How to Play The Castles of Burgundy: 9th Expansion – The Team Game

Game Objective

In "The Castles of Burgundy: 9th Expansion – The Team Game", players form two teams of two to build their principalities and accumulate the most victory points. The goal is for your team to have the highest sum of victory points at the end of the game. In case of a tie, the team with more empty spaces in their double principality wins.

Preparation (Setup)

Game preparation follows the rules of the original game, with the following modifications for team play:

1. Team Formation: Two teams of two players are formed. Team members must sit next to each other.
2. Team Board: Each team receives a double board, which is composed of two board halves. (With experience, teams can use the reverse side of the board for a greater challenge.)
3. Starting Castle: Each team places a castle on the dark green central space with a die value of 1. (When playing with the advanced board, each team can choose between the dark green hexagon 1 or hexagon 6.)
4. Starting Goods: Each team receives 3 random goods tiles, which are placed in the respective shared storage spaces. Tiles of the same color are stacked on top of each other.
5. Workers and Silver: Team A receives 3 worker tokens, and Team B receives 5 worker tokens. Both teams receive 2 silver. The worker tokens and silver are placed in the respective shared spaces on the board.
6. Individual Components: Each player chooses a color and receives 2 dice and 2 markers (one for victory points and one for turn order) of the chosen color. These are placed separately for each player.
7. Turn Order: The turn order markers are placed according to the determined turn order. The first round is played alternately (A1, B1, A2, B2), and all subsequent rounds are played according to the turn order track.

Game Flow

The game is played according to the original rules, with the only difference being that each player has only two storage spaces available to place their hexagonal tiles. To compensate, they can also use the two shared storage spaces (top center).

During a team member's turn, they can use any shared resource (workers, goods, silver, and up to 2 hexagonal tiles). However, a player can never use their team partner's hexagonal tiles or dice. Once hexagonal tiles are placed in a storage space, they cannot be moved.

Team members can operate on both halves of their double board.

As there is now space for more than 6 ships, the following additional rule applies: Whenever you place your 7th, 8th... ship, place your turn order marker on top of all other markers (if any) in the final space of the turn order track.

Actions and How to Play

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends and scoring is calculated as follows:

1. Sum of Victory Points: The victory points of both team members are summed.
2. Winner Determination: The team with the highest score wins the game.
3. Tie-breaker Criterion: In case of a tie, the team with more empty spaces in their double principality wins.

Tips for Winning

• Team members can operate on both halves of their double board, allowing for greater flexibility and coordination in building the principality.
• Utilize the shared storage spaces for hexagonal tiles efficiently, as each player individually has fewer personal spaces.
• Coordinate the use of shared workers, goods, and silver to maximize the actions of both team players.