Did you notice the labels at the bottoms of the tiles are in English?

It's beautiful, but I much prefer the layout of the original board. This one feels too cramped.

I'm sorry, but THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!

The artwork and Medieval renderings are certainly interesting in their won right, but the new game board lacks the fluidity that suggestions the expansion of a town further and further away from the castle hub. The medieval drawings on the tiles pale in comparision to the sharp buildings on the soon-to-be "old" tiles. Again, this detracts from the theme of the game.

Yes, I will obtain a copy of this edition for my collection, but I will be playing the current version for a long time to come . . . .

Vin

I would really like to own this; but the main question for me is what else apart from the artwork will be so special about this premium edition?

Will the expansion tiles from various sources be included? Will the money chips be of excellent quality (perhaps even plastic replica medieval coins)?

Another key question I have is how will I get my hands on a copy?

Would anybody from Ystari care to elaborate?

Wow. Why would you do that? If you don't like it, don't buy it, so your vote counts and we can avoid this sort of thing in the future.

Eric, that is great news! Thanks for your hard work! I guess this means that I should get off my rear and contribute to BGN...



The language is not the problem - getting the game is the problem. I won't be at Essen, probably ever. My job tends to hit a peak of craziness around Essen time, and, since I work at a university, I don't see that changing - much as I might wish otherwise.

If Ystari were willing to ship pre-orders to the US, that would be an answer, but it really leaves us with the classic limited edition Essen release question: "Why go to Essen with a game that is already completely sold out before anyone gets there?" It seems that more and more of the games that generate interest going into Essen are pre-order only or have such a limited quantity available at Essen that people have to spend absurd amounts of money to get them (Through the Ages comes to mind) or just do without (any of Winsome's Essen releases will fit here).

Anyhow, it would be nice if Rio Grande could also get 1,000 or so of these for the folks who can't make it to Essen (and live in the US, Canada or other areas where Rio Grande distributes their product).

Mike Doyle noted on his site that the money will be metal. Seriously, that was the element that moved it from something I was very interested in seeing (but perhaps not buying) to something that I really want to get into my collection.

Well that's it - now it's a "must-have"!

Although I am not officially from Ystari, I have some bits of answers to these questions.

Not every detail about this edition has been completely worked out yet, but we are working on it. The coins will be replica of medieval coins indeed, but in metal (I have one sample on my desk as I type this, and I think it really looks nice).

As for the tiles, I am almost sure it will include the Jeweller, which is the only official "expansion" building so far. Other tiles from various sources are highly unlikely. The rules will be unchanged compared to the normal edition.

I can't speak for Ystari about availability besides at Essen. I am not sure they even know yet.

William

Hmm, while I love the new box art, I completely dislike the new game board and tiles. The original artwork might not be state-of-the-art, but it is very appealing in its simplicity and it creates an atmosphere of fun and cheerfulness. The new tiles and board are too dark and gloomy for my taste.

Well, I never liked this manner of releasing new ubercool versions of successful games - like the plastic trumpery Kosmos uses in the new Settlers version.

Not my cup of tea. I'm with Arnaud Demaegd (even though "Mike Doyle" is easier to pronounce! )

Grr. I guess I need to start a new thread titled "Is there anyone going to Essen who would be willing to pick up my copy of the Caylus limited edition for me?" I'm really getting tried of this trend.

Thanks for checking on this, Eric. I truly appreciate the work you're doing on BGN (and I promise that I will get my support money in as soon as I am done paying off the recent Through the Ages purchase... )

The naysayers are crazy. The layout and information proximity are well designed. The roll and move track style will make it much easier to see which buildings get served.
Theme is great.
The only improvement I could see would be to make the board bigger so more theme could be displayed and the track spacing or on-tile spacing relaxed slightly.
In all, brilliant work considering the space requirements.

Hi everybody !

About the Essen release :

The reason is quite simple. This limited edition is really expensive to produce. So we simply can't sell it in a regular way or the games would be quoted more than 100€ ! So the only solution for now is to sell it directly but...

