Caylus

Last night we had some friends round for games. After a brief discussion we decided to try out Caylus, and settled down to a 5-player game.

First impressions? The rules make it seem incredibly complicated. I'd not read them before, and I was reading them out aloud to the others and we were all completely confused. Once the game got underway it was actually fairly straightforward, but the rules made it feel bewildering. Halfway throught the first turn someone dropped out so we ended up playing a 4-player game.

There were a whole bunch of parts of the game we hardly used, no-one used the Provost to stop other players performing actions (although some people tried the Provost was always moved back to allow them to perform their action); there was no discussion around the Provost moves; no-one built a blue prestige building and we weren't sure which buildings to build to gain points most effectively when someone else placed a worker in them.

In the final turn I thought I stood a pretty good chance of winning, but The Wife pulled a rabbit out of a hat and managed to deliver three batches, and then Roman and Jochen delivered two, leaving me with only one space available. The Wife promptly won, with me trailing her by the three points I could have got had she not outmaneouvred me in the package delivery.

Chatting afterwards Roman said he thought he preferred Puerto Rico, and could see obvious similarities between them (delivering batches = delivering goods, both feature buildings and colonists/workers). I think Caylus maybe become more entertaining once I've a better grip on the rules, and am a little more experienced with it, but for that we'll have to wait and see...