Manual — Burgenland

The first player to finish building all of their buildings and wells lifts their player screen and wins the game.
Construction fever has hit Burgenland! Build new houses, wells, walls and keeps in the many castles. But you must build quickly,
or the best building spots will be taken. Collect the matching cards, secure one of the available bonuses, and consider
your many gameplay options carefully.
An exciting building game for 2 to 4 players, ages 9 and up
Authors: Inka & Markus Brand
Editing: Stefan Brück
Rules Layout: Fiore GmbH – Büro für Gestaltung
Game Idea
Game Components
1 Game Board
2 Cardboard Frames, containing:
120 Cards:
49 Wooden Pieces:
4 Player Screens
(with 2 sides each)
80 Color Cards (10 per color)
16 gray Walls 12 black Keeps 12 brown Houses 8 light blue Wells
17 Jokers ("Wild" Cards) 12 Architect Cards 11 Well Cards
8 Border Markers 9 Exchange Tiles 13 Bonus Tiles +
2 Replacement Tiles
(with a "?" on their reverse side)
1 red Well Indicator

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Game Setup
Place the game board in the middle of the table. It shows 11 castles, each with 3 square building spaces for buildings and 1 round space for a well. The castles are connected by paths. The board also shows a large castle with blue roofs and no building spaces. Along the right side of the board (the “East”), there are spaces for the well and architect cards, as well as spaces for the bonus and exchange tiles.
Shuffle the 80 color cards and place them in a face-down draw pile above the game board. Place the 17 jokers in a face-up pile next to them.
Shuffle the 11 well cards and place them in a face-up pile on the corresponding space in the upper right of the game board.
Place the red well indicator onto the building space whose number matches the one on the topmost well card.
Place the 9 exchange tiles onto their corresponding space as well.
Shuffle the 12 architect cards and place them in a face-up pile onto the corresponding space in the lower right of the game board.
Place a randomly-chosen border marker onto each of the 8 path intersections between the individual castles.
Shuffle the 13 bonus tiles and place them face-down (with the “?” showing) onto their corresponding space.
Give each player:
- one player screen, set up in front of the player;
- buildings and wells, placed behind the screens.
The inner left side of the player screen shows what each player receives, depending on player count.
Then, distribute the remaining buildings (also shown on the player screens) onto the castles of your choice in accordance with the following rules:
4 players: Place 1 wall onto the north building spaces of 4 castles of your choice.
3 players: Place the 4 walls as described under “4 players” above. Now place 1 house onto the west building space of 3 of these castles. Finally, place 1 keep onto the north building spaces of 3 other still-empty castles.
2 players: Place 6 walls, 3 houses, and 3 keeps as described above. Then place additional walls such that 10 of the 11 north building spaces as well as 2 of the west building spaces (each next to a wall) are occupied.
These building spaces are now occupied and cannot be built on by the players over the course of the game. The 2 wells that are left over in a 3 or 2 player game can be returned to the game box; they are not placed onto the castles.
The youngest player is the start player. That player draws 4 color cards and 1 joker from the draw piles. The remaining players follow in clockwise direction, each drawing 1 more color card than the previous player, although never more than 1 joker (so that the fourth player in a 4 player game ends up with 7 color cards and 1 joker). Keep your cards in your hand so that the other players cannot see them.
Summary on player screen
North building space
West building space

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Game Play
Action A – Build Once
You can build either one of your own buildings (keep, house, wall) or one of your own wells.
You can build a building on any empty square building space in the 11 castles, but a well can only be built on the round building space currently occupied by the red well indicator.
Each of the 11 castles lies between two border markers. The colors of the shields on the markers indicate which colors of cards must be played to build in the chosen castle. 4 cards must always be played. The number of coins indicated on the cards has no effect, and you may play as many jokers as you like.
Discard the color cards you have played to a face-up discard pile next to the draw pile, and return any jokers you have played to the joker pile.
On your turn, you can choose between two different actions (A or B, described below). The next player in clockwise order then gets a turn to choose an action, etc., until the game is over.
Example: If you want to build on a building space in this castle, you must play 4 red and/or green cards.
The 4 cards you play can be 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 can play as many jokers as you like.
Example: The player here has just
built the second wall in this castle
and therefore draws 2 jokers from
the pile.
Example: No additional keeps can
be built in this castle.
Special rules for each building:
Walls: You can build walls on any empty square building space. For each wall located in the chosen castle after building, draw one joker from the pile, adding it to your hand.
Keeps: There may not be more than 1 keep per castle. Additionally, when building a keep you must pay the architect: The topmost architect in the pile indicates how many coins (between 1 and 5) must be paid. Payment is made by playing additional cards (regardless of color!) with enough coins on them to total the necessary amount. No change is given.
After the keep has been built and fully paid for, take the topmost architect card from the pile and move it to the bottom, so that the new topmost card shows the architect cost for the next keep to be built.

