BUILDBUILDBUILD

BURGENLAND

IMPISH BUILDING SITES

Busily bustling manikins we see! Not very big they are, reminding us of gnomes with their knobby noses. They seem to be building a castle, but seem to be undecided about who and where and how and when. And they do not seem to relate to each other or listen to what the other one says. Each is busy with himself. And when this results in accidentally   jostling the nearest knob-nosed gnome or in his falling off the castle wall, well, that’s too bad, but unavoidable, those things happen. The castle needs to be finished!

As a matter of fact the image on the game box cover thus described illustrates the events at the game table rather nicely. The scene is just a bit too hectic, a bit too dynamic in comparison to the real game. The scurrying, gesticulating gnomes seem to suggest a communicative game with a high frustration or aggravation level. But, the new family game by Inka and Markus Brand plays rather calmly, quietly and unperturbedly. But only in our heads, as at that point the level of suspense rises dramatically and we begin to worry who will in the end build what and where and thus will end the game. And, as we have thus arrived at the end of the game, let’s stay there for a bit: Burgenland is a felicitous, well-made, easily accessible, calm, but also here and there incredibly thrilling, family game. But only from the second game on, because – and this fact we have encountered in all games with people playing Burgenland for the first time – Burgenland is not instantly accessible. It is a teeny weeny bit cumbersome as regards to rules details. The basic flow of the game is simple, but in a first game you always to refer back to the rules to make sure what you can build where and when and by what means.

Because, this is the topic of Burgenland: Building. Or, to put it more clearly: BUIDINGBUILDINGBUILDING! The name-giving kingdom presents itself to us in all its glory on the fantastically illustrated board. And we begin to suspect that the ruling royal family has an issue with compensating something, because, all in all, we find, in a very cramped space, 11 small castles in different stages of construction and one large, already completed castle. Thus we already have a very presentable and prestigious building site, but the interior of the castles still appear to be rather empty and – as you can never have enough walls in a really well-fortified castle – some walls are still missing. And thus we, the players, are challenged to fill the big buildings with additional small ones. Remember: BUIDINGBUILDINGBUILDING!

Burgenland plays really fast. In any of his turns a player has exactly two options: He can either draw two cards from the face-down draw pile or he can set up one building. That’s it. The first option of the two is rather simple and self-explanatory. There are two paths leading to each castle. At the start of the game you randomly place coat-of-arms of different colors at the crossroads of those paths. If you want to construct a building in a castle you must discard four cards. Those cards must correspond – in any combination of your choice – to the two adjacent coats-of-arms (4-0, 3-1, 2-2). For a little bit of assistance there are the obligatory Joker cards. If we hold a suitable combination, the cards are placed on the discard pile and suitable building is placed into the corresponding castle.

Each player has – in relation to the number of players in the game – a certain number of walls, palaces, houses and wells at his disposal. And whoever among all players is first to have placed all those buildings into castles on the game board – if necessary, also somewhere in the big castle – wins the game. No, there are no victory points, no money, and no prestige, fame or reputation points, either. Burgenland is a race! Ready, steady, go and game over! We are neither bothered by a final scoring nor secret goals. And this straight aim at a clear target provides the challenge and thrill already mentioned, because we hide our buildings behind a screen. Of course, if you have a good memory you will remember who built what already, but this undoes the thrilling part of the game. What is not much of an issue with three and four players gifted with standard memory abilities is very much of an issue and much felt in a game of two players as in such a game each player can rather easily determine by counting how many and what kind of buildings his opponent has still in stock. This in turn makes the game more imminent and also more direct in conflict or competition, and also somewhat more destructive, because you can know selectively grab building sites.

And that takes us to the next important fact: Each castle has a pre-defined number of rectangular building sites for walls, palaces and houses and one circular building site for wells. And we are not allowed to build as we are inclined to everywhere, because buildings depend on each other and other factors as regards to prerequisites. Walls – we already know that a castle never can have too many walls – can be set up on any building site of your choice, but they tend to block up proceedings. Houses can only be but when there are walls in the castle, and are restricted to one house per wall. And each caste also has only got room for one of those posh palaces which also needs to be set up buy a building professional, of course against proper payment. And wells are a dodgy matter in any case, as apparently there can only be a castle where water has been found at that moment.

For the setting up of buildings you earn different awards. On the one hand from the building itself (money in case of wells, cards in case of walls) and from the building site on the other hand. And this is the point where Burgenland reveals its allure, in your second game the latest. Because the rewards that we earn from the building site are the facts that render flexible the basically simple construct.

There are Joker cards, money (indicated as a second number on the cards in the game), the option to swap coats-of-arms on cross-roads (something that comes in very hand if your hand of cards is not suitable at the moment), additional building sites (important, when your hand is suitable, but the castle is already full), the option to ignore building rules (a fantastic thing if you missed out on placing your own palaces) and varying building costs (money instead cards corresponding in colors).

And as unimposing those tiles seem to be, at least visually, at the start of your first game, as powerful they turn out to be in influencing the course of the game in your consecutive games. When everybody knows how they work you can perform some pretty impressive building tricks with them. If is fun to bend the rules of the game or to break them. This renders the game more flexible, more dynamic and makes it better. If you play without a real clue in the first game, you target your gameplay at building sites in consecutive game to acquire those bonus tiles that become very important towards the end of the game – when things get really tight on the board once again.

Oh, by the way: If you want to build something in the big, central castle, you have to follow somewhat different rules. There is no restriction as to building sites and you can build by hook or by crook – and this can happen towards the end of the game, or even in the middle of it, in case you hold a suitable hand of cards, in order to irritate your opponents, as the big castle usually is only used when you have already set up most of your buildings. The costs are different, too. Depending on the kind of building you must discard a certain number of either identical or different cards. This can get really expensive in some cases, and of course each player should first deal with the cheaper building sites in the small castles. If the big castle serves as a kind of crutch, as some players have suspected, is hard to tell, but it definitely gives off a bit of that flavor. At least – and with that we are back at the beginning – in the first game.

So we must not judge Burgenland by the first game we play. Even experienced players have their problems with the different interactions of buildings rules. “How are the rules for a house, and when may I build a wall? Oh, yes, at any time”. And of course all of it is stated rather clearly on our screen, but all the same…. The first rounds always turned out to be a bit cumbersome, followed by the demand for a follow-up game.

The interaction of buildings, combined with the rewards from the building sites which allow us to act a bit more flexible, is what makes the game interesting. There is nearly no open conflict and allover Burgenland gives off a positive flavor. The rhythm of drawing cards and placing buildings results in a quick game that proved its worth already in games like “Ticket to Ride” or “Auf den Spuren von Marco Polo”. The bottom line is that Burgenland is a very felicitous game for the whole family. But – once again! – don’t judge the game after your first play, because that might lead to the wrong conclusion. As does the cover. And that then turns about to fit the content somehow!

Klemens Franz

Players: 2-4

Age: 9+

Time: 60+

Designer: Inka and Markus Brand

Artist: Julian Delval, Fiore GmbH

Price: ca. 33 Euro

Publisher: Ravensburger.de

Web: www.ravensburger.de

Genre: Building, card management

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comments:

Well-known mechanisms, albeit differently used

Simple basic mechanisms

Hold more options than you spot in a first game

Compares to:

Zug um Zug, Auf den Spuren von Marco Polo

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Klemens Franz:

Burgenland is a nice family game with hidden depths, you should at least allow for two games to find out about the fun in the game.

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0