Worker Placement

Welcome to Santiago, the second largest city in Cuba, home of legendary rum and birthplace of the revolution! The chaotic streets hum with the sounds of bustling crowds and busy commerce. Cargo ships constantly arrive and depart from the port. Demand is continuous, if unpredictable, for a supply of local products such as exotic fruits, sugar, rum, tobacco, and cigars.

In Santiago de Cuba, your business card says "broker", but in reality you're a shady wheeler-dealer who arranges deals with the locals and with corruptible officials to move goods and meet the demand of those ever-present cargo ships – and your ability to procure these goods is only as reliable as your "connections".

At the start of the game, nine locals – the Cubans – are randomly arranged on a path around Santiago, with the port being the tenth location on the circuit. Each Cuban has a different ability: e.g., give a player two tobacco, give a player a good of his choice, force opponents to give you something, give money or victory points (VPs), and seize a building or allow a player to use a previously seized building. What are these buildings? At the start of the game, twelve buildings are randomly placed on the game board in four color-coded groups (white, yellow, etc.) of three. As with the Cubans, these buildings give players a special ability when used: convert tobacco to cigars, change VPs to money or vica versa, increase the value of goods delivered to the ship, render a Cuban inactive for the next round, and so on.

Players will deliver goods to seven ships throughout the course of the game. The demand for each ship is determined via a die roll; the active player rolls five dice – one for each type of good – then chooses four of the values rolled to represent demand for goods of the same color as the die.

All players share a car and travel around the island together. On a turn, the active player can move the car to the next location on the path (whether Cuban or port) for free, or pay one peso for each spot moved beyond that. After taking a Cuban action, the player then must move his player piece to a building of the same color as the flower on that Cuban. If he takes an action in a building owned by someone else, that player earns 1 VP. (One Cuban allows a player to use the same building where his piece is currently located.)

If a player moves to port, players take turns delivering all goods of one type to the ship to meet demand, adjusting the demand dice as needed. A player earns 2-4 VP for each good delivered; a player doesn't have to deliver goods. If the ship's demand isn't met after everyone delivers or passes, the VP bounty per good is increased by one and the ship remains in place – unless the value was already at 4 VP, in which case the ship sails. In this case, or when all the demand is met, a new ship comes into port with new demand values.

After seven ships have sailed, the players earn 1 VP for every three goods still on hand, then tally their VPs. The player with the most VPs wins, with ties broken by goods remaining, then money.

Each game poses new tactical challenges for the players, thanks to ever-changing combinations of buildings, Cuban inhabitants and demand for goods.

Carthage – long before the deadly conflict with Rome.
During 5 decades, each a game round, players use their servants to earn income or position them to obtain goods and load the goods onto incoming merchant ships - or even take the risk of chartering a private vessel - all with the goal of buying influence in the palace. Influence in the harbor can also determine where the best ships will dock, and the path of intrigue can provide yet another way into the palace courts. Only the player who develops the best business - through any means necessary - will end the game as the most influential senator.

Players control one of the great scientists during the 17th century Scientific Revolution in Europe. Use your limited time and energy to make discoveries, test hypotheses, publish papers, correspond with other famous scientists, hire assistants into your laboratory and network with other people who can help your progress. Discoveries follow historical tech trees in the key sciences of the age: Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. The scientist who accumulates the most prestige will be appointed the first President of the Royal Society.

In his last will, your rich uncle stated that all of his millions will go to the nephew who can enjoy money the most. How to find out which nephew should be rich? You will each be given a large amount of money and whoever can spend it first will be the rightful heir. Visit the most exclusive theatres or eat in the most expensive restaurants. Buy old properties for the price of new ones and sell them as ruins. Host a huge party in your mansion or on your private boat. Spend like your life would depend on it. Spend to become rich! If you're the first to run through the money on hand, you'll receive the rest of his inheritance – oh, and win the game.

In Last Will, each player starts with a certain amount of money, an individual player board, two errand boys and two cards in some combination of properties and helpers. At the start of each round, lay out cards from the appropriate decks on the offering boards; the four regular decks are properties, companions, events, helpers and expenses, with special cards forming a deck of their own. The particular mix of cards varies by round and by the number of players.

Each player then chooses a plan for the round, with each plan indicating the number of cards the player draws (drawn immediately from the four regular decks in any combination), how many errand boys he can use later (one or two), the number of actions available to him that round, and his spot in the playing order that round. In the playing order for that round, players then take turns choosing an action with their errand boy(s), with those actions being:

Take a card on display and add it to your hand.
Draw a card from any regular deck – This can be chosen only once by each player.
Visit the opera and spend $2.
Adjust the value modifiers in the property market.
Take a player board extension, thereby giving you room to play more cards.

Players then take actions in the playing order for that round, with each player having as many actions as indicated on his plan. Actions let you play one-time events (which have a cost, possibly variable); helpers and recurring expenses (which are placed on your individual player board); and properties (which cost money and may depreciate over time). You can often play companions with events or recurring expenses – of course you should bring a date to the opera or a horse on your yacht! – to increase their cost. You can also use actions to activate cards on your player board, possibly with one or more companions and always with the goal of spending money. Helpers and special cards can provide you with unique powers to further boost your profligacy.

At the end of each round, you must discard down to two cards in hand, and properties that can depreciate do so; this is good as a player cannot go bankrupt if he owns properties, and the only way to get rid of properties is to sell them, which regretably puts money back in your hands unless the depreciation was intense or you manipulate the market.

If a player has no money and no properties, he declares bankruptcy and the game ends at the conclusion of that round; otherwise the game ends after seven rounds. The player who has the least money (or even who is most in debt) wins.

Once upon a time ...
1289. To strengthen the borders of the Kingdom of France, King Philip the Fair decided to have a new castle built. For the time being, Caylus is but a humble village, but soon, workers and craftsmen will be flocking by the cartload, attracted by the great prospects. Around the building site, a city is slowly rising up.

The players embody master builders. By building the King's castle and developing the city around it, they earn prestige points and gain the King's favor. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige wins the game. The expansion Caylus Expansion: The Jeweller was included in the 2nd Edition.

Each turn, players pay to place their workers in various buildings in the village. These buildings allow players to gather resources or money, or to build or upgrade buildings with those resources. Players can also use their resources to help build the castle itself, earning points and favors from the king, which provide larger bonuses. Building a building provides some immediate points, and potentially income throughout the game, since players receive bonuses when others use their buildings. The buildings chosen by the players have a heavy impact on the course of the game, since they determine the actions that will be available to all the players.

As new buildings are built, they stretch along a road stretching away from the castle, and not all buildings can be used every turn. Players have some control over which buildings are active by paying to influence the movement of the Provost marker. The final position of the marker is the newest building that can be used that turn. The Provost marker also helps determine the movement of the Bailiff marker, which determines the end of the game. Generally, if players are building many buildings and the Provost is generous in allowing them to be used, the game ends more quickly.