Caylus is a game that has stayed in my mind for many years, even if my game logs do not show it. The reason is simple: Caylus is a game with no luck and full information. This means the best player always wins. I played about 100 games online, so I became very good at it.

Because I played so much, I often had to give myself a handicap of 25% or more in face-to-face games just to make it fair for other players. Also, because there is no luck, the games started to feel very similar to each other. To fix this, I switched to Caylus Magna Carta, which uses cards to limit what you can do. This made the game easier for new players, even though I usually prefer the original versions of games.

Recently, I got Caylus 1303, which is a re-implementation of the original game. It does many things well and fixes the problems I had with the first version. Here are the main changes:

• You have up to 15 workers instead of just 4 to 6. Instead of paying money for each worker, you pay one worker if no one has passed, and two workers if someone has passed.
• The provost resets near the end of the track each round, and the game only lasts nine rounds.
• At the start, there are setup buildings plus one random wood and one random stone building already built.
• Each player starts with a special power, chosen in reverse order on the first turn.
• One of each building type (Setup, Wood, Stone) is not available at the start, but you can get them using the favor system.
• You do not need a building to build a monument anymore; they are built in a special phase each turn.
• A favor lets you either steal a special power or use a building and take an unclaimed special power if one is available.

So, Caylus 1303 is still a game with no luck and full information, but it has a variable setup. I hope this helps get it to the table more often. My first game went well, although I forgot to do the initial draft of special powers.

One issue some people might have is that the favor system is simpler. One of the favors is “Steal a special power.” This is a direct attack on another player. In the original Caylus, the attack was mostly about moving the provost, which you could plan for. Some powers are more likely to be stolen than others, and it might be annoying if someone steals your power when they “should have” taken a different one. However, in my first game, no one complained about it.