Caylus was one of those games that burrowed into my head and held on for years, although it doesn’t seem like it when you search my archives. That’s because Caylus shares a problem with full information, zero luck games — the best player wins.

And I played perhaps 100 games on BrettSpeilWelt¹,². So in my FTF games I would often take a handicap of 25% (or more, with fewer players) and win. PLUS the no-luck aspect meant that games became somewhat samey.

So I switched to Caylus Magna Carta, which constrains players by their card draws. This comes close to violating my rule stating that “For any original game X,’X: the card/dice game’ is always worse.”

Caylus Magna Carta is certainly much more approachable than Caylus³. I recently acquired Caylus 1303, a re-implementation of the original. It does a number of things well:

• Instead of having 4-6 workers and paying $$ for each placement, you have up to 15 workers but pay one worker if nobody has passed and two workers otherwise.
• The provost resets to almost the end of the track each round, and there are only nine rounds.
• In addition to setup buildings, a random wood and stone building start built.
• Each player starts with a special power (drafted in reverse order on the first turn)
• One of each building type⁴ is not available; but can be accessed via the favor system.
• You do not need a building to build a monument, they are built in a special phase each turn.
• A favor lets you a) steal a special power or b) use a building and take an unclaimed special power if one is available (three start unclaimed each game).

So Caylus 1303 is still a full information, zero luck game … but with a variable setup. I have high hopes that this will help bring it to the table. So far my first game was well received (although I forgot the initial draft of special powers).

The one issue (for some people) is that the favor system has been simplified and one of the favors is “Steal a special power.” This is a direct take-that; it’s not like Caylus had a care bear style, but the attack was more about moving the provost, which is something you can plan for. There are some powers that are much more likely to get stolen, but it would undoubtedly chafe a bit if you lost a power when they “should have” taken a different power. Still, in my first game there was no whining.

Rating — Enthusiastic

1. Still around! Who knew! ︎
2. If you don’t know what it is, a) think of BGA and b) get off my lawn. ︎
3. Probably they are the same in terms of rules, but by constraining options with cards you simplify the decision space for a new player. ︎
4. Setup, Wood, Stone ︎

Caylus was one of those games that burrowed into my head and held on for years, although it doesn’t seem like it when you search my archives. That’s because Caylus shares a problem with full information, zero luck games — the best player wins.

And I played perhaps 100 games on BrettSpeilWelt¹,². So in my FTF games I would often take a handicap of 25% (or more, with fewer players) and win. PLUS the no-luck aspect meant that games became somewhat samey.

So I switched to Caylus Magna Carta, which constrains players by their card draws. This comes close to violating my rule stating that “For any original game X,’X: the card/dice game’ is always worse.”

Caylus Magna Carta is certainly much more approachable than Caylus³. I recently acquired Caylus 1303, a re-implementation of the original. It does a number of things well:

• Instead of having 4-6 workers and paying $$ for each placement, you have up to 15 workers but pay one worker if nobody has passed and two workers otherwise.
• The provost resets to almost the end of the track each round, and there are only nine rounds.
• In addition to setup buildings, a random wood and stone building start built.
• Each player starts with a special power (drafted in reverse order on the first turn)
• One of each building type⁴ is not available; but can be accessed via the favor system.
• You do not need a building to build a monument, they are built in a special phase each turn.
• A favor lets you a) steal a special power or b) use a building and take an unclaimed special power if one is available (three start unclaimed each game).

So Caylus 1303 is still a full information, zero luck game … but with a variable setup. I have high hopes that this will help bring it to the table. So far my first game was well received (although I forgot the initial draft of special powers).

The one issue (for some people) is that the favor system has been simplified and one of the favors is “Steal a special power.” This is a direct take-that; it’s not like Caylus had a care bear style, but the attack was more about moving the provost, which is something you can plan for. There are some powers that are much more likely to get stolen, but it would undoubtedly chafe a bit if you lost a power when they “should have” taken a different power. Still, in my first game there was no whining.

Rating — Enthusiastic

1. Still around! Who knew! ︎
2. If you don’t know what it is, a) think of BGA and b) get off my lawn. ︎
3. Probably they are the same in terms of rules, but by constraining options with cards you simplify the decision space for a new player. ︎
4. Setup, Wood, Stone ︎