Prologue:
Caylus is an epic “worker placement” game,
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18602/caylus. It is currently available on both BSW and BGA for free online play. Thanks to that, a large number of games have been played and recorded. Inevitably, most of the online games are between 2 players, which gamers call “2er”s. Due to the lack of intrinsic luck factors, 2er Caylus can be rigorously calculated, and there exists a framework of dominant strategy focused on using the 4
th track (building) favors.
This post will not be about such dominant strategy, since you can find a good description elsewhere. Actually, I will barely talk about 2er. I will instead focus on multiplayer games, 3er, 4er or 5er, where there is no dominant strategy. Don't get me wrong. The building favor is still useful, and a related strategy can still be efficient. However, that should not be the only strategy you know. If that is the case, such lack of flexibility not only decreases your own chance to win but also makes the game boring.
Disclaimer: This is NOT a strategy guide. I will not tell you exactly what to do. Instead, the main point is to demonstrate a framework of calculation and quantification. This is because multiplayer Caylus is too deep for any linearized strategy. I am simply providing the tools that everyone can use to find his/her own favorite strategy.
Chapter One: Basic evaluation
Chapter Two: Productive actions
Chapter three: The value of buildings
Chapter four: Efficiency and quota
Chapter five: Favours
Chapter six: Risks and wars
Chapter One: Basic evaluation
Victory is determined by victory points (VP), but during the game you will often directly acquire money (coins) and resources (cubes). We need to establish a baseline conversion rate in order to perform any calculation. Here is what I will use:
1 coin = 1 cube = 1VP
In addition, 1 gold = 3VP.
Please note that this equation is not for you to directly evaluate your immediate next move. They form the baseline of our calculation because they come from the most frequent, and usually guaranteed actions (that if one player choose to do so, others cannot or will not stop him) throughout the game: (1) neutral buildings turn one coin into one cube and are continuously used through out the game, (2) multiple castles in the last stage turns 1 cube to 1 VP and it is common to have a lot of castle building, (3) Bank and Church turn coins into VP or equivalent golds in exactly this rate. Even you are not a very good player, you can expect this basic conversion from coins to cubes to VP to happen naturally for you, in at least this rate.
As you get better, you will manage to get yourself better conversion rates. The purpose of this guide is to provide a framework to quantify how much "better" you can get, which is convenient determined by comparing to this baseline rate.
The true value of coins and cubes are of course highly situation-dependent. By the very end of the game, you certainly prefer 1 more VP than anything else. Earlier in the game, 1 more cube can usually give you an advantage much larger than 1VP. The value of having more coins depends sensitively on how much your opponents have. Early in the game, when you have 7 coins while your opponents have 2, that is a solid 5VP lead (or maybe much more). However later in the game, when you have 20 coins while your opponents have 15, it is obviously not as good. A smart arrangement to induce a ``bribing war’’ on Provost can efficiently reduce everyone’s money, therefore maintaining the value of your extra coins.
In addition to the actions that established this baseline value, which by definition only ``transforms’’ one form or resources into another form without increasing value, there are other actions which are “productive”: they allow higher conversion rates than the baseline. Being able to perform more and better productive actions wins the game.
However, this does not mean transforming actions are weaker than productive actions. That is because productive actions often require you to have certain set of resources, which you can only get from doing a few transforming actions as preparation. If you are the only one who is ``prepared’’ for these productive actions, you almost guarantee that they are yours to take. For example, the Jousting Field (1 Favour) requires a cloth (purple cube), and there is absolutely no way to get a cloth before the Jousting Field activates in the same round. Therefore, if you are the only player who has a cloth left from the previous round, you pretty much guarantee the usage of Jousting Field. Likewise, being the only player to have stone somewhat guarantees your usage to the Mason.
So getting the right transforming action is a integrated part to help you get more productive actions. Exactly how to do that, is tactic/strategy, which is not my focus. Since you eventually have to do some productive actions to win the game, my goal is to help you understand their values. Otherwise, you might have beautiful planning, getting all the productive actions you want, and still lose the game, simply because you ``wanted’’ the weaker productive actions. That would be a shame, right?
