First game of 2009 - Caylus

It was the first gaming session last night back at the Legion, after the previous two Thursday evenings fell on Christmas Day & New Year's Day. So it was good get back into a weekly routine.

Quite a big turn-out saw three games being played; a 4-player group, including two newbies (Esther & Julian), played Ticket To Ride:Marklin, 6 played the full number accommodated for in Pillars Of The Earth with the expansion.

Keith, Paul B, Andre & I played Caylus. I am extremely fond of worker-placement games, even though there seems to be increasingly more & more of these coming out, but I consider Caylus the best of them all even though I'm also fond of Agricola (which feels more of a fun game). After all, when Caylus first came out in 2004, it was considered by some the father of the worker placement mechanic. Despite my fondness for Caylus, it remains a game which I still feel I haven't quite mastered the best strategy/strategies to be pursuing so I tend to go on an instinctive basis as the game progress. Perhaps I just haven't played it enough yet (approx. 5 times)?

By the time the Dungeon scoring happened, both Keith & Andre were in the lead followed by me, then Paul B. All of us seemed to be managing to contribute to the building of the castle (you need 3 different resource cubes - one of which MUST be a food - per house) fairly equally & constructing a few buildings. No-one seemed to be in a particularly more advantageous position at this point.

By the time we reached the Walls scoring, I had noticed something significant something about Andre's game; he had built a number of buildings that the other three of us seemed to be using quite a lot in comparison & getting extra points - in particular, the buildings that provide more than one resource; Farm (two cloth or one food), Quarry (two stone) & Workshop (two stone & one cloth). I had a Stone building that I thought would be useful - Farm (two food & one cloth) - as this would give me a food or cloth in addition to a point each time someone else used it. I made a tit of myself when I placed a worker twice in Paul B's Mason to build a Stone Building... only to remember I wouldn't have any stone once the Mason was activated! Stupid.

The turning point in my strategy came when Keith built the Bank that allows you to buy 1 Gold for 2 coins or 2 Golds for 5 coins (Gold is worth 3pts apiece at game end) & I decided I would pursue a Gold-gathering strategy by collecting money where I could & buying it up, as well as placing a worker in the Mine. I also constructed the Alchemist that allows you to convert 2 resources into 1 Gold or 4 resources into 2 Gold as an alternative to buying if I needed it.

As we ended the last stage of the game, all apart from me had built a Residence to gain extra money in the collection phase & it became clear both Keith & Andre seemed to be working towards getting a Prestige building. Whether Andrew twigged that I was focusing on gathering Gold for game-end, I don't know, but I got the impression he was keen to speed the game up by moving the provost ahead of the balliff. Both Andre & Keith managed to build a Prestigue building by the last turn & it was looking close as I had 7 Gold cubes twinkling away...

Final scoring:-

1st - Andre, 74pts
2nd - Matt, 69pts
Keith - circa 60-62pts?
Paul B - circa 50-55pts?

A great game by all & I was left wondering what if I hadn't wasted those two worker placements? So slight is the line between success & failure....