Played 40 games of Castles of Burgundy before I realized the board has a scoring track

Three months in, someone at the table pointed at the top border and said that's where you count points, not the tiles. I'd been doing mental math the whole time and just thought the game was more complicated than it was. Anyone else miss an obvious rule for way too long in a game they play all the time?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia_hayes1d ago

Man, I actually think playing without the scoring track is the better way to experience this game. You're forced to remember every point and really feel each decision land, which makes the final reveal way more tense than just watching a marker slide along. Honestly, that mental math is a skill, and once you use the track it's like the game plays itself for you.

nora18422h ago

72 games in a campaign, and you're telling me you trust your memory to keep track of who's up by what? I've lost count of my own score by round three, and I'm not even the one trying to win. The track isn't a crutch, it's the difference between playing the game and playing a memory test that punishes people who actually want to enjoy dinner. Also, that "final reveal" you love so much is just one person slowly adding up a bunch of numbers while everyone else sits there bored, hoping they did the math right. The track keeps the tension alive all the way through, not just at the end, because you can see the exact moment someone pulls ahead or falls behind. If I wanted to do mental arithmetic in my free time, I'd go back to my old bookkeeping job, not sit at a game table.