Thursday, April 27

Caylus

Last night we had some friends round for games. After a brief discussion we decided to try out Caylus, and settled down to a 5-player game.

First impressions? The rules make it seem incredibly complicated. I'd not read them before, and I was reading them out aloud to the others and we were all completely confused. Once the game got underway it was actually fairly straightforward, but the rules made it feel bewildering. Halfway throught the first turn someone dropped out so we ended up playing a 4-player game.

There were a whole bunch of parts of the game we hardly used, no-one used the Provost to stop other players performing actions (although some people tried the Provost was always moved back to allow them to perform their action); there was no discussion around the Provost moves; no-one built a blue prestige building and we weren't sure which buildings to build to gain points most effectively when someone else placed a worker in them.

In the final turn I thought I stood a pretty good chance of winning, but The Wife pulled a rabbit out of a hat and managed to deliver three batches, and then Roman and Jochen delivered two, leaving me with only one space available. The Wife promptly won, with me trailing her by the three points I could have got had she not outmaneouvred me in the package delivery.

Chatting afterwards Roman said he thought he preferred Puerto Rico, and could see obvious similarities between them (delivering batches = delivering goods, both feature buildings and colonists/workers). I think Caylus maybe become more entertaining once I've a better grip on the rules, and am a little more experienced with it, but for that we'll have to wait and see...

2 comments:

Rick N said...

Play it some more. I've played it about 5 times and decided that I like it better than Puerto Rico. There are so many different ways to win, and to counter other people's strategies. Are you consistently getting blocked out of a Mason or Lawyer? Then develop the building track. Is someone hitting the royal favor prestige point track heavily? Then only build buildings that require money to use and force others to spend some favors on income. The list of options and counter options is more varied than in any other Eurogame I've played.

Jackson Pope said...

Hi Rick,

As I blogged yesterday I got a second game in, and enjoyed it again. I've played Puerto Rico 4 or 5 times, I've got a fairly good handle on it, and I love it.

Caylus I've only played twice, but it's definitely growing on me. I think after 4 or 5 plays I'll understand the game a lot more, at which point I'll probably enjoy it more too :-)