My wife and I set up a game of Caylus, and in round 1, I bribed the Provost to go back 3 spaces and took out 2 of her workers.

"So.. this is going to be a different game," said my wife emphatically.

On the third round, she placed a worker near the end of the line on the Stonemason, so I thought it was pretty safe to place 3 workers right behind hers. Wrong - that turn, she pushed the Provost back 3 spaces using the Guild, and then another 3 spaces more using her coins, taking out all 3 of my workers while sacrificing 1 of hers. I could tell from the smug look in her eyes that this was just the beginning.

The Baliff progressed to the Dungeon scoring step, and I had built 2 parts of the dungeon compared to her 1 part. So I got Favour which I used to push up my token on the Prestige track. A sort of plan had crystalised in my mind; if I could get my Prestige track up to 5, I can potentially gain 5 Prestige per round in the last phase of the game on top of whatever I might build.

With this strategy, I proceeded to hog the Jousting fields every round, ensuring that I had 1 Cloth and 1 Coin left over from the previous round. I started modelling the Cloth whenever I presented it to the King, cracking my wife up with comments like, "Oh, that colour looks SO divine on you, your grace! Purple is all the rage in Paris now, you know!"

When the baliff was 2 spaces away from the scoring of the Walls, I made a cunning play. My wife had been gathering a decent pile of cash and resources, with the intent of building 4 parts of the Wall on the last turn. So I inconspiciously placed a worker in the Castle, and after everything was done, bribed the Provost to go forward 1 space, causing the Baliff to leap forward 2 spaces, right into the Wall scoring space. I built some Walls, and basked in the King's favour while my wife took Prestige point hits for having no Walls up. All up, I was ahead by 30 points.

The final rounds were tense; I kept up my Jousting field (Fashion Designer) strategy while my wife built like crazy to close the gap. She had great income and was piling up the resources, while I was dwindling on cash and was struggling to build Towers while retaining 1 Cloth for the next round. I could see that her only chance was to build either the Cathedral or the [insert second highest point scoring building here] to bypass me in the scoring track. I starting bribing the Provost to go forward every turn, causing the Baliff to leap forward 2 spaces (and thus bring the game end faster), but this was quickly stopped by my wife's larger cash reserves.

Finally, the Baliff was 1 space away from scoring Towers. I'd built 4 Towers as opposed to my wife's TEN Towers. Her final round would consitute her gathering Stone and Gold to make the last minute build of a big ticket building like the Cathedral. We quietly placed our Workers, and with my last coin, I placed a worker on the Lawyer, blocking her chance to build that turn.

So instead of a nice, pious-looking Cathedral, a gawdy-looking "Fashion Boutique" built with 3 Cloth and 1 Gold sprung up in town netting me 12 points and winning me the game 15 points ahead of my wife. Fashion Designers might not be great builders, but we build with STYLE!