I've read a lot about Caylus on BGG and there seemed to be a mixed bag
of reviews to the game. Nevertheless, it is rated no. 7 so when I
popped into my retailer to pick up something to play during Guard Duty
(3 players), I was torn between Elasund and Caylus. (I really actually wanted to buy Power Grid but no stock).I've read both games rules and understood only the former. I thought if I bought Caylus, it would force me to learn the rules. Plus its top ten, so it
had to be a fairly good game. Anyway, opened the game and played my
first game with the other two guys and I was quite impressed really,
so here goes my first attempt at a review.

COMPONENTS
This was okay. The board and the building and coin cardboard parts are
good. The stock is thick and the art work is really pretty good. If
you look hard enough at the building tiles, you can actually see the
names of the buildings in the background, in different languages.

The only disappointment is the wooden bits. I'm fine with wooden bits,
but the quality was pretty shoddy. The cubes were Micronesian and some
weren't cubes-it was some weird 3d shape. The sanding wasn't really
good so some wooden bits had fibers sticking out. (might get a
splinter). I think cards might have been a better idea for the
resources, IMO. The bailiff and provost pieces look similar too, and
their role is quite similar for a first-time player. I think some
different shapes might have been good too. The wooden bits are
functional I guess, but for the price I paid (S$99 which works out to
be 70 US$ at a 1.4 conversion rate) I feel some aesthetics would have
been in order.

Last but not least, I bought quite a lot of air with the game...box was
a bit big. But I'm just whining on this point, I read on another
thread that boxes are all standard size, nobody's fault.

THEME
One thing I really like about this game is the theme. You really feel
like a Master builder when you play. Struggling to pay the coin to
send your worker to work, and having to compete with others for the
best spots; bribing the officials and sucking up to the king to get
some extra bonuses. The rush to complete the building first, pushed on by the bailiff.

Another thing which is really significant is that you can really sort
of imagine the village growing to become a city. This is because the
old neutral buildings and wooden buildings gradually become the
Residences that become Prestige buildings. You really feel the sense
of building and transforming a village into a city.

The castle building also brings out the theme. If Masters refuse to give their free services of a worker to help the castle building (because sending a worker to the castle means you waste one coin and 3 cubes for a favour), then the Nasty looking King on the box cover punishes you by making you lose prestige points.



CONCEPTS
This game has a huge learning curve. The heaviest game I've played is
probably like Citadels or TI3. We spent an hour reading the rules
together and talking it out before playing a first game and finally
getting the hang of it. (Not much thanks goes to the rule book. I
printed out some guides from BGG which helped a lot). But once you get
it, its pretty straight forward. Winning and being good at it is a
totally different story.

Learning this game will probably give you a boost of confidence and you'll never feel that any game is too hard to learn. Plus, you'll get a huge snob point when you can tell others that you're part of the elite
group that knows how to play Caylus.

What makes Caylus so hard to learn is the numerous mechanics employed
in the game. When I explained the game to my friends, I told them that
the passing scale, the castle building, and the King favours tracks
etc are all mini-games. Each mini game has its own objective that will
help to win the overall game.

What makes Caylus such a great game is the numerous mechanics. Most board games only employ a few mechanics. Closed Bidding, Luck, Auction, etc. Caylus employs so many that it really forces you think and strategise greatly. You really have to hold all the factors in your mind and consider them and their degrees of effects to be a pro. Allow me to explain some of the more interesting mechanics which add to the deep strategy.

The Special Buildings
The special buildings act like game modifiers that can be powerful if used rightly. Some are not so useful, like the Gate (because usually most of the good buildings first). Others like the Merchant guild (move the bailiff) are pure pwnage when you want to target someone. The Stable is a really cool idea that I’ve not seen before, (the ability to change the turn order of the game.) And the Inn is a good counter to the passing spaces (the bridge).

The Passing Mechanic
This is a really neat mechanic in my opinion because everyone competes
to need less workers essentially. This is because if you pass, you are
declaring that you only need fewer workers then the rest to get
through this turn. Or you could just be broke. Passing also forces
others to pay more for the same work, a great 'screw you' mechanism
here. Of course no one wants to pay 2 coins for a worker when you could have gotten cheaper just moments ago.

The Provost
The Provost is another form of interaction between players, allowing players to deny each other activation of buildings. No one can say that Caylus is 3 to 4 player solitaire because there are so many opportunities to ‘screw’ some one else using the Provost. People become weary of using the newly constructed buildings because there’s a high chance that it won’t be activated.

