Caylus is a great tactical game. It rewards those who are light on their feet and pay attention. But there are several over-arching strategies that affect the game’s pace.

If you elect the castle building strategy, you prefer a slower game. The goal here is to win by manipulating the turn order (and provost) and getting prestige via favor by building in the castle. You should try to delay or entirely prevent the two special building tiles—Lawyer, Architect—appearing. You also want a resource poor game in order to prevent a sudden windfall for opponents, if the Lawyer or Architect does get built. In a resource scarce game it’s going to take time to procure the resources to build in the castle, so you want a slow-paced game.

By the way, it may seem counter intuitive, but I think in games as I just described the best favor track is prestige. While the building track may seem like the obvious play in this situation (being the only one able to build green and blue buildings), in a resource poor game it’s hard to get the supplies for even one prestige building.

But if you elect the building strategy, you want a fast-paced game. Your goal is to make resources plentiful in order take advantage of the Lawyer and Architect. In such games, good production buildings appear nearly every turn and in order to activate them you need to push the provost far into the sticks. So the game speeds on.

The building strategy is a pretty good antidote to the castle strategy. If nothing else, it forces the Castle-favor player waste time moving the provost in order to keep resources out of the game.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of this deep game. It rewards the tactical player because each game is flavored by what and how much gets built. I think the thing that separates a Building-type game from a Castle-favor type is when and if the Lawyer and Architect get placed. If you intend a Castle-favor strategy but numerous production buildings are placed early, you should adjust. On the other hand, if you intend a Building strategy but no production buildings see the light of day, you too should adjust.

I completely disagree with your analysis Tom. If you are going with a castle building strategy you would want a quicker game, not a slower game. A slower game allows the builders in the town to get "value" out of their investments. A game can vary from 9-18 rounds, if the game takes more rounds, the person that concentrates on building the town (at a minimum) gets more PPs than they would in a shorter game, offsetting the favor benefits the castle builder gets.

What I’ve found is the faster games favor the builder, not the castle-favor player because more buildings get activated (because the provost is moved into the sticks). Plus the more turns in the game, the more chances for favor in the castle.

Long games equal more favor. Short games equal less favor, hence more bang for the building buck.

We disagree.

EDIT: score->activated

The only situation in which I see the castle-favor playing going for a quick end, other than when you’re leading when the bailiff is two spaces away from the game-end space (but that’s true for all players). Is when you have enough resource to fill the castle tower with houses and end the game regardless of where the bailiff is located—a nasty surprise that!

Putting a batch in the castle and getting favors (which arent used on the build track) provide a one time bonus and thus doesnt increase with the number of turns. Building a building provides a continuing bonus each turn, and thus is larger in a longer game.

So it doesnt make sense that a 'castle' player would want it longer than a 'building' player. The castle player doesnt have fixed per turn benefits, so they want it to be short.


I hope people dont think of these 'castle' and 'building' strategies as exclusive, like many did with shipping and building in puerto rico. Its really inefficient to not be trying to do both.

I agree a hybrid strategy is far more likely to succeed than a pure strategy. I also disagreee that Caylus is a Tactical game, in my limited experience it seems strategy is far more important.

I agree here, as well as in Puerto Rico. "Building" and "Shipping" are the extreme strategis in both cases. The winning strategy each game will include some building and some shipping.

- Seth

You play differently than we do. Building a single building pays off once with little follow-up (except when others activate it). Increasing your position on a favor track increases the benefit over time—5pp each time, for example, compared to 1 pp if only taken once.

The value of favor pays off after repeated use over time. This favors (he he) a LONG game. Builders should know this. If you concentrate on building rather than favor, you’re vulnerable to those who’ve maxed out one or two favor tracks. Hence, you should strive to get as many production buildings into play as possible and quickly end the game.

A typical turn for the castle-favor player during the later stages of the game generates 10-20 pp. More with the Joust field or a building that also provides favor. This compares very well with the builder, who may or may not be able to get an architect.

EDIT: reply to Alex

Yes, I agree that Caylus is a tactical game, as I said at the outset. Paying attention and remaining flexible is key. This is the charm of the game.

