Happy Throwback Thursday! It was a pastoral, middle ages kinda night where we introduced our friends to Feld & Rosenburg with Agricola & Castles of Burgundy (a couple of classics!). It was our first time playing them since we got their art hung up on the wall. In sorta keeping with the theme, I made some flaky vegetable harvest squares from Vegetarian Times!

At a Glance…

The Snack

I love these squares so much. They’re kinda a pain to make, just a bit labor intensive, but they’re so good! Honestly, things inside dough is my favorite food group (momos, mondoo, dumplings, bao, pasties, pastries, pierogies, burritos, pain au chocolat, etc.). So sometimes it’s worth the effort. Honestly, they aren’t that bad. You have to roast a bunch of cauliflower for a while, then blend it up with (vegan!) Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Then cook other vegetables like carrots, brussel sprouts, etc.

Next it’s stuffing time! I think you’re supposed to chill the puff pastry after you make it into squares, but who has time for that? 🫣 After you fill them and fold them over, they bake really quickly, and then you get to eat their deliciousness! Puff pastry is the best. 😀

The Strategy

We paired the pastries with some pastures and palaces.

Castles of Burgundy is not very pretty, but very satisfying! (There is a much prettier version that came out recently, but it’s super expensive, and we felt silly replacing our perfectly good copy). In it, you simply roll two dice. You then use the number on them to either 1) take a tile from the corresponding section 2) place a tile you previously took onto the corresponding section of your board 3) sell goods of the corresponding number 4) get more workers to let you manipulate the dice later. Different building have different abilities, like placing an extra tile, getting animals, mining silver, and more. You get points for pretty much everything (hence the term ‘point salad’ that Feld is known for), the question is can you get the *most* points? You get more for finishing sections earlier in the game, so maximizing your turns and completing things is critical. It is both simple and strategic, wherein lies its beauty. Not in the art, lol.

Agricola is a modern classic in its genre. It really is a pure ‘worker placement’ game, and very strategic in the timing of your turns. There are a limited number of rounds in the game, and you use your workers to do things like get animals or upgrade your house. But first you need wood to do those things. But you also want wood to build a stove to cook your…vegetables. Because obviously, you have to feed your people or you have to go begging and are sad. This game is so tight, and every turn feels terrible and great and the most important turn. It feels like you haven’t done anything with your silly farm until about the last turn of the game and then you’re like ‘hey! look at my beautiful farm with all its lovely vegetables and animals! I built that!’ Love a good ‘look what I built’ kinda game.

So, if strategy is your thing and you haven’t tried these two, you really must. They are both classics for a reason!

Want to buy these games? Check out your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) or Board Game Bliss using my referral!

Bling up Castles of Burgundy with the little silver bits from Top Shelf Gamer, or Agricola’s bits from Meeple Source! Check Amazon.com for Agricola or Castles of Burgundy.