Caral Review
- ryanlott
- Nov 17, 2023
- 3 min read

Racing, pyramids, and sacrifice.
In Caral, players are trying to gain the most fame of the Carali people. Each player controls a group that is tasked with building pyramids. Whoever is the starting player will roll the architect die and will then move the architect figure as many of the large spaces as it says (sometimes 2, sometimes 1, sometimes nowhere). The architect is important because a player cannot do an action if their figure is behind it so you always need to be next to it or in front. Next, you'll move your figure based on how many movement points you have. You'll start with 3 but any time you add an alpaca meeple to your board you gain a movement point. You can stop at any of the large locations to gain workers, bricks, cards, or alpacas or stop at one of your in-progress pyramids and pay a brick to add a level to the pyramid. In order to start a pyramid, you need to have a builder on the location you've selected to put one. When workers take up spots, these will now count as an active location meaning you need to spend movement points to go through them. Then the next players will go until someone reaches the end of the track. From here, you must sacrifice cards or resources. This is a pseudo-auction where the person who sacrifices the most will score more points. Of course, if you choose not to do it, you can and will just lose a point. Any time that a pyramid is completed, the game progresses. A new piece is attached to the central pyramid at certain points and after the 7th player pyramid is built the central one is complete and the game will end. Players score points based on how many completed pyramids they have and whoever has the most will be the winner.
This wouldn't be a Funtails game without additional modules now would it? Caral comes with 6 additional modules that you can integrate as many or as few into the game as you'd like. These have varying levels of difficulty and player interaction, including special challenges you can complete for more points or you can throw in the anaconda module to block off worker spaces unless you sacrifice some alpacas.

The Good: The way that the board fills up as the game progresses and makes movement points tighter is really well done. At the start of the game, you may not see any rhyme or reason for placing pyramids but as it progresses, you'll be fighting for specific spots to slow down other players. Being blocked from any actions unless you can get ahead of the architect is interesting. It makes going first even more important because you can push it way out or keep it close for your own gains. The inclusion of additional modules is wonderful. It allows plenty of variety to spice up your games and make them as complex as you want them to be. They provide a lot of customization. Also, alpaca meeples.

The Okay: The early stages of the game aren't very exciting. The first 3 or 4 rounds can be over within a few minutes until there's more on the board to block things off. The mid/endgame is nice but the start is pretty slow.

The Not So Good: The base game is a little too light for what I was hoping it to be. There are limited actions that make rounds move along quickly but I wish that there was more meat to the game. There's probably a right way to organize the game in the insert but it makes no sense to me. It's not the worst I've ever seen but it's tough to avoid box lift and avoid loose boards all over the place.

Final Thoughts: Caral does a good job of expanding and forcing players to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. What essentially boils down to a race to build the majority of completed pyramids before other players can is done in an elegant way. The inclusion of additional modules is nice and gives the game some staying power but it was ultimately a bit too light for my tastes.
A review copy was provided for content creation purposes.
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