The Bailiff
The way I see and explain the bailiff is as a pace setter. The bailiff forces the game to move forward and not drag. To strike a comparison, I’d say its like the ISC in TI3, because when everyone keeps getting 2 VP each round in TI3, the game ends pretty quickly. And you don’t want Caylus to drag. Furthermore, players can also force the game to move faster by shifting the provost in front of the bailiff. That’s also good, because if you’re winning you can force the endgame faster, leaving your opponents with little time to execute their plans.

Building and Resource Management
Just like in Catan, there is a huge huge need to plan your buildings and manage your resources wisely. This is where most of the strategy comes from. You have to work out step by step what you’ll be doing in the coming turn : where to put your workers, where to build, what to build, will I be able to build, how can I get more resources. At the same time you have to factor in the opponents plans. You might not get the building you want, you might not get the resources you need. You might even get jacked by the provost.

The building tiles are really interesting as well, allowing to trade coins for resources and vice versa. This can help you to maximize your resources. Not enough coins? Sell your cubes. Resource management becomes slightly easier with this concept. The concept of the lawyer and architect also help to further the theme (see below)

There are a lot of building tiles that didn’t get used in my game, so I assume here that the re-playability of this game will be fairly decent for this reason and other reasons.

Using Opponents Buildings
This is such a cool mechanic. Kudos to the designer for coming up with this. Using an opponents building means you save the resource building it yourself. But you will benefit the opponent.

Worker Order
The order you put the workers in is also so important. If you’re the first on the castle, you get lucky with the favour point. If you’re the first player, the choice is overwhelming, you’ll probably have to think a lot.

Castle building and Favours
If there was no castle and favours, the game would get one-dimensional very fast. There would only be the building of the road : a one path to victory kind of game. However the castle allows players to hex their game because if they contribute to the castle, they can get extra prestige points and a chance for some bonuses from the favours. Again it works like a mini game in the sense that the one who contributes the most at the scoring round gets the most victory points and the one who contributes a worker first also get a favour.

At the same time, the game punishes those who say they can commit to castle building but fail to deliver and those selfish Masters who don’t think about contributing at all.

DOWNSIDES
Of course with a game with so many mechanics at play, this game is not for everyone. Doh. I picked up this game because I wanted something heavier than Catan or Fishmarket and all the other Medium weight games. Caylus is a not a perfect game, but it is deliciously meaty. Mmmhmm. It really forces you to think and analyse and plan your turn. Which is great when you want to give your brain a nice workout to make it big and strong. I think its called a gamers’ game.


The game is unfortunately a bit fiddly. Sometimes we’d forget to move the bailiff or forget a few small rules here and there. But it was our first play after all.

Caylus is also long. That’s because people think a lot. But I mean it is heavy game so you don’t want to rush into your moves either and make a mistake. Downtime is only slight problem because other players are probably thinking during your turn anyway. So the lag time is acceptable I feel. Its also not something I’d play every day. But I do see it being a regular game in my repertoire from now on. Plus I gotta make 99 bucks worth every cent.

It is a game that is best played with players who are all around the same skill level otherwise you will have a boring game for the n0,0b player.

And of course the BGG’s pet peeve: the learning curve and rules. Actually I also found the King's favours a bit tricky to understand. It also is a bit fiddly. But if it wasn't in the game, the game would be less multi-faceted and more one dimensional.

This does not mean the game is not fun. The game is fun. It’s fun in the same way that all games are fun. When you win. But seriously speaking, some people find Lost Cities and Chess fun. These games are heavy on the brain too (guaranteed they have only one of two mechanics but still). Its really a matter of taste.


OTHER REVIEW-ISH KIND OF THINGS
This has only been my first play, and with 3 players. I bought this game because it was said to be better with 3 players so I wont be able to tell you how this scales with other numbers.

Can't say much about the re-playability of the game yet. But with so many mechanics and working concepts, its sure to be quite decent too.

This game is for people who want to try something taxing on their brain. Like a super-max chess game. Caylus will force you to plan and strategise like never before. I'd really recommend this game for people are tired of medium weight games.



A FEW NICE THINGS I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CAYLUS
On a small side note, I can see why this game is in the top ten. Its really a very well thought-out game. All the mechanics and ‘mini games’ work well together and fit the theme quite snugly. The community at BGG favours mid-to heavy Euros that are heavy to heavy-medium on strategy & theme, light on luck and decent in player interaction and have more than one path to victory. The community favours games that encourage management and planning as well as neat mechanics. (Judging from the games that make the top 10.) Caylus fits this mold fairly well.