Author: Xyon McKell

In June 2012 I backed a Kickstarter for an interesting two player game called The Duke. It employs a unique mechanic that has pieces flipping over after each time they move, with their available next move dependent on which side is currently face up.

It took about a year and a half for the game to be produced and delivered, and it sat on my shelf for nearly that long again as my gaming was long limited to three plus player games. I finally got an opportunity to play recently, and my only disappointment is that I waited this long to try it.

While it will undoubtedly take a long time to learn the intricacies of using each piece to its full potential and the numerous possible strategies the game provides, learning enough to play took minutes. Both players start with their Duke and two Footman. On each turn two actions are available: move one of your pieces on the board or bring a random piece from your reserves into play in any free space adjacent to your Duke.

As mentioned above the key innovation of the game is that every piece has two distinct movement patterns indicated on its two sides. They can vary wildly and it’s extremely interesting and fun to try to plan your moves taking into account what the piece you’re using will be able to do next turn. Possible moves include basic orthogonal or diagonal movement, jumping adjacent pieces, capturing pieces at a distance without moving, etc.

There have been a fair number of comparisons to chess, and the influence is obvious, but I found this much more accessible and enjoyable. The vast number of movement patterns allows for deep gameplay, yet the smaller board and limited starting pieces keeps things manageable. The biggest chess parallel is the game’s goal: capture your opponent’s Duke. There is even a “check” equivalent (called “guard”). But despite this commonality The Duke is solidly its own game, feeling unlike anything else I’ve played.

And I adore the fact that the Duke, while limited, is still quite powerful. He is basically a one directional rook, with his sides alternating between vertical and horizontal movement. This is fantastic because he can defend himself somewhat and get out of tight situations, but can still be cornered and trapped if you’re not careful.

The game plays quick. We were able to get three games in around an hour, although I expect that will change once we get better at it. Throughout those three games we didn’t even see all of the fifteen different troop types in the base game, so it will be a VERY long time before it starts to feel the same from game to game (if it ever does). But there’s even more variety to be had regardless.

Several expansions based on classic literature and legends have been released. While in the base game each player has identical forces, these sets are asymmetric and contain pieces molded after certain characters which are swapped with particular pieces from the base game. I have not tried any yet but I love the idea and the sets I have look great. If that somehow isn’t enough, there’s also a pack of blank pieces with movement stickers available to design your own units.

Overall the Duke is easy to learn, quick to play, has great production value, and is a blast. Suffice to say I’m incredibly impressed and will be playing it for a long time to come.

The Castles of Burgundy is a “Eurogame” played in five phases for 2-4 players. It blends tile placement and die rolling as its major mechanics into a fairly unique strategy game of optimization and capitalizing on presented opportunities.

Although it’s more of a backdrop than something critically tied to gameplay, the theme of creating the best “estate” during the 15th century provides a nice backbone for separating the types of tiles and (due to stunning thematic art) gives the game a great aesthetic.

Gameplay: The core gameplay is elegant and relatively straightforward, but the large variety of options and different powers available based on what tiles you play makes the game very deep and strategic. Luck determines a fair bit about the choices you’ll have, but the game is more determined by the choices than the luck.

The goal is to have the most victory points by the end of the game. Earning points is always related to placing hex shaped tiles on your game board, but there are a lot of variations. I’ll give examples below.

1) The game board has a lot of information, reminders and spaces for setup, as well as score and turn order tracks. As such it is a bit busy even though it is well laid out. The most important parts to get an idea of gameplay are the six numbered areas (corresponding to the faces on a normal die) from which tiles can be claimed and the central area from which hex tiles can be bought .

2) Player boards, along with likewise containing a wealth of information and symbols, have a map of their estate of 37 hex shaped spaces that have varying colors and die numbers on them, as well as three hex shaped storage spaces and three square shaped storage spaces.

3) There are six different colors/types of hex tiles, all representing things that can be added to improve your estate: buildings, animals, “knowledge” (we generally call them “technologies” or “enhancements”), mines, castles and ships. Each have their own effects and powers.

