Caylus Magna Carta

Customer Reviews

Quick, Simple, Brilliant Fun Review by Murray

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I absolutely love this game. It plays quickly (45-75 minutes) and is relatively easy to learn, with both beginner's rules and a deeper standard rule set.

There are 5 resources: denier (cash), food, wood, stone, and gold. Gold is worth 1 VP at the end of the game and is a wild cube, as you can use it in lieu of any other cube. Some random starting cards are placed at the start of the game and everyone gets their own deck of cards and 4 workers.

On your turn, you can pay cash to draw cards or to place works on the cards. You can also use your resources to build cards from your hands. If you have nothing else to do, you can pass. First player to pass gets an extra coin and gets to go first in moving the provost and offering batches. Players can pay cash to move the provost back and forth along the path of built cards. All cards up to and including the card the provost is standing on gets activated if there is a worker on it.

Most cards have a primary and secondary effect. Primary effects benefit the player with a worker on the card and the secondary effect benefit the owner of the card. The effects typically offer methods for players to get more resources. After activating the cards, players can offer batches made of 1 of each cube: stone, wood, and food in return for VP tokens.

Players can also get VP buy converting one of their built cards into a residence and then building a prestige card from the stock onto it. Once all the VP tokens are taken, the game ends and the player with most VP wins.

Although the rules are fairly simple and easy to learn, the game is quite deep with plenty of things to do and many ways to win. There is a fair bit of interaction and the game plays quick enough to get a few rounds in a single session. The original Caylus, in comparison, is longer and does not offer much more in terms of complexity and gameplay. Overall, I prefer Caylus Magna Carta and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. (Posted on 4/25/10)

Caylus Magna Carta's a portable resource and worker placement game that is worth it's going rate. A myriad of strategies are available while keeping overall rules to a manageable level. Review by TR

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Having finally had a chance to play the game half-way through, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This resource management / worker placement card game seem a ton of fun. I like the fact that there’s a bit of interaction via the Provost and the placement / taking of buildings while the use of money keeps players planning a few steps ahead. In addition, deciding when to go 'out' each round has a definite impact on strategy as well.

Overall a great game and it definitely makes me want to look at the original board game - Caylus - much closer. (Posted on 3/6/10)