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Example: No house may be built in this castle, as no second wall has been built (yet). (In any case, only possible with the “extra building space” bonus tile [see page 6]!)
Example 1: A player has built the first well in the game, which is worth a 5 coin reward. He draws and reveals a 1-value card, then a second 1-value card, and then a third 1-value card. The fourth card is a 3-value card. This ends the card draw, as the total coin value of the cards drawn (6) is now greater than the minimum reward value of 5. The player takes the 4 cards into his hand.
Example 2: A player builds on a building space with a coin value of 3. He draws and reveals a 3-value card. His reward value is met and he adds the new card to his hand.
Houses: For each house you want to build in a castle, a wall must already be present. Otherwise building a house is not allowed! Therefore: 1 house = minimum 1 wall; 2 houses = minimum 2 walls.
Example: The next well (on building space 8) … will be worth a reward of 3 coins.
Well: A well can only be built on the building space with the red well indicator.
1) First, just as with buildings, pay 4 matching color cards.
2) Next, take your reward: Your reward is always the highest visible value on the 8 well discard spaces below the well card pile. The first well to be built is worth cards with a total coin value of at least 5 coins, the second is worth 4 coins’ worth, then 3, etc.
3) Place the just-completed well card, face-down, onto the next available well discard space. So, the first well to be built covers the 5, leaving 4 as the highest visible value, etc.
4) Finally, place one of your wells onto the space with the red well indicator, moving the indicator to the building space whose number matches the new topmost well card: This is the building space for the next well…
The Coin Rewards: There are three ways to get a coin reward (i.e., additional color cards) in the game:
- When building wells (decreasing coin values from 5 to 1),
- When building on specific square building spaces (always worth 3 coins), and
- From specific bonus tiles (always worth 5 coins).
When you receive such a reward, keep drawing color cards (never jokers!) from the draw pile until the cards show at least as many coins as your reward. Reveal the cards as you draw them so that the other players can check the numbers. Once you have drawn enough cards, add them to your hand.

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The Large Castle:
Instead of building in the small castles, you can also build wherever you like in the large castle. You can build any buildings you want, but no wells (which is why a well is already shown on the board).
Important: None of the previous building rules, 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 color cards depending on the type of building you want to build:
For a wall, you must pay either 4 cards of the same color or 6 cards in different colors.
For a house, you must pay either 5 cards of the same color or 7 cards in different colors.
For a keep, you must pay either 6 cards of the same color or 8 cards in different colors.
Important: “Different colors” really means cards in all different colors; this means that you will need exactly one card of each of the 8 colors to build a keep!
The Joker:
Jokers replace any color card you want, including when building in the large castle. You can use as many jokers as you want when building. Jokers are always worth 3 coins.
Don’t forget! If you discard color cards worth 6 coins, you can add a joker to your hand (or 2 jokers when discarding 12 coins worth of cards, or 3 jokers when discarding 18 coins worth of cards, etc.). You can do this at any time on your turn, in addition to your regular action.
Draw the top 2 color cards from the face-down draw pile and add them to your hand. There is no hand limit.
Should the draw pile run out, carefully shuffle the discard pile and use it to form a new face-down draw pile.
Note: The joker draw pile is not meant to run out. Should this happen, you can temporarily use something else to represent them.
Action B – Draw 2 Color Cards
Game End
The game ends as soon as one player has built all of their items (walls, keeps, houses and wells) on the game board and has proven this by lifting their player screen. Congratulations to the winner…
… and fastest builder of all time!

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The Bonuses:
There are four different bonuses for building on square building spaces. If you build and fully pay for a building, then you subsequently receive the corresponding bonus:
Take a joker from the pile and add it to your hand.
Note: If you build a wall on this space, you of course receive this joker in addition to the one you would normally get for building the wall.
(3x) When you play this tile (by placing it face-up next to the game board) before building a building or a well, then instead of paying the usual 4 cards matching the adjacent border markers you can pay any cards you want as long as their total coin value adds up to at least 10.
Note: When building a keep you must still pay the architect!
Important! You can also use this tile to build in the large castle; it replaces all of the usual building costs there.
In other words, when building a wall, house, or keep you only need to pay cards whose coin value totals at least 10, instead of the usual 4-6 identical or 6-8 different colored cards!
Draw cards with a total coin value of 3 and add them to your hand (see “The Coin Rewards” on page 4).
Take an exchange tile from the supply and place it behind your player screen.
You can play these tiles whenever you want on your turn, in addition to your normal action. For each exchange tile you play, you can exchange the positions of two border markers of your choice.
Take a face-down bonus tile from the supply and place it behind your player screen.
You can play these tiles – including more than one at the same time – whenever you want on your turn, in addition to your normal action.
The bonus tiles consist of the following:
(3x) You have an extra building space at your disposal. Place this tile into the castle of your choice and then build the building of your choice on it.
Note: All of the usual building rules still apply!
You are not allowed to place more than one extra building space tile per castle. This tile is of no use when building wells or building in the large castle.
(3x) When you play this tile (by placing it face-up next to the game board) before building a keep or a house, then you are allowed to ignore the usual building restrictions.
In other words, you may build a second keep in a castle, or build a house even if there are not enough walls present.
(4x) When you play this tile (by placing it face-up next to the game board) at the time of your choosing, then you may draw and keep color cards with a total coin value of at least 5 (see “The Coin Rewards” on page 4).
For clarity, all used bonus tiles placed next to the game board are out of the game and may not be used again.

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