In a four player game, it’s hard to force the game down a particular path, although one should have a plan and try to implement it. The key, I think, is when the Lawyer and Architect come out. If early, it favors the builder; if late or never, it favors a castle strategy. And, as I said, long games favor the castle strategy too.

You couldn't be more wrong here.


While spending actions manipulating turn order rather than gathering cubes to send to the castle, how is it possible that you will win any favors for Shipping? How does turn order really help with a Shipping strategy, other than being able to be first to place in the Castle, or to place in the production buildings?


It is not possible to delay or prevent these buildings from being built or used. The only way to even try is to place workers in the Carpenter and Mason yourself and then either not build (that would be an interesting tactic), or build something else.


In a resource poor game, how do you plan to accumulate batches to ship? Actually, there may be something to this point you've made. In a resource poor game, it may be unlikely that your opponents will have the batches to send, and thus they may spend their resources "more efficiently" on buildings (2 cubes for VPs ratehr than 3). Thus, perhaps you'll have no competition in the castle, and if you can manage to dominate the small amount of resources in the game, it might work out. This might be the one time the resource favor track could be truely useful - for a Shipping strategy in a resource poor game.

In order to MAKE a resource poor game, one might consider the Lawyer and then replacing cube producing spaces with Residences.

In any case, this strategy would CERTAINLY favor an abrupt game end, as EVENTUALLY the production buildings will be built and their resources utilised. If a Shipper can manage to bring the game to an end before people can afford the Blue buildings, then perhaps it's a viable play.


In a slow paced game there are up to twice as many opportunities to build and use the Lawyer, Mason, and Architect. If you are not trying to use those buildings yourself, then you probably want them activated as seldom as possible.


In the strategy I just described, one where a Shipper is trying to rush the game and keep the resources light, it's possible the Prestige track would be a good way to boost points with the theory that they will get you a lead which other players won't have time to overcome. However, it's likely that such a strategy will require the Income track (because you want to place your workers on the Goods, not the markets), and potentially the Resource track. I don't know that there would be enough favors for the VP track also. I WOULD like to see an attempt at pushing the income and VP tracks and rushing the game end to see if it's possible, or what buildings would facilitate it. I haven't determined yet ow to go about such a strategy.


General concensus is the exact opposite. the longer the game goes on, the more VP's and use you get out of the buildings you build. I suppose it depends on which buildings you build, but the longer the game goes on, the more Blue buildings you can build, and the more your buildings outscore the batches sent by the Shipper.


This may be true. More likely you want to dominate the resources that ARE available. In the games I've played, it's the Shipping strategies that require lots of cubes, not the building strategies. You only need 2 cubes to build the buildings (until the end when you want the big buildings), and you can only build 1 gray building a turn. Pushing the building track will of course be very helpful for ANY strategy, but especially the builder because it allows more residences and blue buildings to be built.

I'd go as far as to say the Builder wants a resource poor game.


Well, the provost will move ahead once, then the production buildings will be behind the Bailiff and there will be no more need to push the game on further. Maybe 2 to 4 turns during the game it will be necessary to push the provost up, not 9.


Well, in this case you're right and you're wrong... using a building strategy against a shipping strategy may encourage your opponent to move the provost allright... but it will probably be moving forward.


Now here I wholeheartedly agree. You can't really go into a game of Caylus, especially a 5 player game, with a hard head and a determination to do either a building or a shipping strategy. Just like it's not always great to go into a game of Puerto Rico with a mindset to ship lots of corn no matter what. You have to deal with opponent's actions and see what's available to you. If someone ahead of you in the turn order is doing the same thing you are, and they will beat you out of favors in the castle every time, you can't very well keep to your shipping strategy.

- Seth

@Seth
Un-oh, a Quoter. I avoid this type of thing because I’ve found it to be a waste of time-this type of thing being someone cutting up a post into little bits in order to “rebut” it item by item. So I’m only going to skim your post—sorry.

You think that a castle strategy favors a fast game and I disagree with that based on 10 playings (with a cutthroat group to boot). So I’ll just leave it at that, regardless of the “general consensus” you to point to with authority.

I don't know that we were trying to cut you down as much as presenting an alternative point of view. I hope this doesn't chase you off.