Caylus 1303

A good game, but no reason to play since it is outshined by original Caylus.

negative player interaction. Take that. Still one round too long. First player advantage.

Caylus 1303 does an excellent job of streamlining the rules, without losing the feel of the original. The new character powers are fun and powerful, but don’t get too attached as players will be stealing them from you the first chance they get. The provost is not as mean as I remember from the original, while the threat of it moving backwards was enough to get players negotiating, it usually ended up being pushed forward. Very much enjoyed the game, and hoping future plays will see the provost movement be more punishing.

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As a fan of the original, I'm glad that this is still very much Caylus, with lots of changes/updates.

BIggest positive change is the set number of turns.

Edit : After playing this and the original back-to-back nights, I've revised my rating down slightly. The original is a near-perfect worker placement game that is a large step above this watered down version. I'm still willing to play this and it's a good game, I'd just always prefer to play the original.

Hands down one of the best mid weight euros I've played. Concise ruleset, easy to teach but plenty more player interaction than your average mid weight worker placement.

I could see why some people might find it 'mean', but I really don't see it that way. If you want to risk the more recent buildings, then you are taking a risk, save some workers back or grab the provost space too.

Stealing player powers is great, if you feel like someone is getting too much out of one, just take it!

Turns are rapid and the phases all go pretty quickly, spaces are tight, passing early can really mess with people.

If you like zero interaction then this game is not for you, at all, but if you like playing games with people, where their actions can affect you, where you can try to pull a few different levers to stop someone you feel is getting ahead then this really is the mid weight worker placement game for you.

We played caylus magna carta then this and I think we enjoy this more. The beauty of this game is the high level of player interaction or rather take that, while trying to maximize what you get done in your turn with an ever dwindling choice of actions. It is also a delicate balance of how many workers to spend this round because there are only a few ways to get them back. Throughout the game is some constant tension of pivoting your strategy when your much desired location was taken, trying to grab the ones that are most important to you first, while managing your supply of workers. After placing your workers you resolve the road in order so you have to put some thought in when you are getting those resources because if you get them out of the order you planned you won't be able to activate the later buildings. We played at two player and didn't use the provost as much because it was expensive to spend workers to attempt to cut off just 1 player although we did manage to do that once or twice. I think there is already enough conflict we didn't need it because the tension over first player can be quite the advantage and taking the spot the other player needs is another, and finally competition over deliveries and stealing characters adds just enough "meanness" that it works with two players without needing to punish your opponent with the provost. It is often better to grab first player and take those big locations next turn and combo that into a bigger move rather than spending a worker to deprive them of those resources. I also like the many ways to pivot your plans without it taking much time since the board is all open information. The hidden scoring adds a nice touch because everyone thinks they have a good shot at the end only for the big reveal and the following discussions of strategy and key moves. It is also interesting flipping those starting buildings over to build monuments which sometimes removes key buildings from the road that some players depended upon while you pick up some bonus resources or workers or just points. We found it to be such a perfect mix of interaction, some competitive meanness, lots of tactics with some longer term mixed in. I might also try to get the original as well because I do like the money aspect but that won't replace this one as an alternative sometime for a similar experience with the focus more on scoring rather than blocking. It does miss a little something but it offers something else in return and I definitely have different times in my life where I might want to play one over the other, but I do think this will be played more often and what it brings is better than what you lose. I can't think of many cons for us other than it probably didn't need to be this well produced based on what the old versions were but it is hard to complain about the great art and components.