Wouter & Ymke 
In this medium-weight eurogame, you’re a master builder, managing workers to gather resources, erect buildings and help with the construction of the castle. Who will prove himself worth being called the most prestigious builder of Caylus?
2-5 players, ages 12+
60-90 minutes
Designer: William Attia
Artist: Andrew Bosley
Publisher: Space Cowboys
https://www.spacecowboys.fr/our-board-games
When the original Caylus was released back in 2005, it quickly became a classic, well-known for being one of the first games that featured the worker placement mechanism. This new version released by Space Cowboys a couple of years ago, comes with new artwork by the talented Andrew Bosley, and is more streamlined, as they left out the favor tracks and added characters with special abilities.
The main core of the game remained the same: each round starts with a planning phase in which players send out their workers to the various buildings on the board. These buildings are activated in the second phase, starting from the city gate and following the road all the way up to the Provost. There’s a possibility not all of you workers will get activated: by spending workers, all players can manipulate the Provost to mess with their opponents plans!
Most of the buildings allow you to gain or convert resources, workers, or to construct new buildings and receive the points depicted on them. You can also help construct the castle, gaining you points for each set of 3 different resources you pay.
At the end of the ninth round, players tally their points to determine who’s the most prestigious master builder of Caylus!
For me Caylus 1303 is a worthy successor to Caylus. The artwork is a big improvement compared to the original one, and it’s definitely a satisfying view at the end of the game, looking at the board with the constructed buildings along the road. But the game can also be brutal: by moving the Provost,, you can really mess up other players’ plans, and sometimes it will be very hard to recover from it. Streamlining the gameplay also caused this to be a lighter version, so if that was holding you back from playing Caylus, now’s the time to give it a try!
