Burgenland
Burgenland Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
The first player to finish building all of their buildings and wells raises their screen and wins the game.
Components
- 1 game board
- 4 player screens (with two side panels each)
- 8 border markers
- 9 exchange tiles
- 13 bonus tiles (2 spare), marked with "?"
- 120 cards: 80 colored cards (10 of each color), 17 joker cards, 12 architect cards, 11 well cards
- 49 wooden buildings: 16 gray walls, 12 black towers, 12 brown houses, 8 blue wells, 1 red well indicator
Setup
Place the game board in the center of the table. The board has 11 castles, each with 3 square building sites for buildings and 1 round building site for a well. The castles are connected by roads. In the center of the board is a large castle with blue roofs, which has no building sites. Along the right side of the board are places for the well-card deck and the architect-card deck, as well as places for the bonus tiles and exchange tiles.
- Shuffle the 80 colored cards and place them face down in a pile above the board. Place the joker cards face up in a pile next to the colored-card pile.
- Place the 9 exchange tiles in a pile on the corresponding place on the board.
- Shuffle the 12 architect cards and place them in a face-up pile on the corresponding place on the board.
- Shuffle the 11 well cards and place them in a face-up pile on the corresponding place on the right of the board.
- The red well indicator's place corresponds to the number on the top face-up well card. Put the red well indicator in the corresponding castle on the board.
- Place the 8 border markers in random order on each junction of the paths between castles on the board.
- Shuffle the 13 bonus tiles and place them face down ("?" up) in the corresponding place on the board.
Give each player:
- one player screen, to be joined with its side panels and set up in front of them;
- the buildings and wells, which are placed behind their personal screens.
The inner left side panel of the screen (left column) shows how many and which buildings and wells each player receives depending on the total number of players.
Then distribute the remaining buildings (shown on the left side panel of the screen, right column) onto the castles on the board according to the following rules:
- 4 players: place one wall on the northern building site in 4 castles of your choice.
- 3 players: place one wall on the northern building site in 4 castles of your choice. Now place 1 house on the western building site in any 3 of the castles that already contain walls. Finally, place one tower on the northern building site in the 3 castles that are still empty.
- 2 players: place 6 walls, 2 houses and 4 towers, as described above.
All of the above buildings stay in place until the end of the game. The 2 wells left over in a 3- or 2-player game are returned to the game box (they are not needed for the rest of the game).
The youngest player starts the game. They take 4 colored cards from the colored-card deck and 1 joker card from the joker deck. The following players, clockwise, in turn do the same, but each takes 1 more colored card than the previous player, still with only 1 joker card (for example: the fourth player in a 4-player game takes 7 colored cards and 1 joker card). Keep your cards secret from the other players.
Course of Play
On your turn you choose between two different actions (A or B, described below). The next player clockwise then also chooses action A or B on their turn, and so on until the game ends.
Action A - Build
You may build ONE of your own buildings (tower, house, wall) or one of your own wells. You may build buildings on any empty square site in the 11 castles; a well may only be built on the empty round site in the castle where the red indicator currently stands.
Each of the 11 castles lies on the border between two differently colored border markers. The colors of the shields on the markers show the color of cards the player must play in order to build something in that castle. When building, 4 cards MUST ALWAYS be played. The number of coins shown on the cards has NO significance or effect here; you may also play any number of jokers per turn, as you like. After building, discard the colored cards in a separate face-up pile for later use and return the joker card(s) (if any were used) to the joker pile.
Example: If you want to build on an empty site in the castle shown in the example, you must play 4 red and/or green cards. The 4 cards may be in any of the following combinations:
- 4 red cards, or
- 3 red cards and 1 green card, or
- 2 red cards and 2 green cards, or
- 1 red card and 3 green cards, or
- 4 green cards.
You may play any number of jokers you have per turn.
Special Building Rules
Walls: You may build walls on any empty square site in a castle. For each wall that is in the castle after building, you get one joker card from the deck and add it to your hand. Example: A player has just built the second wall in a castle, so he takes two joker cards from the deck.
Towers: No more than 1 tower may be built in a castle. Also, when building a tower you must pay the architect: the top face-up card of the architect deck shows how many coins (from 1 to 5) must be paid. Payment is made by discarding cards from your hand (regardless of their color) with enough coins shown on them to pay. After the tower has been built and fully paid for, take the top face-up architect card from the deck and move it to the bottom of the deck. The new face-up architect card now shows the new cost of the architect's services for building a tower. Example: an additional tower cannot be built in this castle.
Houses: For each house you want to build, a wall must already be present in the castle. Otherwise building the house is not allowed! Therefore: to build the 1st house in a castle there must be one wall; to build a second house in the same castle, a second wall must already be built in the castle. Having two houses in one castle is otherwise possible only with the use of special bonus tiles (see the Bonuses section). Example: a house cannot be built in this castle because the second wall has not been built (yet). It is possible only using a special bonus tile (see page 6).
Wells: A well may only be built on the round site in the castle at the place occupied by the red indicator.
- First, as with building buildings, discard 4 matching colored cards to build the well.
- Then take your reward. Your reward is always the top visible value in the well-card discard column located below the well-card deck itself. For example, the first player to build a well receives a reward of 5 coins (takes colored cards from the deck with a total of at least 5; see the Reward Coins section), the second to build a well receives a reward of 4 coins, then 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.
