Setup and Goals

Each player has 6 workers, who may (for one denier) be placed on action spots to acquire resources or perform actions. Victory points are earned via constructing new buildings or parts of the castle, by other players making use of your buildings, and by other routes such as earning the King's favour.

Rounds

Each round consists of seven phases, with an eighth (awarding favours for constructing the castle) that occurs at 3 designated points in the game.

1: Income

Each player receives 2 deniers, plus 1 denier per residence owned, 1 denier if they own the Library, and 2 deniers if they own the Hotel.

2: Place Workers

Players in turn either place a worker or pass, in the order dictated by the turn order track, until everyone has passed.

Placement may be on any unoccupied place or building on the board. If it is a building owned by another player, that player receives 1 VP.

If it is your own building, or if you have a worker in the Inn's rightmost spot, pay 1 denier. Otherwise, pay the lowest unoccupied number on the bridge. [EXCEPTION: in 2-player Caylus, pay 3 deniers, not 2, once the other player passes.] Payments go to the bank, not other players.

Passing: place a marker on the lowest number on the Bridge. If you are first to pass, gain 1 denier.

3: Activate Places Before the Bridge

Beginning with the Gate, any place with a worker is activated, and the worker returns to the player.

GATE: Move the worker to any unoccupied place on the board for free. If it is a building owned by another player, they earn 1 VP.

TRADING POST: Gain 3 deniers.

MERCHANTS' GUILD: Move the provost up to 3 squares forward or back, for free.

JOUSTING FIELD: Pay 1 denier + 1 cloth to earn a royal favour.

STABLES: Move your marker to the indicated number in the turn order track; all players not in the Stables move down the turn order accordingly. (NOTE: the Stables are not used in 2-player games, as turn order is fixed.)

INN: If your worker is on the left spot, move it to the right spot and return any worker there to its owner. If you are in the right spot, you can either leave your worker there or reclaim it. (The effects of this spot are only available in phase 2, above.)

4: The Bridge

In order of passing, from first to last, players may move the Provost forward or back, for one denier per square, to a maximum of 3 squares.

5. Activate Buildings

Past the bridge, in order, buildings with workers are activated, and the worker is returned to the player. Workers on buildings beyond the Provost are returned without activating those buildings.

Notes on some buildings:

Production: The 3 stone production buildings when activated by another player also grant one resource to the owner, chosen from the options in brackets.

Construction: The Carpenter allows you to construct wood buildings; the Mason, stone buildings. The Lawyer changes a neutral building or one you own into a residence, for 1 denier + 1 cloth. (You cannot transform the Lawyer or a prestige building.) The Architect permits you to construct a prestige building over one of your residences.

Constructing a building requires the resources listed on its card. (A white cube = any resource.) When a building is constructed, score the VPs indicated in its top right corner (residences are always 2 VPs). Some buildings also grant a royal favour (Church, Statue, etc.); the Monument grants 2 royal favours.

If you build over a building with a worker on it, the transformation is postponed until after the worker's action. If you build over a pink (neutral) building, it is permanently removed from the game; if you build over one of your own buildings, it returns to the stock of available buildings and may be reconstructed further down the road.

6. Build the Castle

In the order that workers were placed in the castle, each player builds as many units as they like. A unit costs 3 different resources, of which one must be food. If you have a worker in the castle but do not construct a unit, lose 2 VPs.

Each unit is worth VPs as follows: 5 VPs for the Dungeon, 4 VPs for the Walls, 3 VPs for the Towers.

Each section is built in order (Dungeon, Walls, Towers). After a section marker is passed on the road by the Bailiff, work continues in the next section even if the previous one is incomplete. If a section is filled, work immediately commences on the next section.

The player who constructs the most units in a turn earns one royal favour. If there is a tie, the player who built first wins the favour.

7. The Bailiff Advances

If the Provost is on top of or behind the Bailiff, advance the Bailiff one space. If the Provost is ahead of the Bailiff, advance the Bailiff two spaces. The Provost is then placed atop the Bailiff again.

8. Stages of the Castle

To build a stage of the castle, spend 3 different resources, one of which must be food. If the Bailiff now rests on or past one of the three section markers on the road (Dungeon, Walls, Towers), players earn favours or lose VPs as follows:

Dungeon: no house = -2 VPs; 2+ houses = 1 favour

Walls: no house = -3 VPs; 2 houses = 1 favour; 3/4 houses = 2 favours; 5+ houses = 3 favours

Towers: no house = -4 VPs; 2/3 houses = 1 favour; 4/5 houses = 2 favours; 6+ houses = 3 favours

If the Tower section marker is reached, or if the Towers are fully constructed already, the game is over and final scoring occurs; otherwise, a new turn begins (Step 1). (NOTE: In a 2-player game, first player switches automatically between players on the turn order track.)

Final Scoring

In addition to the VPs gained during the game, gain 3 VPs per gold cube, 1 VP per 3 cubes of the other 4 resource types, and 1 VP per 4 deniers.

Royal Favours

There are 4 tracks, which award VPs, deniers, resources or the ability to construct buildings at a discount. Each time you gain a favour, you may advance one space on one track, or select a lower favour if you prefer. Only the first 2 spaces are available initially; after the Dungeon is built the first 4 spaces become available; after the Walls are built the 5th space is available. (The availability changes only after Phase 8 scoring.)

If multiple favours are gained at once, they must all be taken from different tracks; thus you may only gain 4 favours at once. (E.g. if you build the Monument with the construction favour, you may not use the favour earned from it for construction.)

The construction favours may be invoked even if there is no Mason, Lawyer or Architect on the board, or if they are occupied by a worker.