How to Play Burgenland

Game Objective

In Burgenland, building fever has taken hold! Players compete to construct new houses, wells, walls, and towers in various castles. The objective is to be the first player to finish building all of their buildings and wells. The player who achieves this lifts their player screen and wins the game.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Place the game board in the center 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 one 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.
2. Shuffle the 80 colored cards and place them in a face-down draw pile above the game board. Place the 17 wild cards in a face-up pile next to it.
3. Shuffle the 11 well cards and place them in a face-up pile in the corresponding space in the upper right corner of the game board.
4. Place the red well indicator on the building space whose number corresponds to that of the top well card.
5. Place the 9 exchange tiles in their corresponding space.
6. Shuffle the 12 architect cards and place them in a face-up pile in the corresponding space in the lower right corner of the game board.
7. Place one randomly chosen border marker on each of the 8 path intersections between the individual castles.
8. Shuffle the 13 bonus tiles and place them face-down (with the "?" showing) in their corresponding space.
9. Give each player:
   • a 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 the number of players.
10. Then, distribute the remaining buildings (also shown on the player screens) into castles of your choice according to the following rules:
    • 4 players: Place 1 wall on the northern building spaces of 4 castles of your choice.
    • 3 players: Place the 4 walls as described under "4 players" above. Now place 1 house on the western building space of 3 of these castles. Finally, place 1 tower on the northern building spaces of 3 other still empty castles.
    • 2 players: Place 6 walls, 3 houses, and 3 towers as described above. Then, place additional walls so that 10 of the 11 northern building spaces, as well as 2 of the western building spaces (each next to a wall), are occupied.
    These building spaces are now occupied and cannot be built upon by players throughout 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 in the castles.
11. The youngest player is the starting player. This player draws 4 colored cards and 1 wild card from the draw piles. The remaining players follow clockwise, each drawing 1 more colored card than the previous player, though never more than 1 wild card (so that the fourth player in a 4-player game ends up with 7 colored cards and 1 wild card). Keep your cards in hand so that other players cannot see them.

Game Flow

On your turn, you can choose between two different actions (A or B). The next player clockwise then takes a turn to choose an action, and so on, until the game ends.

Actions and How to Play

On your turn, you can choose between two actions:

Action A – Build Once

You can build one of your own buildings (tower, house, wall) or one of your own wells.

• You can build a building on any empty square building space in the 11 castles.
• 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 can play as many wild cards as you like.

Discard the colored cards you played into a face-up discard pile next to the draw pile, and return any wild cards you played to the wild card pile.

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 construction, draw one wild card from the pile, adding it to your hand.
• Towers: There can be no more than 1 tower per castle. Additionally, when building a tower, you must pay the architect: The top architect card from 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 to total the required value. There is no change. After the tower has been built and fully paid for, take the top architect card from the pile and move it to the bottom, so that the new top card shows the architect's cost for the next tower to be built.
• Houses: For each house you wish 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.
• Wells: A well can only be built on the building space with the red well indicator.
  1. First, just like with buildings, pay 4 corresponding colored cards.
  2. Then, receive 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, then 3, etc.
  3. Place the newly completed well card, face-down, on the next available well discard space. Thus, the first well to be built covers the 5, leaving 4 as the highest visible value, etc.
  4. Finally, place one of your wells on the space with the red well indicator, moving the indicator to the building space whose number corresponds to the new top well card: This is the building space for the next well.

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 wish, but not 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 colored cards depending on the type of building you wish to construct:

• For a wall, you must pay 4 cards of the same color or 6 cards of different colors.
• For a house, you must pay 5 cards of the same color or 7 cards of different colors.
• For a tower, you must pay 6 cards of the same color or 8 cards of different colors.

Important: "Different colors" truly means cards of all different colors; this means you will need exactly one card of each of the 8 colors to build a tower!

The Wild Card:

Wild cards substitute for any colored card you want, including when building in the large castle. You can use as many wild cards as you like when building. Wild cards are always worth 3 coins.

Don't forget! If you discard colored cards worth 6 coins, you can add a wild card to your hand (or 2 wild cards when discarding 12 coins in cards, or 3 wild cards when discarding 18 coins in cards, etc.). You can do this at any time on your turn, in addition to your regular action.

Action B – Draw 2 Colored Cards

Draw the top 2 colored 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 wild card draw pile should not run out. If it does, you can temporarily use something else to represent them.

The Coin Rewards:

There are three ways to get a coin reward (i.e., additional colored cards) in the game:

• When building wells (decreasing coin values from 5 to 1),
• When building in 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 colored cards (never wild cards!) 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 other players can verify the numbers. Once you have drawn enough cards, add them to your hand.

The Bonuses:

There are four different bonuses for building in square building spaces. If you build and fully pay for a building, then you subsequently receive the corresponding bonus:

• Take a wild card from the pile and add it to your hand.
  • Note: If you build a wall in this space, you, of course, receive this wild card in addition to what you would normally get for building the wall.
• (3x) When you play this tile (placing it face-up next to the game board) before building a building or a well, then, instead of paying the usual 4 cards that correspond to the adjacent border markers, you may pay any cards you like, as long as their total coin value adds up to at least 10.
  • Note: When building a tower, you must still pay the architect!
  • Important! You can also use this tile to build in the large castle; it replaces all usual building costs there. In other words, when building a wall, house, or tower, you only need to pay cards whose coin value totals at least 10, instead of the usual 4-6 identical cards or 6-8 different colored cards!
• Draw cards with a total coin value of 3 and add them to your hand.
• Take an exchange tile from the supply and place it behind your player screen. You can play these tiles whenever you like on your turn, in addition to your normal action. For each exchange tile you play, you can swap 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 a time – whenever you like 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 in the castle of your choice, and then build the building of your choice on it.
    • Note: All usual building rules still apply! You are not allowed to place more than one extra building space tile per castle. This tile is not useful when building wells or when building in the large castle.
  • (3x) When you play this tile (placing it face-up next to the game board) before building a tower or a house, then you are allowed to ignore the usual building restrictions. In other words, you can build a second tower in a castle, or build a house even if there are not enough walls present.
  • (4x) When you play this tile (placing it face-up next to the game board) at the time of your choice, then you can draw and keep colored cards with a total coin value of at least 5.

For clarity, all used bonus tiles placed next to the game board are out of the game and cannot be used again.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends as soon as a player has built all of their items (walls, towers, 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!

Tips for Winning

• Collect the corresponding cards, secure one of the available bonuses, and consider your many game options carefully.
• Build quickly, or the best building spots will be taken.