OUR REVIEW

COnstruction work in ancient France

Burdigala

Rather wine cellar than wine

Burdigala – ever heard about it? Bordeaux, that sounds much more familiar, but the association about good wine could detract too much from the game, so the ancient name for Bordeaux has been chosen as a title for the game. Or maybe it is simply fashionable to use ancient Roman names for new games, as we have gone throw all the Caribbean islands. However this may be, this game by Bruno Cathala is sent into last pre-Christian century and picks up the topic of settling Burdigala.

A Roman town planner - Publius Crassus - has been tasked to give the budding trade town of Burdigala a representative design in Caesars name; if you managed to do this then I really cannot say, but today’s Bordeaux due to his generous layout comes across like an ancient metropolis despite having only about 700.00 inhabitants.

We, the players, are asked to assist Crassus in his task and thereby to keep an eye on our own personal advantage - yet another modern aspect, as proven by numerous boards of enquiry in Austria. We make good money from the construction of buildings, provided we are allowed to join in.

To join the building we must be on location at the right time by moving our pawn to the construction site. Additional income is available from the harbor (the centers of commerce), where we can acquire goods in the shape of so called Merchandise cards.

A third source of income is provided by the so called “Plot” cards, which furthermore also provide advantages during the game.

But of course, we do not look for profane money, we want to increase our prestige and collect “Prestige points”

In „Burdigala“ in his turn a player rolls two dice and decides which of the two he uses for movement; then he moves one of his two pawns onto a Check point (Street square) of a free building site and places a building cube there. Then he advances his marker on the prestige track for the number of remaining free spots in the site. When you occupy the last free spot and thus complete the building you remove the building site tile and receive the points stated on the back side.

In the game Bordeaux has been divided into 14 districts in which the 16 building tiles are distributed. Those building tiles show the number of construction spots, the more there are the higher is the gain in prestige.

On each Check point only one pawn is allowed, when a building is completed, the corresponding street squares can no longer be entered. Thus the number of target spots is continuously reduced, if you cannot find a target for your pawn you must remove it from the game.

The game ends when one of the players is out of pawns or when all buildings have been constructed. The game also ends when all the Merchandise cards have been used up.

All in all this is a very simple game in which the basic flow of the game has been enriched by a few cute tricks and thus again and again provides surprises which in turn makes you want to play again.

First of all the two dice offer you a selection of two possible moves, but you can use each link only once in a turn; should you roll a double you are royally compensated for the lacking choice; your pawn may remove an opposing pawn on the target spot und relocate it to any spot of your choice - the jail is a favorite choice for this, because you can only escape from jail when you roll a double; furthermore, you can use waterways and express ways which provide useful shortcuts, and finally a player can be available for being bribed: He takes one of the face-down corruption markers (resulting in negative points in the scoring) and can then do a second, complete turn.

When you achieve 7 for a dice results total you are in luck: You can either draw one of the face-down Merchandise cards or place another building cube on the same building site - but only if you are prepared to take a bribe (well, well, just as in current times; you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. And you receive only the prestige points for the second cube you placed, but how nice if this lets you finish a valuable building.

Besides the building tiles - which are the main purpose of the game - Burdigala offers additional game elements: In addition to the already mentioned corruption markers you can acquire Merchandise cards (they show a variety of ancient trade goods), they are available in the harbor areas or when rolling a total of 7, and you can also acquire „Plot“ cards. One of those cards is handed to you at the start of the game; more of them you get when you have a pawn sitting on one of the check points associated with a building that was just finished, but not if you are the one who finishes it; the “Plot” card is something of a consolation prize for those who do not score the points for the finished building.

These cards are surely the icing on the cake or the cherry on top in Burdigala. They deliver additional movement points or victory points, allow placing an additional building cube or the steal a Merchandise card from an opponent and much more. A player can hold three of those cards, as soon as he lays them out open-faced there bonus is activated.

The Merchandise cards, already mentioned several times, represent secret victory points, as they are collected face-down. At the end of the game they are revealed the more different ones you hold the more prestige points they give you. So a combination of three different goods is worth 6 victory points, five different ones are worth 15 points!

As a consequence you can see easily at the prestige track who is in the lead, „Plot“ cards too, show openly if they earn you prestige (a favorite target for opposing players), but the corruption markers and Merchandise cards are scored at the end of the game and so can all the same bring a surprise when the winner is calculated. Should I mention that you get rid of corruption markers during the course of the game, but not at its end ……………?

Burdigala is a prettily designed game, slightly remindful of Asterix, the rules are easily understood and clearly structured, including examples in text and pictures and the powers of all the „Plot“ cards are exactly explained so that you can get an idea what is in store for you or what you could use to aggravate your opponents; what a pity that you do not have a choice among them.

The rules of the game are basically simple, luck definitely is one of the deciding factors but the additional mechanisms add a mite of tactic, so that finally it is not chance which decides about victory. Long mulling over or planning ahead is not necessary, but it is important where you build or if you are corruptible at the right moments; a bit of pondering usually happens right after rolling the dice because as we say in German “many roads lead to Rome” or, in that case “to Burdigala”.

For experiences players Burdigala probably is too simple, it seems very well suited for families and others who want to try something a bit more challenging then „Risk“ or „Pachisi“, but do not look favorably at long and complex rules. Our round of gamers who have been playing together for decades, was absolutely taken with the „nice little surprises“ and we all agreed that the game has something to offer and that it is fun to play. It is a game among friends, rarely takes longer than an hour and absolutely invites one to try it once again immediately.

Ursula Vlk and Dr. Christoph Proksch

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 45+

Designer: Bruno Cathala

Art: Maria-Pez Matthey

Price: ca. 27 Euro

Publisher: Id&aL éditions

Web: www.ideal-editions.com

Genre: Placement and point collecting

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en es fr it

In-game text: no

Comments:

Topic nicely implemented

Easy to learn

Interactive point collecting game

Clear element of chance

Compares to:

All placement game with dice-determined selection

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Ursula Vlk und Christoph Proksch:

A highly recommendable family game for cheerful groups, nothing for brooders.

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0