The Sandcastles of Burgundy Components Overview and Impressions
I find kids games come in two varieties: those that create fantastic looking games with a production that helps kids create a story, while others look to create the cheapest product possible (and I say that as a positive accessibility thing, not a negative). Ravensburger, in my opinion, has often opted for the cheaper production, cheaper price of entry strategy, but with The Sandcastles of Burgundy, they have taken a different approach.
What’s most impressive to me here is the use of dual layered boards. Since the player boards are two-sided, one for beginner mode and one for the advanced mode, the actual insets aren’t as deep as I would like, but the fact that they are dual layered at all is really impressive! This is actually really great for kids, as they often bump the table or their boards, and for the most part, the pieces stay where they need to.
I was less impressed by the punch board quality. While all the tokens in the game are really nice and vibrant, they didn’t punch out well which means they aren’t the highest quality cardboard tiles. Short term I don’t expect this to be much of a problem, but I’d be interested to see how these pieces held up long-term. With the rest of the production being so amazing, I was a bit disappointed by this decision.
The game also includes 8 d6 dice, which are wooden and screen printed. Longterm, like with ANY screen printing, this will wear down as a result of rolling and sweaty hands, but based on other wooden, screen printed dice I’ve used, I don’t see that happening for a few years of consistent play. Also included are a few wooden animal pawns. I’m board games, we have been spoiled by perfectly cut animal pawns, and these are not them. Still, Ravensburger could have used cardboard standees here and they chose to stamp and image on a wooden block, so I like that they took that route at least. I appreciate the chunkiness of the pawns, however, as they are great for little hands!
Finally, the central board is really cool for two reasons. First, the board goes together like a puzzle as opposed to being a folded board (I love this, even in ‘adult’ games!). I love a board that goes together this way, as it eliminates the possibility of the board tearing as young kids fold and unfold it. The central board is highlighted by 6 plastic sandcastles. While these could have been more decorative, they are still really great, and large for those small hands to easily grab.
I think for the most part Ravensburger has knocked it out of the park with this production. The game looks fabulous, and based on our few plays already, it’s a great experience too. Stay tuned for more The Sandcastles of Burgundy content soon!
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Article By Adam Roffel
