Tuesday 31st January - Caylus (Take 2)

Richard is still away skiing so just Garry, Steve and myself again and Steve chose to give Caylus another outing. I am beginning to really like this game I just think it plays a tad to long. Anyway last week Garry had a resounding win and Steve and myself were going to try to stop his second win. I had tried to build in the castle a lot last week and decided not to pursue that strategy this week, in fact I was determined to build a blue building. Steve had suggested a rule variation before be started which we decided to give a go. If a player puts a man in the gate, which was ignored entirely last, he can move to the unoccupied building of his choice and activate it
immediately. As this comes before movement of the merchants guild it does give another option and makes the gate more attractive. It didn't change the game at all really and the gate was used a couple of times to good effect.

Garry had changed his strategy of building buildings every turn if possible and now was building in the castle in multiple batches. He also maxed out the VP track on the favours. So the game seemed to be much closer as the game progressed. Last week Steve had amassed a lot of gold and in fact built the only blue building. This week I got to go first a couple of times and got some gold ahead of him. I also built a couple of residences and the extra 2 money was useful. Garry had pulled out into the lead and tried to end the game by moving the baileff over the finish line. Steve and myself managed to pull him back by paying and forced the game into another turn. I
had built the monument by now and edged into second place. The bank was in play now so I bought a couple of gold on the last turn for 6 more VPs. Congratulations to Garry for another convincing win.

Final Scores
Garry 86, Colin 76, Steve 71