A persuasive pyramid punch-up
CARAL
Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede | Publisher: Funtails
Building pyramids is hard work.
Having to run around to build these triangular edifices faster than your rivals, doing so whilst also having to prep for an annual sacrifice to the Gods? Exhausting.
The core mechanic to Caral is unique and compelling. Players compete as fame-hungry master builders, trying to build pyramids as they work in a spiral path around the board. Each controls an alpaca-powered sled, filling them with stone blocks at quarries and dragging them to building sites.
Action spaces around the board allow you to add workers to quarries and building sites, get more alpacas and pick up cards.
The mysterious Architect moves in an unpredictable shuffle behind the players, circling down the spiral and preventing any actions further out. This means players must choose between building in the outer rings, or rushing ahead to the inner areas. Moving quickly lets you reach the central pyramid first and take first shot at choosing a sacrifice for the annual ceremony; but it also means you’ve spent less time actually, you know, building pyramids.
The annual ceremony requires each player to make a sacrifice of cards: either fish, bricks, stone or clay. Each type can only be sacrificed once, so going fourth in a four player game leaves you with only one option. No suitable cards? Lose a fame point.
Acceptable sacrifices get their player a bonus point, and the best sacrifice takes extra points and takes gets control of the Architect’s dice in the following round. As the central pyramid rises in height, bonus fame for the best sacrifice ramps up, creating exactly the right sort of tension; just as you need to focus on building pyramids for the endgame, you are also having to worry even more about stockpiling cards for the annual ceremony. The fact that burning cards gives bonuses to building tightens the challenge even further.
This clash is almost perfectly balanced, allowing for lots of experimentation. It’s absolutely not possible to win without building pyramids, but I’m not convinced you can take the top spot without a little bouncing straight to the ceremony either too.
I also love that Caral includes a huge variety of expansion modules in the box. Some are tiny, adding little twists and turns, like Status Cards which award a one-off bonus for specific achievements, or the Whim of the Gods, which makes the annual ceremony more complex, requiring collaborative planning between players. These modules and many more let you fabricate varied experiences, like add long range planning or create more swingy game states.
On the downside? Well, the rulebook is reasonable, but still somehow weightier and less clear than it could be. Our first game took much too long, as we thought the end goal was for each player to complete seven pyramids, rather than building seven between us. This led to us running out of pieces and having about 5 rounds longer than the game is designed for. On the one hand, that’s our error, on the other, I’m a professional board game reviewer and still missed that point - how will less experienced gamers fare?
The board is also a little tricky to parse; for some reason the action tiles are offcentred on the spiral track, meaning that we regularly got confused about which ring we were on. Why aren’t they centred? The board is also clearly designed for the deluxe version pieces, as the cardboard pieces I had were dwarfed by the spaces, which feels disappointing.
Should you play Caral? Definitely. Should you buy it? Harder to say. If the theme speaks to you or if you enjoy something a little dry [unintentional desert pun] but with a unique and challenging mechanic, Caral is the game for you.
CHRIS LOWRY
WE SAY
I’m not sure I’ve ever played anything quite like it before, and there’s something quite moreish about the bite-sized expansions. Wonderful fun.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗5 Central pyramid levels
◗45 Pyramid levels in 5 sizes
◗1 Architect die
◗4 Transport sleds
◗52 Resource cards
◗1 Progress table
◗48 Carali figures
◗4 Player figures
◗4 Fame trackers
◗1 Architect meeple
◗1 Fame scoreboard
◗1 Reference card
◗1 Gameboard
◗32 Alpaca meeples
◗16 Stones
◗8 Add-on modules
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED WELCOME TO
Both games let you build something special with your choices curtailed by events outside your control, rewarding adaptability.