Tuesday 15th August - Caylus

caylus_end
Originally uploaded by coljen.

I wasn't able to make it last night and Steve, Garry and Richard played Caylus. There seems to have evolved the rule that if I am not there the winner gets the dubious pleasure of writing a report of the proceedings. Well Richard triumphed and here is his winners report.

As we were 3 (Colin being absent) this evening Garry decided that we would give a Caylus a go as it would be easier to complete within an evening with fewer people.

It seems the last few occasions Billygames have played Caylus I seem to have managed to not be around - so it was good from my point of view to be in attendance this evening so I could play it again.

After a brief reviewing of the rules we started to play.

Money, as it always seems to be, was to be tight in the early game. Garry and Steve attempted to alleviate this by vying for the bonus 3 deniers whilst I tried to keep my costs down by remaining the Pub as much as possible.

As the game progressed, Garry concentrated on building buildings, Steve on advancing up the royal favour tracks and gaining money and Victory points whilst I built buildings by advancing up the Royal Favour track that allowed me to build buildings without utilising the appropriate building.

As the game came into the final stages Garry was some way ahead of Steve and Myself on the victory point track (he seemed to pick up a great deal of bonus points from points from Steve and Myself using his building). However I had advanced almost to the end of the Royal Favour building track and was able to use the last advance on that track to build the 25vp Prestige building.

With Steve also picking up VPs for advancing up the Royal Favour VP track it was all very close at the end - in fact the only the 2VPs I picked up for Cubes and Deniers in hand at the end of the game differentiated Garry and Myself when it came final scoring.

Final Scores :
Richard 72, Garry 70, Steve 66

Unfortunately downside of winning was that I won the right to do the write-up in Colin's absence!!

As a footnote (and this should cause enough controversy to stop me being asked to cover for Colin in his absence again J ), whilst I enjoy playing Caylus and view it as being a excellent game, I am also quite certain the rating it has on the Geek, given time, will slip slightly. Basically Tigris and Puerto Rico are cleaner games. Caylus I believe suffers from a slight excess of internal game mechanisms that can make it hard for players to identify the comparative worth of their opponents strategies and prevent/effect said strategies when required.