The first player to build a well takes the top face-up well card and places it face down on the indicated space in the well-card discard column, covering the reward of 5. The next player to build a well thus receives a reward of 4, covering it with the face-up well card. The next receives a reward of 3, and so on down to a reward of 1.
Finally, the new face-up well card (revealed after building a well), with the number on it, determines the castle in which the red well indicator is to be placed.
Example: the red well indicator should be placed in the castle with the number "8" on its round space. The player's reward after building the well will be "3".
Reward Coins
There are three ways to get reward coins (that is, additional colored cards) in the game:
- When building wells (the reward value decreasing from 5 to 1);
- When you build a building on special square spaces (the reward is always 3 coins);
- From special bonus tiles (always worth 5 coins).
When a reward appears, take colored cards (NOT JOKERS!) from the colored-card deck in a number equal to the reward value. Each card taken must be revealed so that the other players can check their values. Once you have taken enough cards, add them to your hand. IMPORTANT: after each colored card taken and shown to the other players, the total of their values must be counted. DO NOT TAKE EXTRA CARDS if the sum of their values exceeds the reward value!
Example 1: a player built the first well in the game and gets a reward of 5 coins. He takes one card and shows its value (it is 1); then takes a second card, whose value is also 1; then a third card, also 1; the fourth card taken has a value of 3. 1+1+1+3=6, which is more than the reward of 5. The player STOPS taking cards, as their total value has already exceeded the reward. The player keeps 4 colored cards in hand.
Example 2: a player builds a building on an empty square space with a value of +3. He takes a colored card and reveals it. The card's value is 3. His reward and the card's value are the same. The player adds one colored card to his hand.
The Large Castle
Instead of building in the ordinary castles, you may also build in the large blue castle. You may build any buildings there where you like, BUT NOT WELLS. Important: none of the previous rules on building, rewards or costs apply when building in the large castle!
If you want to build in the large castle, you must pay a different number of colored cards depending on the type of building you want to build:
- For walls you must pay either 4 cards of one color or 6 cards of different colors.
- For houses you must pay either 5 cards of one color or 7 cards of different colors.
- For towers you must pay either 6 cards of one color or 8 cards of different colors.
Important: "different colors" means that all cards must have different colors; that is, you need exactly one card of each color (for example: 8 cards of DIFFERENT COLORS, or 6 cards of ONE COLOR, to build a tower)!
Jokers
Jokers can replace any colored card you want, including when building in the large castle. You may use as many joker cards per turn as you like for building. A joker card is always worth 3 coins.
Do not forget! If you discard colored cards totaling 6 coins, you may add a joker to your hand (or 2 jokers when you discard cards totaling 12 coins, or 3 jokers if you discard colored cards totaling 18 coins, and so on). You may do this only on your turn, in addition to your regular actions.
Important: If the joker cards in the deck have run out, you must temporarily use something else to replace them.
Action B - Take Colored Cards
The player takes 2 colored cards from the face-down colored-card deck and adds them to their hand. A player may hold any number of colored cards in hand during the game. If the face-down colored-card deck has run out, shuffle the discarded colored cards and form a new face-down colored-card deck from them.
End of the Game
The game ends when one player has built all of their pieces (walls, towers, houses and wells) on the game board, and proves this by raising their screen. Congratulations to the winner... and fastest builder of all time!
Bonuses
There are four types of bonuses for building buildings on the square sites in the castles. If you build and fully pay for the building, you then receive the bonus corresponding to the building site:
- Joker: Take a joker card from the deck and add it to your hand. Note: if you build a wall on this site, you of course receive a joker card in addition to the one you receive for building a wall.
- 3 coins: Take colored cards with a total coin value of at least 3 and add them to your hand (see the Reward Coins section).
- Exchange tile: Take an exchange tile from the corresponding pile on the board and place it behind your screen. On your turn you may play this tile in addition to your normal actions. You may swap any two border markers of your choice.
- Bonus tile: Take a bonus tile from the corresponding pile on the board and place it behind your screen. On your turn you may play this tile, including more than one tile in a turn, in addition to your normal actions.
Bonus Tile Types
- Extra building site (3 tiles): You have an extra building site in a castle of your choice. Note: all the usual building rules must be observed! It is not permitted to place more than one extra site in a castle. This tile cannot be used when building wells or buildings in the large castle.
- Pay 10 coins (3 tiles): When you play this tile, placing it face up next to the board before building a building or well, instead of paying the usual 4 cards matching the border markers adjacent to the castle, you may pay with any cards as long as their total coin value is at least 10. Note: when building a tower you must still pay the architect! Important! You may also use this tile to build in the large castle; it replaces all the usual building costs. In other words, when building a wall, house or tower you need to pay with any colored cards whose coin value is at least 10, instead of the usual 4-6 cards of one color or 6-8 cards of different colors!
- Ignore building restrictions (3 tiles): When you play this tile, placing it face up next to the board before building a tower or house, you may ignore the usual building restrictions. In other words, you may build a second tower in a castle, or build a house even if the walls required for it are absent from the castle.
- Draw cards (4 tiles): When you play this tile, placing it face up next to the board during your turn, you may take colored cards from the deck into your hand with a total coin value of [as printed in the translation: "not exceeding 5"; presumably a reward of 5 coins, as the Reward Coins section says bonus tiles are always worth 5 coins] (see the Reward Coins section).
For clarity: all played bonus tiles are laid next to the board and cannot be used again until the end of the game.