Caylus

by Rio Grande Games

Product Features

• International Gamers Awards Best Strategy Game 2006
• Deutscher SpielePreis 1st Place Prize Winner 2006
• Spiel Des Jahres Special Prize for Complex Play 2006
• GAMES Magazine Best Advanced Strategy Runner-Up 2007

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 8.9 x 2.8 inches ; 2.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BNFHBI
• Item model number: 281RGG
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 months and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,189 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Product Description

Once upon a time ... 1289. To strengthen the borders of the Kingdom of France, King Philip the Fair decided to have a new castle built. For the time being, Caylus is but a humble village, but soon, workers and craftsmen will be flocking by the cartload, attracted by the great prospects. Around the building site, a city is slowly rising up. The players embody master builders. By building the King's castle and developing the city around it, they earn prestige points and gain the King's favor. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige wins the game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary and complex game, February 5, 2007

By 

P. Mumford (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caylus (Toy)

This heavy eurogame game was the huge hit of 2006, winning multiple awards and shooting up to top ratings on boardgamegeek.com. It richly deserves all the praise it has been given. It is also one of the most complex designer games, with a long and seemingly impenetrable rule book. Think of it as about 3 times as complex as Settlers of Catan. On the other hand, it is no more complex than the typical historical wargame or 18xx railroad game. And it is much quicker to play than a wargame or rail game.

Caylus is worth the trouble to learn. Once the rules are understood the play has a very smooth and natural flow to it. There are no dice, or any random factor to gameplay whatsover. If you win or lose it is due to the choices you have made, an the choices of other players. All the interlocking elements of gameplay connect beautifully. The players are competing to build the King's castle and win royal favors. Each turn brings interesting developments, which affect all players in differnt ways. There is a bailiff, a provost, a jeweler, a bridge, a trading post, an inn, a lumber camp, a quarry, an architect, etc. And MANY more elements, in fact. Each element has its own appropriate role in the game. This is a thematically consistent game that creates a miniature medieval society. It is a LOT of fun to play.

It is largely complexity that makes Caylus so good. There are so many winning strategies, so very different, with none being clearly better. Strategies can be mixed and matched. An agile player will shift focus mid game if the tide turns against him. This game has an ebb and flow to it that feels very lifelike. A leading player in the middle game will often be overtaken later by a player who undertook a longer term strategy. But then the overtaken player will often be able to come back, with clever maneuvering, for a close finish.

Caylus is not a particularly long playing game. It starts slowly and gets more exciting as more buildings get built and players execute their strategies. It comes to a climax about 2 hours later, usually with a tense, hard fought finish. Two to five can play this game. It plays very well with only two and just as well, although more chaotic, with five. Or three or four, of course. So buy this mind blowing game.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game grows on you!!, December 13, 2007

By 

bard (Indiana) - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caylus (Toy)

As my family will attest, I really like strategy games. I also abhor most games of chance. If a game comes with dice, I'm immediately leery.

Caylus does not have dice, which made a good first impression for me. It did, however, take us about 2 hours to learn. After the first game, I was skeptical about how strategic it was, but I played it a couple of more times against experienced players--and I got clobbered! While this appears to be an ironic endorsement of the game, it revealed to me that there was much more strategy involved than I initially thought.

Based upon how many players and how the initial pieces are played, there are many different strategies available. Additionally, the game offers you the ability to try and determine your opponents strategy and either overcome it or thwart it.

Caylus is now one of my favorite games because it offers many options, stimulates the brain, and is rarely the same game twice.

Downsides of the game for some will be the long time to learn the rules. The game also takes a long time to play, typically 90-120 minutes for us. As a result, those with shorter attention spans will NOT enjoy it. It's not a game for younger children or for those who don't have enough of a thirst for competition to figure out the strategies.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's NOT a Rocket Surgery Manual, May 11, 2011

By 

Nikolaus Mcnerney (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Caylus (Toy)

This is a board game. It is, as I am writing this, amongst the top 10 board games on boardgamegeek.com, the most popular board game site on the planet. This isn't idle opinion either, as Caylus has nearly 12,000 user reviews. That's 12,000 people who have, collectively, decided that it is one of the best board games of all time. Now I admit that some amongst those 12,000 obviously have dissenting opinions. But, nonetheless, the majority really, REALLY like it.

This would appear, at first glance, to potentially conflict with other reviews here on Amazon that state that the game is "ridiculously complex." After all, if an individual with a PhD in bioengineering, and several other "highly educated" people were unable to figure it out, then it would seem that the game is obviously too complex for pretty much anyone on the planet.

That leaves two possible explanations:

1. The thousands upon thousands of individuals on BGG who positively reviewed the game are ALL brilliant scientists who scoff at the idle simplicity of bioengineering, but nonetheless spend their free time playing board games instead of collectively taking over the world.

2. The people saying Caylus is unbearably complex are wrong.

Seriously. It's a board game. It is not rocket science or brain surgery. You put down your tokens, collect resources, and ultimately try to get more points than the other players. Is there strategy? Of course. Is the strategy deep and rewarding? Hell yea - that's why it is ranked so highly.

Now if you have never played anything more sophisticated than Candyland you will probably be in for a surprise. But if you take the instructions one step at a time you will figure it out no problem. If learning that way doesn't work for you then watch a youtube video. It really isn't that bad. I'm resisting the urge to scream out that it is a GAME for goodness's sake. But, seriously:

THIS IS A GREAT BOARD GAME.