I'm pretty sure that we'll find a way to sell some copies online. The problem is that, Ystari being a small company, we're not stuctured to manage some massive shipments (and, to tell the truth we don't even have a regular online shop). That said, i'm working on it and i'll do my best to give you a direct access to this fine edition.

Regards,
Cyril

Ystari Games

I wonder how much these things would go for on Ebay?

Hopefully not too much !

I really don't want to see some kind of speculation around this edition. Pleasure of the eyes and the hands is our goal here, and so i hope all of the games will end in player's hands

Regards,
Cyril

I understand this, but, as someone who is likely to never get to Essen, I really would like to encourage companies to provide some sort of alternative, even if it is pre-booking with the game being shipped after Essen. The Caylus limited edition falls into a special category on this sort of thing, since the game is a known quantity - it's an excellent game getting an excellent special treatment. A pre-order is a safe bet on it. Frankly, the thing I have a bigger problem with are the games that I can only get limited information on going into Essen, but are sold out before Essen ends (or, in some cases, before it even begins!). If the Caylus premium edition was the first release of the game, I would be hesitant to place that pre-order - I have been burned on far too many "sounds interesting, looks good at a distance, plays poorly" games in the past.



This is excellent news! Thank you for your hard work and the great games. Right now, Ystari is on my list of companies that I feel safe in buying their games before I try them out (a very short list - I think Alea may be the only other company on it at the moment).

I agree very strongly. Ystari is very concerned about keeping the cost of the game under €100, but I don't see much effort to reduce the cost of getting the geme below €2000--a trip to Essen, hotel etc.

Maybe it's too late for this Essen, but I'd much rather see a limited edition of around 1000, with only those at Essen getting the statue of Philip the Fair and perhaps a art-quality poster of the board. But let everyone in the world celebrate Caylus and Essen. Yes, you would need to have one of your usual publishers produce this volume; but because it is not a price-sensitive product, they can do it locally to ensure perfect quality. (Of course, only an exceptional, award-winning game like Caylus deserves this treatment: it would not be successful with a lower profile game.)

Though I'm personally unlikely to pick one of these up, I definitely encourage the publishers to allow North Americans to order this in some way, and everyone else for that matter.

If this game were to be released only at Essen you can bet that speculators would feast on the opportunity, buy as many as possible, and mark them up 100% or more within weeks.

One downside that should be kept in mind for anyone thinking of picking this up though: that sucker is going to be HEAVY. All metal coins will be neat to play with, but they will definitely make this game more expensive to import.

This one was always going to be a matter of personal taste.

As an exercise in medievel art, Mike Doyle's scholarly offering, matches the efforts of that genre, to perfection. But however neat and ordered it looks, the picture skills of medieval artists were not much more advanced than that of their earlier cave dwelling ancestors, when it came to painting anything realistically.

The 'Premium' board is an old, dry looking tomb (which is exactly what it was meant to look like). Fortunately, Mike has added the text of what each trade is meant to be, without which we would becompletely lost.

It's also the reason why I am glad to own the original version, which is more earthy and evocative of the period it was trying to portray.

I still haven't found a use for those horrible grey plastic tiddley-winks that were supplied, as currency, in the orginal version but I certainly won't be squandering them on this new dated latin version.

If they release this over here I will pick it up. But, if I have to get it imported I will pass Looks nice though. I agree that just the colored borders makes it a little tough to decipher at a glance. If the whole tile were colored it would work better.

Any more News?

I am lucky enough to be going to Essen and so plan to pick up my copy then. All the talk had been that the Ystari preorder page would go live in May. It is now almost July and I can see no sign of any way to preorder. I dropped an email to Ystari a couple of days ago but have yet to hear back.

Anyone know anything?

The nomination of Yspahan for the SdJ took its toll on our scedule so there's a slight delay for almost anything.

The preorder page will be available in a few days...

Regards,
Cyril

Posted on the Ysarti web page today ( http://www.ystari.com/CPL/eindex.php)

"This edition will be limited to 1500 copies. It'll include some new, medieval styled illustrations and exclusive items (see below).

The game will be sold at the Essen fair, but you need to pre-order it on our shop. 500 copies will be sold directly on this website, at the beginning of september."

Any word on the price of the September online offerings?