scoring, the two castles of the color on which the crown is stood, are compared against each other. The total value of each castle is calculated and the player with the more valuable castle scores the difference between the two values. This player moves his figure forwards that number of spaces on the score track.
Note: If you choose to score on a wall/crown space, you cannot take a wall or a red die.
Course of a turn
At your turn, you:
- roll your die; and, if you wish, roll one or more of your red dice at the same time,
- move the crown clockwise by the number rolled
- and take the appropriate card, or red dice, or score.
You can choose to roll the die and move the crown more than once on your turn. You then carry out the appropriate action after each move.
But take care: You can carry out actions for only one color during each turn! So, for example, if the crown is moved to a blue space after the first roll you will want it to stay in the blue area after any further rolls. You need to assess correctly the risk and to judge when to stop rolling the die or when to bring your red dice into play. If the crown moves into the area of the next color (yellow), you must remove the more valuable of the two end cards of your blue castle and put it back to the supply! (If you have no cards left in that color castle, you need not discard anything). If you move the crown beyond the area of the color in which you are carrying out actions this turn, the normal actions of the space where the crown ends is ignored. Your turn has then ended.
Sooner or later, cards of some type will be used up. If a die-roll enables you to take a card that is no longer available from the supply, you may take it from your opponent's castle and add it to your own. If this is not possible, due to you already having all the cards of that type in your castle, you will have to take red dice instead.
Taking a card from your opponent can create a hole in his castle. Until this hole has been filled with a newly obtained card, only the more valuable portion of the castle is counted when scoring!
End of the game
The game ends as soon one of the players has reached the king, having scored 30 or more points. This player is the winner.
Example: If the blue castles were scored now, the castle on the right would be worth 17 points, whereas the castle on the left would only be worth 3. The player owning the right-hand castle would therefore move forward 17-3 = 14 spaces on the score-track.
A hint on tactics
There are times when it is better to move the crown only a short distance even though there would be no risk in rolling it again. In this way you can influence the color which your opponent will use on his next turn (see the example).
Example turns during a game
The crown is currently on the blue house; all five red dice are in the supply. Players' castles are: (illustration: Edeltraud's and Siegfried's castles, as shown in the source)
It is Etheldreda's turn. She rolls a 3 – the crown moves to the second yellow wall space. Since she has a powerful red castle, she would like to trigger a red castle scoring as soon as possible. She therefore takes a red die and decides to end her turn.
Sigurd is now forced to also carry out his actions in the yellow area during his turn. He rolls a 5 – the crown now moves to the yellow house. That is bad luck! He cannot add any buildings to his yellow castle! Instead, he takes three red dice and decides not to roll again. It is now Etheldreda's turn again.
She rolls her die with the red die. She rolls a 4 and a 6! Success! She moves the crown to the red crown space and the red castles are scored. Etheldreda's red castle is worth 8 points more than Sigurd's, so she moves her figure 8 spaces forwards on the score-track. She puts the red die back to the supply. She rolls her die again and rolls a 3. She adds a red little tower to her castle. She then ends her turn since she considers that the risk of losing her outer great tower is too high.