Post by Gilvan Blight on May 27, 2009 10:31:10 GMT -5
Played this back when it came out at the Coffee Exchange back when they had a weekly boardgaming night and only recently opened up my copy for play.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]In Caylus players each take on the role of a master engineer and building back in a medieval period helping the lord build up his castle. As part of this players will be required to build up the city surrounding the castle in order to provide resources for building the castle proper. Along the way the players may build housing they can rent out or build monuments. All of these things give prestige points and can garner favors from the King.
The castle is built in three sections, first the dungeons then the walls and finally the tower. After each section there is a minor scoring round. Once the tower is completed the player with the most prestige points wins.
Play consists of using money to place workers on the board. The board starts with only a few basic squares. Each square allows the player to take one action. These range widely and include taking money from the bank, jousting for royal favor, building buildings, converting existing land to housing, converting housing to monuments, staying at the inn, producing resources, trading resources for money or trading money for resources, etc. As players pass it gets more expensive for the other players to continue putting workers on the board. Once all players have passed each square on the board is activated one at a time.
The Provost and Balif make things interesting. The Balif slowly moves down the board and causes time to pass, if he hits a certain point on the board then that section of the castle is deemed complete even if players have not 'finished' building it. The Provost has much more impact on the game. During the game the players can bribe the provost and move him up or down the row of board squares. Only squares before the provost are actually considered in play. This means that players can move the provost so that some or all of a players workers could become useless.
There are a lot of other small details in the game not worth going into here. In all there are a ton of options that can be used in a variety of strategies.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Great production values have become the norm in modern boardgames and Caylus is no exception. You get a beautiful board, nice thick die cut counters and lots of wooden blocks to represent workers and resources. This is just an excellent game. Here's a list of awards Caylus has won: 2006 International Gamers Award winner. 2006 Deutscher Spiele Preis winner. 2006 Nederlandse Spellenprijs winner. 2006 Spiel des Jahres winner, Special Award for Complex Game. 2006 BoardGameGeek Golden Geek winner, Game of the Year' and Best Gamer's Game''. 2006 Hra roku (Czech Game of the Year) nominee. 2005 Tric Trac d'Or winner. 2005 Meeples' Choice Award winner. It deserves every one. One of the best parts of Caylus is the fact there is no randomness to it. There's no dice, or deck of cards, everything in the game is based on what the players decide to do. There also exists a wide variety of strategies to try out none of which seem to be the 'one way to win'. The game is also a nice length. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to play which is a nice medium compared to a lot of the games I have been playing lately that are either very short or take an entire night.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]I praise the production value in The Good but I did have one minor beef. The money was die cut coins. I would have preferred if they were wooden as well, cubes or discs. That way all of a players "items" are the same.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] This one is a tad hard to explain. I think it could have used an example of play where all the players play along for the first say 2 or 3 turns since by the end of the 3rd turn most people seem to 'get it'. It's just not easy to explain all of the options without forgetting something.
[glow=purple,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This game won a ton of awards and is still considered by some to be the best game out there. I am inclined to agree. This is a fine game. I definitely prefer it to the current number 1 game Agricola. Now that I have finally dusted off my copy I hope it sees lots of use. Speaking of which feel like coming over tonight for a game?
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]In Caylus players each take on the role of a master engineer and building back in a medieval period helping the lord build up his castle. As part of this players will be required to build up the city surrounding the castle in order to provide resources for building the castle proper. Along the way the players may build housing they can rent out or build monuments. All of these things give prestige points and can garner favors from the King.
The castle is built in three sections, first the dungeons then the walls and finally the tower. After each section there is a minor scoring round. Once the tower is completed the player with the most prestige points wins.
Play consists of using money to place workers on the board. The board starts with only a few basic squares. Each square allows the player to take one action. These range widely and include taking money from the bank, jousting for royal favor, building buildings, converting existing land to housing, converting housing to monuments, staying at the inn, producing resources, trading resources for money or trading money for resources, etc. As players pass it gets more expensive for the other players to continue putting workers on the board. Once all players have passed each square on the board is activated one at a time.
The Provost and Balif make things interesting. The Balif slowly moves down the board and causes time to pass, if he hits a certain point on the board then that section of the castle is deemed complete even if players have not 'finished' building it. The Provost has much more impact on the game. During the game the players can bribe the provost and move him up or down the row of board squares. Only squares before the provost are actually considered in play. This means that players can move the provost so that some or all of a players workers could become useless.
There are a lot of other small details in the game not worth going into here. In all there are a ton of options that can be used in a variety of strategies.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Great production values have become the norm in modern boardgames and Caylus is no exception. You get a beautiful board, nice thick die cut counters and lots of wooden blocks to represent workers and resources. This is just an excellent game. Here's a list of awards Caylus has won: 2006 International Gamers Award winner. 2006 Deutscher Spiele Preis winner. 2006 Nederlandse Spellenprijs winner. 2006 Spiel des Jahres winner, Special Award for Complex Game. 2006 BoardGameGeek Golden Geek winner, Game of the Year' and Best Gamer's Game''. 2006 Hra roku (Czech Game of the Year) nominee. 2005 Tric Trac d'Or winner. 2005 Meeples' Choice Award winner. It deserves every one. One of the best parts of Caylus is the fact there is no randomness to it. There's no dice, or deck of cards, everything in the game is based on what the players decide to do. There also exists a wide variety of strategies to try out none of which seem to be the 'one way to win'. The game is also a nice length. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to play which is a nice medium compared to a lot of the games I have been playing lately that are either very short or take an entire night.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]I praise the production value in The Good but I did have one minor beef. The money was die cut coins. I would have preferred if they were wooden as well, cubes or discs. That way all of a players "items" are the same.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] This one is a tad hard to explain. I think it could have used an example of play where all the players play along for the first say 2 or 3 turns since by the end of the 3rd turn most people seem to 'get it'. It's just not easy to explain all of the options without forgetting something.
[glow=purple,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This game won a ton of awards and is still considered by some to be the best game out there. I am inclined to agree. This is a fine game. I definitely prefer it to the current number 1 game Agricola. Now that I have finally dusted off my copy I hope it sees lots of use. Speaking of which feel like coming over tonight for a game?