Caylus (game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
For other uses see Caylus (disambiguation).
| Caylus | |
|---|---|
 Close-up of board in play |
|
| Designer | William Attia |
| Publisher | Ẏstari Games Rio Grande Games |
| Players | 2 to 5 |
| Age range | 12 and up |
| Setup time | 5 minutes |
| Playing time | 60–180 minutes |
| Random chance | None |
| Skills required | Economic management, Strategic thought |
| BoardGameGeek entry | |
Caylus is a strategy- and building-oriented German-style board game designed by William Attia and independently published in 2005 by Ẏstari Games in France and England and Rio Grande Games in North America. Somewhat similar in flavor (and complexity) to Puerto Rico, Caylus has a mix of building, producing, planning, and bargaining — without direct conflict or dice-rolling mechanics.
Contents |
[edit] Game Mechanics
The goal of Caylus is to amass the most Prestige Points by constructing buildings and by working on the castle of Caylus in medieval France, bringing fame and prestige granted by King Philip the Fair.
The game of Caylus does not have a real random element to it, such as the use of dice in other games. The only randomness in the game is the random starting order of turns. A turn in Caylus consists of 8 phases:
- Income: each player receives a standard income (2 coins) plus any incomes for Residential buildings she owns (or prestige buildings that provide income).
- Placement of workers. In order of the turn order, players one by one place a worker on an unoccupied space (with some exceptions) costing him 1 coin (or denier).
- Activate special buildings. The special buildings (the first 5 buildings after the bridge) are activated, and its effects (eg receive 3 deniers or a royal favour) applied.
- The provost moves. Each player (in order of passing) pays 1 denier to per space (up to a maximum of 3) she wishes to move the provost (forwards or backwards). After this phase, any worker who is located after the provost can be removed, as the worker is not allowed to work.
- The buildings after the special buildings activate, starting with the first neutral building (these are the pink tiles) moving away from the castle.
- In the order workers were placed in the castle, users can build on the current section of the castle (depending on the position of the bailiff or the completion of sections).
- The Bailiff moves: forward by 2 spaces if the provost is ahead of him, forward by 1 space if the provost is on the same space as him, or behind him. Never backwards.
- Scoring happens if the bailiff reached a scoring point or a section of the castle was completed.
The player who is at the top of the turn scale starts the next turn.
The basic mechanics of the game include:
- Resource cubes of five types: food (pink, sometimes referred to as "spam" or "pigs"), wood (brown), cloth (purple), stone (gray), and gold (yellow).
- Workers: Each player has six workers, which can be placed on buildings to harvest resources, construct more buildings, build the castle, and more.
- Neutral buildings: Six neutral buildings are randomly placed at the start of the game; along with initial player order, this is the only source of randomness in the game.
- Player buildings: By placing a worker on a construction building, a player can construct a new building; each building has a fixed cost of 2 to 8 resource cubes. All players can use the new building, but the original builder gets a bonus every time an opponent uses it.
- Building the castle: By placing a worker in the castle, a player can send a "batch" of three different resource cubes (one of which must be food) to help construct the castle of Caylus and reap prestige points and royal favors.
- Royal favors: Players who contribute to the royal cause (by building the castle, using the joust field, or constructing certain buildings) are granted royal favors. Royal favors can take the form of prestige points, money, resources, or discounted, unblockable access to construct buildings. Royal favors can often be the deciding factor in the game, when used cleverly.
The game ends when the bailiff reaches the Tower scoring point. After the final prestige points are awarded based on the resources and deniers left, the player with the most prestige points wins the game.
[edit] Strategy
Some basic strategies for playing Caylus:
- Remember that your own buildings always cost 1 denier to place a worker, so building can provide with "a way out" after passing.
- If you can build more than others in the castle, you want to go last so you only need to build what is required to obtain the royal favor: use the gate.
- Passing can be useful if another player is very low on deniers.
- Putting a builder forwards may give a fake sense of security with regards to the provost to other players, you can then sacrifice this builder at the expense of other players (at a higher cost).
- Speed up the game by keeping the provost ahead of the bailiff.
[edit] Awards
Caylus initially gained public acclaim when it was rated the number one game of the October 2005 game fair in Essen, Germany by a public vote conducted by Fairplay Magazine. [1] It quickly rose to become one of the most discussed and top-rated games on BoardGameGeek, a popular online board gaming forum.
Caylus also received the Trictrac d'or 2005 award from the eponymous French boardgame website. [2]
With the international attention gained via BoardGameGeek and Essen 2005, the first printing of Caylus sold out in December 2005. A second printing was released in February 2006, including new cardboard coins to replace the gray plastic tiddlywinks-style coins from the original release.[3] The second edition also includes the jeweler as a standard stone building tile (it was previously an extra promotion tile) and numerous graphic design changes to clarify certain rules.
Although Caylus was not nominated for the 2006 Spiel des Jahres, the jury awarded it a special prize (Sonderpreis Komplexes Spiel) for the best complex game of 2006.[4] Caylus won first prize in the 2006 Deutscher Spiele Preis and Nederlandse Spellenprijs, and won the 2006 Golden Geek Awards for Best Game and Best Gamer's Game.