4) During each round all players will roll two dice and use them one at a time to either – take a tile from the matching numbered area on the board into storage – place a tile from storage onto an appropriately colored space with matching number on their map – claim two worker tokens (die number doesn’t matter). Once per turn a player can also buy from the central area. Player use the effects of the hex tiles when they are placed on the map. The workers are key to the genius of the game balance and strategy – each token can be redeemed to change a die roll one value higher or lower, and they can be redeemed several at once. This gives players control to mitigate the effect of luck if needed.

5) Highest score after five phases of five rounds wins. Points come from a large number of possible methods, including placing special buildings, completely filling in sections of your player board, being the first to fill all spaces of a color, collecting animals of the same type, selling “goods” (square tiles that can be claimed from the gameboard), etc.

I’m obviously skipping a lot of details, but that should give an idea of what the game is like. It’s harder to explain than it is to learn, but note that I’m speaking from the point of view of a regular, veteran gamer. This is NOT an entry level game.

Overall: The Castles of Burgundy has a ton of pieces and somewhat complicated set up, but the setup is to keep the game balanced (certain spaces aren’t used depending on how many players you have) and it’s not too bad if you keep the different types of hexes separate during storage (I use small ziplock bags).

The game scales perfectly with the number of players and the mechanics are a lot of fun. The player boards are double sided, with a standard identical board on one side and unique boards on the other. So beyond the variation each game will have just from the tiles, the unique boards can be used to increase the dynamic and replayability.

One other thing to mention is there isn’t really direct player interaction – someone might take tiles you had your eyes on, or get a fulfillment reward first, but that’s about it. It didn’t bother us at all, but if you’re more into confrontation style games this won’t fit the bill.

As is probably clear by now I loved The Castles of Burgundy. It’s an innovative take on tile placement games that I can see myself playing for a long time to come.

Princes of Florence is a “Eurogame” played in seven round for 3-5 players that centers around the theme of supporting artisans during the Renaissance. It combines bidding, resource management and other common elements into a unique, wonderful strategic game. It has long been my favorite and I find it holds up beautifully years after I first played.

It can seem a bit overwhelming at first. There are a lot of components and rules and it is necessary to give new players some instruction before beginning. Once that’s done and the game begins, however, most find it easy to pick up. Getting a feel for strategy and planning will likely take a few games.

Gameplay
The goal is to have the most prestige points (victory points) by the end of the game. The primary method of scoring prestige points is by playing one of the 23 artisan cards to complete a “work.” The value of the work will depend on whether or not you have things in your principality (play area) that inspire the artisan. For example, playing a Mathematician is worth more if you have a University.

Each artisan prefers 1 of 10 available buildings, 1 of 3 available landscapes and 1 of 3 available freedoms. Balancing which of these, and of other benefits and modifiers, you acquire is the key to victory. There are also placement and monetary restrictions to consider.

I won’t get into to too much more detail, but the structure of each round is another key to the game and warrants discussion.

Each round has two phases:
1) Auction phase: Seven things (the three landscapes, jesters, builders, cards worth extra prestige at the end of the game and cards that let you use previously used artisans) are ONLY available via auction. Bidding always starts at 200 florin and increases in increments of exactly 100 until all players pass. The last bidder now gets their choice of anything that hasn’t been already claimed that round. This continues until every player has obtain exactly one auctionable item. The bidding element combined with only being able to obtain one of these things per round adds great layers of balance and strategy to the game.

2) Action phase: Each player takes up to two actions. You can buy a freedom, buy a new artisan, buy a card to add bonus value when you complete a work, buy a building, or complete a work. Careful use of your two actions, management of available cash and exploiting what you acquired during the auction will pay off greatly.

The game comes with two player rule modifications and a packed in expansion of six special character cards. These give special abilities (such as getting a free auction item) and are auctioned off in a special phase at different points in the game. I enjoy the base game so much (and never have just two people for gaming) that we have never tried either of these modifications, so I can’t comment on it’s execution or balance.

The individual player game boards and other game components are all of good quality and hold up well over time.

Overall
Princes of Florence has a lot going on but it is all wonderfully constructed and well balanced. I adore the way everything comes together. Even the auction element, which I generally dislike in games, is incorporated perfectly and adds strategy without slowing things down. There are several viable ways to enhance your chances of completing works and scoring points, and the availability of things based on your opponent’s action makes every game different.

While I wouldn’t use it to introduce people to Eurogames, Princes of Florence is easily my personal favorite and I’d highly recommend it for any Eurogamer’s closet.