The Sandcastles of Burgundy

Written by Kelly Gray on 9/27/2025 for TTOP  

When I was at Gen Con this year, The Sandcastles of Burgundy was one of the first games at the Ravensburger booth that caught my eye. With its three-dimensional castles and its playful board and game pieces, it's easy for adults to be drawn in. I knew instantly that my daughter would love to get her grubby paws on this game—and I was right. So right, in fact, that she's been asking to play it every night. 

The Concept

The Sandcastles of Burgundy may sound familiar because its older, more-established sibling, The Castles of Burgundy, is a well-known, well-respected game that can be found on many a tabletop gamer's shelves. The game maker, Ravensburger, prides itself on having a game for everyone: so enter The Sandcastles of Burgundy, a watered-down version of the game for players 5 and up. 

The overarching story revolves around the royal Queen Crab who is visiting the town of Burgundy. It's your job to throw her the best beach party the townsfolk have ever seen, and it's not easy work! You'll use your memory to create a strategy to locate the decorations that are needed to attract the Royal Guild. You'll do this by rolling two colored dice and looking under the sandcastles of your roll's corresponding colors. You can put the decorations into your storehouse until you're ready to move it into its matching shop. Using a turn and your cart, you'll transport the decorations one by one. Once you have collected your two decorations, you can open your shop, find the matching guild member, and invite them in. 

You'll gain points for opening the shops, and for bringing a guild member in, each point drawing you closer to the Queen Crab's beach party. Get there first, and you win.

Set Up

I ended up setting up the game and doing a full run-through after my 5-year-old's bedtime. This was. The. Right. Choice. It would have been a complete nightmare to be trying to add the stick'em to the cardboard square to place on top of the sandcastle. And honestly, I tend to get a bit obsessive over making sure stuff like that is centered and perfect. There are also quite a few cardboard pieces to poke out, and while she would have loved that, again, ever the perfectionist, I would have suffered without organizing the game pieces as I removed them from their holder.

Something I absolutely love about Ravensburger Games, I've found, is that they tend to not overlook the finer details. I was overjoyed when I pulled out the mini-baggies to house the game pieces. They aren't over-the-top in any way, but it's really thoughtful to provide various bags to house the differing size game pieces. Not to point out my perfectionism more than I already have in this review, but keeping those pieces separate and clean is one of those small mental fluffs that smooths out my brain and makes playing more enjoyable. Is there anyone else out there like me? I don't know—but if you're out there, just know that we're one in the same.

Instructions

Another one of the finer details I homed in on is that there are two full sets of instructions: one in English and one fully in French. It makes it extremely easy to navigate when there aren't multiple portions of copy in various languages to skim through. I also love the inclusivity of having a second full set of instructions in French that didn't skimp on the art and design. Kudos!

As for ease of reading the instructions, this is a 9/10. The written instructions are simple to understand, simple to explain, and engaging to boot. They are formatted in a very linear fashion that allows for smooth navigation through the game, and not many "what's next?" moments. The portions of instructions were easy to find, so when there was a stumble, I didn't find myself digging through paragraphs to get the answer I was looking for. With plenty of visuals to support the copy, and simple bold headers, I didn't get lost in the weeds.

The one item the written instructions are missing is a clear chart that shows where/how points are scored. That is what I had to dig for, and I'm still not sure I have my answer! A simple matrix would do wonders and allow for at-a-glance scoring to really keep the gameplay moving.

Design

The Sandcastles of Burgundy is created for children (to adult) gamers, so it's pretty obvious that the overall aesthetics of this game will be bright, primary colors and adorable animals. When you start playing, you select your Coats of Arms, which is essentially the character you're playing as. Again, it's fun that they went off the beaten path with their choices of animals. You don't pick a dog or cat, but rather a gopher or an owl. They are cute, and my daughter was quick to claim the porcupine, because why wouldn't she be? As I previously mentioned, the game pieces, dice, shops, and Royal Guild members are color coded in primary colors, so you easily know where they belong. There was no question about the relationships, and the colors helped keep my daughter on track.

One small part that we also loved was using the carts to transport the decorations from the storehouses to the shops. We sang songs, made wheeling cart noises, and even pretended to crash into the store. An added layer of memory building that will stick with me as we continue to play.

Finally, because I'm on a "small detail" tangent, this game has two sides. One side is for younger players to learn the basics of the game, whereas the flip side of the board has a couple of additional features to enhance the game. That way, you can scale the game as it becomes too simple for your growing tabletop gamer. That's not the small detail, though. The small detail that made me smile is that the way you can tell the little gamer's side vs. the growing gamers side is by an adorable little sand worm. It is a bit of a Where's Waldo search for him, but once you find him, he's so cute! Teeny tiny, but fun to find. 

Gameplay

The game is rather simple once you get into it. I started by co-playing with my 5-year-old so we could share choices, and I could help her remember the steps. She picked it up very quickly and was soon playing on her own. The game on its own for a 5-year-old doesn't require much strategy, but you can develop strategy over time. The strategy lives in making sure you're paying attention to your resources when you roll certain colors in order to secure them quickly. You could potentially spend most of your time finding decorations under the sandcastle, then miss out on a Royal Guild member completely because you didn't prioritize a color. There's a balance in using your turn to hunt for the decorations, and using it to transport your decorations. For a child learning the concepts of strategy building, this is a clever introduction.

Additionally, it's important to keep your eye on where the Royal Guild members are hiding. If they are under a certain sandcastle, they end up moving once they are revealed. It becomes almost a moving game of memory, especially as you're closing in on the ending.

Outside of that, gameplay is pretty simple and easy to understand and navigate. Turn-taking is standard, there are dice holders in each of the locations to help you keep on-track with what you previously used in your turn, and there's a sand bucket (complete with our little sand worm friend!) to help identify who starts the round.

Overall Thoughts

I'm excited to watch my daughter grow in her understanding of the game so we can flip the board and introduce a new level of difficulty, but for now we're really enjoying the entry-level game. It's difficult as an adult tabletop gamer to rate a children's game, because against some of the heavy hitters I'm used to playing, it lacks the level of engagement and strategic thinking that lends itself to a great game for adults. But this isn't that—and it's not supposed to be! As I said earlier, Ravensburger prides itself on having a game for everyone, and this hits one of those corners perfectly.

All that being said, this game is great for families who want to get out of the standard board games and try something new. My 5-year-old loves it and can't wait to play again. I enjoy it far more than I enjoy the classic spinner boardgames that I won't mention by name, but I swear if I slide down one more slide I will scream!

The Sandcastles of Burgundy is a Ravensburger game for players 5+ and took me and my family around 20 minutes to play.