Thursday, May 11, 2006

Session Report Up - Caylus first impressions

The latest JSGC session report is up here. Games played: (Lo) Ra, Clans, Taj Mahal, Caylus, Settlers of Catan. It includes my first impressions of Caylus.

I did a little template redesigning on my blog, which now has two sidebars instead of one. You can see the content again without having to scroll down. I had to lose the background star motif and the Alice in Wonderland picture. Maybe I'll find a way to put them back in again, later. Let me know if you likey.

Also: There is a board game forum on BellaOnline, a business community for women. A few posters are starting to comment about Eurogames.

Yehuda

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2 comments:

Coldfoot said...

Concerning your Caylus comments:

The gate in Caylus is not used much in a 5 player game. It is rather useless in a 5 player game. However in a 3 player game the gate does get used frequently (in my limited experience).

For example: I want to contribute to the castle, but Joe can contribute more batches to the castle than I can and has enough money to place more meeples than I can. If Joe contributes to the castle he will contribute more than I and earn the royal favor.

I might not want to place my meeple until I see what Joe does. Since Joe will be placing a couple meeples after I am finished, placing a man on the gate becomes a viable option. If Joe doesn't place a meeple on the castle I can place there and earn the royal favor. If he does place a meeple on the castle I can choose another building to place my meeple.

In a 5 player game most if not all of the buildings will have meeples placed on them, leaving you with none or only poor choices if you put a man on the gate. With fewer players the gate guarantees you place last, after you see what your opponents do. That can be rather useful.

Yehuda Berlinger said...

Thanks, Coldfoot. I also saw a related BGG thread that said that going last on the castle is sometimes better than first, because you can see whether to expend your resources this round or wait until the next.

Yehuda