Although referred to as a sequel to El Grande, El Caballero shares few aspects with its namesake, being a fun but intense brain-burner in which players explore and attempt to control the lands and waterways of the New World.
The players are following Columbus by exploring the islands he discovered. Players slowly explore the islands – by picking and placing land tiles that are most favorable to them – and discover wealth in the form of gold and fish. As they learn about the land and sea areas of this new land, they position their caballeros to try to maintain control of the important regions. Castillos give them a measure of protection from others, and ships allow them to establish trade and to fish for food. Success is measured in the size of land and sea areas they control. Their success is measured twice, and in the end these scores are summed and the winner declared.
- one of the best tile-placement/area-control experiences
- loaded with interactive decisions
- rules can be ambiguous; no single canonical rule set
- area control with tile placement; deployable edges
- medieval region control; tile placement
- El Grande
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area majority — compete for control of regions with tile placement and edge manipulation
- tile placement — place tiles to manipulate land/water edges and mass on board
- variant rules — two variations and optional rules for additional complexity
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- these games range from being decent to pretty damn excellent
- it's a very clever game
- criminally underrated
- it's a quick 20 minute game that is a lot of fun
- I cannot even understand why that is rated so low
References (from this video)
- deep tile-placement with interesting twists
- strong strategic depth
- older game with potential accessibility barrier for new players
- tile placement with initiative-driven scoring
- Medieval Spain-like setting
- grand strategy with tile-driven twists
- Kramer’s El Grande
- Isle of Skye
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- initiative-driven tile drafting — draft tiles to influence order, scoring and caballeros tokens
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this one might be the most diverse one
- i thought this game had some really tacked on mechanisms that just did not need to be there
- this is basically a kids game
- it's striking, but not everything lands
- a very solid gateway game
- goa is a great example of classic euro design
References (from this video)
- tiles, area control, map-like layout
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- you start rich and you're trying to blow as much money as you can as quickly as possible by making bad investments
- this one however has a quite a different feel to a lot of the other rolling rights
- it's strictly two player puzzly abstract style game
- this is the newest printing of the bunk
- this one actually uses the between two cities mechanism where you're working with the people to your left and right except on this one
- it's a game that's fascinated me
- the idea of puzzle this stuff around get the ideal family photo
- gamers bingo